6 films to see on the week of January 31, 2020 — February 6, 2020

DONIZATTI’s OPERA Lucia di Lammermoor will have performances on Jan. 31, 8 p.m., and Feb. 2, 3 p.m. at the Main Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).

BECAUSE of its popularity among Filipinos in its native Singapore, dessert shop Nine Fresh has decided to take a chance and expand outside its home country and into the Philippines.

THE SYNCHRONICITY of Taal’s eruption with the government’s inexplicable slashing of its disaster response budget, are dauntingly inauspicious for this Lunar New Year. After all, the Philippines ranks as the third most disaster-prone nation worldwide. Just for tropical depressions, hurricanes and storms, other countries may go through one or two super-sized typhoons a year, but we average nine, often having to extend the alphabet just to give them names. Despite some grumbling on social media that we citizens should not be doing the government’s job on our own coin, many stepped up and made up for the bureaucracy’s glaring shortcomings. There were even jokes that the Taal Volcano refugees were gaining weight at the evacuation centers from the private sector’s generosity, or maybe they were manas (bloated) from all the high-sodium instant noodles and sardines.

OF COURSE we went to Ogetsu Hime, one of SM Aura’s Japanese restaurants, right when the Department of Health issued a statement discouraging the public from consuming raw food in light of the spread of Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

PARIS — The French edition of the Michelin Guide, the bible of gastronomy, for the first time in its history awarded the highest rating of three stars to a Japanese-born chef.

THE Spotted Pig, the West Village multistoried hot spot that was party central for celebrities in the 2000s, is shutting down. The news comes after a sexual harassment case against owner Ken Friedman, brought on by former employees, was settled on Jan. 7.

JUST in time for Valentine’s Day, one can now send a message of love through the new Cadbury Dairy Milk Promise Pack.

AS VALENTINE’S DAY draws closer, M Bakery has come up with special Valentine’s Day exclusives that can be ordered in advance.

FOR the 8^th installment of Art Fair Philippines (AFP), the focus will be on the process of creating art.

PLOVDIV, Bulgaria — Stamen Karamfilov bends low over a canvas, adding the finishing touches to a woodland landscape — no mean feat considering the Bulgarian artist is almost totally blind.

TANAUAN — Ash from the rumbling Taal volcano has inspired an artist and instructor to paint watercolors using the gray powder that had covered the plants in her backyard.