Foot and Fire

Fangirling, if you describe me when I saw Marc Chagall's The Village and I at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) on my second week in New York City. I went to MoMA to see Van Gogh's Starry Night, which is the Museum's star masterpiece if I must rate it according to the flock of tourists at a time fighting for a spot to take a photo with it and the existing articles on it in the web each time MoMA is mentioned. But Lo and behold, I saw a masterpiece that never left me from the time I learned about it in our Humanities Class in college. I thought I have to go to a Jewish museum before I can see this piece. Modern art sometimes does not hold one's breath because it lacks the mystery and the depth of chiaroscuro. One example is this piece. It is colorful, has geometry in it which suggests that the piece must be logical but it is not logical given how the objects are drawn which shows that it is dreamy and tells a story. When I read one e.e. cummings poem, I thought...

Apple and Oranges My Brother and Me, Lost and Found By Marie Brenner Softcover, 265 pages I was never wrong to have picked this up. This book was a lucky find at Booksale because I got it for P20, reminding me of that Cornetto ad, Saan aabot ang bente pesos mo? I was more than elated. I just can't get over the fact how the author weave her sibling rivalry into her family's history in a funny and then riveting storytelling. Even how the siblings chose and fought for what they want to do in their lifetime seems to have some connections in the past, like Carl, a lawyer who turned into an Apple Man and Marie, a journalist. They turned out to be not-so-alien when she assessed their lives according to how their ancestors have lived. Just when I am already persuaded that we can never really get into full circle in life if we cannot know our past, there is a sudden change in the story line. There is the urgency to heed Carl's wisdom: Go forward. Just go forward. And just when I am ...