Cory Aquino

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Another sad obituary from the Philippines: Cory Aquino, wife of Ninoy Aquino, heroine of the EDSA People Power Revolution that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and President of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992, died from complications due to cancer on August 1st, 2009. She was 76.

As wife to Marcos’ most dangerous political opponent she saw her husband imprisoned, tortured, exiled, and finally assassinated; as rallying point for the 1986 revolution she took the reins of power with humble reluctance; as President she survived through seven military coup attempts, and while not the best president, she did work hard to help preserve the democracy that she had helped replant in the Philippines.

I have heard tell that her son Noynoy Aquino plans to run for president — he still has a bullet in his neck from when he was attacked during one of the coup attempts against his mother. One of his possible choices for running mate is another presidential hopeful, Mar Roxas, grandson of former Philippine President Manuel Roxas.

Meanwhile, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo continues to advocate measures to extend her power, the Marcoses continue to roam the political landscape, and Joseph Estrada is thinking of running for president again. It makes me wonder whether EDSA and its sequels were really just proxy battles to maintain existing Filipino political dynasties, and how much of Cory’s legacy is left after two decades of squandering.

More stories from Cory’s passing:

For a flashback to 1986, check out this amazingly detailed timeline of events, assembled from interviews and eyewitness accounts from the EDSA Revolution.

(Tangential note: I’m obliquely related to Cory Aquino, since I have a first cousin who married her niece. I guess that makes her a second aunt-in-law once removed or something — or, as Filipinos all called her, “Tita Cory.”)

Uncle Tito

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Uncle Tito Uncle Tito, pictured at right, died last month. (Tautological name, I know, since his nickname “Tito” is Tagalog for “uncle,” hence our use of the English address.)

I remember him most fondly for lending me his violin when I needed one for lessons back in my teens. This was not just any violin; it was a 1734 Giuseppe Guarneri violin from Cremona, wonderfully deep and resonant, still in good enough condition to play. I had it refurbished, rebridged, and restringed by the famed and now-late Filipino violin builder Alejandro Cruz, and took lessons for two years before college got in the way. The violin went back to Uncle Tito. I don’t know where it is now, and I forever regretted not continuing with those lessons.

Uncle Tito was a TOYM awardee for Agriculture in 1965. He lost his wife, Tita Lourdes, several years ago, and now leaves behind four children, my cousins, all now married with children. They have a villa on the family farm in Laguna, with a geothermal swimming pool.

Earlier this year at Tito Cesar’s wake I saw Uncle Tito walking slowly towards the driveway at Santuario de San Antonio. He had grown frail, and I wondered if this was the last I would see of him on this side of the veil. It was.

I hope to see him one day on the other side. Maybe there will be violins.

Ghosts Of My Friends

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From Grandma's basement: New York Times, Nov 23, 1963 From Grandma's basement: New York Times, Nov 28, 1963 From Grandma's basement: I Am Interested In Your Soul From Grandma's Basement: Apple IIe From Grandma's basement: Phonograph

There was lots of interesting old stuff in Amy’s grandma’s basement: newspapers from 1963, a haunted chest belonging to Waylande Gregory, cassette tapes from the Apostolate for Healing and Evangelism, a phonograph with one of those trumpetlike speakers, an Apple IIe, dozens of neon beer signs — but the most striking historical artifact was “The Ghosts of My Friends,” a creative autograph book in which the owner’s friends signed their names with a blotty fountain pen, then folded the markings in half to form ghostly images.

The Ghosts of my Friends The Ghosts of my Friends The Ghosts of my Friends The ghost of a celebrated general.

The dedication in this “Ghosts” book was to Edith from her Mother for Christmas of 1909, making this book just under a hundred years old, with the dates on the signatures going till 1920, and many empty pages left after the last signature. Most interesting to me was the name “Ethan Allen,” left the same day the book was given to Edith; and “The Cheerful Idiot” who adorned his autograph with devil tails and a dedication to Wallis, “Oh! those eyes they go thro’ me and button in the back.”

(Photos of ghostly signatures in the book after the jump.)

Continue reading Ghosts Of My Friends

Caturday!

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I have not had a Caturday post since that grooming appointment over two months ago; indeed I have been too busy to post much of anything for some time. But for now let us catch up on cat photos with this series of Pandora pictures. She turned 18 last month. Eighteen! That’s the equivalent of 88 in cat years.

Cat and Amazon Boxes Pandora on Carpet Pandora on Carpet Blurry Cat Approaching Camera Post-Catnip Pandora

Yawning Pandora Sleeping Pandora

Pandora (5800)

(The first photo in this series was one of the last taken with my old Nokia 6120 Classic, and the last large photo was one of the first taken with my new phone, a Nokia 5800. More on that in the future.

Fourth of July 2009

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Fourth of July long weekend was spent largely in domestic relaxation, but we went out on Friday to hike around Theodore Roosevelt Island a bit. While there we got to see three blue herons chased around the marsh by someone’s golden retriever:

Then on Saturday we ventured out to the National Mall to see fireworks. Unfortunately we only made it up to the Red Cross building before the fireworks began (the same thing happened in 2007) but the Red Cross lawn proved a decent vantage point anyway, and I got this time lapse video with my SD 1000 on a Gorillapod:

(Additional Sousa courtesy the US Marine Corp Band and the Internet Archive.)

Amy at Artomatic

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Artomatic, the ever-famous DC community art event that fills just-constructed buildings with rentable artists’ walls, is up at Navy Yard, and this year Amy took the leap and got space to show some of her paintings and drawings, with a focus on her mushroom works. The show is up till July 5th so if you’re in DC, do check it out. Amy’s on the fifth floor.

Amy selects her Artomatic space

Back at Artomatic with Amy for Meet the Artists Night

Her parents came down to DC last weekend to check out the show. Here’s Amy and her dad with a giant Peep, and a couple of my favorite Peeps dioramas:

Amy and her dad and a large Peep at @Artomatic Peeps Apollo 11 @artomatic

Peeps Miracle on the Hudson @artomatic

Feed Flood Warning

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Your Attention, Please! This site’s RSS feed is currently on OMG SUPER FLOOD WATCH WARNING ALERT LEVEL TWO BILLION as I am about to click the “Move Feeds” button on feedburner.google.com, and commence any number of feed-maintenance activities. This may cause downtime, or it may cause everything to suddenly be marked unread, or it may cause both. Apologies in advance if your feed readers are suddenly flooded with old content marked new from my various forms of online presence.

Update: Changes done. Carry on.