This bird has flown

© Joselito Briones

Just as Eric's representation of a perfect world can be found in a Mall, an SM Mall to be specific (he observed that it's the one chain-mall consistently well-maintained), I suspect partly because his current buying power in these places sufficiently compensates for all the times he felt underprevileged in the past, Itay’s is his caged birds.

What Itay (literally, Filipino for "father") is trying to compensate with, I can only guess. Let's see, he's the head of a big family with a lot of male members, and he's aging. He's even made a request (albeit jokingly) on how he wants his funeral to be when he dies. It's getting more and more difficult for him to show power and insist his will on others. Gone is the time when his word meant the law to everybody else. I think it started with Norie, in California. She's the eldest among my siblings, and most willful too. He must've felt rather powerless when it came to dealing with her, and as a result they were always at odds with each other. Now that he's gone back to the Philippines, it's the same show-of-will game, only now it's with his grandchildren. Hit hardest are Joie, who's gone so far as to now avoid going to the family house altogether, and Jaycee, who recently snobbed the family Christmas party. If only my dad would realize that he's respected no matter what, and that he doesn't need to show his power anymore, the atmosphere within the family would be a lot more peaceful. But maybe boring, too. I say let the man be who he is.

Oh yeah, the birds... they're always happy and singing as long as you feed them, and they don't care that they're kept in a cage.


XXX

P.S.



Today is Jose Rizal day - the day of his execution by the Spanish who occupied Philippines during that time, and against whom the revolution started 110 years ago today. Dr. Jose Rizal is the national hero of the Philippines.

© Joselito Briones

I flew to Hong Kong today. The photo above shows the view from the window of the plane. The body of water shown is the Pasig river, one that prominently featured in Jose Rizal's novel, "Noli Me Tangere".

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Mini Reunion

© Joselito Briones

We had to rush to Jing's place in BF Homes in Paranaque. I was under the impression that the reunion that we've been planning for sometime, for our batch in Architecture in Mapua Institute of Technology, would be held at about the same time as the last time - early evening. She sent me a text messages saying the first attendee family has arrived. at 9am. We didn't make it until 2 anyway. The ones present were: Jing (Arch. Geraldine Legaspi to anyone else, now doing mainly restaurant projects and thriving, aside from teaching in the same uni), her sister Joy and her kids, Ramil and his wife, Nora (Arch. Nora Soriano, please, currently terrorizing the new administration of the school), Maricel and her daughter, Norman and Ching (uni sweethearts who had their first baby they lovingly refer to as their thesis, having been born in our last year in Mapua), Boyong and Weng also uni sweethearts, and their kid.

There's so many stories to tell, I'm sure once in awhile these annecdotes will make it here. Right now it's just great to see old friends again, and to know that they're doing well.


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Christmas

© Joselito Briones

Having distributed all the gifts last night, we took it easy today. It was the exact opposite of the frantic house-to-house trek of the kids, collecting money from relatives and Ninangs.

We decided to treat my parents to lunch today. We went to Tony Roma's in Alabang Town Center with Kuya Toto, and thankfully so. After several misses on restaurant choices, at least this one, albeit still formulaic chain restaurant fare, delivered the goods, at least with the baby back ribs. We ended up bringing back two extra racks, one for Kuya Toto and one for Ate Julie. My mom wanted to see if she can produce the same texture, if not the taste, so we passed by Makati Supermart to buy some frozen ribs, but the grocery was close today.


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P.S.
The image on top is actually a movie, a trial if it's worth putting flash movies here. It's probably too big a file if you're on a slow connection, but if you're using broadband, it should load smoothly.

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Tagaytay

© Joselito Briones

Less than an hour's drive from the house is this town called "Tagaytay", with a fantastic view of Taal volcano and the lake surrounding it.

My mom said she wanted to come here to try Josephine's, a traditional Filipino restaurant. So Josephine's we went, with Chris, Irma's eldest. The view from the deck is just awesome, and in itself worth the trip - and fortunately so, because this is all Josephine's has to offer. Although the receptionists were very courteous and friendly, the waiter assigned to us was downright rude. The food wasn't something to recommend to anybody else either. The only dish passable in quality among the ones we ordered is the char-grilled stuffed calamares. The sizzling gambas has this sickly red coloring that screams "artificial!". The "Kare Kare" was of unidentifiable slabs of beef fat and skin. The boneless "Inihaw na Bangus" was tough, and, in what ought to be classified as a crime, the "Kinilaw na Talaba" was a sheer waste of good oysters, which was indiscriminately drowned in nothing but vinegar.

