Celebrity hunk and matinee idol Alfred Vargas is coming home–to the stage, where this Ateneo graduate first learned acting. Before breaking into the local entertainment industry, Vargas was with the Tanghalang Ateneo where he tackled roles from the works of Shakespeare and other classical playwrights.

After five years of honing his craft on television and film, Vargas comes back to theater as guest artist for the Philippine Educational Theater Association’s upcoming play, Saan Ba Tayo Ihahatid ng Disyembre? written by Tony Perez.

Directed by Nonon Padilla, Saan Ba Tayo Ihahatid ng Disyembre? is the final chapter of Perez’s postmodern trilogy. Vargas plays the role of a young artist in this story about the unbreakable love and bonding between best friends and among family members, despite complications of betrayal, jealousy, and anger.

Saan Ba Tayo Ihahatid ng Disyembre? runs at the PETA Theater Center from February 6 to March 15, 2009, Fridays at 2:30 p.m. and Sundays at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. For tickets, call PETA at (02) 410 0821 and (0917) 815 4567 or e-mail petampro@yahoo.com

In her third solo show, “The Oneironaut (one who explores the world of dreams),” visual artist Marga Rodriguez traverses the border separating reality and dream. Essentially biographical, this collection is suffused with Asian art iconography and recounts the artist’s fascination with nightfall and dreams. Her images convey a myriad of emotions–angst, insecurity, suppressed feeling, and wishes–usually accompanying the dream state.

Rodriguez retreated to a remote farm in Batangas to complete the works in this exhibit. There she “traveled without moving,” she says, while energized with the creative slumber that the rural setting provided.

“The Oneironaut” opens on Sunday, January 11, 2009, 6 p.m., at the Tala Gallery at 100 Scout De Guia Street, Kamuning, Quezon City. It runs until January 31.

The Oneironaut by Marga Rodriguez
January 11, 2009, 6 p.m. (Sunday)
Tala Gallery
100 Scout De Guiao Street
Kamuning, Quezon City
Phone: (02) 441 0337
E-mail: info@talagallery.com.ph

Los Angeles–“For many Filipinos in America, [the election of Barack Obama] is a time of celebration and pride. For others, of concern, even fear,” writes San Francisco-based Pinoy journalist Benjamin Pimentel, whose book, Pareng Barack: Filipinos in Obama’s America, launches this Saturday, January 10, 1 p.m., at the Filipino American Library in Los Angeles.

Pareng Barack is about Obama’s incredible march to the American presidency and how Filipinos responded–often with excitement, sometimes with fear and dread–to his campaign and victory. The book is also about the Filipino journey in America, how it has intersected and sometimes collided with those of other communities, and how it has taken a dramatic turn as America enters a new era of anxiety and hope.

“It will be Obama’s face and voice that my sons will see and hear on television and on the Internet over the next four years, maybe longer. It will be Pareng Barack who will play a critical role in defining my sons’ future in America,” writes Pimentel.

[Read more]

By Abby Yao

Reading a doctor’s health blog helps keep sickness away.

After the holiday feasting has taken its toll on everyone’s well-being (and on the weighing scale, most of all), paying close attention to one’s health is perhaps the best way to start the first workweek of the new year. Helpful as reading medical research findings may be, getting past the daunting terms and language is too much of a challenge for most of us. Fortunately, Cebu City-based endocrinologist Dr. Gerry Tan digests the results of studies straight from the latest journals on his blog Docgerrytan.com, which he started in 2006.

[Read more]

• Happy New Year! We look back at 2008 with some of our favorite stories. We also talked to a number of our favorite bloggers and asked them how their blogging made a difference in 2008.
• Restaurants are helping bring Pinoy artists and their works closer to the people.
• If you’ve been wanting to write that short story for the longest time, this is the year to do it. The Romeo Forbes Storywriting Competition is now open for entries.
• If you’re as big a fan of sago’t gulaman as we are, you’d be happy to know that this popular Pinoy dessert now comes in bottled varieties you can take with you wherever you go.
• Similarly, Philippine coffee is now available in coffee pods, the first of its kind in the country. Wherever you are in the world, you can enjoy homegrown coffee in the comforts of your kitchen.
• Do something different and creative this year. How about Chinese painting lessons at Yuchengco Museum?
• The digital film Dayo, which got a grade A rating from the Cinema Evaluation Board, got four awards during the Metro Manila Film Festival.

Image: “Enjoy it while it lasts . . . Farewell 2008!” by Tacit Requiem

Canvas.ph, a nonprofit organization that celebrates Pinoy art, culture, and the environment, is calling for entries to the 5th Annual Romeo Forbes Children’s Storywriting Competition. Deadline is 5 p.m., March 20, 2009.

This year’s contest, centered on an original untitled oil on canvas work by artist Juanito Torres, will award P35,000 and a trophy to the winning author. The story will also be published as a full-color children’s book in 2010.

[Read more]