Diplomacy: A performance art
The art of diplomacy is a blend of fact, fiction and poetry, with its peculiar commerce of hints and harmonious overtures. Like life, it is about the important, the unimportant,…
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How to cook someone in a comic war
It was “hail, hail the gags are all here” at the Beverly Hills Country Club on a recent Saturday night. We were spurred by the charity roast or maybe the…
Maestro Dexter Grey’s dexterity upon the magnificent-sounding pianoforte
At the Griffith Hall Beverly Hills Club, there was compelled admiration and awe from the elite guests, which grew in every note that Maestro Dexter Grey touched. The Maestro gave…
A night for scribes and artists
THE Beverly Hills Country Club was the perfect venue. It’s where tradition, elegance and memories met in a night of music, accolade, drama, dancing and the much-vaunted “celebrity roast” of…
The enjoyment of reading
It is the art of entertaining oneself with the brains of other men. I dedicate a considerable portion of my time with other people — reading their thoughts and their…
Inspiration and the sweetness of poetry
Poetry, we’ve been taught, can open the innermost valve of the imagining heart through stirring and murmuring the delicately woven allure of words. There are no barriers to the inner…
‘A Day of Valor’ and remembrance
It was time once more to honor the men and women and what they died for, in a moment of celebration, despite the bloody cost. It is always a proud…
The riddle of sickness
It is called the pompous sickness — the spell which hushes the household, with its desert-like stillness felt through its innermost chambers. One in a world unto herself, her own…
The perils of Kristeta
A long, long time ago, Kris Aquino and I sat together by the steps of the Guest House (the official residence of then, President Cory Aquino). We goofed around at…
Spiritual postscripts
The lenten season for this year has finally ended, with the celebration of Easter last Sunday. Lent is the season when words and teachings of Christ are presented in a…
Beautiful and poetic stories from the Bible
The Bible was written for the heart, as well as for the mind and the will. It was written for us. It can enlighten, enable, enrich and encourage us, if…
Spring once more
Spring has sprung. It is upon us in a scent that grows deeper, dizzying, improbable. It is too heady, too provocative to be diminished. Seeping through open windows, under doors,…
The Vatican: A haven like no other
The State of the Vatican has no aimless, uninvited wanderers. You sign up for an escorted tour of the gardens, the museums, see the wonders such as the Sistine chapel…
Hope and inspiration from Greenfund Philippines
I was summoned by an invitation to attend a presscon at a quaint café called LA Rose. Green-topped tables groaning with mouth-watering dishes made an auspicious start of a thoroughly…
Humor laughs its way into the heart
Unlike the poisoned barb of satire and the killing point of wit, humor is healing. It is not only wholesome, but re-creative and rejuvenating — a jest that breaks no…
Pacquiao–Marquez V maybe bigger right now than a Mayweather fight – Arum
In the pugilistic arena, good stories are good stories, regardless of who tells them. Sports writers cobble these group of juicy pieces of fistic delights: vivid, immediate, firsthand, reported with…
Until tomorrow comes
I can believe that good is manifested from every experience that comes into our lives. Cancer is not a death sentence and I’ve been battling it for seven years, six…
The aching impermanence of power: The fall of President Marcos
Something odd was happening. Faced with popular protest and revolt in the army, President Marcos left Malacañang Palace in a US Airforce Huey helicopter on the evening of February 25,…
The world of gossip
Some love it or hate it. Others write about it or repeat it. The obsession for gossip seems to be here to stay: from what we read and see, from…
The main events of the week that was
Part of the weekly excitement of LA Weekend Asian Journal is to record events that matter in pictures and words: its pleasure, joys, even the little crises. Pictures matter because they mirror…
The splendor of moonlight
I admire a contented mind — one that reveres enlightenment of simple things. Yet, in quiet meditation, the one emotion that’s hardest to fight against is a longing for all…
Fides Ecclesiae: A celestial voyage at the Pantages
The curtain rises and stays raised. Behind its footlights are nuggets of musical lores and unpublished anecdotes, which are mined from press and personal sources—setting the tone of what dwells…
The greatest love is not bound by rules
Why do some people experience enduring love (which lasts a lifetime), while others are only destined to love for a short time? Why are there those who separate, either by…
PH town mayor Jay Valencia: Gone but not forgotten
Jay Valencia would have loved the community tribute organized by his friends at FACLA. It had decorum and dash that were his special style — it was both style and…
Enduring hormonal mischief
It is the new perspective coming into view in every woman’s major life passage: a mid-life agitation, literal and poignant. First, the gushing, like the reddening of a dying tree…
An evening of Frederic Chopin at the Holly Mont Castle
Chopin’s music—confided and played from the heart by Maestro Dexter Grey — was like listening to mingled prayers of broken hearts, the revolt of fettered souls, the pain of slavery,…
Not guns, but bullets that kill
They consist of running bits of metals through the flesh of men — large, small, pointed, square, round and splintered bits that tear and kill. It is not the metal…
With Filipinos in their hearts, noted Fil-Am fundraiser welcomes Ms. Jo Ann Kyle
They all came to “meet and greet” ABS-CBN Foundation International Managing Director, Ms. Jo Ann Kyle in her recent LA visit. Driven by a culture of caring and sharing and…
Women and equality in the battle scene
Some things light up — an uneasiness that, at first, you wouldn’t know how to define. But then you eventually do, and a shudder rises up and down your spine….