Entre’acte
Cultural Chinoiserie
By Rex Catubig "INTSIK tsonga", "Tsikwa"-- are just two of the monikers they are condescendingly called, implying disdain in how they are regarded, which reveals our bias and cultural ignorance. My father was privileged to enjoy a close association with the Chinese in the lumber business. I grew up…
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DCNHS and KB Chorale: Keeping the music playing
By Rex Catubig IT was the '70s. The world was on the cusp. The world they were born in was fast transitioning into the world they were growing up in. They were born at the tail end of the Platters as the world began gyrating and twisting with Elvis and Chubby Checker, screaming to Hard Day’s…
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Elegy for my beloved barrio (2nd of 2 parts)
By Rex Catubig MY barrio Calmay was self-contained--a tiny world unto itself. But when one had to venture to Baley--for work and other mundane reasons, the baloto was the mode of transport to rely on. Fashioned out of a single piece of carved wood, and secured with bamboo outrigger…
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MacArthur Landing re-imagined
By Rex Catubig THE darkness over the coconut grove coast of Bonuan was fanned by the gentle January breeze, when suddenly, it was pierced by sporadic shelling out of nowhere, that made the horizon appear like a night with a thousand blazing eyes. Inland, by the seashore, residents were…
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A boat ride to my boyhood barrio
(Photo by Willie Lomibao) By Rex Catubig THE recent groundbreaking for a new bridge to link the city to its island barrios and become the modern gateway to the Western towns, auger well for the Calmay residents who, for ages and generations, have ridden off the rough river of…
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