lots of love here

Celebrating the birthday of our beloved shooting star - Peque Gallaga. 

This photo of Peque working behind the scenes by that giant kawa could likely be the inspiration to naming Mahala Dewdrop Kawali while she was in my belly. 

production still - Oro Plata Mata

Peque meant a lot to so many of us, touching our lives in big and small ways as teacher, mentor, friend, marking personal breakthroughs and highlights and enhancing our own outlook in life. 

Happy Birthday, El Pogi!

For wonder | wander | women, we are eternally grateful and abjectly appreciative to have been accepted and adopted into the whole Peque Gallaga clan for many happy years. 

As Peque's mass comm student we parked in their home every semester - working on our various school projects while fed and cared for by his wife Madie, their whole production and household staff, and all five children. 

with our production gang -  eight months pregnant

When I was pregnant with Mahala, Peque was in Manila mostly and I spent my weekends as Madie's roomie. Two pregnant women spending her last and my first trimester together.

Holed up in bed, munching on home baked and junk food cravings as we vegged on our fave videos. Plotting our conquest of the world was a large part of the agenda too. 

Great times that continue to sustain us with lovely memories as we hold our beloved mumo eternally in our hearts. 

Boushra Almutawakel | artist, photographer, cultural commentator

Boushra Almutawakel is a Yemeni artist and photographer passionate about justice for girls and women rights. Her ongoing series about the hijab explores the many ways to look at this veil and how it affects identity of and assumptions about the women who wear it.

Untitled, The Hijab Series, 2002

In her words: After September 11, I was compelled to create images on the veil, particularly since Islam and  Muslims had taken international center stage. I found that we, as Arabs and Muslims, were either demonized or romanticized.

wonder women

Not enough can be said about the women who birthed, inspired, and influenced us. We proudly stand on their amazing shoulders in an expansive world - large vistas unimpeded til the far horizon. 

Skateistan is open six days a week and offers single gender classes
with boys and girls separate.

Enshrined goddesses of awe and wonder - famous or not, colorful or not - each distinct and all unique.

Here is a very short list, with more to come for sure. 

kudos to Philippine independent cinema

In a true case of life being stranger than fiction, kudos to Philippine cinema and Filipino artists and creatives for these innovative films. 

Life on our islands have only gotten harsher and more bleak - caught between the rock that's such deep seated corruption in government and the hard place this virus and pandemic has put us all in. 

The Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival is a project of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and the Cinemalaya Foundation, Inc. The all-digital film festival "aims to discover, encourage and honor cinematic works of Filipino filmmakers.”  

The festival runs from August 6 to September 5 - screening thirteen competing short films, Cinemalaya also presents the Premieres section - featuring four never before seen feature films by Filipino filmmakers. Available on on ktx.ph.

17th independent film festival

hellion heroes | forged in fire

As with everything going on in our lives today, the Tokyo Olympics has been fraught with challenges. Under the world's microscopic and persistent gaze, it's no wonder matters are exposed and exploding all over the place under all this pressure. 

Naomi Osaka lights the Olympic cauldron at the Opening Ceremony
of the Tokyo 2020 (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Under fire to produce the most gold for their country, in a blaze, for glory or bust. When did we turn on our gladiators and favor public demand instead? For whatever sells the tickets? Hell to pay, for sure then. 

held in near-empty stadium amid pandemic