Along the sleepy slopes of the Antipolo mountainside lies a microcosm of Philippine society. Stretched out over a 40-foot acrylic canvas and painted by the 16-artist Salingpusa collective, Karnabal looms like a grave question mark over all the visitors of the Pintô Art Museum. In it, every aspect of the Filipino is bared in strange…
Author: Lance Spencer Yu
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Writer’s Recap: Corponomy
Snow White asked me to write this. Mind you, this was no ordinary Disney Princess. This was a high heel boot kicking, K-pop dancing, macho posing Disney Princess—an embodied mishmash of personalities. Save for her sing-song pitch and red bow around her hair, she resembled a fitness instructor much more. The dissonance between her persona…
Mere months after assuming office, Mayor Isko Moreno upheld his promise to clean up the nation’s capital. From an outside perspective, Moreno’s rebuilding efforts for Manila manifests as brilliantly lit trees and obstruction-free walkways. Massive cleaning operations in Divisoria and Quiapo have made headlines, with similar operations in smaller street markets also meeting the same…
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Life without sight
It is easy to take for granted the vision most of us have. However, there is a significant chunk of the population that must navigate life without their sense of sight, and much more are visually impaired in some form or the other. Blindness is a condition that comes in different forms. There is absolute…
Twinkling strings of lights framing window sills, malls packed with shoppers scurrying to buy last-minute presents, and children singing carols with makeshift instruments—the sight of these are all good signs that the Christmas season is fast approaching. However, perhaps one of the most obvious ways to know when the holidays have arrived, at least in the…
A year after former Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada enacted a city ordinance to enforce curfew hours, Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso began strictly reimplementing it. City Ordinance No. 8547, a more lenient version of a previous ordinance that the Supreme Court nullified in 2017, prohibits children below 18 years of age from wandering the city’s…
With just a spade, a pickaxe, and some rivets, a 2.5-meter deep hole is dug into the ground. The danger of getting cut by a rusty nail or broken glass is palpable. On rainy days, incredibly high, too, is the risk of battling cave-ins caused by waterlogged ground. Once the grave is dug, the casket…
The sting of cold water, the ache of long rides, the heat of summer asphalt—this is the world of the triathlete. Perhaps one of the most punishing race types, the triathlon is comprised of three disciplines: swimming, biking, and running. While requiring a mastery of three sports is already difficult on its own, the distance…
The morning after getting uproariously drunk for Piolo Pascual’s birthday, Erwin “Lucky” Blanco sat beside the pool in Thailand. A throbbing headache kept him sidelined from the day’s activities. Left only with his laptop, he scoured the net for ideas for his next film. Snow. Sorrow. Suspense. Hours later, woven from a hundred loose threads…