Photo shoot @ Ling's house

With Ms. Mandy Navasero

Having fun

Weird... este, Wired jewelry for "Kamuning"

Behind the scene peek on my works for possible inclusion in our group show.

Quisumbing Cousins & Aunts

Taken after the funeral of Tito Ramon Quisumbing
Manila Memorial Park
February 21, 2009

Adobo PutoShop, atbp

      Iba talaga ng Pinoy kapag ang pinag-usapan ay paglalaro ng mga katagang hiniram sa Ingles at ginamit bilang Filipino o ang kabaligtaran nito. Kitang-kita mo ang ating angking talino sa paggamit ng dalawang wika sa mapaglikhang paraan!

     Katulad ng Adobo Putoshop. Yan ay pangalan ng isang kainan sa San Juan na ang specialty ay ano pa, puto. Hehehe! Siempre, hiram yan mula sa Adobe Photoshop. Malapit naman sa aming bahay, may pagupitan na ang tawag ay "Felix the Cut" Salon. Hehehe na naman! Minsan naman nang naglalakad ako sa may Quinta Market sa Quiapo, nakita ko na naman na nakapatong sa isang tumpok ng maliliit na hipon ang "Hibi duty".

     Nakupo, galing talaga natin! Kayo, meron pa ba kayong idadagdag dito?

     

Personality Dialysis

    The term got my attention. It's from a song in the musical "Wicked". Got me into thinking whether it is at all possible. That is, to undergo a process to help someone get rid of all the toxins in one's personality and emerge after a few hours as a brand-new person. Ready to love purely and be loved by those who earlier wouldn't even care to be in the person's company. I guess if one were desperate enough to change, one would put up with all the pain and discomfort which would be part and parcel of the procedure. Maybe If one longed for the benefits that could be derived from the treatment, then yes it would definitely be a possibility.

      Now, the question would be ... Would anyone admit that they needed it? Probably not! So there goes my dream of a lucrative business that would provide for a cushy retirement!

Pasta Puttanesca

Description:
Found this recipe which is almost like the way I do it. I've never tried using parsley, oregano, arugula, & red pepper in my version but it might be worth trying it soon.


Ingredients:


* 16 ounce(s) pasta, spaghetti, whole wheat, or whole-wheat vermicelli or angel hair
* 2 tablespoon oil, olive, extra virgin
* 4 clove(s) garlic, minced
* 1/2 cup(s) parsley, flat-leaf, chopped
* 1/2 cup(s) olives, Spanish, drained and chopped
* 1/4 cup(s) capers, drained
* 2 teaspoon anchovy paste
* 2 teaspoon oregano, dried
* 1/4 teaspoon pepper, red flakes
* 29 ounce(s) tomatoes, diced, no salt added, with juice (2 cans)
* 1 1/2 cup(s) lettuce, arugula, chopped
* 1/4 cup(s) cheese, Parmesan, freshly grated


Directions:
Cook the spaghetti according to the package directions.

While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the parsley, olives, capers, anchovy paste, oregano, and red pepper and cook for 2 minutes more. Add the tomatoes and simmer for about 5 minutes. Stir in the arugula and simmer for another minute, just until the greens wilt slightly.

When the pasta is done, drain it and add it to the skillet, tossing it with the sauce to combine. Divide between 6 plates, sprinkle with the Parmesan, and serve.

Kamuning: A group show

Please join us on March 8th, 6pm, Sunday at Lunduyan Art Gallery!

“KAMUNING”

‘Kamuning’…the tree, the place, figures prominently in the landscape of agronomy, politics, economics and culture.

‘Kamuning’ presents a myriad of images, of color and texture; a kaleidoscope of people, places and events – if its not in ‘kamuning’? where else could you find it?

Eighteen personalities presents “KAMUNING” , a group show to portray the persona that is Kamuning in diverse forms and medium. Opening
reception is on March 8th, Sunday at 6pm. The show runs from March 8, to 26, 2009 at the LUNDUYAN ART GALLERY – a fitting ‘sanctuary’ for contemporary art.

The exhibit is an initiative of Martinez Art Project (MAP). MAP is a group of mentors and prodigies who share artistic gifts and creative experiences. The works are as diverse as the personalities, creating a cliché of expression from every conceivable materials translated into works of art; conceptual, functional and traditional. Presenting a genre that is collective yet personal.

The MAP members are: Ling Quisumbing Ramilo, Popo San Pascual, Pancho Villanueva, Gari Buenavista, Guido Maria Inocencio, Maria Katrina Tan, Raymond Lee, Diding Ramilo, Joanne Cantiller, Perla Zita, Btoi, Lek Infante, Ian Quisumbing, Tin-tin Quisumbing, Rocelie Delfin, Jingle Munar, Andong, and Fem.

Curated by Christina Quisumbing Ramilo.

Ang Kwento ni Psyche at Eros

Alay ko sa mga nagmamahalan ...

