1 (Thu) – Fuseboxx
2 (F) – Guitars for Good Governance
3 (Sat) – Toto Sorioso
4 (Sun) – Gospel Jam (5-9pm)
5 (M) – Songwriters Night
6 (Tue) – Writers Night (7-9pm)/ ShutEyeView/Smoke My Cuban
7 (W) – Noel Cabangon
8 (Thu) – Maya’s Anklet Album Launch
9 (Fri) – Joey Ayala
10 (Sat) – Comedy Night with Mike Unson & Friends
11 (Sun) -Gospel Jam (5-9pm)
12 (Mon) – Bullet Dumas
13 (Tue) – Writers Night (7-9pm)/ Piano Night with Rica Arambulo
14 (Wed) – Noel Cabangon
15 (Thu) – Johnoy Danao
16 (Fri) – Bayang Barrios & Mike Villegas
17 (Sat) – Julianne
18 (Sun) – Gospel Jam (5-9pm)
19 (Mon) – Songwriters Night
20 (Tue) – Writers Night (7-9pm)/ Salinawit ni Pete with Ricky Davao,
Reli German, Camille Sy and Pete Lacaba
21 (Wed) – Noel Cabangon
22 (Thur) – Cathy Go
23 (Fri) – Kaya Natin! presents Pasyonista: A Night of Music & Fashion
24 (Sat) – AralRakan benefit show
26 (Mon) – Red Star Jam
27 (Tue) – Makiling
28 (Wed) – Noel Cabangon
29 (Thu) – Cordillera Night with Manong Jun Utleg
30 (Fri) – Joey Ayala

The “Forum – Dialogue on the Rice Crisis in Asia: Farmers’ Situation and Responses” was held yesterday, May 28, at the Conspiracy Garden Cafe in Quezon City, Philippines. It was attended by farmer-leaders from national farmer organizations belonging to the Asian FArmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA). [Click here to read full article]

Salinawit trailblazer Pete Lacaba had gathered together despite the bad weather old faces Bayang Barrios, Cooky Chua, Lyn Sherman, Ricky Davao, a new regular Mara Viola, the esteemed Conrad de Quiros, Princess Nemenzo who apparently has never missed a Salinawit night, Mara’s friend Arlene Estrella from Vietnam, and a couple from the US.

Michael Konik, record manager in L.A., and his attractive morena fiancée Fil-Am Charmaine Clamor were promoting her album Jazzipino of Filipino songs given a jazz treatment and distributed by Viva Records in the Philippines. They were set to leave the next day but had been told they couldn’t leave without dropping in on Conspiracy. So here they were shooting the breeze with the regulars and Charmaine later singing three songs in a jazzy version with the amazing Ferdie Borja on the piano that left us all agape. [Click here to read full article]

Conspiracy (full name: Conspiracy Garden Cafe) has long been known a byword in the Quezon City underground/progressive live music circuit. By our definition, a “progressive” dive is any place that doesn’t book the usual showbands, acoustic cover groups, and cookie-cutter pop acts. In that group we would probably add 70′s Bistro, Freedom Bar, Magnet Katipunan, among others.

As most people probably know (and if you didn’t – you certainly do now), Conspiracy is an artist-owned venue, which counts musicians like Gray Granada, Joey Ayala, Cynthia Alexander, Noel Cabangon, Bayang Barros, and Mike Villegas among its list of stockholders. Conrado de Quiros, writing in his column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, recently shed light on the bar’s ownership structure:

“Conspiracy is the brainchild of Gary Granada who conspired with fellow singers Noel Cabangon, Bayang Barrios, Cynthia Alexander, Joey Ayala and Cooky Chua to put it up. They invited other people to join the conspiracy, and last I looked, some 150 people had done so — artists, NGO people, and plain lovers of music, however some might dispute the term. You can’t own more than five shares, at P15,000 per. I claim the princely sum of two shares. The place itself is rich only in goodwill, creativity and talent.”

[Click here to read full article]

Last week, we got this text about Sunday’s event: “You are cordially invited to a Christmas party to be held at our newly built resort on December 27.”

Unavoidable’s an understatement: “We will provide you with free transportation and accomodation.”

Especially when it seemed so wholesome: “Please bring your whole family.”

But we had second thoughts when we learned about the venue: Sharif Aguak Maguindanao.”

“See you there!” sounded to us like “See you in court” to Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 84 presiding Judge Luisito Cortez who declined his chance of a lifetime due to fears for his and his family’s safety.

Ironically, we got the message while we were in Timog, a post-Lantern Parade night cap, at the rooftop office of Atty. Redemberto Villanueva, one the Ampatuans’ legal eagles!

Anyway, in mind, our December 27 was for the baptism of Nathan Kyle, Reinan and Letlet de Guzman’s panganay, at Ching Abad Santos’ Tilamsik ng Sining.

If not, the same date was for the birthday celebrations of Josh and Iñigo, the son and grandson respectively, of our editor Isabel de Leon, a schoolmate of Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes who would treat the Andal Ampatuan Jr.’s trial as an ordinary case that would require no special police security.

Normally, we charge that joke to our Niños Inocentes experience!

However, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) is taking that seriously like such Christmas traditions as Mama’s Ube Jam from the La Boholana Heritage Tours.

Or as dead-serious as NCCA Commissioner Ricardo de Ungria’s challenge in his keynote speech during the Philippine PEN conference last December 6: “The silence of art and literature in the wake of the Maguindanao massacre is crushingly telling. Our realities in this country far outstrip our wildest imaginings, forcing us to dig deeper into our personal griefs and solitudes. Which is probably not the right way to go. For where does that put, pray tell, the literature it produces that ought to confront such realities at the same time that it celebrates life? And what does it say of the artists’ and writers’ engagement with the realities of the time?”

Are we going to take it or leave it?

Or live with it?

[Click here to read full article]

From poet Vic Nierva:
SARONG BANGGING MABITOON
Bikol poems, songs, stories, etc on
December 12, Tuesday
8:30 pm
Conspiracy Garden Cafe,
Visayas Avenue, Quezon City
[ Click here to read the full article ]