Down the Rabbit Hole

Most of what I know about European art movements, I learned through Dr Paul Zafaralla 's Humanities 2 class. Since then, I've been augmenting my familiarity and appreciation by visiting art galleries and museums. A group that I haven't heard about was the Pre-Raphaelites. Of course, I had to see their works; after all, I'd like to try to learn more about a generation of artists that came before  Raphael and the Renaissance. This is one reason I dropped by the Legion of Honour, where I had my first exposure to Rodin's masterpieces . The Pre-Raphaelite exhibit was entitled Truth and Beauty. I'm not sure why it's been titled as such but I learned one truth as I took a closer look at the artwork... the Pre-Raphaelite paintings were made after  the Renaissance. The movement originated in England in the mid-1800s; more contemporary than what I had in mind. The curators kindly provided a timeline to show the trends in Europe from 1300 to 1900. Medieval ...

(Apologies for the grammar... I'm still a beginner in French) Je suis allée à la Légion d'Honneur à San Francisco parce que je veux continuer d'apprendre d'art. Quand je suis arrivée, j'ai vu des chefs-d'oeuvres de Auguste Rodin, le sculpteur français qu'a crée des études complexes de la forme humaine. À l'entrée de la Légion d'Honneur, j'ai vu Le Penseur . Je pense que j'ai entendu parler du Penseur pour la première fois lorsque j'étais étudiante au secondaire. J'avais posé la question: Où est le globe? Mais Le Penseur est différent de Farnese Atlas ! Le Penseur Et puis, je suis allée dans le musée et j'ai vu un autre travail de Rodin. Cette statue est L'âge d'airain , mais je ne sais pas la raison pour laquelle Rodin l'a baptisée ça. L'âge d'airain Dans une des galeries, j'ai trouvé Les Trois Ombres, une pièce avec trois statues des hommes identiques. Ceci m'a rappelé un je...

René Magritte. He's a Belgian painter whose work I first encountered when I watched "The Thomas Crown Affair"(1999). As a Surrealist , he featured illogical ideas and characters placed in unrealistic situations in his paintings. When I was at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art  for a second time, I made sure that I visited his collection which was currently on view there. One of the first paintings that caught my eye was a painting called "Le lyrisme" (1947). It has a caricature of a man with a pear-shaped head, apparently upset with a disembodied pear. The strokes reminded me of Vincent van Gogh . But reading up on this painting, I learned that the disembodied pear is supposed to be the sun ! Now that's surreal! "Le lyrisme" means an expression of a strong personal emotion ( "un style emphatique et passionné" ). In the painting's case, I assume that Magritte was trying to convey distress or anger. But why direct anger to...

Biboy and Barbara kindly invited me to join them to watch Tom Cruise's latest movie, Mission Impossible: Fallout . I doubted that he would do another Mission Impossible movie ... and yet he did (again!). This latest movie is the sixth film in the franchise and it doesn't look like Tom Cruise won't retire the Ethan Hunt persona just yet. Fallout , though, felt like it was finishing up a few storylines. First, it provided the closing chapter to Ethan's marriage with Julia (the medical doctor who was last seen to be thriving in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol); she had moved on and gotten married with a fellow medical doctor. Second, it (literally) ended Alan Hunley's (Alec Baldwin) storyline as IMF Secretary. He was the second IMF Secretary that was killed, as far as I know. And where in the world was William Brandt? I would just like to point out that Jeremy Renner, who played Brandt, wasn't in this movie; he wasn't in Avengers: Infinity War either. ...

Lola Bats was always happy to learn that her grandkids were finishing school or were handling things that were high tech to her. She was also always willing to learn how to use the latest gadgets. We all thought that if provided with internet connection, Lola Bats would be able to find a way to communicate with all her kids and grandkids living abroad. When faced with a technology she hadn't handled yet, she'd always go:  Kung siguro ako'y nag-aral, matalino rin ako. And then she'd continue talking about her going to school with a copy of the  Liwayway  magazine instead of notebooks and pencils. Liwayway is a magazine which started publication in the 1920s; its early days was when Lola Bats was starting to learn how to read. The magazine has seen Tagalog literature develop (for instance, the series "Kuwento ni Lola Basyang" was published in the magazine). She never realised that she really was intelligent. She only finished first grade  but she and Lolo...

