SIGNS OF THE TIMES BACK HOME

Alfredo Rodillas, a kailian who is a regular reader of our Journal sent the following:

 

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LEST YOU FORGET

 

Only in the Philippines will you find such amusing names as:

 

* Bread Pitt (a bakery)

* Maruya Carey (a fast-food place selling turon and maruya in Greebelt,Makati)

* Caintacky Fried Chicken (an eatery in Cainta, Rizal)

* Mang Donald's (a burger joint at the Naga City plaza)

* Candies Be Love? (Can anything be sweeter than this?)

* Doris Day and Night (a 24-hour eatery)

* Babalik Karinderia

* Holland Hopia (owned by Mr. Ho) and next-door neighbor Poland Hopia (owned by Mr. Po) in Chinatown

* Miki Mao (a noodle house)

* Tapsi Turbi (a tapa house)

* Cleopata's (a manukan and bakahan)

* Goto Heaven

* Cooking ng Ina Mo (a carinderia) and right across it, Cooking ng Ina Mo Rin

* The Fried of Marikina (a fried chicken house)

* Wrap and Roll (a lumpia outlet in Quad, Makati)

* Pansit ng taga-Malaboni (a panciteria on Boni Ave., Mandaluyong)

* Side-saki (a side street eatery beside Mandarin Oriental in Makati)

* Let's Goat-Together (a kambingan-cum-beer garden)

* Meating Place (a meat shop)

* Meatropolis (another meat shop)

* Happy Birthday Toyo (a soy sauce brand in the 1970s)

* Isda best, Pusit to the limit, and Hipon coming back (entrees on the menu of a seafood restaurant)

* Cinna Von (a laundromat)

* Pier Carding (a tailoring shop in Pier, Manila)

* Elizabeth Tailoring

* The Way We Wear (a boutique)

* Curl Up and Dye (a beauty salon)

* Felix the Cut (a barber shop)

* Goldilooks (also a barber shop)

* Saudia Hairlines (a beauty parlor)

* Sylvestre's Salon

* Bote Nga Sa 'Yo (used bottle shop)

* Christopher Plumbing (your friendly neighborhood plumber)

* Goldirocks (a gravel and sand shop)

* Fernando Pe's Box Office Hits (a video rental shop in Palawan)

* Leon King Video Rental (in Las Piñas)

* Memory Drug (a clone of Mercury Drug)

* Petal Attraction (a flower shop near UP Diliman)

* Susan's Roses (a flower shop, but of course!)

* Maid to Order (maids placement agency)

* Yag-Bulls (a beer house joint in Zamboanga City featuring live sex shows)

* Sign on the window of a restaurant in Baguio - Wanted: Boy Waitress

 

When we retire or get fired, we dream of putting up a vegetarian restaurant named Tokwa Tokwa (with apologies to the Ramoses' Tokyo Tokyo).

 

A PR lady friend wants to go into selling taho, which is a soy-good business these days. She already has a name for her taho outlet: Lake Taho.

 

If you're a commuter (a jeepsetter?) you must have come across these signs on some jeepneys and buses (which can drive you crazy):

* "Before pay, tell where get the on before get the off."

* "Full string to stop driver."

* "God knows Hudas not pay."

* "Don't get closed to me, get closed to God."

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I am adding a few ones:

 

At an eatery in Calamba:

 

Please do not order any food if you do not have any money.

 

Many display the following sign too: YOUR CREDIT IS GOOD, BUT WE NEED CASH

 

Saw the following signs along the McArthur highway on the way to Pangasinan: These are Chinese grocery stores:

 

TEK KI

OH KIM

 

A smart joker one time defaced a big TOYOTA sign on the roadside: He erased the letters: T, O, and A..

 

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PICTURES!!!

What is a magazine without pictures?..Same case with online magazines ( like this one! ). Just received a DVD copy of the TPL concert last Ocotber 2005. With the miracle of the software Intervideo ( which comes free with the Windows XP bundle ) I was able to lift out certain frames from the DVD and saved them as JPEG files in My Pictures folder located in My Documents..Here they are!..

( you can do the same thing with DVD movies: lifting out the scenes from your favorite movie {  fights, love scenes:wooo! }) but remember these movies  are copyrighted !!

Okay, enough..Here are the photos, clear as if I took some photo shots during the Concert itself.---##

TV TALK (from an online Manila newspaper)

Today, Good Friday, at 7 p.m., GMA 7 telecasts a powerful, celebrity–studded Holy Week special titled "Sa Ngalan ng Anak." The dramatic made–for–TV–movie features some of the most awarded names in TV and filmmaking. Coney Reyes, veteran TV producer and actress, is supervising producer of the two–hour primetime drama directed by Maryo J. delos Reyes, written by Raquel Villavicencio, with musical score by Arnel de Pano.

