Rough Groove

The new TriNoma mall

The TriNoma (Triangle North of Manila), another of the Ayala’s mall ventures, the newest mall in Metro Manila was a curiosity to me that’s why last Sunday, we intentionally went there to check it out for ourselves. Located just beside the MRT North Edsa station and just across the street from SM North Edsa, the behemoth of a building from the outside proved to be a disappointment inside. Once you go in, you immediately feel the tight spaces within the mall. The floor height is just too low that I just felt claustrophobic. It lacks the airiness of the the other Ayala malls like that in Glorietta or the Ayala Center in Cebu. The activity center seems just too small, dwarfed by those massive columns that dominate the center. Some sections are just dimly lit. Even if these areas still has to be filled out with stores, the way the lights are fixed along the hallways are just not bright enough.

While I was at first intrigued by the garden cum park at the rooftop upon More »

Church of San Juan del Monte

The impressive church in San Juan is unique in the country in a sense that the buttresses, those architectural highlights found in many colonial churches in the country used to stabilize these structures from earthquakes, are built right infront of the facade. While in other structures it is in the form of thick columns like the ones in Santiago and Sta. Maria in Ilocos Sur, to cite a few, here it is a design statement.

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Miss Calendar Gay

In the run up to the local fiesta in our local barangay which has St. John Bosco as the patron saint (and a familiar one at that as I went to a Don Bosco school for my high school and college education) in the closing days of January, a Miss Calendar Gay was held in one of the streets one Friday night. Made of a makeshift stage, several contestants from various places around the metropolis as well as Laguna and even one, from Mindanao, competed. I have not yet seen this kind of alternative pageant and so decided to do some coverage, even at the sidelines.

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Black Nazarene at Quirino grandstand

A break from tradition, the image of the Black Nazarene, in celebration of its 400th anniversary, was transported Monday afternoon to the Quirino Grandstand where a vigil was done. The following day, the procession was held at around noon. Despite that I don’t have my camera with me during this time, I went to the Luneta to see the image. Alas, it was far from the grounds and fenced off. One way to touch the image is to fall in line which at 0900H was already snaking almost a kilometer!

Beyond Frames - my first major gallery group exhibit

My first gallery exhibit via a group show starting this 21 December - 6 January 2007.

Beyond Frames. 7 Artists-Photographers at OWG.

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