Now/here no/where woman

Spoken by a Kalanguya elder at a negotiation on the ancestral domain boundary between Kayapa and Kabayan: "Sometimes all these debates we have here are just caused by politics. Now, if we were to speak of ancestral domains... if we were to speak of Huyucto, this is where my grandfather, Ubbang, is buried. His kinnaba (fallowed swidden fields or former camote swiddens) are here in Gisgisan and Pallunan. They did not reach Yutuyot. It makes me sad that people who are far from these places are trying to dictate on me and tell me that what I am saying here is unacceptable. So hopefully, those of us who are living here and who are affected, wherever it is we want this [boundary] to go, that's where it should go."

Music to match your mood ; any mood. Spot on almost every time, except for when you click somewhere in the vicinity of energetic and choose the genre funk and it strings five Michael Jackson songs in a row. What the funk?!? Three songs that never fail to make me smile 1. I don't wanna grow up by Tom Waits 2. Blister in the sun by The Violent Femmes 3. Wild thing by Jimi Hendrix

This came in the mail today, from tita Babeth Lolarga, President of the Baguio Writers' Group. For whatever it's worth, I'm posting this here. If you happen to know sir Nap, or if you know someone who knows him, please pass this on. Please help NAPOLEON JAVIER, Nap to us in Baguio and former general manager of DZEQ, Radyo ng Bayan. Three weeks ago he was felled by a stroke and has been at the intensive care unit of the Notre Dame Hospital on Gen. Luna St., Baguio City, since then. A few days ago his vital signs started to stabilize, but he's not yet out of danger. Meanwhile, his hospital bills are mounting and his daily medicines amount to almost P10,000 a day. Nap is a friend of artists and writers. He helped organize the visual artists' group Tahong Bundok and is a founding member of the Baguio Writers Group (BWG) along with Cirilo Bautista, Luisa Igloria, Butch Macansantos and Gabriel Keith. When the BWG was revived last year, he took it upon himself to

No wait, it's tres bizarre... No wait... I can't decide whether this is utterly cool or utterly bizarre. T.S. Eliot almost sings... to the music of Portishead! We likes it though, yes we do!

What Bali can do with cement... Baguio can do too!!! Three cheers for Baguio! (That's all I have to say. Making up for previous, wordy, picture-less posts.)

So this is what my writing looks like in Tagalog... A synopsis written with high school teachers in mind, translated from English by Karlo Altomonte, for a play directed by Karlo Altomonte, staged by Open Space Productions. A play by Paul Dumol featuring Ferdie Balanag, Jojo Lamaria, Mel Sabado, Roman Ordoña, Joenas Galinato, Syrel Amazona, Ana Degollacion, Eunice Caburao, Candice Degollacion, Wow Pidlaoan, Joel Genove, Shunjen, Jun Balitan, Rhoda FIangrayan, Jaja Lamaria, Charlene David, Hanna Camiring. The play premiers on August 23, at 6:30pm, in the Bulwagang Juan Luna, U.P. Baguio. ANG PAGLILITIS NI MANG SERAPIO Isang dula ni Paul Dumol Sino si Serapio? Bakit siya nililitis? Ano'ng paki-alam natin? Sa unang limang minuto pa lang ng paglilitis ay tatambad na sa atin ang krimen ni Mang Serapio. Ang pagkakasala niya ay pag-aaruga ng bata. Oo, ang pag-aaruga ng bata ay isang krimen. Unti-unting magkakaroon ng liwanag ang akusasyong ito sa pag-usad ng kwento. Si Serapio ay is

THIS is the best lettuce to be found in Baguio and La Trinidad, grown by the farmers' cooperative known as the La Trinidad Organic Practitioners, or LaTOP. THIS is how to turn a perfectly healthy, organic bunch of pako or wild fern into junk food. Fry your luncheon meat to a crisp, then stir-fry the fern in the fat from the luncheon meat. Luncheon meat available at your neighborhood sari-sari or "convenient" store. (The latter, spelled just like that, are sprouting all over the place.) Red wave lettuce, romaine, arugula, talinum, spinach, pechay, wild fern, cucumbers, carrots, green beans, cherry tomatoes, lemons, lemon grass, basil, oregano, and lots of other scrumptious, healthy, farm-fresh, chemical-free, fiber-rich goodies available at the Organic (mini) Market on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, at the Cafe by the Ruins Gazeboo. LaTOP also has a stall in the La Trinidad public market. (Sige na nga, they also set up the mini-market in Mario's on Wednesday and Satu

Dear Mr. Bandonill, Warm greetings! Please allow me to comment on your column of 29 July 2007. In it you stated that the Ambuclao Dam is one of the few remaining pristine parts of the Philippines, unaffected by global warming, and that "It is a place where nature truly preserved itself from the destructive actions of man." I simply wish to point out that a large dam IS one of the most destructive actions of man. Of all the energy-producing technologies available to us today, dams are the most damaging to humans and the environment. If you will recall, many families were displaced by the building of Ambuclao dam. They lost their land and their homes. To add insult to injury, it took a long time before the communities that remained around the dam received electricity, years after the dam began supplying power to the lowlands. The river has been destroyed and the siltation of the dam is evident to the naked eye. I ask you please not to allow the proliferation of the idea

Today is Tihani's birthday. What I remember vividly of her is her laugh, a sharp staccato. On fridays and saturdays we'd start the night at Rumours with a double vodka tonic each. Then we would trek over to the now-defunct but still missed bar called Perk and guzzle several beers, yakking and cackling the night away. She was convinced that I was a witch, and I was convinced that she was psychic and not entirely benign herself. As a lark one valentine's day we booked a table at the Cafe by the Ruins and boisterously laughed our way through dinner, which made the mushy couples in all the other tables squirm uneasily in their seats and send dagger looks in our direction. We were oblivious. We were comfortable. Screw valentine's day games, we said. I also remember the pained look that would cross her face when we got to talking about life's biggest trials -- the families we were born into, the income we didn't have yet, what we really wanted to do in life (we didn&#

Guillermo Bandonill Jr. writes in his column, Circumstantially Factual, in this week's Midland Courier: "The talk of global warming has everyone at the tip of their sensitivities. With the unpredictability of the seasons, brought about by the sudden change of weather conditions, the world is truly alarmed at the rate the environment is being disturbed by man-made activities. Yet, despite the advent of climate change, there remain some pristine areas in this part of the world, which, so far, have remained undisturbed and unaffected by the phenomena of global warming. One such place is the Ambuclao dam located in the municipality of Bokod, Benguet." There's more. This one's the clincher: "It is a place where nature truly preserved itself from the destructive actions of man." Ummm, what part of "global" does he not understand? And what part of the history of Benguet in particular and the history of dams in general has he conveniently glosse