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Five on Friday: Sunday Silence 2 Photos

Published in the early afternoon of December 28, 2007

“Go not gently into that good night, rage against the dying of the light.”

Five photos from Sunday Silence 2, for my eternally delinquent Five on Friday series, on the last Friday of 2007. A good way to end FoF for this year, don’t you think?

Photos, multiplied.

7 Replies· 2007.12.28

Give love on Christmas day

Published mid-afternoon of December 25, 2007

So here’s my customary Oblation photo for Christmas, my fifth in a row. Merry Christmas!

I know you got gifts and fancy things aside from the extravagant ones you bought for yourself, but what have you done for others this Christmas season?

Don’t forget to spread the love on Christmas day.

6 Replies· 2007.12.25

Your Soul’s Music

Published in the late evening of December 23, 2007

Before I miss writing a Christmas eve or Christmas day entry, I’ll catch up with a few things I should’ve done a long time ago. I’ve got two meme tags from Aileen, so I better start with the first one:

1. Take a screen shot of either your Top 25 Most Played / 25 Recently Played / Top Rated songs on your music device.
2. Post them on your blog and explain yourself.
3. Copy these instructions and tag 6 audiophiles to do the same thing.

I think my all–time top 25 is skewed, I’d rather share my top 25 most played for the past month:

For obvious reasons, several Pop Ratio covers are there since I’ve been missing my band for several months now. With our vocalist Jonas playing footsie with middle eastern men in Bahrain, I don’t think we’ll be jamming together soon.

The Smokey Mountain’s Can This Be Love has always been a favorite but I’m surprised it isn’t on Aileen’s list, I think it best describes how she always used to feel!

Among those listed, I consider Landslide, Angel, Helplessly, I Need You Here, and Himala as personal favorites that I’d never get tired listening to. Lastly, string quartet renditions of popular music is a pleasure to listen to these days, good for relaxing while driving in the season’s traffic mess.

I don’t think I’m tagging anyone for now, but feel free to share your list.

9 Replies· 2007.12.23

2007 Pisay ‘96 Streetkids Christmas Party

Published in the early evening of December 20, 2007

Last year’s Pisay ‘96 Streetkids Christmas Party was a success we did not expect, at least not as much as people noticed it. Those who’ve seen the YouTube video were somehow inspired to do something similar, while others left praises of encouragement that never cease to make us smile, to this day.

When Hana and I met with Mic a few weeks ago for some beer, we suddenly just thought of it doing the activity again despite the unavailability of most of those who helped last year. Crazy as it sounds, we simply thought it would be best to continue doing it until it becomes a batch tradition, continue doing it to let these kids feel the spirit of Christmas.

We had no funds but knew calls for help to accomplish a good deed would not be left unanswered, or so we’d like to believe. Surprisingly, we were right!

Many of our Pisay batchmates were more than willing to donate, with a good number expressing their intention to help in the preparations for the activity. A pleasant surprise was the interest of the blogging community, with friends from the Blog & Soul Movement wanting to help and contribute too. And when we finalized the date and place for our little event, most of those we did not expect to be available confirmed that they’ll be coming. I guess sometimes, everything can just turn out right.

More than 70 kids came for this year’s party, more or less twice last year’s number. Aside from our high school batchmates, a good number of friends also came to help. I was delighted to see my pangga Hana taking charge and doing the story–telling chores for this year’s more makulit bunch, everyone was having a hard time getting them to participate actively, except for her who managed to keep the children in check.

Our warmest gratitude to Aileen, Juned, Noemi, Jayvee, and AJ for their contributions, you’ve been of great help to us! Heartfelt thanks to our non–Pisay friends who found the time to make the activity a success. To our Pisay ‘96 batchmates who sent in money and/or went to the party to help, thank you for being a part of this. I’d rather not name all of you, let’s just collectively call it “Pisay ‘96″ and leave it at that.

If you failed to join us, the photos are here, and you can comment on them in my multiply mirror.

