Welcome and Mabuhay

If you love Marinduque and want to contribute articles to this site, please do so. My contact information is in my profile. The above photo was taken from the balcony of The Chateau Du Mer Beach House, Boac, Marindque, Philippines. I love sunsets. How about you? Some of the photos and videos on this site, I do not own. However, I have no intention on infringing your copyrights. Thank you and Cheers!

Tres Reyes Island view of the Marinduque Mainland

Sunday, December 31, 2017

Franz Schubert's Impromptu Op.90, No.3 by Carlos Avila

Lets end this year 2017 with some piano Music of Carlos Avila

I received the following e-mail a couple of months ago after I introduce Carlos piano works to Philippine-American Academy of Science & Engineering (PAASE). I hope this will inspire Carlos to continue with vigor his career in classical piano music.

Carlos, your Aunt Macrine and I are proud of your musical accomplishments. Keep up with good work.

(http://davidbkatague.blogspot.com/2017/11/carlos-avila-with-california-symphony.html)

*************************************************************************************************
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la6fKbTrtLU

Dear David,

I am grateful to you for introducing to us Carlos Avila and a sampling of his superlative work.

I also came across the link below to his interpretation of Franz Schubert's Impromptu Op. 90 No. 3, and the sonorous tone with which he imbued the piece is simply remarkable.

He allows the piece to be tender and tremulous, yet ably controls it so that it remains far from mawkishness.

Carlos Avila is a revelation.

Best regards, Joel

Joel L. Cuello, Ph.D.
Professor of Biosystems Engineering
Director, Global Institute for Strategic Agriculture in Drylands (GISAD)
Department of Agricultural and
Biosystems Engineering
507 Shantz Building
The University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
U.S.A.

Currently Joel is PAASE ( Philippine- American Academy of Science & Engineering-President-Elect

Friday, December 29, 2017

David III and Dinah Professional Careers-My Other Two Children

David III and Mom, Christmas 2017

I have four adult children. My youngest daughter ( Ditas) and oldest son ( Dodie) careers are well publicized. I have two other professional children whose professional careers are not well-known or are not in the News and/or Television- Dinah ( Banking) and David III( TSA ).

http://chateaudumer.blogspot.com/2017/11/dodie-and-ditas-katague-were-in-news.html

Ditas is Director of Census 2020 for the State of California.(https://www.census.gov/newsroom/bios/katague-ditas.html)and
(http://www.governing.com/…/gov-census-2020-population-count…).

Dodie is Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for Contra Costa County.(https://www.amazon.com/Dodie-Katague/e/B003HI3GJO)

Today, I am posting both Dinah's and David LinkedIn Profiles for your information. I am very, very proud of my four children accomplishments-known or unknown.

The Three David's-Dave my nephew from Australia, Me and David III.

My youngest son David Katague III is a Transportation Security Officer, TSA in Sacramento. He had this job since 2005. His former employment was at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a Senior Information Technology Consultant. Before that he was a Policy Analyst at the Executive Office of the President from Aug 1992 to Sept 1995 (Washington, DC).

He has two degrees as follows: From Carnegie Mellon University with a Masters Degree in Public Policy & Public Management(1986 - 1988) and from University of California, Davis with a Bachelor Science degree in Agricultural & Managerial Economics(1982 - 1986). He does not have a Face Book page.

David is my assistant in the primary care of Macrine ( my spouse) suffering from the ravage of Parkinson Disease. Without David's help my duty as a primary care giver would be unbearable. David, your mother and I love you so much and most grateful for your help.


Experience and Work Profile of Dinah from LinkedIn:

1.
CDD/EDD Manager for the Financial Investigation Department, Umpqua Bank, July 2017 – Present

2. Team Manager of High Risk Customer Unit, Bank of the West December 2014 – June 2017

Responsibilities: Leading a team of Investigators (Full Time Employees & Contract Employees) charged with the responsibility of doing Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) KYA and KYC on the Bank’s High Risk Customers, Subject Matter Expert on AML/BSA questions to Investigators, hiring and training new staff, Internship supervisor, Monitoring and administers the daily and weekly reporting MIS that reflects team and individual performances, Communicating directly with branch personnel, department managers, internal audit, FDIC representatives and Line of Business managers, special projects and other duties as assigned.

