Do You Want To Fly?

Posted by Luis Katigbak at June 11th, 2010

The Lark Gallery Takes Wing Starting This June 11, 2010

“I love the gallery, the arena of representation,” Jeff Koons once said. UNO would like to announce the opening of a new arena of representation — a new venue for the arts and the imagination.

Lark Gallery opens with its debut exhibit, “Do You Want to Fly,” a tribute to Ramon “Jun” Katigbak commemorating his birth anniversary.

The theme is flight and all variations thereof, the late Ramon Katigbak being a maker, tinkerer, and obsessive builder and flyer of model airplanes. Paintings by Grace Katigbak and Teodoro Katigbak. Sculptures by Andrea Katigbak and Dondi Katigbak. Photography by Gabby Lacuesta. Poetry by Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta. (Yes, it is practically a congregation of artistically-inclined Katigbaks — and yes, they are related to our esteemed Editor-at-Large, Luis Katigbak).

The address of Lark Gallery is 45A Broadway Street, New Manila; the opening is on June 11, 2010 at 6 PM. We would love to see you there.

Here is an excerpt from one of the featured works, a poem by acclaimed, award-winning writer (and UNO contributor) Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta.

Here I am, father,
looking out at the low
suburban gables on Norman St.,

Outside it’s never dark:
clear sky lit not by stars
but news of stars, a shining

lapse as wide and far
as years. In Portugese,
saudade means “longing for

a person who has been lost.”

Meaning, “to know
the beloved will never return.”

Alexandra Keuls on Cosplay

Posted by Luis Katigbak at May 15th, 2010

“My idea of fun is being a part of another world—it’s about your dreams, and your nightmares too, coming to life.”

“Being a part of a story makes me feel complete.”

So says young cosplayer Alexandra Keuls. “Imagination takes in a great part of my life,” she adds. “In stories told, we tend to live in a world that’s entirely our own.”

Alex is a fan of Disney and Tim Burton and Miyazaki (“Hayao Miyazaki takes my breath away and touches my heart so deeply”), as well as of video games (“Nintendo is the only game console that I believe truly brings people together,” she says, adding that “Nbeats a nice round of Mario Party!”). She’s an online gaming enthusiast as well, having played everything from “, Lineage II, Flyff, to classic Everquest.”

Given her penchant for anime and gaming, it’s not too surprising that she got into cosplay—and it has helped her, in her words, come out of her shell. “It takes a lot of expression and confidence to build up a character. Believe me, it may not seem like a competition all the time, but it’s taken quite seriously! You’re representing a character, giving that character life, and showing it to others the way they’d want to see it as well.”

Alex is not exactly the canny extrovert one might expect, though. She’s the kind of girl who still describes herself as “shy around boys,” and who for years felt afraid to face the world. It’s hard not to feel a little protective of someone who so honestly and unabashedly believes in the worth and beauty of life, and who uses a whole lot of exclamation points, especially when describing her love for her family and friends. She grew up in the Caribbean (“I could see the ocean from my house! Sometimes whales from a distance on my way back home from school”), but has grown to love the Philippines—where her mother came from—just as much, since they moved here.

Alex sees life as “our very own book to write,” where one can depict villains and heroes, princes and princesses. “Though,” she adds, “it never hurts to imagine yourself in Alice’s shoes as she ventures into Wonderland, or Little Red Riding Hood as she faces the Wolf.” We are given choices between happy-ever-afters and alluring evils. In the end, as Alex says, “We should all be careful what we wish for.”

Constant Craving: Kagat

Posted by Luis Katigbak at May 14th, 2010

You’ve probably already heard of Kagat, the controversial Halimaw-themed restaurant — raves and rumors have been flying around, so we sent writer and singer cum baker Waya Gallardo to sift tale from truth

By Waya Gallardo (Interview by Luis Katigbak), originally appearing in UNO Magazine’s April ’10 issue. Photography by Mitch Mauricio.

Waya Gallardo will taste everything once. From kamaru (mole cricket) and kalabaw (carabao), to fried scorpions and sautéed silkworms, she will open her mouth and taste and then make up her mind. More often than not, she ends up liking it. But when Kagat (loosely translates to “bite” in English), the darkly themed halimaw (monster) restaurant opened last month, even she had to think twice before finally agreeing to try their specialty: Black Adobo.

At first glance, Black Adobo doesn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary. It isn’t even a main course, but an appetizer dish of three small birds braised in vinegar, an extraordinary amount of garlic, and fresh green peppercorns. But you can only order this dish once in one night. No one can call back to the kitchen for more.

