[ T - T R A i N ]

Whack band

I have a band and we have a CD. Okay, it's a made up band.

I know this meme has been around for quite a while now but I was looking for something fun (and quick) to do. (Although I did end up spending more time on it than I had planned. Hello, procrastination!) It used to be a little hobby of mine to create new covers/sleeves for existing CDs as a way to indulge my interest in graphic design. (I remember doing one for Kate Bush's The Whole Story.) The lay out I ended up doing for my made up cover, found below, reflects my basic design philosophy.

What kind of music do you think my band plays?

1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random”
or click en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random .
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations"
or click www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 .
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
The third photo, no matter what it is, is your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

A Splash of Color

It's the weekend at last! Spent most of my day yesterday on buses and jeepneys having gone to Sampaloc, Quezon, for fieldwork. I had to be at the bus station at 6 am to meet my travel partner, then started rolling and transferring from one kind of vehicle to another for the next four hours. Neither my partner nor I knew where we were going exactly, we were only given a sketchy description of where we should go or what we should be getting on. But we got to the small municipality of Sampaloc anyway. And five hours later, we were on our way back to Manila.

We were supposed to stay the night in Lucban, about 30 minutes away from Sampaloc and the nearest large municipality with a hotel, but we finished the interview early. The staff at the municipal hall seemed to be a bit distracted with all the activities going on--it was the last day of filing for candidacy for local posts and the Comelec office was located next door to the mayor's office, graduation ceremonies were being held one after the other in town and in nearby towns, and it was a Thursday. (The last one probably wasn't a factor. It could have been any day and the day would have still had passed as quietly as it did. It was a very slow and laid back town.) So, instead of spending P1,200 per room a night for a hotel room with no water, we just decided to hie it back home and sleep in our own beds. By 9.30 pm I was back in our house. The ride back took four-and-a-half hours.

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Back at home, I read a couple of emails that JC sent me, and then we chatted sometime late in the evening. The emails and the chat session made me pause and put me in a very thoughtful state, and not only on how to make two distinct tastes and sensibilities complement each other. But I definitely have color swatches and paint chips on my mind now.

Pinoy Relationships (circa 1970s)

Could you imagine what a film by David Mamet, Woody Allen, and Oscar Wilde would have been like had they collaborated together on a Filipino screenplay? It would have been something like Salawahan, a film directed by Ishmael Bernal and written by Jose Carreon that came out in 1979 . I was channel surfing yesterday afternoon and chanced upon this film that was being shown on Cinema One. It's a kind of film you don't see these days anymore, one that is witty, well-acted, and well thought out. It's a comedy about relationships in the very liberated 1970s and ponders the question of whether one's romantic sensibilities change over time and how much one would tolerate when it comes to dealing with the opposite sex.

The movie stars Matt Ranillo III as a playboy who, despite his refusal to acknowledge it, suddenly finds himself pursuing and falling for just one girl, and Jay Ilagan as a probinsyano with matching probinsyano values who suddenly finds himself enjoying being involved with and being pursued by two women. A very young Rio Locsin, the "traditional" Filipina, plays Matt's main love interest, while Sandy Andolong, the liberated swinger, and Rita Gomez, the older woman, simultaneously vie for Jay Ilagan's attention.

It's a film that tackles love, sex, and relationships very much like Woody Allen would have in his early films, and with as much comedic flair. (I also bring up Mamet because Jay and Matt's characters reminds me of the two male characters in Sexual Perversity in Chicago... the play, not the film. Actually, the film was titled About Last Night. Because of a steamy love scene--or is it several love scenes?--between Demi Moore and Rob Lowe, my sister refused to let me it watch when she borrowed a Betamax copy when we were much, much, much younger. I saw the stage version in London in 2003, which a star-studded cast that included Minnie Driver, Hank Azaria and Matthew Perry.) If dialogues like the one excerpted below do not make you laugh out loud, then you're taking yourself too seriously:

After a big mix-up at Matt and Jay's pad, Rio Locsin slices a piece of Rita Gomez's birthday cake and hands it to her as a kind peace offering.

Rio Locsin: Komedia, 'no? (It's like a comedy, isn't it?)

Rita Gomez: Kanina pa kita inaawat. (I was trying to restrain you the whole time.)