It’s "who’s who" roster of performers includes Victor Neri, Dennis Trillo, Romnick Sarmienta, Robert Arevalo, Alicia Alonzo, Tirso Cruz lll, Ricky Davao, Chanda Romero, Emma Yuhico, Nancy Castiglione, Erich Gonzales, Melissa Mendez, Lorenzo Mara and Coney Reyes.

The special is a Lenten production of The Christian Broadcasting Network Asia (CBN Asia).

The story revolves around a Filipino family whose "secret sins" or "skeleton in the closet" stay hidden for years. But those events have a deep and serious impact on four successive generations of the clan until the family "scandals’ are uncovered, and the members discover the key to facing the "ghoss" of the past, forgiving and redirecting the future.

"Maraming mapupukaw" (Many will be awakened), says director Maryo J. delos Reyes who add he was "excited" to "execute and polish" the scenes in the short time given so that the message came across well. "Many family members will be able to identify and deal with the hurts and problems they have kept inside for so long." Maryo, a former seminarian, deliberately made time to do the telecine despite his busy schedule. "I always ask the Lord to use me. And so when the opportunity comes, I find the time."

Dennis Trillo represents the youngest generation in the clan who discovers the family "secret." But he narrowly escapes repeating the past, and manages to give his own family and a brand new start. "Life is a cycle," he explains of the telecine’s theme of sowing and reaping. "If you do good, you can receive good for yourself and your children (and vice versa)." Dennis partly attributes his own career success to his dad who is "loving, loyal, straight and vice free." "That’s why I (want to do my best to live a good life). I don’t want to break the generational blessing due my children."

Chanda Romero plays the wife of a compulsive gambler (Ricky Davao). She said doing the telecine reminded her of the "good old days" of Philippine movies. "Excited na excited ako. I found myself working with so many good, multi–awarded performers all at one time. It’s a rare experience. The script was also special, punong–puno and malaman (very substantial). And Coney is such a darling to work with, one of the best, and like a mother to you on the set." Chanda recalled that Coney gave her first comeback acting job in 2001 after a freak accident disabled her left leg. "My leg would swell every three hours. But Coney kept praying for me and encouraging me to keep coming back and fight. It strengthened my faith. Ang laking tulong. (It was a great help). And I got better. I lterally got back on my feet."

In fact the message of the telecine, chosen by Coney, if for every hurting, shattered Filipino family to come back and fight to be whole. "Strengthening and healing the Filipino family is they key to restoring our nation. And there’s a little known but vital key to start it," she observes. For that purpose, she put together a high–calibre cast, chose a director with an "international flair" and a scriptwriter who could put into one powerful story the very real life problems of so many Filipino families. In fact Coney got so many top names together so quickly because many of those involved made the project their Holy Week offering, making time, accepting cuts in their usual fees, and giving their very best "as unto the Lord."

"The most important reason I accepted the role was because it’s rare for a TV production to have a lesson to impart," says Victor Neri whose surprise entry into the story helps unravel the "family curse" and bring unexpected healing to the clan during an emotionally gripping family reunion. "Our entertainment industry is saturated with exploitative fare. But every actor, director and media man has a responsibility. We have power and influence. We can have a (great) positive impact on society, on our country."

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GEMS FROM FRANK'S BLOGS

I discovered a "gold mine" of Asingan Hometown stories....Frank Hilario's blogs!..Here are a few nuggets. For more ( and there is a BIG MOTHERLODE IN THERE! ) go to

http://pattinyayyo.blogspot.com/

5 Internet Cafes in Asingan?

You better believe it! I know because I have gone to all of them. These are the ones around the town proper. How good are they? Two are excellent: very fast, myDSL 256, and with big monitors (17 inches), webcam, headset, not the poor kind. Not cheap – they are inexpensive: To surf, you pay only 20 pesos an hour, which translates to almost 25 cents US. Do they have customers is not a question – how come there are 5 cafes in a sleepy town like Asingan is the question. What I don’t like about them is that they are crowded, very crowded, like this: C R O W D E D, with almost no elbow room. They are trying to maximize their earnings per square meter. That’s their mathematics. It’s bad economics of course. And it’s bad for the education of the children. Why? They are all there playing games, and the one keeping the store is happy that way. Internet at the expense of education – that is the ultimate foolishness.

And that is why I’m writing this. I’m ready, willing and able to put up an Internet Café in Asingan, and I have no problem with money – I have none. Anyone interested who doesn't have my problem?

 

Frank Hilario

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Wednesday, April 12, 2006

If you are from Asingan and are not a writer, that’s no problem. You can tell us Stories from the heart. If you have stories to tell, tell me. Write to me the details and then I will write it up and I will send you a copy and I will share it here. Photographs? I have to study how to insert photographs yet.

