my prettiest pair of shoes

just felt like wearing them today.

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otamatone - my latest must-have useless toy

i don't even know how it works really,  most of the instructions that came with it are in japanese. i just pressed buttons and squeezed the mouth and it made a sound.  maybe it's pre-programmed.  maybe i'm just a musical genius. of course it's preprogrammed with tunes.  but really, some enterprising young hongkongers saw a prime shop location and decided to rent it for a couple of weeks to sell something done cheaply at a premium price. in any case it's a waste of money - therefore, fun. otamatone. revival.






anyhoo. i bought one in blue because the pink one is just too obscene.

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Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace

weirdness!  i was walking down hollywood road trying to digest my lunch when i came across this  exhibition space called "experimenta".  among the exhibits is a map showing locations of usb drives embedded on walls throughout china where supposedly, one can upload or download info (supposedly to hide from the censors) from the usb drives. very spy-like and too gimmicky.  the person manning the space, a susanne burner, then explained the other things on display, images downloaded from the internet and reinterpreted, and spliced together videos from youtube.  my first question of course, was, "is that legal?" either she was really clueless or she just didn't care.  she then showed me this pamphlet (photo, above) that she was selling, which she says she downloaded from the internet and reprinted to sell, and isn't worried about copyright issues because she says even the original author doesn't identify himself. i haven't read it but from skimming through the pages it looks like it's a how-to manual on how to disappear a la jon krakauer.  i'd have preferred if, instead, it's a how to on disappearing from the radar of the numerous websites making money selling personal information of people without consent. the scums.

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one shoot down

finally finished processing all the photos from this shoot (october 2009, lifestyle, indoor and outdoor) in san francisco. there's a couple of unprocessed videos from this shoot but those would have to wait. 

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citi ad

eric seems to have a knack of spotting in newspapers random photos i've taken.  last time he spotted a photo i took of jorma (in a new york daily),  this time it's an ad for citi, in philippine daily inquirer.

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a little boat trip to picton, new zealand

this is what you see when you take the ferry (huge, more like a ship) from wellington to the south island. amazingly beautiful. the color of the water was just insane.

oni and libs (above, posing as honeymooners) took me on a ferry ride (their treat, yay!) that day to show me the beauty of their adopted homeland.  oni's brother-in-law, ronald works for the ferry company, food on board was his treat (double yay!). he also gave us a tour of the bridge.

 the small town of picton, gateway to the south island of new zealand and the ferry's destination.




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the libunaos

 © Joselito Brionesyep. that's a roasted pig's head right there. there was another pork dish (inihaw) and pancit. all made by libs, yummy food from the heart (and in the pork fat's case, straight to the heart) - libs said he woke up early to prepare all of it, he had to, as i arrived in wellington airport from sydney late morning and he volunteered to pick me up. i had not seen him for a few years but it felt like just a few months since i saw him and oni.  all this time i assumed it was oni who was in charge of the kitchen, tho in hindsight i can see how it turned out to be libs (tomador - necessity of pulutan, makes sense).

  © Joselito Briones

 the occasion? marielle's birthday, and oni and lib's wedding anniversary.  the whole family was there.

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fine dining by the quay

 

on top of marco's list of "splash out" restaurants - harvey and i went to one of sydney's finest dining places - "quay restaurant".  great-tasting innovative food (and so pretty!), great service, awesome view.  we had a 4-course meal. well worth the price tag :)

either harvey was already very drunk (they also had an excellent selection of wines) when these photos were taken or he really didn't want me in the pictures, but i guess it worked out for the best :)

Quay Restaurant
Upper Level Overseas Passengers Terminal Circular Quay West
Sydney 2000, Australia

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i ♥ bondi

beach day. yay! sydney's pride - bondi beach. beautiful.

had to go there ahead because when i phoned harvey when we were supposed to meet up he told me he was still in bed and very much hung over.  i made the mistake of taking the slow way (bus, went through several residential districts, was good to see them tho) so i wasn't there long before he showed up. we had lunch at "north bondi italian food". good food, good ambience. and the staff - beautiful.


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fratelli paradiso

© Joselito Briones

lady (in blue and black dress, above) as she was approaching the restaurant, to a staff: "can we sit on that table?" - *lifts baby girl out of trolley*
friendly staff: "sure. let's just put this trolley here. a bit windy today. use it to stop the door from banging"
lady: "oh, here. use the girl instead"

as per marco's suggestion, i tried their calamari salad - was a little too salty and too much anchovy (i assume that's what's in it) on the sauce/dressing, but was just perfect with a basket of bread and 2 glasses of white wine (can't remember what it was, just remember that it was local, and good)


Fratelli Paradiso
12-16 Challis Avenue
Potts Point, Australia

(not to be confused with Fratelli Fresh)

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qvb

 

just posting random stuff - queen victoria building in sdyney - high-end mall - very pretty inside.

