The art side

Once upon a time there was a dude name Jose who wanted to become a painter. But his Chief Financier aka The Mother pretty much had Jose on a tight leash. So tight that when she told him to fuck art and become an eye doctor instead so he can do something about her wonky eye, he did. Maybe because he's a mama's boy that way. So he took up Medicine and went through all the bloody processes of becoming one. Then one fine day, he met two artists named Hidalgo and Luna. He loved hanging out with them so much that they became the three stooges. Now, Hidalgo and Luna being artists and all - joined this "Who can paint the biggest artwork contest." Both aestheticians (say it slowly) created huge masterpieces which brought honor to their home country because Luna won Gold for his work entitled Spolarium which showed dead/dying/pretending to be dying gladiators being dragged with Romans watching was an allegory for the bad ways the Conyos were treating Filipinos. In other news, Hidalgo bagged the Silver award (boy, was he pissed) for uh, his painting. To celebrate their victory (and a reason to get piss ass drunk), they threw a totally fetching party which was well attended by the 15 (or 50) Filipinos in the Spanish hood, including BFF Jose. Because he wanted to give honor to his homies, he went on stage and said a speech (I bet he really wanted a slice of the limelight) which sounded like a political campaign. Jose went on and on and on and one about his friends' winning in a European contest and how wonderful it is to finally be at the same level of artistic greatness ...zzzz... Anyway, after his FAMAS-deserving speech, he was still all fired up on Nationalism and shnazz like that that it inspired him to sit down and write several best selling novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. When Jose went back home to Las Islas Filipinas, he put together a group of like-minded crazies which included the P10 bill guy, Apolinario Mabini and Emilio Aguinaldo. And the rest is well, Philippine History. That's what I learned when a couple of bored friends and I hit the National Museum for a lil cultural appreciation. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to appreciate at the Nat except for the gallery on the 1st floor and 3rd floor. I had always wanted to go back ever since I went there for a field trip when I was in Elementary. I intended to see the stuffed animals but didn't see any but bones of a tarsier, chicken, carabao, manatee, monkey, and baby sperm whale. There ain't much to see in there but a trip down to the REAL Manila is still worth the drive The museum is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 1030 am to 430 pm. Admissions is FREE.