By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net

LOCAL filings for trademark registration in the country rose by 7 percent in the first half of 2008, up from last year, a government executive says.

“This increase is good. Five years ago, about 65 percent of foreign trademarks are registered in the country versus the local ones but this year, the proportion is reversed,” says lawyer Adrian Cristobal, who is also director general of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IP Philippines).

Driving the increase in local filings is the growing awareness of Filipinos on intellectual property (IP) protection and the increased activities of small and medium enterprises.

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By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net

HOW can one achieve immortality?

Traditionally, people preserve their beauty and peak of status through portraits, as we in our time today, preserve important moments through photographs. Over time, these portraits or photographs preserve in time the sitter’s life and is passed on to future relatives.

In popular culture, stories with fantasy or horror themes play up the idea that having portraits or taking photographs can capture the soul and even possess someone’s spirit. This is true of Japanese manga or anime and is also found in the classic novel Dorian Gray.

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SEEING artworks in museums and galleries is often perceived as an activity only for the elite when in fact anyone can go and visit them.

This was what the Neo-Angono Artists Collective (NAAC) hoped to address when they opened the fifth Public Art Festival.

“Kino-consider lang na art ang isang bagay kapag nasa loob ng museum [A piece of work is considered art only when it is inside a museum]. The Neo-Angono artists found the need to explore art outside the gallery. So, we are utilizing public spaces like Angono River, public market, and the freedom park,” said Richard Gappi, festival coordinator and past president of NAAC.

Last year’s festival, which carried the theme “Bringing Arts and Culture to Public Space and Closer to the People,” hopes to address this misconception about art.

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SOME people give up easily but not Filipino computer graphic artist Ronnie Sapinoso who suffers from Cerebral Palsy.

Rejected so many times because of his condition, Sapinoso wanted to become a filmmaker ever since he was kid. His interest was sparked after he saw the Disney movie Pinocchio.

“Nakita mo naman ako, walang nagtitiwala sa akin. Wala akong connection. [As you can see, no one trusts me. I don’t have any connections.],” said Sapinoso.

Sapinoso, currently a freelance computer graphic artist, said that if he would just be given a chance to work, then his wife would not need to leave and work in Singapore, leave him and their child in the Philippines.

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By Izah Morales
INQUIRER.net

YOU often see crocheted bags made of threads and yarn. But have you seen one using plastic?

The Invisible Institute, a non-government organization (NGO), is now using plastics as material for their homegrown crocheted bags.

“As we all know, we have many poor women who really need more income generating activities because they have so many people depending on them. What we’ve done is to take those people whom I call ‘invisible’ or ‘unseen’ and put them together with invisible waste, which I consider factory waste,” Invisible Institute founder and artist Ann Wizer said.

The group uses “clean trash and garbage bags” as materials to teach poor women to crochet.

“It’s a very simple skill. And we’re also teaching any men who are willing,” said Wizer.

Crochet is a French term that literally means “hook.” It describes a “series of interlocking loops onto a chain using a slender rod with a hook at the end,” according to CrochetDoilies website.

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By Marjorie Gorospe
INQUIRER.net

MAE Paner has been in advertising industry for 25 years.

Her debut in directing commercials came in 1997 when she came out with “Black and White.” Since then, she has found herself drowned in a career of “selling” soap, political personalities and products appealing to a certain target market.

Paner is a stage actor in the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA). Aside from directing, she has been a commercial talent, appearing in a funny Boysen paint commercial as the nagging mother-in-law to a man painting his home. In the commercial, the nonchalant son-in-law keeps painting the wall white until he decides to paint over Paner who continues nagging him.

For years, Paner thought she was doing okay with her chosen career as an artist until she saw Rodolfo Noel Lozada, Jr.’s expose on the controversial National Broadband Network project during a Senate investigation.

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By Gerald Gene R. Querubin
Inquirer

BOAC, Marinduque–The Muslims have their “singkil” and the Visayans, their “Usahay” and “Dandansoy.” But what do the people of Marinduque have?

This question has inspired an advocacy by a music educator since childhood to learn and preserve songs and folk dances that are truly Marinduqueño.

“I heard old folks in my place singing old short songs aside from the kundiman and love songs with positive values. I listened to some of them and there, my research began,” says Prof. Rex Manuel Asuncion, who is now director of the Center for Cultural Arts Studies of the Marinduque State College in Boac town.

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