Rio Locsin: I'm so impulsive. I'm only 18.

Sandy Andolong: Pareho pala tayo. (We're similar.) I'm 20.

Pause. They look at Rita Gomez, who's obviously older than the two other women.

Rita Gomez: I'm hungry.

I want a copy of this film!!! The 1970s really is the Golden Age of Philippine cinema. Temptation Island, anyone? No, seriously, I really do think this is a brilliant film--for its wit, its insight, its execution. I just can't imagine why we've strayed so far from excellent film-making. 

Reeling In

I'm back in DC and back at work after being away for almost two weeks. It's amazing how so much has happened in 13 days--it feels like a lifetime's worth of experiences. (That's the most cliché thing I've ever written but it's true to a large extent and I couldn't put the sentiment any other way.) I did write entries about Miami during that time that I haven't been able to finish and post yet, and I've also edited some marathon vlogs that's still sitting in my hard drive. It requires about half an hour, and hour at most, to fix them all up but I had a very busy week, what can I tell you? I might retro-post so try to see if some "old entries" will pop up in the next few days--I'm not promising anything but you might find something if you take some time to scroll down.

I spent five days in Miami, five days in Washington, DC, and the last three days in New York. On the record, it was one of my strangest visits to my old "hometown." And it was the first time in a very, very long time that a trip to New York felt like a visit. I ended up meeting with only one friend--the other two appointments that I had cancelled at the last minute. Even so, I felt like I did so much, even if my wanderings were restricted within the limited confines of the Upper West Side (where my hotel was located), the lower third portion of Central Park and Columbus Circle, and a sliver of Union Square.

My three visits to Central Park was special even if it was disappointing. I went with my camera, still figuring out all of its functions, and got some shots that I was hoping I can show in time for my next class. (However, I haven't had the time to get the rolls processed yet and asking for contact sheets takes a bit longer.) A lot of renovations are being done in the park, since it's the winter, so there were a lot of traffic cones, cyclone wires, no entry signs and tapes scattered all over the place, as well as men with hardhats. One of my favorite areas, the Mall (and the Literary Walk), was fenced off and the stone walk was uprooted. At the northern end of that strip is the Bethesda Terrace; the stairwell to the terrace was not accessible but at least the view of the fountain remained unobstructed. I took about a dozen shots of the angel, although given how gray it was the past few days, I'm not sure if I set the proper exposure.

I felt uneasy the whole time I was in New York, even anxious. Maybe it was the weather, I don't know. I've never been so uncomfortable in a hotel room; it felt almost claustrophobic. (Truth to tell, it was small, but I've stayed in worse places.) It was nice enough but I knew the bed wasn't mine. The night before I left, I felt myself already being reeled back to DC, insistently feeling the tug away from the city. I was antsy on the train, feeling relief only when I reached my apartment, back to a place of my own, a place where I'm welcome and expected.

The number of people I saw or tried to see was limited to only a few because I didn't intend it to be a social visit. First, I was, informally, on a job-hunting trip. Second, I was trying to sense my way back into the city, trying to see how I still fit in, hence, it required a large amount of time on my own. Thomas Wolfe wrote you can't go home again, something which I believe to be true. You're always going to go back to something different. The place is transformed just by the very fact that you left it, and is transformed once again by your return. I don't know. I'm reconsindering DC. If the place that used to be home does not welcome you back, you can pick up your bags, turn around, and leave forever. Or you can stubbornly ease your way back in. So it goes with places--and with people's hearts.

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While sitting in the lounge, waiting to board my train, and clutching my copy of The Year of Magical Thinking, I thought of a story idea. What if Rashomon was told vertically instead of horizontally? An event or incident told and re-told (or remembered) by one person over the course of a lifetime--an examination of how personal history, or even a personal event, is revised through time. Get it? I'm going through something like that I guess. Stories will be told and re-told and it's interesting to see how the mind will choose to remember. Sounds good for a novel. Or a film. But who has time to write those?

Did I Also Tell You I love 'Cat and Girl'?

lll Cat and Girl lll

Cat is the coolest philosphizing, turtlenecked, round-spectacled, cynical cat around. A perfect foil to Girl. An example: