Weekly Photo Challenge: Intricate Indian Warli Art

An Indian friend and schoolmate brought me once to a rural village located outside Bombay. We traveled some four hours from Pune. It was rainy and the road was quite muddy. It was an unforgettable day because I slide down the slippery road — a la  skating on ice though I have never experienced that. Nevertheless, it was worth the effort because we met the Indian tribal artist, Mr. Mase if I recall his name correctly. I marveled at his intricate art works which he created using only matchsticks and tempera paints. I wonder if he is still using the same tools and materials. His works depicted Indian wedding rituals and community celebrations. His detailed drawings were done on brown paper covered with cow dung.

Tribal Artwork Made Using Matchsticks and White Tempera Paints

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/intricate/

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Monument / Empire State Building

Empire State Building is a monument to man’s architectural genius. The 103-storey building which opened in 1931 used to be the tallest in the US. Currently, it is “the fourth-tallest completed skyscraper in the United States (after the One World Trade Center, the Willis Tower and Trump International Hotel and Tower, both in Chicago.” [Wikipedia]. It was drizzling when we went there but tourists flocked to it despite the not-so-good weather. I guess not visiting it would make the journey to NY incomplete that’s why our hosts brought us to the Observatory Deck on the 86th floor.

The grandeur of the Empire State Building located in Midway Manhattan, New York City. [View from the ground level]

The view upon entering the building

Closer shot of the wall

Turn around and against the light, this is what you’d see.

“Look at the Empire State Building spire!!!” Umm! Nothing really spectacular-looking, isn’t it? But it was more the fun of going up the Observatory Deck with close relatives that made the experience memorable…and of course, marveling while queueing and waiting for our turn at man’s architectural attempt to try to get near to “heaven” !!! LOL!

View from the Observatory Deck

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Daily Prompt: Money for Nothing / Film Sharing

The photos below are culmination of the work I love doing: documentary film making or using film as a research tool. It was in 2003 when I started producing my own documentaries that are largely research-backed, oral history in format and advocacy in nature. My subjects are centered on special children. The reward is largely psychic in nature… I otherwise work as film editor of full-length commercial and short films by independent filmmakers.

Introducing my latest video docu on special children – this time focused on Trisomy 21 or Down Syndrome

The event was held this month of February. Details of the event were posted last week.

Special showing in a special place: at the Film Center of the University of the Philippines where I used to work as researcher. On the screen is a devoted mother of a Child with Down Syndrome who used to believe that only poor people have children with the said condition, until she got exposed to CDS of rich families in a sports event participated in by her son.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/02/15/prompt-money-for-nothing/

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Daily Prompt: Tongue_Cuneiform

Tongue is always equated with language –and language can be written, read and be visual like sign language. The early writing system known as cuneiform recorded the tongue of the past.  Cuneiform came from the Latin word cuneus “wedge” and forma “shape,” and came into English usage “probably from Old French cunéiforme” according to wikipedia. Cuneiform was adapted for the writing of Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hattic, Hurrian, Urartian and Old Persian languages up to 1st century AD from 31st c BC. Just don’t know how I’d fare had I live during those days!!! I am just amazed at how people speak several languages like my artist-friend Rowena Ulayan, now based in in Turkey. Fondly called Weng [see Feb 9 blogpost] she speaks eight languages. The Philippines’ national hero — our hero — Dr. Jose Rizal by the way spoke 22 languages! He was most fluent in Spanish, German, French, Latin and Hebrew.

A few cuneiform writings nearly the size of an i-phone are displayed at the Museum of Anatolian Civilization [Anadolu Medeniyetleri Muzesi], the other museum I visited in Ankara, Turkey.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/daily-post-take-that-rosetta/

Daily Prompt: Selfie with Mr. Ataturk

Inside Ataturk Mausoleum located in Ankara, Turkey, I took a shot of my shadow right in front of his tomb. My companions were outside the building at the time. Since I found the vignette kind of artistic, with roses positioned beside it, I took several shots of myself.

These schoolchildren who came ahead of me brought flowers for their hero.

But as this child couldn’t go near Ataturk’s tomb, she preferred instead to throw the flower to get nearer the hero.

This is where the tomb of Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic is placed and treated with so much reverence by its people.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/02/07/weekly-photo-challenge-selfie/

Daily Prompt: World’s Best Widget / Radio

This was my father’s radio — something he must have used before and immediately after the War. Well, I found it inside a sack and saw it disintegrating. I got curious as to how an old radio looks like. Inside the old and destroyed wood covering were tubes that I found quite interesting. Beyond it, I saw sculptural forms, I decided not to throw the object to the bin.