I have been to San Francisco's Union Square several times since I've started visiting the City. However, I have always been with family and friends so I never had the chance to see this bit of the city until I went exploring alone for the second time (I skipped it the first time I explored by myself ).  Anyway, I knew that there's a column in the middle of the Union Square and I've always wanted to see it up close... not just take a photo of the column but to see what it's actually about. And then I noticed the inscription on the base: War has commenced between the United States and Spain... On the night of April 30th 1898, Commodore George Dewey's squadron entered Manila Bay... reduced the forts and held the city in subjection until the arrival of troops from America. I was so surprised when I realised that this column is actually the Dewey Monument! And in Philippine history class, Commodore George Dewey held a stellar role. He led the American Navy f...

Lola Bats lived into an era when digital photography and social media became the norm. Shoot a photo and view it a second later. But back in the day, it's either she had to wait for a long time for painting or a somewhat shorter time to get film developed. But in the iPad era, it all changed... and she never failed to be amazed by it. Biboy went to the Philippines in summer 2017 to visit Lola Bats. As with almost everyone who wields a smartphone, Biboy took a series of selfies with Lola Bats. And then he showed the photos to her. Lola's reaction, as always, was hilarious. Ako ga yan? Ay pagkabilis namang nailagay ang litrato na iyan. Akin na lang yan!  (swipe left, swipe left)  Ahh... di na talaga mapagkakaila na ako'y matanda na. Yes, she wanted to have the phone (which she thought was a picture frame) for herself so she could have a look at the photos whenever she wanted to.

After a few months, I was back at the de Young Museum's African Art gallery , reviewing what I might have missed during my first visit. And one of the smaller objects that caught my attention was this board game from Côte d'Ivoire.  It looks like sungka ! If I remember correctly, this game is called Awalé in Côte d'Ivoire. It appears to be played with shells too, like sungka. The main difference, though, is the number of small holes on each side: in sungka, there are seven holes; for awalé, there are only six. Thus, this makes the number of shells required different too. More shells are required for sungka because there are more holes to fill. Plus, there may be slightly different rules for each game. But still, uncannily similar, right? Seeing the awalé in the African Art gallery made me think that the Philippines may have more influences from Africa than I probably know... there may be cultural practices that I thought were Asian but have African origins. For ...

Magkakasama kaming magpipinsan isang hapon at nagkukuwentuhang kutsero . Ang isa sa aming napag-usapan noon ay kung saan namin gustong makapunta na kailangang sumakay sa eroplano. Narinig ni Lola Bats ang aming kuwentuhan at nagpasyang umupo kasama namin. Noong mga panahon na iyon, kakaunti pa lang sa aming magpipinsan ang malimit na nakakaluwas sa ibang bansa. Dahil may pagka-asbok si Lola Bats, ayaw niyang magpatalo. Kaya noong nagkaroon siya ng pagkakataong sumingit sa usapan, dumali siya ng: Ala-eh! Ako'y nagsawa nang sumakay sa eroplano nung ako'y nasa Amerika pa. Nakarating ako sa Atlantic City at sa Washington, D. C. Kaya nung umuwi ako sa Pilipinas, sinabihan ko si Cesar na pasakayin ako sa tren. Ayun, nakarating ako sa Bicol. Walang naka-imik sa aming magpipinsan! Pambihira, hindi pa kami tapos mag-aral noon, si Lola Bats jetsetter na!

The Golden State Warriors is playing its last season at the Oracle Arena before moving to the Chase Centre. Tickets for the team's games are expensive so I was willing to go on a public tour to see what it looks like inside... pretty much what I wanted to do at the Telstra Stadium in Sydney except that I watched the rugby match instead (I couldn't afford the public tours back then). The BART stops at the Coliseum Station so the Oracle Arena was just a walk away. It was quite a bit of a walk too because the Oakland Coliseum was much closer... and people had to walk around it to get to the Oracle Arena.  The public tour started just outside the souvenir shop of the Warriors. The guide, Ken, provided some information to us (a very diverse group) about the venue and some house rules before we proceeded to one of the exclusive spots of the arena: the Premium Suites. As we exited the lift, I was surprised to see that there's a Tanduay Rum Club at the mezzanine level. Ta...

