bukó revelation

There was one time when one of my sisters, Ate Julie, when I was about 10 or 11 and she in college, was obsessed with the movie "Fame", Irene Cara, and her song "Out Here on My Own".  I was still in elementary school then and have not heard of the movie until she told me about it.  She had a radio with her and she turned the station dial relentlessly until she found a station that played the song. What was memorable about it was that before then, I never saw her passionate and excited about anything at all.  She's always kept to herself.   I never saw her reveal so much of herself after that, either.

Satisfied on finding and hearing the song at that moment, she let me in on a something even more precious to her:  she said much as she loved the song,  there was another in the same movie that she loved even more.  I remember her trying afterwards to play down how much she loved it, which only made it obvious that she did.   She had a girly crush and she told me about it!

Today, as everyone in the family has their heart and mind with her, I looked up the song and found the video, above, which appears to have been filmed a couple of blocks from where I first lived in New York.

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my mother the player

found one of my stock photos on a wall poster for cotton:on in jakarta

..with some others also from stocksy. norie and irma happily posed in front of it for scale.  the poster is for fashion company cotton:on.

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is there a way to tell a chef that you didn't like his food?

© Joselito Briones

norie and i are visiting irma in jakarta - part of norie's birthday celebration, i guess.  eager to show us the city, irma invited us to dine at skye restaurant atop one of the tallest buildings in the city.  

the view was great and all, but i thought the food was heavy-handed (tom kha soup was heavily coconut cream, the galangal flavor was totally defeated, the seafood in it barely noticeable - as if the chef was totally aware of it, he added bits of dry seaweed to remind the diner that it really was meant to be a seafood dish, which only muddied the flavor;  the braised pork, which is meant to be a house specialty, was waaaay too sweet and the caramelization crossed (and went way past) the line to burnt bitterness; and although the flavors in the crispy pork belly was good, the pork rind wasn't crispy at all. (we were told that pork dishes are hard to come by in this city for religious reasons, so we thought we should have them when they're available)

i would have been content to ignore it all, of course, the view and the company having been more than enough to enjoy the evening - except, well, when it was all over, on the way down from the restaurant, in the lift that clearly displayed a poster photo of the restaurant's chef, irma noticed his striking resemblance to one of the lift passengers. "you look like that guy," she said to the passenger, pointing at the chef's poster-photo. "that's me," he answered, smiling. chit chat ensued, and then the inevitable happened:  he asked us if we enjoyed the food.

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my mother's crew of sewing women on a website's splash page

© Joselito Briones

above is a photo of the women sewing doormats in the hut next to our family house in the philippines. it's currently used by a company in their website. my mother's the one standing at the back, taking a break from making their lunch to be in the photo.

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kev's b'day bbq

ribs and oysters! very yummy.

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family portraits

© Joselito Briones

i realized i've posted this album just about everywhere but i haven't shared it with you. pictures from family reunion

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daybreak

random pics time... two of my sisters norie and uding in a beach in batangas, early morning.  we walked towards the fishermen's boats to see about the day's catch, for family lunch.  no luck, they caught just enough for their own use.

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i spy

i spy
with my little eye...
something beginning with L and V

hmmm... i wonder who's the gonna be the lucky one.


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what can you buy for $20

as an experiment, i invited my nephews and nieces (and kids) to submit a gift wish for the early christmas celebration - with the condition that it should cost US$20 or less, and that if i can't find it in the price limit, they'll automatically get PHP50 instead.  you should've seen the list they made:  lens for a digital camera, wrist watch, desktop speaker with subwoofer, and the one that takes the cake, a complete kitchen package from ikea. well that one's from my youngest sister, and of course she'd pay for it, but i'm in hong kong and she actually expects me to put the whole thing, cabinets and all, in one door-to-door box.  between her and my eldest sister who thought up the early christmas celebration, i wonder why i bother making up fictitious characters for stories.

anyway, kids today have a very grand idea of what a gift can be, and no idea of the value of money. no one asked for a certain book, or cd (i suspect they all just download anything they want), or any traditional toys, or some special food, or something really basic, like a new pair of socks. sign of the times? i remember when getting ANY sort of gift was a real treat - now it has to be branded products and electronics, and only the latest ones will do.  in a way i guess it's also a good indicator that all the basics are well provided for.  now that's really something to celebrate.


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early christmas shopping

norie, my eldest sister who lives in california, decided she wants to celebrate christmas in september in the philippines (and why not, right?). so we'll have a reunion/christmas party.  i expect lots of food and noise and fun.  photo above is from last year's christmas eve party games.  there'll be a hired band for the party so there'll be lots of singing as well.  in the past it's my nephews and nieces who make up a band, but now two of them have moved to california. we'll also have an exchange of gifts, that's why i'm going christmas shopping this weekend, in the middle of august.


