Mark Dela Cruz It’s been more than a year since the whole country was locked down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Everyone was and continues to be affected, including musicians. While some were forced into indefinite hiatus, others used the downtime to create new material like San Pablo City, Laguna-based indie singer/songwriter Mark Dela Cruz.…
Photo courtesy of Skygrid. A metalcore fan would appreciate SkyGrid's Faultless Vision, the Los Baños-based band's debut EP. The five-track EP brings together material from 2014 to 2019, mainly influenced by August Burns Red, Killswitch Engage, Rage Against the Machine, Tool, Valley of Chrome, and the nu metal sound. Anyone listening to the EP wouldn’t…
Text and photos: Kimmy Baraoidan and Chris Quintana To the unschooled in the realm of visual arts, a painting could be beautiful, delicate, soft-colored flowers in full bloom; aesthetically pleasing arrangements of fruits, other food items, dining utensils, and flowers in decorative vases; picturesque landscapes or waterscapes; impressionist depictions of romanticized rural life and stylized…
Text and photos: Kimmy Baraoidan and Chris Quintana Tattoo competitions and festivals easily conjure up images of heavily inked tattoo artists and clients—many with silver glinting from their ears, eyebrows, noses, or lower lips; and some with earlobes the sizes of a coin to a small saucer. Every now and then, a scantily clad woman…
Mac Andre Arboleda Meet Delia and Sammy, an elderly childless couple, the titular characters in Therese Cayaba’s 2018 directorial debut. Delia Villamor (Rosemarie Gil) is a former actress and martyr wife who feigns heart attacks and manipulates neighbors to their benefit. On the other hand, Sammy Villamor (Jaime Fabregas) is a retired military officer, womanizer,…
Mac Andre R. Arboleda Sunset arrives in Carlo Catu’s Cinemalaya-winning film “Kung Paano Hinihintay Ang Dapithapon” (Waiting For Sunset), a tale that centers on an unlikely trio composed of an unmarried couple named Teresa and Celso (played by Perla Bautista and Menggie Cobarrubias) who has to help an estranged husband and old man named Bene…
A closer look at Veejay Villafranca’s Signos A dead pig lies under the hood of an old passenger jeepney, its light-colored flesh begrimed with mud and dirt. On the hood of the jeepney are a pair of leather shoes, a couple of notebooks, and two little stuffed animals laid out to dry. A framed family…
Mac Andre Arboleda "Ang lahat ng ito, mas malaki pa sa iyo (This whole thing is bigger than you)," said Mendoza (John Arcilla) to his cohort Domingo (Arnold Reyes). Both police officers were investigating the disappearance of farmers en route to Manila on a bus when they were ordered to focus on the killing of…
Text by Kimmy Baraoidan and Chris Quintana All photos by Chris Quintana If you’re an early ‘80s kid or older—generations who played outside and went home reeking of sweat, the sun, the streets—and grew up in a rural area, you are most probably familiar with the enchanting entities and the frightening creatures of the night—the…
Text and photos by Kimmy Baraoidan and Chris Quintana “Actually, totoo kasi ‘yung sinasabi na ‘Sino ba’ng may gusto ng history?’ (Actually, it’s true, the saying, ‘Who even likes history?’” said 36-year-old Sari Saysay, director of Sining Banwa, a community-based theater group from Legazpi City, Albay. We were sitting on the steps of one of…