Lesson learned: if you want to go to Tagaytay for the view, and your best option is Josephine's (I'm sure there are other places to see the spectacular view from), go straight to the coffee bar for a capuccino, then to the viewing deck. Skip the food.


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Free of Duty

© Joselito Briones

It’s sooo hot today. Even with the car airconditioning in full blast, driving through south expressway, we could still feel the heat from outside. We went to duty free shopping, mainly to get my Inay a new blender. The place, located close to the airport, was chaotic. And of course they had to impose this mess to everyone, by limiting the route of shoppers to one where everyone has to go through every section and every shop in the whole building. We also bought some whiskey for my Itay, his preferred alcohol.

I guess this frees us from our main christmas present requirements. The rest is a cinch. It's a good thing that the family politics is still well and alive. You take care of those high up in the pecking order, they take care of the rest. It's something so obviously still in place even with the kids. The younger ones listen to and look up to the older ones. With so many kids in the family, it's a relief that everything and everyone has, and knows, his own place, and responsibility is something left to trickle down the hierarchical chain. The danger, of course, if someone breaks the chain at any point.

© Joselito Briones

The pictures, top and above, are of the family house where we're staying.


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Pop Quiz: New Voices

© Joselito Briones

Can you guess who sang what?

"I got all the right clothes to wear, but I just want to cry now..."

"...Yesterday was easy, happiness came and went..."

" I can have another you in a minute, in fact he'll be here in a minute"
(ok, this one's not a new voice, but I thought I'll put at least one give away)

"Oh you're a stupid girl, oh me, oh my, you talk
I die, you smile, you laugh, I cry..."

"The world just chewed her up, and spat her out "

"Drinkin’ tea in bed, watchin’ DVD’s
When I discovered all your dirty, grotty magazines..."

"B-b-b-baby, I think I'm going c-c-c-crazy
And why should I be sane without you?"

"See I buy my own bags, my boots, my jeans
Wear La Rok with my Rebel Yell underneath"


XXX

Picture, above, was taken in Ulrich and Christa's garden. And yeah, this one's prepared-in-advance, a filler... Too busy now preparing for the trip to Hong Kong and Philippines, doing things that needs taking care of this year, arranging meet-ups with friends, etc., to post something new.


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In passing...

© Joselito Briones

We are loved and at times lucky that we, too, love... We share a part of ourselves to those we are with, to those we'll eventually leave behind, until they, too, make their own transit. It's a wonderful cycle that, luckily, we all have to go through.

It's a sad day... I learned that a good friend's father passed away recently.


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The Spider's Parlor

© Jane Guevarra

Remember I told you that Jane, my good friend in New York, said she's finally done with her living room? Well, she's sent a photo of it, so I thought I'd show it to you. She's naturally very proud of it, she took more than the usual effort in making it look good... The sofa and the table are new, so's the carpet... the eames chair on the left was from me, and the curtain and the fortune plant are also new (or at least new since I was last there, March this year)


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Ein Brief

© Joselito Briones

Erlangen, den 30.11.2006

Lieber James,

vielen Dank für deinen netten Brief. Du hast richtig gehört, ich wohne jetzt in Deutschland. Die Stadt, wo meine Wohnung ist, heißt Erlangen. Diese Stadt is nördlich der Gegend, wo die Leute Lederhosen zu tragen lieben. Ja, ich lebe in Bayern.

Erlangen ist eine schöne Stadt, aber zu klein. Es gibt kein kino für Filme auf Englisch. Es gibt auch kein Geschäft mit dem A3 Fotopapier.

Die Leute hier sind nett, aber manchmal gibt es auch hässliche, alte Damen in den Geschäften. Ich glaube, sie sind wirklich unzufrieden mit ihren Männern. Sie sind ganz, ganz unfreundlich.

Meine wohnung liegt in einem roten Haus, das Gebäude ist sehr modern. Du musst mich besuchen.


Herzliche Grüße,

dein Joselito

XXX


Yep, another homework sent to you. My Lehrerin, Aline, has corrected the mistakes I made in the text.

The photo is of a house, right in front of the building where I live. It will soon be demolished, to be replaced by a new multi-family building, similar to ours.