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manly beach on a cloudy day

just in case you're wondering, the photos i've been posting are not current (taken a few weeks ago) and not in order. i just post them as i see them while organizing my files. this one's taken in manly beach in sydney.

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drinks by the opera

what's a trip to sydney without checking out the opera house, right? harvey and i went to opera bar for drinks (great view, very noisy tho) before going to longrain (super yummy food, but no pics, sorry. was too busy eating).  we were gonna go to quay restaurant but they were all fully booked already so we made a reservation for the next night instead. 

above is sydney's skyline as seen from the opera.

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bills famously fluffy eggs

rene and chris were so impressed that they bought a book about it, and marco swears it's the silkiest scrambled eggs he's ever put in his mouth, so naturally i had to try it. second day breakfast in sydney: bills in darlinghurst.

fluffy indeed. and yummy. unfortunately i wasn't able to take more than a few mouthfuls  - what they forget to warn you about it is its lactose content.  it must've been at least half cream as i was still burping lactose the next morning. 

bills
433 Liverpool Street
Darlinghurst, Australia


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little pockets of happiness

***

i was apologetic for having fallen asleep because well, in fact it wasn't my bed. it wasn't even my house. why are all these people here discussing business ideas while i was sleeping?  i got out as soon as i could, put my outdoor clothes on, and started running.  only my spirit was running faster than my body so i decided to walk instead.  after walking for some time i came into, with college students behind me (they don't look american, i must be in europe), an open but empty chapel, sun setting on the opposite direction of where i came from stuffing every corner of the wooden structure with golden light. someone behind me said that the rhythm of the interior is like that of a carpark, with communal tables instead of pews. any other day i would've reached for my camera and start clicking away. but not today. i climbed on top of a  table and jumped from one to another. a band started playing a song that could've been a keane song. we all sat down to listen. at the end of the song the lead said it was entitled "cathartic", and i smiled because i knew the song. then he did the tongue thing that the band "kiss" does. as an encore, he lifted his t-shirt and showed the very big tongue on his belly button do the same. he then went around with a very small pouch, collecting donations.  he said they're trying to save up for a trip to new york. i gave him all the coins i could fish from my pockets, some of which fell on the ground (the pouch got smaller) and i had to help him pick them up.  the student next to me didn't have any coins, when the singer stood in front of him with his money pouch open, the student lifted his hand and used his pointer finger to pet the singer's chin, just below his right jaw. i was thinking - i am so banking this in my little pockets of happiness.

***

this is what i get from taking cough medicine before going to bed.  even in my dreams the medicine-induced euphoria is pretty tame (and lame). 


photo above is of kleber from a shoot in beijing late last year


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sicky, sick me

my tear ducts got leak!  at first i thought it was just what i was watching. but then who cries watching "doctor who", right?  (i was watching the last christmas special. why does it take so long for the next season???).  i mean it's great and all and i enjoyed it, but something to make me cry?  i don't think so.  a little experiment then.  i played several other shows and movies and found out that even the silliest comedies made me cry too.  my eyes never had a good cleaning as yesterday and today.

how do i get all these time to waste on a silly experiment?  i had to call in sick yesterday. cold and flu symptoms. head, nose, throat, joints - name it, it hurts.  am still not feeling well so i'm staying in today as well.  all i want to do is stay in bed under the blankets.  i won't be surprised if it's also the cause of the easily-induced saline water inundation of my usually very dry eyes.  i sure do hope so.


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g'day for a walkabout

am still sunburnt from this trip - mainly because i spent most of my time just walking around (the sun was almost always out) - and eating, basically following marco's restaurant recommendations. i didn't get to try the food from this (supposedly) historic pie stall. am just showing it here because it looks pretty.

harry's cafe de wheels
sydney, australia

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fratelli's fresh waitress

 © Joselito Briones
smiling me: "a table for one, please"
smiling waitress: "oh, sure, anywhere you like"
me: (scans the room for the best table and sits myself)
a different, unsmiling, waitress: "i'm sorry but i'll need to tidy up this table, can you please sit somewhere else?"
still smiling me: (having spent some precious holiday time choosing the table i was sitting in) "it's ok, i can wait"
still unsmiling waitress: "but it needs to be cleaned"
unsmiling me: "and you don't want to do it?"
unsmiling cranky waitress: "please move to another table"
hungry me: (spends another precious holiday time and chooses another table to move to)
eating me (after some time): (spies the earlier table, still untidied, being occupied by two women, no fuss)

verdict: AVOID. food was good but as it's really difficult to get bad food in sydney, service counts a lot.

fratelli fresh
sydney, australia

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here's the plan...

