It is a matter of pride for geodetic engineer Efren Ricalde that he learned photography through trial and error. When he got the hang of it, he chose to document mass actions or rallies, to do unposed portraits of activists, and to enjoy being right in the middle of things, even at the risk of being clobbered. Ricalde’s early interest in photography began when...
Author: Elizabeth Lolarga (Elizabeth Lolarga)
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How do you solve a problem like Sara Duterte?
She is a PR person’s nightmare at the very least. I can imagine her handlers in a state of wild confusion as they try to do some damage control every time Vice President Sara Duterte utters anything remotely resembling a coherent sentence. She is remembered as the barumbada (sadly, I can’t find a word in English to...
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Discovering Clyfford Still, bold, brave, pioneering abstract expressionist
DENVER, COLORADO—As a fine arts graduate, I must confess that it was my first time to hear Clyfford Still’s name. Yes, I know the stalwarts of the Abstract Expressionist movement from Jackson Pollock to Mark Rothko to Helen Frankenthaler. But Still escaped my radar. And yet here he was, spoken with such ardor and respect...
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Do you know the way to San Rafael?
Getting to Barangay Lico in San Rafael, Bulacan, was half the fun. My batchmates at St. Paul College (now a university) of Quezon City, high school class of 1973, decided to meet at the home of Baby, our classmate until the fifth grade, then travel to the Central Luzon province in a convoy. The car...
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‘People who love to eat are always the best people’
That Julia Child dictum of wisdom has guided me late in life, especially in this holiday season when one moveable feast after another in Baguio City, where I live, summoned me and my bottomless appetite. The feasting began early as balikbayan friends from the United States trooped to professor emeritus Delfin Tolentino’s art-filled abode in...
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Yes, we have no tomato, we have no tomato today
Friends and I have been comparing online what we were spending on food, what we were scrimping on, what little joys and luxuries we decided to do without. And we all agreed about making these sacrifices during these times, but what about the greater number of indigent Filipinos? What were they eating given the rising...