Shutterbug - Wannabe #020: Expressways

Nothing could be more captivating than 

the free traffic show of lights from 

road signs, billboards, checkpoints, and headlights.

I just spent my weekend over at Taysan, Batangas in time for their annual celebration of the town fiesta - held during the month of September which is the feast day of Nuestra Senora de la Merced (Our Lady of Mercy) ran by religious priests of the Oblates of St. Joseph. I grabbed the opportunity at once to accompany my mother who is too keen and giddy to meet up with her old high school buddies. 

There weren’t much street shows and partying commonly adhered to in the idea of fiesta, but there surely was a lot of food and namimiyesta (visitors from other towns) to tend to. I literally ate the day off last Saturday munching at what food is available on the table, played with so many cute little pamangkin (nieces and nephews) and just let the culture of hospitality and family seep in. It was truly a breath of fresh air from the fast urban living of the cityscape. 

I was not able to get a lot of pictures from the event but I’m going to share below some flicks I had the Friday night we took off to Batangas. Having our seats right at the back of the bus driver was a delight because we had this panoramic view of the roads and expressways. It is very much enchanting to travel at night. 

Exhibit Review: ICONS – Traditions and Transformation in Philippine Architecture

Exhibit Overview:

THE Cultural Center of the Philippines unveiled an exhibition of architectural designs entitled ICONS: Traditions and Transformation in Philippine Architecture (CCP Architectural Design Competition winners) at the CCP Bulwagang Juan Luna (Main Gallery) in celebration of the CCP’s 42nd anniversary.

iReport borrowed here

• Background. The said exhibit is part of the CCP Architectural Design Competition held last March 2011 for the two new iconic structures: The Performing Arts Theater and the Artists’ Center, which is two of the seven iconic buildings that will form the centerpiece of the CCP Complex’s 62-hectare Master Development Plan to provide world-wide facilities and spaces for the artists and the core programs of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. 
• Public Architecture. What were initially considered as oddities and blots in the urban landscape, are now visited by millions. The design of these two structures must reflect the Filipino art and culture as well as address the disconnect and disparity between the iconic development and the people. 
• Finalists. Selected from 17 entries that included major architectural firms in the country, the five finalists are the following: Lor Calma and Partners, Syndicated Architects, Palafox Associates, Buensalido Architects and Leandro V. Locsin Partners, Architects.

Gospel according to RH Bill

Today is the Feast day of St. Matthew the Evangelist. Below is a supposed 'Gospel' written from the point of view of those who are Pro in the legalization of the Reproductive Health Bill, intended for them to realize what kind of 'evangelization' they have been promoting all along.  If you have read C. S. Lewis' known Screwtape Letters, notice the striking familiarity in the approach and the way the whole thing was written. Please do take some time to read this :)

A Reading from the Gospel according to the Reproductive Health Bill

v.1 Brothers and sisters, love one another, but bear no children. Loving is expressed in making love, but children are the burdens of love. Without the burdens of love, making love is enjoyable, satisfying and free. 

v.2 It is all right to have sex with partners before or outside marriage. The more protected you are from sexually transmitted diseases, the better for your salvation.

v.3 I beg you to spread the Gospel of "rights without responsibility" and call it "responsible love," with particular emphasis on "the right to informed choice."

v. 4 Bear no burden of telling the people about the morality, not even about the side effects of contraceptives, least of all cancer. Do not be afraid to tell them about safe, legal, accessible sex and the advantages of remaining childless in favor of your career or your health.

v.5 By all means, change the definition of when life begins, as the Epistle of Science suggests, so that you will unburden people of guilt about abortion.

v.6. As much as possible, use any of the various artificial contraceptive means by which you can attain satisfying sex without burdening yourselves with children. Abstaining from sex, whether with one’s spouse or not, does not lead you anywhere near the idea of satisfaction.

v.7. Treat fertility or pregnancy as though it were an illness. In that way, contraceptives will later be considered by the majority as “essential medicines.”

v. 8. Employers should also be enjoined to give reproductive health services to their employees as an act of justice and charity, even if sexual activity has nothing to do with their job description.

v. 9.  Enjoin all public officials, whether appointed or elected, to allocate public funds even for personal purposes like sexual satisfaction. It is your right and, indeed, your duty, to give the poor and the sick the much needed access to public funds. In this way, the poor will not think of unemployment, as they easily get distracted from the more substantial issues of survival, and think only of sex.

v.10. Those who insist that job creation is more important than contraceptives or that contraceptives are dangerous should be reported to authorities for their acts of disinformation and for heaping insult on women’s reproductive rights. If they do not heed the authorities, treat them as you would a gentile or a tax collector!

