Left-Right/On-Off/Yes-No/in-out/1-0

The first time I met Mike Lavarez, in the launch of I Love You Store – Cubao X’s The Other Side, he was wrapped in this Javanese manskirt with a slim button-down while rocking Chucks. I’ll see him again presenting Eigengrau, a totally black collection, in a show with Geof Gonzales. But it is in his Asian vein that he’ll come up with this new collection Sa Wat Dee, the Thai hello/goodbye, inspired by an Oriental trip.

Photographer: Ria Regino
H&M: Alex Sumogat
Model: Shyrmaine Macaso

The collection will be available at the Black Market (Singapore), ILY (Cubao Expo), and Backstage (Serendra).

Ornussa Cadness wearing Jerome Salaya Ang in Philippine Fashion Week Spring Summer 2010. One of the more moody shows I saw this season, I think it had that John Galliano vibe. Girl’s awkwardly on the cover of both Rogue and UNO magazines this October.

I once kept a bike in my previous apartment but decided to give it up, sell it out when I moved in to my current building which has parking lots made for cars. I terribly missed it when I saw this second hand bike shop at the foot of J. Ruiz LRT station. This photo was taken at their garage in Horseshoe Village where the owner also kept many other vintage items. So once I got home, I asked the building security if there’s any way I could keep a bike without having to take it to my studio unit. Turns out there’s a space where the staff park their scooters! Maybe I’ll get myself them pedals soon again. So I won’t have to take the tricycle when going to and from the grocery. So I can bike around campus leisurely on weekends.

If you remember the days before you got annoyed with Superpoke, it felt like Hipster BS. Except you simply give away to your friends some partly-true hipsterisms like Dave Eggers, bangs, fedora, glorifying/hating Pitchfork, occasional political passion, vinyl obsession, Zooey Deschanel, oversized glasses, Sufjan Stevens, and The Fingerstache. I got the chance to sport one the other night, and thanks to adoborat for documenting the party with his fancy fisheye technique. I am now proving myself worthy of your ironic pokes. Also, I apologize to SUPERMIKKI for not letting him finish. CSJ’s The Best Shoes of All Time and a few other printed pieces, which he showed at First Dibs, are still available for sale.

Until recently, I don’t really remember coffee working as an upper for me. My paternal grandma always brewed kapeng barako in the morning, and sometimes we put it on rice with bits of daing. But just because they thought it’d encourage us to eat. My maternal grandma always had Nescafe on the breakfast table, and we always had it as kape-gatas. But just because nothing goes better with pandesal. There was a time I downed mugs after mugs during hell weeks in college. But just because that’s how they say you survive it. I actually once used that insulated mug for the workplace and prepared 3-in-1’s via the hot water dispenser. But just because everybody else did it supposedly to stimulate thinking. The wonderful thing is, I think it’s now working. When after lunches make me dizzy, I reach for a cup–brewed or what, decaf or not–I actually lose the sleepies. Maybe it’s all psychological. Or that one ornately handled stainless thing–sized between a spoon and a teaspoon. I’ve never found anything like it to stir my coffee.

I just remembered this Electrolychee photo I took from Versus Manila 2 because of Marcushiro (left, beside he/art partner Bru) who’s having his third solo show at Pablo Gallery, Cubao X from October 15 to November 5. Notice their outfits that totally matched their work that night. What’s cooler–his FYI message:

there’s no formal opening for the show. just swing by starting saturday. proceeds will go to the typhoon victims of Ondoy. no food, no drinks means more money saved for them.

You guys know what to do.

Stumped by the reality of “marriage” after confirming they’re having a baby, Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph) asked themselves, “Are we fucked up?” That’s how the rest of Away We Go flows in a search for home, a place for their family. So Verona staples an itinerary inside Burt’s jacket and away they go to try catching up with friends and family across the continent. The no-surprise discovery besides professional qualms, parental hang-ups, and socially undefined relationship: they’re alright. Was the trip worth it only to end up where we kinda knew they were going to anyway? I think so. Possibly boring to those seeking explosions but hopefully reassuring to a good bunch asking the same question.