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Filipino Food

© Joselito Briones

This is something I see everytime I go to my German class - a Siemens building, an annex to the tallest one in the neighborhood, that is used as company canteen. I always like to peep in to see what sort of things they cook there, there's always a few white-hatted employees visible from the street, busy preparing enormous amounts of food. I like the building's horizontality and openness, it reminds me of the pictures of modern buildings in architectural books that I used to browse through in uni.


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I was browsing through magazines when I saw this mention of a new cookbook, from one of my favorite restaurants in New York, "Cendrillon". The book is called "Memories of Philippine Kitchens" (Stewart, Tabori & Chang). Can't wait to see the more than 100 recipes inside.


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My Dear Mr. Bond,

Promotional photo of "Casino Royale" from Sony Pictures

Damn good movie, this one. When's the last time you did "woaaahhhh!"'s and "holy crap!!!" in the movies? As with the last few Bond movies, the opening credits alone was worth the ticket money already. So cool!

Daniel Craig puts the character back to its original erhmm... character. One played to perfection by Sean Connery and softened to parody-status by Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan (OK, fine, Brosnan's still the best Bond, first few times he did it, if one takes into account the "fit" of the characterization with the times). Craig didn't really have any choice, with Hong Kong movies having redefined the adrenalin-level standard of action movies, he might as well have refused to make the movie if he was just gonna do another Brosnan film.

The chase alone, on feet, in the beginning, was enough to carry the whole film, action-wise. That guy Bond was chasing was just awesome! I actually wanted him to be able to get away from Bond.

I started getting bored somewhere in the middle, with the long poker game sequences, and wondered why they even bothered with it, before I remembered that the movie's title is "Casino Royale". Another downer was how everything was explained to the viewers... like "M" asking Bond if he knew why he's still alive, explaining how the girl (Eva Green) made sacrifices to make that possible. Like, hello? A five year old would've figured that out by himself (if he's allowed to watch the movie, I mean). And Bond professing his love to the girl??? Come on! I'd rather he act it than say it. Heath never said anything about his feeelings for Jake, did he?

The jokes are better too, more clever. Or maybe it's just Craig's delivery. His face is always so serious that when he delivers a punchline it's usually unexpected, unlike Brosnan from whom everybody expects jokes all the time. The best proof that Craig can really act are the scenes where he was being tortured, the worst when he was all mushy with Green. You'll never see anyone more uncomfortable with a smile.

I enjoyed the movie so much that only when I got back home did I realize upon thinking about the story, that it didn't have a good one.


XXX

P.S. I've noticed that recently more and more people wanders into this correspondence of ours, looking for celebrity pics. I wish they'd come to look at the photos I've taken, but alas, it isn't so. Having said that, in case some random people do wander in here looking for Daniel Craig's naked photos, I thought I'll do the nice thing and direct them to right place. They can be found in this link. Bye, and thanks for dropping by.

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Fusion

© Joselito Briones

My first attempt at fusion. Or maybe I've always been doing it, just don't realize it. For tonight's dinner, I curried (yellow) mashed banana and with lemon juice, kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, coconut milk, and grapefruit slices. I thought the curry would overpower the banana flavor, but the banana persisted. I ended up with a thicker than usual curry sauce, poured all over pan-grilled fish fillet.

The photos above are quite old... on the left is Tour Eiffel, of course, taken September 1994, and on the right is a temple in Bangkok, Thailand, taken September 1996. I used to do my travels mostly in September.




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Reformat

© Joselito Briones

So... blogger.com, the medium with which I'm sending you these letters, decided to upgrade their system. What it means for me is that all my customized modifications are screwed up. I had to tweak my module back to what it was, although it's not all done yet. I also took the chance, since I was gonna do a lot of modifications anyway, escpecially in adding keywords to all the previous entries, to enlarge some of the photos. So if you're using an RSS reader to view these, you might notice old letters getting reposted.


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Rehashed

© Joselito Briones

Don't even start with me about the photo... I just don't have anything else to put here, OK? It's an old picture, one that I took in Greece, a slide printed on a non-color-reversal paper (hence the negative effect).

Today I'm officially lost in my German lessons. Genitiv? What the crap is that? I must've spent the whole class time with my mouth open and my hands constantly scratching my head (and I swear I washed my hair this morning).


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Thanksgiving

© Joselito Briones

It's that hokey time of the year again... when you're supposed to think of all the positive things that has happened in your life, or things that you have, and express gratitude. Naturally, I do not want to think THAT hard. I do think it's appropriate to be thankful to have had "Bed Day", yesterday.

