someday, i will also be shooting in heels
*this is a real life photographer not a model, mind you.
photo courtesy of thesartorialist.blogspot.com*
11.30.2010
11.27.2010
11.25.2010
11.23.2010
A Kind of Burning
one way or the other
we keep this distance
closeness will tug as apart
in many directions
in absolute din
how we love the same
trivial pursuits and
insignificant gewgaws
spoken or inert
claw at the same straws
pore over the same jigsaws
trying to make heads or tails
you take the edges
i take the center
keeping fancy guard
loving beyond what is there
you sling at the stars
i bedeck the weeds
straining in song or
profanities towards some
fabled meeting apart
from what dreams read
and suns dismantle
we have been all the hapless
lovers in this wayward world
in almost all kinds of ways
except we never really meet
but for this kind of burning.
By Ophelia Dimalanta, 1934-2010
11.14.2010
11.01.2010
Las Turistas Tontas Status Log #8
Despite its efficiency and affluence and technological advancement, Singapore is not arrogant nor self-lauding. Instead, Singapore to me is like a responsible adolescent with well-groomed hair that I just want to scruff up all the time. I want to introduce him to all things fun even if they are sometimes improper. I feel he has a lot to learn if he just lets loose. However, spending time with him also forces me to question myself. Did this kid get it right and all along I was wrong? Is efficiency and and maximum productivity the best way to live? On the plane ride home, I think this over and I decide Singapore did a very big mistake to be who he is today. What happened to wonder, to chance, to truths to be discovered by opening yourself up to chaotic magical surprises? Nevertheless, I still respect him for his principles and decisions. I will never be compatible with Singapore the country. I can never live there. But it doesn't mean I cannot meet him once in a while to learn a thing or two and to be able to realize that no, despite its many flaws, I can never not love the Philippines more.
Despite its efficiency and affluence and technological advancement, Singapore is not arrogant nor self-lauding. Instead, Singapore to me is like a responsible adolescent with well-groomed hair that I just want to scruff up all the time. I want to introduce him to all things fun even if they are sometimes improper. I feel he has a lot to learn if he just lets loose. However, spending time with him also forces me to question myself. Did this kid get it right and all along I was wrong? Is efficiency and and maximum productivity the best way to live? On the plane ride home, I think this over and I decide Singapore did a very big mistake to be who he is today. What happened to wonder, to chance, to truths to be discovered by opening yourself up to chaotic magical surprises? Nevertheless, I still respect him for his principles and decisions. I will never be compatible with Singapore the country. I can never live there. But it doesn't mean I cannot meet him once in a while to learn a thing or two and to be able to realize that no, despite its many flaws, I can never not love the Philippines more.
Las Turistas Tontas Status Log #7:
Our last day in Singapore turned out to be the third to the last. Before we went out, Majen and I discovered we had our departure dates wrong and missed our flight. We just had to live up to our self-imposed titles, hadn't we? How more tonta can you get than that?! Anyway, while Majen was semi-panicking, I just sat at the edge of Kathy's bed and told her to text Kathy. We talked her over our options and im'd Milan and Toni who helped us call our airline from the Philippines. I did not know whether to congratulate or whack myself for my lack of reaction. It either means I had grace under pressure or I just don't care about anything at all. We considered our options -- to stay one more week, save 50% of the ticket home and spend the saved 50% on food and other essentials, or pay the total of 100% and be in Manila in 2 days. I chose the latter. I would not be able stand Singapore with nothing to do in 5 days. Someone would have to restrain me as I might do more stupid things. Besides, I have an early morning plane to catch Nov. 1 for Tuguegarao. Majen can stay longer because she brought work with her but she also opted to fly with me, she says she's afraid she might throw herself out Kathy's window without me there.
So spilled milk on the floor, we waited for Kathy and went to IKEA. The place is a wonderland. IKEA is my candy store! I planned to buy this beautiful cutlery set for 45 SGD but opted to buy just one sample spoon from the As-is section. Also bought a Filicia throw rug and a work lamp. Of course we could not bring home furniture so we just inspected everything at the showroom and made believe.
