The 416 Art Space

22/02/2025

Arts, Culture, and Heritage in Naga City in 28 days, 28 ways

February 22
“Face The Wall”

Naga City is well-known for its homegrown restaurants. There is Bigg’s Diner and Graceland that appeal to the more mainstream tourist crowd. And then there is New China and Naga Garden that remain favorites among locals. Aside from these, there are concept restaurants, hole-in-the-wall carinderias, coffee kiosks, garage diners, and street food carts popping all over. There is a plate for every palate and pocket.

But for cheap eats that offer both flavor and fullness, the headliner is an alley that locals refer to as “Face The Wall”. The name comes from the arrangement of the common dining area where tables and chairs are arranged so that diners eat facing the firewall of the adjacent building. The name and the place have become fixtures in the City’s pop culture.

Situated just near the San Francisco Church, it is a row of food stalls that serve home-cooked style meals all throughout the day, and sometimes even late at night. From breakfast staples such as “silog” meals and pansit to lunch and dinner favorites like adobo, sinigang, and the big four stews ( menudo, mechado, afritada, and kaldereta ), there are lots of choices. This is also the spot to get the better versions of local favorites such as laing and kinunot. In Bikol, the gauge in determining if a carinderia is worth it is if it cooks its coconut milk-based viands well.

Even with the rising cost of supplies and services, the food items are reasonably priced per serving. For years, “Face The Wall” has been Naga City’s unsung gastronomic center.

Pro tip : Don’t forget to ask for the free mystery soup and extra “sarsa” on your rice.

~dbg~

21/02/2025

Arts, Culture, and Heritage in Naga City in 28 days, 28 ways

February 21
Periodicals and pre-loved books, Naga City Public Market

As the popularity of digital media continues to increase, it is assumed that print media will become obsolete. While it is true that some publications–including big ones with daily global circulations–have closed shop, or have migrated a significant portion of their content online, the printed form still thrives. Book authors have also considered a significant shift to digital media due to perceived lower production costs and due to the primacy of online promotion and circulation. But recently, there is a resurgence of the printed media, driven by social and cultural factors such as nostalgia and the perception that paper offers greater credibility in a time of misinformation.

For book lovers and loyal readers of regional and national dailies, the Naga City Public Market is a default destination. At the second floor of the public market overlooking Igualdad / Jaime Hernandez Avenue are a row of stalls overflowing with pre-loved books and magazines. With the art of haggling involved, they can be a lot cheaper than secondhand books sold in the bigger malls. From relatively recent editions of nursing textbooks to obscure works of fiction, there is always a perfect book for anyone who has time and patience to go over uncatalogued stacks and piles. Interestingly, there are a lot of young people who are as interested in traditional printed matter as they are invested in digital content.

Located at the ground floor near the corner of Prieto St. and Gen. Luna St. is one of the oldest and yet thriving newspaper retailers in the City. Before the Internet became the one-stop shop for information and entertainment, students, professionals, and retirees would frequent this stall to browse the latest editions of weeklies and dailies, the latest issues of locally-published “komiks”, and the most recent fashion and lifestyle magazines. Niche publications were also available on consignment basis.

A quick stroll along these stalls reveal that there remains a healthy population of readers in Naga City. People from all walks of life still find great satisfaction in flipping through crisp pages, and sifting through bits and pieces of information that add flavor and sense to the usual and often predictable pace of urban life.

~dbg~

20/02/2025

Arts, Culture, and Heritage in Naga City in 28 days, 28 ways

February 20
Spin That Sheet and the local hiphop scene

Spin That Sheet is a music collective that was established in 2010 by childhood friends and hiphop enthusiasts Leo Paulo Imperial and Julius Symon Jose “Barredz” Barreda. Completing the core of the initiative is Gyno Alvarez who brings his own brand of creative and production sensibilities.

Spin That Sheet was organized to carve a niche for hiphop in the City’s contemporary music scene which has mostly been dominated by the genres of pop and rock. There were sporadic events that featured and showcased hiphop acts. Through linkages with the burgeoning hiphop and punk scene in Albay, Spin That Sheet evolved into a true-blue exponent of the genre in Naga City.

Since its inception, Spin That Sheet has provided a platform for hiphop to bloom from a niche culture to one that shared creative space with other contemporary music forms. It has also contributed immensely to promoting the Bikol language. More hiphop artists are incorporating the Bikol language, in all its variants, to their verses in order to fully capture homegrown themes and sensibilities. Through their staple events such as Demobeats and Rap Battles, they are discovering up-and-coming talented MCs, beatmakers, and wordsmiths.

