Remebering the First Time

Dear O,

Though you do not eat spicy food—maybe that’s your Scandinavian taste coming to play—I will always remember you with every taste of jalapeno flavored chips.

I don’t even remember which brand of chips I was feasting on when you kept on bringing back the party to our room. But since I heart Cheetos Jalapeno like I’ve never hearted any junk food before, associations shall be made between my favorites.

I wonder if I will ever see you again. Or if you will ever reach your dreams. But images are slowly returning. I am slowly remembering. And when I finally saw how that kiss occurred, you bet my knees turned into jello.

Now that I remember, you bet they become jello every time.

Love,

L

Singapore swing

Along North Bridge Avenue

Came from a five-day Singapore trip, to catch Yeah Yeah Yeahs! and Cat Power. A few friends came along making it less a pilgrimage and more of a trip. Except everything is forbidden there! I couldn’t even take the delicious Persian food with beer because beer is mostly prohibited in Persian joints. A pity because Persian food is awesome with beer.

I refer to Singapore as the country with a plan. All their parks —Jurong Bird Park, Night Safari, Singapore Zoo, Sentosa, even—seem to have been carefully thought out and executed down to the last detail. Which is amazing, but I dunno, it lessens the possible spontaneity of it all.

Bird Disco...very Center at the Jurong Bird Park

Anyway, the concerts. They were awesome, in a different kind of way. I don’t know how else to put them. YYY was rockin. They were a joy to watch because you can tell they enjoy what they were doing. Karen O was dancing like cray. They did a few songs from old EPs. For encore, they did Maps and Turn Into.

[I dunno why I can't seem to upload photos from the gigs. Sorry!]

Cat Power was more subdued and low-key. She was very cute and gracious. Her band was not. Because they were serious musicians who can prolly burn a hole into the music sheets. They were THAT good.

At the end of the show, she came down the stage with a bouquet of flowers, which she gave to the audience. Fans who asked for photos were granted their photos—she posed for them! And then she went back up the stage and threw away the set lists! How lucky!

Anyway, at Kinokinuya (?!) Bookstore, I found a copy of Tokyo Vice, which I first became aware of through QuirkyJapan. I read the first few pages and it proved to be very engaging! Except it was more than half my budget for the day so I had to settle for a quick snap of a page that made me promise myself to buy the book as soon as a cheaper version arrives:

From Tokyo Vice

In the City of Angels

This is long overdue, but the holidays, not to mention the jetlag from the trip, really took a toll on me. So into the new year, and a few pounds heavier, allow me tell you about the sudden trip to Los Angeles California.

While I went there for work, the trip, especially the three-day extension proved to be awesome life experience. The work part was great. I mean, we stayed at Santa Monica, I got to interview Kobe, I got to watch an NBA game, awesome meals, awesome sites, awesome.

Had a lot of Red Velvet

After work, I decided to stay a few days. I booked myself in a hostel, which had me at its name: The Banana Bungalow.

This is outside Banana Bungalow, Hollywood

Prior to leaving, I told my sister that I will take the same attitude as I had in Japan. That is:

TO ALLOW ACCIDENTS TO HAPPEN.

Accidents happened, indeed. From the ritzy junket, I was welcomed to the hostel with a pillow case, carrying my towel, and my bedsheet, and my blanket. Lo and behold, I had accidentally booked a mixed room, too. Which means yes to questions you might have in your head: roomies, of all genders, bunk beds, common bathroom, yadda yadda yadda.

But it was alright. It was along Hollywood Boulevard. And I was very near this:

Amoeba Music!

Oh, how my heart skipped a beat. I want to say it was like entering heaven, but it was more like hell. So many choices, where to begin, where can I get more money, the necessary weeding out of less important CDs, le sigh.

But that’s not the point. Back in the hostel. Oh wow. I met so many people! There was Sergio, the hot Italian, who had come from Australia to spend Christmas and New Year in New York. I woke up to him walking around the room in his boxer briefs. What a beautiful morning.

There was Hayden, the Chinese dude from New Zealand, who I think is unsure of his gender orientation but what the hell. He was very conscious of looking like a traveller. There was the college couple who I have no opinions of. And there was Olav, the Norweigan surfer whom I got to know pretty well. He came to LA to try his luck in showbusiness. Right now, I know he’s back in Norway. If I may, He kissed very well.

Those were very interesting three days. I didn’t get to see Les Nubians, the point of my whole extension but that point proves to be moot. Other, more important life events happened to me. It’s as huge as Japan, but I dunno. Maybe I am a different person from before.

There was magic in the air, just like Japan, but reckon I am now more grounded to reality. Surprises are hard to come by, it seems. And unlike Japan, I didn’t need proof that things did happen. I didn’t need a photograph, an email address, a tangible connection. Because I know, even in intoxication, filmsy reality of jetlag, or the fast-paced life of the holidays, they happened. They really did. And denying them, I will only have me fooling myself.

Anyway, that morning, when I woke up to the beautiful sight of Sergio, thing song was going in my head. It had been going in my head since the plane ride and has become something of a reminder of that trip:

I suppose the song holds the magic I was telling you about. It’s pure.

Out to get some sun!

(both photos from the lovely website that i cannot even read)

Yeh, out of town. but still at work. see you in a few!

Long weekends

Until last weekend, when the typhoon hit the country, the Philippines was rolling it easy. August and September were peppered with long weekends. And while those, too, were peppered with visits to the office (yes, yes I go to the office even during weekends. I know. what a nerd), I’d like to think I had been personally productive. I mean:

I tinkered in the kitchen

Eggplant parmegiana, anyone?

It was not easy to make, and my family hardly had any. But the fullfillment of knowing I can make one—ah, feels just as good as it tastes. Promise. Also, I was able to go shopping:

Woody Allen finds

I first read Side Effects upon the recommendation of Lourd. It was hilarrrrious. So when I stumbled upon Allen’s books at the second hand book store in UP one Saturday morning (side note: I had been looking for that second hand store since early this year. I first learned about it last February but I was inebriated then, hence the difficulty of returning), I grabbed faster than you can say, I dunno, raisins.

I finished Without Feathers and just as Side Effects, it was gawddamn funny. Of course it also made me think. And there were a few thesis (theses?) that clearly outlined and eloquently expressed my own thoughts. For example, and not to sound fatalistic or emo, life and how you don’t really know what to make of it. And death and how it creeps up on you.

Was also able to get 2666 by Rolando Bolano. I’ve been looking for this book and thankfully, it has arrived in the country. Anywayyy. We also went on a roadtrip

yellow sunshine

we drove 4 fours to hear mass at a province up north. The crowd and the temperature inside the cathedral felt like a mosh pit but the drive was beautiful. I was asleep most of it but i’d wake up and find beautiful clearings such as the above. Um. No. It doesn’t look that beautiful, I know. But I guess I needed to see greens and space and openings. Refreshing.

And now September has come to its end. It wasn’t easy, that’s for sure. I am only excited for October.