Radio, then and now remains to be one of the most important means of communication, “a medium that reaches the widest audience worldwide.” Digital technology is not able to quite knock down radio’s popularity til now, so much so that UNESCO proposed the holding of World Radio Day on February 13, a day they say “to celebrate radio as a medium; to improve international cooperation between broadcasters; and to encourage major networks and community radio alike to promote access to information, freedom of expression and gender equality over the airwaves.”

I heard the news from the radio just a day after I have decided not to throw my father’s radio away. No regrets! I enjoy looking at it and how airwaves could possibly pass through those tubes and nations away be heard… I believe radio is one of the world’s best widget!

The tubes are marked Sylvania, made in USA and Hitachi and Gemini, made in Japan: ironically the two Powers that fought over our country during World War II. Sigh!

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/02/07/daily-prompt-machines/

Daily Prompt: The Power of Touch_Year 1166 Records

Texture abound in Istanbul, Turkey. Last month, I spent hours at Hagia Sophia, touched and felt some of what I saw and looked at with awe. I traveled back in time…somehow.

Touching the slab…. It is described as a record of decisions passed by a supreme religious assembly held at Hagia Sophia in 1166.

Though just a copy, there was that feeling of riding back in time by merely looking at them.

Size of the slabs in the 3rd photo above can be gauged by the height of the man standing in front of the tomb near the synod records

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/daily-prompt-textures/

Daily Prompt: The Excitement Never Ends / Fort McHenry

The joy and excitement that i had with my relatives in the U.S. shall never end every time I’d look see at this photo taken at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland last July. It isn’t often that our feet gets off the ground. This is one of those rare times. Surely, we all had lots of fun!

[L to R] Te, Rose, Even, me, Ronnie, Oying and Angel. Photo by Rowell

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/daily-prompt-excitement/comment-page-1/#comments

Daily Prompt: Blogger with a Cause_Focus on Sped Children

WordPress Daily Prompt: If your day to day responsibilities were taken care of and you could throw yourself completely behind a cause, what would it be?

My response is: It would be realizing my dream of making one documentary film each on special children and persons with disability for awareness campaign purposes to make our citizens, especially in the rural areas to see these people’s potentials … for the audience to see what they CAN DO, not what they are not capable of doing … for the audience to know and understand their condition so that they can welcome them to the society. I have been working along this line since 2006, sparked by my grandniece with autism. Since then, I continue to advocate for inclusive society for these people through my films. And no matter how long I take to make one because of lack of resources, God provides somehow.

For a while, I have again set aside my work on the Cerebral Palsied to collaborate with my niece on a project focused on Down Syndrome. Since we are working along the same line of thinking, it isn’t difficult for me to align with her own target and objectives. Still in production stage, I have yet to interview a geneticist. Afterall, my working title which keeps on evolving is: “KIDS THREE 21.” It refers to the extra chromosome 21 that causes Down Syndrome.

One of our subjects

Interview with the mother of a child with Down Syndrome

John Mark Yulo. He wasn’t able to go to school but he is functional among all the persons with Down Syndrome that I have so far met. He can communicate and expresses his likes and dislikes clearly. He is, well, like all others with Down Syndrome very affectionate.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/daily-prompt-help/

Weekly Photo Challenge: Extraordinary / Hindu Wedding in America

I lived in Pune, India for three-in-a-half years but it was only last July 27 [US time] that I have actually attended an Indian wedding. The  irony was the fact that I witnessed the wedding in the U.S.A. Held at Dover Downs Hotel in Delaware, the wedding was between my grandniece, a Filipino-American, and an Indian descent-American. Both were born in America. As it was held in a hotel, the place was set up and designed to have a raised platform where the  bride and groom, their parents and the pandit could sit as the Hindu rites was celebrated. It was thus like watching a play. The music and prayers of the Indian priest made me nostalgic of India… Familiar with Catholic rites, watching the Hindu rites was an experience.

A Catholic wedding in the morning was first held in the church, followed by the Hindu wedding in the afternoon in a ballroom function hall. The grand reception was held at night. It was a BIG event for both sides. Touching and emotional “speeches” were delivered by each of the bride and groom’s fathers and a brother of the groom. Unfortunately, my camera battery ran out of power… [Note: I borrowed the photos and used here until I find my camera. Photos above by Angel Villafuerte; below is from the collection of the bride’s sister]

Simple yet beautiful the bride was, hours before the actual Catholic wedding

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/07/26/out-of-this-world/