For these small birds, served whole, head, beak, claws and all, are the fabled Black Chicks, allegedly harvested from the throats of real manananggals [a vampiric creature in Filipino folklore whose upper half sprouts wings, and separates from its lower one when it hunts for human blood].

A particularly macabre gastronomic gimik, or just another fanciful recipe on a menu that features Tinolang Adarna and Kapreng Kape (tobacco leaves are brewed along with the coffee beans)? Maybe. But how to explain the stories circulating, of Black Adobo inducing mild euphoria, of diners experiencing a common craving for cooked offal. And the wings—how do you explain them?

How was the atmosphere at Kagat? What did you think of the restaurant’s whole concept?
Dark. Literally. I could hardly see my own fork in front of me. I understand they have to build a spooky sort of ambiance, but really, it was almost ridiculous when you have to feel around for your own water goblet.

Having said that, there is a method to their dimly lit madness. The lighting was all UV, and they had their servers walk around in elegant white shifts, so they looked like floating ghosts. Each table had what looked like really lovely glowing glass centerpieces carved into various beasties and creatures from our local lore. I had a very pretty sirena (mermaid) on mine. But upon closer inspection, the centerpieces were glow in the dark gelatin! A very special recipe, made up of gelatin, sugar and quinine makes the jello sculptures react to the UV light. And to add to the mystique, my server claimed that their gelatin mixture was ground from the collagen of tikbalang [half-man half-horse, this mythical creature also survives on a diet of human flesh] bones.

Those quivering little centerpieces made the place really unearthly—like crystals on a cavern floor. I give them pointers for extreme ambiance (and excellently researched aswang anecdotes) but still; it is very hard to see by UV light. 


Describe the starters/appetizers. What did you particularly enjoy or deem notable?
Actually there’s only one appetizer listed on the menu: Black Adobo.

How was the Black Adobo?
Those birds were marvelous! The black meat was so tender, dropping off the bone, studded with these whole garlic cloves, all creamy and sweet from being slowly cooked. The birds are actually cut up, but served like they’re whole, and they’d somehow managed to stuff those tiny heads with fresh green peppercorns. How did they do that? Do they have duwende [dwarfs] in the kitchen? That was my favorite part, popping the heads whole into my mouth and shattering those tiny skulls with my teeth, and the peppercorns would burst with each bite.

My server explained how Black Adobo is “made.” The manananggal is captured, strung upside down, smoked until the chicks fall out of its mouth. Then, they braise the birds in very special vinegar and enormous amounts of garlic that are suppose to dilute the chicks’ potency (vinegar and garlic are famously fatal to manananggals), since swallowing the black chick can make you turn. No diner is allowed to order more than one dish in one night. Once again, props for the spooky back stories, very well fleshed out.

But what of the alleged side effects of Black Adobo? Did you feel anything after you ate it?
Well, I didn’t sprout wings if that’s what you’re thinking. Hmmm, actually I was a little disappointed that didn’t happen, ha-ha!

So was it all rumor and hype then?
About the wings, yeah, sure… but…

But what?
I was scanning the menu after the Black Adobo, and my eyes fell on one particular item. Couldn’t help seeing it as it was printed in a larger font than everything else. Like they wanted you to see it first…

What was it?
Lamang Loob Luau. It was an extensive selection of high-end street food: various grilled intestines, liver, kidney, and lung… Really cheesy name, but I kind of got twitchy when I read it. So I went for that.

It is served buffet style in the middle of the room, guarded by more of the glowing jello sculptures—huge ones this time—like angels, except they have bat-like wings spread over the tables. Whoever makes those sculptures is a genius. And a little bit sick.

I start off with little delicate bites of pigskin and ears, adidas and helmet (chicken feet and chicken head), accompanied by kwek kwek, deep-fried to an elegant golden crisp, not the usual orange batter you see on the street.

At this point, I’m beginning to notice things. Instead of getting full, I’m getting hungrier. And it’s a strange heightened hunger, so that each eating move I made seemed strangely slow motion, from skewering my food (there’s this almost delicious delay before my fork breaks through the crisp outer skin of the kwek kwek, and I can actually feel tiny little shudders when the tines penetrate to the thick creamy yolk) to chewing (when my teeth bite through those little bits of skin and ear and chicken head, the crunch from the crisp meat seems magnified tenfold, crackling through my ears long after my mouth has stopped moving) to finally swallowing (the food seemed to leave a long burning trail down the throat, spreading through the body, intensifying into an almost painful climax until my skin seemed to be humming, like I could hear the tiny hairs on my arm curling from all that heat).