Biboy reminded me of this story during dinner time... One time, Daddy, Biboy, Lola Bats, Anna, and I (not sure where Mommy was) attended the funeral of one of Lola's godchildren in Batangas.  After the Mass, we all trooped down to the Cuenca public cemetery to witness the burial. In this particular cemetery, most of the graves were above ground; many of the graves were even on top of each other. Because of the above-ground nature of the graves, the cemetery personnel had to make sure that the casket would fit into its designated grave. After the final prayers, the deceased was brought to its final resting place. But because the cemetery was already crowded, it was difficult to manoeuvre the casket around corners and finally into the grave. But that's just when the problem started. The cemetery staff were having difficulty putting the casket into the grave because the casket was too long! Perhaps, the staff did not consider the thickness of the cement used for the grave or ...

I've visited San Francisco several times already but I've never ventured out onto the Bay or stepped onto the infamous Alcatraz. For one, the San Francisco Bay is known for its strong currents. Also, I've always been wary of the sharks that reportedly lurk in its murky waters (I have no plans of becoming shark bait, ever). But really, I had all these excuses because I couldn't get hold of tickets for the Alcatraz tour... buying tickets are done way in advance and I normally decide that I'd like to visit the island just a few days before I actually go to the City. Anyway, I found an opportunity to cruise around Alcatraz and listen to its history through the Go City Card (it has an Explorer Pass option which allows you to choose what you like among a number of tourist spots). I picked the Blue and Gold Alcatraz cruise, which went under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz Island. I found Alcatraz's story to be rather fascinating. Alcatraz Islan...

These days, children typically bow their heads and immerse themselves into the digital world of games. However, once upon a time, children trooped to the penny arcade to test their skills in collecting knick knacks using the claw or to beat machines at arm wrestling.  One afternoon, I drifted into a museum with "free" admission. I was delighted because I didn't have to pay to go in! Little did I know that I was about to enter the world of the creepy penny arcade toys... where the games could be operated for a fee.  It wasn't called Musée Mécanique for nothing. The toys were all mechanical: music boxes, automatic pianos, fortune-teller dolls, pinball machines, dioramas, and peep shows, among others. And then there were toys on the violent side; there were quite a few which featured decapitation with an ax or with a guillotine. Perhaps, these were the old days' versions of today's violent video games. One of the biggest characters I saw in Musée Mec...

Lola Bats acquired a taste for sugar-free Starbucks Caramel Frappuccino (with whipped cream). Each time there was a party at her house, she would ask for "ice cream", which was actually her code for the Starbucks drink. And if it were a potluck party, I was usually assigned to buy the drinks from just outside her village. This was one of the last times she requested for her "ice cream". I think this was from summer 2017. She was just released from the hospital and she wanted to celebrate her return to health with her usual  Starbucks' Frappuccino. Unfortunately, she's no longer allowed to drink anything extremely cold and sweet afterwards because she was too fragile. So we all skipped drinking "ice cream" in her presence. There were several memorable instances with Lola and her Frappuccino. For me, in two cases, I was ordering drinks with Kuya Mitchie, and we were carrying her senior citizen card. In one instance, we also had with us, the...

At the Asian Art Museum , there was one exhibit that drew my attention very powerfully. This was "A Guided Tour of Hell: A Graphic Memoir" by Samuel Bercholz, a Tibetan Buddhist teacher, and Pema Namdol Thaye, a Tibetan multimedia artist. Museum visitors weren't allowed to take photos of the artwork. Instead we were invited to go on a guided tour of the Guided Tour so we could better understand what the exhibit was all about. NB: I have very little knowledge about Buddhism so I'm writing about how I understood the topics covered by the exhibit. Bercholz is a teacher of two major schools of Tibetan Buddhism: Nyingma and Kagyu. The lessons that are being promoted by these schools were similar but the emphasis was different: Nyingma is focused on "the view" while Kagyu is focused on "one's true nature" (1). Apparently, Bercholz had a near-death experience in which he had visions of hell. He enlisted Pema Namdol to put his mind's images...

M. Butterfly is a play by David Henry Hwang. I didn't see it onstage; rather, I saw the 1993 movie top-billed by Jeremy Irons and John Lone. Jeremy Irons is an actor I have always associated with Die Hard With a Vengeance  and with The Man in the Iron Mask . I first saw John Lone, on the other hand, in The Shadow . These two actors portrayed lovers in M. Butterfly. However, the story was far from linear because Lone's character was a theatre actor portraying a woman. Iron's character fell for the woman onstage, never realising (or refusing to admit) that he was, in fact, in love with a man. Many people normally see this movie from a gender perspective: What makes a man fall in love with another man? How did the man know how to behave like a woman? What motivated the prolonged pretence? Stereotypes of Asians and Westerners also come to the fore in the movie. Why is the Asian stereotype usually a damsel-in distress? Why are Westerners typically portrayed as heroes savin...