Follow Spin That Sheet at https://www.facebook.com/spinthatsheetgang

~dbg~

20/02/2025

Arts, Culture, and Heritage in Naga City in 28 days, 28 ways

February 19
The old and lost structures of the City

Rumi, the renowned 13th-century Muslim poet, jurist, and ulama, opined that when there are ruins, there is hope for treasures. While the scholar’s thoughts focused on the intangible beauty and nobility of the world that is hidden beneath its superficial horrors and injustices, the same can also be applied to how we value the deeper and essential value of our physical world.

Structures are mostly valued for their utilitarian reason for existence. While they are built to endure the elements, there is the understanding that at some point, they will fall into disarray and obsolescence. But while old structures may lose their immediate usefulness, they become representations of humankind’s ongoing progress. They are landmarks in time and in space.

As the City marches forward in the name of economic growth, there is the struggle to hold on to its heritage and history. Most times, heritage becomes relevant only when it serves the engine of progress. We have lost sacred spaces, architectural marvels that were the product of the nuances or their period, and other civic abodes that were once an integral part of the personal growth of the people.

If not for the efforts of our artists, poets, and our patrons of heritage, the sense and memory of Naga City’s old but iconic structures will be forever lost. Some of these pieces of architectural history have been lost either to nature or to economic enterprise. Some, while retaining bits and pieces of their glory days, have been buried beneath oppressively lit business signages, cobwebs of cables, garish tarps advertising products and personalities, and dust and grime and unkempt urban foliage.

A few have been at least restored, mostly due to the persistent efforts of cultural advocates. And there are some that have been immortalized by artists either in photographs or paintings even as their physical counterparts are long gone.

Note : Photos are of paintings by artists Brian Ramos and Annielou Agravante.

~dbg~

19/02/2025

Arts, Culture, and Heritage in Naga City in 28 days, 28 ways

February 18
The Rizal Monument

For most Nagueños, the Plaza Rizal is the heart of the city. It is located between the streets of Elias Angeles and General Luna, the two busiest thoroughfares cutting through Naga City’s old business district. The Rizal Monument is ground zero of civic self-awareness. In a city that is heavily guided by the ecclesiastical compass, the Rizal Monument serves a true north for the more secular affairs of the urban lot.

The Rizal Monument in Naga City is one of the more elegant and visually striking variants of the National Hero’s commemorative dolmen. The symbolism of the four female figures standing vigilant around the monumen and the angelic apparition in silent conversation with the hero offer a vast landscape of cultural, philosophical, and poetic discourses.

But the most important discourses are of the mundane kind. The monument is witness to the basic, unfiltered, and unassuming chatter of humanity. It offers spaces of relevance for both historians and hookers, demagogues and diplomats, lovers and loners, preachers and pickpockets, advocates and anarchists. In the vernacular, “makuapo ni Rizal” ( grandchildren of Rizal ), can mean a lot of things, from laudatorg to derogatory.

Saints and sinners–arbitrary designations of a parochial world–seek sanctuary and meaning at the foot of the monument. The figures of stone and steel do not command reverence from passers-by. At most, they are but convenient backdrops for the obligatory selfies and souvenir photos. At the very least, they are elements of an obstacle course charted in the mind of children. In some cases, their limbs and sculptural protrusions are pegs and hooks for the makeshift structures put up by both ambulant vendors and city event planners.

History can often be a fleeting interest. Monuments were designed to serve as reminders of watershed moments in the ongoing story of humankind. But even as we continue to put up these monoliths of memory, we are gradually growing distant from our past. Instead, we are much more invested in the conversations and the tales of the present, the immediate, the proximate. We let monuments bear the burden of remembering, so that we can focus on the “here and now”.

~dbg~

18/02/2025

Arts, Culture, and Heritage in Naga City in 28 days, 28 ways

February 17
Ako Agta, MistaRoots

This simple song by homegrown reggae act, MistaRoots, is both a subtle critique of a cultural and colonial injustice, and a prayer that seeks to restore an identity slandered and lost.

The Agta has endured centuries of discrimination and demonization from both external and domestic ends. Other than the stigma attached to their complexion is the dismissal of what is perceived as their inability to integrate into modernity. They are associated with negative attributes, from being ignorant to being dishonest.

