Metro Trippin'
July - September 2007
Vol. 1.1

A Penguin's Revolution
By Roda Novenario

"Penguin is a state of mind."
      -- Butch Aldana, owner/manager, Penguin Café and Gallery

And as for all progressive mindsets, change is a requisite.

Changing Hands
When Penguin Café and Gallery was born in the 70s, it offered a respite from the usual gloss of Metro Manila's trendy bars and clubs. It set a trend of its own, with eclectic music and art on rotation. Its habitués were mostly artists and their friends, and the loyal Malate crowd.

Decades passed; and the ups and downs typical of night establishments have reinvented Malate. There are more Korean places now, more barbecue nooks with beers by the bucket, more dance clubs playing hip hop music. And then, there's Penguin.

Butch, its new owner, says, "I want to continue the tradition of Penguin. It is a space which will promote and nurture art in all forms. Visual, performance, poetry - the cutting edge of art."

Butch has plans.
"The last thing I want is for Penguin to be like a museum - where you'd go to remember. I don't want to delve in the past."

If plans push through, within a year's time Penguin will be enabled for pod-casts and web-casts.

Butch says, "The art that will be presented here would not be limited by boundaries… I want it to be a real and virtual art gallery."

"This won't be just a place for visual art like paintings. Besides film showing, we will have the capability to create multi-media art within the space. There's nothing like that here yet."

Penguin will have its own in-bar recording label, Penguin Records. Live sets will be recorded, burned onto CDs and sold on the same night.

According to Butch, "All the performances here, you won't be able to repeat that. It's a one-time, very intimate engagement, with audience participation.. It's always spontaneous."

Spontaneous as change.
The younger crowd has been coming in. Bands with dubious names like Flower Pot, Pumping Pluto, Jaycie & Honey play twice, thrice a week. More popular ones make an appearance every now and then. These include music luminaries such as Kapatid, Affinity, Pinikpikan, and the Radioactive Sago Project.

There's a section of the wall with small caricatures of regulars, and the collection is growing.

The type of visual art displayed is also evolving. From the usual oil-on-canvas, format and media have varied. Sometimes there are digital art on the wall, installations, and mixed media art. Some shows fuse visual media with performance art, like a recent psychedelic film showing dueting with an alternative rock band.

Its "anything goes" at Penguin, bringing about change that is natural and fresh.

Constant Revolution
Penguin's name will change soon. From one that has rolled off several generation's tongues as bittersweetly as the bar's trademark margarita, it will soon be known as Mao. Mao, as in the Chinese leader; Mao, as in "constant revolution."

Butch wants to paint its walls red. Art will still be exhibited, albeit in more varied forms. Music will still be eclectic; its delivery, modern, fast and spontaneous.

Whatever its name, Penguin/Mao will still be in a Penguin's state of mind. A place where people can enjoy the good stuff: music, art, food, booze and interesting people. Spontaneous. Creative. Free.

Penguin Cafe Gallery: Remedios cor. Bocobo St., Remedios Circle, Malate, Manila, Mobile: 0917-858-4486