This month, liwaliw Pages shares space with books selected from my personal library's "pride of place," namely those I received as gifts (or pasalubong) from my BFF Emerson Miranda, who was born on July 13, 1984, and passed away only last September 28, 2018. He was 34 years old.
Page 34 of MoMA Highlights: 350 Works from the Museum of Modern Art, New York contains "Untitled (Eternal Flame)" by Alfred Kubin, from the artist's series of drawings based on German folk tales and myths. The Museum's description of the painting seems apropos for Halloween:
The feeling of horror and mystery of this image is created through a subtle play of light and dark that envelops the foreground figures in an enigmatic veil. Light dramatizes and brings forth from the shadows both the flame and the floating skull, thus heightening the effect of a hallucinatory vision.
Spotted: From "datchery8" on Pinterest, 24 October 2018, after Google Image Search
Illustration by W. Heath Robinson for the poem "Ulalume" by the American master of mystery and macabre Edgar Allan Poe, who died on 07 October 1849. A collection of almost 1,000 works by Robinson is housed in the Heath Robinson Museum (Pinner, London, UK), which opened to the public in October 2016. Two years prior, 05 October 2014, the memorial sculpture of the "ghoulish poet and author" by Stefanie Rocknak was unveiled in Edgar Allan Poe Square, Boston, Massachusetts.
Without hesitation, I recommended Edgar Allan Poe’s “Ulalume,” which I consider the greatest Halloween poem in the history of American literature. Set in a graveyard on Halloween—the night the dead arise—the poem is filled with woodlandish ghouls that guide the path of a lover on the way to the tomb of his beloved.
"The Headless Horseman" a musical sequence from the Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, produced by Walt Disney, and released by RKO Radio Pictures on 05 October 1949; dubbed by Oscar and Grammy awardee Harry Lillis Crosby Jr. -- Bing Crosby -- who died on 14 October 1977. A typical animated treat for Halloween.
Hallowe'en -- Halloween -- is a contraction of Hallows' Evening, a Western Christian observance every 31st October, preceding All Hallows' Day, or nowadays, All Saints' Day.
This month, liwaliw Pages shares space with books selected from my personal library's "pride of place," namely those I received as gifts (or pasalubong) from my BFF Emerson Miranda, who was born on July 13, 1984, and passed away only last September 28, 2018. He was 34 years old.
"The Great Wave, Sete," a photograph featured on page 429 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide is by Gustave Le Grey, who died in 1884, a hundred years before BFF Eon was born. Noted by this guidebook:
The dramatic effects of sunlight, clouds, and water in Le Gray'seascapes stunned his contemporaries at the time when most photographers found it impossible to achieve proper exposure of both landscape and sky in a single picture.
(In this age of digital camerawork and photo manipulation, that concern might already be hard to imagine or appreciate.)
Dateline: 23 October 2018, The Junction Tagaytay, Cavite
When news broke out, I "listened" for any story of irregularity on the 2018 selection for the Order of National Artist, for any bit as the controversy of the proclamations in 2009. And I'm thankful, no talks of the sort (so far)... oh, but the disappointment of the Noranians once more made rounds in social media. And for Architect Francisco Manosa, the second time is sweeter. In older posts in liwaliw, I have honored the talents and contributions of some of the artists who will be given the recognition in Malacanang Palace on 24 October 2018 (links go to related liwaliw posts):
Mental note: Consider future liwaliw features for National Artists Manosa (for architecture), Kidlat Tahimik (Eric De Guia, for film), and Ramon Muzones and Resil Mojares (for literature).
Memory Served: 24 October 2014, Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria, Quezon City
As it would turn out, speaking about human rights before the delegates of the 13th Philippine National Convention on HIV and AIDS was to be my last engagement with the country's response to the HIV epidemic. After this, I will be asked to report to the Office of the Secretary to do correspondence writing and assist in other administrative matters. By 2016, I will find myself working on health facility planning. More than a decade of working in HIV prevention work, it felt like a lifetime ago.
Still, I did my own mental happy dance when finally the bill strengthening the HIV and AIDS law passed (and now awaiting for the President's signature). Even though, technically then, I was assigned to work on improving Republic Act 8504's implementing rules and regulations (the prevailing mandate), and was prohibited from engaging in any legislative advocacy work. So let this be my muted shout out, in spirit, joining the celebration in welcoming a stronger mandate for HIV and AIDS -- to my former co-workers from the Philippine National AIDS Council, the many PLHIV, MSM and TG advocates, development partners, and the rest of civil society.
