The Four-eyed Journal » theater

PhotoHunt: Triangle

jhay — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:23:34 +0000

It’s so good to be joining PhotoHunt again, this week’s theme is ‘triangle’. That three-sided polygon that has been one of the iconic shapes in the history of human civilization, nature and the universe.

The triangles in this picture form the logo of my non-profit, community-based theater group Sining Bayan. The design shows two triangles, one with the tip on top while the other is upside down. It represents the group’s dreams of affecting a meaningful social change in the Philippines wherein the vast majority who are presently living in poverty would experience progress, genuine freedom and a bountiful life.

The logo design was inspired by the song “Tatsulok“, which is Tagalog for triangle, by Filipino alternative music group Buklod. It was later given a rock rendition by popular Filipino rock band Bamboo with the same title. The excerpt of which is shared below:

Hindi pula’t dilaw tunay na magkalaban
Ang kulay at tatak ay di syang dahilan
Hangga’t marami ang lugmok sa kahirapan
At ang hustisya ay para lang sa mayaman

Habang may tatsulok at sila ang nasa tuktok
Di matatapos itong gulo

The photo in turn, was taken last February 3, 2009 during the annual street dancing festival in honor of our town’s patron, the Nuestra Señora dela Candelaria.

Happy photohunting and enjoy the rest of photos here.

PhotoHunt

Dulaang UP: ‘Hinabing Pakpak ng Ating mga Anak’ ni Anton Juan, Jr.

jhay — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:10:20 +0000

Something to break the weekend hiatus and bloggers’ bloc this blog and my self, respectively, has been suffering. I’m really looking forward to see this latest offering from Dulaang UP:

Written and directed by Dr. Anton Juan, Jr.
Choreography by Dexter Santos
Set design by Leo Abaya
Lights design by John Neil Ilao Batalla
Sounds design by Jethro Joaquin
Video and poster lay-out design by Winter David

Assistant Director/Dramaturge-in-training: Patrick Valera
Costume design: Carlo Paganuling
Sounds apprentice: Arkel Mendoza
Makeup Design: Carlo Cannu

“A searing elegy that recuperates the social conditions of children from document, memory,” making use of some well loved children’s stories by the late Rene Villanueva.

When and where: July 15-August 10, 2008, Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater, Palma Hall, UP Diliman. (Blatantly stolen from Gibbs Cadiz )

It’s been more than a year since I last saw a stage production so I’m seriously planning on watching this one. Anything from Dulaang UP has always been something well worth the effort of going all the way from Cavite to Diliman.

When is enough, enough?

jhay — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:06:17 +0000

Here I am again breaking the super-extended blogging hiatus forced upon me by my off-line engagements. School is just a part of it, the part that cannot be compromised and really blamed for my blogging absence.

So what’s the culprit? My extra-curricular activities!

In school, I’m actively involved in 4 organizations;

SERVE Volunteers – The student volunteer organization of the De La Salle University – DasmariÃ±as directly under the Lasallian Community Development Center. Community service and development, medical missions, education services, para-legal services, youth formation, environmental and socio-political advocacy are among the things that we do as SERVE Volunteers.

Socio-political advocacy is my specialty and has been my job at the volunteers’ since I joined this awesome group of Lasallians almost two years ago. I coordinated and organized round-table discussions, mobilizations and information campaigns ranging from the “Hello, Garci” scandal up to the Subic Rape Case and even the controversial JPEPA agreement. I’ve climbed up the ranks and since I’m among the few active senior volunteers, the rest have graduated, I have a feeling I’ll be chosen as the group’s formal leader come tomorrow’s general assembly and election.

SENTRO Political Party – This is amongst my newest involvements, I officially joined the party last March when I was elected to be its Secretary-General. A gargantuan task especially during the campaign and post-election period. I never knew campus politics in La Salle DasmariÃ±as were almost exactly like the local politics outside the school.

As Secretary-General, my job is to keep the party alive by recruiting members and be well-prepared for the coming elections logistically and ideologically. The latter being the hardest given that campus politics in DLSU-D has been the game of those who want to fatten their resumes while genuine student service is but a lip-service. The following months will be long and tough.

