№ 557. Happy Women's Month

 

№ 556. Myth, Meaning & Mahler

 

If the past 11 months have seemed illogical and unstoppable, consider these questions. What if the hummingbird darting from flower to flower is actually a nobleman eternally searching for his beloved maiden? Or the sun and the moon are an angry married couple destined to chase each other across the sky? These age-old myths unsettle everyday logic to reveal larger truths. Unpredictability is but a literary device that helps explain an increasingly bizarre world.

Mythology is not only the relic of ancient civilizations, but also the engine of contemporary cultures. Its stories provide comfort by bringing people together to make sense of strangeness through shared foresight.

Mythology (from the Greek mythos for story-of-the-people, and logos for word or speech, so the spoken story of a people) is the study and interpretation of often sacred tales or fables of a culture known as myths or the collection of such stories which deal with various aspects of the human condition: good and evil; the meaning of suffering; human origins; the origin of place-names, animals, cultural values, and traditions; the meaning of life and death; the afterlife; and the gods or a god. Myths express the beliefs and values about these subjects held by a certain culture.

Mythology has played an integral part in every civilization throughout the world. Pre-historic cave paintings, etchings in stone, tombs, and monuments all suggest that, long before human beings set down their myths in words, they had already developed a belief structure corresponding to the definition of `myth' provided by Leach and Fried. 

According to psychiatrist Carl Jung, myth is a necessary aspect of the human psyche which needs to find meaning and order in a world which often presents itself as chaotic and meaningless:"

"The psyche, as a reflection of the world and man, is a thing of such infinite complexity that it can be observed and studied from a great many sides. It faces us with the same problem that the world does: because a systematic study of the world is beyond our powers, we have to content ourselves with mere rules of thumb and with aspects that particularly interest us. Everyone makes for himself his own segment of world and constructs his own private system, often with air-tight compartments, so that after a time it seems to him that he has grasped the meaning and structure of the whole. But the finite will never be able to grasp the infinite."

№ 555. Happy V Day! V = Vaccine

 

Reuters Graphics

№ 554. Pause, Process, Vote

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№ 553. Panciteria Macanista del Buen Gusto

Panciteria Macanista del Buen Gusto

 

On my way back to Binondo Church, I crossed San Fernando Bridge again. I remembered that in old photographs, the ruined building on the left side, at the foot of the bridge, was the site of a restaurant. A wall used to carry a huge sign that read: “Panciteria Macanista del Buen Gusto” (Macanese Panciteria of Good Taste), which was referenced in Chapter 25 of “El Filibusterismo.” As Rizal described it: “At the center of the sala and beneath the red lanterns were four round tables, systematically arranged to form a square; equally round little wooden stools served as seats. In the middle of each table, according to the custom of the establishment, were laid out four small colored plates with four pastries on each one, and four tea cups with their corresponding lids, all of red porcelain. In front of each stool could be seen a bottle and two wineglasses of gleaming crystal.”

№ 552. Ghibli Studio Theme Park

HBO Max

 

Children around the world have grown up with beloved animated films from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. Since 1984, Studio Ghibli films have often served as an introduction to the wider world of anime and have obtained a cult following all their own.

Many Ghibli fans have already made a pilgrimage to the popular Studio Ghibli museum in Tokyo. Others eagerly anticipate the 2020 release of the first Ghibli film since the studio went on hiatus in 2014, following Miyazaki’s retirement. Fans will be thrilled to learn that the construction of a Ghibli theme park is underway that will bring the films to life.

A Studio Ghibli theme park is being built near Nagoya, Japan

The park, based on the Tokyo anime studio's films, will be in Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park near Nagoya, according to Variety, and will open in fall 2022.

 

The List

№ 551. The Art of Loss

Philadelphia Inquirer

 

ONE ART
by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Saturday Evening Post

 

№ 550. V for Velvet Pudding

The Little Epicurean

  

The modern-day evolution of ube halaya serves as a reminder of how many occupiers – including Spain, Japan and the United States – have laid claim to the Philippines, and how deeply those eras still impact its food today. The many international influences that have shaped the nation's cultural and culinary identity is perhaps best embodied in a bowl of halo-halo, meaning "mix-mix" in Tagalog....

As ube continues to be incorporated and adapted to international tastes, this time it's Filipinos who are sharing their culinary culture with others. "In the same way our culture took in influences and expressed ourselves with it, I would imagine that other cultures and people from other backgrounds will use our influence and express themselves in their own way," said Villanueva.

Invigorated by the taste of ube in traditional Filipino desserts, I returned home to California and hunted for the tuber in in my hometown. A short drive produced brioche doughnuts filled with ube cream, purple cupcakes topped with ube flan and ube yema cake (a Filipino chiffon cake starring a creamy custard filling). Like the sorbetes that captivated me in Manila, these sweets were stunning to behold. But it's the tuber's subtle vanilla scent, coupled with a nuttiness reminiscent of pistachio, that made those desserts memorable – and makes ube stand out among root vegetables.

And though one might initially judge ube by its purple cover, one bite will surely dismiss any fixation on its hue. It’s the taste that will keep you returning for more.

 

№ 549. V for Value

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