WE KNOW it’s still Ghost Month, but it doesn’t hurt to do a bit of planning before this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, scheduled to fall a month from now on Sept. 13.

AS TIME is a limited resource, travelling for pleasure may sometimes be considered a luxury. Often, the choice of destination could spell the difference between a memorable vacation and a bungled opportunity. Carefully selecting one’s getaway is the first order in planning.

DAVAO CITY — Lugang Café of China’s Bellagio Group of Restaurants has opened its first branch in Mindanao at the SM City Ecoland here and several more are planned in other cities in the island.

ONE OF President Rodrigo Duterte’s signature decisions that earned him more respect and adoration from the vast majority of the people (including myself) was when he temporarily closed the country’s most famous tourist island resort, Boracay — a move that was unprecedented in more ways than imagined. Boracay was an income generating avenue for the government, and this move to rehabilitate an island that our president made notorious when he called it a “cesspool” was one of the gutsiest choices ever made by a leader.

THE HOPELESS romantic Tolits grips his cellphone tightly as he takes a video of Aileen singing the Filipino rock band Aegis hit, “Basang-Basa sa Ulan.” During the wet season, the rains pours down on Villa Venecia where the flood has not subsided for weeks — a recurring situation since 2014.

DURING SUMMERS in the United States, teacher and historical fiction novelist Gina Apostol busies herself with her next book. Once she has completed her concept and gathered research, she just keeps writing.

INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE Kwago and publishing and curatorial platform Comma invited artists Maxine Syjuco, Issay Rodriguez, Nikki Ocean, Erick Calilan, Jem Magbanua, Sasa Cabalquinto, and Ralph Eya for an exhibit and performance called A Curated Shelf: Salamin on Aug. 25, 5 p.m., at Kwago book bar.

JOHN DENVER TRENDING, a film about cyberbullying filmed in the Kinaray-a dialect of Antique, was the 2019 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival top winner, bagging six awards including Best Film and Best Actor at the awards night held on Aug. 11 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).

FEATURE LENGTH FILM 2019 • Best Film: John Denver Trending by Arden Rod Condez • Special Jury Prize: Edward by Thop Nazareno • Best Direction: Eduardo Roy,...

VETERAN teleserye writer Arden Rod Condez’s directorial debut John Denver Trending is remarkable for its confidently concise, yet sensitively nuanced treatment of timely issues such as bullying (both physical and cyber), adolescent depression, fake news and the marginalization of social misfits, especially when they are poor. Condez is a master, not only of the written word but also of cinematic language. He elicits amazingly natural, complex and credible performances from his ensemble of mostly untrained, regular folks (his family and townmates from Pandan, Antique) who all manage to convey their very real though flawed humanity. We know these people.

NETFLIX INC. is turning three of its popular kids programs into interactive specials, increasing its bet on a choose-your-own-adventure approach to TV.

LOS ANGELES — Universal Pictures on Saturday canceled the release of The Hunt, a satirical thriller about a group of Americans who are captured to be hunted and killed for sport, following apparent criticism by President Donald Trump and a recent series of mass shootings.