⌛ Is there strong intellectual/cultural/artistic vibe in Dumagets?

I have some friends up here in Makati that play in a few bars around town every now and then. They play the same kind of music. Steely Dan. JImmy Cliff? Wow! I remember the movie, 'The harder they come"

 

Woops! I thought you said Jimmy Cliff! You said Cliff Richards

 

I have the schedule at home, yes they have visiting artists, including the Sunrise Festival I mentioned. But in the city at large, is there a "vibe" of artistic and intellectual thinking, not in my opinion.,

Except at Devlins, very heady stuff going on there :D

 

That's a lot guys for keepin it real. I guess I have been spoiled living in the San Francisco Bay Area where u can catch jazz legendaries like Roy Haynes and Mccoy Tyner and global artists like Bebel Gilberto, Hugh Masekela, and Salif Keita. But you know what, you got to pay everywhere just to hear music around here. That's what i liked about the Philippines, there's music everywhere, restaurants, bars, u name it. I guess the German composer a century ago was correct in summing up the Philippine musicality when he commented that even the sea clams can hum a tune.

So I will visit Dumaguete in May/June..I have 33 days off from semester break so will bus it from Manila to Bicol and ferry or fly to Cebu before boating it to Dumagets after a brief stop in Bohol which i have never visited(only been to baguio, vigan, sagada, banaue, botoc up north and cebu, davao, zamboanga, palawan including el nido, bora and camiguin in the south. I hope to meet some of you guys at Devlins to get more of a rundown on the place.

Is bacolod and iloilo nice to visit too? I am also going to siargao and sipalay(for the historical stuff..read something on cebu air inflight magazine last month).

My short term plan is to take summers off from univeristy teaching here in the states and just kick it in the PI starting summer 09 and see where that goes. I have always dreamed of living near the ocean, and I thought it was going to be in Florianopolis, Brasil, where i have spent my vacations the last five years but the last four visits to the PI last year after not coming back since 94(i was born in Dagupan city, Pangasinan Philippines) have really left me wanting more.

Thanks for all your help. This forum has been very entertaining to read..There's some real characters down in Dumagets. Hope I can contribute something if I ever open up a venue down there.

 

Well, that's the difference, I would love to see here (speaking as a foreigner), clubs featuring native percussion, combined with jazz or rock, you know, innovative stuff based on traditional and indiginous music. This is what one might think you would find here, being a young college town. I know an Australian living in Tambobo, he is a consumate Djembe percussionist along with his Filipina GF. He tried to set up a jamb in dumaguete, but he had no success luring filipino drummers to do this. He appeared at the Sunrise Festival and led the drum circles through out the week. The visiting artists loved it and joined in, when they left town, he went back to Tambobo.

One, I think no one here would pay to see anything but disco or Reggae, maybe the occasional folk tunes or elevator jazz as Hayahay has.

Secondly it seems to me, but maybe I have just not met any yet, mainstream Filipino musicians don't like to improvise. They tend to learn songs then just play them the same every time.

Keep in mind my frame of reference now is dumaguete, not Manila or a metropolitan area where I am sure things are different.

Ah to see Mcoy Tyner once again...

When I first came to Dumaguete, I thought it would be an ideal place along the Boulevard for a national or even international jazz festival. Great venues Restaurants, open air cafe's etc. But the bussiness environment seems to be everyone for himself, or at least significantly different than in the West. They did have for a while open concerts on the Bvld. it was great, even if the music was Manila rock bands. The streets were full of people, food vendors lined the Bvld. It was a real happening. but apparently some bussinesses complained so now all these things happen in a relatively small fenced in Quezon park, not too near the Bvld.

 

RHB....i'm curious to your thoughts of comparing knowledge based education (seemingly similar to the text book/memorization process) and experiential based education of learning to do by experience or hands on application with repetitious behavior with critique and feedback mechanisms. Which one do you think would be more appropriate and/or successful based on the local university student population. I'm sure there are certain factors that would led itself to one choice or the other. (thoughts?) sounds strange i know, but I have a pretty extensive background in training and education development programs ranging from college age students to mid-career professionals.

 

knowledge based or experiential base...

From my casual observation, it seems musically, Filipinos learn experientially. I have met so many self taught musicians in the Philippines and abroad who play at bars and hotels throughout Asia. My friend from Mali, who is a master musician, seems to indicate this same way of learning music in Mali and Senegal. At the university setting, however, i feel Filipinos could use a bit more knowledge based education but given the limited resources, most are content to just get that degree, get a job so they can support their family. I have students here in berkeley who are inundated with knowledge based education but seem so unmotivated save for a few.

Having said that, I am surprised at the number of counterhegemonic practices exhibited by some Filipino artists who have never read Gramsci or Foucault. I am always humbled by the employment of counter resistance, both overt and covert, applying things I only theorized and problematized at UC Berkeley.

 

"The large percentage of students are marginally literate in culture of any kind, and spend there days memorizing text books to pass exams, I know, I have a step daughter. The rest of the time they text their friends."

RHB, this is such an irresponsible generalization of the students of dumaguete based only by your observation of one step daughter. And besides if you are taking health related courses, you can not help but do a lot memorization. Otherwise, you'll never be able to name and identify the cranial nerves, etc..

 

Let me say your right, it is unfair to the small percent of engineering students, and perhaps literature, or journalism students, and others in law or medical schools who actually learn concepts and use their intellect to think in abstractions. That said, Poster projects and coloring have no place in a nursing curriculum. In my view I will add.

Yes it was a generalization but it was stated in order to make a point, some what tongue in cheek, not about students per se, or their intrinsic worth as human beings, but the general interest level of students in something besides the banal typical teen age stuff that consumes their lives.

Do the large majority of students here crave modern jazz, classical music, or even traditional Philippine culture? Do they seek out lectures about existentialism, Dadaism or Post modern discourse? Do they know the difference between memorization and conceptualization?
If so I am wrong and apologize.

I would be equally critical of American college students as a group in terms of the "intellectual vibe" mentioned in the thread opener..

 

Very interesting thread! enjoying reading the discussion.....