Hapag ng Kulay: A Food, Arts, and Crafts Mini-Bazaar

I attended another art exhibit - Hapag ng Kulay - which was staged this April to celebrate Buwan ng Kalutong Pilipino or Philippine National Food Month. Artworks from several artists were on display and because it was Buwan ng Kalutong Pilipino, the theme of every painting was food, making it a really interesting showcase.

Hapag ng Kulay exhibit at LRI Design

I learned about Hapag ng Kulay from watercolor and coffee artist Yeye Calderon. I acquired one of his paintings recently and since then, we have met and become connected on social media. He posted about this exhibit, saying that there would be a special one-day event on April 18 that would include a mini-bazaar with food, an art class by Maryrose Gisbert, and art demo by Yeye himself. Many of the participating artists would also be there that day. I thought it would be a great opportunity to see Yeye Calderon in person again and to see him run a coffee painting demo. It would also give me a chance to meet a lot of other artists and see their work too so I decided to go.

Hapag ng Kulay mini-bazaar on April 18

I initially thought of just passing by but I ended up spending almost the entire day there. I arrived shortly before noon (I had a heavy brunch before I arrived). The pastel art class of Maryrose Gisbert was scheduled at 1pm. I was invited to join the class but I politely declined, saying that I was planning to leave soon. But as it turned out, I didn't leave. So at some point, Maryrose told, "you're still here, why don't you just join us?" but I still declined because there were already so many "students" there and all the tables were already full. Still, it was wonderful getting to see all those people create a pastel still life painting of some fruits.

Artist Maryrose Gisbert giving an art class on the use of pastels

Yeye's coffee painting demo started at around 3pm. He talked about the kind of coffee he uses, saying that he prefers to use instant coffee although he has also worked with brewed coffee in the past. He also told us that ideally, when you work with coffee or watercolor for that matter, you want to wait for the previous layer to dry before painting on top of it. But because this was a demo and we only had a limited time, he couldn't do that and he had to paint new layers even when the previous one was still wet. (I think the final demo painting still looked great despite this.) Someone in the audience asked him how he knows when the painting is done and ready. He said, you just know and feel it when you see it. The painting looked awesome at the end of the 1-hour demo, drawing much applause from the audience, but the next day, he posted a photo of that same painting that he continued to refine after the session.

Yeye Calderon doing a coffee painting demo

I left the exhibit at around 430pm but before I left, I somehow ended up getting something from practically every booth there. I purchased another painting from Mr. Calderon. It was small and relatively inexpensive, considering that it was already framed. Given its size, I felt I could easily slot it in somewhere on my walls at home.

My new painting from Yeye Calderon

I also purchased food from another booth. From yet another, I bought a couple of postcards. These were postcard versions of paintings by one of the artists there. I also got a fridge magnet version of another artist's painting of a bird.

Booths at the Hapag ng Kulay mini-bazaar

I also bought another relatively small painting from Arvin Yanuario. He said that it was a live painting that he made of the docks somewhere along Manila Bay. I had been thinking recently that there was a part of my kitchen wall that would look much better with a painting and efven before I got to this exhibit, I decided I wanted to place a predominantly blue painting there. When I saw this painting of Arvin, it felt like the right one to put at that spot at home. So I got it.

My new painting from Arvin Yanuario

As a gift for my purchase, Arvin gave me a Hapag ng Kulay mug that had his art printed on it. Cool!

My new Hapag ng Kulay mug

Technically, there was one booth that I didn't buy something from immediately. But that was because the painting I wanted, which was from one of the artists of that booth, had already been sold. I did talk to that artist who said I could commission a painting from her. I got her contact details so now I just need to sort things out.

Some of the artists of Hapag ng Kulay

My visit to Hapag ng Kulay turned to be a brilliant decision because I had a lovely and very relaxing time there. It was wonderful getting to meet and talk to so many amazing artists and even purchase some paintings from a couple of them. Art really does make life a lot better.

Blast from the Past: World of Survival and Age of Dinosaurs

After all these years, I got reunited with two very important parts of my childhood: complete World of Survival and Age of Dinosaurs sticker books!

World of Survival and Age of Dinosaurs

I had written before during my family's safari trip to Kenya that my brothers and I had always been huge fans of animals. We had so many books about animals as kids and we always went through the animal sections of the encyclopedias that we had at home. When I was in grade school, Figurine Panini released a sticker book called World of Survival. This book shared a wealth of knowledge about hundreds of different animals from all over the world. However, the pages of this book only included the information and details about the animals but not their pictures. People would then have to do blind buys of sticker packs to collect stickers of these animals.

The African Plains spread in World of Survival

My brothers and I all bought our fair share of stickers. Naturally, at the start, it was quite easy to fill our book with stickers. However, as we got close to completing it, we got more and more duplicates. They way to manage this was to trade stickers with our classmates and friends. This actually makes the sticker book completion journey a community experience.

