Wassup! Wow, it’s been a while since I've posted something but fret not, I’ll be back in a couple of weeks time. I’m back home in Manila right now for a *cough*well-deserved*cough* break after a hectic and happening January with the Fringe Fest, Superintense and the Singapore Short Film Awards, among others. It looks like I’m missing some really exciting events back in Singapore, from the rather disheartening turn of events re: Victor/Victoria to this year’s Singapore Arts Fest line-up (thanks to the Abang for the post!). But it’s not like I’ve been completely spacing out here at home. Although with the presidential elections in full swing now, there’s a tendency to do so while watching those inane campaign commercials on television. Shoot, I’ve just alienated my three avid Singaporean readers. So anyway, in the guise of catching up with old, dear friends, I’ve also been playing catch up on Manila's arts scene (February has apparently been officially deemed the country's Arts Month). So, in bullet form, if you’ve got nothing better to do:   MUSIC There was an indie rock fest called Meiday! that was held at this hipster-ish compound called Cubao-X. Think an all-Singapore edition of Baybeats but independently-run, held in Arab Street and with booze. Oh and also a bunch of kids toting SLR cameras taking photos of everyone  (indie rock poparazzi?!) I didn’t take any pics but you can probably find a bunch of them on flickr.   PERFORMING ARTS While I haven’t had time to catch any performances, I caught up with my friend Joelle, ballet dancer, dance critic and now, to my surprise, independent publisher of a quarterly mag on the Philippine dance scene! It’s called RunThru and she’s in the midst of launching the website. While ballet is still lording it over the scene (the three big ballet companies I knew from five years ago are still going strong), the contemporary scene has been producing some interesting stuff, from the established (Myra Beltran) to the upstart (Donna Miranda, who was at last year’s “dancing museum” over at TheatreWorks). Theatre-wise, there’s still a lot of re-stagings of classic Filipino works (and the always reliable Tagalog translations of Shakespeare and Brecht, apparently) – but the constant production of new works that we’ve so often taken for granted with Singapore companies seems to be lacking.   LITERARY ARTS Just bought a bunch of new (chap)books from the poetry group High Chair. Arguably the best, most active and most rigorous literary group in the country. But then again, I’m biased, because I (used to be/am) part of it. Woot. They’ve also got a website that you must check out if you love poetry.   VISUAL ARTS Yesterday, my friend Ina, a visual arts reporter from one of the big dailies here took me gallery hopping. So we basically covered six galleries/art spaces like Manila Contemporary (Malaysian art dealer Valentine Willie’s gallery here, where an ongoing group show A Thousand Times Yes features one work by Jason Wee – which I’m assuming would be too sexually explicit to be posted here. Naughty naughty Jason!) and Silverlens and SLab (like Singapore’s own 2902 Gallery). While I can go on about each of the exhibits, suffice it to say I’ve never seen so many things happening in the Philippine visual arts scene at one go (it wasn’t like this five years ago!). From contemporary to modern to photography to installation, it really seems set to be the next big thing after Indonesia. My favourite from yesterday was an installation by Kiri Lluch Dalena’s The Present Disorder Is The Order Of The Future. It was at the topmost floor of a modern design/furniture store called mo_. (that reminded me of Salon Projects’ Blackout event). You enter the room in almost total darkness, save for a video of what seems to be a road trip through a rural town in the Philippines that was projected unto the floor, on which were scattered “leftover” remnants of marble (?) sculptures (a broken hand here, a torso there). Meanwhile, hanging on the wall behind were marble epitaphs of slogans, clichés and catchphrases of a decidedly political slant. It was eerie and very powerful.