The Varsitarian

THE REALITY is that a small part of nature is usually sacrificed to make way for man-made structures, as environment and infrastructure are locked in a constant tug-of-war for space. Thankfully, new innovations in architecture have made it possible for the two to co-exist and even complement each other.

These innovations were shown in the symposium “Asian Green Cities: Visions of the Modern World,” last January 30 at the Medicine Auditorium. Organized by Architecture Network (Archinet), a local student organization of the College of Architecture, the symposium stressed the crucial role of architects in creating “sustainable architecture” to address environmental concerns. read more »

THOMASIAN painter Jane Arrieta-Ebarle deviates from her usual ethnic art form and focuses on the interplay of lines and colors in her third solo exhibit, Hibla Series 1, staged at the SM Megamall Renaissance Gallery from January 9 to 30.

An upshot of her previous Pinagmulan collection mounted at the UST Museum of Arts and Sciences last July, Hibla marked the artist’s transition in theme, from archaic ethnic patterns to colorful abstractions as seen in the nine artworks that comprised the exhibit.

“I never did Hibla on purpose,” Ebarle confessed, explaining that the art style formed by itself. “It was as if an unseen hand guided me all throughout. The experience of creating was ethereal as it was unfathomable.” read more »

A 16-YEAR-old schoolgirl must choose between her aspirations for higher learning or pursuing a romantic relationship with an older man. Will education prevail or will love triumph in the end?

This is the premise Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig tries to get across in An Education, a coming-of-age drama that appears charming on the surface, but also packs a hard-hitting lesson on the blurred line between maturity and innocence. read more »

FOR THE second year, the traditional UST Christmas Concert cast the spotlight on UST as a heritage showcase and sought to raise funds for the restoration of the visual arts collection of the UST Museum of Arts and Sciences.

The gala night on December 3 was graced by Papal Nuncio Archbishop Joseph Adams and Italian Ambassador Rubens Anna Fedele. Leading the Thomasian performers was tenor Abdul Candao, a faculty member of the Vienna Conservatory of Music.

Other performers were sopranos Rachelle Gerodias and Thea Perez, tenor Lemuel de la Cruz, and baritone Andrew Fernando.

“The concert’s role is to gather funds for the restoration of the UST visual arts collection because I believe the University of Santo Tomas is our heritage, a treasure that we need to preserve,” said Maricris Zobel, who co-chaired the organizing committee with UST Museum Director Fr. Isidro Abaño, O.P. read more »

THE 1980’s are back on television.

Some of the decade’s controversial Filipino movies have been adapted as soap-opera series on the boob tube. The use of tried and tested materials saves the networks from coming up with original ideas that may not really rate well on TV. But given the original movies’ adult themes, are they really suitable for local television?

KATORSE

A remake of the film which catapulted Dina Bonnevie to stardom, Katorse is a story about 14-year-old Nene (Erich Gonzalez), a probinsyana impregnated by her childhood friend Gabby Arcanghel (Ejay Falcon), the youngest son of the haciendero for whom Nene’s mother works. He leaves her to study in America, and the frustrated lass unexpectedly loses her baby in a miscarriage. She moves to Manila to start life anew. read more »

THIRTEEN Artists Awardee Raoul Ignacio “Iggy” Rodriguez emphasized how art can both be beautiful and politically relevant with the launch of his first solo exhibit last November 10 at the Blanc compound, Mandaluyong.

Titled “Kimi Imik,” Rodriguez showcased his mutiny against the so-called “industrial superpowers” and the widespread corruption in the Philippines through oil paintings and pen-and-ink along the social realist style.

“This exhibit is basically a conglomeration of typical human dramas. The paintings reflect the situation of contemporary Filipinos undermined by various social problems,” Rodriguez said. read more »

Is there a place for the campus press in the coming May elections?

Their contributions can be many, school reporters were told, particularly in the larger context of the youth actively monitoring the process and outcome of the country’s first-ever automated national elections.

Such was the top agenda in this year’s Inkblots, the annual UST-organized gathering of campus reporters from across the country last October 21 to 23.

Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, President Macapagal-Arroyo’s latest appointee to the Commission on Elections, said the 2010 polls were “for and owned by the youth.”

He told fellows not only to help spread information, but also to lessen the confusion that could attend the elections.

Larrazabal dispelled fears that one had to be computer-literate to participate in the automated elections. He did so via a demonstration using a virtual machine flashed in a PowerPoint presentation. read more »

PROVING that music is a universal language, Korean conductor Jae-joon Lee conducted the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the latter’s concert series, Tour de Force Perfomances with 8 Maestros, last November 12, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Also performing with the Philippine orchestra was Korean bel canto singer Yun-kyoung Yi and the University’s very own Noel Azcona, assistant music director of the UST Singers, and Randy Gilongo, a professor at the Conservatory of Music Voice Department.

Lee also conducts voice claases at the Conservatory of Music where he is a visiting professor.

Lee learned of the Pontifical University through Professor Fidel Calalang, conductor of the UST Singers.

“[Calalang] is one of my best friends,” Lee said. “I tried to invite the UST Singers, I think five years ago, to perform in my country.”  read more »

HOW DOES one of the most iconic American plays fare in the Filipino tongue? It doesn’t work, apparently.

Showing the might of women in their Tagalog adaptation of the Pulitzer prize-winning play A Streetcar Named Desire proved to be no sweat for Tanghalang Pilipino, although the production still lacked some sparks.

Written by Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire depicts the clash between the worlds of fantasy and reality as personified by the conflict between the weak-nerved Belle Blanche DuBois, and her macho brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. The conflict erupts after a penniless Blanche moved in with her sister, Stella, in New Orleans after their ancestral plantation was taken away from her.  read more »

EVEN WITH his big-budgeted visual effects, Roland Emmerich cannot manage to save his disaster film from disaster.

A seasoned director of the sci-fi-cum-disaster genre with his films Independence Day, Godzilla, and The Day After Tomorrow, director Emmerich has self-styled the alleged December 21, 2012 Mayan doomsday prophecy into something that involves obliterating landmarks and razing the three states he loves to destroy in previous films, namely New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington.

But in this era of visual effects and high-definition pictures, disaster films are a dime-a-dozen, following a formula passed from one catastrophic picture down to another. Emmerich suffers the most in this case by stuffing into the script certain elements of the disaster genre that we have all seen before. read more »