Lifestyle

A hospital in the United Kingdom is mourning the death of a “much loved” Filipina nurse, whose husband is from Negros Occidental.The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital announced on its website that it loss its Emergency Department nurse Estrella Bersamen Catalan, 52, one of its much loved staff members, to COVID-19 on Friday, February 5.Catalan, who is from Candijay, Bohol, was married to Melvin Catalan, an engineer from La Carlota City, Negros Occidental.The hospital statement said she had been receiving treatment in the hospital’s Critical Care Complex, when she passed away.Sam Higginson, NNUH chief executive, said: "She was a wonderful person and a caring and conscientious nurse, who loved to teach and mentor students…she will be terribly missed.”“We know this w...

The Kabankalan City Tourism Office, in cooperation with the City Culture and Arts Council (CCAC), will hold a mural painting activity in celebration of the National Arts Month this February, Anne Zayco said today, February 8.The mural painting will be dubbed “Pagsaulog sang Maragtas (A Celebration of Heritage).”The activity will be conducted at the Kabankalan Cultural and Sports Center starting February 9, until Thursday, February 11. The painting will showcase the city’s major festivals - the Sinulog de Kabankalan festival and the Udyakan Festival, Zayco said.It will serve as the backdrop of the Cultural Hub performance area. The Cultural Hub is the renovated municipal hall, she added.The painting’s formal installation is tentatively scheduled on March 14, during the 114th...

VIVA ExCon Dasun VCon 2 had a very interesting discussion on the responses of artists when calamity strikes, most especially during the pandemic.Featured are the national feeding initiative by the Art Relief Mobile Kitchen and local response in the form of waves of assistance from ArtHeals Fundraising.Alex Baluyut and Precious Leaño of Art Relief Mobile Kitchen, also known as ARMK, is marking seven years of 24/7 monitoring and addressing the hunger needs of people affected by tragedy and calamity.The operations began during typhoon Yolanda when they decided to brave ground zero and deliver 10 tons of food to Tacloban feed and serve them Christmas dinner. They then proceeded to Hernani, Samar which was the turning point for ARMK. Their community volunteers may be SK members...

Alyx Arumpac's "Aswang," a film that portrays the grim aftermath of the Duterte administration's war on drugs, is eligible for consideration in the documentary feature category of the 93rd Academy Awards.The film qualified after winning the prestigious White Goose Award at the 12th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, Asia's largest documentary festival, which took place in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Korea in September 2020."I am very grateful to Jomari, Brother Jun Santiago of the Redemptorist Brothers, everyone who shared their lives and stories with us and everyone else that I worked with on this film. I am happy that our efforts to shed light on how vast a problem the drug war is in the Philippines is garnering more attention worldwide" says Arumpac."Aswang" follows...

Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson and Darlyn Rebatado Blancia*For the first time in the history of the province of Negros Occidental, an Indigenous Peoples (IP) scholar passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) Level 3 or N3 in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan.She is Darlyn Rebatado Blancia from the upland barangay of Kumaliskis in Salvador Benedicto and a recipient of the Negros Occidental Scholarship Program under the assistance to Grade 10 students in Miyakonojo Higashi High School, Japan, category.Darlyn, who is the youngest among five siblings, was 15 years old when she applied for a scholarship in Japan in 2018. She was raised by her mother, Merlinda Blancia, singlehandedly, along with her siblings because they were abandoned by their father more than a decade ago.Her mot...

Have you been talked into lending someone money even if you couldn’t afford to?Have you been pushed to do an errand meant for someone else just because you felt guilty for not being the “good” guy?Have you become so drained by constantly giving way too much too often?Then maybe it’s time to set and fortify healthy boundaries.Whether in personal relationships or at work, the ability to cultivate healthy boundaries is not only a matter of protecting your mental health but it can also help you become financially stable, more productive, and avoid toxic relationships.Setting boundaries is not a matter of selfishness or walling yourself up in loneliness and despair. On the contrary, deciding on healthy boundaries open up doors for people and things that really matter to...

The Institute of the Moving Image will be partnering with the Philippine Italian Association for MOVIEMOV, the Italian film festival on February 1-6, 2021. This will showcase Italian films with talks from the filmmakers.Following the great success of the past editions in Bangkok, Manila and Hanoi, Moviemov Italian Film Festival returns to the Philippines with its 10th edition. The festival will take place in an out-and-out virtual movie house, thanks to the participation of My Movies, bringing once more the best of the new Italian cinema to the Philippines.The guest of honor of this 10th edition will be the actress Sara Serraiocco, one of the new international faces of the Italian cinema.“Given the measures taken to contain the spread of the pandemic in Asia,” the two arti...

The Performance Laboratory Inc. (PerfLab) in partnership with the Women Playwrights’ International – Philippines, Teatrokon: West Visayas Theater Network, International Theatre Institute – International Playwright’s Forum, and the University of St. La Salle will hold the Kuris Theater International Festival and Workshops in Bacolod City on, February 17– 20.The celebration is being held in February that was declared National Arts Month in Presidential Proclamation No. 683 dated January 28, 1991, a press release from PerfLab said.The Kuris Theater International Festival and Workshops have become a creative and empowering nest in encouraging theater awareness, collaboration and strengthening network through workshops, symposia/conferences, performances and play festivals.Throughout th...

Lockdowns and quarantines did not deter 16 filmmakers from Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, and the National Capital Region from chronicling their struggles and triumphs during the Covid-19 pandemic in the way they know best - through film.ECQ: Eksena Cinema Quarantine (COVID-19 Filmmakers’ Diaries), a project under the National Commission for Culture and the Arts - National Committee on Cinema (NCCA-NCC), in cooperation with University of St. La Salle- Artists’ Hub, features 16 filmmakers - Adjani Arumpac, Hiyas Baldemor Bagabaldo, Arbi Barbarona, Glenn Barit, Carlo Enciso Catu, Zurich Chan,Arden Rod Condez, Kristian Sendon Cordero, Khavn, Keith Deligero, Kyle Fermindoza, Bagane Fiola, Mark L. Garcia, Julienne Ilagan, Pam Miras, and Guillermo Ocampo.Sixteen short films made into two Omni...

Reena and Lynn Gamboa hand a copy of the “Negrense Heritage Cooking” book to Tourism Secretary Bernadette Puyat (4th from left) as mayors Evelio Leonardia of Bacolod City and Mark Golez of Silay City, and Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson look on.*CPG photoTourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said the book “Negrense Heritage Cooking” is a testament to the region’s culinary traditions through recipes that tell stories of ingenuity, creativity, and passion.“It is a legacy that will be passed down to generations who will remember forgotten ingredients and keep heirloom dishes alive,” she said, at the launching of the book at Casa Gamboa in Silay City, Negros Occidental, today, January 19.Romulo-Puyat also thanked the Slow Food Community of Negros, who despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we...