Chaos Deity

© Joselito Briones

An old friend from high school in Biñan, Laguna, who goes by "Deity" in the blogworld, linked this photo in an entry in her and her man's joint blog, "Chaos Meets Deity."


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Meet T-Bo and Yumi

© Joselito Briones

My feet were in so much pain from so much walking that I didn't really want to get up so early today, only I really had to go to my German class because I've been absent the past couple of days. Right after lunch I went back to Frankenlabor to pick up T-Bo and Yumi's pictures, including this one (left).

Frau Mueller came in again today to help us with cleaning the apartment (okay, fine, she did all the work). And surprise! She brought us some spring rolls (lumpiang shanghai) ready to fry! Eheheheh, nice. She prefers to be called Cathy Rose. Which reminds me. It was Cathe's birthday yesterday... wonder how she's doing.


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Images from the upper deck of a tourist bus

© Joselito Briones

The stupid sun decided to come out today, now that I'm going back to Erlangen. Oh well...

© Joselito Briones

I slept the first couple of hours in the bus, and the rest of the time I decided to pass by taking pictures from the bus window. The best images from where I sat though, were the ones I thought best left undisturbed, even by my lens - the child-like joy in the faces of the much older passengers, when they alight from the bus to see friends and family waiting for them, and their careless hugs and kisses.

© Joselito Briones

© Joselito Briones


© Joselito Briones


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Gray Day in Berlin

© Joselito Briones

Nothing's quite right today. I woke up with a headache. It started before I went to bed last night, there was no place I could go to to buy some paracetamol. Or maybe I just didn't know where, but sure enough I asked several places. I went out after shower, hungry for breakfast, determined to go to the first place I see that serves anything digestible. The sky's gray. My only full day here in Berlin and the sun decided to play hide and seek. Bleh.

© Joselito Briones

First thing I saw was KaDeWe. Sure, those Dior clothes look yummy, but not in a nourishing way, the opposite actually, it made me want to not eat ever again so I'll fit in them. I'm sure though that if the store was already open I'd have gotten in and procastinated on getting headache relief. Thankfully, the KaDeWe apotheke around the corner was already open, so I got myself some painkillers.

© Joselito Briones

I wasn't so lucky food-wise. The first place I saw was McDonald's. I had mcMuffins. It did the job. It didn't stop me though from stopping at several wurst vending places while walking and talking pictures all day.

© Joselito Briones

These are all taken with a digital camera, the one I got as a present on my birthday. As you can see, in all the pictures, the sky is consistently gray.

© Joselito Briones

First two pictures, left and above, are of the same building, in the Museum island, something something dome, my map said. The first one was taken while I was walking along the river bank, just before it rained. I let the rain pass while having espresso in a sand bank (made to look like a beach) cafe, then continued on to the island itself, the next picture.

© Joselito Briones

I went around the island, until I got to where I started, the east tip of it, and took this picture (left), which I'm sure so many others have taken before, a visual gag trying to make the TV tower look like it's on top of the dome of another museum. I think this is going to be the theme for today: taking cliche' pictures. Only doing worse version... one with gray sky on every picture. Hmmm... come to think of it, this had always been the theme of all my pictures. Oh well...

© Joselito Briones

The digital camera actually adjusts the brightness, so that instead of dark gray which I see in reality, the images have a very bright gray sky.

© Joselito Briones

It's all museums basically, this area, so I decided to go somewhere else, and headed towards the Reichtag (left). Last time I was here in Berlin was 1999, and the only two places I remember from then is Liebskind's Jewish Museum and this, the Reichtag. The rest are all a jumble of cranes. This city was full of promise. And if anyone's to gauge its fulfillment, now's the best time.

© Joselito Briones

The next few pictures were taken in the same area. Except for the last one and the one before that, taken in Mitte, and the third one from the last picture, taken in Galleries Lafayette (designed by Jean Nouvel), close to Unter den Linden, where I bought a couple of socks.


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2006.12.01
As you may well know by now, i've reformatted my blog, and some pictures are too big (and I now deem unnecessary) to put here, so if the text refers to a picture that isn't shown here, that's because I've taken it off.


