Light of Day

The second Singapore Sun Festival, set for 10 days, from Oct. 17 to 26, 2008, was deluge of sensory delights. Involving about 200 or so artists, musicians, chefs, writers and celebrities, it celebrated the arts and living well, set against the cosmopolitan feel of Singapore, particularly in the Marina Bay area and along the Singapore River. I came to Singapore during the latter part of the festival, missing opera star Kiri Te Kanawa, the Vienna Boys Choir, actor Geoffrey Rush, singers Sergio Mendez and Peter Cincotti, Chicago chef Charlie Trotter, violinist Sarah Chang and Australian-Filipino writer Merlinda Bobis. But I did get to taste the dishes of Australian chef Luke Mangan and contemplate the paintings of German-American abstract artist Sibylle Szaggars. I heard Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Esplanade, and was introduced to Canadian flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook and American singer-songwriter Spencer Day.
Cook and Day performed back-to-back one Saturday night at Timbre, the chic café near the Arts House, near the river and among colonial buildings restored to become art spaces. The statue of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, almost disappeared among the people, dancing and drinking, and in the darkness dappled with varicolored lights. Cook impressed with his dexterity, coaxing incredible sounds from the guitar and setting the air on fire, and Day coolly crooned, dripping with sincerity, against the backdrop of the glittering skyline along the Singapore River, a spectacle.
Fusing jazz, contemporary, folk and country music, Day sings in his velvety baritone on diverse subjects with refreshing wit, becoming a favorite performer at San Francsico’s Bay Area. He is also well-received and acclaimed when he performs in other areas of the United States and outside it. He has put out two albums, Introducing Spencer Day in 2004 and Movie of Your Life in 2005, and is working on a third, Vagabond.
The next day, Day was set against the skyline composed of malls and office buildings, his blond hair catching the most gossamer light of a gray Singapore day as we conversed at the club lounge of the Conrad Centennial Hotel. He was easy-going and was excited being in Singapore.
“It is really great. It is really clean. I haven’t seen really so much because we literally flew in yesterday, slept for a few hours, did a rehearsal and a sound check. We went to a hawker center. I have eaten a lot which has been great. That’s the main thing I have done so far,” he started.
Day has been performing a lot recently like at the Monterey Jazz Festival and at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival in Massachusetts. Now, at the Singapore Sun Festival, he appreciated performing in a smaller scale in a warm outdoor setting. He also got to watch and interact with other artists, and taste the gustatory offerings. He also got to be interviewed, sharing his views on his music and life:

RHM: Any influnces?
SD: I have a ton of different influences. I think it has been a challenge in the industry because I am not doing what I think a lot of people expect me to do. I had some challenges in my career because I think I am not as jazzy like Michael Buble, or I am not doing a big band thing but I am also not doing a rock thing. But I think ultimately, hopefully that would be a huge benefit, that I don’t fit into either of those categories. I also grew up listening to a lot of different sorts of good music—country or Western music. My favorite singers are Ella Fitzgerald and Chet Baker. I really think they both sing ballads so beautifully. I really consider myself a torch singer, a ballad singer. I don’t think there have been a lot of torch singers lately though, more of another time period. I want to try bring that spirit of another time but put it in a more modern context.

RHM: Does the younger generation like your music?
SD: Yeah. I have been really surprised. I try not to worry or think too much about who is going to like the music and just do what I love to do. That is always better than thinking if I am cool with this people or am I proper enough for older people. What I have been really happy about is that I have discovered that there is a very wide range of people who seem to listen or appreciate what I am doing. I have people who are in their 80s and some are 18-year-old. I am really pleased about that.

RHM: Do you get compared to Michael Buble?
SD: It really depends on where I play and in what context. Sometimes when I play more like a singer than a songwriter, I get compared to Jamie Cullum or Rufus Wainwright or Harry Connick, Jr a lot, or Michael Buble. I think that’s what just people do to have a reference point, when people are trying to describe something. Just like if I would describe Singapore. It is a mix of Hawaii or Hong Kong. I don’t even know how to describe it, but sometimes when people don’t know something they need a starting point to give them an idea, even if it does not end up something familiar to it. People do that a lot. I don’t mind because they are wonderful people to be compared to.

RHM: How does a song idea come to you?
SD: It starts with coffee. Nothing happens without coffee. So as long as the trees keep growing beans, I would have ideas hopefully. When I am stuck with an idea, what I do is listen to something, whether it’s bolero or Joni Mitchell, and listen to a song I really like and try to figure what it is that I enjoy about it, and start to play along with it. When I stop the CD, it kind of transforms to something else. Sometimes by the point that I am done, it does not sound like anything like what I have started to listen to. When I am stuck creatively, I’d like to go back to a catalog of songs that I really love and respect, and think of what it is that makes me feel good about it and try to come up with my own interpretation. Sometimes, if I am stuck creatively, to work up a challenge, I would write a love song but never use the word love in it or do something like that. Or maybe just write a song about a bottle of water and what makes you think about it. It is a great way to focus your self. I think there are a lot of artists who tend to be very scattered. I put a lot of discipline onto myself.

RHM: You write songs on diverse topics. Where do you get your ideas?
SD: One thing that I was told when I was younger that I really disobeyed is you don’t want to write too specifically because then people won’t be able to relate to the song. That’s why a lot of love songs tend to have a general or very broad appeal. But a lot of the songs that I really, like The Counting Crows’ “Me and Mr. Jones,” has very specific details. It was a huge hit because they are really creating an image of the place, the people. Even if they have not been in that world, they really understand and know where the person is taking them. And for that one, I want to write a song from the perspective of family whose son is leaving home and they are worried that he is not going to make it and he is going for the big city of California. They never hear from him again, which is not an experience I personally had.
The fun in writing songs is that you can write about Marie Antoinette or you can put yourself in many different worlds. It is almost like a mini acting performance. Within the four-minute song, I can create a world which I have not personally experience, but we can find that experience all within our selves, and I want to invite everyone else to come along.

RHM: Do you have any idiosyncrasies or rituals before creating a song?
SD: I meditate a lot. I think creating an atmosphere wherein you can be creative is really important. That’s why I live now in the woods. I don’t live in the city. Usually I can find it when it is really quite which I do better too. I need to be alone, too. If I need to do any work calls or something like that, I have to do it on a different day. If I am going to be creative, I have to wake in the morning knowing that I have nothing else to do left to do because you are using the left part of your brain. Anytime I start thinking that I should write this song to make money or something else, it kind of ruins the creative impulse. You really need to be open and free. Yeah, I guess my real ritual is turning off my phone.

RHM: You are a singer, a composer and an actor. Which of the three comes first?
SD: I would say songwriter-composer and secondly a singer. I love singing other people’s songs too. All composers and singers have an element of acting. It is not the main talent if I would say, but I have learned that no matter what you are doing it is acting. You still have to create a world around you and then invite people into it. I did not think about that before, but now I do believe that I am an actor. But really more of a songwriter

RHM: Do you have any favorite songs that you wrote?
SD: I love them all. They are like children. Even if you have one kid who’s in jail you would still love him the same. I am really proud of the song I did last night, called “Weeping Willow,” and some of the ones that are very melodically strong. I think those of the songs I most proud of. I think a lot of songwriters are saying the best song they have ever written they haven’t written it yet. It is yet to come. Maybe tonight, who knows.

RHM: Who do you want to work with?
SD: Wow! I love Joni Mitchell. She is wonderful. I would love to do an album with an orchestra like the Boston Pops or the New York Philharmonic. There are so many different projects I’d like to collaborate with I can’t even think any of them. There are so many people I respect. I am really lucky that finally I am starting to meet those people and be respected in those circles. I love Feist. I would love to sing something with Feist. I love her. She is fantastic. I can go on forever.

RHM: What do you do in your spare time?
SD: I love to garden. I live in Topanga Canyon, in Malibu North of LA (Los Angeles). I love working in the yard. I just moved in to a new property. Tons of work to be done which is for me is exciting because for me I could see a lot of ways to make it beautiful. There are deers and coyote and some stuff. I am really excited to go back to tons of work. I also love traveling which is fortunately what I do. I get paid to travel. I want to do it anyway. I am so happy to be in Asia. Traveling is one of my big loves. I used to teach swing dancing, so used to do jitterbug music.

RHM: Where did you last spend your vacation?
SD: Oh, that is a while ago. I went to visit my family in Arizona. They live up in the mountains which is really beautiful. So I guess that is my last vacation. New York is my favorite city in the world.

RHM: What other places have you been or want to go to?
SD: Well, I have been to Australia a few times. It was wonderful. I love Australia. I’ve been to Paris which is amazing. Rome, all over Italy. Brazil, a few times, and London. I would love to go back to Paris though. I was only there for three days. It was prettier than I could ever imagine. I did not think it would be that beautiful when I got there, but it was really something.

RHM: Are you a light packer or heavy packer?
SD: I used to be a light packer until I destroyed my very expensive travel bag because I was packing too much into it. Now, I have started transitioning to be better safe than sorry. When I travel I have an enormous bag so that I won’t miss anything. I bring more than what I need. I bring like the entire medicine cabinet. I bring my own pillow for the airline, earplugs. I don’t leave anything to chance now. But it is a little bit of a pain.