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mini mango (pahutan), and silly things

when i was a kid i loved toys that looked nothing like the real thing.  they can be the ugliest one-color plastic toy car with nothing but air inside - two pieces of thin molded plastic halves with untidy joint right in the middle, or a teeny weeny solid plastic gun no bigger than a coin, so small and unrecognizable in shape, never mind in details, that one couldn't really make out what it was until one saw on the candy wrapper it came in that indeed it was meant to be a toy gun.    it made me feel special that adults had to create something especially for my kind, the child whose only source of spending money was the occasional spare change from my mother's pocket.  i thought, how nice of these people to try to amuse me with these silly things. of course even at such a young age it occured to me that they were what they were not because of purposeful design but because they had to be the cheapest possible product  that can be wrapped with a piece of candy, but why spoil romantic notions with practical ideas?

it's somewhat the same way with the tiny mangoes (pictured above, Mangifera altissima, or simply "pahutan" where i grew up) that i found in the market today.  i loved these when i was a kid.  i'd bite a small bit from the pointed end and start peeling the skin off like a tape going round all the way, then pop the whole thing in my mouth (about the size of a sushi).  the pit is very thin and i used to bend them in my mouth because small as they were, they were still a considerable chunk in a child's mouth.  my mom used to bring some home and make a big fuss of how special these are.  i, of course, believed her.  it made me feel special that there was a mini version even of this common fruit, something specifically for me.  until of course i was older and she kept buying these, at which point i realized that  she was buying these for herself.  and of course at that age i was already well aware that not everything was about me and that adults enjoy their own special things, too.


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pagsanjan falls

i took this photo off of one of my nieces' fb album. it's from a recent trip to pagsanjan falls where i went with norie, dave, ludy, toto, jane and jon.  find it strange that none of us had a paddle? that's because the boatmen did all the rowing, and they literally carried us (well, the boat - with us on it) on the rocky upstream parts of the river. if that isn't service i don't know what is.

and yes i'm posting this because i'm still busy learning them difficult (but awesome!) 3d apps.  

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bestest goto ever!

© Joselito Briones
this morning omar and i drove a couple of blocks to ate uding's apartment to pick up this goto (rice porridge with entrails) that she made. she's basically been cooking filipino food the past few days, always very good. the other day she made pochero. saging na saba and all.


© Joselito Briones
and how handy is it that there's a kalamansi tree in the backyard?


© Joselito Briones
and as if that isn't enough, the goto came with sweetened saging na saba (very similar to plantain) wrapped in spring roll pastry then deep-fried. it's usually called turon in the philippines, but where i came from we call it sagimes.


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And the award goes to...

© Joselito Briones

Good news! My sister Irma, ("Neh" to the family) was awarded the "Global Achievement Award" in her company. She's an industrial engineer managing production in Africa and the Middle East of products distributed in mainstream U.S. markets (Saks, Target, GAP, etc.).

Congratulations, Neh! We're proud of you!

(Photo taken in Dubai)

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Our Story Now Begins

© Joselito Briones

Yep. Finally happened. I got my copy a couple of weeks ago. Have a listen.


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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.


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Portrait of a struggling singer/songwriter

© Joselito Briones

The struggle, in this case, is internal. Not being able to sooner put out something that he knows he's perfectly capable of making, having opted to rely solely on himself to complete his project, not being able to constantly muster discipline to regulate the progress.

He's really good at it too, I heard one of his tracks and was really impressed. One that he has since discarded as unusable. I thought it perfectly good, if technically wanting polish (he made it a few years ago). Reminded me of a more layered "Strange and Beautiful (I'll Put a Spell on You)" by Aqualung.

I hope for his own sake he finds direction sometime soon. One can get lost in a struggle for a lifetime without realizing it. Then it's too late.


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We ♥ Shopping

© Joselito Briones

Kebbs, Ate Uding and I spent the whole afternoon shopping in downtown San Francisco. We went to Saks, Neiman Marcus, Macy's, Zara, H&M, Lacoste, and Urban Outfitters, looking for a plaid jacket for Kebbs. I don't know why, he suddenly thought it's the perfect thing to wear for his promotion ceremony (he'll be in grade 9 next school year). To his disappointment, we didn't find one. I guess he'll just have to wear something else.

He also decided that the medium-sized t-shirt that I bought him after he helped me take photos last week is now too tight for him, so I bought it back from him. The fact that something that's too tight for him fits me should be for me either a source of pride, or shame, I can't decide which. So yeah, now I have a t-shirt that says "NERD" in front and "booger 69" at the back. Hmmm.


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What protein do you want with that?

© Joselito Briones

Loads of food today. Noel made bulalo (beef and marrow soup) and bought a huge fried fish, and fresh lumpia (my mom's favorite), and Ate Uding made Maja Blanca (a corn-based custard). Yummm.

Norie and Dave dropped by to pick me up, they've decided to treat me to dinner. I don't know why. Am not one to say no to food. So, hey. We went to PF Chang's, a Chinese Restaurant chain. Food was not authentic, but good. Ambience was a bit off, and waiters were very cordial. Our waitress in particular was all smiles, too bad we put her under very defensive mode when we all laughed when she asked, referring to the fried noodles, what "protein" we wanted with our noodles. I don't know, was it too much to ask to be asked if we wanted pork, beef, chicken or shrimps? Oh well.

Right after the dinner we passed by some new housing development in Hayward. Norie and Dave are looking to move again, because of the constant heavy traffic that they experience every day on the way to work, from Mountainhouse.

Right after viewing the houses, I drove to San Jose to meet up with and take photos of Alex (above). I got there quite late, it was a good thing that the sun sets so late these days. The photo above was taken past eight at night already, in front of a parking lot.


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