Ok fine, it's valentine's day!

If not for the menu of poetry and food being served up at the Cafe by the Ruins on Valentine's Day/Night, I would totally boycott VD for all the obvious reasons: it's a hallmark greeting card holiday, it's the wrong definition of 'romance', everybody just wants to get laid but won't say it upfront and won't do it safely, roses are loaded with toxic chemicals, and there's more but before I get carried away on an anti-VD rant, check out the Cafe's passion-filled menu for the evening:

Poet's Dinner

Thai Soup with Rice Wine
Pandan Chicken with Turmeric Rice
Shrimp Sotanghon Salad
or Green and yellow Mango salad with fish

For vegetarians:
Vegetable Quiche
Organic Greens Salad
Squash Flower and Baby Corn Tempura

Photo by Rudi Tabora

DESSERT: Cream of Hearts or Chocolate-covered strawberries!!!

Poems on Presence and Absence will be read by members of the Baguio Writers Group and Ubbog. Then we will have an open mic session and possibly the first ever public poetry slam to be held in Baguio! A theme for the night will be announced. Anybody and everybody may scribble their own verses and read them aloud. The winner will be picked by audience response. The louder the screams, the better! The price is a gift certificate from the Cafe by the Ruins. Paintings by our multi-talented BWG members will also be auctioned off.

Comments

resty said…

Happy Valentine's Padma!

14 February 2009 at 07:36

Anonymous said…

I never realized how many people actually celebrate VD. I almost could not make it to Baguio because the buses were packed with people going there to celebrate VD. I am amazed (and annoyed that I had to be a chance passenger who sat on the back seat of the bus).

The chocolate dip of the strawberries had mint!

16 February 2009 at 09:13

Cordillera Folktales and Story-telling

It was cold and wet outside on the day of the launching of The Golden Arrow of Mt. Makilkilang and other Cordillera Folktales . But inside Mt. Cloud Bookshop we were warmed by stories read and performed by the Aanak di Kabiligan community theater group. Storytelling on a stormy afternoon. Paco Paco. A Benguet story from the book, published by the Cordillera Green Network. Aanak di Kabiligan means children of the mountains. The theater group was born out of the Cordillera Green Network's eleven years of conducting workshops in which children transform their grandparents' stories into theater productions. Here they perform the title story of the Golden Arrow of Mt. Makilkilang and Other Cordillera Folktales.

Lola of Maipon

It's all too easy to fall asleep under the blanket of everyday life and to smother dreams with the mundane things I surround myself with. But once in a while, along comes a sparkling vision that jolts me out of my daily sleep and reminds me of the existence of convictions and worlds so different from my own. "Our beloved LOLA of Guinubatan, Maipon, Albay is the last true messenger of God. So, let us follow her holy teachings so that we will gain TRUE SALVATION without sufferings and without death." In another story I, the intrepid heroine, the adventurer seduced by mysteries, the pilgrim in search of truth, would follow them back to Guinubatan from Session Road, thirsting to see and hear their Lola for myself. However, it's all too easy -- much safer! -- to fall back asleep under the blanket of everyday life, and to smother dreams with the mundane things I surround myself with. Then along comes 9 a.m., and really, it's time to down the dregs of coffee at the bott

Ritual for all Occasions

Attended a talk delivered by Dr. Albert Bacdayan, UP Baguio. Feb. 20, 2013. "Ritual for All Occasions: The significance and persistence of the 'Senga' in Northern Sagada." The senga is a ritual in which at least one chicken and one pig -- sometimes more -- are sacrificed. The senga is usually performed for milestones such as the completion of a house, the opening of a new business, a wedding, a funeral, when someone is ill, when someone is leaving on a journey. He spoke of how Cordillerans have a ritual for almost every occasion or ailment. Indeed, the word he used was not ritual but "remedy."Dr. Bacdayan described this as a "healthy agnosticism."He mused that the abundance or such remedies and rituals is the reason there are rarely feelings of helplessness among Cordillerans. He described ritual as a bundle of activities that assures people and anchors identity. When one calls the old men and is the principal of a senga, you are perceived t

Now/here no/where woman

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