RHM: What albums by other artists are you listening to right now?
SD: I am really into Roy Orbison right now. I am kind of rediscovering him and Dusty Springfield. It is so great. The productions are wonderful in those albums. I am kind of going back to the music I have grown up with that I kind of took for granted because it was always there. [I am listening to an artist] from Pakistan. I am listening to him a lot too. It is very diverse, and I don’t know what would come of me after this. A very interesting combination.

RHM: What are you reading right now?
SD: I am finishing a book right now entitled Delirious New York, which is an architectural manifesto about New York by Rem Koolhaas. It is a theory about everything that is wonderful and horrible about New York, that it is pre-planned. Because of the way it was built on the grid, it created certain rules on how to build because you couldn’t build a really huge building. You only have this tiny area so all the buildings have gone up. It is just a study of how people deal with each other in the city, [being put] in close quarters. It is really an interesting psychological study. I am reading that and I am also reading Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke.

RHM: Some critics have called you the male counterpart of Nora Jones. How do you deal with this?
SD: I love that. I’ll take whatever I could get. You know when I was younger, I try to avoid getting compared to someone, but now it is such a huge honor to be in comparison with them. I think what we share in common is that her music is very organic and natural sounding as opposed to other tracks out there which are very studio and manipulated. I think that’s what I actually share with her. We are both crooners too. She is a torch singer too. She sings ballad and has a very breathy, beautiful voice. She plays the piano. I feel great about it. Being in her company is not a bad place to be.

RHM: Do you consider yourself a poet?
SD: Other people call me that. I don’t know. There are so many good poets out there as well as songwriters.

RHM: Did you write some poetry?
SD: Yeah, a little bit. I did write some poetry. I write long, free-flowing poetry. With songs, it is a little bit difficult with the nature of melody. It kind of limits what you can say poetically. It’s really a whole different thing. Lyric writing is similar to poetry, but I think the rules are a little stricter. I think you have a little more freedom when you write a poem because in songwriting the melody should always comes first and the lyrics come second. “Take on Me” is a great 1980s song, and I don’t know what they are talking about. The lyrics do not make any sense at all.

RHM: Do you have a favorite poet?
SD: Who do I like? I like Frank O’Hara, Anne Sexton. She is really great. I have to be in a little sad if I would be reading Sexton poetry. Elizabeth Bishop, she is really great. Pablo Neruda.

RHM: Do you look at their styles?
SD: I think sometime. also lyrically I get blocked out, and I just have to go back and look at the subjects they write about. Poetry is best at taking what seems to be a very simple moment and bringing something so profound out of it.

RHM: Do you have a philosophy you follow?
SD: I think one of my main goals through music is to try to bring all the religions and philosophies in the world and show them what they have in common. I have been studying a lot of Buddhism recently, but I think they all have the values of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, etc.

RHM: What do you want people to remember you for?
SD: That is a very good question. I think what I want people to remember me for, long after I have gone in the earth, I hope there is a little smile in their face. I think if I could leave people feeling something or thinking something, that is my main goal. I really want to encourage people to look at the world and human beings a little differently. Even if I could only do that with one person in an audience where after they go home and encourage them to view their lives in a more positive way. That is my goal. I think musically, to just leave them with something beautiful. It is a very simple goal.

A Grand Gathering for the Arts

For 18 years now, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) has been spearheading the National Arts Month (NAM) in the month of February with a series of festivities and activities mounted throughout the country meant to celebrate Filipino artistry and to promote the arts and the artists. For 2009, the celebration continues with intensified promotion. For a country that has a scant interest in art and culture, NAM has remained largely overlooked despite efforts to popularize it. It is an unfortunate thing as the past celebrations have yielded notable and interesting productions. As early as now, efforts in publicizing the event are underway. There are plans to penetrate television shows, malls and different schools to promote NAM. Celebrity endorsers are being tapped. Contests, many targeting the students, are concocted like poetry writing through SMS and contests for the best cultural page in student publications.
But the still the substance lies in the lineup of productions and events for NAM. For the past few years, the celebration has become wishy-washy, some of the events just a tepid rehash of past ones and some serving particular agenda. This year, will NAM shine through its own cloud of obscurity, enlighten the public and lift the gloom of the looming global financial crisis? It remains to be seen.
Like in the past, NAM will feature the talents and performances of artists and arts groups in the seven arts, particular those of the NCCA’s committees. There will also be productions in the regions that have been granted funding by the NCCA. NAM gets ambitious by calling itself Philippine International Arts Festival (PIAF) but the international aspect involves selected artists from different countries joining some events in coordination with the Philippine International Theatre Institute (ITI) headed by its secretary general Malou Jacob, who is also the NCCA’s deputy executive director. It is not yet promoting itself internationally to attract art-loving tourists as the cultural events of, say, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Though the international caliber is not yet determined, there are many events, geared towards the local public, that are worth anticipating.

The flagship projects
At the frontline of the NAM celebration are the projects of the committees of the Sub-commission on the Arts, which is headed by poet Ricardo de Ungria, namely architecture and allied arts, cinema, dance, dramatic arts, literary arts, music and visual arts. The Committee on Architecture and Allied Arts will mount traveling exhibits, while Cinema will show films made in the regions. Concerts and shows will be staged by Dance, Dramatic Arts and Music. Arts festivals will be held by Literary Arts and Visual Arts.

Architecture: the celluloid and the vernacular
The projects “Pa(ng)labas: Architecture + Cinema” and “Walai-Vernacular Architecture of Mindanao” will be offerings of the Committee on Architecture and Allied Arts with the College of Architecture Foundation for the Built Environment and architect Gerard Lico as proponent and coordinator.
The title concocted from the Tagalog words palabas (showing) and panglabas (for the outside, or exterior), “Pa(ng)labas: Architecture + Cinema” is composed of a traveling exhibition, lecture-forum and a film showing “which will to examine both the medium of film and the form and style of architecture as they relate to the development of film media, architecture and urban landscape.”
The exhibit will have laid-out archival photographs of buildings, film stills and accompanying text “that dramatizes the juxtaposition of the built environment and imaginary environment of the cinema and at the same time probes the transformation of Filipino space as visualized and mediated through the camera lens.”
On the other hand, the lecture forum will have an architect-academician who will provide a historical and theoretical overview of the discursive link of architecture and cinema in both global and national context, and a film scholar who will address issues of cinematic representation of architecture, landscape and urban form.
The film showing will have works “chosen for its architectonic qualities spring-boarding from the same curatorial trope employed in the didactic exhibition.” The films are grouped into “Screening the Celluloid City” (Geron Busabos, Manila by Night, Bulaklak ng Maynila, Maynila…sa Kuko ng Liwanag, Ikaw Lamang Hangang Ngayon, Kanto Girl); “Projecting the future: Science-Fiction and Futurist Space” (Tuko sa Madre Kakao); “Imagined Kingdoms: Orientalism and Moro-Moro Movies” (Aladin, Ibong Adarna, Prinsipe Teneso, Haring Solomon at Reyna Sheba, Engkantada, Florante at Laura); “Designing Suburban Modernity” (Feng Shui, Seksing-Seksi, ROTC, Octavia, Jack and Jill, Big Broadcast); “Nostalgia for Nation: Guerilla Film and Postwar Reconstruction” (Dawn of Freedom, 48 Oras, Victory Joe, Oro Plata Mata. Manila: Open City, Anak Dalita, Return to the Philippines, The 26th Cavalry, Intramuros, Candaba); “Slumming Utopia-Urban Dystopia and Informal Settlements” (Pila Balde, Insiang, Bona, Jaguar, Babae sa Bintana, Kalyehera); “Styling the Screen: Movie Musical and Screen Deco” (Giliw Ko, Tunay na Ina, Pakiusap, Mutya ng Pasig, Bituing Marikit); “Imperial Imaginary: Colonial Urban Reformation and Travel Film” (Escenas Callejeras, 1898; Panorama de Manila, 1898; Manila Queen of the Pacific, 1938; Castillan Memoirs, 1938; Intramuros, 1930); “Atlas of Emotion: Melodrama and Domesticity” (Biyaya ng Lupa, Higit sa Lahat Malvarosa, Portrait of an Artist, Tanging Yaman, Ina Kapatid Anak); “Vernacular Splendor: Cinematic Nativism” (Zamboanga, Banaue, Badjao, Igorota, Kalinga, Ifugao); “Noir Architecture” (Itim, Sigaw, Huwag Kang Lilingon, Blackout, Ibulong mo sa Hangin. Cofradia, Bahay ni Lola); “Tall Stories and New Building Forms” (Condo, Working Girls, Despatsadora); “Colonial and Feudal Landscape” (Noli Me Tangere, Sisa, Gitano, Sawa sa Lumang Simborio, MN, Dambanang Putik): “Inhabited Panorama” (Parola, Temptation Island, Isla, Babae sa Breakwater, Himala, Silip); “Residual and Tight Spaces” (Scorpio Nights, Serbis, Ang Lihim ni Antonio, Lalake sa Parola, Burlesk Queen); and “Cinema Dream Palaces: Death of the Stand-Alone Cinemas” (Bellevue, Life, Galaxy, Avenue, Lyric).
“Pa(ng)labas” is set to be mounted from Feb. 9 to13 at Cine Adarna, Aldaba Theater, University Theater of the University of the Philippines; from Feb. 16 to 20 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines; and from Feb. 23 to 27 at the University of San Carlos in Cebu. After the tour, a CD-ROM compendium with a supplementary monograph containing the lectures, virtual and film excerpts is planned to be published.
While “Pa(ng)labas” is set for Luzon and the Visayas, the “Walai-Vernacular Architecture of Mindanao” is for Mindanao. This exhibit of architectural drawings and photography will feature the vernacular houses of Mindanao culled from the Walai Pangampong project, to be mounted at the Sarangani Capitol. It will be complemented with a lecture series on vernacular architecture, selected ritual dances, including that of the Blaan, craftworks associated with house building and construction like those of the T’boli, replicas of selected indigenous structures, and an interactive video of the Walai Pangampong project. This is slated from Feb. 1 to 6.

