December 2009
41 posts
Overheard
L: So, tell me about your boyfriend, I don't know much about him.
A: Well, he's really friendly. He'll sit down and have real conversations with anyone. Plus, I can leave him alone at parties and he'll be fine socializing with my friends. He's also really useful. He can build furniture from scratch, and fix cars, and things. He's into a lot of the same old fashioned values I have, like family, etc.
B: He sounds great. So... what's the "but"?
A: Well... he has no money.
B: Some of the best people don't, you know.
1 tag
music sushi train
It’s dismaying to see that our generation has slowly metamorphosed into a playlist generation. Previous generations knew the art of collecting and listening to the album. An artist’s body of work was treated with reverence, each song an indispensable part of a bigger whole. The album was a marker of a specific place in an artist’s journey. It could be that there were more great...
“Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent,...”
– Oren Arnold
Sniffing around for an open door to do illustration work in Manila. So hard when you’ve been out of the network for 4 years. I need a place to start! Don’t want to leave without planting seeds.
1 tag
1 tag
2 tags
My Top 10 Graphic Novels for the Decade
Next year is 2010 which means we are nearing the end of another decade. Yes, a decade! How time flies!
My friend @bloodandgutsy is trying to come up with her list of top tens for the decades, starting with books, and I told her I’d come up with my own lists. Here goes!
My Top 10 Graphic Novels for the Decade!
I’d be lying if I told you I was one of those comic geeks who grew up with...
Two gardens
When I’m in Sydney, the word “home” refers to Manila. When I’m in Manila, it refers to Sydney.
This is my first trip back to Manila where I get the sense that I’m a visitor though. I’ve been sick the past 3 days and have had plenty of time to think about why this is so.
For one, I think I made some real friends in Sydney the past 2 years. I have real friends...
you know you're a has-been when...
I ran into my little brother’s old friend. I saw this kid grow up, but didn’t see him in the last few years before I moved to Sydney.
He asked me: “So… are you, like, still considered celebrity?”
Hahaha!
1 tag
BOXING DAY: a Xmas gift drive for Ondoy survivors
This Christmas, I’m not prioritizing presents. For one, I’ve got no money for fancy presents and don’t like the idea of giving cheap junk for the sake of giving presents. Most of them end up gathering dust in corners or end up on the scrap heap.
Furthermore, most of the people in my usual gift giving list already have more than they need. We all do.
So this Christmas,...
traditions
Like thousands of others I know, I love the song “An Evening in December” by First Call. I love the whole bit about how the old house “still feels the same”, and feeling the love of “those who’ve gone before.” It’s a Christmas song for an older person who is very aware of the passing of time. You know you’ve older when, during Christmas time,...
Human Diastrophism
Got my hands on a copy of another Gilbert Hernandez “Love and Rockets” book.
“Human Diastrophism”
Got addicted to the series when I took a chance on one at a comic book store in Melbourne. Hernandez has been called the Gabriel Garcia Marquez of the graphic novel world, offering comics fans an alternative to superheroes and villains.
The art is okay but what I really...
Things I've eaten in Manila part 2
Marinated Goose leg confit bla bla. It’s a long description with lots of French words in it. It came with baby potatoes and sauerkraut.
A dessert that involved fresh mango layered in between flaky pastry, almond syrup, and cream.
Pate platter
Crispy, deep-fried, garlic-encrusted catfish with sweet soy sauce, and vinegar with garlic rice on the side.
Green tea Macha latte
Chocolate...
things i have eaten in my first 24 hours
Pansit palabok
Sinigang na hipon
Pork spare ribs
Baked chicken, Pinoy style
Siomai
Biko
Frozen brazo de mercedes
Baked fish
Erica’s special adobo
Baked spaghetti
The best Sans Rival I’ve ever had in my life. Thank you, Sharon Cuneta.
foreign food
When I was younger, I always noticed that while my visiting cousins from the US would get eaten alive by mozzies, I’d remain untouched. Mosquitoes get attracted to foreigners.