The back page shares a comic strip on sticker swapping sprees

When we got close to completing our book, my mom helped us out. I'm not sure what she did but she was able to source the stickers that we still didn't have. It took some time and a lot of effort to put this book together but we finally did it. I guess being actively involved in completing our World of Survival sticker book made me more attached to it. This was such an important part of our childhood, as I'm sure it was to many other people my age.

The Philippine eagle is featured in one of the spreads

Shortly after that, Figurine Panini released another sticker book with the same set-up: Age of Dinosaurs. I think all kids - and maybe even adults? - have some kind of fascination with dinosaurs, which is probably why every Jurassic Park/World film was successful, if not wildly successful. Naturally, my brothers and I collectively worked to complete our own Age of Dinosaurs book.

The Age of Dinosaurs

I especially love the sections of those books where one photo requires multiple stickers to be completed. Naturally, there was some effort to apply these stickers very well because no one wanted the stickers to be crooked or misaligned. But it was always an achievement every time we completed one of these multi-sticker image sets.

The bottom right of this spread features a set that requires six stickers to complete

I'm just really happy that I finally found our World of Survival and Age of Dinosaurs sticker books. I actually tried looking for them a while back but I was unsuccessful. I thought that maybe over time, we had lost them. So I have my decluttering journey to thank for unearthing these fantastic, knowledge-filled treasures from our childhood. It does make me wonder, would today's kids enjoy putting together sticker books like these? Maybe not, but who knows?

The next step for me now is to re-read and enjoy these sticker books that I read so many times as a kid.

My Decluttering Journey Part 3

I am quite paranoid when it comes to disposing of items that contain personal information: bank statements, credit card bills, and medical test results, among many others. And yes, I see a bit of the irony that I write a blog and share a lot of information about myself while being this paranoid. That said, in this blog, I get to choose what I share and what I don't share inwhat I write, and it's that choice that makes the difference in my opinion haha. In any case, it is for this reason that I purchased a shredder many years ago, so I could efficiently tear up pieces of paper that I felt contained information that shouldn't be made available to others. Unfortunately, as I was about to use it, I realized it wasn't working anymore. Ugh! So I decided I had to purchase a new one. I didn't need a fancy, high-tech one so I just got the least expensive one I could find from Office Warehouse. 

My new shredder

The thing is, I have so many sheets of paper to get rid of. There are credit card statements from credit cards I no longer have, such as AIG, Metrobank, and my company Amex and Caltex cards. I also have old checks that were processed by the bank; apparently, my bank used to return to me via snail mail all the checks I wrote that had been successfully claimed and I still had them all. I also kept all these BDO bill payment slips for bills payments I made through BDO, such as my AIG and Eastwest Bank credit card which had a payment option through BDO. This was, of course, prior to the ease of paying online bills through Gcash. Still, I somehow never tossed out any of these slips and I amassed a ton of them over the decades. Then there are all the bank statements since my bank used to send me a physical copy of my statement regularly.

I also decided to get rid of almost all of my physical bills. After all, almost all entities now send billing statements electronically. I also just realized I still had physical bills of service providers I stopped using ages ago, specifically Destiny Cable and Bayantel. Finally, I also decided to shred all my work documents that I somehow still have, such as printed-out training materials and notes I've taken. I guess I'm really taking to heart all those company privacy rules that say that confidential company information should not be shared to anyone outside the company.

The interesting thing is, I'm so paranoid about this that even when I throw out all these shredded strips of paper, I still take an extra, unnecessary step: I separate each batch into a different bag and I toss them out into the garbage on different days. I really don't need to do this because it's not like there's anyone out there who plans on piecing together my trash like they do in the movies, when someone is trying to uncover secrets that have been shredded. I'm not really that important haha. Still, this is the process I've established for myself and I'm sticking to it hehe.

Shredding results

I'm nowhere near done because I don't want to overburden my shredder with too many sheets on any given day because the motor might conk out so I have a limit on the amount of papers I shred on any given day. That said, I have gone through maybe half of my stack now. Great progress!

Dinner Reunion

My friend Eugene moved to the US after we graduated high school. It took more than a decade after that before we saw each other again. He now visits the Philippines a bit more frequently, probably once everyone 1 to 2 years so we get to connect more often. But you know what they say great friendships: even after you haven't seen each other in a long time, the moment you do, you just pick up from where you left off. And that's exactly what happened when Eugene came back to Manila for a short visit. Our friend Mitch hosted dinner with Eugene and to make the night extra special, she prepared paella and ordered cochinillo from Jajaooh's. Wow! Needless to say, it was a very festive Spanish dinner.