Creative Juice #034: Pet Name Tags

My friend - the Feisty Feline - approached me regarding the design of name tags that were supposed to be used for pets in their parish's upcoming event on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi - which is the blessing of pets. Below are some of the preliminary layouts I've came up bound for comments and revisions. 

I wanted the tags to reflect the solemnity of the event so for the first batch, I used toned down earth colours - sepia and olive, old Christian illustrations of St. Francis, and even tweaked a photo of a religious brother walking a pack of dogs. But apparently, it came a bit too formal for the occasion which my friend doesn’t really have in mind. So I came up with a second batch that reflects a fun design with the use of Pet Society characters (found over Google Image Search Engine) and a more playful variety of colours. 

Here you can see the influences I've mentioned and the overall creative process I went through:

Solemn and a rather formal approach.

A mash of the traditional graphics and playful Pet Society illustration.

Dominant cartoony illustrations but with a reserved color hue.
(Notice the background I used: it was one of The Creative Dork's illustrations I shamelessly
copy-pasted and cropped without due permission T_T)

Fun and playful cartoons and a color palette
that ironically reminds me of an LGBT advocacy group. Yikes!

---

If there is a specific and noble virtue proper to 

manliness, it is the virtue of renunciation.

Dahil ang tunay na lalaki, umiiwas sa tukso :)

Signs

I talked earlier with Architect B, my so loved Thesis Adviser, regarding the priestly vocation. I presumed he knew too well since he started with AB Philosophy in a Camillian Seminary before he got another degree in architecture realizing that being a priest just was not his calling. I felt at peace and at ease with him talking to me like a true father :) 

The biggest piece of advice he could share was for me to finish my degree with architecture first then decide later whether to continue with what I'm more inclined to. I have a whole year to prepare and look for possible thesis topics to venture in. He said during that period I should take the time to reflect more deeply on the matter - like what religious order I should apply for and what specializations and specific apostolate I should consider.


Truly I am not alone in my journey of discernment. I trust that God will give me the strength and courage to persevere and always be patient and faithful in making the right decision. I am going to need a lot of studying to do as well as prayers, encouragement, and the right spiritual direction. To God always be the Glory! :)

---

I realized that the sick and the suffering sees the world 

from a totally different pace and perspective.

The Catholicism Project by Fr. Robert Barron

"The Catholic story is being told but being told by the wrong people in the wrong way. We need to tell our own story. We need to get the message out so as to draw people in." 

This is something I watched earlier from Raymond Arroyo's show, The World Over Live, in EWTN. A book and a 10-part DVD series by Fr. Robert E Barron that exposes the rich heritage of the Catholic Faith in architecture, art, literature and history from a thematic and visual point of view. Check out its cool video trailers below :)

Fr. Robert Barron created this groundbreaking program as a thematic presentation of what Catholics believe and why, so all adults can come to a deeper understanding of the Catholic Faith. Not a video lecture, Church history or scripture study, this engaging and interesting formational program uses the art, architecture, literature, music and all the treasures of the Catholic tradition to illuminate the timeless teachings of the Church.

The CATHOLICISM Adult Formation Program presents the strong, ecclesial dimension of the Catholic Faith – God’s revelation through Jesus Christ and His Church. It is comprehensive and faithful, appropriate for: RCIA, adult lay formation, training adult catechists, deaconate and other ministerial training and mature high school or college/university course-work. Word on Fire

For more information click: Catholicism Series and Word on Fire

Book Review: dumot by Allan Navarra

WARNING: Explicit Language

Dumot is a book that illustrates fragments of a man’s aggression: his inner demons, his state of mind and physical being as he deals with the rigors of working in a challenging atmosphere. The title is a Hiligaynon word that, in English means “ vindictiveness”. Dumot is also composed of two French words (du and mot ) which mean “the word”, making it sound all hoity-toity. Almost half of the book is illustrated, which is great for people who can't read but have the time to flip pieces of paper with drawings on them, back and forth. Allan Navarra

Vizprint WIT Reader's Day Review

I was supposed to participate in a tree-planting event by the Luzon State jurisdiction at the La Mesa Reservoir in Fairview last Saturday when my alarm clock failed to fulfill its purpose of waking me at 4 in the morning. I was devastated that I was left by my brothers. Fortunately on a different account, I had read the day before in Will's blog an event where I could meet the authors of my fave pop comics and literature. So goes the spontaneous change of plans for the day for failing to wake up early.

