PINOY ZOOM CONFERENCE: THE TEN USUAL BACKGROUND NOISES

Crazy thoughts in these crazy times. Our regular Zoom videoconference at the office includes work-from-home personnel in Manila, Visayas and Mindanao. And all sorts of background noises. Every session is open to the sound of life in the backdrop. You can’t blame people for not having soundproof spaces in their homes. Different places, but no […]

NAT QUINTOS UHING: IN MEMORIAM

Natalie Quintos Uhing was an artist. 24-carat artisan in body, mind and spirit. The lady behind the “SmallestForest,” a now defunct blogsite of avant garde arts and crafts. Married to Kris Larson, the man who sailed the world on an engineless junkyard boat. So they were sort of a “John and Yoko” pair. Living in […]

BINTANA PHOTOGRAPHY: WHEN YOU HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD BUT CAN’T GO OUT

Home quarantine an ordeal for you? For street photographers, it’s twice the agony. I was aching to see the empty streets of Manila yesterday, and got the opportunity (and legitimate reason) to drive around so. The feel was incredibly eerie. The barren city seemed like a lay of the land unknown to us. Driving was […]

OF CHARITY AND PHOTOGRAPHY

If you are an Enrich Magazine reader you might find me on page 79 of this month’s issue — very miniscule in the background. Or you might not. Earlier today, I received a surprise message from Rose Castillo of the Isabelita Rosueta Organization (IROG). She texted me about our outreach program last October which was […]

EVENING SHADOWS

Find out how the years have passed you by, simply by seeing how your once revered pop idols grow old. I’ve just watched a senior citizened Depeche Mode on Youtube. Another way to be cognizant of the “feebling in years”, is to observe odd sleeping habits. When I was a little boy I would wake […]

MOMENTS OF SILENCE

Sampaloc is no place for a mahogany tree. Attorney Rafael Cortes knew this so well he surrendered his sapling to me one day in 2004. There’s just no spot for it in his space in Dos Castillas street. To Tanza, I took the young tree. Where the ground shreds traces of a once farmland. Very […]

YO! EXCUSE US WHILE WE ROT

Moron..er..more on the President: In his State of the Nation Address (SONA), Digong — extraneously, from out of the blue — harped on getting the Balangiga Bells back. Blunt as a thud: “Give us back those Balangiga bells! [applause] They are ours. [applause] They belong to the Philippines. [applause] They are part of our national […]

THE SUNSET ON YOUR FACE

After Typhoon Nina’s devastation of Iriga city, Irigueños were faced with an enormous task of clearing the place. Everyday tons of waste have to be dealt with. I watched from atop Ilian Hill this remarkable scene unfolds as everyone starts setting debris on fire: the whole city appears to go up in smoke! The following […]

PHOTO ESSAY : PEOPLE OF THE PASIG

We can set the Pasig River as the standard by which we measure our urbanity. So that when the Danish International Development Agency declared this once pristine body of water BIOLOGICALLY DEAD a long time ago, we can think just how much of our values — as Filipinos — have ran aground. And then there’s […]

FAREWELL, ADMIRAL

As early as June this year, I posted an alert message to the Manila Nostalgia community about an impending demolition job on the western section of the historic Manila Army Navy Club, the pool side. My warning received only a handful of sighs from fellow members. Along with this, Carlos Celdran (now Manila tourism consultant) […]

PHOTOWALK IRIGA CITY

I was thinking how excellent it would be to have a Mexican hat on during photowalks in these scorching summer days. There is just no better buffer against the sun. Though none is available at the nearest cowboy shop right now. Globalization has yet to deliver one of those oversize sombreros here in the Philippines. […]

THE OLD MAN AND THE STREAM