From Broadway to Manila Bay and Beyond

Father Erno Diaz

Description

The author opted not to provide the About the Book information.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Díaz
• Spirituality
• Religion
• Diaz

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 25 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669863540
• Langue: English

Extrait

FROM BROADWAY TO MANILA BAY AND BEYOND
 
 
 
 
 
 
Father Erno Diaz
 
Father Erno’s vignettes on a variety of topics from the lights of Broadway and the spring flowers of Central Park to the legendary sunset of Manila Bay and the chocolate hills of Bohol - including people, places, events that his romantic and poetic soul has fancied on - interweaving his forty-somethin’ ‘New York, New York’ experience with his Philippine backgr ound.
 
Copyright © 2023 by Father Erno Diaz.
 
Library of Congress Control Number:
2023901059
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-6356-4

Softcover
978-1-6698-6355-7

eBook
978-1-6698-6354-0
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 01/24/2023
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
850476
Dedication
This book of vignettes is lovingly dedicate d to
My late sister Vicky Diaz-F ojas
Whose eye for beauty in things and pe ople
Is what every vignette in this book aims to sug gest.
Acknowledgment
With deep gratitude I want to acknowledge some special friends
who made time in their busy schedules to contribute to my book.
I want especially to thank John and Margie Skeels for their help in
editing. I am also grateful to Loida Nicolas Lewis for writing the
Foreword. May the good Lord bless their kindness and support!
Father Erno Diaz
Foreword
That Father Erno has written a book about his Broadway experience is not a surprise to me because I had known him as a cheerful priest of St. Malachy’s Church, The Actor’s Chapel, serving as pastor in 2001 – 2003. I had attended some of his Masses.
His vignettes on Broadway and New York City appeal to me because, like him, I love New York and its many cultural and physical landscapes, having been a longtime New York resident.
I enjoyed and found interesting that his vignettes include the legendary Manila Bay sunset and other Philippine sights and scenes.
Father Erno’s nationalistic stirrings seem to excite his waking moments even when he writes about America and other places in the world that he has visited?
His romantic Filipino soul is undeniably manifested in his book.
Most of all, the lyrical style of his writing is a delight.
Kudos to Father Erno!
Psalm 147 quoted in one of his vignettes says, ”It is good to sing praise to our God; it is pleasant and right to praise Him.”
I say AMEN.
Loida Nicolas Lewis,
Chair, US Filipinos for Good Governance
Co-Author, Why Should Guys Have All the Fun?
Introduction
I love to write vignettes. When I was a fledgling high school journalist in the early ‘60s as editor of The Pioneer , the school paper of St. Pius X Seminary in Roxas City, Philippines I entitled one of the regular features of the paper Vignettes. It was subtitled They Write On …, and it contained one or two-paragraph articles on any subject. The articles, it turned out, were mostly juvenile ruminations on young life, the rains, or goings-on in the minor seminary.
I fancied very much on the word ‘vignette’ because I thought it suited my flair for the ‘stream-of-consciousness’ style of writing that I found an easy style, not involving tedious and ponderous rationalizing. Besides, it is a kind of prose that I found closest to poetry as a literary form, a style that has always pleased me.
I will always write vignettes. Again, and again. Call them also intimations, reflections, imageries, poetry, meditations, visions or what have you. The following are among my personal favorites that I want to share with my readers. I start Part One that I call Broadway and New York City with the vignette entitled ‘The Lights of Broadway from my Window in St. Malachy’s. I start Part Two that I call Manila Bay and Philippine Landscapes with the vignette, ‘Promenading along Manila Bay.’ They are two of my earliest vignettes that gave me the sweet inspiration to write the rest included in this book. Part Three called Beyond Broadway and Manila Bay starts with the vignette entitled ‘A Day in Trinity Retreat H ouse’
