Escol-Tara: Reliving Manila's Once Fabled Premier Street

Wazzup Pilipinas!

This coming Sunday, January 26, Heritage Conservation Society - Youth (HCS-Y) will be conducting a special, FREE walking tour in Escolta, Manila dubbed as "Escol-Tara: Reliving Manila's Once Fabled Premier Street".

The tour will feature the heritage buildings in the historic site in order to promote the conservation of Escolta. Joining the tour will be a team from China Central Television (CCTV) which will feature Escolta in one of their shows. This will be aired worldwide.

The HCS-Y is the youth arm of the Heritage Conservation Society (HCS). They aim to involve the Filipino youth in the appreciation and preservation of built heritage as an intrinsic part of our national and cultural identity. They advocate adaptive reuse as an alternative to demolishing old heritage sites. The organization focuses on educating other young people towards heritage awareness and preservation through advocacy projects, workshops, talks and art initiatives.

It's "Complicated" at the Lopez Museum and Library

Wazzup Pilipinas!

"It's Complicated", a phrase popularized by social media, has become the catch all for all undefined and problematic relationships typical of the post-modern world. Seeing parallels between these and the complex relationship of the Philippines with its colonial pasts, the Lopez Museum and Library, in partnership with Tin-aw Art Gallery, opens its first exhibit for the year, Complicated on February 21, 2014 featuring commissioned works by guest artists Mike Adrao, Leslie de Chavez, and Ea Torrado, juxtaposed with works by Juan Luna, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, Juvenal Sanso, Bencab, Ang Kiukok, Jerry Elizalde Navarro and other artworks from the Lopez Museum collection.

Mike Adrao's charcoal on paper works collectively titled "Colony" comprise of intricately ornamented, larger-than-life anthropomorphic pillars and delicately drawn insects whose patterns were researched from the Lopez Library collection. Representing various forms of colonization our country has undergone, his works reference the interplay of our living culture and those of the colonizers that have reached our shores. Several of these pieces were selected for the curated "platform exhibits" representing Southeast Asian art trajectories in the recently concluded Art Stage 2014 in Singapore.

Leslie de Chavez presents several installations and paintings that focus on colonization, not just as the context of our history, but as an ongoing process in which we are very much a part of. Known for his acerbic cultural commentary, his works take a critical stance that aims to jolt audiences to reflexivity, awareness, and realization. One work in particular is created in reaction to the museum's collection of Per Pacem et Libertatem (For Peace and Liberty) studies.

Problema ng mga Katulad Ko: "Bakit Sobrang Pogi Ko Talaga?"

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Are you being troubled by your "kagwapuhan" or "kapogian"? Do you always find yourself the center of attraction because of your very pleasing personality na "artistahin"? Do you simply light up the room and believe you're the "life of the party" because everyone flocked into the event or party all because you were coming? Is the biggest question in your life "Bakit sobrang pogi ko talaga?"

Here is an obvious satire video made for the Victory church on Love Cam about Xandrino Mangunay, a graduate from De La Salle University - College of St. Benilde (DLSU-CSB), who previously complains about his super good looks, but then learned to accept his so called very unfortunate fate after joining the Victory church youth ministry.

"If this is a strategy of Victory church to gain more followers, naku po bakit naman ganun? sana yung may cancer na gumaling, baka mas ok pa" commented Arpee Lazaro who finds the video a bit distracting. "Putangina, joke ba to? I felt like getting a shotgun and hunting this jerk down. the humor escapes me. God I wish this was all a joke." he earlier said as posted on his Facebook status.