Lola Bats really enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren. She also loved asking about the work that we do. One time, Lola Bats asked me about how my graduation went and about my specialisation. Lola Bats: Rochie, paano ka naging doctor e wala ka namang clinic.  Wala ka ring pasyente. Rochie:  Hindi po ako medical doctor. Ako po ay specialista sa bigas. (Hala, baka mapagkamalang bigas ang pasyente ko) On a separate occasion, Lola Bats was asking Anna and me about Barbara ... Lola Bats: Anong trabaho ng asawa ni Biboy? Rochie: (I didn't know what the Filipino term for paralegal is) Si Barbara po, ang trabaho parang abogado. Lola Bats: Aba, mahusay pala ang napangasawa ni Biboy... Abogada!

I have been planning to write down Lola Bats' stories and I'm starting doing so now to keep her memory alive.  She passed away after 102 years  of showering her family and friends with wit and humour. I will miss her a lot.  During the chaos of the Japanese Occupation in the Philippines, Lola Bats became pregnant. She was carrying Tito Boy at that time. One day, she discovered that my grandpa, Lolo Bats, was ordered by the Japanese soldiers to start digging his own grave because he was about to be executed. I imagine that Lolo Bats would have ended up in something like this (found in Lipa, Batangas in 1945) if Lola Bats wasn't able to stop the Japanese soldiers from killing Lolo Bats. (SOURCE:  https://www.batangashistory.date/2018/05/atrocity2.html ) Lola Bats, who was obviously not sick with anything contagious , rushed up to the soldiers and pointed at her pregnant belly: in halting Japanese, she said that they were not supposed to kill Lolo Bats becau...

I have been planning to write down Lola Bats' stories and I'm starting doing so now to keep her memory alive.  She passed away after 102 years  of showering her family and friends with wit and humour. I will miss her a lot.  Lola Bats should have won a best actress award. The Japanese Occupation in the Philippines took place between 1942 and 1945. At that time, my dad wasn't born yet. But his elder siblings were already born then. When the Japanese soldiers reached my grandparents' village, they went into each house and tried to bring the residents outside. Lola Bats, very creative and fast on her feet, pretended to be sick. She was lying in bed, shivering, and unable to stand up. She even offered them some cooked eggs!  The soldiers thought that she was sick with something contagious. Of course, the soldiers did not accept food from a seemingly sick woman. And they wanted to get away from her as fast as possible. So, they left the house and Lola lived l...

I have been planning to write down Lola Bats' stories and I'm starting doing so now to keep her memory alive. She passed away after 102 years of showering her family and friends with wit and humour. I will miss her a lot.  Lola Bats loves to talk about my grandpa, Lolo Bats , who died when I was five years old. He used to go fishing on Taal Lake. One day, a long long time ago, a storm arrived while he was fishing. This was even before World War II so nobody had cellphones yet; hence, he had no way of notifying the family that he was okay or if got into trouble. He didn't return home when he was expected so the family thought that he had succumbed to Nature's fury. And so my ancestors started praying a novena for my grandpa's soul... and not for his safe return anymore. But then, there was Lolo's beautiful white horse. This horse was quite vocal, particularly in greeting his friends. So when Lolo's horse started nickering, the prayers were interrupte...

I fondly call my paternal grandmother, Juanita Cuevas, Lola Bats. I don't know where the nickname came from but she liked it so much that the nickname stuck.  When I was a kid, I'd usually vacation in the family farm in Padre Garcia over the summer (with my siblings) to be able to spend time with her. She'd wake us up early in the morning so that we could go to the vegetable patch and pick what would be our lunch and dinner. Sometimes, we would go to the village well to get water. If we didn't do our assignment, we wouldn't have anything to eat (because we didn't get the vegetables) nor water to take a bath with (because we didn't go to the well). She was also always ready to go on a trip with my parents and siblings. When I was 13 years old, we just dropped by for a visit before going to Baguio. She wanted to join and had a bag already packed before we got to her house! When she was 85 years old, she insisted on joining us on a hike along the ...