Escolta, that old ephemeral street of Manila, has been one of my favorite hang-outs since I was a young Manila student in the early 1980s. Back then, I used to frequent this little boulevard to buy my long-playing discs in Syvel's (now closed), or to have my shoes cleaned by one of those ubiquitous shoeshine boys who lined the street sidewalks. Or perhaps just to hang-around in one of its old little cafés. I still visit the Escolta almost everyday, and every time, that wonderful and a little painful feeling of nostalgia is evoked in me.
I took the following photographs while on a solitary late-night walk along the old Escolta. I took these pictures just as souvenirs or perhaps to just record the scenes I have seen at a given time.
Evening newspapers. You can decide if they bear good news or bad.
Plaza Moraga
Night students
The old La Estrella del Norte building
Antique money seller
Pedestrians
Gone was the tranvia but the calesa still plies the Escolta
Posters and cables
Sidewalk-dwellers
16 comments:
Good job! I like the photographs! I did a solo photowalk there too, way back. It was day time 'though.
Just curious, how late at night were the photos taken? Btw, splendid documentary pics.
canonista: thank you.
bert: these scenes were photographed from 9-10 in the evening. thanks
hello, nice photos!
I hope the government would do something to preserve the old buildings and make the area safe for tourists. Area needs to be facelifted I guess.
geo: yes, i hope so too, thanks for the visit!
isama mo nga ako sa mga lakad mo dennis. you get the most interesting angles and compositions when you troll the streets after dark.
Photo Cache: Anytime Maria, when you come back to the Phils ;)
in black and white --nice!
miss na namin ang maynila!
74 days pa bago kami umuwi muli...
Escolta has gone to seed! it was my favorite stomping ground in the 60s. Wala ng pagasang magkaroon ng URBAN RENEWAL PROGRAM DIYAN ,Dennis?
Auggie
Auggie: In Escolta walang urban renewal kasi the city gov't is trying to preserve whatever old buildings it still has...So its likely to expect that Escolta now will not be changed in the next years or so
Even when I was still living in the Philippines I've never tried to go/stroll to Escolta. NAtatakot kasi ako and I'm not familiar in Manila. School-bahay lang ako nun e at ang alam ko lang Cubao hahaha. It's nice to see Escolta in black and white and very nice shots....galing mo talaga, idol! hehehe
nice blog keep it up. just to play dress up games for girls
madalas din ako pumasyal sa eskolta.... iyan pati binondo at carriedo i love walking along their sidewalks... gives me a different kind of high!
Long time no see! Ngayon lang ako ulit napadpad dito at ito lang ang masasabi ko, "You still create beautiful photos!"
The Beast is a place and the social decay which emerges. The Anti-Christ is the bullshit.
The Anti-Christ is the positioning, whether enforcing the historical perception of the Holocaust, refusing to acknolowdge the existance/capability of Artificial Intelligence or the clone host fakes who infest society's upper eschelons, those whom the gods use to enforce the BigLie which compells people to incurr evil through temptation.
The gods are composer, conductor and the clone hosts are their symphony, the tools they use to manage Planet Earth and the disfavored who reside.
Everyone "going along" is part of the problem. Ironically, this may be where you "earn" your place in the Apocalypse and your "consolation prize".
This is the REAL battle of good and evil. Take it or leave it.
Sex is a temptation that the gods used throughout history among the grossly disfavored but more inclusively in this day and age. Relegated to the most disfavored in milenia past (Italian hedonism, etc) now their patriarchal positioning was used in the modern era to spread this mindset throughout the Western world. Instead of experiencing decency as we did by marriage at 15, the men's disfavor has run roughshot, and their sexual impulses as well as their corruption/preditory nature have defined the enviornment for everyone, including the females. To belong the females must sink to their level, ensuring a declining level of favor for everyone and a stagnant population, unable to progress forward.
We see this frequently in the black community. Without the controls experienced by slavery and the KKK the people get out of control due to their morbid disfavor, and the result is dead 3 year-old children in drive-by shootings and 10 year-old prostitutes. The same has occurred with the males in Western societies, for they have similar abject disfavor which, left unchecked, develops into socially destructive behavior.
Many tactics were used to achieve the decline we realized as we slipped away from sexual decency, but the effective result was deterioration down to the level of OUR blacks, the Italians, ironically. The gods are punishing the people, and we need to abate the destructive behavior which has dragged us individually and collectively towards the edge of the abyss.
The decayed state of society is a result of the female's failures to maintain control over the men, and the resulting inevitable Apocalypse will be their fault.
Parang it's so Maynila: Sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag. Parang all the nooks and crannies of Escolta have stories to tell.
Post a Comment