Jajaooh's Cochinillo

What made our dinner even more memorable was that Mitch also invited our HS classmate Rose. Rose, Eugene, and I were actually classmates twice - during freshman year and again during senior year. This may actually have been the first time that Rose and Eugene spent time together since we graduated high school. It was truly a wonderful evening filled with fantastic food, great wine, incredible conversation, and wonderful reconnection. It's said that the friends you make in high school will be your friends forever. I guess this evening proved that. And I'm terribly grateful to have made friends who have continued to be part of my life years after we first met.

Tales of the Manuvu

I finally got to see Tales of the Manuvu, a rock opera ballet based on Philippine folk tales and mythology. I learned about it a while back, when it was staged at the CCP back in March 2019. I was really interested to see it but I couldn't see it during its performance run. Then I saw ads of the show being staged again this year. Thankfully, its scheduled matched my availability and I got to see the matinee show on March 29.

Tales of the Manuvu at the Proscenium Theater

This groundbreaking show combines classical ballet with modern dance, set to rock music performed live. It was created in 1977 through a collaboration of renowned and esteemed Filipino artists. Choreography and direction is by National Artist for Dance Alice Reyes. (She was there when we watched, although we didn't get a chance to have our photo taken with her.) The libretto is by National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera. The music is by OPM composer Dero Pedero, with additional music provided by rock band Afterbirth, and the musical arrangement is by Francis De Veyra. 

The story begins with the introduction of the two gods: Manama, god of good, and Ogassi, god of evil. Manama creates Man and Woman and while Ogassi stirs trouble, Manama's creations continue to depend fully on him as they start to thrive. However, over time, the distance between heaven and earth has widened. This is because the sound of people pounding rice wakes Manama from his sleep and in his annoyance, he lifts the heavens up higher out of earshot of the noise. Without Manama's protection, Ogassi seizes his opportunity to wreak havoc by creating Makarallig, a grotesque giant that drives men and women out of their land and causes widespread destruction and death. While the people are initially confused and fearful, they learn to work together to defeat Makarallig and banish Ogassi. They realize that they can no longer depend on Manama for protection and they need to rely on themselves and the story ends in triumphant celebration.

The lead singers and the dancers from the UE Silanganan Dance Troupe

While watching the show, I actually learned that one two songs that I heard back when I was in grade school are from this rock opera ballet. My grade school always organized rehearsals of the combined graduation and moving-up ceremonies for both grade school and high school. This was done over maybe a period of maybe a week or two. In one of those years, several high school students kept practicing a segment that they were performing during the event. They kept singing this song that started:

"Ang mga Manuvu ng gitnang Mindanao
May mga alamat na iniingatan
Pamana sa atin at nagsasalaysay
Tungkol sa simula ng lahat ng bagay"

This was followed by "Noong unang panahon." I loved these songs and how those high school students performed them, so much so that decades later, I actually still remember those rehearsals. When I watched Tales of the Manuvu, these two songs were performed (I got a copy of the synopsis and songs from the show and that first song I mentioned is called "Tabayannon"). I was so elated! I guess I should have figured that out since both the songs I heard in grade school use 'Manuvu' and not 'Manobo' which  is how it is spelled in the title of this rock opera ballet. (I did some light research and it seems that Manuvu may actually refer to specific Manobo communities and not the entire Manobo. Either that or Manobo became the popular and widespread spelling during Spanish colonial times.) In any case, it was wonderful to rediscover these songs and hear them again. It's just such a shame that I haven't been successful in finding Tabayannon anywhere online.

I'm glad I finally got to see this show because it was absolutely great! I love how it shares the folk stories and myths of the Manuvus so more and more Filipinos can be familiar with them. The show made use of the Manuvu folk narratives that were documented by Philippine historian and social anthropologist E. Arsenio Manuel, making it quite genuine and accurate. Most of the ballets I have seen in my life showcase stories from other countries so this one feels closer to home. Of course, the performances were also superb. The dancers from the UE Silanganan Dance Troupe were dazzling, expressive, and explosive. The lead singers were all incredible and they were backed up brilliantly by the UP Concert Chorus.

The entire cast, including the UP Concert Chorus

Tales of the Manuvu was staged at the new Proscenium Theater in Rockwell Makati. To be honest, I find it a bit tough to wait at its waiting area because it is quite small, with little to no seating. Food and drinks are not available here either. If you plan to watch a show here, my suggestion is for you not to head up early. You can have coffee/drinks and/or food somewhere in the Rockwell Retail area, such as at Joel's Place (which is what we did) and just go on up shortly before the doors open. That way, you can head on to your seat as soon and not have to stand amidst a crowded waiting area. Of course, if you do want to have your photo taken with the big sign of the show, you will want to spare a few minutes to do that too.

