My Love Affair with Museums

I love going to museums since I went back to Manila as an adult. Maybe, as always, scared of the consumerist atmosphere of malls or I have a phobia for places with so many different people like malls!

Last Saturday, May 18, the world celebrated the International Museum Day. Many museums opened their facilities to the public on that day with free admission. Of this year, I heard Lopez Museum, Ayala Museum, and National Museum among others that are open for the International Museum Day. I decided to visit Ayala Museum on that day, and I was with Alexis and Ian on that day!

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And here are my buddies on that day, Ian and Alexis! (Source)

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Here is a painting by National Artist Fernando Amorsolo, exhibited at the third floor of the Museum. The third floor of the museum exhibits creations of Fernando Amorsolo and Fernando Zobel. (Source)

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Here is the diorama of the Battle of Mactan in the second floor of the Museum. The Second Floor exhibits dioramas of important historic events in the Philippines. (Source)

Somewhat missing in the photo is the Crossroads of Civilization exhibit, which features some of the best archaeological finds in the Philippines. Golden ornaments and household items are made by our ancestors, very long before the Europeans set foot here. The finds also conclude that we already have a developed society long before and has learned the importance of gold.

Ayala Museum is located at Makati Avenue corne Dela Rosa Street in Makati City. If you get lost, the nearest landmark is Greenbelt 5.

Celebrating the loveliness of the museums, here are the links of the other museums I’ve already visited.

National Museum - National Art Gallery

Rizal Shrine, Calamba, Laguna

Burgos Museum, Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

Mabini Shrine, Tanauan City, Batangas

Leon Apacible House, Taal Batangas

Escolta Museum, Manila

Casa Manila Museum, Intramuros, Manila

Juan Luna Shrine, Badoc Ilocos Norte

Quezon Memorial Shrine and Museum

PS: All photos above are “patago” shoots from my mobile phone so don’t go on asking me on Ayala Museum’s photography rules. Photography in DSLR and Compact is strictly prohibited, I don’t know if the museum applies the same rules with mobile gadgets.

We are still too preoccupied with the recently concluded elections that we  did not notice a great Theater Icon passed away. National Artist for Theater Daisy Hontiveros Avellana.

More Reading here:

Daisy Hontiveros Avellana–Why she will always be the ‘First Lady of Philippine Theater

Daisy Hontiveros Avellana: A lifetime of theater

Daisy Hontiveros-Avellana dies at 96

PS: The video above, her famous breakdown scene in the Film Adaptation of Nick Joaquin’s “Portrait”.

Aurora Park, Laoag City

Laoag City’s Central Plaza is flanked by interesting sculptures, facing the Provincial Capitol is an Oblation-like sculpture which has no markers bearing its significance. On the side facing the River, there is a brick monument commemorating the abolition of the Tobacco Monopoly in the Philippines.

Because we have such beautiful sunsets, I felt that if we put a dramatic form against the sunset it could be very exciting. The idea was to have a massive rectangle, a massive slab of some hard stone tossed up in the air. The very exciting problem was how to make the massive and heavy form – the rectangle is without windows – look light. We used the device of cantilevered beams. The base is curved, so that the whole thing is sort of as if lifted up into the air. - Nick Joaquin on the Cultural Center of the Philippines
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Because we have such beautiful sunsets, I felt that if we put a dramatic form against the sunset it could be very exciting. The idea was to have a massive rectangle, a massive slab of some hard stone tossed up in the air. The very exciting problem was how to make the massive and heavy form – the rectangle is without windows – look light. We used the device of cantilevered beams. The base is curved, so that the whole thing is sort of as if lifted up into the air.

- Nick Joaquin on the Cultural Center of the Philippines

Badoc, Ilocos Norte

Upon entering the Provincial Boundary from Ilocos Sur, Badoc Ilocos Norte is the first town you’ll travel through Ilocos Norte. Once a part of the Sinait Town in Ilocos Sur (There was a time when Ilocos Norte and Sur are one big province tht split into two in 1818), the Church is home to Our Lady of Badoc or fondly called La Virgen Milagrosa, the patroness of the whole Ilocos Norte.

