Rubie Rizza: The gem of original Kinaray-a music

This article appeared in fittopost.yahoo.ph and Vera Files in January 2011.

The best female artist at the recently concluded first Ilonggo Music Awards in Iloilo City is not an Ilonggo but a Karay-a. Singer and composer Rubie Rizza comes from neighboring Antique province, but her song “Ti ano karon?” (So what?) won the votes from the Ilonggos, making her the true diva of original Kinaray-a music (OKM). “Ti ano karon” is, undoubtedly, her first hit single.

It took more than two years for her song to break into the airwaves. It was first heard at the 5^th Original Kinaray-a Music (OKM) Awards in San Jose, Antique in 2007, when it won the top prize. It surely levelled up Kinaray-a music from mainly ditties and ballads that local composers have been dishing out. It is perhaps the first Kinaray-a jazz.

“Ti ano karon” is a song about a woman who may not have the looks, but has the heart and the brains, and if these are not enough to attract men, she simply doesn’t care. The first stanza is a candid admission: “Bukut ako it gwapa, medyo may arikis, dapa akun irong, lawas ko daw tiwis” (I am not pretty, I have scabs, my nose is flat, my body is thin), yet there is enough humor and confidence in the voice that cries beauty is not only skin deep.

In reality, the song belies what the singer really is. Rubie Rizza was crowned Lin-ay kang Antique (Miss Antique) in 2005, despite her insecurity with her physical attributes. “I was too thin and flat-chested,” she described herself. But thanks to her singing and vivacious personality, she stood out among the finalists that year, despite appearing like a Las Vegas showgirl during the festival costume parade.

As a Lin-ay kang Antique, she went on a trip to Thailand. More than shopping in Bangkok’s night markets, she cherished the opportunity to share Antique’s culture and original Kinaray-a music to students at Srinakharinwirot University. Her stint as co-host in a regional television show prior to the beauty contest helped her hone her performing skills. The students there thought she was a star in the Philippines, which she is in her own right.

At the Rainforest World Music festival in Sarawak, Borneo in 2009, Rubie Rizza volunteered to perform during one of the open mike side events and chanted in Kinaray-a. That is the kind of spirit she has when it comes to performing. “I think my friends and I were the only Karay-a in that event. There were many people of different nationalities. It was my way of making people from other countries hear Kinaray-a,” she explained. She believes Kinaray-a music is sophisticated enough to be heard around the world.

That’s why she devoted to writing her own songs. So she wouldn’t simply be known as a pretty songbird; she wants to write songs that have something to say. They may be funny, but they hit some vein. Right now, her next project is to come up with her own album. She has written a couple more songs, and plans to do covers of some of the best Kinaray-a love songs, including that perennial folksong “Lumabay-labay nga daw aso” (Ephemeral as smoke), which appears to be her favorite of the Karay-a folksongs. She learned and mastered the song for one planned but unfortunately never-materialized trip to the United States, supposedly to be an ambassador of goodwill to the Antiqueños there – a responsibility that comes with being a Lin-ay kang Antique. She considers that one occasion of lining-up at the US Embassy, applying for a Visa, and not getting approved as one of her life’s little jokes.

Aside from writing her songs and singing, she juggles between her day and night jobs. By day, she is Mrs Rubie Rizza Estaris-Villavert, youngest bank manager in the province of Antique. By night, if three-year old son Kiv doesn’t miss her much, she does guest relations for the bistro she runs with husband Mark. Her distinctive touch in the interior, the menu list, service, and events, has made Café Amistoso one of the night spots to be in San Jose, Antique.

It takes a great sense of humor and confidence to be singer, beauty queen, wife, banker, mother, composer, and businesswoman – roles that Rubie Rizza has taken on so well, so far.

The multi-media art of Alan Cabalfin

This piece appeared in fittopost.yahoo.ph and Vera Files in January 2011. Image by Eman Lerona.

Sometimes, his house along Canillas Street in Leon town of Iloilo overflows with students from the University of the Philippines in the Visayas, or with members of the historical council from Antique. It is an old two-storey wooden house that he himself had remodelled, with the assistance of a neighborhood handyman. The entrance was reinforced with concrete inlaid with shards of ceramics from the artist’s workshop, and the flooring is a mosaic of colourful tiles

salvaged from a bargain hardware store in Iloilo City. His humble house is a showroom of paintings, sculptures, ceramics, and an assortment of his collections. It has practically become this small town’s tourist attraction.

Alan Cabalfin is an artist of mixed persuasions. Although originally breaking into the Iloilo art scene as a watercolorist, he became well-known as a ceramic artist, having apprenticed under Nelfa Querubin who used to have a pottery workshop in Miag-ao, Iloilo, and after training in ceramic art at Tokoname, Aichi, Japan in 1995. His sculptural works were then exhibited in galleries in Iloilo, Manila, and Dumaguete. He joined many group exhibits and festivals exhibiting his works.