The following two days we just killed some time: Continued snooping at Singaporean newspapers (the front page news of the day: 5 SPORTS STUDENTS EXPELLED FOR SMOKING), went to the Leica store at Raffles Hotel, spent Halloween at the Asian Civilizations Museum and wasted 1.5 hours lining up for 1 5 minute un-scary fright show--by far the scam of the decade. Finally did a courtesy call to Lolo Merlion and basked in the glow of the famed Singaporean city lights after eating at the real Makansutra where everything you turn, you hear a group of Filipinos chatting like it was just Divisoria. The Satay was good, too bad no Laksa.
While walking cross the lighted riverside path where hundreds of kids in costumes line up along a bar equivalent to the then Embassy, I was asking Kathy and Majen whether they have experienced being drawn to tears upon the sight of something beautiful like a landscape. They said they haven't. I have, I admitted despite predicting laughs and jeers--one time ago in a beach in Batangas. I was walking along a deserted cove then with my friends hundreds of meters away resting in the siesta heat. I just could not contain myself at the beauty of it all and teared up. How funny, I tell them, all these man-made grandeur, although overwhelming for most, does not elicit anything in me. I recognize all the human innovation and skill put into all these, all the planning involved, all the organizing skills, the science, the engineering. But I felt nothing staring at it. I was a bit bothered.
Perhaps the most fun Majen and I had, except for the zoo and the International Photo Festival respectively, is the quiet times at Kathy's place in Kembangan and meals at Hawker 110, our neighborhood hawker center. Majen loved the iced lemon tea.
Our last day in Singapore turned out to be the third to the last. Before we went out, Majen and I discovered we had our departure dates wrong and missed our flight. We just had to live up to our self-imposed titles, hadn't we? How more tonta can you get than that?! Anyway, while Majen was semi-panicking, I just sat at the edge of Kathy's bed and told her to text Kathy. We talked her over our options and im'd Milan and Toni who helped us call our airline from the Philippines. I did not know whether to congratulate or whack myself for my lack of reaction. It either means I had grace under pressure or I just don't care about anything at all. We considered our options -- to stay one more week, save 50% of the ticket home and spend the saved 50% on food and other essentials, or pay the total of 100% and be in Manila in 2 days. I chose the latter. I would not be able stand Singapore with nothing to do in 5 days. Someone would have to restrain me as I might do more stupid things. Besides, I have an early morning plane to catch Nov. 1 for Tuguegarao. Majen can stay longer because she brought work with her but she also opted to fly with me, she says she's afraid she might throw herself out Kathy's window without me there.
So spilled milk on the floor, we waited for Kathy and went to IKEA. The place is a wonderland. IKEA is my candy store! I planned to buy this beautiful cutlery set for 45 SGD but opted to buy just one sample spoon from the As-is section. Also bought a Filicia throw rug and a work lamp. Of course we could not bring home furniture so we just inspected everything at the showroom and made believe.
The following two days we just killed some time: Continued snooping at Singaporean newspapers (the front page news of the day: 5 SPORTS STUDENTS EXPELLED FOR SMOKING), went to the Leica store at Raffles Hotel, spent Halloween at the Asian Civilizations Museum and wasted 1.5 hours lining up for 1 5 minute un-scary fright show--by far the scam of the decade. Finally did a courtesy call to Lolo Merlion and basked in the glow of the famed Singaporean city lights after eating at the real Makansutra where everything you turn, you hear a group of Filipinos chatting like it was just Divisoria. The Satay was good, too bad no Laksa.
While walking cross the lighted riverside path where hundreds of kids in costumes line up along a bar equivalent to the then Embassy, I was asking Kathy and Majen whether they have experienced being drawn to tears upon the sight of something beautiful like a landscape. They said they haven't. I have, I admitted despite predicting laughs and jeers--one time ago in a beach in Batangas. I was walking along a deserted cove then with my friends hundreds of meters away resting in the siesta heat. I just could not contain myself at the beauty of it all and teared up. How funny, I tell them, all these man-made grandeur, although overwhelming for most, does not elicit anything in me. I recognize all the human innovation and skill put into all these, all the planning involved, all the organizing skills, the science, the engineering. But I felt nothing staring at it. I was a bit bothered.
Perhaps the most fun Majen and I had, except for the zoo and the International Photo Festival respectively, is the quiet times at Kathy's place in Kembangan and meals at Hawker 110, our neighborhood hawker center. Majen loved the iced lemon tea.
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