Vox La Salle Debating Society – this I co-founded with two good friends of mine, Jackner Borja, now CLASC President and Clemen Tuala, a Pol-Sci graduate now a Med-Rep for pharmaceutical company. The debate society was envisioned to revive the active culture of debate and discussion that once flourished in DLSU-D. Or so they say, still, the cause is noble and what the heck, I might as well join in since I’ve always been the one who’s always at odds with almost any one else.

Lasallian Students for Justice & Peace – under the leadership and initiative of University Student Council President Joymay Amihan, the USC has formed a dedicated committee for advocacy and social awareness named the “Lasallian Students for Justice & Peace” with yours truly as the committee head.

The task of the LSJP is to get rid of the appalling passivity and apathy so prevalent among the students of DLSU-D. Many organizations and student governments have gone and passed by with this goal at hand, so far none has succeeded. Would we do it? Time will tell…

Have you joined me in counting those organizations? The latest count is four isn’t it? By latest count I mean there’s more. Aside from in-campus involvements, outside of the school, I’m quite engaged as well. Engaged in other similar organizations, and here they are…

Sining Bayan – this by far is the oldest organization I’ve been with. I co-founded it about 6 years ago right after graduating from college and long before I ever got hooked into blogging and worshiped Google and consumed RSS feeds right after getting up from bed.

Sining Bayan is a socio-cultural youth organization aimed to train the youth in the various fields of the arts and inculcate in them a sense of nationalism and pride in Filipino culture. Our kind of art strives to advance Filipino culture, that’s why we carry the tunes and music of Joey Ayala, Gary Granada, Noel Cabangon and Buklod, Bayang Barrios and the so-called alternative art. All we are aiming for, it to contribute to the meaningful change of society, a society that will be as the great Ka Pepe Diokno once said, “a nation for our children.”

Municipal Youth Development Council – Silang – This is the newest organization I have to think about, a lot. Because just this last June 23, at the 2nd Youth Congress of Silang, Cavite; I was elected to be its Presiding Officer, another enormous task as the MYDCS is the umbrella organization of all the youth organizations in Silang. In that same congress that elected me, 22 youth organizations representing almost 2,000 youth of Silang were present.

In the next 12 months, the pressure and weight of such an enormous responsibility will rest on my shoulders. My friends and family would say I’m nuts, even suicidal since I took on these responsibilities.

Now add to this my academic load, plus this, my online engagements. I’m nuts ain’t I?

But just like always, I’d say to them as I will to those who will say or ask the same thing, I do this because I want to. I want to because I don’t want my time to just idle away while there’s so much I could do. Life is too short to be spent on self-serving endeavors.

All I have to do is put into practice some serious time-management tricks and tips that will make the most of my very unlimited time. Keeping this lifestyle is really a balancing act. Pray that I’ll walk away from all this with sanity intact.

I have gifts, talents, experience and knowledge to be shared to the world knowing that in return, new experiences, lessons, wisdom, friends and enemies would come my way. I say again, bring it on.

Struggling to organize the workflow

jhay — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 06:18:56 +0000

Contrary to what my non-blogging friends cum blog readers’ belief that I have quit blogging and will sell this blog, I’m breaking the much extended blogging hiatus with this post today.

Where the heck I’ve been?

This past week, I was out for most of the day directing and mounting Sining Bayan’s Silang Day theatrical production, “Silang Magigiting” which was premiered last Saturday, June 9, 2007 at the Silang Town Plaza. It was for the celebration of Silang Day and the inauguration of our town’s newly elected officials.

Below are some photos I took with my trusty SE K800i. Don’t wonder why I’m not in any of the photos because I’m the one who took them and I was doing so many things at the same time; directing, managing the backstage, keeping tabs on the finances of the production and keeping those hormone-enraged teen actors and actresses focused on their acting. Nonetheless, it was one heck of a great week!

In the last photo, is Supreme Court Justice Presbitero J. Velasco, Jr. who was guest of honor at the ceremonies.

The rest of the photos from the entire production can be found in my awesome zooomr photos page. Other shots of the actual performance would follow suit.

Lastly, I have a feeling questions like, “You do theater arts?” or “Ano ba talaga course mo?” will be coming from readers who never knew I’m into these kind of activities knowing that I blog about geeky and political stuff. And here’s another secret, I’ve been into theater arts long before I ever heard of the word ‘blog’.

