Green

© Joselito Briones

Eric phoned with a very exciting news. He finally got his green card! That was pretty quick, and he himself was very surprised, he wasn't expecting it until after he comes back from his upcoming trip to the Philippines.

Photo above was taken last time I was in New York, in Central Park, close to the Metropolitan Museum.


XXX

A Life-changing moment

© Joselito Briones

"you would not believe the day i had. ugh. right after school at 1230 i went to the mall to buy alla those things. its so random that everything i got was on sale. haha. so everything was less than 30 dollars. lmao. i was so embarresed tho. as soon as i went back to school, i went to a teacher to ask him to tie my tie for me. ha. i did a lot of walking. since i went to the mall taking the bus. and then when i got home, i didn't have enought time to rest, so i just got ready and then did more walking. -___-"

The above rant, of course, is from Kebbs, today being his promotion ceremony, as related to our failed shopping mission last Sunday.


XXX

Carnival

© Joselito Briones

I went to San Francisco today to watch and take photos of the Carnival parade in the Mission District. I also went to the "Bullet Art Festival" in Octavia and Hayes, but other than the funky headgears which are basically snap-on hoodies (they're really just hoodies, no sweater nor jacket attachment) and cute t-shirts and grocery bags, there wasn't much to see there.


XXX

Mint

© Joselito Briones

Two new Americans. Mom and son. It's Ate Uding's oath-taking today for U.S. citizenship, and Kebbs being a minor, he automatically became an American citizen too.

The photo above, taken shortly after the ceremony, would've been much better in color, only I forgot to reset the ISO setting of the camera after using a high value indoors, so the noise was just too much. I thought making it toned monochrome would look better.

Yep. I'm back in California, pigging out with my mom's home cooking. She made oxtail Kare Kare yesterday.


XXX

Happy Mother's Day

© Joselito Briones

Lea. Norie. Uding. Julie. Neh. Ludy. Dory. Deleng. JL. Christa. Mari. Silke. Cyntch. Christie. Marijune. Aling Pasing. Oni. Anna. Maricel. Weng. Ching. Vroni. Hana. Diana. Arabella (soon). Claudia. All mom's.


XXX

Keb

© Joselito Briones

Today's Keb's birthday, one of my nephews in the Yay! Area in California. He's the one on the right (on the left is Omar), and this photo was taken a long time ago. It's particularly noticeable in this photo the compression artefacts that I mentioned to you before (especially around the eyes and on the skin area in general), the thing that is introduced whenever I upload a file to Picasa. I guess they've gotten cheapo and want to save some space, hence the compression.


XXX

Kulit

© Norie Kirker

My Itay's birthday today. He's in California presently. I phoned to wish him a happy birthday, and to inquire again as to how my Inay's doing. They're both doing well, and my mom has a few more test results pending, but she seems to have recovered. I guess that's really all one can wish for.

The photo above was taken in California, the year that two of my brothers (middle and right in the above photo) moved there. The one who's just thrown a snowball to whomever was taking the picture, that's my dad.


XXX

No Drama, Thought Bubbles

© Joselito Briones

Everybody's back from easter holiday today. Email inbox is pretty busy. One of the better news, of course, is that Ronnie's press conference turned out well. The event itself didn't occur, or it didn't have to, but the desired result was achieved nevertheless. His family is 100% in support of his forthcoming marriage to Jerome.

They've of course picked out a date for the wedding, although they've yet to announce the reception venue. Ronnie said they'll most likely go for a countyside venue.

The photo above was taken on the night that they announced their plan to us, on our most recent visit to their apartment in London. As you can see, Mati made a big faux pas (why do English-speaking people call it "faux pas" when it means "il ne faut pas"?) of putting his foot up on the very fabulous, precious, sofa, and Jerome is considering the different possibilities of punishing him.


XXX

Is this mike on? (Jane's, after)

© Joselito Briones

After all of today's shopping, we met up in the evening with Eric and Jane, to have dinner at Krystal's Cafe also in Roosevelt Avenue (close to Renee's Kitchenette). It was easy to see that Eric and Jane enjoyed it more than our dinner from Cendrillon. I'd have enjoyed it more too, had it not for the karaoke thing that was ongoing when we arrived. Eric was shy to do a number himself, even as he boasts of always being the life of the party, the karaoke star, so he ended up bringing his magic phone to Jane's, where we all went back to after dinner, and sang his heart out there.

As promised, here's the "after" picture of Jane's living room. The mess is all mine and Mati's, of course. We didn't even have time to reconfigure the bed into a sofa to give Eric a proper performance space. I don't know what he's belting out when I took this photo, but yes, he could actually carry a tune.


XXX

Signed, sealed, delivered

© Joselito Briones

So I finally finished my home-video DVD project. I went to the post office to send them to Carmona in the Philippines and to San Lorenzo and to Mountainhouse in California. I wonder how long it's gonna take to reach them.

On something unrelated, I received my first birthday greetings today, two days in advance, from the ever-reliable friend Cyntch. She was craving all sorts of sour things when I last saw her, she's probably very, very pregnant by now.

