Anyone who has ever come across new media art knows there’s no way for you to describe it if you haven’t experienced it.

ASEUM, an international new media art festival that kicks off this week in the Philippines, hopes to change that and to expose the regular Pinoy–whose idea of the arts could be limited to paintings, sculpture, and theater–to a different kind of art form derived from technologies such as the computer.

“Tayo,” an independent literary magazine dedicated to the Filipino-American youth in Southern California, is looking for submissions for its first issue. Poetry, essays, short stories, digital art, drawings, graffiti, photography, and paintings focusing on the Filipino-American experience …

Filipino-American chef Ron Bilaro with volunteer Gwen Miguel during a luncheon for the Ronald McDonald House Charities in Palo Alto, California.

Chicago-based Filipino-American chef Ron Bilaro will be in Manila this February for a $100-a-plate charity dinner that will benefit overseas Pinoys. The charity event, “Alay sa OFW, a pre-Valentine Dinner with Chef Ron Bilaro,” will be held on February 12 at Fort Bonifacio and will have Vice President and OFW presidential adviser Noli de Castro and Bantay Bata founder Gina Lopez as special guests.

Bilaro is the host of a cooking show, Life . . . Pinoy Style, which has a huge following among Filipinos in North American who are discovering their roots through cuisine. He has also been a personal chef to popular television host Oprah Winfrey, Hollywood stars, and Chicago’s elite.

We know how Pinoys love singing, and how they carry this passion for karaoke and Magic Sing wherever the diaspora takes them. With that said, we’re giving one lucky Pinoycentric reader the chance to party for free at the …

This November, renowned Pinoy animators and respected media scholars come together at the Animahenasyon 2008, an annual festival that features the works of aspiring and professional artists in a competition.

Organized by the Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc., Animahenasyon 2008 will also welcome home two successful Pinoy animators abroad, one of whom has worked with media behemoth Pixar; the other a professor from the University of California.

A traditional full-length animated film usually takes three years to complete, but Dayo, a fully digital project by Cutting Edge Productions combining 2-D and 3-D animation, will be completed in just two years. More than 500 Filipino artists from all over the country are working to get it out in time for the 2008 Metro Manila Film Festival this Christmas.

Every aspect of the film’s production has been a challenge, but it was the storyboard stage that was  the toughest, says director Robert Quilao, because it involved setting the mood and the look of the whole project. The makers brainstormed over the storyline for three days, while the script took four months to complete.