Tag: No. 2

A CERTAIN narrow yet crowded street on the corner of Dapitan has been a hub for students and adults alike who want to spend their free time with a stick of cigarette.

Yana, a first-year graduate student, spends most of her afternoons on the busy street with a white stick teeming with nicotine. Her friends keep her company.

“I realized that the bonding is really different when I smoke with friends,” she said.

And despite the strong smell of burning leaves and cluttered cigarette butts, the claustrophobic ambiance of Antonio Street is still home.

What is in a stick

A REGULAR Facebook user may generate an average of 1,500 potential stories every day from friends, pages they have liked and people they follow.

According to a report from The Guardian, the news feed algorithm of the social networking site considers various factors in choosing what to show on a user's news feed.

In his blog, Facebook engineer Lars Backstrom said that out of the 1,500 stories, the algorithm filters posts to around 300 stories that it deems “of relevance” to a particular user.

POPE FRANCIS has given all priests the authority to absolve the mortal sin of abortion during the coming Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy of the Catholic Church.

In a letter last Sept. 1, Pope Francis said forgiveness must be granted to those who repent with a sincere heart through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, including those who had procured abortion.

“For this reason... I have decided, not withstanding anything to the contrary, to concede to all priests for the Jubilee Year the discretion to absolve of the sin of abortion those who have procured it and who, with contrite heart, seek forgiveness for it,” Pope Francis said.

THE CATHOLIC Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has stood firm on the Church’s consistent opposition to same-sex marriage amid growing clamor among homosexuals to be given the “right” to a “holy union.”

In a pastoral letter titled “The Dignity and Vocation of Homosexual Persons,” Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, CBCP president, reiterated that same-sex marriage could not happen because, aside from a loving relationship, holy union requires procreation, which is exclusive to male and female couples.

RELIGIOUS organizations in the University are set to hold spiritual activities to encourage the youth to be involved in works of mercy ahead of the upcoming Extraordinary Jubilee Year.

Leaders of religious organizations like the Marian Evangelization Council (MEC), the Bosconian-Thomasian Youth Movement (BTYM), and Youth for Christ (YFC) are planning a number of programs and activities to encourage Thomasians to perform works of mercy.

“Aside from our activities such as youth camps and worship nights to evangelize the youth, meron din kaming youth power na tumutulong sa ibang tao through community development and outreach,” said Andross David, president of YFC.

PILGRIMS will get a glimpse of St. Dominic de Guzman’s life by visiting places related to the foundation of the Order of Preachers, which is set to mark its 800th year next year.

The Coordinator of the Jubilee of the Order, in cooperation with the provincial promoters of the Jubilee, has published an itinerary guide titled “The Path of Dominic,” that contains information on places pilgrims can visit.

“To cross, 800 years later the same roads, towns and to see homes and churches that have marked Dominic’s itinerary, allows us to understand and to internalize the spirituality and the charisma he left to his Order,” the guide says.

WORKS by top Thomasian visual artists such as National Artists Ang Kiukok, Arturo Luz, and J. Elizalde Navarro, and Ramon Orlina and Romulo Olazo fetched high bidding prices in the Magnificent September Auction of Leon Gallery last September 13.

“Seated Figure” by Ang was sold for P10 million, the highest bid among his five other auctioned works. The expressionist painting shows a nude human figure with arms clasping the knees and with the skeletal framework highly prominent.

Luz’s “Desert Architecture” was sold for P800,000. It shows a carnation-pink geometric landscape of ancient Asian temples.

Luz’s three-piece mixed media “Collage” also rose from the pegged price of P100,000 to the final hammer price of P500,000.

BENJAMIN “Ben” Farrales, recognized by his colleagues in the fashion world as the “Dean of Philippine fashion designers,” has received the Gawad CCP Award for Fashion Design—the highest distinction given to artists and scholars who has eked out distinguished careers in the arts and cultural scholarship by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).

Farrales was honored for his remarkable contributions to the Philippine fashion industry through the use and integration of Philippine and Muslim culture in his works.

FAITH and the Filipino family are subjects that drove Thomasian Alexander Jorge Pingol to create Traces of Memory, an ensemble of paintings depicting the close family ties of Filipino culture.

The exhibit, which featured 25 oil-on-canvas paintings depicting tradtional Filipino family and rural life, was staged at The Podium Mall, Mandaluyong City and Galerie Raphael, Taguig City.

Works like “Unica Hijo,” “Banana Boat,” “Lola’s Favorite,” and “Mother’s Love” portray the intimate relationship between parents and son, happy family moments spent in the beach, the tender embrace between a grandmother and grandchild and the classic image of a mother and her child.

ABSTRACT ethnic motifs from Philippine native weaves are further abstracted and reworked in Jane Arrieta Ebarle’s eighth edition of “Hibla” series of paintings at the Hibla ng Lahing Filipino Gallery of the National Museum of the Philippines.

Threads on Canvas: Interweaving of Different Artistic Traditions showcases Ebarle’s abstract-expressionist acrylic-on-canvas works.

A graduate of Advertising Arts from the old UST College of Architecture and Fine Arts, Ebarle studies the works of traditional weaving communities such as the Ifugaos, Kalingas and Tausugs and interprets them in her abstract style.

But for the new series, Ebarle researched on the collection of ancient weaves from the National Museum collection.