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?


XXX

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!

XXX

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.


XXX

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.


XXX

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.


XXX

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.

XXX

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.


XXX

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.


XXX

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.

XXX

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.



XXX

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)".


XXX

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.

XXX

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.


XXX


Here's something slightly amusing.

XXX

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.


XXX

An interesting BBC newsfeature for today: Cutting the flow.


XXX

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".


XXX

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.


XXX

Herbst

© Joselito Briones

I went to Frankenlabor again today (I'm becoming some kind of a daily fixture there) to bring the film rolls from Prague. I like this lab, I think they've got really good and professional service, and Andreas, the guy I always deal with there, is very friendly. I only had a couple of rolls for processing, it was way too dark and gray in Prague the whole day that we were there, I only took pictures mostly of Fred and Ginger.

As if the color shift on the leaves everywhere isn't enough to show everyone that autumn is here, the clouds thought they'd reinforce the season by going crazy (pictured, left). It's nice and cool again, but I'm apprehensive about the coming cold season. This will be my first winter in Bavaria, I'm just hoping it's not gonna get any worse than New York. Eric told me that there's a mild winter forecast in your side of the pond this year.

© Joselito Briones
Btw, about the lamps that we installed (pictured, left), It was a nice surprise to see that even during daytime, when the lights are off and there's brightness coming from outside, the lamps still look nice and very light and not chunky at all. Am very pleased with the result.


XXX