Memory Served: Sometime in October 2009, Malate, Manila
Like any peer group (a gaggle of gay), the GGM, or what BBFF Gregg renamed as Jijieras had its videoke streak. I don't remember what we were singing as a duet to, and I do wonder whatever happened to that shirt I was wearing. But you have to admit the BBFF was taut and trim in that very pink but very butch long-sleeved shirt. Snapshot courtesy of the one other jijiera, Patrick, whom we lost two years after this.
We were at a glass enclosure "private" videoke room in Malate, Manila, corner of Maria Orosa and Julio Nakpil Streets (I think it was called Synder). After a few bottles of beer, one loses enough inhibition so that the fact that people can actually watch your drunk tone-deaf self doesn't matter anymore.
Memory Served: Sometime in October 2008, Olongapo City
My career was on the verge of a transition after surviving a major health episode, while the BBFF Gregg was seriously pumped up by the gym, fueled by testosterone, and running in a Jimny (?!) I don't remember the why and wherefore of this, but I was swept out of my comfort zone, sped with Gregg through then newly opened SCTEX to Subic and Olongapo City for some halloweening with one of his other social sets. Lots of fun being as crazy as you can in a place where you're assured no one would recognize you, and in the security of a small group of very party hardy guys. No alcohol binge for me, though; I was still recovering.
"I Believe" is from Irish singer-songwriter and former Boyzone member Stephen Gately from his debut solo album New Beginning, which was released in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2000. Reportedly, Gately's performance of the song on Top of the Pops was aired on a Friday, 13 October 2000.
All the years of waiting for your approval, dear Well I realised I don't need it any more 'Cause I'm stronger everyday Now I'm strong enough to say, I believe
The song was included in the soundtrack of Billy Elliott, a British film in 2000 about a boy becoming a professional ballet dancer. The album, Singles from Billy Elliot: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, was released on 14 October 2000. Universal Studios Home Entertainment released the film on DVD and VHS on 25 October 2001.
Billy Elliot the Musical, based on the film, will open on October 2019 in Sydney, then will tour to other cities in Australia. The play's music is by Elton John, and his spouse David James Furnish (born 25 October 1962) is the executive producer.
Gately passed away on 10 October 2009 due to a congenital heart defect. His former co-members from Boyzone performed the song "In This Life" at his funeral in Dublin.
This month, liwaliw Pages shares space with books selected from my personal library's "pride of place," namely those I received as gifts (or pasalubong) from my BFF Emerson Miranda, who was born on July 13, 1984, and passed away only last September 28, 2018. He was 34 years old.
"Nude (1917)" is by Amedeo Mondigliani, who was born in 1884, a hundred years before Eon was born. "Modi," the artist's nickname rhymes with maudit, French for "accursed": in his time, his nudes were criticized as pornographic, partly due to leading a lifestyle of alleged sexual excess; the mother of his second child committed suicide after giving birth; his hard life mixed with substance abuse was ended by tuberculosis.
The work, which is one from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, is featured on page 261 of the Guggenheim Museum Collection A to Z, with a quote from the Mondigliani, "What I am searching for is neither the real nor the unreal, but the Subconscious, the mystery of what is Instinctive in the human race."
Dateline: 10 October 2018, Casa La Granja, La Paz, Iloilo City
Was able to catch Ties of History: Art in Southeast Asia on its last day, 06 October 2018. It was the country's exhibition of contemporary art in the region on the occasion of the 50th year of the ASEAN. There were three venues, and was able to visit one, the Metropolitan Museum of Manila; the other venues were Yuchengco Museum in Makati City, and the UP Vargas Museum in Quezon City. In the program notes:
Taken from the ASEAN Declaration in 1967, the phrase 'ties of history' may allude to the blessings and burdens of being together and being different in a region that is thought to be shared. The works of the artists speak to this complex and productive condition as they express the many ways by which the various strands of subjectivity as citizen-artists weave and unravel in the project of making selves in particular places, making nations in an international world, and making regions across forests and islands in the geopoetic gestures of contemporary art.
Above is a juxtaposition two works in the exhibit, "Magdalo Magdiwang" by Roberto Feleo of the Philippines, and "Plantscape" by Anusapati of Indonesia.
Gerome Soriano was one of 12 artists who were part of Resetting the Clock on exhibit at the fourth floor of the Cultural Center of the Philippines from 30 August to 21 October 2018. In the program notes, curator Con Cabrera explained that the exhibition "sets out to converge various artists who tackle photography in a linguistic manner and subvert the traditional presentation of the medium."