There’s only one thing special about Badoc, and it is their source of town pride. You’ll see it at the city seal of the municipality and a statue of him alongside his contemporary and buddy Pepe in the town hall. Guess who.

Not quite Tupig…

I made some bitin moments a week ago but using the same batter mixture plus cheese and using a special bamboo type that the locals call bolo. We have the special rice dessert of my dad’s hometown, Magsingal, Ilocos Sur. They call it tinubong. Its usually cooked during the Christmas Season here just like Puto Bumbong in Manila. All special rice desserts are usually cooked around the Christmas Season. But due to the tourist popularity of Vigan, it could be bought now all year round.

The bamboo container of the dessert is hard. So how to take the food out of the bamboo? Quite easy. Think of something annoying, and like a baseball bat, strike the closed end part of the bamboo to any hard surface, maybe your head or the head of anyone, but concrete or stone surfaces are highly recommended surfaces to break this open. Best served when served hot, but you could also enjoy it lukewarm. Thanks to the microwave, you could enjoy this a bit more frequent.

Tupig #1

Rice is an important crop in the Philippine (and also in the Asian) cuisine. There are many variants of rice, and each has a name. There are also many terms for different rice conditions for every Philippine Language I know. For example in tagalog there is tutong (burnt rice), bahaw (cold rice), lugaw (porridge or wet rice) and different names for every kakanin (rice desserts) that has been cooked. There are many many rice dishes in the Philippines that I could complete Food Fridays with all of the rice based dishes, I bet. But I won’t do that, mauumay kayo. I’ll just discuss some, or maybe the more peculiar ones.

Tupig is a rice based dish composed of a batter of malagkit rice flour, with margarine, lye and some buko shreds wrapped in banana leaves and baked in open heat, charcoals or firewood. You’ll see these treats cooked and sold instantly at the Highways in the Ilocos Region since this is the most popular and the easiest to eat along travel at long distances.

This is the first version I know. There is another Tupig that I know. It uses the same batter mix but… I’ll reserve the difference next Friday.

The Road to the North - Maharlika Highway, Manila North Road, National Highway. Oh just travel through it.

Locals here call it the Maharlika Highway or the National Highway, but it is also named as the Manila North Road. This long road branches from McArthur Highway (which starts in Monumento) in Metro Manila and Central Luzon to connect Metro Manila, Central Luzon and the Ilocos Region together. It was the only way out of Manila to the Northern Luzon Provinces until the North Luzon Expressway was built in the 1960s.

This highway connects the provinces and the town centers of Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur and Norte and it ends at Laoag City where the Pan-Philippine Highway (AH26) starts. It gives travelers a nice view of the Cordillera Mountain Range to the right and the West Philippine Sea in some parts in the left. The Ilocos Region will not be served by expressways until the Tarlac - Pangasinan leg of TPLEx opens this year and the Pangasinan - La Union leg of TPLEx will open next year or 2015. As of now, I don’t see the rush to extending the expressways until Ilocos Norte - unless a huge traffic generator will be set up in the provinces. So there’s little chance of getting lost unless your talent is getting lost in unknown distrant lands because there is just one single Highway serving all of Region 1.

Unlike for expressways that is diverted far from population centers, this highway traverses all town centers where you’ll have a glimpse of town life away from Manila: Market Days, Carabao Carts, Agricultural Industries. There is no vehicular prohibition along the Highway so you’ll see every vehicle in use here, and unlike for the cities that have buses every now and then, buses here are limited save for morning and afternoon rush. You’ll have to wait for the next bus to arrive for 5 to 15 minutes.

Except for some part especially in the congested town centers were a speed limit ordinances are implemented, it gives you a nice fast ride. Faster than Metro Manila Buses, there are few Aircon buses so get ready to whip your hair back and forth, to and fro throughout your provincial commute!