I phoned Norie in California to wish her happy thanksgiving. Turns out they had an early dinner, with her Kevin and Dave, my two brothers Noel and Cesar, and Uding and Little Kevin. Since this holiday calls specifically for enormous dead birds, she decided to (gasp!) order, from the place where she usually gets her honey-roasted ham, a (gasp!) deep-fried turkey. She's adventurous that way, you'll have to give her that. She was already doing the dishes though, by the time I called, and was getting ready for her nap.


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"Bed Day"

© Joselito Briones

Have you heard of this holiday before? We don't have school today here in Germany (or maybe it's just Bavaria) because this is supposed to be the day in the middle of the week when you're supposed to just lounge around in bed all day. Am not shitting you, it's true!

Oh well, I might have spent all day in my pj's, but in front of my computer. I edited some pictures, for the brochure. I also did a new version of this photo that I took of Carrie a couple of years ago in New York. I wanted to experiment in high-key desaturated colors.


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You know you're in the pits when..

© Joselito Briones

...what you're used to walking two blocks for, you now have to go to the next city, by train, to look for, and be informed when you do find a store that carries it, that you have to pre-order it, and that you'll have to come back after 3 days to collect it.

The item in question is a pack of matte-finish heavy stock A3 size photo paper. Fortunately, one of the shops I inquired from recommended one other shop that might carry this item. The name of the place is Saturn. I had to ask for directions at least 3 times, and use what little German I know in trying to understand whatever directions I was given, to find the place. It turns out they do carry the paper, although not the double-sided kind that I was looking for. I bought a pack anyway.


XXX

P.S.
The picture, again, has got nothing to do with anything else written here. This isn't even what I wanted to print on the paper I was looking for. This is just another experiment in post-processing images taken with a digital camera.

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Borat!

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (20th Century Fox)

Roxy time!

Wow... record number of viewers in the cinema. There must've been at least 20 people in the audience. Pop culture rules. (Hm... hello? It wouldn't be called so if it doesn't, would it?)

By now of course, the novelty that is Sacha Baron Cohen is already somewhat worn out. Good thing is, throwing mud on people is still very much in, especially if the aforementioned people are just asking for it... As in his Ali G personna, the best thing about Borat is the way he brought out the true character of the people he encountered and recorded in the movie. Thinking he's someone they don't have to be politically correct with, they blurt out things they wouldn't normally say in public, much less in film. Now, one can argue that they're just trying to be agreeable with him to avoid confrontation, a human trait, don't ask me what it's called because I don't know, which has been thoroughly documented. The thing is, though, it's easy to tell that he wasn't feeding these people the words, he just makes them careless or carefree enough to actually say what they think. And what they do say, sadly, is what everybody else suspect to be their real sentiments all along. The way a man strongly agreed with him when he said something about beating up everything in Iraq including its lizards, and the shocked face the woman next to the man had when she saw his reaction... these are expressions no actor has yet to muster, so any suspicion of these scenes being staged with good actors can be safely put aside.

Another good thing about Borat? The way he doesn't discriminate against whom he supposedly unknowingly discriminates. Jews (Cohen is himself jewish), gays, blacks, minorities, politicians, religious fanatics. Everybody's fair game.

Eventually though, what he failed to do is to learn from what he discovered (or more probably, knew all along) in making this movie. That is, that there's really a lot of people who are stupid. Stupid in the fixed-in-my-own-ways-don't-bother-me-with-any-attempt-to-get-educated kind. The same people who can understand the satirical nature of the movie are those who are capable of understanding to begin with, and to these viewers, this movie is nothing more than reaffirming light entertainment. To the rest, those who are not even aware that this is meant to be mocking and ironic, yet see this as light entertainment nonetheless, would naturally see everything in this movie face-value and have this as something to fuel their own prejudices and stupidity.


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What did I do today?

© Joselito Briones

You can tell this is just a filler. There's really nothing to post, this is an old photo of a building in Upper East Side, New York that I took 3, maybe 4 years ago.


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Mystery solved.

This is a promotional photo from Nike

Sometime in June, I mentioned the gesture made by Spanish forward Fernando Torres, after scoring a goal in a World Cup match, and provided a link to a photo showing this gesture. 5 months on and I keep on getting visits here, by bulks, looking for that photo, which has since been removed by its original poster. Maybe they're just curious as to why he was not invited to join the national team this time. Or maybe they're just wondering if he's recovered from his current injury. The image shown here is a publicity shot by Nike, his current sponsor.