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What kinda hellish comedy is that?

Publicity photo for "The Breakup"

Sunday night Roxy night again last night.

So yeah, so I got to see "The Break-Up", you know, the one withJennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. Jen looked gorgeous. She should give the movie's lighting guy a bonus.

Anyway, the movie's really funny, I liked it a lot, until of course, when, close to the end, it got too close to home. I mean, come on! They might as well have recorded our conversations in the apartment and used them verbatim. So not funny. Damn fools.


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A family portrait

On top of my down-time literature is the Vanity Fair issue featuring the long awaited photo of Suri. It's been long rumored that Annie Leibovitz took photographs of her for this magazine, but for a while it seemed like it was just that, a rumor. I was actually surprised to see it upon tearing up the paper envelope containing this subscription issue. Thoughts, in order, were: "Oh. Suri". "I wonder how much it went for." and "So what happens to whereissuri.com now?" "Wow, Katie looks amazing in this photo". "Ms. Leibovitz did a great job." "Tom still looks creepy."


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Eye Candy

© Joselito Briones

Someone notified me that he featured one of my older photographs as the first of a series of "eye candy" in his website. I always appreciate it if someone (especially strangers) shows some appreciation to things I do, so I thought I'd cross link his site here.

The photo was taken in the spring of 2003, when I lived in New York, with a Rolleiflex, Tmax100, and Mark Citret's +3 developing technique.


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Floren's flowers

© Joselito Briones

I guess he's happy.


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The house by the lake

© Joselito Briones

Ahahahaha!!! What a laugh! Keanu Reeves as an architect. Sandra Bullock as a doctor. A dog as cupid. A mailbox as a time machine. A sorry exercise as a movie! I had so much fun I'm still laughing. Ahahahahaha!!!!

Yep. Been to Roxy again..


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P.S.
Photo is another one from the looong ago trip to Amsterdam.


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Photographer, interrupted

© Joselito Briones

Photo, above, are wild flowers that simply refused to be contained by the fence, in a construction site.

I wanted to go to Milan today, for the weekend. It was mainly to test the theory that Germany being central enough in Europe, one can just hop in on a bus and go to any major European city. Almost got away with it too, no advanced booking, no advanced planning. How far did I get? Nuernberg. I'd have made it to Milan too, had I left the apartment an hour earlier. By the time I got to the bus station, the ticketing office was closing in five minutes, and they had no more bus connections from Nuernberg to Munich, where the bus going to Milan is originating.

I could also have bought a bus ticket from Munich to Milan and just take the train to Munich, but I didn't have the train schedule with me, and there was no time to check before the bus ticketing office closes. So in theory, I could've also made it if I left the apartment only five minutes earlier, and took the time to get the train schedule from the Nuernberg Hauptbahnhof for trains going to Munich.

Oh well, next time. At least I didn't bother to unpack (there wasn't much to pack to begin with), just in case.


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Say Ahhhhh

© Joselito Briones

I went to the dentist this morning to have my teeth cleaned... I like this one because everybody here's friendly, it's a 10-minute walk from the apartment, and everybody here speaks English... only drawback is that my dentist reeks of cigarette smoke... not the smell of smoke on someone who enjoys lighting up occasionally, but more like someone who has to smoke every half an hour at least...

Picture on the left belongs to the "Everywhere Objects" series. These weeds are literally everywhere, and they're all wilted now, but in spring they're really pretty.


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Let there be light

© Joselito Briones

It looks like we're gonna go ahead with our small lighting-above-dining-table project after all... I stayed late last night trying to configure in AutoCAD a random-look in hanging the paper lamps without them bumping into each other (we have 27 of them in different sizes).

Of course I could've just waited until the frame is ready and adjust and cut the cables while they're installed, but that would leave too many unknowns. Like, what total length of electric cable is needed, would they constantly need readjusting so they won't bump into each other (the 3d simulation is not realistic image-wise, but accurate geometry-wise), etc.

Photo above, random weeds I pass by while walking around, belongs to the "Everywhere Objects" series.


