secret shame

boyzone, backstreet boys, and westlife are on my ipod.

developmental stages

Assigning developmental stages is a favorite preoccupation among my children. They were at it again this morning.

Jana (born 2001): "diego's body is a toddler but his additude (sic, ok?) is a baby."

Diego (born 2004): "dili ko baby!"

Gabriel (born 2007): "gabel baby."

Mama (born far too early in the century, in my opinion): "diego is not a baby. he is a pre-schooler."

Diego (born intensely contrary): "dili ko school!"

mercifully, rashdi (born 1994), stage development assigner emeritus, was not around.

leonine queen

my drug of choice now is kings of leon.


















lovely picture, no? they look like the john, paul, george, and ringo at around the time beatles wanted to break-up: unwashed, uncombed hair, mustache, jeans that are skinny and bell-bottomed at the same time, lots of browns and oranges.

and the frowns and smirks. if you were an artist in the seventies, you were not allowed to smile. you had to either look as if you were thinking deep thoughts, or stoned.

january kanindot, the prettiest girl at the university press (never mind that she is the only girl there), allowed me to pirate two kings of leon albums off her laptop. and now i can't stop listening to it.

if i can marry songs, then i'd be happily, monogamously married to "i want you" albeit covetously eyeing (listening?) to "closer", "manhattan", and "be somebody".

definitely some of the sexiest songs i've heard in a very long time. the frantic drums in "be somebody" makes me laugh (in a good way) but that's about the only description i will put down here. i don't want to sound like an priggish music columnist.

grass green with envy

my mom annabella and my sisters anna and blanca anne (yes, we like the name anna. two grand kids sport a variation of the name. hey, my super secret real name is even a mutation of it) visited still another sister (yes, aside from having too many annas, we have too many girls in the family) based in Connecticut in the US of A in March.

in the photo above are, from left to right, my gorgeous sisters anna and blanca, my mom (why are you wearing a purple puffy jacket mommy?), and a very pretty....cousin? that means my sister girlie was being a gracious host and taking pictures.

mother is still there, abandoned in part by my sisters because of their careers but mostly because they want to retain their sanity for a couple more years.

my mom. she bought a pillow to bring home to the philippines. it now patiently waits curled inside a balikbayan box in the sala of an aunt in new jersey. just an ordinary pillow, not the goose down filled variety. just an ordinary made-in-china pillow you will find for sure in the famous shoppers' chain of stores of zamboanga.

anyone else would have used that space taken up by the pillow for bringing home make-up, chocolates, and star, people, us weekly, and enquirer magazines. but my mom. she is the opposite of anyone else. and you are supposed to let her be. that is the rule.

i don't know what that gray building behind them is. but doesn't the grass remind you of a tennis ball? it's almost neon green.

my sister anna visits on average two countries a year. my sister blanca has travelled the world. her husband used to be captain of an ocean-going ship, for crying out loud. my mom leaves zamboanga probably every two months.

like the rest of the family, i am infected with the wanderlust too. but you know what is so beyond pathetic? the farthest i have ever been to is hongkong. syet.

"A tomboy ran away with my market money!"

a thieving lesbian is apparently on the loose in the city. i read about it here.

its an op/ed, a blog entry, a news item (mainly because it is in the news section), a cautionary tale, an entertainment and lifestyle story all rolled into one. In other words, the pinnacle of convergence journalism!

indecent

so i am having this running argument with husband about the name of this blog.

to his (admittedly paranoid) mind, the name Zamboanga Girl suggests the blog is a portal to a white slavery operation.

i think my poor husband is honestly scared i am going to get indecent proposals from foreigners via blog comments.

i say bring it.

A beautiful place

the main campus of ateneo de zamboanga university isn't really a beauty. it's okay, you know, clean, utilitarian.

there is one place in campus though that IS indisputably beautiful and that is the gallery of the peninsula and the archipelago.

good thing then that the powers that be of this school placed it by gate 1 because it does create quite an impression, no?


on the threshold, this is what you'll see when you glance right


and then when you glance left, a blue wall that inspires you to be anything but


one of those two birds on the white pedestals in the far corner is a bronze sculpture by the national artist imao who is from around here. he had an exhibit here soon after this gallery was opened. here is a close-up. if this item suddenly goes missing, it would probably be because i brought it home.


i really like the dividers here. naturally stained wood slats punctuated with iron ends/legs in the form of ancient warrior's shields.


do you see the bench in the foreground above? that was made from true-blue ateneo trees that were felled when the new college building (a truly ugly structure) was being built. oh well. they might have cut down those beautiful trees that shielded my classmates and i as we we watched soccer (or more truthfully, the boys who played soccer) so many years ago (by now, those soccer boys would not make it halfway through the field walking, much less dribbling a ball) but at least they found a very good use for it. there are several of these benches in the gallery.


i just realized i was not able to take pictures of the other walls. i only have one of the blue wall. the other sections have different color walls, but of the same intensity as the blue. you'd think it would look like a kindergarten classroom, but really, it does not. it's actually pretty sophisticated. there's a red wall, a yellow wall, violet, green. amazingly enough, they don't clash. i would hazard that it's supposed to reference a vinta's sail.

the architect is rodel falcasantos, a local guy. of course. a local architect to design a gallery that will feature local artists. i've heard of this person a long time ago, he did work for my former bosses over at TV 11. He did the station, i think, and he did their other stores too.

though i love the main part of the gallery, the place i gravitate towards when i visit is the workshop and library at the back.


such a restful place. the pale walls a reprieve after the bright colors of the walls and the paintings in the main exhibit area. and great art books too.

it's also here that my favorite painting hangs.


it's by edwin jumalon. he probably spent seven million days doing the short horizontal strokes up and down the canvas. beautiful. and that is saying a lot because i normally do not like yellow green.

a pity it's too big to fit in my bag. unlike the bronze bird.