Sosyalan season, with books and music

Quite a sosi-cultural week that was to mark off the end of the first month of the fresh year, with various art and culture engagements pulling us away from navel meditation.

On Wednesday, Jan. 28, I had to honor a special SMS invite and join a veritable horde of friends and fans of Sen. Loren Legarda at Shangri-La Makati’s Red for her birthday celebration. No better way to celebrate one’s natal day than to have for a highlight the launching of a book, especially a pictorially lovely one that honors and pays tribute to one’s person.

Loren: A Celebration of Life and Nature by Maria Rosa “Bing” Nieva Carrion-Buck, MNSA, published by Seagull Philippines Inc., does just that, in coffee-table, full-color format.

Copies were gobbled up by sosyal movers and shakers, with prominent legislators and businessmen leading the pack. Others who couldn’t join the long queue, on account of all that crowd bustle, had to first content themselves with a glimpse of a copy enshrined within a tall glass case topped by exemplary specimens of red roses.  

The subject herself was all-aglow, briefly addressing the invitees — a most special “500 friends” as she put it — amid the constant flash and whirr of media cameras. In gist, Sen. Legarda said she wasn’t playing coy in avoiding having to make any anticipated announcement of impending candidacy, but that the critical times called for propriety. For the most part, she thanked everyone who showed up and manifested their friendship and support.

By far the most beauteous senator we’ve ever had then expressed her gratitude to the book’s author-editor and publisher, her longtime friend, as well as everyone else involved in its production.   

In her foreword, Bing Carrion-Buck explains “... her novel concept of a picture book containing quotations from (the subject’s) speeches, her life story (from the book I wrote and produced for her in 2006), her principles, her beliefs, her passionate advocacies on women, children, the environment and nature.”

Thus, the 200 pages are devoted to images of individual pulchritude (well-coiffed, well-tailored eye candy) among flora and forest, as well with children, women and indigenes. Accompanying the rich parade of photographs are excerpted statements of principles that go beyond motherhood statements, given the senator’s well-known advocacies:

“My passion for order in my life has translated into a dream of an ordered world — a world of social justice, political integrity, and a healthy environment. For it is only in a well-ordered state, one free from corruption, poverty, disunity and inefficiency, that widespread social change can truly occur and where a decent standard of living for all Filipinos can ever be realized.

“This is my humane voice for the Philippines.”

The author-publisher who also served as executive editor and project director for this, her 17th coffee-table book production, applies her own poetic nuggets to complement engaging visuals of flowers, ferns and dewdrop-kissed fronds, to wit: “Nature’s Gift” — “I pause for a deep breath/ as I walk among the trees, to clear my mind/ with the fresh scent of the grass/ I withdraw into a green world where often enough/ my soul is renewed.”

Indeed, suffice it to say that any glimpse of our lady of the flowers, the book’s subject, can cause a pause, a deep breath, perhaps a prayer for soulful renewal. Kudos to Bing and Loren!

That same day, at an earlier hour, launched at Filipinas Heritage Library was an unprepossessing little volume, Train of Thought: Poems from Tulaan sa Tren, published by the NBDB or National Book Development Board.

The poetry collection is an offshoot of the laudable project that saw Filipino poets’ works, in Filipino and English, displayed in LRT coaches for all of six months last year. Not only were the poems exhibited for daily perusal; rapid-transit commuters also got to hear them recited, four times a day, by popular entertainers such as Romnick Sarmenta, Miriam Quiambao and Edu Manzano, incidentally the chair of the Optical Media Board (OMB), which supported the project together with the Light Railway Transit authority (LRTA).

A CD of these recordings came with the book, copies of which were awarded contributors, the most prominent that afternoon being National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario a.k.a. Rio Alma.

Also made available were copies of A Catalogue of Award-Winning Titles, also published by the NBDB. It puts together most of the distinguished local titles of the past 25 years, as recognized by four prominent award-giving bodies that annually honor Filipino authors and publishers with the Gintong Aklat Awards, The Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award, National Book Awards, and PBBY Salanga Prize and PBBY-Alcala Prize. Congratulations and a ton of thanks to NBDB chair Dr. Dennis T. Gonzales and executive director Andrea Pasion-Flores.

On Friday, Jan. 30, a superlative musical performance (and spiritual experience) entranced a full-house audience at the Abbey Church of San Beda College, the lovely venue for “Gaudete in Domino!” (Rejoice in the Lord!), with the Benedictine monks singing Gregorian chants, eventually joined in by the UST Liturgikon Ensemble and the UST Brass Ensemble.

Ahh! That evening was divine, hearing Handel and Beethoven as a fervor-struck Bedan once again, especially when we joined in the community singing, still privy to the undying lyrics of No mas Amor que el Tuyo by our prized Filipino poet in Spanish, Manuel Bernabe. Why, we almost renewed our faith, but that’s another leap of a story.

For now we thank the SBC GS1955-HS1959 Class, this year’s golden jubilarians, led by Paul Aquino and Mon Pasicolan, for the rare and splendid treat. Congrats as well to choirmaster Fr. Bernardo Perez, OSB, rector-emeritus; organist and composer Fr. Benildus Ma. Maramba; and Thomasian conductors Eugene de los Santos and Michael Jacinto. Praise ora et labora! De Aparri hasta Jolo! 

Finally, for that hectic week that was, on Sunday, Feb. 1, a feature of the day-long The British Council-sponsored “Access: The First Philippine International English Language Conference” held at the SMX by the Mall of Asia was the book launch of Philippine English: Linguistic and Literary Perspectives, edited by Ma. Lourdes S. Bautista and Kingsley Bolton.

Originally published last year by Hong Kong University Press as part of its Asian Englishes Today series, the title now comes in a special Philippine edition, thanks to Anvil Publishing, Inc. Whereas the HK edition sells for something like P1,200, this local edition is now available in bookpaper at about half that price, with the newsprint edition at less than P300.

Many of the teachers from all over our archipelago that gathered for the conference purchased copies, so that it took the co-editors an hour to complete the signing ritual.