3. HRBU Investigator, Bank of the West, July 2013 – November 2014

Responsibilities: Research, review, analyzes and interpret financial data and information to determine risk ranking of potential clients and present clients, individuals as well as businesses; complete Risk Assessments & EDD Reviews; make determinations for the Political Exposed Persons (PEP), Special Interest Persons (SIP), Relatively Close Associates (RCA), Non Resident Aliens (NRA), Money Services Business (MSB), and Third Party Payment Processors (TPPP); daily review of the Customer Due Diligence (CDD) alerts created by IRIS, determine which clients to monitor on a yearly basis; maintaining lists and monitoring spreadsheets of high score CDD form and unusual behavior cased individuals and businesses; create and prepare monthly NRA, MSB, PEP clients for their annual and bi-annual EDD Reviews

4. HRBU Investigations Assistant, Bank of the West, December 2012 – July 2013

5. BSA/AML High Risk Business Unit (HRBU) Investigations Assistant

Responsibilities: Review; assign and distribution of incoming email from the HRBU Inbox; creation of new cases for review; updating, maintaining spreadsheets for TPPP/RCCD clients; analyze and review monthly Potential TPPP BLU Alerts; FACTIVA alerts; triage incoming TPPP/RCCD and MSB alerts; create and prepare monthly NRA, MSB, PEP clients for their annual and bi-annual EDD Reviews

6. Suspicious Activity Analyst, Bank of the West September 2011 – December 2012

7. Compliance Analyst, Irwin Home Equity 2006 – 2007

Education

California State University-Sacramento
Bachelor of Arts, Liberal Studies
1979 – 1984

St Mary's College, Moraga, CA
Paralegal Certificate, Corporate Law/Law Office Management

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

The Day After Christmas-Binging on TV Series-This is Us

While millions of Americans went shopping for bargains or returning gifts the day after Christmas, Macrine and I are binging on Season and 1 and 2 of the award-winning TV series, This is US at NBC. It made us laugh, cry, and think at the same time. In case you have not seen this TV dramatic series, here's a brief summary from Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia: This Is Us is an American television series created by Dan Fogelman that premiered on NBC on September 20, 2016. The series stars an ensemble cast featuring Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, Chrissy Metz, Justin Hartley, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Sullivan, Ron Cephas Jones, Jon Huertas, Alexandra Breckenridge, Niles Fitch, Logan Shroyer, Hannah Zeile, Mackenzie Hancsicsak, Parker Bates, Lonnie Chavis, Eris Baker, and Faithe Herman. It is about the family lives and connections of several people who all share the same birthday and the ways in which they are similar and different.

The series has received positive reviews since its premiere, receiving nominations for Best Television Series – Drama at the 74th Golden Globe Awards and Best Drama Series at the 7th Critics' Choice Awards, as well as being chosen as a Top Television Program by the American Film Institute. The cast has received accolades, with Mandy Moore and Chrissy Metz receiving Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress, and Sterling K. Brown receiving a SAG nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series. In 2017, the series received ten Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series, with Brown winning for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

On September 27, 2016, NBC picked up the series for a full season of 18 episodes. In January 2017, NBC renewed the series for two additional seasons of 18 episodes each. The second season premiered on September 26, 2017.

The series follows siblings Kate, Kevin and Randall as their lives intertwine. Kate and Kevin were originally part of a triplet pregnancy, conceived in the bathroom of Froggy's, a bar, during Super Bowl XIV. Their due date was October 12, 1980, but they were born six weeks early on August 31; their biological brother was stillborn. Their parents, Jack and Rebecca, having expected to bring home three babies, decide to adopt another newborn: Randall, a black child born the same day and brought to the same hospital after his biological father abandoned him at a fire station.

Episodes weave through the stories of the past and present of the characters, with most scenes taking place in 1980, 1989–1995, and the present day (2016–2017). Flashback scenes take place in Pittsburgh, while current scenes are typically split between Los Angeles, New Jersey, and New York City.

Reference: www.nbc.com/this-is-us

Monday, December 25, 2017

Say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in Your Own Language/Dialect

Christmas 2017 is here. Dodie's Family, Ditas and Carenna, David III, Macrine and I enjoyed a pot luck party with HoneyBaked Ham, Pancit, Chicken-Macaroni salad and other dishes. To all my Ilonggo friends and relatives: Malipayong Paskwa kag Masinadyahong Bag-ong Tuig.
Christmas 2017-The David B Katague clan-absent are Dinah, Elaine and Ian

And to all my other Blog readers all over the World, friends and relatives say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in your own language/dialect:

http://chateaudumer.blogspot.com/search?q=merry+christmas

Friday, December 22, 2017

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2- Anna Fedorova

Three weeks ago, I posted Rachmaninoff Concerto #3 as played by Olga Kern. Today I like to share with you Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2 as played by Anna Fedorova, a Ukrainian world famous pianist. Enjoy!