In the afternoon I packed suitcases to go to Mannheim, and from there, to Frankfurt Airport, to fly tomorrow early afternoon to New York. So yes, Jimmy, I'll see you soon.


XXX

Lea

© Joselito Briones

Most of the people I know seem to have their birthdays around these three months. Either that or it just so happens that the people born during these first three months are the most willing victims to my camera's experimentations.

Pictured above, of course, is much more than someone I know. She's my Inay. Her name's Lea (yep, like the princess), but everybody in our neighborhood calls her "Aling Sile". I didn't even take this photo of her. It's a studio portrait taken in the first year or two when she moved to California, about 20 years ago. I tried to make it look like a painting, hence the visible photoshop effects.


XXX

Ika'y kaibigan ko

© Joselito Briones

Here's a videoclip of a number some of my nephews and nieces did in the last family christmas party we had in Carmona. I thought Krisi (guitar) looked really great in this clip. With her are Omar (drums), Mark (bass) and Jane (vocals). The number they're doing is called "Kaibigan ko" (My Friend). The sound and video quality is awful, of course, but until I get myself a proper videocam, this will have to do.


XXX

A sharp turn

© Joselito Briones

I remember the urgency with which he wanted the photos (photo, above, belongs to the set) at the time they were taken. Quickly approaching expiry date was cited as the main reason, referring to his body. Or was that the hair? I can't remember exactly. His latest email did say though that he's shaved his head recently.

Godfrey's a good friend, we used to work for the same midtown firm, remember? Am sure you do, he used to hang out a lot in my apartment after all, back when he was still a promising prospect to becoming a very close friend to Betty Ford's (or at least to Betty Ford's patients). He used to live in Harlem, where the photo above was taken, but has since been enticed by the more affordable property prices in New Jersey. He had to have his homing itch satisfied. How exactly, or when exactly, he managed to do a graceful about-face - from nourishing a next-day hang-over with an eager offer to buy me a drink in one of the numerous bars in my old neighborhood (Hell's Kitchen) to devoting all his time both to work and honing his domestic skills - or if somebody did the transition for him (hi, Scotty!), will always be a puzzle to me.

And, yes, this is a birthday show-and-tell.


XXX

Dick

© Joselito Briones

I introduced you to Dick last month, new year's day, when I spotted him from the crowd in Lan Kwai Fong, in Hong Kong. It's his birthday today.

This is one of the first few pictures I've ever taken in Hong Kong, shortly after I moved there, early 90's. During this time I was studying Herb Ritts pictures like no one else's mattered.


XXX

Rescued

© Joselito Briones

Remember Hon? Yep it's been a year since that dinner party. I like these birthdays, it gives me an excuse to show you pictures from my archives. This particular one was a surprise because it was too dark (or too bright) for any printer and scanner available at the time I took the picture to make anything of it. It tempts me to see if there's anymore such pics that can now be made use of with the latest film scanning technology.


XXX

Valentine's day dinner

© Joselito Briones

Poor Jerome. He should've known better than to bring his Valentine's Day present for Ronnie to Wil's. Upon greeting Jerome at the door, Wil immediately asked if the flowers that Jerome was carrying was for him. Wil being the host and Jerome the guest, there was really nothing else for him to say but yes, indeed he bought the flowers for Wil. Upon hearing the commotion at the door, I took a peek. When Jerome saw that I saw him giving the flowers to Wil, he was forced to give me something too, to be fair. He handed me the box of chocolates he was holding. Good thing he still had one more thing in his hands, a bottle of pink champagne from Brüt, which he immediately handed to Ronnie, the intended recipient of all three presents, in case somebody else turns up to greet him at the door and he'd have to give up the champagne to somebody else, too.


© Joselito Briones

On the menu tonight was roast leg of lamb, and honeycomb cannelloni with tomato and mushroom ragu, which Wil prepared while Ronnie and I watched (photo, above).

He had to return to the grocery store a couple of times, having forgotten some rather key ingredients (for a dish that's basically cannelloni in tomato-based sauce, he forgot to buy both cannelloni and tomato).


XXX

Arnel

© Joselito Briones

Am not sure if I've ever told you about Arnel. He's a very good friend, since uni, and we worked together in Singapore for a short while. He has recently moved to China for a job, I hope he's adapting well.

It's his birthday today, hence the timing to the introduction. This photo of him, above, was taken in Singapore a loooong time ago, when we and our housemates didn't have anything to do one new year's eve. I like it particularly because it's one of the first pictures I took when I started exploring photography.


XXX

Gil

© Joselito Briones

Here's a picture of another one of my nephews. His name is Gil, "bunso" to Irma. It's his birthday today. I've shown him this photo and unfortunately, he doesn't like it. I suspect, from the pictures that he does like, that he prefers to look tough or reserved in his photos. He's at that exciting age where projecting an image counts more than anything.


XXX

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.


XXX

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.

XXX

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.


XXX