Monday, December 03, 2007 Costanilla: Upcoming show: Pilita, Dulce, Malu By Sam Costanilla spotlight
THE issue on the unceremonious erasure of the mural on Cebu done by artist Bart “Boy” Kiamko continues weeks after I first wrote about it here. A reader from Guam named Beth (cebuanainguam@yahoo.com.) wrote: “After reading your article last Nov. 5, I felt depressed that Kiamko’s massive artwork was ordered erased by some city officials. Have they not realized their big mistake? What a tragic thing!”
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BETH, that’s the trouble with the city officials who ordered the erasure of the Kiamko mural on the wall of the Cebu city museum. I guess they have not really realized their big blunder, otherwise they could have contacted Boy and requested him to redo his artwork. Who knows, the artist may be ready and willing to nod to their request. Sadly, Beth, these officials do not value artworks and their significance and relevance to humanity. As they say, “Pait!”
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IMAGINE three great Cebuana performers sharing the same stage, belting out our favorite love songs and pop hits, and cracking jokes without really trying hard. And we will truly be delighted as audiences. Having Pilita Corrales, Dulce and Malu Barry in one show is obviously a casting coup, a presentation that all music lovers should not fail to watch. My reliable source told me that the upcoming event, dubbed Bongga Ka ‘Day, has already been booked at the Cebu International Convention Center in Mandaue Ccity on Dec. 21. I told her that this must-see show is a rare musical treat for Cebuanos coming from three of our fellow Cebuanos.
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TRUE, Pilita, Dulce and Malu have aged gracefully, but their bankability and durability as entertainers have not diminished. I happened to emcee a golden wedding anniversary of a local couple that had Pilita as the special guest singe. All those in the audience were simply amazed at how she delighted them with her back-bending performance and golden voice that had made her Asia’s Queen of Songs, a title that no other artist can ever claim. This woman is simply the best!
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TWO weeks ago, I also emceed a big gathering of barangay officials at the Cebu International Convention Center where Dulce appeared as their guest singer. Her performance was superb and despite her size, this lady from Villa Bulsita in Bulacao this city is a wonder to look at and hear on stage. Malu, who is from Lapu-Lapu City, dabbles in film acting but it is her husky voice and a bit of Shirley Bassey singing style that always endears her to her fans including this writer. So on Dec. 21, let us all converge at the CICC and enjoy an evening of real fun and a musically enriching show with Pilita, Dulce, and Malu. They are God’s gifts to the music world.
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AS an emcee, it depresses me to learn that some program hosts do not follow the event directors’ instructions in running the public show. Perhaps they do not realize that as emcees, their only role is to simply run events, not direct them. Once an emcee does not follow his/her event director, what will happen is a mess. Take for instance what happened in Carcar City last week. The male emcee (I heard he volunteered for the job) simply ignored the event director of this year’s Kabkaban Festival and hosted it in such a way that the event director could not tell him what to do and what not to do.
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MAYBE, just maybe, that guy was new to the task and was overwhelmed by the huge crowd that had witnessed the festival. Instead of getting close to the event director for whatever instructions he may have in mind, the emcee distanced himself from the director. There were gaps in between presentations because his microphone had to be taken away after every announcement when he could have simply held on to it all throughout the program. There is no need to discuss here his very lousy delivery of lines, which only made the program dragging and amateurish.
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EMCEEING programs is not only an art. It is a skill as well. It is important that program hosts always consider the sensibilities of the audience and those time-consuming flowery speaking lines could only drive the crowd to boredom. We are hoping that next time around, when there are major public events in Carcar City, directors (whoever they may be) should assert their right as men on top of everything and choose carefully even those that volunteer for hosting assignments. To sum it up, what happened to this year’s Kabkaban Festival—as far as the emceeing aspect is considered—was a major flop. That should not happen again in the future.
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THE work of this aging and sickly director could never be shown for public airing because it is poorly done. Even some of his friends say the compact disc of his work is best for the garbage bin.
(E-mail: samcost@yahoo.com or text/call 09268443888)