Come to think about it though, it was quite obvious that he was gonna be huge, and a lot of people would be looking for anything at all about him. So maybe it's not such a surprise after all.

One visitor who eventually found the entry, I guess after some digging through my archives, left this comment:
"The gesture done by Torres is known as "the archer". He did it imitating his Atletico Madrid idol Kiko"


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Old trees

© Joselito Briones

Just another experiment in post processing... this is a digital snap of trees as observed from a window of a moving train... on the way to Berlin. I tried to make it look like an old sepia print.


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Back to Basics

© Joselito Briones

Back to Erlangen, and back to experimenting with digital pics. This one is taken in the Bamberg train station... I was trying to create an old-world, hand-colored character to it.

MTV: In constant rotation nowadays is Christina Aguilera's "Hurt", from the album "Back to Basics", really well made, the make up alone when she's sitting down crying is flawless and a pefect fit to the video, it must've cost a fortune. Also, among the top British MTV's dance videos is the one that Frieder produced, "Dance for Life". And I happened into MTV2's Barrio 19... wow! How could I have missed this show before?


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A Little Lesson in Filipino

© Joselito Briones

I challenged one of my nephews, DanMark (yes, same as the country, German spelling), "Big Mac" to some of us, "Kuya Makky" to some of his cousins, to tell me something, so I can tell you about it.

Here's what he came up with (with my attempt at understanding the relatively new Filipino shorthand, and a translation):

sori poh sa late reply heheheh
d poh ako nkapag log in ng 2 days hehehehe
dto poh ang bago d2 nagtitinda cla lola ng fishball at halo2 un ang bago d2
hmmpp c kuya magkakaroon na ng panganay ewan ko lng poh kung kelan ang due date ni ate lanie ^_^
bkit yaw nyo poh pagandahin profiles nyo??.

-
Sorry for the late reply ("poh" is "po", a Filipino word to indicate some sort of respect, the way one would say "no, sir" to an older relative)
I wasn't able to log in for 2 days hehehehe
Here, what's new is that Gramma ("Oma" in Germany, "Inay" to me) is now selling fishballs and "halo halo" (a typical Filipino treat of sweets in ice and milk). That's what's new here.
Hmmpp... Don Don ("kuya" is brother, usually how all the siblings call the eldest brother, as "ate", sister, is used to address the eldest sister - older brother or sister other than the eldest is addressed as "kuya" or "ate" with the name attached to it) will have a firstborn already, I just don't know when Ate Lanie (Don's wife) is due. (a smiley)
Why don't you make your profile (referring to my friendster.com profile) look better?
-

You know how nothing ever happens to me when I ask my nephews to provide content to my letters to you.

The picture above is a composite, of course, the background is Times Square, in New York, while Mark's picture was taken in the Philippines.


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Berlin Revisited (Literally)

© Joselito Briones

As last time I was here, it's dark. Only now it's cold and raining too. Argggghhh!!!


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Hearst HQ

© Joselito Briones

I was browsing through magazines and saw a full-page photo of this building, so I thought I'd show you my version of it, taken early this year.

The building is the Hearst Corporation Headquarters, in 8th Avenue and West 57th Street in Manhattan, designed by Sir Norman Foster.


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Delineated Sunset

© Joselito Briones

This train station is somewhere in Germany, of course. I wasn't paying attention when I took this digital snap, and I was probably half asleep, so I didn't see where exactly.

The only thing I find interesting in this photo is the geometirc sunset, which is the reflection of the overhead lighting inside the train on the window, through which this is the view.


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The Siemens Sun Also Rises

© Joselito Briones

It's always nice that the Schlaffgutzimmer is filled with sunlight every morning, it's one of the things I like most about this apartment. Sometimes though, it gets confusing when, after leaving the sunlight-filled bedroom (photo, above), in the east side of the apartment, I see that the sun is shining just as brightly in the kitchen and dining area, west of the apartment (photo, middle).

© Joselito Briones

I've got Siemens to thank for it, of course, as the westerly sunlight in the morning is a reflection in their tallest building (photo, bottom).

© Joselito Briones

In the afternoon, it hailed. I was planning to go to Frankenlabor, I decided to just stay in. Goodbye golden October. Hello cold!


