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ALL ANGLES

rasterize, rock, Rothko, rhyme, Rohmer

For the past couple of months, I've been spending an awful lot of time in Intramuros. The walled city, aside from its thick history, is also the seat of important government offices that run the country. There's COMELEC, the star (infamous or otherwise) of every national elections, and the Bureau of Immigration, where I've been hanging and playing the familiar bureaucratic waiting game in the 4th floor. I'm quite lucky, I guess, now that the building has been redesigned and renovated, with professional spaces and 21st century equipment. It's what the contemporary government agency should look and feel like.

Despite the 3-hour collective travel time daily, I find going to Intramuros for field work instead of reporting in the office preferable. And the main reason has got to be because the Manila Cathedral, less known as the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, is a few-yards walk from the Bureau. What's so fascinating about it is how much it attracts foreign tourists and local visitors such as moi not only by its history but by its imposing structure. I, for one, love that there's something new I discover about it everyday - a hidden statue, an intricate carving on wood, a Latin aspiration.

As memento of probably my last official work day in Intramuros, I took several photos of the Cathedral, and some vain attempts to translate some inscriptions into English.


Flags lined up by its curtilage marking the liturgical season of Advent.

Tibi cordi tuo immaculato concredimus nos ac consecramus, or roughly, "To your immaculate heart we commit and dedicate" written at the facade. Okay, so I'm missing a pronoun.

nativity scene

The lovely belen or nativity scene at the side.

Pieta at the Manila Cathedral
An almost-exact copy of Michelangelo's Pieta in one of the Basilica's side chapels.

St. Peter's Statue at the Manila Cathedral
Praying by the foot of this life-sized statue of St. Peter as Pope holding the keys to the kingdom
of Heaven is most inspiring.

Our Lady of Guadalupe in Manila
A verified copy of the original Our Lady of Guadalupe in one side chapel.

Latin mosaic
A Latin phrase in a mosaic I gave up trying to translate. I think it's an address, something like, "You, my beloved, shall be mindful of your words foretold by the apostles."

Pipe organ in Manila Cathedral
The grand pipe organ played by international masters through the years.

Altar poinsettia
The main altar with the image of the Immaculate Conception atop the tabernacle adorned with beautifully-arranged, fresh poinsettias.

Manila cathedral dome
A dome reaching out to the heavens, with stained glass windows unseen by human eyes dedicated to God alone. #
Tim Burton is lucky to be Tim Burton. Not all Hollywood directors get the freedom to make every little aspect of every film freshly and precisely out of his personal vision, and then get the needed funds to sustain them.

His works are "dark" and "quirky" (Wikipedia, 2009), and although he is less known to be an artist and a writer, he is as good in these crafts as he is in filmmaking. I mean, his work reminds one of Dr. Seuss'. And it's already weird enough that Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Danny Elfman are his kind of muses, but now that his versatility as an artist is being showcased to the high art world, given his mainstream identity, it's even weirder.

Since I've been a subscriber of the Museum of Modern Art weekly newsletter announcing the latest exhibitions and events, it's surprising - and surprisingly refreshing - to have received one on Tim Burton > Visit his website, it's awesome.

"MoMA explores the extraordinary inventive world of Tim Burton with an exhibition of 700 works - from drawings, paintings, to photographs and costumes, puppets and cinematic ephemera - that reveal his talent as an artist, illustrator, and writer working in the spirit of Pop Surrealism."

I've been reading up on modern art for years, but I've never heard of "Pop Surrealism" before, and it's troubling to think the so-called movement can just as easily be identified with any manga, graffiti, random uncirculated comics and tattoos (googling it results to mentions of "lowbrow"). If Burton would be the artist who'd make it a legitimate fine art movement, then let's embrace it as we did Impressionism, and make him Manet.


Above is an amazing promotional vid. I wish I was anywhere near MoMA. #
Study time for me.
Here we go philosophy.

---


Again with the Natalie posts. I guess one never really grows up as a fan.

The object of my fanhood though, is all grown up, playing motherly and wifey roles in the big screen. Oscar contending film Brothers by Jim Sheridan (In America, In the Name of the Father), tells the story of Grace (Portman) who has to endure the loss of his Afghanistan-lurking husband Sam (Tobey Maguire in a strong performance, says critics) when his chopper was gunned down somewhere in the Middle East, supposedly leaving him dead. His black-sheep brother, Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), steps up as the family man, comforting grace and the children. When Sam returns to the surprise of everyone, like some kind of a resurrection, tension arises and thus the conflict of the story.

Even with all that brilliance, I only care about seeing Portman in the role, and the little girl who plays her daughter Isabelle, who looks like a cross between Maguire and Katie Holmes. Besides, I've nothing interesting to say. #
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About Me

ART AS A PEDESTRIAN

Hi, I'm Camille, and I'm a real journalist from Manila. Without claiming expertise on the subjects, I try to write about my artistic and cultural encounters on this 17-year-old spot.

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Whut!

We will have but one option: We will have to adapt. The future will present itself with a ruthlessness yet unknown.
~Michelangelo Antonioni, filmmaker

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness ...
~first lines of Charles Dickens' The Tale of Two Cities

Culture is to know the best that has been said and thought in the world.
~Matthew Arnold, cultural critic

The only way to really change society is through culture ... it's not through force, it's not through armies, it's not through politics (but) through freedom.
~Dony McManus, artist

You are a fine person, Mr. Baggins ... but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!
~Gandalf in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

"I find television very educating. Every time someone turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."
~Groucho Marx, actor

Don't laugh at a youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find a face of his own.
~Logan P. Smith, essayist

God is in the details.
~Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect

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