Photos from the exhibit hall of the recent Visprint Writers in Talk first ever annual reader's day held at the SMX Convention Center in the Mall of Asia Compound last Saturday (Credit goes to Ate Mylene Reyes for lending me permission to use flicks of the event)

 

Was hyped to see them in flesh: Paolo Fabregas (The Filipino Heroes League), 

Manix Abrera (Kikomachine Komix Collection), Karen Francisco (Naermyth), 

Carlo Vergara (Zsa Zsa Zaturnah) and Alan Navarra!

My starstruck moment with Alan Navarra, author of Girl Trouble (2007) and the recently released dumot. Apparently, the latter title has not been released in the market yet. The first printed copies were introduced during the event. I had mine signed. And I think I'm the first reader to have ever laid an eye in these babies :) ayeee~!

Creative Juice #033: Scribbles and Line Art

The last month of August was the month of the renowned Ilocos Heritage Tour in our college. It was said that you can never appreciate the beauty of Philippine Architecture without seeing for yourself some of the best well-preserved structures in the northern city of Vigan in Ilocos Norte. Truly it was one of the most memorable trips I've had so far in my life.

And that is exactly the theme of my creative juice feature for the day. I just remember I had hundreds of photos of that trip from last year. Photo-tweaking with Adobe Photoshop CS5 still remains one of my favorite past time (since last week). I was actually watching a video tutorial of how to turn your photo into a painting when I had a light bulb popped right above my head with one of the steps :) A lot of modifications and explorations later and I came with a final result that looked like a carefully scribbled monochrome art illustration - pretty much like the ones you'll see in the books of Architect George Salvan. I was hyped :)

A souvenir shop in Calle Crisologo

Commercial establishments in Metro Vigan.

The ubiquitous Calesa - a horse-drawn carriage :)

The 17th-century Sta. Monica Church in the town of Sarrat, Ilocos Norte.

---

The Lord can't do much for a talkative soul.

Fr. David Simonetti - Spiritual Direction, EWTN Live

Creative Juice #032: Adobe Photoshop Madness

Handling Adobe Photoshop CS5 was pretty hard for someone who has no background with any of its previous versions. But truly I say to you, it was like ‘love at first sight.’ A new optical laser mouse, a Youtube downloader software, and hundreds of video tutorials online - these are the tools that have been very essential for me for the past few days that I've dedicated in truly learning Adobe Photoshop CS5. 

I feel like an oldie for not playing as early enough with the most celebrated photo-editing tool ever invented. But heck, when it comes to squeezing and stimulating those neurons to produce the much desired graphic goodness, nothing is ever too late for such a junkie like me. So here's a couple of my photo-tweaks :) I'll keep this up and my next stop will be Jindu rendering!

(Top) My first try at changing the sky; (Bottom) Better than any oil painting canvas

Hands-on with the new 'refine edge' tool and 'content aware' tool of CS5
and an accidental Twilight-worthy digital make-up discovery.

On Vocations

Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Ad Catholici Sacerdotii

‘More than a heartfelt sentiment or an emotional attraction, which may either be lacking or misleading, it reveals itself in the honest intention of the person who aspires to the priesthood, together with those physical, intellectual, and moral qualities, which make him fit for such a state. He who aspires to the priesthood solely because of the noble aim of consecrating himself to the service of God and the Salvation of souls, and at the same time, seriously tries to acquire a solid piety, an unshakeable purity of life, a sufficient amount of knowledge… shows that he is called by God to the priestly state.’

Jose Luis Soria, in his book 'Vocation: when God calls…'

It is hard to hear our Lord calling because His voice is never loud. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit need a certain atmosphere, and it is neither one where our energies are wasted nor a frivolous and empty-headed kind of lifestyle that fills the soul with nothing but noise and anxiety. This is why the devil knows well that the best way to drown a vocation is to choke the soul with restless, pounding waters. It is not because the call does not come; rather, it cannot be heard in such an uproar.

---

God in creating us has run the risk and the adventure of our freedom. He wanted an authentic story, the product of genuine decisions, which is not fiction or some sort of game. Each man has to experience his personal autonomy and all that it implies: 

trial and error, guesswork and sometimes uncertainty.

Josemaria Escriva, 

The Riches of the Faith, Scepter Booklet No. 5, p. 22