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How stupid of me

© Joselito Briones

...I just wade the tides that turned
Till I learn to leave the past behind...

...Press my face up to the window
To see how warm it is inside
See the things that I've been missing
Missing all this time...

-Beck Hansen, "Guess I'm Doing Fine"
(from "Sea Change")


How could I have mistaken this song for something from an eternal optimist? I guess it's not hard, if you just listen to it while doing something else, it's easy to see "It's only lies that I'm living, it's only you that I'm losing" as someone saying there's a lot worse that could happen, he could brave anything. I've been listening to this song for years without really knowing what it meant. Today I got tired of listening to my German Language audio lessons from my iPod and decided to switch to music, the song came up, I guess I was still in "pay attention" mode and heard differently from the other times I listened to it. It's sooooo depressing! How could someone who wrote such songs as "Sexx Laws", "Loser", and "Where It's At" write such a downer!

Hmmm... now that I think about it... maybe I just haven't been really listening to those other songs. I don't really want to find out later that they're just as tragic, so I'll just keep on listening to them while multitasking. Meanwhile I'll just keep on picking this one song apart, after all, who doesn't like lingering on miserable songs?


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P.S.

Googling Beck, I found out that he released a new album last month, "The Information"... and it's supposed to be as dark and moody as "Sea Change"... can't wait to get my hands on it!

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Golden Pond

© Joselito Briones

I always passed by this puddle in the middle of an empty construction site, on the way to Frankenlabor, here in Erlangen. There's something about it that made me keep looking at it, and I didn't know why, so I thought, I'll just take a digital snap of it and see what's in it. I picked the image apart and saw that there's actually plenty of color hiding behind the murky grayness of it, so I thought I'll just process it, turn it into something that resembles more a pond, sort of an hommage to Monet (pictured left is the result). I thought his paintings of ponds and water lilies were awesome, first time I saw them in Rouen, when I went there to study basic French many many many moons ago. I visited the actual garden that he painted, his own, in Giverny, just to see what inspired him to paint such wonderful pictures.


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No more classes, No more books, No more teachers' dirty looks

© Joselito Briones

Well, one more day. On the 7th of next month. But next week is Bavaria's fall break for schools, and this includes us. So, yay! The next level starts on the 10th. Not much time in between. Aline, our Lehrerin, said though that unless there are more than 10 students in class, there might not be a class for the next level. Petra, our other Lehrerin, is leaving after this level, to teach high school. Me and my classmates (picture, left), the beautiful women of Wysteriastraße, planned a farewell potluck for her, on the 7th.


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Old Manhattan pictures

© Joselito Briones

When I saw "The Devil..." last night, I realized how much I miss living in New York. There was a scene in the beginning when the main character bought something from a bakery and started eating it, while walking, and in the subway, on the way to work. I just blurted "That's me!" in the cinema... I used to buy "everything bagel" with cream cheese extra and coffee from a shop in 48th and Broadway, close to where I used to live, and have my breakfast while walking south along Broadway, past Times Square. I was usually done by the time I reach 40th. I worked in 37th. The story in the movie pretty much took place within this stretch of blocks.

© Joselito Briones

Anyway, I dug up some old pictures and posted them, both in my photography site and in flickr, here they are. The one on top was taken in Midtown, close to the Carnegie Deli (remember that one?) and the other one, in the bottom, was taken in Central Park, looking south.


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And The Devil's Assistant Wears Jimmy Choo

Promotional poster for "The Devil Wears Prada"

I know, this one's quite old. So... 2 seconds ago! But where I am it's fresh, so bear with me.

Style-wise, it wasn't there yet. It's more Hollywood's idea of stylish and fashionable. It's got all the glamour but very little of style. I'd bet that the gods of the fashion world must've thought it unworthy of even raising an eyebrow for. But let's face it, Nobody makes movies for these visionnaires. Movies are made for the masses, and this ordinary folk here liked the movie.

Meryl Streep is Meryl Streep. Is she capable of doing anything wrong? She was great as the Anna Wintour stand-in Miranda Priestley, head of Vogue stand-in "Runway Magazine". One could only wish she was given a more memorable "visual design". She was beautifully styled, of course, but it was just that. No "Waaaaahhhhh!!!!" factor in her appearance. Any actress other than Meryl Streep would have faded in the background in the movie. Emily Blunt, the actress playing Emily, Miranda's second, was also great. She was very much believable in her role as the fashion/style victim/champion, mostly because she acted really well, and partly because she wasn't beautiful enough to be anywhere close to being in Giselle Bundchen's league, who happened to have a cameo in the movie, as Emily's chum. Adrian Grenier, the token grounded character in the movie, was easy on the eyes, but I had the feeling any actor other than him wouldn't have faded in the background of the movie.

