HAVE YOU EVER BASKED IN THE PRESENCE OF YOUR IDOL? If that idol happens to be Nick Joaquin, the creative writer, or Quijano de Manila, the journalist, have you been thrilled listening to his baritone voice or animated to sing along, almost imitating his tremolo? And when that idol becomes your friend with a similar passion for music, life turns into moments of checking out spots where music is all. Singing and dancing make the earth spin, and magic raises the curtain on Broadway.

The country’s best writers and cultural institutions paid homage this year to the 100th anniversary of the late National Artist Nick Joaquin. Ironically, had Joaquin been around, he might never have allowed the tributes and accolades given in his honor....

Europe, the seat of everything that was grand, powerful, and prosperous, was caught in the teeth of the First World War, the year Nicomedes Márquez Joaquín was born on May 4, 1917. It was half a world away from...

Indulge me for a while and let me make the roughest of conjectures: The lowest possible estimate for the total number of oral literary traditions in the country will be no less than four times the total number of...

December 30, 2024 saw the country commemorating the 128th martyrdom anniversary of Dr. Jose P. Rizal at the Luneta Park. Government officials, led by Pres. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., participated in the traditional wreath-laying ceremony in honor of the country’s national...

And I have done it again. The days counted revert to none. And just like that, I go by zero day after day. Every step I took in the days I counted, I stepped on again backwards like a...

Meeting Ninotchka Rosca, or Notch, evoked a slice of teenage years. One day, she suddenly popped up among us English Majors, a rather “formidable” and exclusive group, in the eyes of Engineering, Law, and Fine Arts students at the...

Salubong is a Tagalog word I have always associated with St. James, the Apostle, better known as Santiago Apostol to Plarideleños—the people of my hometown, Plaridel, in Bulacan Province.  Santiago Apostol is our town’s patron saint, the star of the...

Many things about Ricky Lee’s life are worth rewinding. As he turns 76 this March 19, he has obviously come to terms with what life has given him. His life’s chapters look like scenes from a teleserye or at best,...

A Filipino may denationalize himself but not his stomach. He may travel over the seven seas and the five continents and the two hemispheres and lose the savor of home and forget his identity and believe himself a citizen...

I have a clear memory of Quiapo in the mid-60s. Quiapo Church was were aunts and other relatives lighted votive candles and recited novenas before hearing regular Friday and Sunday masses. As a working student for a couple of years...

January 9, a non-working holiday in Manila, is the feast day of the Black Nazarene. And this year, 2023, will be the third time that the much-awaited celebration will not include the Traslación—the yearly procession of the life-sized statue...