From within the exhibition, a statement from artist Soriano:
I started to be fascinated with circular objects around my home and work place when I was consumed by my day job and was unable to practice art. That frustration led me to take images of circles before and after work. I now use those images to create coded messages based on unpopular, easily misunderstood movements and philosophies that I am inclined to.
"Englishman in New York" is from English artist Sting's second studio album ...Nothing Like the Sun, which was released worldwide on 13 October 1987. The artist who was once principal songwriter, lead singer and bassist of the band Police, Sting was born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner on 02 October 1951.
If "manners maketh man" as someone said He's the hero of the day It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile Be yourself no matter what they say
The song's black-and-white music video was directed by David Fincher, who is now better known for his critically successful and box-office hit films -- to American audiences, Fight Club (based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel) was released on 15 October 1999, and the Social Network (about the founding of Facebook) was released on 01 October 2010.
Dateline: 16 September 2018, SMX Convention Center, SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City
Rubbing elbows with the published, critically praised writer. Didn't take much of his time after this fanboy shot. Lots of visitors to the 39th Manila International Book Fair were queuing up for his signature. Michael P. De Guzman, author of Dalawa ang Daddy ni Billy (Billy has Two Daddies), once went by the nick "pinakadalisay" (the purest).
Dateline: 15 September 2018, S Maison, SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City
Work once again transitioned to a new setup; spent most of the week participating in strategic planning of the newly created team responsible for government health facility establishment and operations. Friday I was so looking forward to spending the weekend at the 39th Manila International Book Fair, SMX Convention Center, SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City. But first thing on Saturday morning was a trip to Imus City to witness my younger brother's pamamanhikan.
At the MIBF, dropped by the Tahanan Books booth to get my copy of Dalawa ang Daddy ni Billy (Billy has Two Daddies), written by friend and former officemate Michael De Guzman, and illustrated by Daniel Palma Tayona. Will have to return the next day Sunday when Mike will be present for book signing.
Among the few significant finds (and purchases I was able to afford), I also took home Si Kian, by Weng Cahiles, a 2018 National Children's Book Awardee, offered for free by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and Adarna House for a minimum donation to the RCBK-EJK Children's Scholarship Fund. Blurb (English translation) on the Adarna House site: "This is the story of Kian Loyd delos Santos, seventeen years old, a student. He was killed by the police in Caloocan on August 16, 2017."
This month, liwaliw Pages shares space with books selected from my personal library's "pride of place," namely those I received as gifts (or pasalubong) from my BFF Emerson Miranda, who was born on July 13, 1984, and passed away only last September 28, 2018. He was 34 years old.
Page 84 of the National Gallery, London, 13th of the series Great Museums of the World, contains Jan Van Eyck's "The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami." On the opposite page, the book describes the work as "An outstanding work of the fifteenth century, this painting reflects the influences of French and Rhineland sculpture."
What is nowadays referred as the Arnolfini Portrait, Wikipedia heaps effusively with "It is considered one of the most original and complex paintings in Western art, because of its beauty, complex iconography, geometric orthogonal perspective, and expansion of the picture space with the use of a mirror."
Spotted: 11 October 2018, after Google Image Search, pinned to own Pinterest
Zaha Mohammad Hadid, DBE, RA, born 31 October 1950, was a two-time Stirling Prize recipient, and the first woman to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects. Hadid's architectural firm explained that the bridge pavilion for the Expo 2008 in Zaragoza, Spain has a "fluid, dynamic design [that] interprets the Expo's theme: 'Water and Sustainable Development.'" The Philippines own pavilion won gold medal in the Expo for its crystalline decor that was adjudged most relevant to the theme.
As an expression of gratitude to the people of Zaragoza after the successful staging of Expo 2008, the organizers participated in Fiestas del Pilar, the locality's public holiday held from 07 to 10 October.
In the month of October, the International Union of Architects enjoins the world to celebrate World Architecture Day every first Monday of the month. It coincides with the United Nations observance of World Habitat Day.
Jewels is a three-act ballet created by George Balanchine, the founding choreographer of the New York City Ballet, premiered in 1967. It is a full-length abstract ballet with three movements named Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds. Rubies is set to the music of Igor Stravinsky, "Capriccio pour piano et orchestre," written in Nice, France between 1926 and 1929 after the composer fled the twin Russian Revolutions of February and October 1917.
Rubies is led by one of America's most celebrated ballet danseurs, Edward Villella, who was born in New York on 01 October 1936. World Ballet Day is also celebrated every 02 October.
Spotted: 11 October 2018, after Google Image Search, pinned to own Pinterest
"Bare Back Bette" is a portrait of one of America's greatest and iconic female film, television and theater actors, Ms. Bette Davis. Caption on Getty Images read: "1932: American actress Bette Davis (1908-1989) as Madge in the film, 'Cabin in the Cotton', directed by Michael Curtiz." Credit for the photographic work goes to film historian John Kobal, who passed away on 28 October 1991.