This is the euphoria they talked about?
I don’t know if euphoria is the right word for it. Euphoria gives you a sense of well-being, right? This was something else. Like all my senses were drawn taut, like a string, and I could feel, taste, smell everything. I was even smelling my own skin, and it was this amazing, mouthwatering scent, all salt and blood and…

Right. What did you have next?
I attacked the innards next, the isaw, (coils of pig and chicken intestines wrapped around green bamboo and grilled), and proben (chicken stomachs deep fried in the same golden batter as the kwek kwek). I also had a great big serving of brain, flavored with dayap [lime], sea salt, and freshly grated black pepper. Have you ever lapped at a bowl of brain?

No. What did you have next?
Oh my god, the betamax!! They were amazing! Chicken blood seasoned with various herbs, dried then cut into cubes, seared and served on elegant bone skewers. They didn’t skimp on this. It was the largest portion—a great big pyramid of the stuff in the middle of the buffet table. And there were a lot of people piling those skewers onto their plates, jostling each other, cutting into the line. Like they couldn’t wait.

I have to admit, I got myself a great big plateful too. Every time my teeth sank into those cubes of betamax, it was the most remarkable thing, the way the cube would collapse into this voluptuous flood of roasted herbed blood, like real liquid silk in the mouth… all smoky and thick and rich. I couldn’t have enough of it, I went back three more times, like my life depended on it, choosing the bigger, juicier pieces, piling more and more skewers on my plate with every trip. They even gave me a complimentary dish of the stuff. They seemed really pleased I liked it so much.

Did you have dessert? How was it?
Aputan Flan. This was really rich custard made of those deep orange-yolked Benguet eggs, and―surprise! ―Deer fat. According to my server, they based the dessert on a Kalinga myth about a girl who was foraging in the forest for fern, who came across a magic deer, which offered its meat to her. She held her basket under its mouth and all this glistening fatty meat came out and dropped into her basket. aputan means “fatty meat.”

Not the most appetizing myth I know. As a matter of fact, now that I think about it, the whole evening was full of sinister aswang-fairytale anecdotes (manananggal chicks, tikbalang collagen), enough to put you off eating. But this never happened. I couldn’t stop eating. And I should have been sick and full at this point. I should have skipped dessert

But I destroyed the flan. I slurped huge spoonfuls of it. It was not pretty. For god sakes I hate flan. But I literally licked that plate clean.

Does Kagat live up to the hype? Would you bring other people here and if so, for what occasions?
I’d definitely only recommend Kagat for the adventurous. Not for birthdays or anniversaries, but maybe a hedonistic night out with your foodie friends, or maybe a hot date, ha-ha. I have no idea if all that manananggal chick talk is true, but there’s something in that Black Adobo, it jolts you awake to all sorts of…appetites. And the effects last long. I’m still craving blood―I mean chicken blood. And I can still smell my skin. I can even smell yours…

You can smell my skin?
Yeah, and it’s just a little bit burnt, almost roasted, right here in the soft fatty part under the arm, because you’ve been out in the sun all day…

Okay. Please let go of my arm.
Oh, oops. Sorry.

Holding Hands While The Walls Come Tumbling Down

Posted by Luis Katigbak at May 3rd, 2010

Tears for Fears finally played in Manila yesterday, May 2. Nineteen songs and it ended far too soon.

1. Mad World (intro/”orchestral”)
2. Everybody Wants to Rule the World
3. Secret World
4. Closest Thing to Heaven
5. Sowing the Seeds of Love
6. Call Me Mellow
7. Mad World (original version)
8. Memories Fade
9. Raoul And The Kings Of Spain
10. Quiet Ones
11. Floating Down The River
12. Everybody Loves a Happy Ending
13. Seven of Sundays
14. Billie Jean
15. Pale Shelter
16. Break it Down Again
17. Head Over Heels
~ Encore ~
18. Woman in Chains
19. Shout

Roland talked between #5 and #6 — he said that they had played all over the world in the past two-plus decades, and he wondered why it had taken so long for them to come here. This was of course met with a typhoon of enthusiastic screaming from the utterly packed coliseum. He and Curt seemed suitably overwhelmed by the responses of the Pinoy audience. Between #12 and #13 Curt spoke — he started off with “Mabuhay!” — and he mentioned that their Philippine visit had resulted in him being deluged with the most Twitter messages he had ever received.

The middle of their set was mostly unfamiliar to the audience (I still can’t believe they performed something from Raoul, and no less than 5 songs from Everybody Loves…) Curt Smith’s “Seven of Sundays” was surprisingly touching, and won the crowd over by the chorus, and then Roland did an unexpected and somewhat bizarre cover of “Billie Jean” (in response to the chants of “Eighties! Eighties!” perhaps?). “Break it Down Again” launched the screams into the stratosphere, and then “Head Over Heels” sustained the frenzy, and then they left for a while, but came back and ended strong with “Woman in Chains” and of course “Shout.”

