Encountering God
I REMEMBER the years that I spent in the minor seminary, particularly those times when I would walk around the grounds of the seminary on a stormy morning, singing psalms…
Category: Life & Style
Covering the week’s most noteworthy life & style news stories impacting the Filipino-American and Global Filipino community.
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The Consular Staff and their niceties of protocol
DIPLOMATIC service, like life, is about the important, the amusing, the humane. At one level, it is routine and technique. But at its highest level, it is an art. Often…
A Grand Cotillion highlights 2014 Fiesta in America
The Philippine Fiesta, now aptly tagged Fiesta in America, has been consistently celebrating its cultural festival since its inception 15 years ago and on August 15 it’s turning a new…
DNA: Who is the Daddy?
What does DNA stand for? DNA stands for DeoxyriboNucleic Acid, the “substance” that is analyzed in the state-of-the-art test to determine paternity, and in other cases, maternity. The genetic information…
Buko featuring your suki
You are resting in your living room, and you hear the most distinct sound you are very well acquainted with – your “suki” shouts “buko.” Automatically, you get up and…
Remembering President Cory
I covered the presidential term, sailing through its choppy waters while chronicling President Cory’s wavy patterns of success and glory; laughter and grief; loss and devastation; troubles and genuine delights. Through the oppressive…
Of wonder and awe
FR. RONALD Rolheiser, O.M.I. contends that there is an important distinction between “amazement” and “wonder and awe.” He says that wonder and awe stop the flow of energy passing through…
Pinoy artist designs new National Humanities Award medal
PAETE, Laguna native, now Chicago-based Paul Balan recently exhibited Pinoy artistry when he was chosen to design the prestigious National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) Medal. This award is given to…
What makes a perfect beauty pageant?
THERE is no correct or incorrect answer to that question—only an honest or dishonest one. Because you can’t deny its reality: it is about values, beliefs, love, money, integrity, generosity…
Eight hopefuls vie for the first ever FIA International King & Queen crowns
Fiesta in America (FIA) launches the first ever international beauty and talent search this side of the eastern seaboard in connection with its 16th year of celebrating the grandiosity of…
Ballroom dancing
Is ballroom dancing good for everyone? For the majority of people who love to dance, ballroom dancing is one of the best exercises for cardiovascular fitness. Only those with medical…
You are bound to be there
THE rap artist Andrew E. gave people, at an early age, a picture of what Malate is in his song Banyo Queen—a place where one can have fun with an…
The other side of news reporting
Interviews come in many ways. Some regard it as a battle, a delightful minuet. Others call it theater piece. That is why I am reluctant to write about fashion, showbiz,…
Sunday night at the ER
All of LA County’s sufferings come through the doors of the emergency room. Accidents, shootings, heart attacks, beatings, rapes, suicides—just as gory and heart stopping when I was covering the…
Becoming all flame!
“BY and large the world is a good place,” claims Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, author of Sacred Fire: A Vision for a Deeper Human and Christian Maturity. “But among all those…
It’s raining and we won’t stop 2.0
THIS article, a continuation of last week’s, was originally intended for outdoor activities during the rainy season in the Philippines. However, with the present condition, it would be nonsensical and…
Once upon a press club
There was once a press club in the heart of a city where everyone lived in harmony with each other and their surroundings. Photographers and writers: they were affable and comrades among…
“Unitas: Muslim and Christian artists in one exhibit”
Eid’l Fitr marks the end of Ramadan for Muslims all around the world. It is an event that brings together brothers and sisters ofIslam with a chance to celebrate their faith together. The end offasting brings…
Mariedel Leviste, M.D.: Any challenge can be fun
The piece began as an act of friendship, arranged by super lawyer Roman P. Mosqueda. It was a conversation-interview supposed to draw a portrait of Dr. Mariedel Leviste, a portrait without…
On being patient with ourselves
“BUT though you are master of might, you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us; for power, whenever you will, attends you. And you taught your people,…
Toms River medical practitioners hold roaring 20s-themed dinner-dance gala
Away from the bustling hubbub of the asphalt jungle where the “predatory struggle” for survival seem unbounded and the tiring restlessness of the daily grind exists exuberantly, a multitude of…
It’s raining and we won’t stop 1.0
The noontime sunlight no longer keeps their brows frowned and the stars at night are already absent from their view. More importantly, beds become a favorite and cuddling becomes a…
A poignant hormonal mischief
Women called it “pause.” It is a new perspective coming into view in every woman’s major life passage: A midlife agitation, literal and poignant. First, the gushing, like the reddening…
The Street Sweeper
WHAT a noble trade, the sweeper’s trade. It consists of sweeping the filth we produce, of making our existence less infected. Mindless and ungrateful are those who use the word…
The world as my tabernacle
REMEMBERING Barbara Brown Taylor’s book, “An Altar in World,” I caught myself saying to a friend as we were driving along California coast that the world is my “tabernacle.” By…
Jericho Rosales echoes at the 2014 Fiesta in America
The road to success has always been hurdled with enormous encumbrances and impediments to test one’s endurance and capability to survive. We’re all brought to this world destined to bear…
T’was that river
Where fishermen tossed their rods, where women laundered cloths and washed dishes, where children jumped off a bridge—that was Pasig River. Pasig River was a major source of food and…
The daughter I could never have
THE apple that fell far from the tree…one I could only dream of—a perfect newshen. God’s little pencil. I would have taught her to begin each work by having a…
Alagad ng Sining
If there is a topic both sophisticated enough to be the talk over a hotel table or common enough to be heard along the hallways of a wet market, it…
An evening at the opera
I CAN never quell stirs of fascination, dread and longing when the house lights dim and the curtain parts, but the enjoyment of an opera can begin, not with the…