Tag: March 15, 2011

GONE too soon, they say. I recently had a chance to design Swatch watches in commemoration of UST’s Quadricentennial in January 2011. My journey with Swatch started in 2009, just after I submitted an entry for their annual art contest, hoping to win for myself a few thousand pesos. I suggested the idea of having a commemorative Swatch watch to the Office of Public Affairs with the enthusiasm that I would be the one designing it. After endless brainstorming, soliciting design concept from at least 50 individuals, and tons of revisions, I ended up designing it myself.

Nobody said it was easy

THE SEVENTH USTv Awards for television were given out last February 17 amid what many critics admit is a general decline in the quality of TV programming and rampant commercialization of the broadcast media.

Father Rector Rolando de la Rosa, O.P. reminded TV networks that the recognitions were not intended to bolster their ratings, but to inspire shows that upheld moral values.

“The USTv award was not made for boosting the networks’ ratings, but to uphold Thomasian values through media,” said De la Rosa during the awards night at the Plaza Mayor.

“[USTv] also allows students to be involved with the media and contribute towards the improvement of the quality of local television,” Father Rector added.

ACTOR and matinee idol Piolo Pascual is at home in front of and behind the camera.

Pascual, who studied at the Faculty of Arts and Letters in the mid-1990s, takes photographs of the places he’s been in.

His nature photographs were exhibited in SunPIOLOgy, which ran from December 12, 2010 to January 12, 2011 at the Art Hall of The Enterprise Centre in Makati City. The photographs are still on auction on the SunPiology’s website.

“I love nature because it is exciting; it’s a matter of composition,” Pascual told the Varsitarian. “I got to feel better whenever I take photos.”

The exhibition raised funds for the benefit of Hebreo 12:1, a foundation Pascual established with his siblings. It grants scholarships to poor students.

A DAUGHTER of visual arts has finally come home.

After almost four decades of studying in Italy and Europe and becoming a wife and mother in the United States, Lolita Valderrama-Savage came back to the Philippines and displayed her paintings in her first one-woman exhibit dubbed The Art of Lolita Valderrama-Savage, which was held last February 9 to 21 at the Ayala Museum Artist Space.

Valderrama-Savage, a graduate of UST’s Fine Arts program, reintroduced herself to her homeland after being away since earning her degree and accepting a scholarship to the Academia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy.

THE CHANGES in the curriculum of the College of Fine Arts and Design have led to the demise of its fashion design course, which used to require a yearly fashion show organized by the junior batch. The last installment of that series was Cirq Regal, a spectacular feast of wondrous couture and theatrical apparel.

Cirq Regal was held last February 9 at the NBC Tent in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

“Not only is this a Quadricentennial event, but it also bears the 10th anniversary of our college and is the last of this annual tradition,” said event chairperson Kaye Sordan as she talked about the Advertising juniors’ fashion production, a requirement that started sometime in 1977.

CLASSIC Italian opera Cavalleria Rusticana was the highlight performance of the 65-year-old Conservatory of Music in a two-part show titled Opera Gala at the Medicine Auditorium last January 26 as part of the Quadricentennial week.

Selected scenes from various renowned musical plays such as The Barber of Seville, La Gioconda, and Norma were also performed on the second part of the play.

“The event was a milestone for the Conservatory,” said opera conductor and music professor Herminigildo Ranera. “Usually, these types of production are only done by professionals. Our students are very fortunate to be given this opportunity to perform in a major production.”

THOMASIAN passion for writing and teaching letters was the central theme of memorial lectures held in honor of two of the University’s celebrated literature pedagogues, Paz M. Latorena and Carolina Garcia.

Now on its third year, the Paz M. Latorena Lecture was held at the AMV-College of Accountancy Auditorium last February 2.

A project of the College of Hospitality and Management, this year’s lecture aimed at paying homage to the history of the University as well as to the many Thomasian writers who established a name for themselves in literature. The lecture started with an exhibit of paintings depicting the legacy of Latorena (born 1907) as interpreted by College of Fine Arts and Design students.

IT STOOD about 100 meters tall. Its features possessed Gothic-like attributes such as three-tier elevations, shafted piers, and flying buttresses. The doors were set into pointed arches. The large, central rose window had multi-colored glass panes. The inside, constituted of a longitudinal floor, was intersected at one end by a portion that ran in right angles to the long central part of the nave—like a Latin cross.

SA PANAHON ngayon, hindi na asong kalye ang naiisip ng maraming Filipino sa tuwing naririnig nila ang salitang “askal.” Sa halip, ang agad pumapasok sa kanilang isip ay ang Philippine National Football Team na mas kilala sa tawag na “Azkals.”

Binansagang “Azkals” noong 2005, maihahambing sa mga “askal” ang mga naturang manlalaro dahil minsan na ring nagpalipat-lipat ng lugar ang mga ito dahil sa kawalan ng lugar para sa ensayo at kakulangan ng suporta mula sa pamahalaan.

MARAMING pangyayari sa ating buhay ang nagbibigay-aral at inspirasyon sa atin. May mga magagandang karanasan na nagdudulot sa atin ng ligaya, ngunit kadalasa’y mula sa mga mapapait na pangyayari nagmumula ang mga aral na habambuhay na tatatak sa ating sarili.

Ito ang mapagtatanto ng sino mang bubuklat ng mga pahina ng Sagad sa Buto (UST Publishing House, 2010) ni Romulo Baquiran Jr., isang propesor sa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas sa kauna-unahan niyang akda na nasusulat sa paraang impormal o “creative verities”.