October to February: There and back again.

January: Sinulog, Fiery Pigs, Pinnipig, Midweek Session and Perfect on Paper.

January heralded the year of the Fiery Pig. PODD Corp marked its second year, with a digital art contest open to college students. Luke Tornilla, of UP Cebu, won the first prize of this inaugural digital art contest.

January was also auspicious for three things: The Sinulog Video-Docu Contest, Pinnipig and the Midweek sessions. Clee Villasor, my erstwhile cohort at itzamatch.com, contacted me to do consulting work on his script. The piece came in 8th place (I think). Not bad, for a first-time director and screenwriter. Kudos, Clee!

Niel Quisaba and Ian Zafra, are probably two of most artistic and hardworking people I know, and the idea of them joining forces to form an online store just blew me away. In fact, I think it blew the two of them away, too. Pinnipig.com, their joint online effort into promoting Niel’s artwork, became so popular that, within a month of its birth, the site crashed because its bandwidth limit was exceeded. Peejay, another friend on mine, told me that bandwidths are only exceeded if your site has had too many users clicking and trying to access your site, or if you’ve exceeded your weight index two times over. Which is quite an achievement for a young online store like pinnipig.com. Kudos, Niel and Ian, to your success!

Another digital delight was last January 17’s Perfect on Paper, skippered by Niel Q., this group exhibit featured the digital artwork of Cebuano graphic artists such as Rocky Barria, Palot Umali, and Leo Guevara, among others. Watch out for these individuals because they’re more than just perfect on paper.

Segue to music and then some... In the early 2000s, a small, albeit inocuous band-space, called Midweek Sessions was created at the now-dead-and-revered Artist Dais music bar. It was a weekly gig that featured local artists who wrote and sang their own material. Many local music aficionados and fence-sitters tried to dissuade the trio of Eimer Tabasa, Fern Villaflor, and Ian Zafra that gathering a horde of mostly young bands together to play their original material may look great on paper, it may just be a pretext to a very flat note. Unfazed, the trio approached Edwin Asis of Artist Dais. The rest, as they are fond of quoting, is history.

Midweek Sessions made its comeback last Feb 28, Wednesday, at the Outpost, in Nivel Hills, Lahug, Cebu city. Indie freshmen, The Line Divides, and local pop-chartbusters, Missing Filemon opened the relaunch.









Penumbra: Next “Feel-good February”

***