BA-DEE-YA, SANA YOU REMEMBER...

...dancing (and some other cultural stuff) in September

* On Dads' day down under, and we get the hero adulation we deserve.  This is the way.

ba-dee-ya, never was a cloud (city) daaay

* At a Lady of Peñafrancia fiesta, the sunglow comes into the church perfectly, the dancers perform passionately, and a singing priest has coins magically appear at his feet

ba-dee-ya, golden dreams were shiny daaays

* At the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the whole consulate visits a Filipino's big, beautiful provocative painting...

...which as it turns out is the gallery's remaining Philippine showpiece, as the other Fil-artworks that were there have already finished their run, and new fan favorites have since taken their place

bunny-ya, nee-ya, nee-ya...

NORTH ART - SOUTH ART, VIA FIL - ART

To much fanfare, the Art Gallery of New South Wales opened last December its New/North/Modern wing, touted as the biggest, most significant culture and arts event in Sydney since the opening of the Opera House.  Epic, then. When we visited it a few weeks ago, the place was indeed big and awesome and there were in fact a lot of loud "Wow!"s heard from the family and by everyone unfortunate enough to be around us.

And my "favorite-as-soon-as-I-saw-it" installation was a fascinating, intricate, poignant overhead piece that played on the concept of what and where Home actually is -- and as it turns out, the artists were originally from the Philippines.

ctto

Fast forward to this week, and the LLDD-Hyphen-L and I get to attend a special viewing for the Consular Corps of this year's Archibald Prize awardees at the Gallery's Old/South/Traditional wing, and it too was as amazing as advertised.

And, once more, no big surprise, people were drawn to a moving, powerful family portrait made by an accomplished Filipina-Australia artist. 

If that wasn't inspiring enough, the children in the painting - none more than eight years old - collaborated on their own piece and were themselves finalists of the Prize's Young Artists awards.   

As I've said many times before, I may not know much about art, but I know what I like --  and I love all of this.   

JUNE, GONE TOO SOON

So many things happen during indie month, you might miss a few gems:

EJ Obiena, call me

For that matter, Olympic committee, call them

We got you sorted too, half-time show producer

This month's Herald's gourmet food magazine confirms: the hostile Fil-food takeover is happening

There's Chair of the Standing Entertainment Committee, then there's Entertainer Standing on the Chair Committee

This gentleman's Philippine company just built Australia's largest solar farm, that is all.

A "secret" Knighting ceremony held deep beneath an old hidden dwelling gives Da Vinci Code vibes but for the cool owner, yummy sponge cake and truly huge personal lobster tank in the basement

Them: you can't wear barongs for winter.  Fil-com creatives: challenge accepted

Finally, a painter -- within the span of an accompanying theme song -- creates a multi-piece landscape that somehow works both pulled apart and put together

Voltes V legacy, so to speak