Christine, Tonywacs and George

They come in threes. Let's start with Christine Arvisu, patron of the arts and owner of the defunct Phoenix Gallery and co-owner of Cafe by The Ruins. Isnabera si Christine but you have to live with that. She is really a sweet soul. She fought for the artists and comforted and fed them. She died of cancer and when she did, Baguio had an unscheduled brownout. She sucked out all our brightness for a while. A few days before she died, Tonywacs had a stroke. I was just talking with him a few hours before he had that stroke. Together with Andy and Mau, we started the Kape-ti-Niteb Hour at Volante. We interviewed Koreans, clean air advocates, organic farmers, pedestrian experts. We in other words talked about good people who have no media mileage becuase they have no money. We earned the ire of the so-called conventional media and were accused of fleecing these people. We had a laugh with that one. We were talking about the giant condom when he had that stroke. It was just a mild one because we still continued our conversation when he was in the hospital. But complications including diabetes and depression took over and he died last week. He was buried today and just this dawn, George Jularbal died of emphysema. George was a long time PNA writer and a Baguio boy. He was a longtime friend of my brother DomC and my editor Rolly. In fact, Rolly was asking us for his telephone number yesterday because he and his friend were supposed to meet up with him. Then I texted Rolly about George's death. When we did the tarpaulin for Tonywacs, I was searching hard for a good epitaph. Andy had a good photo of him walking at John Hay. The sky was blue and he was smiling. It was two weeks before his stroke. I was thinking, "Let's go to the mountains and leave it all behind" from that John Kaizan Neptune song. Andy said it sounded like Tonywacs was being recruited by the NPAs. Then I thought of Tagore and his famous quote about life: Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf. The printer made it "in the tip of a leaf." So life's dance went inward. During his last night, Padma, Karlo and Ferdie (he has young friends and old enemies) showed his last cameo of the movie they are now editing. OA mo pala, Tonywacs. We had a good laugh with that one. At about 1:00 am, I got a text from Padma: Where the hell are you. The party's just started. I can't sleep till 3 am. Yun pala, namatay si George. The only time I was in a coverage with Mang George was during the burial of the mummy of Anno, the great Ibaloi warrior. He drunk so hard and was his happy self. He was covering for a Middle East newspaper. He said he would be retiring and that would be his last piece. Apt enough: Anno, a great warrior coming home at last after a stint in an American circus and the mascot of the National Museum. Anno is the God of Rain and it did rain so hard then. It was also raining on the last night of Christine, we held a poetry reading at the Cafe. My poems on Balweg, Roberto Villanueva, Santi and birdwatching in Sagada were read by Ferdie, Padma, Baboo and Karlo. Kanina, Nonette texted when I announced again the death of George: Are you our obituary crier?