And then there's Anne Hathaway as Andrea, the transformed character. I'm sure if this was made 5 years ago, before Babs conceded to doing a maternal role due to lack of ugly-duckling-turned-big-white-swan role, her forte', Ms. Streisand would've fought to play this character. But, no worries, Ms. Hathaway did a perfect turn in the Babs role. She was most convincing in the metamorphosis that, in the end, when even she was made stunningly beautiful by the movie's make up artist and Patricia Field's choices of clothes, one would really believe in the power of fashion. Now, had they casted Babs in the role and got away with it, THAT would've been real magic.

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Right smack in the middle of nowhere

© Joselito Briones

In the absence of anything even remotely similar to New York's Century21, the closest thing that comes close here in Erlangen is the Adidas and Puma factory outlets. It turns out these two brands were actually founded somewhere close by, and still have their main headquarters here. It's about a 15 minute drive from the apartment, in Herzogenaurach, in a very modern-looking building in the middle of farm fields. Like an alien spaceship found this deserted spot and decided to land here, to sell sports outfits for cheap. We ended up not buying anything. Not because it was so cheap. Because we spotted an announcement saying they'll have special limited sales, starting Monday. We'll be back.

Before we left, the someone from Ben's Balikbayan Services picked up my box... let's see how long it takes to reach Carmona.


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Jane

© Joselito Briones

I dug out this photo of JL's when I was looking for my nephews' photo. This was taken 1999, her debutante's party. Now she's got Sey and Yuri.

I went to Nuremberg to exchange the chordless German keyboard for a, ehrm, chorded one. Also got a mighty mouse. Also chorded. On the way back to Erlangen I went shopping for the kids in the Philippines, as Christmas presents. Mostly t-shirts. And a very cute red skirt for Sey. And a tiny shirt for Yuri. And a hat for Mark. Not sure what their sizes are now, so I just bought different t-shirt sizes. I hope they fit. And most importantly, I hope this Balikbayan box that I'm sending makes it there on time for Christmas.


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Roll Call

© Joselito Briones

I found out today that most of my 12 nephews and 5 nieces are now online, so I've put a link to their homepages... I looked at their profiles and my jaws just dropped. I haven't seen them for sometime, and the last time I saw them, they all pretty much spend all their time playing video games. Now in their profile - "status: taken". "10 Golden Rules in Drinking" Huh? I guess no matter how old they are, they'll always be these small kids in this picture to me. The boys: Don Don, Kevin K., Mac(second from right), Gio, Kevin B.(second from left), Louie, Neil, Chris, Gil, JC (right), Cez, Omar(left). The girls: JL (the eldest, married, with two babies of her own, Yuri and Sey), Joie, Jaja, Janelle, and Krisi.

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More of Erlangen

© Joselito Briones

If only the weather can be like this always...

I went to the post office right after German class, to pick up a package that was supposed to have been delivered last Saturday by DHL. We were having breakfast when the delivery guy came. We heard the buzzer, and, in less than a minute, the time it took to get to the intercom system in the reception area from the kitchen where we were having breakfast, he was gone. He must be in quota system, or just very very eager to go home. When we picked up the intercom from the reception and heard nothing from the other end, we even went out to the balcony and yelled a loud "hello?!?". No answer. The time it took for him to ring the bell, write the note that he left on the mailbox notifying us to pick up the package from the post office, and be beyond the distance where he could hear our "hello" could not have been any longer than the time it took for us to get from the kitchen, pick up the intercom, and yell out from the balcony.

© Joselito Briones

From the post office I passed by the city center and got myself a Leberkase sandwich. That's meatloaf sandwich in plain kitchen speak.

I then went to Frankenlabor, after dropping my bag in the apartment, to pick up some films, and on my way there took the pictures shown here. The first is a Siemens building, next block to the apartment (city blocks here tend to be big). On clear days like these, the stark contrast between the silvery metal of its enclosure, with its yellow awnings, against the clear cloudless sky is very striking.