    Respect for mystery (Paulo Coehllo)

     The Greeks were great masters at describing human behavior through small stories that we usually call myths. All the generations that came after them, from Freud's psychoanalysis (with the Oedipus complex, for example) to the films of Hollywood (like Morpheus in "Matrix") ended up drinking from this source.
     For a good part of my life, one of those stories left me very intrigued: the myth of Psyche.
     Once upon a time ... a beautiful princess was admired by all but nobody dared to ask for her hand in marriage. In despair, the king consulted the god Apollo, who told him that Psyche should be left alone, dressed in mourning, on top of a mountain. Before day broke a serpent would come to meet and marry her. The king obeyed, and all night the princess waited, in terror and dying of cold, for her husband to appear.
     She finally fell asleep. When she awoke she was in a beautiful palace, transformed into a queen. Every night her husband came to her and they made love, but he had imposed a sole condition: Psyche could have all she desired but she had to show utter trust and could never see his face.
     The young woman lived happily for a long time; she had comfort, affection, happiness, she was in love with the man who came to her every night. However, now and again she was afraid she was married to a horrid serpent. Early one morning, while her husband was sleeping, she shone a lamp on the bed, and saw lying there by her side Eros (or Cupid), a man of exceptional beauty. The light woke him up; he discovered that the woman he loved was incapable of respecting his only desire, and disappeared.
     Whenever I read this text, I used to wonder: can we never discover the face of love?
     I had to live for many years before I realized that love is an act of faith in another person, and its face should continue to be wrapped in mystery. It should be lived and relished at each and every minute, but whenever we try to understand it, the magic vanishes.
     When I accepted this I also began to let my life be guided by a strange language that I call "signs". I know that the world is talking to me, I need to listen to it, and if I do so I shall always be guided towards what is most intense, passionate and beautiful. Of course, it is not easy and at times I feel like Psyche at the cliff, cold and terrified, but if I can pass through that night and deliver myself to the mystery and faith in life, I will always end up waking in a palace. All I need is to trust in Love, even though I run the risk of making a mistake.
     To conclude the Greek myth: desperate to have her love back, Psyche submits to a series of tasks imposed by Aphrodite (or Venus), the mother of Cupid (or Eros), who is envious of her beauty. One of the tasks is to deliver some of her beauty to Aphrodite. Psyche grows curious about the box that was supposed to contain the Goddess' beauty and once again is unable to cope with the Mystery, so she decides to open it. Inside she finds not beauty but rather an infernal sleep that leaves her inert and immobile.
     Eros/Cupid is also in love, regretful for not having been more tolerant towards his wife. He manages to enter the castle and wake her from her deep sleep with the point of his arrow and once again tells her: "You almost died on account of your curiosity." That is the great contradiction, Psyche sought for security in knowledge and found only insecurity.
     The two of them go to Jupiter, the supreme god, and implore that their union will never be undone. Jupiter passionately pleads the cause of the lovers and succeeds in gaining the support of Venus. From that day onwards, Psyche (the essence of the human being) and Eros (love) are always together. Whoever does not accept this and tries to find an explanation for magical and mysterious human relations will miss the best part of life.

How about in the Social Sciences?

John J. Simmins writes the following huh-larious description of how science proceeds in the world of modern funding:

I am an “ex” scientist. I have over 100 publications in the field of materials science and physics. Many of these publications are in peer reviewed journals such as The Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Materials Research Society Journal and Journal of Applied Physics. I have sat on committees that review papers for these journals. I have worked at the following national laboratories: NIST, Oak Ridge (site X) and Brookhaven National Laboratory. I have spent 10 years living off of federally funded research. I have written winning proposals for government funding in the 10’s of millions of dollars. In short, I am very well aware of the process of getting and keeping funding and getting papers published in peer reviewed publications.

I have seen papers (perfectly good, well researched) papers rejected for publication for the following reasons:
1. The paper went against prevailing theory on a topic.
2. The paper was submitted by a company that was a competitor for government funding.
3. The paper was submitted by a government agency that was a competitor of the reviewer’s agency.
4. The author of the paper was disliked by one of the reviewers.

This is how the funding process works:
1. You determine what the latest ‘hot’ topic is (global warming, ceramic superconductivity, stealth technology).
2. You write your proposal to fund the work you’ve been doing for years in your area but you slant it towards the hot topic.
3. You almost “prove” that the above hot topic is effected in a way that is positive toward your research.
4. You write a follow-on proposal where you state that the really big break-through will occur in the next funding cycle.
5. Oh, and you try to partner with entities that always get government funding.

It works like this: You study frogs in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Nobody wants to fund the study of frogs. Why would they? So in the early 80’s you write your proposal to study the effect of the hole in the ozone layer on the frogs. The mid 80’s your try to figure out how to write a proposal on frogs and missile defense but give up. In the 90’s you write proposals on how frog pee can help certain forms of cancer. You partner with NIH on this because they are getting lots of funding, being the ‘hot’ agency. You both know that the results are useless from the get go but you do it anyway. In the late 90’s you write proposals on how frogs from South Dakota can be used to detect nerve gas as part of the Global War on Terrorism. You routinely reject papers to the Journal of Herpetology that claim that five lined skinks can detect nerve gas by their tails falling off. In the 2000’s you are awarded grants to study the decline of frog populations in the Black Hills due to global warming, despite the fact the frogs were there through the last dozen ice ages and that they’ve survived eight periods since the last ice age where the temperature was much warmer than now. You know that the frog population is declining because the government is leasing the land to cattle ranchers and the cows are crapping in the water but you don’t really care because you’re now just a few years away from retirement and you don’t want to work at Burger King.

Zarzuela Festival Parade

Feb. 4, 2009

Sr. Cecile's Visit

Mama's maternal first cousin, Sr. Cecile Belen, visited her last Feb. 9, 2009.