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Dreaming of Tweety

© Joselito Briones

An image from the Amsterdam series, this is a close crop of the same kitty in the other kitty picture.

Am beginning to doubt my ability to gauge the likeability factor (or lack thereof) of my photographs, because this one was just salvaged from a photo taken when the cat decided to not cooperate anymore and closed its eyes, but it turned out to be one of my more popular flickr photos anyway. Hmmm.... maybe there's just something inherently likeable about pets... (doh... they wouldn't be pets if they're not likeable, would they, now?)


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Smokes

© Joselito Briones

Image 3 from the "Everwhere Things" series... this is a cigarette vending machine. I had to take this picture really quickly, because in order to get the whole thing in the picture, I had to stand in the middle of the street and dodge cars passing by.

Am not sure what to write with it, so I'll just put a song with it: From KD Lang's "DRAG"






Hain't It Funny?

We made love last night
Wasn't good wasn't bad
Intimate strangers made me kinda sad
Now when I woke up this morning
Coffee wasn't on
It slowly dawned on me that my baby is gone
My baby's gone

Guess I shouldn't be so shocked
I guess I shouldn't be so surprised
Guess i sorta noticed the sadness in your eyes
All this time together
And I still feel so alone
Two of us together couldn't make this house a home
My baby's gone
My baby's gone
Oh so long

Umf maybe I'm a little bit relieved
Maybe even a little bit glad
Now that you're gone maybe I won't feel so sad
So I'm packing your things and
Leaving them outside and
Neighbours can talk themselves up into a storm I'll survive
My baby's gone
My baby's gone
Oh ... so long

Did you forget something my love
I see you're back outside
Looking at your suitcases looking oh so surprised
Hain't it funny
One of life's little jokes
Thought you'd gone for good
But you'd only gone ... for smokes

(-Jane Siberry )


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"Take me to your leader..."

© Joselito Briones

Second image in the "Everywhere Things" series, this is a fire hydrant hidden among weeds... I tried to keep strong highlights off to keep a heavyset volume for the whole image, and gave the greens a really cold, almost sharp tone to it.

As in any of the other pictures here, you can click on the picture to view a bigger size.


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Everywhere Objects

© Joselito Briones

I've started a series of photographs of everyday objects in the neighborhood... objects that are so commonplace everybody barely notices them.

Something that one sees everywhere here in Erlangen... bicycles. This one is parked in an unmowed lawn of dandelions. More to come in this series.


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How fat is that pussy in the window?

© Joselito Briones

Not very, actually. Just can't think of what to call it, and I thought it interesting that this is on the same street where they display the other kind, also in windows, under red light. One of a series of pictures from Amsterdam that I will be showing you. Be prepared to be bored.

This is my first proper animal picture, so it's special to me, plus I like that the colors are very Ingres-like, hence the flickr title, "Ingres Cat".


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Another dose of red

© Joselito Briones

I know I'm sure by now you've seen plenty photos of the building where I live, but here's another one anyway. I photoshopped the sky so that it's flat and cool grey in tone to make the whole image look more like color swatches.

Got back early this morning (or late last night) from Amsterdam. That was a good trip, even the bus ride back wasn't so bad, I managed to get some sleep.

Can't wait to see how the pictures I took came out.


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Amsterdam

© Joselito Briones

Found myself in a bus to Amsterdam. It's a new experience, long distance bus ride, but eventually it's just as any long distance mode of transportation. All I wanted was to get it over with and get to the destination. In a way it was more comfortable than flying, because one has the comfortable feeling of being closer to the ground, better than train because it stopped several times, and of course, compared to driving, one doesn't have to bother about finding one's way and the fatigue of driving itself, and the advantage of being able to sleep whenever one wants to. The downside, of course, is that it took a loooooooong time.

Will be seeing Wil there, and Gau and Tony after a very long time. I last saw Tony in the Philippines, about three years ago, and Gau I think when I left Hong Kong for California, six years ago. We all decided to meet up in Amsterdam this weekend, to see the Madonna "Confessions" tour.


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