Chinese New Year 2023

Gateways. Beginnings. Portals. 

For the Asian world the Aquarian new moon of January 21 signifies the start of the Year of the Black Water Rabbit for 2023. 

It is a super moon - so very close to the Earth we feel its tides moving strongly through us.

What kind of structure do we want to live in - one of limitations? of rigidity? or do we choose chaos?

broken vessel by Deborah Smith

There is always another way - what Jung called the transcendent function.

What if we let a more organic structure shape what we become instead? 

Entrance

Whoever you are: in the evening step out

of your room, where you know everything;

yours is the last house before the far-off:

whoever you are.

With your eyes, which in their weariness

barely free themselves from the worn-out threshold,

you lift very slowly one black tree

and place it against the sky: slender, alone.

And you made the world. And it is huge

and like a word which grows ripe in silence.

And as your will seizes on its meaning,

tenderly your eyes let go. . . .

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

new books for 2023

wonder | wander | world shout out this week is for this trilogy of books, soon to be released - "Sine Tala: Essays on Philippine Cinema". compiled by Nick Deocampo. 

Three books to enrich our knowledge of Philippine cinema. The three volumes contain thematic essays with forewords by a new generation of the country’s leading film and media scholars. Volume One, "Philippine Cinema and History," with foreword by Patrick Campos. Volume Two, "Philippine Cinema and Culture," foreword written by Rolando Tolentino. Volume Three, "Philippine Cinema and Literacy," foreword written by Fernando Paragas. 

book covers & case concept art 

Paintings of DengCoy Miel grace the covers of the new books plus their bookcase. His works are full of iconographic images that speak of Philippine history and its imaginings. Deocampo calls what he does "historical semiotics." 

The expressive use of images as semiological signs that visually articulate historical events and allegorize, oftentimes satirize, the hidden trauma behind historical events. Thanks to Patrick Flores for brokering the deal to have DengCoy Miel to paint the book covers.

The graphic design is by Matt Sudario - a young, talented, book designer who has created several prizewinning publications in the past. Adding massive appeal to both students and the general public. 

These books contain historical, theoretical, critical, and pedagogical essays essential to a holistic study of Philippine cinema - immersing readers in the culture and society that gave birth to their story and style.

The book series will be published by the 2020 Publisher of the Year Awardee - Ateneo de Manila University Press, thanks to Karina Bolasco. Made possible by a grant from the Film Development Council of the Philippines - thanks to Liza Dino-Seguerra, then the FDCP chair.

We are looking forward to this publication in eager anticipation. 

in service of country & people?

With Bongbong Marcos in China vowing he intends to pursue an independent foreign policy - one more than willing to cooperate whenever possible in the pursuit of regional peace and our two countries’ national interest - wonder | wander | world is wary of what exactly this means. 

photo credit: Office of the Press Secretary

The BBM administration independent foreign policy is broadly outlined as friends to all, enemy to none. As with his unity campaign it brings concerns regarding implementation and doability. Big words that may or may not deliver their intended outcome. An air pie and wind cake smokescreen for the masses.

Stratbase ADR Institute President Victor Andres “Dindo” Manhit and Dr. Chester Cabalza, International Development and Security Cooperation president and founder, discussed these in the book “Beyond the Crisis: A Strategic Agenda for the Next President.”

Rappler Talk coverage of BBM China visit

Compiled and published by Stratbase ADRI, their papers are among 16 policy studies written by experts in the fields of foreign policy, the economy and development, and governance.

According to these studies, “We need a more responsive and strategic foreign policy that would implement a clear, cohesive, and consistent foreign policy direction and develop the country’s comprehensive power according to its military, economic, scientific, and cultural capabilities.”

The devil in the details - cause for many to doubt this ineffective and inefficient BBM administration incapable of attaining or delivering on.

NYC holiday delights

This year end festivities at NYC's Big Apple are a spectacular extravaganza of bright lights and colorful displays. 

One of the city's main attractions is a holiday walking tour of the fabulous store front windows in and around Fifth Avenue's shopping center in Midtown Manhattan. 

"Destination Extraordinary" theme designed by David Hoey

 

Here are three wonder | wander | world top recommendations for 2022. 

dark & light

This holiday season we celebrate hope and peace as we find ourselves in the darkest days of the year on winter solstice.  Wars and illness, hatred and repression have invaded our lives. It is the very time for us to nurture the light within and ignite hope for a better world.

There are so many more people in the world than the few who work on controlling us. We the people are here to participate in our communities and neighborhoods if we want to create a better world. 

the solstice energy portal is open

The Goddess for this season is the Divine Mother - Mother Earth, Mother Mary - our inner mothers.  These next three months are a good time to nurture a new life for ourselves and our tribe. 

Pam Gregory says, "The veil always thins at this time around Equinoxes and Solstices to enable us to receive more high-level information. Each of these is like striking a tuning fork for the next three months, which promise to be eventful."

the wheel of existence

NASA's astronomical year

With the success of the Artemis I mission NASA proudly shares a look back at an astronomical year.

Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

Behind the curtain of dust and gas in these “Cosmic Cliffs” are previously hidden baby stars - now uncovered by James Webb Space Telescope.

2022 was a big win for NASA and all of humanity. We unfolded the universe, launched a mega Moon rocket, moved an asteroid in space.

NASA 2022 - a year of success

wonder | wander | world is glad we got front row seats to all this awe and wonder.

murmurations with adrienne maree brown

wonder | wander | world pick of the week is Murmurations with adrienne maree brown - bringing her profound and practical voice of reason into our chaotic current events. 

Two years into a global pandemic, adrienne maree brown invites us to root into compassion and reconnect with our state of interbeing. 

illustration by Michael Luong

A writer, activist and facilitator, she describes her thought as postnationalism - others have described it as Black feminism or womanism. She also supports, among others, the Black Lives Matter and prison abolition movements. 

Brown's anthology Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good was released in February 2019 "demonstrates how activists can tap into emotional and erotic desires to organize against oppression." In September 2021, Brown published the novella Grievers, her first long form work of published fiction.

Adrienne Maree Brown invites YES! media readers to join her in writing “fan fiction and fan poetics for the future.”

Her next and final column for this series, she will explore the practical wisdom of “transforming ourselves to transform the world” - tying together the arc of accountability into a cycle of dialectical humanism that allows us to not just survive but evolve.