Thanksgiving postmortem at The Oar

Ninang Sol Vanzi carving the turkey for the Oarhouse Thanksgiving line

While the turkey didn't last very long, the line kept coming.

IT was plenty while it lasted, so they say, and the amount of food was certainly more than enough to have faced the onslaught it did last night from our regulars and the visitors who searched far and wide for a more than decent thanksgiving spread in manila. For appetizing starters were the two blocks of mozzarella cheese, pate and crackers to go with the main feature of the turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans with bacon, broccoli and cauliflower quiche, german potato salad, boston baked beans, and as second backup to the turkey were two huge sweet hams which the guests barely finished off with apple pie crumble topped with vanilla ice cream for dessert. Ninang Sol Vanzi and Susan Villaroman made sure that everybody got more than their share, with ninang still daring the troops for more with her military-style approach to feeding everyone. The turkey and all the said trimmings came out well, and we'll leave it at that for however you want to interpret yesterday's successful celebration of T-Day at the Oarhouse.

We'll see you all again next year, I'm sure. ;-)

Talking Turkey

Two birds and a baby, just click on either image to see where that takes you.

Maybe it's that most people in this part of the world tend to just look at Thanksgiving as a quintessentially American tradition, but something about it hasn't left me in my years of consistently marking that last thursday of November and nearing the yearend.

Here in tropical Manila, the light seems that much more brilliant and intense during morning hour and noon. The sun's dry heat of november afternoons are forgivingly brief, as an earlier call of sunset and that equally strong envelope of darkness takes over at around 5:30 pm. From there, the long cool nights set in, and you notice that you no longer need air conditioning. But it's to the ones who don't know what artificially cooled air is about that this time of year presents its gift of climate, that what one feels outside of the skin is as close to what it must comfortably be on the inside.

And that's when I look for the kind of meal that says life is ok. It's not a holiday like Christmas, and ever since I have grown up, all that senseless childish prattle about gifts and some white babe redeemer in swaddling clothes really no longer matters. A Thanksgiving meal is more of a statement. It's a moment of recognizing the human soul and the stomach as it needs to be acknowledged and fed, and it can be as lavish or as simple in preparation, all bearing the hallmarks of what seeing life at its most complex or just the essential, is. And precisely because it's only 'a meal' instead of those usual overdone celebrated days of history that silly people attach themselves to, it is as beautifully fleeting and satisfying, and never overbearing or solemn.

So fuck Christmas and all those other holidays. I like Thanksgiving better. Let's EAT.

Ben

Tata 'HELLS' Night at the Oarhouse ;-)

Our ever-smiling 'Tata Hell'

Gil Nartea and Pat Roque place the finishing touches to the exhibit

Gil welcomes friends and family.

Joe Galvez, Tony del Rosario, and Heber Bartolome


Gil and Nap Jamir

What a night. One of Philippine Photojournalism's steady and consistent lights -- Gil Nartea or otherwise known in acidic but respectfully affectionate terms by colleagues and friends by the monicker 'Tata Hell', launched his long-awaited solo exhibit titled 'Children in Conflict Situations' at the Oar last night. Friends of the photographer from near and far -- Heber Bartolome, Nap Jamir, and scores more -- arrived and attended, and they need not be elaborated on in that the images in their presentation truly made another one of those classic Oarhouse nights in the company of true friends and family which you truly must experience for yourself in this place to believe.

And to which we all say -- Salud TATA HELL! Long may you live and never age, our good friend, brother, teacher, and master photographer.

-- Ben

'Children in Conflict Situations' will be on exhibit at The Oarhouse until the second week of December 2006.

Children In Conflict Situations - Photographs by Gil Nartea

IN the course of being on assignment for another purpose, it occurred to me to extend the scope of my photographic documentation of war's effects on children in my travels to the ARMM (autonomous region of muslim mindanao) and the sites of MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) strongholds in Cotabato, Basilan and Sulu from 2003 to 2005.

The images from this exhibit are a result of that effort.

-- Gil Nartea

'Children in Conflict Situations - A Photography Exhibit by Gil Nartea'
November 20, 2006, The Oarhouse, 1803 A. Mabini St., Malate, Manila

Exhibition printing sponsored by The United Nations Children's Fund -- UNICEF

'My Own Mayon'

My Own Mayon

P h o t o g r a p h s

EY ACASIO
EDWIN BACASMAS
NOEL CELIS
EDD GUMBAN
NINO ORBETA
TONY PIONILLA
ERNIE PENAREDONDO
MIKE PEREZ
BOBBY RANOCO
CHERYL RAVELO
LYN RILLON

REM ZAMORA

November 10 – 18 2006
The Oarhouse

Now where were we?

Oarhouse, November 2006

Sorry for the long pause in postings, folks, it's just that i'd been away deconstructing my old darkroom at home lately while uncovering several decades of photographs, negatives and slides long forgotten about. It's felt oddly similar to a major archaeological digging, where images thought long gone have suddenly unearthed themselves from the dust of yore. A bunch of old party scenes at the Oarhouse during the early 90s, and portraits of friends during that time have risen to the surface, much to my sick delight.

The musician Joey 'Pepe' Smith with Chino Medina behind the bar, Oarhouse 1994 © ben razon

There will be more unscheduled salvagings of classic images along this history as the past and the present of this establishment continues to collide.

Pepe Smith at the Oarhouse, 1994 © ben razon