© Joselito Briones
this is one of the photos i took more than a year ago in new york - with mae and carol's granny.  when i did the shoot i was planning on putting them up as RM stocks, but now i think there's plenty of them in the series that it's quite a waste trimming them down to 3 or 4, so maybe they'll end up RF after all.

i'm just starting to pick up interest in taking photos again, but meanwhile i have all this photos just gathering dust in my hard drive so now i just plan to unload all of them.



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maggie and sat's little love nest

 © Joselito Briones 
last weekend maggie and saturday invited me for a late lunch at their new flat in fortress hill.  you know there's no place i won't go for free food. and there was so much of it - maggie spent the whole morning cooking.  the best was the chicken wing marinated in coke zero, and the enokitake salad.

the flat was cute, full of toys and knick knacks (not for a future baby, for them!)  ah. to be young and starting out. 

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so not hollywood road! (these are the people in my neighborhood)

© Joselito Briones

something else that's new - this was the first time ever that i saw a religious procession in hong kong. i was climbing up the escalator, at night almost always full of suits on their way back to their posh mid-levels apartment from work, or party goers coming down to hollywood road and soho, when they started ascending with their candles (is that even safe, i mean lit candles on escalators?). as more and more of them appeared, their song, a church hymn, also got louder (the track on the video was added in, the audio originally recorded was of very poor quality).

i used to see a lot of this kind of candle procession growing up in the philippines, so it was a nice surprise to see it here.  i hope they don't do this often tho.  i remember how fascinating it was first time i saw a bunch of hare krishnas chanting and dancing and doing their drum thing in soho in london, but after seeing them again and again over a couple of months they just looked weird.

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renewed (these are the people in my neighborhood)

 © Joselito Briones
these are the friendly people that say hi to me everyday - they run the "dai pai dong" (street food restaurants) right in front of the building where i live, in stanley street in central.  when i moved here, this street was packed every night with regular locals and adventurous foreigners feasting on freshly cooked food.  the energy of this street  was one of the reasons i chose this apartment.  a few months ago tho, the health and sanitation department decided to close all the food stalls in the street and do a major clean up (the rats and roaches haven't forgiven them yet).  the stainless steel stalls you see in the background are all new, they replaced the makeshift stalls (patches of incongruous materials) that used to be here. the street was stripped, sprayed with disinfectants and pesticide, laid with proper sanitation fittings, and repaved. they finished putting up the stalls last week.

the dinner (photo, above, taken new year's eve) was a dry run to test if things work.  at least one of them (the one that serves seafood specialties) should be open again for business tomorrow.

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christmas meet-n-greet

 © Joselito Briones
more holiday get togethers.  some of my nicest friends since high school: (r-l) christie, cynthia (whose youngest is my godson, poor child), and joy (here with daughter nikki). they dropped by my parents' house when they learned (thanks, eric!) that i was gonna be there this holiday season.  last time i saw cyntch and christie was at eric's wedding last july, last time i saw joy before this was probably high school graduation day.  she seems a lot more down-to-earth now, and happier.  she has this spiel, poking fun on herself by saying that she breezed through high school because two of our senior year teachers just happened to be her parents.  first time she did it i searched her face for any indication that she might be looking at how someone reacts to this (if only to see if the intended audience agrees with the statement or not), then decided she really was doing this just for comic effects.

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more holiday chow-downs

clockwise from left: choi, butch, me, ogie, d.a., jim, jomel, rina, rene, faye, jan, manuel

izhikaya japanese restaurant (food was so-so, company was so much fun!) in wellington street with hong kong friends, just before christmas.

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sp2 christmas dinner

the occasion: office christmas dinner of sp2
the place: pierre II at the mandarin oriental
in attendance: mr. joseph fung and his guests: stover jenkins, paul lau, bing kwan, sk kan, nicholas wong, and anita mak; me of course, and the rest of the people who work at sp2: ligaya, david, maggie (with hubby saturday), eric (with wife sally), wing, raymond, carl, danielle, and karen.

stover, joe, nicholas

wing, karen, danielle, maggie, sat, david, eric, sally, ligaya, raymond

joe, paul, bing

tk, sk, stover, carl

anita, wing

karen, danielle

maggi, sat, david

eric, sally

ligaya, me, raymond, nicholas, joe

the usual suspects

 well i did say that i was gonna post more photos. so there ya go.