Cinema from the regions
The Committee on Cinema will hold the “Sinerehiyon,” showcasing the nascent cinema from the regions. Lectures and workshops were regularly held in the regions, and holding their own films festivals were encouraged to show the fruits. For the NAM, the committee will gather these works for grand film showing. The members are setting their eyes on Baguio, where there is an active Cordillera film collective group; the Bicol region, led by animation graduates of Ateneo de Naga University; Bacolod City, with its Negros Summer Film Workshop; Cebu, with its various associations of filmmakers; Cagayan de Oro; and Davao. This will be from Feb. 17 to 19 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Literary arts, the gathering
The Committee on Literary Arts and the Filipinas Institute of Translation will hold Taboan: Philippine Writers Festival, which is envisioned to gather for three days both the younger and the older generations of writers who have been recipients of grants from the NCCA and who have made and are making their mark on the Philippine literature; and to be composed of a conference by and for writers below forty years of age, conversations with writers or writers group, lectures by writers on topics of their own choice, craft workshops, book launches, and literary readings and performances.
This is will be a celebration of the word—written, painted, sung, or performed—and will assemble writers from all the regions and across generations who will interact with one another and with their audience on issues pertaining to their craft or the situation of writing in the country, or read from their new works.
The conference will have writers below forty years old talking about topics such as getting started in writing, effects of writing workshops on their art, difficulties of being a young writer, furthering one’s career as a writer, etc. The conversations will feature panel discussions involving three to four young and older writers who may come from the same region or from different regions talking about issues on craft, publishing, mixed media work, etc. Lectures by individual writers will be on specific issues, literary or otherwise, involving criticism, biography or history, etc. The craft workshops will be mini workshops on different literary genres.
Projected to be an annual event, the Taboan is slated for Feb. 11 to 13 at the University of the Philippines Diliman, Ateneo de Manila and Cubao Expo.

The strata and strategy of music
The Committee on Music and the Bagong Lumad Artists Foundation will hold “Organik Muzik” a series of four concerts showing the metamorphosis of elements of Philippine music from village roots to urban manifestations. The performances will have annotations by and interaction with musician Joey Ayala, the participant-director. Repertoire will range from the Cordillera musical traditions to Kadangyan’s world music, from Leyteño siday to Junior Kilat’s Visayan reggae, from GAMABA Awardee Samaon Sulaiman’s virtuoso kutyapi-playing to the hard-driving neo-ethnic rock of Popong Landero, from flights of Balagtasan to the acid-jazz rants of Lourd de Veyra and Radioactive Sago. These will be shown in a shopping mall milieu “in the hope that demonstrating the connection to native human creativity through both traditional and innovative forms may stimulate a resonant creativity in the urban kamalayan, and a realization that we are all contemporary natives (bagong lumad).”
“Organik Muzik” will happen on Feb. 7 at SM Baguio, Feb. 14 at SM Cebu, Feb. 21 at SM Davao and Feb 28 at SM Mall of Asia.

Dance and prance
The Committee on Dance and the Halili-Cruz School of Dance will offer “Sayaw Pinoy,” a touring dance concert that aims to bring together different dance forms and features local dance troupes of the host cities and municipalities performing back-to-back with the different professional dance companies in the country.
Now on its sixth year, the Sayaw Pinoy aims to “initiate the youth towards creative activities, provide the public access to quality dance performances and encourage continued interaction among the dance artists, directors and dance groups/companies and the youth in the communities.”
Dance workshop/interaction will also be conducted to the youth through the Sanguniang Kabataan and a dance concert will be staged featuring local dance troupes and professional dance companies held at the public plaza of each venue.
This will from Feb. 6 to 9 for the Visayas (Oton, Iloilo, Palo, Sta. Barbara, Ormoc, Tolosa) and NCR regions; from Feb. 13 to 16 for Mindanao (Butuan, Cabadbaran, Sarangani, Koronadal, General Santos, Surigao and Sultan Kudarat); and Feb 20 to 23 for Luzon (Quezon City, Batangas, Tagaytay, Los Baños, Olongapo and Bulacan).

Luzon in the limelight
The Committee on Dramatic Arts will have Tanghal! The Third National University Theater Festival, to be hosted by Colegio de San Juan de Letran-Calamba. The event will feature university-based theatre groups from Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and NCR in cooperation with the Lusong Luzon Arts and Culture Network.
The Tanghal festival was launched in February 2007, hosted by the University of San Augustin and the Teatrokon Western Visayas Theater Network in Iloilo. This was followed by the second Tanghal in 2008 at Zamboanga City. This third one will focus on Luzon and will be composed of an interactive play festival, in which six productions (one each from the Visayas , Mindanao and NCR and three from Luzon) will be staged and in which artists and audience give feedbacks on the aesthetic processes, form and content in an interactive forum; a conference including papers on how a university theater responds to the three-fold thrust of the university, that is, research, instruction and extension work, and discussions on strengthening theatre network and linkages and the thrust of the university theatre in developing Philippine theatre; and workshops and fringe performances, in which short courses/workshops on the different areas of theater or use of the production as studies for production will be conducted.
This will happen from Feb. 10 to 14 at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Calamba, Laguna.

Visual display
The Committee on Visual Arts will hold the Philippine Visual Arts Festival, which will be a convergence of selected Filipino and international artists from the different regions of the country.

Opening and closing
Book-ending the NAM is the opening and closing ceremonies, projected to be big events in themselves. The NAM is projected to open in three main ways: launching on television via a noontime variety program, at the Sining Gising program of NBN 4 and at the Concert at the Park at Rizal Park. There will also be simultaneously launchings in major sites in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. On the other hand, NAM will close with an appreciation dinner and performance.

Works old and new
Aside from the flagship projects, the NCCA also provided grants to projects all over the country for the celebration of NAM. Some are new ones while the others are remounting or restaging.
The new works include “Kyusi ang Galing” and Alsa Balutan:First Philippine Monodrama Festival in Luzon; An Bugsay ni Jayme in the Visayas; and Ako Ug Ikaw, Kitang Duha: A Festival of Monologues and Tandems in Public Spaces, Kung Aduna Pay Timailhan, Panaghugpong: Xavier Arts Festival, Performing Women: Monologues of Women by Men in Mindanao.
Previously staged productions include Aning Musika sa Bikol, Pegaraw (Da Musikal), “Pagsambang Bayan,” “Viva Marinduque” Ani ng Sining 2009 and Panagbenga: Baguio Poetry Reading for Arts Month 2009 in Luzon; and Ani ng Sining sa Davao Oriental in Mindanao.
NAM also sees to it that works by the country’s National Artists are relived or used or there are tributes to them. This year, “Rio Alma: Buhay at Sining;” Something to Crow About, musical based on Alejandro Roces’s short story; “Saludo!” a tribute to Daisy Avellana and Jovita Fuentes, will be held.

For information, contact Rene Napenas, head of the NCCA Public Affairs and Information Office through mobile phone number 0928-5081057 or Vanessa Marquez, NAM deputy festival director, through mobile phone number 0918-6380412. Also, call 527-5529 or 527-2192 loc. 508, 612 to 615, e-mail ncca.paio@gmail.com or public_affairs@ncca.gov.ph, or log on to www.philippineartsfest.com or www.ncca.gov.ph.

The Sun Shines in Singapore

The glowing magenta of the bougainvillea blossoms was what caught my attention first and would later remember, and the grand old trees, their trunks festooned with ferns, lining the neat highway. It was supposed to be so urban, crowded, all steel, concrete and glass, rigid and strict, its character diluted or washed down with a fixation for neatness. All these were hearsay, report Filipino friends who have been to the small, progressive state at the tip of the Malaysian peninsula.
I flew into Singapore in late October, the weather dismal with sporadic rain. We had caught the tail-end of the rainy season in Southeast Asia, I thought. But the weather only highlighted the bougainvillea flourishing in large flower boxes, many of them in a long, long row in the middle of the highway as we sped from the Changi International Airport to Conrad Centennial Hotel. After that, I would be in a swirl of fantastic flavors, soulful sounds, incredible shapes, stimulating excitement. My introduction to Singapore was one of sensory pleasure. It would not be the place that is so sanitized that it lost its character that I heard. Yes, the cleanliness you will notice, but it is very pleasing. After that there were so much more—the shapes of the buildings, the greenery that drapes around the whole island itself, the past in the future-looking, the melding of cultures, the excellent food, the people, the happening.
Singapore is a modern and well-oiled city with skyscrapers, apartments and malls. They are the usual, at least in shape and space. Notice the architecture, my companion advised, and indeed I could not tear myself from the car window. Modernist and post-modernist structures rise at every turn of the street. I noticed the abundance of public art and public space. But not all structures are new. Although there was a dearth of preservation policies in the 1960s to the 1980s, there are still many old and heritage buildings, carefully preserved and creatively updated.