This piece is one of Rachmaninoff's most enduringly popular pieces and established his fame as a concerto composer. It is also my favorite since a number of segments in the first and second movements have been popularized as follows:

The second theme of Allegro scherzando provides the basis for Frank Sinatra's 1945 "Full Moon and Empty Arms".

The Adagio sostenuto theme appears in Eric Carmen's 1975 ballad "All by Myself". Carmen first composed the song's interlude, then took the bridge from Rachmaninoff and the chorus from his own "Let's Pretend". Carmen explained that Rachmaninoff was his "favorite music".

The Moderato theme appears in Muse's 2001 song "Space Dementia". The lyric line "And tear us apart and make us meaningless again" follows exactly Rachmaninoff's melody in the first movement, which is first played by string instruments in the beginning of the movement, and then again by the piano toward the movement's finale. The 1941 Sinatra song "I Think of You" is also based on the Rachmaninoff first movement.

Anna Fedorova was born on February 27, 1990. She is a Ukrainian concert pianist. Fedorova performs as soloist, chamber musician and with symphony orchestras in the major concert halls of the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Ukraine, US, Mexico, Argentina, and Asia. Fedorova is a David Young Piano Prize Holder supported by a Soiree d’Or Award and Keyboard Trust.

*The Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 composed in 1909 by Sergei Rachmaninoff has the reputation of being one of the most technically challenging piano concertos in the standard classical repertoire.


Olga Kern, the striking young Russian Gold Medal winner of the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition - whose performance of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 made her the first woman to achieve this distinction in over 30 years - made her New York City debut in Carnegie's Zankel Hall in May, 2004. Eleven days later she returned to New York to play at Carnegie again, this time on the stage of the Isaac Stern Auditorium at the invitation of Carnegie Hall. Olga Kern is a magnetic performer with one of the most prodigious piano techniques of any young pianist.

For more details on Kern's biography read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_Kern

Monday, November 27, 2017

Ditas Katague Art Show- Grieving Thru Glee


Ditas Katague, my youngest daughter has been Chair of National Advisory Committee On Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations at U.S. Census Bureau since August 1, 2015 and its member of National Advisory Committee since 2012. She has more than 20 years of experience at federal, state and local government agencies. She serves as Chief of staff to California Public Utilities Commissioner Catherine Sandoval. She served as California's 2010 Census director as well as the 2000 Census Chief Deputy Director, overseeing and directing the statewide outreach and coordination.

Besides her regular job at the Governor's office in the State of California as Director of Census, 2020, Ditas other activities are her art work (http://www.grievingthruglee.com/) as well as her Yoga teachings (http://www.solfirejstreet.com/teachers/).

The video below was taken during her 2014 art show at the Capitol Towers in Downtown Sacramento. I am really proud of Ditas (and Carenna also) accomplishments.

I left My Heart in Marinduque

I have always wanted to write a song about Leaving my Heart in Marinduque. This song will be sang to the tune of the famous song in honor of the city by the bay ( I left My Heart in San Francisco). Here's it is: I hope you like it:

The loveliness of Fair Oaks

Seems somehow sadly gay

the glory that was Boac

Is another day!

Ive been terribly alone

and forgotten in Sacramento

I'm going home to my town by the sea.

I left my heart in Marinduque

Near by the beach it beckons me

To be where the Moriones are

Come, visit where ever you are

The morning sun rise by the sea

I don't care!

My love waits at Chateau Du Mer

Near the blue and calmy sea

When I come home to you, Marinduque

Chateau Du Mer will welcome me!


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ABOUT ME

I am a retired (Chemistry Team Leader from USFDA) Filipino-American who loves writing, gardening and photography. My wife (of 56 years) and I enjoy the snowbird lifestyle between the US and the Philippines.

We have a small but very private beach resort ( video above) in the beautiful island of Marinduque, Philippines. I have several blog sites (ten), a personal blog, blogs about Marinduque and about our beach resort and conference center-CHATEAU DU MER.

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Chateau Du Mer Beach Resort

Chateau Du Mer Beach Resort
Beach House, Boac, Marinduque,Philippines

Front Yard of Main House

Front Yard of Main House
Light Red Orchid and Bougainvillas,Chateau Du Mer

Amanah Forest Preserve

Amanah Forest Preserve
Living Room of Yong and Ivy Nieva, Cawit

Marinduque On My Mind

"Marinduque on My Mind" -has been published. The book was written through the inspiration of Yong Nieva, Macrine's first cousin on her mother side of the family.

