Ambeth R. Ocampo's Blog, page 67

Swaying to Rizal’s IG [IndioGenius] @National Museum of Anthropology this morning with National Artist Kidlat Tahimik.

Swaying to Rizal’s IG [IndioGenius] @National Museum of Anthropology this morning with National Artist Kidlat Tahimik.



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My Inquirer column today is on primary source material on the Philippines that I worked on recently at the University of Michiga...

My Inquirer column today is on primary source material on the Philippines that I worked on recently at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Reading some of the accounts made my blood pressure rise because of unfair descriptions of the Philippines and the Filipinos made a century ago that would be grossly politically incorrect today. History teaches us to generate light not heat and the skillful historian can tease truth even from a biased source. We can't change the past so instead of...

Mark your calendars. I will be in Davao August 18-20.August 18 I will be signing books at the Philippine Book Festival.August ...

Mark your calendars. I will be in Davao August 18-20.
August 18 I will be signing books at the Philippine Book Festival.
August 19 I will be in conversation with National Artist Resil Mojares.
Looking forward to meeting readers in Davao!



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Photos from National Book Development Board - Philippines's post

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What would Rizal look like if he was bald?In the age before Photoshop we needed someone like the late Dick Baldovino to photogr...

What would Rizal look like if he was bald?
In the age before Photoshop we needed someone like the late Dick Baldovino to photograph National Artist Guillermo E. Tolentino (wearing glasses) contemplating a bald Rizal, and planning how to install human hair, strand by strand, on the head study and have it cut to give us a posthumous likeness of Rizal.



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Originally Cavite Boulevard, later Dewey, then Heiwa and finally Roxas Boulevard. It looks so different today compared to this p...

Originally Cavite Boulevard, later Dewey, then Heiwa and finally Roxas Boulevard. It looks so different today compared to this postwar photo. Can you guess where the photo was taken from?



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My lecture today competed with Barbie, Mssion Impossible and Oppenheimer. Successful start of the Lopez Museum Lecture Series on...

My lecture today competed with Barbie, Mssion Impossible and Oppenheimer. Successful start of the Lopez Museum Lecture Series on the American Occupation at Rockwell Cinemas.



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After a heavy rain or flood in the late 1980s and 1990s runners would bring bits of precolonial gold to the Ermita antique shops...

After a heavy rain or flood in the late 1980s and 1990s runners would bring bits of precolonial gold to the Ermita antique shops. Gold beads and sheets of unknown origin and use would then be weighed and sold for spot gold value. Nobody cared much for the thin crudely made pieces from death masks because the superstitious felt these carried bad juju.
These were so light compared to beads and necklaces of spun gold or intact artifacts that commanded way more. Death mask elements (I never en...

Over a million views in five days. I should seriously consider translating my work from print to multimedia.

Over a million views in five days. I should seriously consider translating my work from print to multimedia.



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Why is it that when we talk of Manila, we do so in the past tense? Because we have lost a lot of our built heritage. If you thin...

Why is it that when we talk of Manila, we do so in the past tense? Because we have lost a lot of our built heritage. If you think the Post Office fire was devastating look back on the lost Crystal Arcade and weep.
Inaugurated in 1932, the Crystal Arcade was the first air-conditioned mall in the Philippines. Designed by Andres Luna de San Pedro, son of Juan Luna, it was built on a lot in Escolta passed on by his maternal grandmother. The Crystal Arcade was a financial disaster having opened ...