But all the times I’ve been back from Sydney, I get devoured like never before. I had a welt 3 inches in diameter that took months to fully go away.
Maybe all the Aussie food I’ve been eating makes my...
do atoms dream?
At the observatory last night, I learned that the the size of the earth is only a miniscule fraction of the gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn. To compare their sizes is like comparing the size of your pinky fingernail to an Olympic Oval.
And compared to the size of our sun, these gas giants are even less than a pinky fingernail. Try the head of a pin, maybe even less.
And since our sun is just...
house, home, heart
Each time I return to Manila, I feel differently about it. This time, strangely, I feel a bit homesick for Sydney. For the first time, I feel like Sydney is my home and where my life is now. How and when this shift happened within my 4 years in Sydney, I cannot pin-point. I’ve sunk in roots in Sydney. I’ve begun to flourish.
In my last years leading up to my migration to Sydney, my...
Aside from being an actor, James Franco is also a painter.
Are the people who like his paintings art fans or James Franco fans?
It makes me ask the same thing about my art I suppose.
1 tag
X-mas gift solved!
For Christmas, I’m teaching my niece/ god-daughter how to read. She’ll get loads of nice toys and petty dresses but my gift will last her till she’s senile.
I’m saddened by the materialism of Christmas and I hate how I feel pressured to give. Giving should be fun and selfless, not something you’re forced to do. Pressure is what makes us spend money on junk that people don’t really need and toss aside after one use.
This year, I don’t have much to spend. I don’t think anybody does. So I’ve decided not to pressure...
One of my favorite exchanges between my parents
Pa: When I was a young man, I asked a Jesuit priest: “How do I know when I’ve found The One?”, to which he answered, “You will just know. It will be as clear as night and day”.
Ma: Pweh! Before you met me you only dated mestizas! All of your girlfriends were mestiza!
Pa: Kaya nga, ‘as clear as night and day’, diba?!
R.I.P to the new waiter who now has a name →
When you took my order last Thursday, did any part of me sense that you were living your last day and a half on earth?
I distinctly remember you, not just because you were the new waiter at my regular hang-out, but also because I thought you were very charming, and had a nice smile, and I thought you were rather radiant. And you acted like you really didn’t mind doing what you were doing.
...
harlot
On an online medical forum, an unmarried woman posted a topic saying she was concerned and distressed about her boyfriend’s Erectile Dysfunction Disorder.
In response a commenter said something along the lines of “Has it ever occurred to you that God doesn’t want you to enjoy your sex life and is punishing you both for your harlotry?” (Wow, I haven’t actually heard...
“A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets.”
– Rose Dawson from the movie “Titanic”.
But I reckon that some women’s hearts are shallow pools of scandal.
proposed menu for next week's dinner part-tey!
Because I’m excited :-)
- Lemon cous cous
- Crispy grilled liempo
- BBQ chicken adobo (boiled then but on the barbie to roast)
- foiled wrapped grilled fish with lemon
- Grilled portobello mushrooms with spices and garlic mayonnaise
- Boconccini and sun-dried tomato salad
- Grilled pineapple skewers marinated in rum, orange juice, cinnamon, and brown sugar
- white wine sangria
-...
1 tag
backhoe
On the farm behind our house, they’ve been digging around the past few days starting very early in the morning. We live in a quiet, Sydney suburb out West.
The past few days, I’ve woken up to the sound of a backhoe overturning earth, and think “massacre” or “mass grave”.
I have a feeling I will be associating one with the other for a very long time.
November 2009
7 posts
1 tag
Girl Thing
Bought a lovely dress today. I wasn’t going to but figured that finishing two years of art school is pretty damn special!
It was beyond the usual price range but of good quality, and can definitely be worn through time. Definitely a classic.
The dress won out over a more Victoria Beckham-ish one (i.e. short, tight, strapless, prevents wearer from bending over). I wanted a real va-va-voom...