attempts of an amateur photographer
Saturday, April 30, 2005
here are my photos from my sri lanka trip a couple of weeks back. a beautiful place, to say the least.
sunday school at the botanical gardens
smitten by the wind
the guardian at the temple
painting on the eaves, tooth temple, kandy
the old woman by the door
posted by lex @ 3:04 PM,
life on board project
Saturday, April 23, 2005
"well, you dont know and so you have to take the risk of living and trying and explaining and visiting unkown places if you want to have a life, if you want to make an impact." and so goes the start of a conversation between interactive space designer favia sparacino and 'utopia' architect jaime lerner while in a car, xc90 to be specific, from naples to rome.
as part of volvo's life on board project, they were asked to go in a car with cameras recording their conversation. it is implied in these commercials that when you bring into conversation 2 people who embrace their personhood and are fascinating because of that, you get nothing short of a brilliant colloquy. they were not the only ones. totalling 6, others include conversations between a model and a photographer, an industrial designer and a contemporary artist, a stock broker and a magician/psychologist, a surfer (who got bitten by a shark but still surfs) and a jockey, and a planetary scientist and an art director.
i, myself, enjoy conversations that occur in cars. when i saw those commercials, first thing i said was, 'this is me!' some people know that i like giving people a ride. and my only condition for people to ride with me is that they offer a decent conversation. in a way, i get to know them more because of it. some of my most memorable conversations has been in a car. well, of course, there are other places such as dinner tables, quaint coffee shops, faculty lounges, tambayans, anywhere where you can watch a sunset, etc.
i'm longing for another road trip soon. anyone want to join in?
posted by lex @ 7:54 AM,
bankang papel
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
it has always fascinated me when people recall long buried memories due to far off-triggers: unrelated events or things, that is. it's like remembering eating butterball after a game of monopoly with your cousins while watching a horror movie. far out? i know. but it happens.
case in point: i had one today.
i was reading the newspaper on the win of rafael nadal in the monte carlo tennis masters when suddenly i find myself remembering a tune from way back when. initially, i couldn't pinpoint the exact name of the song when it dawned on me that it was 'bangkang papel' from the defunct filipino kiddie show called 'batibot'!
suddenly, a floodgate opened. memories started pouring out: i remembered the show having the making of palitaw to the crystal ball of manang bola to kuya bodjie telling stories under the big tree in the middle of the rotonda to the making of the bangkang papel and having it float on a sidestreet canal to kiko matsing and pong pagong showing up in school when i was in grade 1 and how i was so excited to see them then (i think i'll still be excited now if i see those mascots!).
i then recalled how childhood has been so amazing. now, those were good memories.
*****
a few years back, jon noted how nostalgia implies homelessness. this is partly true due to the fact that we allow ourselves to live in the past and not the present and ask the question 'where am i (going)?' (and as such a sense of homelessness). but then again, i believe that the past also recounts how magificent life has been, and to remember it gives hope that things in the present may equal that or may even be better.
the list of good things that happened in the past can go on and on and on and i think i will do the same 10 years, 20 years, from now, heck, even the day i die. any part of life (for that matter) indeed oozes with the good stuff.
posted by lex @ 9:25 PM,
that ghost is mine
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
yesterday, i bid my time shopping while waiting for my flight back to manila in changi airport, singapore. i don't usually shop but when i do, i go to a record bar. here it was no different.
i immediately looked for one. saw it in a small corner of an electronic store. starting from letter 'a', i saw nothing but 'pop'ular music (of course they want to cater to the many travellers who listen to these types of music -- bubblegum pop and packaged artists. i know, i know, i'm guilty of this as well. but i was in the mood for some indie that day.) reaching letter 'w', i was about to give up when i saw the 2004 cd of wilco entitled 'a ghost is born'! amazing! i've been a big fan ever since i got their last cd entitled 'yankee hotel foxtrot'. brilliant musicians especially that jeff tweedy.
didn't care if it cost me almost php 1000. that ghost is indeed mine!
posted by lex @ 9:49 PM,
milo
Friday, April 08, 2005
about a year ago, a friend of mine got me hooked again on milo. not just any milo, but the milo in a tetrapak -- the malty, creamy kind. it's become such an intense craving that i need it at least once a week (same as my sushi craving).
problem is, it's difficult to find it in manila. all i've been seeing are the ones sold in plastic cups. i've been to the gas station food shops, supermarkets, sari-sari stores. name it, i've been there. i couldn't find it anywhere. it's so frustrating that i've been thinking of starting a picket outside the nestle office in rockwell.
good thing i didn't resort to that because i found some yesterday! bought one to my heart's delight (and my tummy's as well).
you may never guess it but i found one of all places, (drumroll, please...) here in sri lanka! and because of that, the trip here has been worth it. (nothing like sipping through that straw while watching the lake through my hotel window.)
alam kong mababaw lang ako.
anyway, i've been thinking of hording some before i head home. baka pigilan lang ako sa immigration ng pinas.
posted by lex @ 9:30 PM,
these are days
Saturday, April 02, 2005
well you told me so
that we'd seen this all before
so what is it (that) keeps us coming back for more?
i'll hold a light for you to see
all things in time, all you'll ever need
- all things in time, toad the wet sprocket
i was with my relatives (father's side) til the wee hours of the morning yesterday.
it started out as a surprise (or as a cousin of mine would say, 'suprise!') dinner for the 5oth birthday of my dad's sister. feeling that the party was 'bitin' after 3 hours of being with each other, the cousins and some of the older ones (my dad's siblings) transferred to the reyes-pante house.
gathering around the living room, people suddenly felt nostalgic. an uncle of ours started telling embarassing stories of our past -- from the ridiculous to the censored. (mine was the laughing pissing 3 year old -- i'll tell you about it if ever you mention it to me.) we were laughing so hard. it felt like i was this kid again, climbing up the monkey bars, sliding down the lamp post, running around the house, playing monopoly, getting candies for holloween, and on and on.
realizing it now, it was great being a kid in that family.
if you told this to me 10 years ago that we'd be hanging out like this, i wouldn't believe you. we had a tumultuous past and i wasn't hoping for this to happen again. but it did and it does.
i now know that even if there is a mundane facet to family reunions, i wouldn't trade it for the world. i would definitely be coming back for more.
posted by lex @ 2:02 PM,
