Now/here no/where woman

I'll be glad when February is over.

An edited (new and improved!) version of this write up is in today's Inquirer. Portraits of elders with weathered faces, pretty young women in traditional costumes, and mountainsides carved into magnificent rice terraces – these are the trademark images that make up the popular vision of the Cordillera mountain range and its people. Little of this standard imagery is to be found in JP Alipio’s photographic exhibition, Green Shadows, on display at the Victor Oteyza Community Art Space (VOCAS) until March. The collection of photos brings into sharp, almost painful focus a vision of a bountiful environment steadily being laid to waste. "WASTELAND" by JP Alipio Commissioned by the Cordillera Green Network, Alipio documented the state of the environment in all the provinces of the region. The experience has changed his scope as a photographer and his stance as an environmentalist. “It made me more locally-grounded... I’ve moved on from being a hardcore save-the-trees environme...

The Artist-in-residence and I were downtown observing people when she suddenly burst into a sardonic laugh. Me: What? A.I.R. (shaking her head): It's too silly. Me: What's too silly? AIR: Everybody's buying flowers! Hahahaaaaaa! Me: And? AIR (almost hysterical with laughter): Why choose today, of all days, to tell some one that you think they're special? How can valentine's day be special when everybody's buying the same gifts, going to the same places, and doing the same thing??? Hahahaaaaaa! Me (as I ushered her across the street and away from the dirty looks of the people lined up for flowers): You're right. How pedestrian.

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 ...

Happy 200th birthday, Charles Darwin! Here are three different takes on the man and his legacy. Darwin, Prescient with 'Origin,' Is Still Influential. Darwinism Must Die So That Evolution May Live. The Darwin Awards. This year there is even a Double Darwin Winner! Meanwhile, I press on with my sayangtist adventures in my own backyard. Who knows what great discoveries might lie ahead!

Another flyer/postcard I picked up. This one I got at the American Anthropological Association's annual meeting in San Francisco. There I had the pleasure of watching this vibrant documentary about dance, identity, and crossing cultures. AND I also got to meet Mitch Teplitsky, the film's maker, AND buy a dvd from him at a discounted rate. He was carrying a whole lot of copies around in his knapsack and was hoping to be rid of them by the end of the week-long conference. I think I got the second-to-the-last copy on the second-to-the-last day of the conference.