The bottom picture is of a residential development. I always pass by here in between Frankenlabor and Handelshof. Next to it are huge areas of land that are currently under developement. In the next few years the whole area will become one huge suburban heaven.



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Too bad he didn't get there first

© Joselito Briones

Heard of the latest James Blunt clone? He's not as extreme, and will not make you cringe when he does the high notes. He's actually good, Paolo Nutini. Depending on what he sings, his voice sometimes veers towards a sound-alike of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, and often Ray Charles-ey. It's also obvious he can pretty much imitate Blunt's voice if he try. It's a good thing that he doesn't. His music can be sampled by downloading this week's free iTunes song "New Shoes" or from his own website "Loving You (Live)".


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P.S.
I've always thought of Blunt as the aural answer to hyperrealism (a visual style)... it's like now that there's so much out there, and the average attention span of an adult is shorter than a blink of an eye, it makes sense that one needed to be exaggeratedly emotional (or exaggerated anything) to be noticed.

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She should be glad...

© Joselito Briones

I dropped by Handelshof this afternoon on my way back to the apartment from Frankenlabor. When I was emptying my bag on to the merchandise belt by the cashier, I noticed that the bag was wet, and the contents of the oven cleaner that I wanted to buy was all over it. With the politest German that I know, I asked the cashier if she had some paper towels so I can salvage the other items I had in the bag. What did she do? She sneered at me and told me to twist the bottle cap tight. That freakin' beeatch! Like it's my duty to check that all their merchandise is properly closed. If I were fluent in German I'd have told her what a piece of contemptuous shitty twat she truly is.

Anyway... food update again: Pictured, left, was last night's dinner: farfalle in onion and cream sauce, with grilled shrimps (marinated in ginger, lemon rind, and coriander), plus butter and garlic baguette. I know, the sauce looks a bit icky.


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Here's something slightly amusing.

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Cutting the Flo

© Joselito Briones

It's gotten officially too cold this morning, I decided to bring in Flo, Godfrey, and Ronnie indoors. I had to trim most of them though, the summer heat left quite a lot of dead branches. I should've waited, by late morning it got very hot again, but I was too lazy to bring them out again.

The photo above is from a roll I thought I've lost, from Toulon, south of France, late last year. When I was going through the box of unexposed film rolls to take to Prague, this one was inside a film box, but with indication that it's been exposed, I had no idea what was in the roll. I took it to Frankenlabor with the Prague films, and surprise, surprise... this one came out.


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An interesting BBC newsfeature for today: Cutting the flow.


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Egg Wrap

© Joselito Briones

Here's another foodie. I'll probably be putting up a lot of architectural photos later, so I'll show you this one now. It's for tonight's dinner. What is it? If you want something very descriptive, I'd call it an eggwrap with chargrilled aubergine and minced meat filling, sauteed water spinatch on the side. Purrrrty fancy, eh?

If you understand the Filipino language though, you can see plainly that this is "tortang inihaw na talong na may giniling, at may kaulam na ginisang kangkong".


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Food update

© Joselito Briones

My apologies for not having written anything about food to you lately, I remember you said you liked that I was always telling you about food that I make. So here's the update.

Let's see... tonight I made Tom Kha soup with shrimps, the best I've done so far of this variety. I didn't want to eat anything else, so I had to make it more substantial, and I didn't want to put noodles in it either, so I put tofu. The soft and somewhat sweet kind. It went really well with the coconut milk and the rest of the ingredients: ginger, galangal (lots of it), lemongrass, coriander, garlic, lime, kaffir lime leaves, fresh chillies, and shrimps. Oh yeah, and fish sauce (yep, the smelly stuff).

© Joselito Briones

The night before, having discovered fresh mussels in the usually non-existent fish corner in Handelshof, I made steamed mussels in green thai curry sauce (pictured, above). I wasn't planning to do this dish, tonight's food was supposed to be steak and corn-on-the-cob, and some rocket salad (pictured, left) with pears, walnuts, and parmesan, but when I saw the mussels, I just had to do it. I made the steak and salad anyway.

Three nights ago (before Colonel Sander's excellent catering service in Prague) I roasted a leg of lamb (with rosemary, thyme, and anchovies, always a treat) and made potato gratin, to celebrate the completion of the paper lamps in the dining room. I remember making also some egg pancakes for breakfast, with caramelized apple and roasted walnuts, but anything beyond that, I can't remember anymore. I'll try to remember to take photos of them before even touching the plates, next time.


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