MEDIUM RARE On Saturday, the Wood Dragon begins its reign. In Fookienese, “Kiong Hee Huat Tsai!” Translation: Congratulations and be prosperous! Coming from a civilization that predates Christianity by 3,000 years, the local Chinese or Chinoys are entitled to a wealth of beliefs and practices...
MEDIUM RARE An “immersive” experience, the producer promised before the show. After the show, The Best of Broadway and Classics, I thought “transformative” would’ve done as well. When it’s impresario Eddie Yap pulling the strings and selling the tickets – sold out in two weeks – one...
MEDIUM RARE There’s one way to enjoy shopping, more than you ever did before. Tell your children you’re going to buy a few things and they’ll want to accompany you, just in case you get lost or your credit card does. So this is what happens. I went looking for sandals in black, with a bit of...
MEDIUM RARE Five billion pesos and nine years later, CNN Philippines will be off the air in a matter of days. Sky Cable will come under new management at 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 26, when it transits to PLDT as its owner. The two media entities whom we welcome into our homes every day for information and...
MEDIUM RARE Prinsipe Bahaghari, aka The Little Prince, has taken on an unexpected form as a puppet – “papet” in the vernacular – in a surprising show of what an amateur reviewer might call transfer of technology. First of all, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery is a story, not a...
MEDIUM RARE Certain that “cosplay” would not appear in my well-thumbed dictionary, I turned to “play” and discovered there are more or less 18 different meanings, used as a noun or verb. In the time of Coldplay – “fantastic” entertainment, quoting PBBM describing their concert...
MEDIUM RARE Last December, the Christmas gift I got for a friend – he is patient, born with a sunny disposition, cheerful in every weather – was a T-shirt with a drawing of drivers smiling in close-up with the legend “Heavy Traffic. Happy People.” I thought the slogan was worthy of an...
MEDIUM RARE If Quezon City experienced some Baguio weather for a few days and Baguio residents had Christmas weather all over again, would those feelings amount to climate change? In olden times, i.e., when we were young, Baguio was the No. 1 dream city for its pine trees and springtime weather,...
MEDIUM RARE If it’s not over much, it’s under enough. Wasted food is a habit in high-income families while poor families don’t have enough to eat, three times a day. The homeless who are also waterless can only dream while gardeners in gated subdivisions turn on their hoses to the max...
MEDIUM RARE For bon vivant Benjie Yap, the throngs of faithful devotees of the Black Nazarene of Quiapo massing at the Luneta for the Traslacion at the fringes of Manila Hotel have always been an extra blessing on his birthday, Jan. 8, whatever the year. It may be also a test of his friends’...
MEDIUM RARE I, too, have a story to tell about the image of the Black Nazarene of Quiapo church. Watching last Tuesday’s TV coverage of the Traslacion, or procession of the miraculous image from Quirino Grandstand at Luneta Park to Quiapo church, I could not help remembering how my mother...
MEDIUM RARE The more things change, the more they stay the same... You’ve to give it to the French, for stating a fact of life with such savoir faire. So the new year is now nine days old, but what did we get after welcoming 2024 with a bang? On Jan. 1, a deadly earthquake that killed nearly 100...