MistaRoots' Ako Agta subverts this by presenting the Agta persona as one that has remained true to its heritage and its affinity with the straightforward and unassuming facets of the natural world. The simple honesty of the Agta is misunderstood as a lack of sophistication by the outsider. The Agta embraces a pure form of spirituality that is unnecessarily convoluted by moral pretensions and doctrinal complications. The world is cause and effect, actions and accountability. And the Agta submits to this natural cycle of the world with empathy.

MistaRoots celebrates the Agta as a return to form, as a reclamation of the roots of identity and consciousness that have been buried beneath sediments of colonial incertitude.

~dbg~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V34J54OffnU

Song Title: AKO AGTAComposer: Ramil MartinezBand: MistaRoots

18/02/2025

Arts, Culture, and Heritage in Naga City in 28 days, 28 ways

February 16
The Forgotten River

In Greek mythology, Lethe is the river of forgetting. Souls are required to drink from its waters so that they can let go of their past lives and be potentially reborn. The Naga River is a river at the edge of our collective social memory : It cuts right across the physical and cultural landscape, yet it is peripheral, ephemeral. We need not drink from its dirtied waters to forget. We are simply forgetting.

If not for the seasonal religious fluvial celebration that is equal parts faith and fanfare, we would have no enduring memory of the Naga River. The rich stories that the spirits of the river have bequeathed to us are fading fast in the dimming memories of our elders. The four bridges that arc over its serpentine flow conceal it from our immediate gaze. The rubbish that has accumulated on both its bed and surface has rendered it murky and gray, incapable of reflecting the light of day to beckon us. We move above and away from the river, instead of moving with its silent cadence.

Still, what little trace of memory of the river endures in the ruminations of the creatives. Our cultural workers persist to constantly remind us of the river and its vitalness and centrality to the life of the Nagueño. Our artists continue to immortalize the river in songs, poetry, sculpture, and drama.

In the end, the river will outlast us. It will be the one to retain the memories of those that came and went.

Note : The photos are of various artwalks organized by local visual artists

~dbg~

18/02/2025

Arts, Culture, and Heritage in Naga City in 28 days, 28 ways

February 15
Mga Aninipot sa Tahaw Kan Salog

The environmental play, Mga Aninipot sa Tahaw Kan Salog ( Fireflies on the River ), was first staged in the municipality of Camaligan in 2017. It has been staged also in the iconic Emily Theater. It was written by renowned Bikolnon playwright Sari Saysay based on stories collected and curated from the accounts of elders who lived along the stretch of the Bikol and Naga Rivers and witnessed its transformation from being a lush ecosystem to one that has fallen to the effects of modernity and urbanization.

The play offers a rich narrative about the river which was once at the center of the region’s geopolitics, economics, and cultural evolution. Now, the river is all but forgotten, save for the occasional local syncretic festivities that were originally influenced by its prominence in the indigenous consciousness. The play reclaims unto our memories the flora and fauna that once thrived in the local waters. It utilizes the symbolism of the spectral and elemental creatures of folklore to remind us of our estrangement from nature. With the gradual disappearance of these apparitions, we also lose a portion of our place and space in the greater scheme of things.

Mga Aninipot sa Tahaw kan Salog is the tangible and powerful result when an advocacy becomes the anchor for artistry. It is an enduring cultural work built on the collaborative efforts of environmental advocates, various homegrown theater collectives, and local communities reclaiming their affinity with the natural world.

~dbg~

18/02/2025

Arts, Culture, and Heritage in Naga City in 28 days, and 28 ways

February 14
Art and Love

Naga City is home to a vibrant community of creatives and cultural workers. Steeped in various influences, whether hyperlocal or global, historical or contemporary, this community is a diverse mix of individuals and collectives that each bring a unique artistic experience.

This passion for creative endeavors has led to a rhizomic surge of artistic energy. Local creatives are becoming much more conscious of their role as social and cultural exponents and recognizing their potential to self-curate their own unique visions.

Because of this, there is a slow shift away from arboreal and monolithic centers of validation. Visual artists are looking at cafes, public spaces, and any available physical platform as viable additions–if not outright alternatives–to traditional galleries. Musicians are reclaiming the “indie” space, particularly in a time when the portability and accessibility of shared facilities and open source technology is making production much more affordable and possible. Theater advocates are immersing into communities, creating material for minimalist spaces, and organizing grassroots-based companies. Writers are shifting into self-publishing. Craftsmen and “artepreneurs” are organizing pop-up fairs where they can sell their products without the need for middlemen. Building, infrastructures, and other physical spaces are being converted into creative platforms, infusing them with fresh identities and relevance. The same is seen in other creative disciplines.