Once in a while an art-deco building pops out. Going to the popular district of Orchard Road one morning, we took refuge in a mall, a strange mix of the old and the new. It turned out to be the Cathay Building, which opened on 1939. Designed by Frank Brewer it houses Singapore’s air-conditioned cinema, luxury apartments and a hotel.
Traditional Singapore can be seen in the rows of shophouses strewn all over the city. These are transformed into boutiques and offices that are colorful and full of character. There are temples, indicating the ethnic makeup of the state. Then there are the colonial civic and commercial buildings, showing the European neo-classical, gothic, Palladian and renaissance styles. These were made into art spaces. Streets, areas and buildings have signs telling its histories. Then there are the iconic landmarks like the Esplanade, showing Singapore’s desire to have a distinctive image as a brand.
And the skyline is changing still. There were many constructions when I went—resorts and hotels like Capella Singapore on Sentosa, the Marina Bay Sands, Resorts World, and Gardens by the Bay, and the National Art Gallery, set to open in 2013.
Singapore is one of the most happening places in Asia with high-profile events, as well as celebrations that attract people from countries in the region and beyond. There are the sports events like the inaugural Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix, as well as entertainments and parties. There are numerous cultural and art events, which prove to be extremely appealing, including the large Singapore Biennale that showcases contemporary art from around the world. There are many art spaces, galleries, museums and venues for performances, the most prominent of which is the Esplanade Theaters on the Bay, two twin, spiky domes by the Marina Bay. The country attracted Sarah Chang, the world-renowned violinist who has performed here several times.

“I love the city. I love the shopping. I love the food. It’s so multicultural. I think it’s very, very cool,” she enthused. “And I love how many people from different genres [come to this] incredible city that is so diverse and so cosmopolitan. Actually what strikes me more than anything is the incredible interest in the arts here. It’s phenomenal. If you look at like the season brochure and what’s going on in Singapore, and the level of artists and conductors and orchestra and ballet and operas, it is really quite amazing. I think that actually shows a lot about the city and its character when you speak of the culture, the cultural life.”
She was here to perform at the Singapore Sun Festival. I was catching the last few days. The festival is one of the interesting events in the lively calendar of Singapore. Events being one of its tourist attractions, the country was promoting it.
“The festival undoubtedly boosts Singapore’s position as a global city for the arts and one of Asia’s leading premium entertainment lifestyle destinations,” commented Lim Neo Chian, deputy chairman and chief executive of the Singapore Tourism Board.
The prominence of the Sun Festival owes in large part to the high profile of its featured artists and celebrities. This year, it had actor Geoffrey Rush, opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa, singer-songwriters Peter Cincotti and Sergio Mendez, violinist Sarah Chang, author Cameron Forbes, pianist Yefim Bronfman, chefs Charlie Trotter and Luke Mangan, the Vienna Boys Choir and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.
The inaugural last year was attended by about 3,000 people. This year, attendance increased to about 35,000, 10 percent of which is said to be foreign tourists.
But more than its tourism and publicity potential, the Singapore Sun Festival, which is the Asian version of the festival that started in Tuscany in Italy in 2003 and then in Napa Valley in 2006, celebrates the “art of living well,” and involves a diverse repertoire that encompasses music, literature, film, wine and cuisine, the visual arts and wellness. Because of this thrust, the festival is deemed a premium one, which means it is more expensive than usual and caters to the discerning audience. Going through some of the events, I found myself indulging in truffles and dishes prepared by star chefs, savoring wines and listening to a world-class orchestra, commonly perceived features of a luxurious life. For a few days, I was living it, and it happened at a time of an impending global financial crisis.
Just before coming to Singapore, I chanced upon an acquaintance at the Manila airport. Both of us were waiting to board for Singapore. He just planed in from New York and told me how the Americans were over-reacting to the crisis unlike us, Filipinos, who just go on as if there is nothing happening. I shrugged. It has not reached us yet, and Filipinos are wont to think that the crisis is too distant to reach them.
The news of the crisis seemed to underline the luxury aspect of the Sun Festival. Why hold it at such a time? I remembered the eternal debate about making and upholding art in a hunger- and poverty-stricken land, the answer of which I forgot because I seldom bother with the question. In the end, there is so much more than the crisis like life itself. And Sun Festival celebrates living it well, savoring it. Maybe the Filipinos’ indifference to the crisis has something to do with that reason.
While there is the perception that the Sun Festival attracts the moneyed set, it aims to welcome everybody.
“I don’t think there was an intent to do that. The notion of living well implies [being] well-off, but actually to have good style in life or to enjoy yourself or to eat well whenever… I think some of the events are expensive, but there are a lot that aren’t expensive,” said Barrett Wissman, chairman of the global talent management agency IMG Artists and founder of the festival. “From my perspective, there is no intent on making it an exclusive event. People may be intimidated when you think at that part, but that’s not the intent. I think by diversifying the programming more and more and having all the different kind of stuff we intend to make it fun for people to support.”
The 2008 Singapore Sun Festival was set for 10 days, from October 17 to 26, involving about 250 artists, musicians, chefs, writers and celebrities. Most events were held in the Marina Bay area and along the Singapore River. It opened with opera star Kiri Te Kanawa and the Vienna Boys Choir singing opera classics, and actor Geoffrey Rush, who replaced Robert Redford, narrating “Peter and the Wolf.” Sergio Mendez and Peter Cincotti had concerts. Chicago chef Charlie Trotter whipped up his signature dishes. There were tai chi lessons and yoga sessions at the Esplanade Park. Australian-Filipino writer Merlinda Bobis talked about food and writing, while the films shown in The Screening Room had food as theme. The prestigious Singapore Wine Auction and Gala Dinner raised funds for the Viva Foundation for Children with Cancer. This event was the “jewel of the festival’s crown,” having Trotter preparing the food and Kiri Te Kanawa performing.
The events were refined and diverse. It was when Wissman mentioned the book Under the Tuscan Sun that I understood. The book talks about the author’s experience in renovating an old house in Cortona, Italy, and living in Tuscany in general. It was a sensual and profound read that it became my bible for several weeks. The festival was named after the book, and the author Frances Mayes, Wissman’s neighbor in Cortona, is one of the founders of the festival together with Wissman’s wife, cellist Nina Kotova.

With Barrett Wissman
At the Fullerton Hotel one morning, Barrett Wissman appeared imposing, befitting a cultural impresario at the helm of a large global performing arts management agency, IMG Artists, with a stable of topnotch artists. He talked about the festival, touching on Singapore.

RHM: What inspired you to create the Sun Festival?
BW: I think several different things. Initially, my goal in life is—especially today when the world is moving so fast and we have all those electronic media hitting us all the time, three hundred channels to watch on television—I think people need to spend more time enjoying themselves, enjoying themselves with other people, talking to people, learning about things, experiencing things. Because we’re moving away from that. Because everybody can get everything they want on their computers, and they’re used to no interactions. So I also want to bring more listeners and more people back into music and events like these and experiencing things. So, those are two things that really made me want to create it…I find that artists of all kinds, whether musicians or painters or whatever, there’s always been a tie between the arts, whether it’s being a writer, a painter and things like that. But in the last hundred years, we’ve forgotten about that. And people being well-educated they do whatever they do; they don’t have time. So I like tying all these things together, and actually you find a lot of commonality. People who love going to dinners, to something special, go to see a writer then they’d become interested in music. We also try to get the musicians involved in the other activities. So, there’s a commonality among everything that we’re doing. So for me that’s really important and that’s why I do it. When we had the initial press conference in the beginning somebody asked why there’s a lack of focus. Well, I don’t see it as a lack of focus. I’m seeing it being a positive thing, a lot of diversity. So I think today that’s really important—to try to get people interested to what people are doing.

RHM: Did you intend for the festival to have no theme?
BW: You see the trouble is that the theme of what we do is to let the artists do what they want to do. Because then they do their best job. In theory, if you let artists do what they wanna do that’s when they’re gonna do best, and you go to them with ideas on how to do all these interesting ideas and tie things together. There can’t be a theme because I’m not telling them what to do. You have to choose one way or another. Theme is okay, but I find the choice of a theme to be by nature manufactured. So let’s say creative theme [like] passion, love, history, whatever that is, I often find it doesn’t really mean anything. And then you force that on people. So, you’re forcing something that doesn’t mean anything on people, and you end up with a thing that’s paying lip service to an idea. So I generally don’t like that anyway. Sometimes, it can work. But it doesn’t work with something like this where we let the people do what they want to do.

RHM: Did you have any inspiration for the festival like other festivals?
BW: Actually, no. I don’t think there is anything like it. It is more of the idea of trying to bring people together, trying to find a commonality. You know, it takes years to do this, to create something out of nothing. It is not easy. You don’t see people doing this today. I think we’ve already seen that. We were seeing people that came from the festival in New York enjoying Napa and going back and forth. The supporters of the festival, the people who are friends of the festival, they begin to know the artist and the artist know them. We see ties coming together, and now we’re in Singapore and we start seeing interesting ideas come out of that so it’s very interesting. In a way it’s stimulating the mind like for instance having the conservatory orchestra here come to one of the other events that brings an Asian orchestra. It’s very interesting to see how the story evolves, creating history.