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resolutions

© Joselito Briones
not the new year's kind, timing's just a coincidence. it's more about this (link to previous post).

first one's long ago solved.  i couldn't remember the 4-digit PIN because, surprise - it's a 6-digit PIN. (how could i have forgotten this?) when i couldn't remember what it was, i looked at my secret place for PINs and passwords and such. it was there all along. i ignored it the first few times because i was looking for a 4-digit PIN.  doh. i actually had to convince myself to try the 6-digit one. how stupid is that?

as to stock photography, i've consulted my ever-reliable oracle in new york, source of high-wisdom and tips on the latest happenings at the local malls (do you know anyone who got excited upon hearing that target will soon have a fresh produce section?),  and the advice i was given helped me make a plan. i love plans. i don't even have to follow them through.  all i need is a plan and i'm in a happy place.

the third one - ah well, who cares.


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photo above is of course me, from our office christmas dinner last night, at pierre's in mandarin oriental.  i'll post more photos tomorrow. or next year. and no, that's not the happy place i was talking about. that's the constantly flowing wine.

paralytic

© Joselito Briones

numb started friday before last. i was standing in front of the ATM machine and for the life of me i could't remember my PIN. it's not like it's new, i've been using it at least once a week for the past year. i tried to clear my mind and get the first 4 digits that i could think of. i came up with the PIN of my atm cash card in berlin. the people in the line behind me were already making their impatience known so i cancelled the transaction and walked away. i made up another 4 digits in my mind and thought about it over and over until i was convinced that it was the right combination. the next atm machine, 3 blocks from the one i was just in, said it was nothing more than made-up memory. as it was a friday night, there was no way to get a new PIN until the following monday. a whole weekend without cash.

or maybe the symptoms really started three months ago, when istockphoto decided to impose the royalty cut on the contributors' share. i was uploading photos at the exact moment of the announcement and i just stared at it in disbelief. motherfuckers! helplessness came after anger then the one question that never got answered no matter how many times i asked. "what now?"

on whichever date it started, the effect is simple enough. general feeling of helplessness, lying on my bed just thinking about the same things over and over. obsessing over injustices i have to put up with (mostly imaginary, of course) recurring inability to move my ass to do something productive - something else other than lying down thinking - anything else.

worst attack (thankfully also the shortest) was thursday night. a good friend whom i'm visiting overseas in the near future, sent me an email saying a mutual friend might also be there at the same time. someone i had (an ancient) personal history with. i was paralyzed with i don't know what. i was up all night  thinking about it. when morning came i read the email again before calling in sick at work.  turns out i misread the message and we weren't gonna be there at the same time after all.  i went to work without sleep.

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some guys

© Joselito Briones

you know how sometimes you feel bad for not keeping in touch with people you used to hang out a lot with? john (photo, above) is one such person so when i learned that he's in hong kong visiting i invited him for dinner to catch up.  last time i saw him was twenty or so years ago, in mapua.  so he does mostly turnkey projects now and lots of golfing and diving and underwater photography and traveling and shopping.

so anyway we just walked around lan kwai fung and soho and non stop talk and had big ass yummy steak dinner in staunton street, then drinks in a bar in hollywood road.  don't you just love it when you see someone you haven't seen for a long time and it doesn't feel weird? fun night.

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p.s.
i remember we had a small group back in the days and we had a song! lol i've forgotten how it goes exactly but supposedly each of us represented a "type" in the song : "some guys have all the luck, some guys have all the brain, some guys have all the pain, etc. etc." silly song.

coming to an airport near you

© Joselito Briones
spent the past week planning trips.  carmona for christmas (booked).  sydney (booked) and wellington (booked) during the chinese new year holiday.  san francisco in spring (was gonna be the baltics, but the schedule with the euro divas proved not too ideal), somewhere else in summer, then autumn in new york. and no, i don't have that much time off from work, i usually end up getting no-pay leave.

as for the maya thingy, it proved to be not too different from other 3d apps. it's more advanced, of course, and there's a lot more buttons to learn, buttons that spawn windows with lots more option buttons.  i still have half a month left of software trial but i'm sick of buttons already.  so no more maya for me, at least for the next few months, or until i get a new computer and i can download the software trial again.

hmn. what to do now?

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