I really, really, really hate Globelines broadband

Aside from the week-long production which shaved off any ounce of weight I gained, plus more, during the summer break; I was unable to blog and go online from June 6 to yesterday, June 10, 2007. All thanks to Globelines Broadband’s crappy f*ck*ng services! Come to think of it, the recent disruption of my connection once more followed the repairs-they-make-are-good-for-only-two-months pattern. Yes, Globelines does provide me with fast and unlimited internet connection, but every two months, they simply screw things up!

It’s back to school on Wednesday

The new semester officially starts this coming Wednesday and though I have a relatively light academic load giving me plenty of spare time in between classes, I have a strong feeling it will be eaten up by extra-curricular activities. (My school life has been like this since highschool)

Since my student political party will be taking over the La Salle DasmariÃ±as‘ University Student Council this school year, keeping the party united and working in support of our student officials, as I am the Secretary-General, will greatly become a bigger task.

Aside from that, I was appointed to become a member of the University Student Council’s advocacy committee, a gargantuan task given that the committee was formed with the objective of breaking the passivity of the Lasallian students in the DasmariÃ±as campus.

Another thing to keep me on my toes this school year is the newly formed Vox Lasalle Debating Society which I co-founded with a few good friends of mine who believed that it’s high time Lasallians from DasmariÃ±as once again engage in the fine art of debate.

Organized chaos

All these plus many more to come as I expand my other more private projects such as a webzine and an anime-blog in the coming months. It appears that once more, I’ve bitten more than I could chew. Then again, things have always been like this and crazy as it may sound, I thrive and do most of the amazing things I could under stressful and dire times.

Now all that I mentioned before is just half of what I’ll be dealing with for the next 5 months or so, as I have this blog and a another one to take care of, especially my problogging gigs and an online venture project.

Am I just ranting off? No, because this is the price for being active, for being responsible, for doing things you like and love and facing the challenges you know that will improve yourself and the community you live in.

Though I’m a bit crazy, I’m not crazy enough to screw all these up. I’m currently thinking of new ways to organize my workflow so that I’ll manage all these tasks and to-dos with better results while keeping my self alive and human.

So in the following weeks, I’ll try my very best to document the things I’ll do that will hopefully help me get things done, like playing more with apps folder in my K800i, abusing my installation of activecollab, finding new tips and tricks with Gmail and Google Groups and using more and more online apps like Google Docs and Notebook.

Could this be the start of a change in my blogging? We’ll see…

Sining Bayan at PinoyCentric.com

jhay — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 15:32:18 +0000

Migraine’s gone but work continues to pile up; both school-related and not-school-related. No time to waste, even though my bed has been harping on me ever since I got back from school. During times like this, I recall a friend of mine saying something about me and the things I do;

“So young yet so busy. I wonder if you ever have time for yourself and to be yourself.”

A slap of truth? Yes, but in a way that is not depressing and discouraging just tiring. When you’re tired though, you can always take a quick rest, a cat nap perhaps. Of course I still have time to do things for myself, but I’ve always thrived on doing things with other people and for other people. Altruism or plain stupidity? I really don’t bother anymore. We do make our own realities and definitions and as far as I’m concerned, the realities that I do and the way I do them are meant to have new realities that will serve not only myself, not only others but both.

You may be wondering if it’s really me, Jhay who’s writing this post. I can tell that by up to now, this post has been a sort of rantology isn’t it? Partly yes and partly no. To be honest I’m just writing as the words and ideas come to mind. Sort of a free writing spree, but for the real deal because as soon as this orgy of a braingasm ends I’m hitting the publish button.

Going back to what my friend said earlier, one of the things I’m busy with or have been busy with for the past 6 years is Sining Bayan. What is Sining Bayan? Head on to PinoyCentric.com for Karla Maquiling has given us the honor of gracing PinoyCentric’s pages and telling the world how A Theater Group in Silang is Born. This is just awesome! Many many thanks to Karla and PinoyCentric founder Armand Frasco for giving our group this opportunity to be known a little more via the world wide web.

If you have more questions about Sining Bayan, you could either leave a question over at our story in PinoyCentric or you could leave one in the comments thread below or shoot me an e-mail via the contact page.

This is it for this totally random, semi-self-centered, slightly confusing post. Regular programming would resume tomorrow or once the migraine has subsided 101% from my brain.