RHM: How was the first festival in Tuscany? How does it compare to the festival in Singapore?
BW: It’s different because Singapore is a city, and it’s (Cortona in Tuscany) a little town. It was more intimate because everybody was there. It was a very organic feeling. It was a little theater, a rundown theater from the early nineteenth century. But we try to build the same kind of feeling of friendship among the artists and the listeners and everybody. I think we’ve achieved that here. Because people get to know each other, and you know you can either just go to a performance and then not come back or not do anything else. The food is just fine. Or people get more involved. I think we’ve achieved that even in a city like Singapore. That’s one of the reasons I created the tent. We created that tent so that people would have something to do after the concerts, after the activities. Singapore is a city which has restaurants, bars and places like that in very official-type locations, but nothing relaxed like that. That’s why I wanted to create that—to make it more intimate, to create a central place. So it is very different. Napa is more like Tuscany. But we try to keep the same values.

RHM: Why did you choose Singapore and these places like Tuscany and Napa Valley for the festival?
BW: Tuscany I chose because I live there. Napa…I wanted to choose a place in America. If I look at the entire country, I wanted it to be some place that’s a pleasant place to go to. The big cities in America already have a lot going on. So, I wanted to choose something where people can go away and be separate. It’s a wine region. It’s like Tuscany, and there was nothing there. And it’s a big tourist destination. So all those factors, and we had a lot of local people who wanted to help, which was really important because involving the community is extremely important. Singapore is different. There are a lot of different places in Asia where you can do this, but you know, Indonesia is Indonesia. China is China. Philippines is the Philippines. And Tokyo is Tokyo. In Tokyo, you find Japanese people, and in China there are Chinese people, and they speak one language. Singapore is really a melting pot. You have everything here. There are Indians. There are Chinese. You have Malays. You have Westerners. You have Americans. You have everything here. And everybody speaks their own language but at the same time choose to speak English too, which provides a commonality. That mixture allows you to explore Chinese subject or to explore Japanese subject or to explore French music or whatever it is, and feel very natural about doing it because it doesn’t need a built-in population that enjoys that that’s indigenous. That fact plus that there was nothing really like this here and also that it is a place that works very well for an operational standpoint, you know, made me attracted to it. Look, people are very nationalistic, all over the world but particularly in Asia. If you went to China and did this in China, it wouldn’t be so easy to do Indian music, for example, and to just explore bunch of concerts with Indian [theme]. To not feel like you were not tied down to anyone, and I like that diversity.

RHM: How do you choose what to put in and what not to put in in the festival?
BW: It’s a very difficult question to answer because it’s a process like making soup when you do not really know the recipe, and you start with few pieces and then with those pieces of the old menu, add on to them. Certain things don’t work together and certain things do. It’s a building process each year. It’s not as if we sit down day one and we say, okay, we’re going to have, you know, New Zealand mussels, we’re gonna explore New Zealand seafood for this period. We’re gonna do this; we’re gonna do that. And then we’re gonna have this orchestra. We don’t have everything planned at the beginning. It’s a process. So, it’s a difficult question to answer. It’s like a crazy cook who’s throwing things in and you taste it. You need a little bit more of something else. That’s more what it is like.

RHM: What is your vision for the festival?
BW: I think we had a good first two years here. I think we’ve learned a lot. We’ve had a lot more diversity in the concerts this year. I like that. I want to continue along that path. I think that we need to have more tying things together. We need to explore more creative programs, even though we had some but I’d like to do more, I think, along the same path but to always raise the bar like to expand the film section because the film section is quite simple now. We tried the food and everything, which is very nice but I’d like to build on that. So constantly we’ll build more, and more ideas, keeping the base of what we have and always trying to bring it to a higher level.

RHM: What is your favorite part of the festival?
BW: I don’t have any favorite one part. My favorite part is how all the different pieces come together. That’s my favorite part. Seeing that and seeing how we create an atmosphere where people are communicating. The word festival doesn’t mean anything anymore. What is a festival? People put the word festival like dance festival, and they put together six performances. One has nothing to do with the other, and people go have a good time and they leave. That’s not a festival. Festival is about celebrating. That’s what the word means, festive. My favorite part about it is seeing people come in and out of the activities, weaving in and out. That’s my favorite part. And seeing people enjoy and seeing people [being] accessible. Where else do you see something like this, where you can talk to the artists and this and that, and get involved? That’s my favorite part.

Coming into Colors
The magenta of the bougainvillea I saw along the highway blossomed into a visual experience at the Art House at The Parliament House. The Sun Festival brought in 16 pieces of German-American abstract artist Sibylle Szaggars’s large-scale paintings in an exhibit called “The Shape of Color.” The paintings depicted what looked like amoebas of different colors swimming in paint. I tried to figure out what they are.
Szaggars had an explanation: “These paintings are non-figurative inventions and they don’t carry a symbolic burden. My desire is create an intense optical sensation and to celebrate the exciting facts of the world of color.”
Relieved of the duty to find meaning, I let myself be engulfed the large paintings and float in a sea of bold colors, accompanied by music of Nina Kotova, composed especially for the exhibit. Housed in a small room, the exhibit was an intimate affair.
I was interested in the building itself: The Parliament House. I learned that it was constructed from 1826 to 1827, and was used as a public offices and court house. Then it was used by the general assembly. Now the numerous rooms are used for different exhibits and performances.
The Parliament House is among a cluster of colonial buildings by the Singapore River. The others house a theater, galleries, museums and cafes.

A Festival of Flavors
A big and important part of the Singapore Sun Festival is the food. The experience of food and cooking also dominates the book Under the Tuscan Sun. Singapore itself is famous for its food. From the hawker stalls to the fine-dining restaurant, the place offers exciting gustatory adventure. My Singapore sojourn was made memorable by different flavors from the festival’s three food events and occasional forays to some restaurants.

At the night of my arrival on October 24, Luke Mangan held a signature dinner at a function room by the rooftop pool of the Hilton Singapore along Orchard Road, with different wines to accompany each dish. Also, each dish was joyfully annotated by the Australian celebrity chef and restaurateur with the help of wine writer Curtis Marsh.
The dinner started interestingly with quail egg rolled in herbs. It burst with a refreshing broth when bit, a pleasant surprise. The tanginess was well counterbalanced by the chilled beetroot soup. Then the dinner proceeded: confit of Tasmanian ocean trout, pickled cucumber, ginger, soy and lemongrass dress, with 2006 Tarrawarra rose pinot noir from Yarra Valley, Australia, and 2006 Two Paddocks pinot noir from Central Otago, New Zealand; lobster raviolo, truffle, tomato and basil, Jerusalem artichoke with 2006 De Bortoli Estate pinot noir from Yarra Valley, and 2006 Neudorf, Mouterre pinot noir from Nelson, New Zealand; squab with maple syrup, white asparagus and wild mushrooms with 2006 Yabby Lake pinot noir from Mornington Peninsula, Australia, and 2006 Pegasus Bay pinot noir from Waipara, New Zealand; and lamb loin with basil and spiced parsnip, pickled turnip and date with 2006 Schubert, Marions pinot noir from Martinborough, New Zealand and 2006 Tarrawarra Reserve pinto noir from Yarra Valley. It ended with cherry frangipane, chocolate tart and a whole lot of good vibe.
I was to encounter Mangan again on Sunday for “Daytime Quaffing: The Art of the Long Aussie Branch” at Graze, one of the restaurants in Rochester Park.
Rochester Park looks like a leafy residential subdivision, and it really was. The 70-year-old white-washed bungalows were once homes of British army officers. Now they are made into nice restaurants and the Rochester Park into a heritage area.

The open-air dining area of Graze was abuzz with people. The atmosphere was like that of a family reunion. Fountains gurgled at a nearby pond with orange carps swim languidly. The food was served in generous portions in large tables to be shared by anyone around the table— poached Tasmanian ocean trout, curried chickpeas, beetroot and feta; grilled quail with zucchini, basil, pine nuts and currants; crab omelet, mushroom and miso broth; mini Australian wagyu burgers with onion confit; salt and pepper prawns with baby corn and chorizo; and buttermilk pancakes and caramelized banana.
The hearty was hearty and flavorful, and the atmosphere casual, different form yesterday’s brunch which had an air of delicateness. We had white truffles by the river.
The Truffle Decadence Brunch was prepared Italian chef Riccardo Genovesi, who had a restaurant called Il Girasole in Sirmione. He was now in Ricciotti, an Italian casual dining restaurant in Riverwalk Galleria by the banks of the Singapore River. While Genovesi cooked, we observed boats passing by and marveled at another old structure, the Hill Street Police Station, now MICA Building with its gray façade accented by multi-colored windows.
The brunch consisted of a lot of dishes with white truffle shavings. Truffles were in season in Italy, and good cooks know the way to savor it is by having shavings on simple dishes like plain scramble eggs, which we had.
For starters, there were croissant with truffle mayonnaise and soft goat cheese, vegetable truffle tempura, deep-fried rice croquette with robiolo cheese and truffle, cold bean soup with truffle, truffle scallop gratin, calamari salad with truffle, and wagyu burger carpaccio with celery and truffle. The scrambled egg came with poached egg and truffle sabayon.