This last run was the 6th time this show has been staged in the Philippines. Hopefully, it continues to be performed in the future, not only because it's a fantastic show with amazing choreography and brilliant music but also because of its cultural and anthropological significance to the Philippines. 

LoveHopeFaith Watches

One of the most memorable gifts I got last Christmas was from my cousin Tracy. She sent all of us at home - including my nephews - a watch each. I was flabbergasted, thinking that Tracy was being extremely generous and that it must have cost her a fortune. But then I saw the purpose of these watches on the packaging and I understood. She sent us LoveHopeFaith watches, which aims to provide financial support to cancer patients in the Philippines. Proceeds of the sale of these watches are used to help cancer patients.

I was so moved by this gift that I looked it up to help me learn more about this amazing enterprise. I then took my cue from my cousin and decided to give the watches to many of my friends as well. Christmas was over but you don't need to give a gift just because there's an occasion, especially when the gift you are giving is for a great and very meaningful cause. The watches are actually pretty affordable; they normally cost P350 but at the time I made my purchase, they had a discounted price of P299.

I originally thought of surprising my friends with these watches, similar to what Tracy did for us, but then I felt it might be better if people got to pick the color they prefer.  So I asked them to choose. I also told them that they can choose to keep and wear it themselves or they could regift it. Either way, I definitely wanted to get them a watch. They arrived soon after I placed my order. Cool! 

I really wanted to support this cause because I have lost so many people to cancer. Interestingly, when I attended Ash Wednesday mass, the priest talked about three things that Catholics should practice during Lent: abstinence, fasting, and charity. So my decision to purchase these watches was perfect timing for Lent as well. Now that I've purchased several watches for my friends, I feel like I want to keep supporting the cause and get more watches. Thank you LoveHopeFaith Watches for everything you do for cancer patients!

Chamber Music 2026 Concert No. 3 by Sibol Guitar Octet

Another month, another amazing guitar concert. Sibol Guitar Octet of the UST Conservatory of Music had another concert at Manila Pianos in Makati. The last time they played at this venue, they performed together with other students and professors. This time around, it was a solo concert. Naturally, my family watched to support my nephew who is part of this amazing and very talented group.

Their repertoire included many of the same pieces they had played in their past shows. Naturally, these included their standards. They started the evening by playing all eight movements of Ronald Dyens' Suite Polymorphe. I have to say, in just a month since they last performed this during their Poly-Sonus Poly-Ritmus Polymorphe concert, you could tell that they had already gotten a lot more comfortable and adept at playing this very difficult and challenging suite. They also played Luigi Boccherini's Introduction and Fandango (arranged by Jeremy Sparks). 

I was also really excited to hear them play the three Filipino songs they performed in their last concert: Minamahal Kita, Ang Pipit, and Dahil sa Isang Bulaklak. I absolutely loved hearing them perform this a month ago so it was an absolute treat to hear them play it again.

One new piece they played was Hex by Agustin Castilla-Avila. It was supposedly performed first during Guitarra 2010, the first international guitar festival of UST. This was another very incredibly difficult piece to play and it was very impressive seeing Sibol perform it so deftly.

Here's their full repertoire:

I. Suite Polymorphe (Roland Dyens)
   i. Larghissimo, pesante
   ii. Con spirito
   iii. Slowy, gently rocking
   iv. Molto preciso
   v. Con calma
   vi. Vigoroso, danzante
   vii. Malinconico, semplice, sempre rubato
   viii. Allegro giocoso
II. "Dirait-on" from Les Chanson des Roses (Morten Lauridsen, Arr. A. Mesa)
III. Three Filipino Songs
   i. Minamahal Kita (Miguel Velarde, arr A. Mesa)
   ii. Ang Pipit (Levi Celerio, arr. R. Carpio)
   iii. Dahil sa Isang Bulaklak (Leopoldo Silos, arr A. Mesa)
IV. "Hex" (Agustin Castilla-Avila)
   i. Un poco Tranquillo
   ii. Piu mosso
V. "Introduction and Fandango" from Quintet no. 4 in D, G.445 (Luigi Boccherini, arr. A. Mesa) 

As the show came to a close, they treated the audience to an encore. The played two movements from Celso Machado's Danças Populares Brasileiras: Frevo and Ponteio. These two pieces are really very catchy and upbeat and are guaranteed ways to liven up any audience.

One new thing I did during this concert is to take videos of all their performances. Normally, I just focus fully on the show and enjoy the music and the octet's talent. However, I also realized that it is important to take videos so that we have something to rewatch in the future. Interestingly enough, the organizers - Double Pentagon Concerts - also took videos of the entire concert. You can check it out the full concert here.

Congratulations to my nephew and the Sibol Guitar Octet for another successful show.