In any case, you don’t have to be writers to write. All we want to happen is the sharing of stories, recalling the past, remembering friends and some silliness, and thanking God we’re still alive, those of us who are 60 and above (I’m 66).

Frank Hilario

Share your CDs and books! Vic Costes in Toronto has just given me an idea: You there outside the Philippines, your kailians in/from Asingan who are not well-to-do would appreciate your gifts of books, CDs and DVDs even if you send them over here by snail mail. Look at it this way: When you give away, you have a good reason to buy new ones. The public library in Asingan is not that well-stocked. I think the library of Rizal Junior College in the mid-1950s, from where I used to borrow and bring home 5 or 6 books to read the weekends and return the next Monday, had more books than the current collection in the public library.

Donate is the idea. Let it be from the bottom of your heart, or the bottom of your pockets, whichever comes last. You may ask: Which book, which CD, which DVD? My answer: Don’t ask, just donate. Look at it this way: You are getting rid, and very nicely at that, what you don’t like or don’t need. Then I am sure you will be rewarded with a good feeling. Then I hope you will graduate to giving away even those you like yourself – that would be sharing, a great thing to do.

On my part, I already donated one copy of my book, my first: indios bravos! Jose Rizal as Messiah of the Redemption. It’s actually a book written around my own English translation of the farewell poem of Rizal, which I have retitled ‘Adios, Patria Adorada’ (not Mi Ultimo Adios) and translated into ‘Adios, Beloved Patria.’ That book is historical – it’s the first from somebody in Asingan, the first on Rizal; it contains the first English translation of Rizal’s final poem by an Ilocano, also from Asingan; it’s an intellectual biography too, the first in the Philippines. You can read excerpts by clicking the link Adios! Beloved! Patria below.

And that gives me another idea: If you can donate one dollar or two, each one of you, then I can print more copies of my book (US$10 a copy) for distribution free to our townmates before, during or after the fiesta on 18-23 April.

*****

I am for Frank's ideas..He is a true Artist/Writer. Would you believe he and his Mrs. raised 12 kids in the Philippines? That is man to beat..Let us support his ideas, not just with words, but with money..Words are cheap, but money moves things around and shakes the unshakable.--#

REMEMBERING LORETO MIZAL AND FRANK HILARIO

 

The late Mrs. Mizal, formerly Loreto Blando was the teacher-writer who inspired me to keep on writing. She must have also heard about Frank Hilario because writers from the same town usually know each other. She had high praises for Frank's talent. I chatted with Frank also just a couple of times in Asingan then that was it.Now we fast forward to the present.

I met Annie Cano thru the net and it was she who gave me the link to Frank's website and  also his e-mail address.Well, surprise, surprise; Frank has established his roots in Los Banios Laguna and working in the same Campus where I was four years before I came to Toronto. Mrs. Mizal also retired from FORPRIDECOM, a government agency located in the slopes of Mount Makiling. My place of work was UP College of Forestry, Department of Forestry Extension where I edited some Forestry periodicals. It is just a 5-minute walk from FORPRIDECOM. The area is a writer's haven as the atmosphere is quiet except for birds doing a "symphony" of sounds especially when the day starts to end and not very many jeepneys go up to the Forestry campus anymore. There are also a lot of exotic trees one of which is the "candle-tree". The fruits, believe it or not, look like candle sticks. The stem of the fruit is the "wick".

So I immediately e-mailed Frank:

Remember me?..Vic Costes..We have talked a couple of times..can't remember when but I can remember you because we have a common interest: writing. ...

Could not quite forget College, Laguna because I had some friends there. I moonlighted also as an organist at Eva lanes then also at La Paz Beer garden one of the seedy clubs in Bamboo Groove. The owner was a homosexual and there were a couple of hookers hanging out there every night plying their trade. But they did not quite look like Julia Roberts character in PRETTY WOMAN. ..

Less than 12 hours, I received my first e-mail from him..part of it said:

Were we not classmates in high school? I remember you: you lived next to the Aglipayan Church in poblacion; ... I think your sister is Ester. Rody Necesito was also fond of writing. I think he is in the States somewhere. Our fiesta is April 18. I am in the Executive Committee, Chair of Documentation – I went every two weeks to attend the meetings. I hope to document the activities in digital and send anyone a copy by email.

One of my daughters is in Toronto, Christina Marie, married to Christian Capati. They have a daughter named Maia.

I am still writing. I have many blogsites already (would you believe 20?). I have no problem with spelling and grammar when I blog because I read again and I use the spelling checker – I use Word to compose my messages, like I’m doing now.