This was followed by fettuccini with red chicory and truffle fondue, crepes cannelloni with mushroom and truffle cream, and risotto with asparagus, Taleggio cheese and truffle. The Prawn gratin with truffle and veal tenderloin with truffle sauce served as main course.
During that brunch, I met a group of local journalists who gave me their list of must-try dishes in Singapore, particularly in Geylang: beef rice noodles at Lorong 9; bean curd at Lorong 13; Hong Kong-style char siew bao at Lorong 15; and crab bee hoon, black pepper scallops and steamed squid at Sin Huat Seafood at Lorong 35.
I was not able to try them for lack of time, but kept the list and a promise to return. I did try the quintessential Hainanese chicken rice at one of the stalls in a food center on Amoy Street. It was simple and delicious.

Different Strains
As much as the food, music also is a highlight at the Singapore Sun Festival. This year it ranged from classical to jazz to Latin, and had Kiri Te Kanawa, the Vienna Boys Choir, UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, Gabor Takacs-Nagy, Federica Von Stade, Murray Perahia, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sarah Chang, Yefim Bronfman, Jesse Cook, Peter Cincotti, Sergio Mendes and Spencer Day.
I spent Saturday night with Jesse Cook and Spencer Day at Timbre, the chic café is near the Arts House, near the river. A section was closed off, and a stage was constructed in a way the artists perform with the glittering skyline along the Singapore River, a spectacle. In the cloak of darkness, I did not notice the statue of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, among the audience.

I was not familiar with Cook and Day, but they were great discoveries. The Canadian flamenco guitarist Cook impressed with his dexterity, coaxing incredible sounds from the guitar and setting the air on fire. On the other hand, American Day coolly crooned, dripping with sincerity.
The highlight of my musical experience was going to the Esplanade and watching the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra perform with pianist Bronfman and conductor Salonen. The repertoire consisted of Igor Stravinsky’s Fireworks, Op. 4; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23; and Stravinsky’s The Firebird, the complete score of 1910.

With Sarah Chang
I was not able to catch Sarah Chang, who performed the same time Day and Cook was on. The former Korean-American child prodigy has turned into very accomplished young musician. I was able to talk to her though, and she turned out to be effervescent.

RHM: You started very, very young. How was it? It doesn’t seem to be a normal kid’s life.
SC: It’s really not. Within the circumstances, my parents did what they could. They were very supportive. They made sure I went to a normal school so I have friends my own age because when I was working I was always with grownups and people twice my age, three times my age if not older. When I was working, touring, recording, doing concerts, that was one set of my life and then when I went home I was a kid. My mom expected me to do homework. I went to Juilliard on top of that so I would have all the musical training. I feel that it was very structured and categorized in a way that I really did try to get the most, the best of out of both worlds. In theory it works like that. Obviously going to high school that became really, really hard. Because it’s hard enough when you’re just a full time student, but to have a career, as long as it’s a recording career, and then trying to finish school and keep up with school, it’s not fun. It was at a time when email was just starting but not huge so I really did finish high school like that. I really did. It truly saved my sanity. That was the only way that I was able to finish school. I had great teachers, amazing professors, who were willing to work with me, you know, to fax this when I’m working extra in the classroom. They were usually supportive but you know at the end of the day their requirements have to be met. There were a few years of rehearsals, concerts, parties and dinners and all that great stuff and then having to rush back to the hotel to do my homework, and I did. Many years of that. I’m glad it’s over now.

RHM: How different is it performing in the festival in Tuscany from this one in Singapore?
SC: First of all, this is by far the biggest hall and this is the proper hall. This is an actual proper hall. You can bring any orchestra, any conductor, and this is at par with any of the great halls in the world. The one in Tuscany, it’s just small opera hall. It’s beautiful but it is not an opera hall. You can’t fit in a big orchestra. I have played with a reduced chamber orchestra. Of the opera halls in Europe and especially in Italy, they’re like little miniature jewel boxes. They’re very like visually beautiful but capacity-wise they’re smaller, and the number of seats are smaller as well. The stage there is so much smaller. You can’t fit a hundred and twenty on stage, whereas this (the Esplanade) is enormous. There are differences like that. I’ve gone to Cortona a few times. It’s just different because here like after yesterday’s concert we have this big thing at the tent, we all went out to dinner and we had drinks at the Raffles then we went clubbing. It’s really a cosmopolitan big city. There’s so much to do here. Whereas Cortona is rustic. It’s wine country. A lot of green stuff. Really, really beautiful but in a different way like all cobblestones. You don’t wear heels there because you’ll get stuck and stuff like that. It’s one of those places where there’s one strip of shops and that’s basically it. It is like in a lot of little Italian cities and you go there and you get vegetables and stuff, and there were a few shoe stores and clothing stores. I remember I was walking back after one of the rehearsals and there was this little shoe shop which is so cute, so great. The next day I tried to go back and it was closed, and that wasn’t like on a Sunday or anything else. It was just a regular Thursday, four in the afternoon. No big deal. I asked the guy the next day why were you closed, and he said my mom came so we went out, we had company and we had lunch and it sort of got late so I just closed the shop. It’s sort of like that—totally easy-going, slightly disorganized, which is charming in a way. They’re very laidback. It’s different being in small Italian city from being in a big city.

RHM: What’s your personal definition of music?
SC: For me, it’s my life. It’s a huge part of my life. It takes over most of my major decisions. In the music industry, we schedule really far in advance. So right now we’re doing my 2011 to 2012 calendar so you know what city you’ll be in, who you’ll be working with on a certain day on 2011. It adds a little bit of stability, which is really good. It’s a challenge just to live the rest of your normal life. With all this extra stuff that goes on and at the end of the day, when you go on stage and actually play and to be with an audience that is so enthusiastic, to be with an orchestra and conductor that you really click with and work really well with, then the chemistry is there, that really makes everything just click, you know. It really all works out.

RHM: If you weren’t a musician, what would you be? What other interests aside from music do you have?
SC: I was at one point really interested in journalism, not just because I do some interviews, but I love to write and all that about me. But if I wasn’t actually a violinist I would hope that I would be somehow involved in the music industry, the promotion side of it, the recording company side of it.

RHM: Who is the biggest source of inspiration in your musical career?
SC: I would say probably my teacher, Miss (Dorothy) DeLay. She passed away several years ago. But she was an incredible teacher who taught like a whole list of really wonderful, wonderful musicians. Her and Isaac Stern probably. He really had a wonderful way of keeping an eye on the next generation of musicians, and was constantly calling and asking what you are working on, when are you going to Europe, and I want to hear you playing. You know, keeping an eye out. That’s pretty impressive, to see somebody of that stature and that important and huge, and he was certainly making that effort.

RHM: Do you have one violin or several?
SC: I travel with one but back home I’ve got a few. I got one that I bring out for photo sessions. I have one sometimes for outdoor concerts. When it’s raining or really hot and humid, it’s not good for the instrument. I got another one for that. [But I have] one main, one main instrument.

RHM: How’s your relationship with your violin? Some artists can be protective of their instruments.
SC: I don’t think I would go that far, but it is pretty special. For me, it’s my life, almost like an extension of your body. You spend a lot of time with it so you get to know it pretty well. They get quite temperamental with the different climates that we’re in. It’s very, very sensitive. Over the years, you need to learn how to make it work for you, realize if you’re in a tropical climate what it will and it cannot do this for you. And if you’re somewhere really high up like in Aspen, Colorado, you realize what amazing things it can do for you. What you want to do you know after the climate but you should just be calm and just learn.

RHM: What’s your main violin?
SC: It’s a Guarneri, del Gesu. It is about 300 years old. I’m pretty lucky to have it.

RHM: What do you dream of doing?
SC: A vacation. Just a little bit of breathing time sometimes. Where I could just have a free day and like actually a free day. With my life right now I don’t know if I actually have a so-called free day. It gets jam-packed with things that my manager puts in without me knowing. At least it’s not complicated. You know what I love doing is when I finally go home like for Christmas, my little brother and I, we usually…because when you travel so much you can’t keep up with your TV shows. There’s no way, right? The weekly TV shows you try to follow like Prison Break, Lost or whatever. You go away for seven days and then like everybody’s dead. You don’t know what happened. And then your friends start telling me, and you don’t want to hear it. Normally, when I’m home for like a day and then I need to leave again, I barely had enough time to repack. Usually we went out on Christmas and get everything on DVD. My brother and I would just literally like go through all the seasons in one sitting, all day, all night. We don’t even get up for meals. We’re pretty serious about it. I love doing that. I love doing that when you just basically catch up on life.

With Spencer Day
Spencer Day, whom some critics have dubbed as the “male Norah Jones,” I got to know more the day after his performance. Like Chang, he was young, open and easygoing. We were in a room in one of the top floors of the Conrad Centennial. Against the backdrop of buildings, he gave some of his thoughts:

RHM: Any influences?
SD: I have a ton of different influences. I think it has been a challenge in the industry because I am not doing what I think a lot of people expect me to do. I had some challenges in my career because I think I am not as jazzy like Michael Buble, or I am not doing a big band thing but I am also not doing a rock thing. But I think ultimately, hopefully that would be a huge benefit, that I don’t fit into either of those categories. I also grew up listening to a lot of different sorts of good music—country or Western music. My favorite singers are Ella Fitzgerald and Chet Baker. I really think they both sing ballads so beautifully. I really consider myself a torch singer, a ballad singer. I don’t think there have been a lot of torch singers lately though, more of another time period. I want to try bring that spirit of another time but put it in a more modern context.