The Cabin in the Cotton, released on 15 October 1932, is a film adaptation of the novel of the same title. One of Ms. Davis' most quoted lines was from this film (as lifted directly from the novel): "I'd like ta kiss ya, but I just washed my hair."
Ms. Davis, who was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis, succumbed to breast cancer and passed away on 06 October 1989. Breast Cancer Awareness Month is an international health campaign observed every month of October to raise awareness, as well as raise funds for research on the disease.
Memory Served: Sometime in October 2010, Malolos City, Bulacan
Last month, I lost one of my very best friends, Eon (or Emerson Miranda). He was 34 years old. For the remaining months of this year, liwaliw Memories will feature 34 instances of fond memory of this very intelligent, very passionate person, who had honored me for once tagging us as BFFs.
Quickie vacation travel with Eon is several different kinds of pleasure; Baguio may be our default destination of choice, but we went to several other places like this one in October 2010 in Bulacan. I think this visit to Malolos City was for BBFF Gregg (read: the Bully BFF, or the bitchiest BFF) when Gregg opened a watering hole with a childhood friend as business partner. A visit to the historic Barasoain Church is a must for a Malolos itinerary.
Together, sometimes with our partners in tow, Eon and I have traveled to places in Cavite, Laguna, Pangasinan, Quezon and Rizal. And we had staycations too. Never a dull moment what with our intelligent musings and campy banters.
Memory Served: Sometime in March 2006, Baguio City
Last month, I lost one of my very best friends, Eon (or Emerson Miranda). He was 34 years old. For the remaining months of this year, liwaliw Memories will feature 34 instances of fond memory of this very intelligent, very passionate person, who had honored me for tagging us as BFFs.
Cool climate good for relieving stress of living and working in the steamy, overcrowded metropolis, it's something Eon and I shared. I remember that we were pleased arriving in Baguio City with an unseasonably cooler March weather in 2006. I remember us strolling at Burnham Park on a foggy evening with eerie greenish glow after a sumptuous dinner at Cafe by the Ruins. And recently, while looking for things to share about Eon, I remembered my old blogging grounds, and how much I talked about our days together as housemates and buddy-buddies.
Memory Served: Sometime between 1975 and 1980 (at least), Makati City
Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, whom we know as Ms. Julie Andrews was born on 01 October 1935. She made her professional solo debut at age 12 at the London Hippodrome as part of a musical revue, "Starlight Roof," on 22 October 1947. Two years after, 08 October, she made her television debut on the BBC. She was reported to have had a prior 35-year hiatus from performing when she starred in the stage musical Victor/Victoria, which opened in Broadway on 25 October 1995.
But I, as the rest of my family, will always and firstly fondly remember Dame Julie for her role as Maria Von Trapp of the Sound of Music. My sister Gemma and cousin Laarni will most likely turn into mush when they see this Laendler sequence again. On 28 October 2010, Dame Julie appeared on Oprah with other members of the cast to commemorate the film's 45th anniversary. Last year, the London Palladium brought the Sound of Music to the country, staged at the Theater at Solaire Resort from 27 September to 22 October.
Dateline: 07 September 2018, Punta Villa Resort, Iloilo City
Went to Iloilo City to provide technical assistance to district and municipal hospitals of Aklan, Capiz, Guimaras and Negros Occidental provinces and Bacolod City for the preparation of their respective medium-term development plans. I was coming from Tagaytay City, after attending a Trainers' Training. Half the time, my alertness and energy were only fueled by black coffee. The host, the Regional Office, though, was very facilitating... even helping me beat my deadline for bills payments. (I am most thankful.)
So, even with a tight schedule for technical assistance, we were able to make time for seafood galore (i.e. Tatoy's), pasalubong shopping, and a short but meaningful heritage walk. Spent most of Friday afternoon in the city's Molo District, marveled at the Molo Church and the Molo Mansion. And turns out, the line of watering holes just outside our living accommodations are very much the happening place to be on a Friday night. Overall, time well spent.
This month, liwaliw Pages shares space with books selected from my personal library's "pride of place," namely those I received as gifts (or pasalubong) from my BFF Emerson Miranda, who was born on July 13, 1984, and passed away only last September 28, 2018. He was 34 years old.