And so started an online correspondence, thanks to Annie, thanks to the Internet and to you, Manang Loreto, wherever you are: Thanks to you too! She was the one who help me find that job at the DFE where I honed further my skills as a wordsmith.---#

A DAY AT THE ST. JOHN'S FAIR

I have always been a movie addict ever since I was in high school. I have been inside most of them: theatres in Dagupan, Urdaneta, Asingan ( yes there was one in our backyard which makes it conveninet for me. But it opens only at night). When we came to Canada in the '70s, the first thing I did was to scan the movie page to check what movies are being seen where. The first movie I saw with my son Ollie ( who was still very young then ) was JESUS CHRIST, SUPERSTAR at the Varsity theatre in the Manulife building, in downtown Toronto. He also became a movie fan like me. He finished a degree re: films in York University.

I was one of the first ones to buy a Beta machine..It was about 1200$ at that time. That was 1975 at a pre inflation price! The blank tapes were 20$ each. It was at a time when Free Trade was not still enacted. So everything ( or mostly everything ) were made in US/Canada.

Another movie I saw was ALIEN directed by Ripley Scott. I saw the movie one time at the University theatre here in Toronto. This theatre was the best one hereabouts at that time: got the best screen, best sound ( 6 channel Dolby ). So on an afternoon after work, I dropped by and saw it. I could not bring Ollie then because he was still under 18 and the movie was rated R. But it did not stop him from seeing ( in a home movie version )at one of the buildings in the Canadian National Exhibition. Then they started selling movie tapes..1 movie then cost an average of 100$..And when the Beta version came out, of course I bought it for him..It was on sale for a whooping $80.00

Few months later, this was during the ealy '80s, they started renting out Beta movies.VHS format was also invented at that time so both formats were rented side by side. Sam the record Man was one of the pioneers of this tape rental business and at its height of popularity, it rented ALL KINDS of titles, close probably to 2000 movies. And that was just during the start of the Home Movie revolution.Now a days, this market was cornered by Blockbuster and Rogers..

From the time I started buying movie tapes til now, I must have accumulated thousands of tapes in my basement. Some were copied of course, but as formats change, the old formats were sold cheap. So I bought my favorite movies whereever I saw them: garage sales, flea markets, clearance bins..see them once, store them..Then all of a sudden I saw them cluttering my basement spaces..! Twice I bought out the movie collection of a Janitor working at a mall. He sold his VHS movies to me at about 1$ a title..It was a lot sale and he sold ALL his movie collection at around that price.

Yesterday, there was a bazaar at church. I took 2 tables. Paid 40$ for both of them..Michelle, my daughter and her husband Jonathan Forbes came in and helped me out with the transport and they even stayed until the closing time which is about 3:00 pm. Mia and Emma were also there of course! Many of the buyers ( and some sellers ) are from St. John's. They know me of course ( although I do not know most of their names ). But one thing I found out: the VHS movies ( good titles ) are the best sellers in any flea market, garage sale type of business! There are so many movie fans and some of them are still looking for titles they want their children to enjoy..I think I was the one with the highest sale yesterday..At the day's end I split the net proceeds with my 2 grandaughters: Michelle and Jonathan declined to get their share. Jonathan is a doctor anyway, he makes  much money. He helped us for Charity's sake and for the experience. The two girls enjoyed the whole time ( it is their first time too!). Every now and then they would flit from one table to another and would go to their Mom with something which caught their fancy.

Being with people to whom I play for on Sundays, I found out that we and the kids had certain "previleges". When we went to the snack bar, our snacks were free! The seller declined to receive my money. Mia and Emma were greeted by people who hear them sing at church and every now and then, they hear praises from them for their singing. Somebody gave me a small subwoofer. I just examined it at one point, then asked how much it cost. The lady said :"Take it Victor, it's yours!" I said "Thank you" and brought it home. It is still working..!

It was a hectic day. I missed my morning and afternoon naps. I had to load and unload my stuff. But it was a perfect day as we found out when we came to the end of it.---#

FEEDBACK FROM JULIET USON

How wonderful it is to reminiscence the old days. As I read your poetic epistle, I  was elated. You deeply touched my heart.  I too grew up in the same place you mentioned, and in fact I was once a classmate of Renato Escorpiso.  Jovencio Esteban is my granduncle, Cely Torres is my auntie. I used to live with Mrs Bibiana Bautista, which is the sister of J. Esteban. Our house used the be the old big house that belonged to the late former Judge Dalmacio Guillermo which sat across from the marketplace, until we moved to the big house next to Bugayong rice mill.

I used to hang out with Lorna Tayaba and Miss Garcia, also with Pamela Diaz and Lereza Ramos.

Thank you so much for writing your memoirs!

Lita Uson
Ph:(808)779-4394
julietuson@gmail.com
www.julietuson.com

Her website tells in part:

"My name is Juliet Uson, I've worked for the government for more than 15 years.

I'm here to help you realize your goal of owning your dream home or getting the most of reselling or refinancing your house.

I'm an experienced Associate Realtor and Mortgage Consultant who is willing to serve you anytime, 24/7."