RHM: How does a song idea come to you?
SD: It starts with coffee. Nothing happens without coffee. So as long as the trees keep growing beans, I would have ideas hopefully. When I am stuck with an idea, what I do is listen to something, whether it’s bolero or Joni Mitchell, and listen to a song I really like and try to figure what it is that I enjoy about it, and start to play along with it. When I stop the CD, it kind of transforms to something else. Sometimes by the point that I am done, it does not sound like anything like what I have started to listen to. When I am stuck creatively, I’d like to go back to a catalog of songs that I really love and respect, and think of what it is that makes me feel good about it and try to come up with my own interpretation. Sometimes, if I am stuck creatively, to work up a challenge, I would write a love song but never use the word love in it or do something like that. Or maybe just write a song about a bottle of water and what makes you think about it. It is a great way to focus your self. I think there are a lot of artists who tend to be very scattered. I put a lot of discipline onto myself.

RHM: Do you have any idiosyncrasies or rituals before creating a song?
SD: I meditate a lot. I think creating an atmosphere wherein you can be creative is really important. That’s why I live now in the woods. I don’t live in the city. Usually I can find it when it is really quite which I do better too. I need to be alone, too. If I need to do any work calls or something like that, I have to do it on a different day. If I am going to be creative, I have to wake in the morning knowing that I have nothing else to do left to do because you are using the left part of your brain. Anytime I start thinking that I should write this song to make money or something else, it kind of ruins the creative impulse. You really need to be open and free. Yeah, I guess my real ritual is turning off my phone.

RHM: Do you have any favorite songs that you wrote?
SD: I love them all. They are like children. Even if you have one kid who’s in jail you would still love him the same. I am really proud of the song I did last night, called “Weeping Willow,” and some of the ones that are very melodically strong. I think those of the songs I most proud of. I think a lot of songwriters are saying the best song they have ever written they haven’t written it yet. It is yet to come. Maybe tonight, who knows.

RHM: Do you have a philosophy you follow?
SD: I think one of my main goals through music is to try to bring all the religions and philosophies in the world and show them what they have in common. I have been studying a lot of Buddhism recently, but I think they all have the values of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, etc.

RHM: What do you want people to remember you for?
SD: That is a very good question. I think what I want people to remember me for, long after I have gone in the earth, I hope there is a little smile in their face. I think if I could leave people feeling something or thinking something, that is my main goal. I really want to encourage people to look at the world and human beings a little differently. Even if I could only do that with one person in an audience where after they go home and encourage them to view their lives in a more positive way. That is my goal. I think musically, to just leave them with something beautiful. It is a very simple goal.

Departure
The Independent Travellers guidebook says Singapore can be represented by Sentosa: “If you were blindfolded and taken on a mystery ride to anywhere in the world and then allowed to open your eyes on Sentosa you’d know it was part of Singapore. This mixture of exquisite tackiness, anally retentive cleanliness and nitpicking attention to detail could only be Singaporean. Having said that, you mustn’t miss a bit of it. It’s what Singapore is all about.”
Wesley Gunter, a publicist for the festival who accompanied us though the events, said Sentosa is made for tourist and does not represent Singapore. If he is to pick a place, it would be Orchard Road.
Orchard Road is a mercantile place, truly representing Singapore as an economic powerhouse. It is known as a shopping area, where a lot of people from different walks of life, with different ethnic backgrounds, converge. Most Filipinos converge in one mall there, the Lucky Plaza.
Wesley may be right. The guidebook may also be right. It is actually hard to pigeonhole Singapore.
Did I see Singapore in the Sun Festival? Considering the sophistication, the cosmopolitan feel, the arts, the striving to do good and the best, probably I did. The festival is global in nature and Singapore is global, a melting pot. It is open. Everybody from different parts of the world can feel at ease, can be at home and at the same time Singapore provides them with a venue to know the unfamiliar, the foreign. They say it has no character because it is too well-planned. But there is character in everything. That it is well-planned is a character. Singapore, in its seamlessness is beautiful, a universal beauty.
My first journey to Singapore was like what the guidebook describes, being blindfolded and taken on a mystery ride. There was much life when I opened my eyes. The weather turned bad the day we departed. Lighting shattered the gray sky while we drove to airport. Its started to rain. Despite the gloominess, there was a warm glow inside from the experience of the Sun Festival.

Finding Happiness at Alegre Beach Resort

In gay lingo, there is the phrase “Alona Alegre,” after the eighties sexy starlet, meaning alone. It describes my state when I stayed in Alegre Beach Resort, a posh getaway at the northeastern part of Cebu, not a very favorable thing especially with an aching heart and in a somber weather. Cold drizzle fell during my stay in late April, jabbing at my loneliness and doubts. The place’s honeymoon feel seemed to foment uneasiness. I often enjoyed solitude and serenity. Still involved in a trying affair, I was reacquainting myself with the sweetness of solitude, now in an exquisite setting.

Alegre is Spanish for “happiness,” so I tried to find it. I knew that it can be found in little things as much as in grand things—little things like dainty flowers on the bed and on the table, dewdrops on grass, the smell of old books and fresh soap, a faint smile, the softness of pillows and beds, a tiny seashell on the shore, the taste of a new dish with makopa, an old song, the fresh scent of rain, the falling of dried leaves on a windy day, the sight of an unfamiliar bird straying to the verandah, etc., and grand things like a spectacular sunset, a stretch of white-sand beach, a well-appointed room with spacious bathroom and bathtub all for yourself, etc. They may not solve problems but their beauty, if we can perceive and appreciate it, inspires us and invigorates to go on. There are many happinesses.

Alegre Beach Resort seems to have all the instruments for and embodiments of happiness. I opened the doors of my room, well-equipped, tasteful and promising an enjoyable stay. The wooden floors are polished and felt good on the feet. The furnishings were made of woven palms leaves or vines or had woven accents. The two beds were nice and comfortable. The room had amenities befitting a five-star resort— satellite television with in-house movies, tea and coffee maker, an in-room safe, IDD telephone, individually controlled air-conditioning system, a mini bar, among others. At the other end of the room was the spacious bathroom, a delight. The bathtub sat at the middle.

I let myself fall on the bed, smelled the clean bed sheet and hugged a large pillow, imbibing the serenity and the plushiness. Every now and then, I looked at the door and the verandah that opened to the view of the sky and sea.

Mostly I stayed this cocooned during my stay and roamed the resort premises. I did not venture out, uncharacteristic of me, especially being first time in this part of the Visayan island. Maybe I felt unadventurous or lazy. Alegre is located in the barangay of Calumboyan, a rather remote part of Sogod. There is a long trek out to the highway or town center. I procrastinated venturing out and ultimately reserved exploring Sogod to another trip.

“There is an attractive hot spring nearby, several waterfalls, a cottage industry producing woven products as well as other handicrafts, the local market with seafood products, several Old Spanish churches…” Alegre’s German-Austrian general manager Fritz Kahler enumerated the interesting sites in the area.

I could imagine them. Alegre’s “unusual” location is an attraction to me. In Cebu, most resorts clustered in or around the capital, Cebu City, and the nearby island of Mactan, including a Shangri-La property, the Plantation Bay Resort and Spa, the Pulchra Resort, the Hilton Resort and Spa, and the Maribago Bluewater Resort, all well-known. Resorts also are flourishing in the southern part of the province where there are numerous dive spots, the town of Moalboal in particular. There also is the beautiful Badian Island Resort and Spa in Badian, most well-known and posh among them.

The resorts in the city and in Mactan enjoy accessibility with the Mactan International Aiport just several minutes away. On the other hand, Sogod is about 80 kilometers away, about one-and-a-half hour drive.

“It seems to be a disadvantage [being in Sogod] when talking to travel agents due to the ‘long travel,’ but once guests travel [to the resort] they are generally enjoying the trip. We try to place emphasis on the fact that you get to see an interesting part of the island such as the fishing villages, the old Spanish churches etc.,” Kahler admitted.

“Most important is the natural white-sand beach. This is where Sogod got its name,” Kahler pointed to the one good quality of the town. “South of Sogod, all the sand is black.”
Kahler has been with Alegre Beach Resort for three years now and had been in the Philippines since 1978. “I have lived in the Philippines before, have a Filipina as my wife so I am traveling in and out for about 30 years,” he related.

Born in Klagenfurt, Austria, Kahler had been posted in many countries. Before Alegre, he “came from setting up a resort in Shenzhen, China, and “prior to that I was managing hotels and resorts in Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore among others.”

“I worked for ten years for Shangri-La and 15 years for InterContinental Hotels,” he added.
Also, he was the general manager of the Punta Baluarte InterContinental in Calatagan, Batangas, and the Davao Insular Hotel from 1978 to 1982.

“I had been to Cebu many times but am a bit disappointed how polluted and dirty it has become. Too much traffic and no solutions in sight,” Kahler lamented but added, “While Cebu is really the second largest city in the Philippines, it is in a way relatively small, and therefore despite heavy traffic one doesn’t spend hours stuck in traffic unlike in Manila. I go regularly to Manila; have been to Baguio, Boracay, Hundred Islands; traveled by car from Manila to Cebu, Davao, Batangas.”

Still, “the friendliness and smile of the people, the fact that they all speak English” made a good impression on the hospitality executive, perhaps enough to have a Filipina wife, Cynthia Valmonte, whom he met at Punta Baluarte while she was the food and beverage manager there.
Still, whenever he can he goes to the city to “try other restaurants and wines I haven’t tried before.” This he does during spare time if not listening to music, reading and playing golf and tennis, but “there isn’t so much time off since I live inside the resort,” he averred.

