By Rex Catubig THEY were called midnight screenings. The showing after the regular screening hours of “oddball, unorthodox films at midnight”. In contrast to the matinee or morning to early afternoon shows which were usually priced cheaper and drew an older audience, the midnight movies, commonly noted for notoriety,…
By Rex Catubig I GREW up in the movies. And the post of Herencia del Filipinas of a vintage movie house purportedly in Dagupan, awakened a montage of dormant fleeting memories of the silver screen. As a boy in the barrio, the blaring announcement by a roving caravan of…
Twenty-four frames
By Rex Catubig IT’S where everything merges and converges: the Grand Central of street food, produce, and a motley assortment of goods and merchandise. And at five o’clock in the afternoon, Galvan street flanked by the old MacAdore and Malimgas market, becomes a veritable market goers’ convention hub —…
The five to six o’clock habit
By Rex Catubig THEY are the calamity staple. Once referred to as “relief”, they have since mutated into the colloquial “ayuda” as food aid is called—a package consisting of a bag of rice, canned goods, noodles, coffee sachets, and the like—depending on the local government’s resources and “diskarte” or…
The ayuda syndrome
By Rex Catubig THE first time I watched my free movie as a senior citizen of Dagupan City was before the pandemic. And it harkened back those childhood discovery moments when you got feel-good freebies like ferris wheel ride, tinapay with ice cream, pancit at the Chinese resto–and going…
Rediscovering love at the movies
By Rex Catubig IT’S a question of chronology: Which came first– the Music Warehouse in Perez or the UPS in MH del Pilar? What was certain was they ushered in the revival of the dance club–called disco in those days– at the break of the year 2000, and filled…
I dream of disco and Jose Cuervo
By Rex Catubig AS the monsoon month gives way to longer rainless afternoons, at around three o’clock in our tranquil barrio of Calmay, across the river from baley, we kids are routinely roused from our mandatory nap by the sonorous shout of an itinerant vendor. The old woman whom…
Lelot balatong diary: a culinary chronicle
By Rex Catubig I feel trapped in a time warp. While I’m fully aware of my advanced age that osteoarthritis has proclaimed and confirmed unabashedly, I realize that I have not really fully grasped the inevitability of age, the accretion in years, and the imminence of death. My theater…
A cane covenant (or In praise of the oval)
In memory of Millette Mendoza Rutledge By Rex Catubig I flew into the Bay area, three more times to visit Millette. At one time, I organized a Luau in her backyard and invited a couple of friends to fly in and join us. Each time I tried to create…
The newscast is over (2nd of Two parts)
In memory of Millette Mendoza Ruthledge By Rex Catubig I was in bed watching the ABC7 6 o’clock Eyewitness News when the phone rang. I reached for the bedside phone and limply said, “Hello”. “It’s Millette!”, exclaimed the voice on the other end. It took a trillion secs before…