4 films to see on the week of October 18 — October 24, 2019

SM Cinema mounts the Maleficent “Welcome to the Moors” exhibit which features themed tunnels and three rooms that will transport moviegoers to different worlds.

MANY FILIPINOS know, or at least have heard about, Oktoberfest.

WE HAD AGREED to meet for a drink at 4 p.m. at the café at Reina Sofia Museum. It turns out there are two cafés at the modern art museum, and of course I picked the wrong one. Carlos Celdran was waiting at Nu-Bel, the one inside the museum. When we located each other there was just enough time for a coffee before crossing the street to Atocha Station. In Madrid the streets are wide and the sidewalks spacious, so “It’s across the street” entails a 10-minute walk.

THE International School for Culinary Arts and Hotel Management (ISCAHM) has been around since 2003, and its gift to itself is the pride it sees in producing students of a certain caliber.

GLORIETTA’S facelifted food court, Food Choices, is changing expectations of what a mall food court should be like.

A COLLABORATION between the Ortigas Malls and the Philippine Craft Beer Community, Tiendesitas’ Beerfest Manila faring a selection of beers from 50 breweries.

SHORTLY PAST midnight on Oct. 2, the Star City Complex in Pasay City caught fire. Aside from the amusement park’s rides, the inferno, which lasted for 14 hours, also consumed the Aliw Theater — the home of Ballet Manila for nearly 20 years.

WALKING THROUGH near-empty galleries of the expanded Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York on its first day of press previews, I experienced serendipity at the MoMA for the first time ever. I turned a corner and stumbled across a vitrine with Meret Oppenheim’s fur cup from 1936 in front of Frida Kahlo’s from 1940; I walked to the left and was suddenly in front of Henri Matisse’s superstar work, Dance (I), from 1909.

BEFORE the show, I had explained a synopsis of Sweeney Todd to my teenage sister; one of the things I noted was that the story is set in Victorian England. Upon entering the theater, the first thing I noticed was the sound of heavy rain coming from the onstage. It was only during the creative presentation of show reminders (Turn off your cellphone!) that I noticed: “Wait! It’s set during the Industrial Revolution, right? Then why are there cars?”

INTERNATIONAL conducting superstar Darrell Ang returns to Manila Symphony Orchestra (MSO) for Pas De Deux, the MSO 2019-2020 Season Gala Concert, on Nov. 16, 4 p.m., at the Meralco Theatre, Ortigas Ave., Pasig City.

“MABAGAL” by Dan Tañedo, a slow song with a 1950s feel, was named this year’s Best Song at the Himig Handog Songwriting Competition, besting “over 4,000 entries,” according to a press release.