Glad I was there. Thank you for the tickets, you know who you are.

Songs I hope they play the next time they come here: Advice for the Young at Heart, Change, Watch Me Bleed, Start of the Breakdown, The Working Hour, Mothers Talk, I Believe, Broken, Year of the Knife, Goodnight Song, Famous Last Words.

[Original Facebook note]

UNO Loves Cindy

Posted by Luis Katigbak at July 16th, 2009

So the new issue’s out! And, as you can see on this site, the cover rocks. But what’s inside?

We’ve got a quite frankly astonishing shoot with the gorgeous Cindy Kurleto — photography by who else but Juan Caguicla, and interview by none other than poet/songwriter Aldus Santos. And then we have a feature on Ellen Adarna, again with amazing photos by Juan, made even more amazing by special guest artist Lala Gallardo (I’m not going to describe it, you just have to see it). Interview by yours truly, writer and closet gangsta rapper Luis Katigbak.

There’s lots more: Jessica Zafra on historically significant treasures, Tweet Sering on Manny Pacquiao and boxing (in more than one sense of the term), Noel Orosa on Kinatay, Norman Black on how to win a championship, Erwin Romulo on Lor Lapus (and PJ Harvey), longboarding in the Visayas, UAAP predictions, and more more more, fashion and business and pop culture coverage that is second to none. Just get it!

“No fun to be alone… Well come on, well come on, well come on!” — Iggy Pop

*Incidentally, Cindy Kurleto was also featured recently on Complex magazine’s list of 9 Hottest Filipinas. If you check it out, you will also come across former UNO cover girl Kat Alano (as well as images from our Anne Curtis cover shoots).

Judging the Philippines Graphic Literary Awards

Posted by Luis Katigbak at July 15th, 2009

So I was one of the judges for this year’s annual Philippines Graphic Literary Awards — also known as the Nick Joaquin Awards for Literature. Congratulations to Rosario Cruz-Lucero, Erwin F. Castillo, and Sasha Martinez, excellent fictionists all! (Read more about it here.)

Fun Facts About the UNO Staff, Part 1

Posted by Luis Katigbak at June 12th, 2009

1. During one overnight editing/writing session at the office, Contributing Editor Mihk Vergara demonstrated his heretofore secret ability to turn his head 270 degrees around, like an owl. Unfortunately he threw up a lot afterwards and had to be rushed to the hospital.

2. Editorial Assistant extraordinaire France Pinzon is not named after France the geographical location. Rather, she is France, the corporeal form of the essence of an entire country. She took human form to learn more about people, and migrated here after she realized she didn’t like the people in France so much. She spends her spare time scoffing at tourist guides that “get me all wrong.”

3. Creative Director Juan Caguicla was raised in the wild by a roaming pack of savage tattoo artists. One day, after his pack suffered a vicious raid by their mortal enemies, a gang of bloodthirsty photographers, he found an abandoned Rolleiflex 2.8F TLR. Though he knew it was forbidden, he could not resist figuring out how to use the implement and soon spent many a day testing its limits. When his treachery was discovered, his full-body tattoo rite of manhood was cancelled (to this day, one arm is almost completely bare), and he was banished from his pack. Now he is an outcast from both tribes, who uses his powers for the good of all.

The New UNO

Posted by Luis Katigbak at June 2nd, 2009

Hello all. This is Luis Katigbak, Editor-at-Large (no fat jokes please). Just wanted to say that I am looking forward to the unleashing of the all-new UNO this June — after many sleepless nights, heated discussions, hunger pangs, and 3 AM epiphanies, it’s finally coming out! I can’t wait to see how people take it.

I’ve been working on magazines for over a decade now, and this is definitely one of the best teams I’ve ever worked with. Erwin “The Erwinator” Romulo, Juan “The Tattooed Man” Caguicla, Denise “Dahlin” Mallabo, Ramon “Supercontext” De Veyra, Mihk “Made in Hong Kong” Vergara, Jayvee “Mnemonic” Fernandez, “Gangsta” France Pinzon, the Notorious Shawn Yao, and of course, RJ “Tru” Ledesma, among many others, staffers and freelancers alike. We overhauled all the sections, got our favorite people to contribute, and made lots of grand plans. The June issue will feature pop culture goodness galore, a forgotten basketball hero, forward-looking fashion, an adventure trip, a mad filmmaker or two or three, and of course, beautiful women. We hope you like the end result.