Escolta is a neighborhood that is already familiar, especially to the regular readers of the Urban Roamer. For the past few years, we have roamed this neighborhood and looked at some of the interesting spots in the area which used to be the city’s financial and commercial center, with some no longer standing today while others manage to survive albeit struggling to find their place in a city constantly endangered by unchecked urbanization. In the past there have been events like monthly Pasyal activities and the Saturday Future Market which were conceived to get people visiting Escolta again. While there was some successes made, they were sadly not enough and…
-
-
A Home For Philippine Cinema: Cinematheque Centre Manila
The story of Philippine cinema is one of the most interesting, a lot of times tragic, stories out there in the realm of world cinema. Back in the day, Philippine cinema was one of the pioneering film industries in Asia, churning out hundreds of film every year during the 1950s to the early 1960s (the First Golden Age of Philippine Cinema) to a constant output of quality films during the 1970s to early 1980s. (the Second Golden Age of Philippine Cinema) Today, Philippine cinema is struggling to get up on its feet once again in the midst of various problems such as piracy, low output, and thousands of films made…
-
April 2016 Is Not Starting Out Well
The Urban Roamer is one of those who cringe at those “<insert name of month>, please be good to me” type of posts. But it is one of those times that we really, really hope it would be so for the rest of the month at least. Because, quite sadly, the start of April 2016 has been quite bad, and “bad” here may be an understatement. In any case, the beginning of April has been depressing, to say the least. Due to the nature of this site and its coverage, the Urban Roamer will not discuss here what happened in Kidapawan, North Cotabato last April 1. Do check out other sources online who…
-
Protestantism in the Metropolis: Central United Methodist Church In Manila
More often than not, when we talk about Manila’s faith heritage, we talk about the city’s Catholic heritage. That should not be a surprise given that Catholicism is pretty much ingrained in our culture since the Spanish colonial period and that Manila, Intramuros in particular, was the epicenter not only of Catholicism in the country but in Asia as a whole, with its 7 churches located within the city walls. Overlooked in all this is the city’s religious heritage beyond Catholic Manila. Granted they are not as old as the Catholic churches, they have an interesting story to tell as well. One of them is the subject of today’s post,…