This deep love for the arts is the source of resilience for local creatives. As long as artists continue to create, there is always light and hope for society.

~dbg~

13/02/2025

Arts, Culture, and Heritage in Naga City in 28 days, 28 ways

February 13
The BL@H

The angst-driven ‘90s was a wild era for a burgeoning local music scene that leaned on the ethos and aesthetics of that era’s counterculture. This creative boom was the product of technocultural and social confluences : from the popularity of transistorized portable radio and cassette players, the peaking popularity of the music video mediascape, the Internet in its earliest stages, and music literacy offered by budget-friendly “songhits” magazines. Of course, the mainstream platforms of that time were quick to recognize the trend and capitalized on it. Being in a band was essentially one’s ticket to a bigger social circle. A guitar, three chords, and the pent-up frustrations of puberty were the core ingredients to a potential garage hit.

Ground zero was not limited to Metro Manila. Across the country, urban cultural melting pots were shaping their own music landscape. While only a handful of acts achieved radio-friendly recall, there remained a vast uncharted landscape of underground talents who had their own hyperlocal hardcore following.

In Naga City, the band that essentially broke through was The BL@H. Composed of a crew curated from different bands that were already popular in the local scene, The BL@Hcame out with their eponymous album in 1995 with radio-friendly singles like “Gandang Kupas”, “Puberty Blah”, and “Homesick”.

But their contribution to pop culture is their inclusion of two Bikol-language songs, “Lasngag”, and “Si Nanay, Si Tatay”. The former is a vivid description of a drunkard stumbling through a wild night of partying to waking up the next day with an intense hangover. The song, while dealing with a mundane topic, is memorable in that it captures the local color through its heavy riffs and through the use of Bikol and Tagalog to tell the story. The second song is their fresh take on an iconic folk song about the Bikolnon’s intense love for family.

Since then, the members of The BL@H have moved on with their respective careers and creative journeys. Some have moved on to a different plane of existence. But the brand remains a constant, a stamp on local pop culture. The occasional reunion concerts between long years are always a treat, especially for Gen Xers who left a portion of their hearts and spirits in the cusp decade that was the 90s.

~dbg~

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Note : The video is of The BL@H's reunion concert last 2018, courtesy of Jawaid Banaag's YouTube channel.
Hamillan Pavoreal - vocalist
Jawaid Banaag - composer, arranger, lead guitarist
Robert Sarcilla - Bassist (+)
John Arvin Collao - drummer
Erwin Ticar - drummer
Ely Ticar - guitar
Wawoo Brendia - guitar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_FeBE4EFU0

All original songs by The BL@H are composed by Jawaid Banaag. The songs are protected by copyright, and released under WEA International in 1996. "Si Nanay, ...

12/02/2025

Arts, Culture, and Heritage in Naga City in 28 days, 28 ways

February 12
Nagueños, Carlos Ojeda Aureus

Nagueños is a collection of short stories by Dr. Carlos Ojeda Aureus, a respected educator, an astute philosopher, and an esteemed writer. Through his collected works, Aureus carefully crafts his observations and reflections on the shifting zeitgeist of his beloved hometown.

Each story is narrated through the filter of his personal spiritual struggle between being a devotee and being a critic of his faith. His stories are of a hometown that exists simultaneously beneath his feet and and in his soul. The places are tangible and real, the personalities are cut from the same mortal fabric as the residents of the City. This is a City that persists in keeping its spirituality intact in deference to duty and to history. But this is also a City that is awakening to new worldly experiences that excite both the flesh and the mind.

Through his melody of stories, Aureus plucks at various strings all at once. He reminds us of Naga as a world deeply rooted in a faith that is as fecund as it is flawed. But he also impresses upon us that this parochialism that embraces–or perhaps strangles–the city must reflect upon its own relevance amidst the shifting social, political, and cultural tides. He guides us through these difficult realizations through the tropes and metaphors of tumultuous encounters between old men and young women that challenge our perceptions of what is morally acceptable and what is socially inevitable. The compromise is in the liminal spaces of the heart and the soul, often eerie, unresolved, unrequited, lonely, surreal.

~dbg~