Cabalfin’s passion for pottery was translated into cinema when he made his first short film after attending a Mowelfund Film Institute film-making workshop in 2000. His short film “Dihon” (Mold), which was set in the Querubin work shop in Miag-ao, earned a string of recognitions from the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Gawad Urian (Urian Awards), and the Film Academy of the Philippines awards in the short films and student categories. Recognition for this little film was topped by a First Prize in the Kodak Cinematographers Competition, making “Dihon” the country’s official entry to the Kodak Worldwide Student Program Cinematographers Competition in Sydney, Australia.

His love affair with film led him to work with several film projects: as production designer in Nick Deocampo’s “Mother Ignacia,” and as art director in Jonar Pueblo’s Ilonggo film “Dagyang.” He also directed the “Samayaay” video for the Iloilo National High School Special Program for the Arts. But Cabalfin’s multiple talents was not left unnoticed by those he was able to work with. Soon, he found himself designing galleries for exhibitions and museums and doing sets for stage productions. He was asked to design the RVM Historical Museum and later the Heritage Hall in Quezon City, the Lourdes College Museum in Cagayan de Oro, the Evelio B. Javier Gallery and the Museo Antiqueño in San Jose, Antique, and the Guimaras Provincial Museum and Monument in Jordan, Guimaras. His practical yet highly creative and versatile stage designs using textiles were well appreciated by directors who asked him to design sets for ballet, sarswela, and even beauty pageants!

As art director for Miss Dinagyang and Lin-ay kang Antique for several years, Cabalfin’s touch was seen in drapes and painted sceneries that complement the various segments of the pageant, much like imitating the patadyong (locally women textile from Panay). Cabalfin is well aware of the distinct weaving traditions in both Antique and Iloilo, that his production designs may well be a homage to these well-kept traditions.

As an artist, Cabalfin sees all these works not as mere money-making ventures. He believes that something must go back to the community where art belongs. While working as art director for the Museo Antiqueño in April 2007, where he did some terracotta dioramas, he was able to interact with the potters of Sibalom, where he sourced his clay. Seeing the traditional pottery-making in Bari, he volunteered to conduct workshops and lectures which helped the potters produce other designs aside from the functional banga (water jar), kuron (round bottomed-pot), and sig-ang (stove). Now, the potters dish out animal figurines, candle and lamp holders, which are easily picked up by garden enthusiasts at local trade shows. Six months later, he came back to the Museo Antiqueño for his the exhibition “Bag-o nga Daan,” his first pottery exhibit since his last in 1996.

When Cabalfin was invited to exhibit at the Philippine Center in New York last year, he decided to bring to the Big Apple something of Panay. His solo exhibition that ran from July 12-23, 2010 at the lobby of the Philippine Center was titled “Binanog: Panay Bukidnon on the Rise.” Binanog is the dance of the Panay Bukidnon, imitating the movements of the banog bird. The exhibition featured his paintings and ceramics that capture the delicate motifs of the Panay Bukidnon embroidery called panubok and the energetic movements of the binanog dance. One particular painting is a triptych called “Binanog sa Siyudad,” (Binanog in the City) showing three binanog dancers, each against the backdrop of urban skyline, identifiably Iloilo City, Hongkong, and New York.

Coming home from that New York exhibition, Cabalfin, hastily prepared another painting exhibit called “Binanog sa Siyudad” for the Karay-a Arts Festival held at Gaisano Grand Mall of Antique on October 22-23. He was so filled with inspiration. “I think that in my next projects, I will consciously try to show not only my art, but my culture as well,” he said. @

Macrame

Yesterday, I got a surprise SMS from Laurence Tapican, a young poetry enthusiast (and I suspect he writes poetry, too) from Aklan. He requested for a copy of my poem "Macrame," which was published in Homelife in 2001, and won second place in the annual poetry competition initiated by its literary editor Leo Deriada. Laurence said he has been wanting to read it since he was in first year high school, and now he is a college sophomore. Today is Laurence's birthday, and I want to give this gift to him (not a very happy poem, though). I admire Laurence's zeal for poetry, and I wish there were more young people like him interested in poetry.

Macrame

There is no sadder art:

I make each knot

As though a sorrowful mystery

Recited on Holy Week:

A beadless rosary rolled

Between my fingers

Blistered and pained

Like remembrances of false loops

And entanglements.

How am I to weave

This twine of strength

To decorate my bare walls?

I think of many patterns,

But when knotted

They make a thousand little nooses

To hold the necks of my desires.

This art of tying is a grave thing.

It shortens the string.

When I reach the end of my rope,

I make one final knot

And I am ready to

Hang.