The Anthem Philatelist

  Heads up Vietnam! The annual art collaboration between The Philippines and Vietnam , "Beyond Expression" kicks off on Feb. 5, 2023 @ Palm Art Space Gallery in Hanoi , Vietnam.  Works of renowned artists Frank Caña , Roy Espinosa, Art Luzano , Jojoy Zabala , Lloyd Lusica , Angelie Banaag, Al Vargas, Grandjoy Agdigos, Ingrid Penaflor and many more will be exhibited. Hẹn sớm gặp lại Vietnam! #filarts

I might not have the luxury of time to know him deeper, but the many possibilities of meeting him in person,  I can say that I have a  positive reading of this artist. We have had the opportunity to be together in many exhibits in Manila, but it was our participation in Langkawi Art Biennale and Perak Pior Art Trail that i have known him better. More than enjoying his jokes, I truly admire his professionalism in relation to his artistry ( by Celso D. Pepito) A protegee of the late Malang Santos , ArtPortalCebu is proud to feature Franklin Caña as one of our exhibitors for the incoming Visayas Art Fair 2022. Have a glimpse of his two entries for the Art Fair. FRANKLIN CAÑA VALENCIA In sports, dance, music and art, Filipinos are known to be gifted in these fields. And as they showcase their talents with much sincerity, it is not farfetch that their competitiveness will often bore them awards and recognition. In the field of sports, Manny Pacquiao attained worldwide fame as he...

From September 2 to 5, five visual artists from the Philippines will be joining the Pior Perak Art Trail in Malaysia. These are Celso Pepito ,  Roy Espinosa, Franklin Caña Valencia, and Manuel Sinquenco.   They will be joined by other artists from Indonesia,  Brunei, India, Singapore,  Vietnam and Mauritius.   In this event,  there will be workshops, plein air exhibitions, art exhibitions, community mural painting, art dialogue, getting- to- know the artist and sharing of culture, food and places of interests.    

Hoi An Ancient town is located in Viet Nam’s central Quang Nam Province, on the north bank near the mouth of the Thu Bon River . The inscribed property comprises 30 ha and it has a buffer zone of 280 ha. It  is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a small-scale trading port active the 15th to 19th centuries  which traded widely, both with the countries of Southeast and East Asia and with the rest of the world. Its decline in the later 19th century ensured that it has retained its traditional urban tissue to a remarkable degree. The town reflects a fusion of indigenous and foreign cultures (principally Chinese and Japanese with later European influences) that combined to produce this unique survival.  The town comprises a well-preserved complex of 1,107 timber frame buildings, with brick or wooden walls, which include architectural monuments, commercial and domestic vernacular structures, notably an open market and a ferry quay, and religious ...

After an hour plane ride from Ho Chi Minh City, we arrived at the beautiful resort city of Da Nang .  It took us another 45 minutes to arrive at our hotel in Hoi An city - the Hoi An Historic hotel.     It is the first hotel in this town which 5 minute walk to the ancient town center.  The trip to Hue city , which was the former capital of unified Vietnam in 1802 was a three and a half hour ride with several stops- the French and American bunkers in the previous wars, a marble museum and restaurant, before arriving at the citadel. Hue was not only a political  but also cultural and religious center under the Nguyen dynasty until 1945.   The Perfume river - which we traversed winding through the capital, the Imperial city and the Inner city gives this unique feudal capital a setting of great natural beauty.

The Imperial Citadel of Thang Long is the cultural complex comprising the royal enclosure first built during the Lý Dynasty and subsequently expanded by the Trần, Lê and finally the Nguyễn Dynasty. The ruins roughly coincide with the Hanoi Citadel today.    The royal palaces and most of the structures in Thang Long were in varying states of disrepair by the late 19th century with the upheaval of the French conquest of Hanoi. By the 20th century many of the remaining structures were torn down. Only in the 21st century are the ruin foundations of Thang Long Imperial City systematically excavated. The central sector of the imperial citadel was listed in UNESCO's World Heritage Site on July 31, 2010 at its session in Brazil. Remains of the Imperial City were discovered on the site of the former Ba Đình Hall when the structure was torn down in 2008 to make way for a new parliament building. Various archaeological remains unearthed were brought to the National Museum to be e...

Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a popular travel destination, located in Quang Ninh province, Vietnam. Administratively, the bay belongs to Hạ Long City, Cẩm Phả town, and part of Van Don district. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes.   Ha Long Bay is a center of a larger zone which includes Bái Tử Long bay to the northeast, and Cát Bà islands to the southwest. These larger zones share similar geological, geographical, geomorphological, climate, and cultural characters. Ha Long Bay has an area of around 1,553 km2, including 1,960–2,000 islets, most of which are limestone. The core of the bay has an area of 334 km2 with a high density of 775 islets.    The limestone in this bay has gone through 500 million years of formation in different conditions and environments. The evolution of the karst in this bay has taken 20 million years under the impact of the tropical wet climate. The geo-diversity of the envir...

In philately, "errors, freaks, and oddities" or "EFO" is a blanket term referring to all the kinds of things that can go wrong when producing postage stamps. It encompasses everything from major design errors to stamps that are just poorly printed, and includes both some of the most sought-after and expensive of all stamps, and others that attract the attention of only a few specialists. Once the yellow-inverted error of the US 1962 Dag Hammarskjöld memorial stamp was discovered, 40,270,000 were printed to prevent speculation. An error is any sort of production mistake that is (potentially) replicated on many stamps; the famous Inverted Jenny is the best known of these, having resulted from a sheet of partial prints being accidentally re-inserted into the printing press upside down for the second color, resulting in an invert error. Design errors include wrong dates, wrong names, wrong pictures, anachronisms and the like. Only the original unintentionally printed ...

Nguyen Van Cao , a noted Vietnamese writer and composer, composed " Tien quan ca " (March to the Front) in 1944 while working for an independence group. It was published in a newspaper and was well-received by the citizens, and was sung often during demonstrations and meetings of the revolutionary council.    The provisional government adopted it as the anthem in 1946, becoming the anthem of North Vietnam. In 1976, when unification with South Vietnam occurred, "Tien quan ca" was adopted as the anthem for the entire nation. Vietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea, referred to as East Sea, to the east. With a population of over 86 million, Vietnam is the 13th most populous country in the world. The people of Vietnam regained independence and broke away from China in AD 9...