Jazz and Blues night TONITE at The Oar, 8 p.m.

tonight's featured albums and performances, monday july 31, 2006 -

jimmy smith, 'crazy! baby' (1960)
eddie 'cleanhead' vinson and etta james, 'early show, vol. 1, blues in the night'
miles davis, 'black beauty, live at fillmore west disc 1' (1970); 'ascenseur pour l'echafaud-the paris concert'
jeff beck, 'wired'
joni mitchell, 'the silky veils of ardor'
stanley clarke, 'power'
leonard cohen, 'the land of plenty'

and plenty more where that came from. get out of the rain, drop by the Oar and chill.

Red's No-Bully Zone for People and Animals

Red and Kala Constantino, The Oarhouse, July 21, 2006

Derek Soriano's dog Milo, as he usually looks after having had too much to eat or drink.

After Steve Wallace's despedida last Thursday night, Friday night at the Oar was followed up by Red Constantino's happy birthday gathering (lest this be mistaken for another coup plot meeting) wherein all that was talked about were the favorite wordplay of nicknames of longtime friends, i.e. 'Titina my Titina' (who is yes, a girl and a real person) and the plight of everybody's pets (trust me, this isn't going to get any dirtier) who've been regulars at the bar such as Milo (Derek's dog) who really pigged out the previous night on a literal Roman deli spread of grapes, sliced apples, tomatoes, pita bread, mozzarella and pecorino cheese, pepperoni slices as provided by Ninang Sol Vanzi on Steve Wallace's sendoff. I mean, this dog on Red's birthday was looking for literal SECONDS, as drunk as it was and lapping up the food people kept stuffing into its mouth. But you see, that's why the Oar is such a sanctuary for creatures and humans who've always been perceived differently by the outside world. And why the likes of, say, a Raul Gonzales - will never really need to set foot in this place because how the world perceives him is, um... exactly what he is. We'll stop with him, okay folks?

What is always an occasion for free speech, food and inebriation should remain enshrined as sacred tradition in the democratic scheme of things, most especially during these times when wherein the everyday struggling of nameless and ordinary people can be found the only traces left of insight and irony, acceptance, and humor laced with hints of hope. Hell, throw in kindness too, because that's all we have left to answer this present outside reality of political deadlock, personal agendas, and the persecution of innocents. How much more the paranoia and intrigue inflicted on just merely being known in this country.

That's what makes no-bully zones in certain parts of Manila all the more important and necessary. Here's a toast to you, Red. ;-)

The Steely Dan 'Do It Again or We'll Take Necessary Extralegal Action' Letter

I haven't bothered with what my favorite musical duo of the 70s have been doing since they parted ways after their belabored 'Gaucho' album over twenty-six years ago, but a news item caught my eye about how Donald Fagen and Walter Becker have reacted to how actor Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson's younger brother, ripped off the name from their ditty of 'Cousin Dupree' to title his latest critically unacclaimed movie, 'You, Me, and Dupree'.

Now Donald and Walter are demanding an apology from Luke which they've brought to the public attention on the band's webpage and their written ten-paragraph request for the kid actor to come clean and make amends to them and the fans, Steely Dan style. And it's beautifully mindful of the lyrics they've so been used to penning, and I'm glad they still have the graceful potency of their acid cynic sarcasm to remind punks like Luke how things work in the real world. From mention of Hollywood gangsters to Zal Yanovsky to 'retrograde reality matrix' and their very own Russian Navy Seal security manhandler promising results, you'd think old Don and Walt were back in their prime.

So little hey nineteen-something slacker Luke should be shaking in his youngster jammies about now, since we all know what grownups like Fagen and Becker have always meant in their musical intellectual property hearts.

And how funny it all seems today, with an aging Michael McDonald in their current concert tow and looking like one of those Napa wine-cooking chefs nowadays. The guy still needs a job, I guess.

An Old Friend of The Oar

Thanks Steve!