I would say that my vignettes are the songs of my soul praising the good Lord of creation. I end every vignette with a Psalm from the bible!
Contents
Introductory Vignettes
The Lights of Broadway from my Window in St. Malachy’s
Promenading along Manila Bay
Part 1 : Broadway and New York City
A Night on Broadway
Rapping with Actor Antonio Banderas
TKTS for Broadway Shows
At Broadhurst Theater for “Fosse”
My Rectory Garden Deck in St. Malachy’s
Opera and Broadway for Free
Marriott Marquis in Times Square
Starbucks Coffee in Times Square
A Memorial Service for an Actress
My ‘Broadway State of Mind’
Spring Blossoms in Central Park
The Joyce Theater
Preparing for the Rizal Exhibit in New York
Ballet at Lincoln Center
The New York Subway
At the Rockefeller Plaza: Mulling the Rizal Project
Aboard M15 Bus to the Philippine Pastoral Center
Madison Park, New York
A Filipino Shrine for San Lorenzo Ruiz in New York
Central Park South
Philippine Ethnic Pride in America
Battery Park
Ellis Island: America’s ‘Ethnic Island’
On a Battery Park City Park Bench
In Front of the Plaza Hotel
The Veterans’ Day Parade: An Ethnic Reflection
Beneath the Shadow of the World Trade Center
Grand Central and Park Avenue
Bryant Park: An Urban Oasis
By New York Public Library and High Line
A Manhattan Revisit: “All Around the Town”
On the Upper Westside
By the New World Trade Center
A Memorial Fountain to 9/11 Firemen
Filipino Concerts in the Actor’s Chapel
Cruising with My Favorite Baroque Music
In front of Alice Tully Hall: Thoughts about our Asian Concert
Where Are My Cherry Blossoms?
Sunday Afternoon in the Park
Waiting in Line for “Twelfth Night” at De La Corte Theater
Amid Christo’s ‘Gates’ in Central Park
The Way of the Cross along Brooklyn Bridge
Among the Autumn Leaves of Central Park
By Lincoln Center: Watching a Graduate Go By
Part 2 : Manila Bay and Philippine Landscapes
To Catch a Sunset
Sunday Breakfast on Harbor View
Sea Wharf Restaurant
Manila Bay’s Spectacular Sunset
Manila Bay Sunset: A Glimpse
Roxas Boulevard Skyline
Lunes Santo Procession in Intramuros
Traslacion in Quiapo: Jesus Nazareno Procession
Lapu-Lapu in the Luneta Park
Spoliarium at the National Museum
In Manila’s Cultural Scene
Paco Park and Dr. Jose Rizal’s Grave
Manila’s Floods
Ayala Triangle’s Christmas Lights
The Jeepney Ride in Makati
Boracay, Marinduque, Villa Escudero, Baguio
Exploring the Chocolate Hills of Bohol
Cebu’s ‘Sinulog’
Cagayan de Oro and Bukidnon: Divine Mercy Shrine and Transfiguration Monastery
Iloilo and Kalibo: “Dinagyang and Ati-atihan”
Baguio Revisited
Balay ni San Lorenzo
Around our Ancestral House in Maayon
Part 3 :  Beyond Broadway and Manila Bay
A Day in Trinity Retreat House
Mt. St. Alphonsus in Esopus
Escaping to Sunnyside in Tarrytown
Sleepy Hollow
Jones Beach
West Islip in Long Island: My First American Parish Experience
The US Cross Country Tour
The Cruise to Indonesia, Borneo and Malaysia
Atop the Canadian Rockies
El Escorial in Spain
The Madrid of Jose Rizal
At the Tomb of Philip II in Granada
Oh, To Be in London!
Off to Historic Savannah
At Chicago Union Station
Going to Athens
St. Petersburg, Russia
The Hermitage
By Eiffel Tower in Paris
Montreal and Notre Dame
The Song of Niagara
Introductory Vignettes
The Lights of Broadway from my Window in St. Malachy’s

November 10, 2001
B elow the window of my fourth floor bedroom in St. Malachy’s rectory on West 49 th Street, the glare of the flood lights of the Eugene O’Neil theater reminds me that I am in the heart of the theatrical district, that part of New York ‘that doesn’t sleep.’ As a matter of fact, the glare has already disturbed me so much that I must shut down the blinds of the windows whenever I had to do some computer work inside my bedroom.
There was a time in the past when I showed to some friends, who came to visit my quarters, the lights across the street as my way of telling them that ‘I’m on Broadway!’ I remember showing to Nadie Borres, a friend from Maayon visiting to New York; to my friends from the Philippine Pastoral Center who attended my birthday party on September 2001; also, to my Filipino priest friends who had come to see my new ‘digs’ in Times Square.
‘Full Monty’ was the play showing at Eugene O’Neil when I took over St. Malachy’s as pastor in July 2001. The marquee of the theater proclaimed in glaring lights the words ‘Full Monty’ and it became my landmark for fr