Van Gogh is Bipolar at Maginhawa

Van Gogh is bipolar, and he's a Dutch artist who lived a tragic life, one of the most prominent artists who we briefly discussed in my Art History class back in college. Van Gogh is Bipolar, is a restaurant, one we've been discussing about trying out since after college...and one I finally got to try last week. Ever since my brother experienced eating there a few years back he'd been repeatedly telling me about his desire to go back for a second. After agreeing that we eat dinner with a few friends at a new Korean restaurant at BGC, he tells me that he just made a reservation at Van Gogh is Bipolar because he forgot what we agreed on a few hours prior. But come to think of it, I think I was meant to go there because just two days before we went to the restaurant a friend posted a link on Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal as Van Gogh in a docudrama called Painted With Words. The beauty of the script lies in the fact that they used a lot of the words coming from the written letters of Vincent sent to his brother Theo. A word of caution though, the movie is a downer...because it deals with frustration, depression, loneliness, and art at the same time.

Here's the link to the 1hr.20mins. movie by the way: Painted With Words

Rooftop Poetry

I met someone on a rooftop, the same rooftop where I was asked a question that cornered me into a brief malfunction, and got me thinking long after I answered the question. He was tall, pleasantly charming, British, and in an advertising field in London. We spoke a bit about our travels, and I suggested some local beaches where he could go to because he's also surfer without much itinerary on his supposed three-week solo travel. A few weeks after I met him, I tried recalling that night and ended up with this silly poem. My interest in creating poetry ended in high school...which was over ten years ago, because at one point I found them to be too ambiguous and pretentious, that I just stopped it all together. Now, after maturing a bit, I'm trying to reignite my appreciation for poems by writing one. I wrote it in one sitting, uninterrupted, but this is just a casually written thought as to how I felt that moment of reminiscing. And no, I don't do word counts and rhymes in my poetry.  

Z

An undefined moment

Of an unspecific time

In an indefinite place

I met your eyes with mine

It was an unsolicited chance

Of uncharted plans

But in that one instance

It felt just right

I may have forgotten your name

Your face now a blur

But in that fated encounter

We made ourselves smile

And just for that cameo moment

We were in each other's lives

Snippets: Hda. Remedios

Taken July 1, 2003 at Hda. Remedios, La Carlota City. OMG! It's been 14 years and a few days ago!!! I found this photo in an old folder I saw in my external drive, along with a few other embarrassing shots of my younger days.

This is the result of the first Gawad Kalinga village waaaaay back when it started to build concrete houses in exchange of the nipa ones. It took a village to build one, with a target of fifty houses at the end of the year, schools and foundations worked hand in hand to building the structure. I was amused when I first saw this view, with the bright yellow carpeting the center and uniformed videogame-like houses in line, that's why I took this photo. Fourteen years after, it's still nice to look at, but the paint has faded and the flowers are no longer blooming with patches of dirt in between instead of the lush green, and the people back in their old ways, waiting, complaining, hoping. When GK first started, the women of Remedios were taught to make candles, snacks, and other small items that they might be able to earn a living on. I even remember buying some candles during one of their bazaars in the city's public plaza. The men where taught how to make organic compost fertilizers, about half a hectare near the entrance of the village was dedicated to producing sacks of it at a given time...but after two years or so they say a tornado or hurricane demolished the place and production stopped. My vision of a farm goes back to my remote childhood memories of when we'd go there for the fiesta wherein everyone was celebrating in their own little ways, and another distinct idea of what a farm might look that stands out in my mind is the farm from the simulation game Harvest Moon. I thought it was as simple as sowing seeds, watering the crops, and harvesting them after a couple of sunrises that makes it thrive...but no, that is far from the reality that I see, from the stories being said to me. It takes hard work, and the hardest of which is dealing with people unwilling to share in your vision. 

So...over a decade has passed, a lot has happened...at the same time, in the end, at least for most in the hacienda...nothing has changed. What brings down an idealist? Lazy cynics and unmotivated dreamers disincline to do the work, instead, they focus on the unlikely chance that one day heaven might open and hand them a million pesos, to which they can be happy with, that is until they spend it all on temporary amusements and a day's worth of fill. And while I hear success stories from other GK villages, with this one, it's the same story all over again...it's a sad one.