Page 84 of the J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Collections has a full-page detail of "Alfonso d'Avalos, Marquis of Vasto, in Armor with a Page" by Titian (or Tiziano Vecellio), marking the beginning of the handbook's chapter "Paintings." Even as Getty (the person) considered himself primarily a collector of decorative arts, he also bought paintings that represented major art movements in Europe between the 14th and 20th centuries. This portrait of the Marquis who served as commander general to Emperor Charles V is one of the earliest works in the Museum's paintings collection, 1533 according to Italian Renaissance artist, writer and historian Giorgio Vasari.
(Van Gogh's "Irises," one of Getty Museum's most popular, was BFF Eon's all-time favorite; brought him to tears the first time he saw and marveled at it.)
Coincidentally, the month of October is also Museums and Galleries Month, pursuant to Proclamation No. 798, series of 1991, "in recognition of the need to arouse the national consciousness pride in our rich culture and national identity, expressed in all media of art and culture, historical and religious artifacts," according to the National Commission on Culture and the Arts.
Last Friday, 28 September 2018, I lost one of my very best friends. I lost Eon to the darkness that had been progressively enveloping and swallowing him for at least a year (as I later learned). I received the saddest and most heartbreaking of news in the early hours of Saturday while still in Cebu City and due to fly back Manila at mid-morning. I wanted to grow my own set of wings then.
I was program coordinator for The Library Foundation in the early 2000's when I first met Eon, who enlisted for our peer education program. He was still completing college, and he was poised to graduate at the top of his class. His initial participation almost didn't happen, but I was glad that it finally did even when the circumstances weren't the best. Because like in his many other personal projects, Eon pursued his volunteer work with us with unqualified passion and sheer ironclad will, which eventually brought him to the Boardroom as the organization's (now called TLF SHARE Collective) youngest trustee.
I helped Eon and his classmates work on their thesis, while he volunteered in our NGO's programs and activities. I also witnessed his voracious appetite for reading; he was able to finish off our NGO's small library's collection easily. Between finishing college and awaiting employment, he was even able to join our community campaigns in the Southern Tagalog areas. All these and more: we had official joint endeavors like the HIV and AIDS awareness program during his senior year in college as officer of the student council, as well as the Gender and Development initiative for subject matter experts during his freshman year at work for a technology solutions company.
Eon was the first person to tell me what BFF means (i.e. "best friends forever"). He insisted that that's what we were to each other. It was like a May-December kind of BFF relationship, I a Martial Law baby, him a People Power (EDSA Uno) progeny.
Eon deeply loved writing. Writing was something we had in common, except for the deep-love part. Writing for me was a professional obligation, a means to demonstrate that I deserve the job I have and the salary I get. Eon would express his feelings for writing with the effusive romantic language; he read lengthy essays about writing. He introduced me to blogging when we started living together. We were two paired-up friends sharing a two-bedroom apartment (our own small commune), and he was my patient champion to write beyond the professional obligation. He was the one who had the vision to write for pleasure and be a success at it. He once teased me for my lack of "imagination": he was "hastydevil" in the blogosphere, I was, well, "glenncruz."
As time, circumstance, and "adulting" would have it, we'd later live more distinctly separate lives... until two years ago that I was able to land him a place next door to mine. But the adulting in us allegedly worked on different times and places - daytime in Manila for me, nighttime in Quezon City for him. Our BFF time no longer held carpe diem qualities. And apparently, us friends were looking down in our own hands while the darkness hovering above him gathered strength.
He stopped blogging; the hastydevil was the first one to close (i.e. restricted) from among his online accounts, then social media came later. I wanted to give him this, 642 Things to Write About (by the San Francisco Writers' Grotto, published by Chronicle Books) because I had a thought that all the work and some other circumstance (e.g. he once told me he's getting tired of trolls and flamers) might have kept him from his personal writing, and having something as casual as this book might wake the writing bug again. Or at least elicit a funny conversation at the corniness of it all. I wanted to give him this if not on his birthday, maybe on Christmas. He was big on remembering birthdays. And we were both big on sharing slices of Christmas ham.
I started blogging again. I have yet to tell him how I came to a decision about blogging old-school again as old-school blogging can get. I had hoped that once he gets to peruse 642 Things, or get him to at least comment on my recent blogs, he would get excited again with blogging, with writing, and in the process brush off on me that quality and level of infectious excitement I missed from him.
But Darkness had a pleasant face; it didn't give off any clue to brewing storms. Darkness forfeited my chance for a last conversation with my BFF, not for even just one exchange about one of the 642 things suggested in the book.
Emerson G. Miranda, "Eon" to his significant other and friends, was born on 13 July 1984 in Natividad, Pangasinan, and he died 28 September 2018 in Mandaluyong City. He was 34.