Exactly 120 years ago, November 24, 1892, the first train in the Philippines and in South East Asia was inaugurated to its first commercial run at Tutuban to its north Terminal at Dagupan. That run heralded the start of Railway development not just in the island of Luzon but also in the whole of South East Asia. Ironically, that first line is far from servicing again.
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Exactly 120 years ago, November 24, 1892, the first train in the Philippines and in South East Asia was inaugurated to its first commercial run at Tutuban to its north Terminal at Dagupan. That run heralded the start of Railway development not just in the island of Luzon but also in the whole of South East Asia.

Ironically, that first line is far from servicing again.

Dear Future Girlfriend, I am a wanderlust. I wander incessantly. I wander at impulse. But as I wander, I learn more. Streets are my element, and so is the city I’m wandering at. If you don’t like long walks, it’s okay with me, as long as we find a place with an excellent view of the city: the winding river, the famed bay and that medieval walled city I’ve been writing about. But if you like long walks, it is very fine with me. But prepare for adventure, we will be walking miles, miles of physical walk and miles of walk through imagination. In my city, each street, each wall, each building, derelict or shining strongly against the elements, whisphers of a story. Every great city has great stories, and I have a great city around me. If you can, bring a camera with you. The city in our background is beautiful, and nobody notices it. I weave the story of this city, and I hope this same city can weave our story too. Yours Truly, theurbanhistorian
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Dear Future Girlfriend,

I am a wanderlust. I wander incessantly. I wander at impulse. But as I wander, I learn more. Streets are my element, and so is the city I’m wandering at. If you don’t like long walks, it’s okay with me, as long as we find a place with an excellent view of the city: the winding river, the famed bay and that medieval walled city I’ve been writing about.

But if you like long walks, it is very fine with me. But prepare for adventure, we will be walking miles, miles of physical walk and miles of walk through imagination. In my city, each street, each wall, each building, derelict or shining strongly against the elements, whisphers of a story. Every great city has great stories, and I have a great city around me.

If you can, bring a camera with you. The city in our background is beautiful, and nobody notices it. I weave the story of this city, and I hope this same city can weave our story too.

Yours Truly,

theurbanhistorian

Fundacion Santiago Hall

This gallery of the National Museum features some of the sculptures of the father - son tandem of Isabelo and Vidal Tampingco and as well as other sculptures of the their other contemporaries. Their sculpture features almost all of mediums they used: plaster, marble, concrete casting, clay and hardwood.

In an opinionated connection, the four renditions of La Madre Filipina should be transferred to the National Museum. Those sculptures will be appreciated better in a museum if the reconstruction and restoriation of the Jones Bridge is not possible.

PS: This is my favorite gallery of the museum.

The National Art Gallery Building, National Museum Complex

The current National Art Gallery Building of the National Museum was once the home of the Philippine Legislature after they moved out of the Ayuntamiento and Intendencia Building at Intramuros.

The building, Neoclassical in form, is a part of the unfinished Burnham’s Plan for Manila. The site was originally intended to house the National Library Building, but during construction it was decreed that it will become the Legislative Building. The National Library and Museum stayed in the basement of the Legislative Building, waiting for their own buildings to Materialize. The National Library had its own home nearby at 1961 and the National Museum gained full control of the building at 1998, when the Senate moved out to the GSIS Building.

The building was originally designed by Ralph Douane in 1918, and was redesigned for the Legislature by Juan Arellano and Antonio Toledo. From 1926-1972, the building was home to both the Congress and Senate, from 1987 to 1996, the building was home to Senate until the National Museum Law was enacted, enabling the National Museum to have sole occupancy of the Old Legislature, the Old Finance buildings for their use. The Old Legislature is the National Art Gallery and the Old Finance Building is the Museum of the Filipino People. By 2014, the Department of Tourism Building (Old Agriculture Building), will be taken over by the National Museum for their Museum of Natural History Building.

Archive Photo of the Legislative Building Source