My Zamboangueño Christmas

The lights and lanterns are up, and the pueblo has started to resemble a little Christmas postcard without the snow. Downtown people have started swarming to City Hall to take pictures with families and friends. The fountain in Plaza Pershing is most colorful at night and some visitors have taken out their cameras to capture the moments before the crowd doubles, with Christmas Day nearing and the air becoming a little colder. 

This is City Hall in lights, tourists and other visitors take their photos with the facade when the decors and lights are in full swing. 

More details and angles below

Plaza Pershing has just recently completed its fountains and has become quite an attraction among the locals.

Street lanterns like these can be seen all over town.

The gazebo is also showered with lights and decors.

The street lamps in every corner are followed by street lanterns.

Balloon vendors also crowd the plaza at night for those who want to bring home a balloon as a souvenir. 

The ZaNorte Road Trip

Here are some shots taken from the Zamboanga del Norte Road Trip last month. We went up north for a few days and toured the area. The locals have shortened Zamboanga del Norte to ZaNorte for its monicker to help promote the area for tourism. 

On the way, our van broke down in the Panubigan area so we were sitting it out until things got back to normal and resume the drive. 

We had a seaside lunch, here we are all standing up by the beach, longing for a quick nap just after the meal. 

This is the tempting view of the beach in Zamboanga del Norte, before reaching the municipality of Leon Postigo. 

This is the view from Leon Postigo's Municipal Hall. It is overlooking the park with the sea as its background. 

And we hit the road again, sticking to the highway meandering against the sea. Our next location is Poblacion, a coastal village where some Subanens live. 

The Subanens performed a dance for us to express their gratitude. 

The colorful costumes and gestures are so native and cultural. 

Some Subanens came to join the community to greet us in our visit. 

One way to get around is by tricycle, a local mode of transportation. School children take a ride in numbers. 

This guy is a regular at the Alvenda Mountain Resort in the Municipality of Mutia. 

He was curious with new faces in his property. 

Alvenda is a mountain resort which offers facilities like a swimming pool, a cottage for overnight, zipline and trekking in a quiet place with fresh mountain air. 

The Subanen Dance

I was part of a media tour hosted by the Department of Social Welfare and Development here in our region, last November, where media practitioners from various outfits get to visit indigenous villages in some municipalities up north. In the municipality of Leon Postigo where their sources of income are farming and fishing, some native Subanens can still be found. Some of these Subanens have been recipients of the government's social pension and poverty alleviation programs. To express their gratitude, they have prepared a Subanen Dance for us, with a gong providing the rhythm in the background. 

One of the touching moments to experience is for the native Subanens to express their gratitude through their traditional dances.

The dance has been performed in many rituals like christenings, weddings and other major festivities in the area. 

The gong is being sounded at a corner, some more Subanens dressed in their cultural attires have also come to say "thank you".

Background

Who would have thought this set of folders would be great for a photo background? Adjust the shadows and add vibrance to the colours, there you have it. That's my colleague with the Congress t-shirt, aware that I was taking photos. This was taken at the medical records section of the community hospital close to our office where the very first successful kidney transplant in our region was done.

What do you think of the photo? Comments are welcome. Thanks!

The Next Queen of Heaven

The Book

Another bargain find from my online book supplier, I had this reserved immediately.

I remember seeing a copy on display at Powerbooks, at their branch in Mall of Asia. I didn't have some extra cash for the purchase, and left it there, walking away with a little regret. Reviews and pictures of the book cover kept appearing in some websites I frequent, and so, it could not completely be erased from my mind. It's another creation by Gregory Maguire, one of the authors I follow regularly-and here he has introduced a varied style in his writing.

The book just arrived by mail, along with other copies I purchased. And the moment it arrived, I had to discipline myself to finish whatever it was I was working on before I lifted a single page to read.

There it is, right on top of my messy pile of journals, papers, notebooks and lists.

The Style

Based on Maguire's past works I have read (Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister) I still have my eyes on Matchless, and have not yet read Mirror, Mirror, his style with The Next Queen of Heaven has shifted from the traditional storytelling to the hilarious, contemporary tone. The dialogue is fitting, with ample referencing, and the book is sprinkled with generous doses of stubborn teenagers, (subtly) conflicting religious congregations and eccentric characterization.

However, as a past reader and active follower of  Maguire, I have to say that this novel is quite a departure from his melancholic, dramatic tone from his previous bestsellers. He is an expert in the field of converting the antagonist to the protagonist, as in the case of Wicked (now a Broadway musical hit), where the hardships and tumultuous childhood of Elphaba has stayed with the readers even after years of its publication. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister also did its work as it stole the hearts and imaginations of its readers by way also of its attention-grabbing title.

In the author's note, Maguire apologizes for the setting and vernacular (its being quite a surprise to readers who already know his writing style) by saying "Forgive me for my trespasses", so I will take it as a fair warning.

Is this still a worthy read for the Holidays then? I would have to say yes. But I still long to go back to the magical world of Wicked and the rest.

Dedication from the book

"For those who keep singing and for those who keep silent"

The Setting

It is Year 1999 and Thebes, New York is gearing up for the New Millennium, strange things happen. Single mother and dutiful churchgoer Leontina Scales has been hit hard on the head by a statue of Our Lady (of I forgot) and the rest of the characters catch up with life the best as they could. Hidden conflicts and perspectives of different religious congregations are revealed, as you read between the lines and more silliness brings the book to light.

Here, a singing group fighter against AIDS, Tabitha has a crumbly relationship with her mother, high school girls talk about the school slut who happens to have been stalking them, a list of eccentrics can be found in the town called Thebes, and women have the right to call their ex-husbands "was-bands".

Mothers still know how to embarrass their daughters in a music store. (Thumbs up to Mommy Leontina!) 

The Author

This is Gregory Maguire, whom I have met through Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. 

Gregory Maguire is an American author, whose novels are revisionist retellings of children's stories (such as L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into Wicked). He received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Tufts University, and his B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany. He was a professor and co-director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature from 1979-1985. In 1987 he co-founded Children's Literature New England (a non-profit educational charity).

Maguire has served as artist-in-residence at the Blue Mountain Center, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Hambidge Center. He lives in Concord, Massachusetts.

His "wicked" signature

Other Books by Gregory Maguire

The Wicked Years

• Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
• Son of a Witch
• A Lion Among Men
• Out of Oz

Other books

• Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
• Mirror, Mirror
• Lost
• What the Dickens: A Rogue Tooth Fairy
• Matchless: A Christmas Story