"Marinduque is a strange illness. You come and you would go. You think you are leaving, but its the town that gets away from you. You wish you could understand, and yet you keep coming back". I realized I had a "problem" that I have to deal with; the problem of my relationships to this small island and the areas around it. I therefore decided that someday we can write a book to try to understand what was really happening, that could clarify our feelings, not by thinking descriptively,analytically or rationally.

We must follow the journey to go back in time. Follow a thread, but which one?It really doesn't matter. We just let ourselves be led by an image; a word, a memory; the trails of ink left by visitors who have been won over and those that have been lost. There's so many indeed! "

Here's a short biography of Yong: He is named after his father Guillermo(Will) Sarmiento Nieva,Sr of Boac. He has grown to be known as Yong. After a short stint with Philippine Airlines, in 1980, he got married and lived in San Francisco working for Allstate Insurance for fifteen years. In 1955 he got divorced and moved back to Manila. He is now in the restaurant business. Together with his wife Ivy Syquia Almario, an interior designer, they regularly visit Cawit, Boac starting an "ecologically-correct" family retreat or sanctuary. They named it AMANAH, Nature Reserve.

Here's a summary of Yong's email to us:

Dear Manang Macrine and Manong Dave'

Greetings! It was a lazy Sunday afternoon today and looking at the photos in my e-mail of my project in Cawit " The Amanah", I was struck by the thought of what is it that really beckons me to keep going back to our beloved island, Marinduque. When I started thinking of words to describe the feeling about Marinduque, all thoughts just came in a rush. It became a virtual "collage-series" of events in my young life. How Papa made it an annual mandate that we spent two weeks of summer with Lola Elving and our aunts, uncles and cousins in Boac. Ah, days of reckless abandon-the treks to the beach, and the jam-sessions at night. How we felt so loved by each and everyone of them, which even to this day we cherish. How even our cousins friends also became our friends. And they remember!

This is not only about us-the children of Guillermo "Will" Nieva of Boac. I then thought, "What about others"? What about those, who like me lived in the States, but still carry Marinduque in their hearts. Maybe if we all share via website, the hi-tech way, to answer the question of what really beckons us to Marinduque. Then together we can solve this strange illness.

Surely, the Marinduquenos association all over the US, do not only continue to thrive because of its leaders, but also because if we really look closely, there are many reasons why its members continue to stay in touch. It is a rare gift, if I may say so!

In that Marinduquenos heart, there's still an image- a face of his/her first love, or the first kiss; an incident in his/her young life that forever changed his life; his dreams, his goals, his pains that drove him to become what he/she is now; the emotions felt of being left behind from a good bye; the sound of the rambling jeepney on its way to Balanacan; the scent of coconut oil in early morning hours as you drive the narrow roads; the fear and scampering from the town's idiot or from the town's bully, and why not? the love story of beautiful "Peace Corp" volunteer fell in love and married the handsome local swain! So many essays and narratives to start and follow the "journey".

Manong Dave, could you please design a website for this literary project and invite our fellow Marinduquenos there in US to share their thoughts, hearts and feelings in words and so we can solved (or at least understand) this "strange illness" inside each and everyone of us!

My response to Yong: I am excited of this idea. My suggestion is to create a blog site instead of a website. The blog site is easy to manage. This is where articles could be posted and edited. The blog site is free and easy. I could titled it http://marinduqueonmymind.blogspot.com. I will manage it along with my other blogs on the internet. Once we have collected a number of postings, we can published it ourselves.

I will volunteer to write an article on " I left my Heart in Marinduque ( not in San Francisco), since I did not grow up in Marinduque but married a marinduquena.


NOTE TO ALL MARINDUQUENOS WHO WANTS TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROJECT:
You may write your article via the comment section of this blog or sent your article to my e-mail, tagajaro@comcast.net

Heart and Eco-Tourism Capital of the Philippines

Garden Wedding Venue

Garden Wedding Venue
Chateau Du Mer House and Gardens

Dave and Macrine Katague

Dave and Macrine Katague
Our Golden Wedding Anniversary-Click on Photo to link to Marinduque Awaits You

Chateau Du Mer Beach Resort and Conference Center

Chateau Du Mer Beach Resort and Conference Center
Beach House, Boac, Marinduque

Chateau Du Mer Beach Resort and Conference Center

Chateau Du Mer Beach Resort and Conference Center
Conference and Multi-Purpose Hall

Chateau Du Mer Beach Resort and Conference Center

Chateau Du Mer Beach Resort and Conference Center
Beach House Balcony at Night