Idiot

After working through the holidays, the tickets to Jovianney Cruz's concert at the Baguio Country Club were heaven sent - needed the break.

We got there a minute late at 5:31, the tickets showed a 5:30 showtime, which meant we were just on time. There were less than twenty people when we arrived, and by the time Cruz began Mozart's thing in C Major, there were only about 50.

And there they were: two photographers clicking away. It was a piano concert, I could here myself breathe, and the sound of their shutters was competing with Cruz's wonderful performance. But, I thought, that's a guy sitting infront of a piano - on a proscenium stage: take a few shots from stage left, move on to stage center, and then a couple from stage right, and that's it: I really thought they'd realize how much their camera sounds (plus the sight of them moving around the ballroom during the performance) were ruining it for everyone (it was soooo annoying and I can only imagine how much more annoying it was for the performer himself) and that they'd get their precious shots done soon and sit down and be quiet like everyone else.

Wrong.

They clicked away throughout the performance. And just when I thought it couldn't get worse - an ABS-CBN crew arrived, noisily the door was opened for them and noisily they settled themselves at the back - all this in the middle of a Copland piece. And then: the ABS-CBN cameraman turned on his video camera and started shooting, first from the sides and then (!) he went right infront of the stage blocking everyone's view of the pianist (!!!)

And then the unthinkable: The guy went up onstage, got so close to the pianist that the camera was practically right in Cruz's face. He didn't stay there 5 seconds, he didn't stay there 10 seconds, he hovered and hovered and went around the piano and got his camera as close to the guy's face as possible. This was worse than Manila Pen, I thought.

And I thought, too, this is how art and artists are treated in Baguio - with utter disrespect.

I couldn't help myself, right after the show I went to the ABS-CBN reporter and told her what an idiot her cameraman was, and just as I was telling her that, I saw the cameraman coming towards us, so I decided to tell him that too - that he's an idiot.

And as for the photographers: I hope you got photos worthy of your arrogance.

PORTRAITS DVD

PORTRAITS: History of a Hill Station DVD now available. For inquiries email us at portraits.baguio@gmail.com or call mobile (63) 920.631.9593 or visit http://portraitsbauio.multiply.com