It may not be a very bad thing since the 17-year-old resort is lovely, an attraction itself despite the disadvantage of distance. You can go all the way only for the resort itself.

Alegre Beach Resort nestles on a slope that goes down to three coves with white sand. The whole property is actually 27 hectares, only seven hectares of which are developed. The developed area is beautifully landscaped with lush gardens.

“Its spacious layout offers privacy to its guests. Beautiful gardens with numerous flowering plants and trees complement the overall concept,” Kahler said.

Amidst the gardens are the accommodations—large huts they call cabanas. There are 19 of them, handsome with thick grass roof. Each has two separate rooms, totaling to 38.
“Alegre uses local and Spanish design features,” Kahler further explained. “Materials used are mainly from the area such as cogon, wood, etc, and the accommodation is spacious offering high-class comfort indoors and outdoors on the verandahs.”

The rooms can be called modern rustic. It is not the rustic in the sense that they are rough and plain. It is the kind that ensouls modern luxury. In the room, I loved the things that surrounded me. In the bathroom, I sniffed the soap that looked like a bar of white chocolate and smelled of peppermint candy. I almost ate it. The bathtub was strewn with flower petals, waiting for warm water and a warm body. I deemed a bath too luxurious for me at the moment. I opted to wander about.

The cabanas are connected by narrow paths made of coral stone and limestone, with thick and tall hedges bordering them. Sometimes, my walk took some time; I often stopped and looked at the fossils. The path goes to different cabanas, to the spa, to the three coves, to the restaurant, to the main reception area.

The Alegre Spa, once a guest cabana converted into the Serenity Cabana overlooking Talisay Beach, is of Zen Oriental design with hand-painted walls and embellished with handicrafts and tapestries from Indonesia. It offers massages, body wraps, body scrubs, facials and indulgences packages.

The three coves are named Talisay, Crescent and Fisherman’s with white sand and beach lounges with cobalt-blue cushions. The largest, Talisay, has the Cliff Seafood BBQ and Bar, also with a roof of dried grass, offering cocktails and beer, salads and freshly grilled meats and seafood catch of the day. Chairs and tables are set under the talisay trees with music, the Latin and reggae types, softly melding with the splashing of the shore.

At Fisherman’s Cove, the aqua sports center offer diving paraphernalia, diving tours and water activities. The list of diving sites in northern Cebu proves to be exciting—coral gardens, shipwrecks, a wreck of a lighthouse, and the marine sanctuary, which is maintained by the resort right at their marine doorstep.

“[The resort’s] owners are the Pathfinder Corporation, based in Manila and Hong Kong. Owners are divers hence the special emphasis on a dive station,” Kahler informed.
Non-divers can opt for snorkeling, kayaking, banana boating, Jet-skiing, plain boating, cruising, fishing and bird watching.

The sunset cruise and dolphin watching offer is particularly interesting. Bottle-nosed and long-snouted spinner dolphins are commonly spotted. Sometimes melon-headed and pilot whales show up. You can have island adventures to the Camotes, Calanggaman, Quatro Islas, Capitancillo and Olango, a bird sanctuary, which has restaurants on stilts in the barangay of Caw-oy. Olango Island is the destination for bird-watchers with the largest concentration of migratory birds found in the country, 48 out of the 77 species in the East Asian Migratory Flyway. This is aside from the 42 resident bird species. For fishing, one can expect to catch trevally, jacks, barracudas, groupers, snappers and mullets. From November to February, there are the additional Spanish mackerel, wahoo, bonito, mahi-mahi and small tuna species.

Alegre Beach Resort also offers a host of non-water tours and activities. Aside from the one-hole putting green of Alegre, the resort can take golfer guests to Mercedes Golf Course in Dayhagon, Medellin, and Club Filipino in Pulangyuta, Danao City. Their wives can have a shopping spree in Cebu City. There is a gift shop inside the resort, by the way.

On Sunday, the resort can take the religious to Sogod’s church and the non-religious to the cockfight at the town proper. The urban excursionist has a tour of Cebu City, while the outdoorsy types can have biking and trekking trips. Biking from Calumboyan to the town of Borbon is recommended. There is a tennis court for the Agassi wannabe. Indoor games and board games can be had at the game room. Look for interesting reads in its library. The resort also put up cultural shows. There are many diversions.

The conference rooms and the business center are for those who meant, well, business. They are at the airy, grass-roofed main reception hall with a chandelier made of a big wheel. It overlooks a 47-meter swimming pool with two children’s pools, which in turn overlook the Camotes Sea.
At one end of the resort is a gazebo overlooking the sea. The afternoon I stumbled on it, it was set up for a private romantic dinner. Bougainvillea blossoms were strewn on the path and the floor. The posts were adorned with fern leaves. The balls of light were on and the table carefully arranged. Someone will propose, I surmised.

There have been weddings here—“several dream weddings where guests from all over the world rented the whole resort for several days, an unforgettable way to get married,” Kahler recounted.

Beside the swimming pool is the resort’s main dining place, the Pavilion, an old but charming restaurant perched on a cliff. Its executive chef Martin Przewodnik oversees the preparation of Filipino, Asian and international dishes with pizza, pasta and seafood. There is a healthy “spa menu” and the chef’s specially selected items, slowly cooked in their wood-fired brick oven. Requiring advance order, the special items include baked fish of the day, U.S. beef top blade or pork leg in clay, and barbecued fish of the day, U.S. beef top blade or pork leg in banana trunk.
There is the regular buffet, which I largely partook. My food diary, April 25, 2008, entry listed mushroom salad, crabmeat and corn soup, rice salad, roasted potatoes, shrimp sisig Alegre style, chicken baked in tomato and pesto, macopa salad, chocolate cherry cake and seasonal fruits. The following night was largely Filipino—seafood sinigang, grilled liempo and parrotfish and kaldereta. There was my comment: “Delicious!”

During dinner, a band serenaded diners, who are mostly couples. I am okay with dining alone, but the though of people wondering about my solitude made my uneasy. I communed with my food, the flickering flame on the table and the night.

If not preoccupied with anything, I noted the other guests. Kahler said that Filipinos form three-fifth of their clientele and the rest are foreigners. “The Philippine nationals, either residing here or balikbayans,” he said. “Second is the Japanese, then the Koreans followed by Russians and others.”

“Local guests are mostly families, many for reunions, and balikbayans,” Kahler explained. “From the Korean market, it’s honeymooners. From the Japanese market, it’s mostly families as well as honeymooners. From Hong Kong, we get families who either purely come to relax or go diving and to play golf.”

All of course are in pursuit of happiness. Happiness though is always of the hedonistic kind. Pleasure can be derived from helping others and doing something for the community, which the resort itself also pursues.

“Alegre is firstly a very eco-friendly resort,” Kahler said. “It recycles all water for use in the gardens, collects rainwater for use in the laundry, staff accommodation and engineering, heats water for the kitchen using the excess heat of its pizza oven, grows organic vegetables and produces its own compost from leaves and grass.”

One manifestation of the resort’s ecological endeavor is the maintenance of a marine sanctuary, with a coral reef recovery and desiltation program that aims to preserve and protect the reef ecosystem and restore the biodiversity of the area. According to Kahler, it is a milestone for Algere, this “successful creation of our marine sanctuary, which contributed to a healthy increase in the fish population, which not only made the resort more attractive to guests but assists local fisherman in increasing their catch.”

Kahler further said, “Secondly, [the resort has] responsibility to the community. It supports community projects year round and subsidizes two schools. Thirdly, Alegre supports schools with a hospitality curriculum by accepting its students on a regular basis, training suitable candidates from the base up and hiring suitable candidates whenever a position is available. Promotion from within is a policy.”

I left Alegre Beach Resort very early morning. It was still dark, but we began our drive to the airport, passing by still sleeping towns, beautiful in their desolation. I did not think of the meaning of the name Alegre and instead had an image of Alegre as a place of quiet wonder.

Getting There
Several airlines travel to Cebu daily, landing at the Mactan International Airport. From the airport, Alegre is about 80 kilometers away (90 minutes by car). From Cebu City, Alegre is 66 kilometers away (85 minutes by car). Alegre Beach Resort is at Calumboyan, Sogod, Cebu.

Contact Information
Alegre Beach Resort’s reservation office at Sogod has telephone numbers (+63 32) 254-9800, 2549811 and 2549822 local 172, and direct line: (+63 32) 255-6388; fax: number (+63 32) 254-9833; emails reserve@alegrebeachresort.com and guest@alegrebeachresort.com; postal address P.O. Box 1094, Cebu City Philippines.
The Cebu sales and reservation office is at Nivel Hills, Lahug, Cebu City, with telephone number (+63 32) 231-1198, fax number (+63 32) 233-7944, and email address cbusales@alegrebeachresort.com.
The Metro Manila sales and reservations office is at Unit 1204, Tycoon Center, Pearl Drive, Ortigas Center, Pasig City, with telephone numbers (+63 2) 634 7505 to 07, fax number (+63 2) 633-1833, and email address alegresales@pldtdsl.net.
The Tokyo general sales agent is Sanyo International with office at the fourth floor of Nonaka Bldg., 1-18-2 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo, Japan, with telephone number (+81 3) 3461-8585, fax number (+81 3) 3461-8550, and email address sanyo-reservations@k8.dion.ne.jp.
Log on to www.alegrebeachresort.com.