It's been three or so years since friend and colleague Steve Wallace was here in Manila to see the gang at The Oar, and last June he wrote that he had been thinking of making a short visit this month to spend time with Ninang Sol Vanzi upon hearing news of the passing of her husband Vic last May. Ninang Sol and Uncle Vic adopted Steve as their own in their usual generous way when he was a photojournalist based here and shooting for the Black Star photo agency in the mid 90s, and Ninang helped him make contacts and document many of the events of First Lady Imelda Marcos for which there has never, ever been a time when 'Ma'm' was not making headlines in the news of the world. So Steve dropped by two weeks ago to see Ninang and for which all of us at the bar were heartwarmed and happy to see our old drinking buddy again. Steve has shifted gears career-wise after his photojournalism stints in Cambodia, the Philippines, and Lebanon, as he's presently back in school racking up another degree in Boston after which he'll then.... as he says wistfully... have a full-time, honest to God regular JOB.

And to which we say, yeah RIGHT. The old hoot will be back because he's become as part of the Oarhouse family from those fledgling days of the early nineties when he wandered into Malate and got to know us at the bar hoisting our cameras and ice-cold beers with nary a care in the world at the end of a typical shooting day. And it's always been FUN, right Mr. Wallace?

Cheers, man. :-)

Proximities of 'Compound'

Lily Chu, Jake Macapagal, and Will Fredo of 'Compound'

I don't normally comment about movies seen recently, but thanks to good friend Lily Chu's invite last week to the premiere of Fil-Am director Will Fredo's film at Cinemalaya 2006, there was plenty to mull over after seeing 'Compound'. People who live within the confines of a typical middle-class home in Manila should identify with this, and be disturbed accordingly. There is a specific type of relation amongst those who live behind the walls and gates of a housing compound which serves as a diagram of Philippine society, and the film tells it well as it dissects all the elements -- the morning news announcer on the radio, the landlord, the job, the wife, the kid, the maid, the tenant -- in a timeline of all who would seek to enter or wish to exit this tight little circle of existence. In angles of rapid-fire cuts of reality and derangement, it's no wonder why it's all so interesting that it reflects Filipino attitudes and connections on a larger scale outside of the walls. It's a nice look inward rather than the typical undone or overdone outward.

Drinking the Rain

I love it when it's this time of year. It's cooler, it's the time of the afternoon monsoons, and the water comes down in sheets so thick you can literally open your mouth up towards the sky and gag on what Manila acid rain tastes like (suggestion: do NOT try this). Maybe there's a bit less traffic in the evening because everybody's scrambling to get home and stay dry. Staying up late every night gets old too. On the other hand, there are still those times on a given weeknight when a friend calls up and says, 'will you be at the Oar tonight?' And depending on who they are, it can be a very pleasant evening in conversation of just catching up on things other than talking about work, photography, and politics. There aren't so many people at the Oar on weeknights in the months of july through august, and that may not be such a bad thing. It's too easy a place to fill up with only so many people, and when it's crowded, it becomes a different scene. I'd been away the past few weeks, that's why it feels good to see the place when there's a real reason to be there, or to meet up with someone. Ronnie Lazaro closed out his successful exhibit the other week, and then last week I only went there once. That it's actually nice to welcome the rain and staying away from the familiar.

Ben

Photomontage from Tibet

'Billiards on the Tibetan Plateau'
photograph by Claro Cortes IV, montage photocomposition by Glenn Bautista, 2006

The image above isn't on exhibit at the Oarhouse. They're a composite from a set of images taken recently by Claro Cortes, our friend and colleague based in Beijing and shooting for Reuters, and the deft illustrative hand of Glenn Bautista who is also a good friend and longtime established artist and mentor on the Philippine art scene. Claro writes back on his account of riding on the maiden journey of the new Beijing-Lhasa railway which finally connects Tibet to the more developed central and eastern sides of China. And Glenn's great work can be found online too.