11 Replies· 2007.12.20

A Smile of Hope

Published mid-afternoon of December 12, 2007

The Pisay ‘96 Streetkids Christmas Party is a project of our high school batch, just like the medical missions and other things we’ve done the past year or so. We understand that the long–term merits of a simple party may be questionable, but to put a smile of hope in these kids’ faces is more than enough motivation. This year, we hope to do it for the second time. You can be of great help to us.

Last year, it was just a simple party with some spaghetti, sandwiches, and chicken. And some small gifts. We don’t need something extravagant, let’s just be with these kids and make them feel the spirit of Christmas.

Come Saturday, December 15 at three in the afternoon, we will be at the UP ORG tambayan just beside the UP–Diliman Main Library. That’s facing the Melchor Hall/NEC/Malcolm Hall side. We’ll tell stories and play games, we will give little gifts and tokens, we will be Christmas to kids who barely get to feel the season’s festivities.

We do have volunteers, mostly batchmates, bloggers, and other friends, but your presence is very much welcome. If you can contribute something, like gifts or food, or cash, it will help a lot in achieving our little goal.

Merry Christmas!

2 Replies· 2007.12.12

Batanes @ Boracay

Published around lunchtime of December 6, 2007

Sponsored by Asian Spirit, we were Batanes–bound last Wednesday walking around inside the domestic airport as early as five in the morning. It was the perfect proposition — go to Batanes for a press screening of the movie “Batanes” by Adolf Alix. The weather wouldn’t join the fun though, visibility for our Basco–bound flight was so bad they had to keep the flight on hold, which was then subsequently canceled. Terrible news.

Sometimes, misfortunes strike only to present a cloud with a silver lining. A few brilliant minds quickly thought that since we can’t go to Batanes for the screening, let’s just head to another Asian Spirit destination. Where else, Boracay!

I wasn’t sure if I should feel bad, seeing the funny twist to our dose of bad luck. And we had our newfound–friend, the very beautiful Iza Calzado with us on the plane, introduced to us just minutes before by our friend Alma Buenviaje who coordinated the trip for us bloggers part of the big press group.

So off we headed to sunny Bora, me along with other bloggers AJ, Jayvee, Juned, and Ajay. Since reservations weren’t made days before, we had to stay at the Boracay Regency Beach Resort. I was thinking, if this is a storm of bad luck, I sure wouldn’t want it to end.

So we had our press screening that same night, though the movie was still incomplete at that point. After the preview, “Kadin,” also from the same director and also shot in Batanes, was also screened, during which we got to invite Adolf and Iza for a podcast interview.

We had all Thursday for roaming around Bora with our work already done the previous day. By midday Friday, we we’re back breathing Manila’s polluted air. Too bad the Manila Peninsula coup drama fizzled, we were kinda worried flights might be canceled and we’d be forced to stay for a few more days in Boracay. That would’ve sucked.

By the way, we saw the complete first screening last Monday and the movie is worth watching just for the sights of Batanes alone. Produced by a relatively small group and an indie director, you’d be pleased how good Filipino filmmakers are nowadays. Adolf Alix manages to share with us how beautiful they saw Batanes, and it makes me want to be there all the more! The film’s cinematography was superb I was having fun identifying light sources as we watched the film.

Batanes opened yesterday in local theaters, catch it before everyone beats you to Batanes. And yes I took photos in Bora (and of Ken Chu in the presscon), but they’re for another blog entry.

Listed below are the accounts from the other bloggers:

• Boracay is the new Batanes: An Interview with Iza Calzado and Ignite Media
• Batanes
• Off to Batanes… not!
• Batanes in Boracay. Boracay and Batanes

6 Replies· 2007.12.06

W@w!

Published in the wee hours of December 6, 2007

Most bloggers know Mimi+Karl for the fun–fun–fun Cliquebooth photobooth which we’ve seen in previous blogger–related events, but unknown to many the couple are popular wedding photographers. In fact, they are your best pick to shoot your wedding, as they are the 2007 W@W Supplier of the Year. Yes, that means they are the best–rated (and voted) wedding suppliers as judged by the weddingsatwork.com community.

And I’m so proud to get the chance to regularly work (and have fun) with them!

That’s Mimi & Karl with their trophies, me and Dax having our own proud moment with the same trophies, and the last one’s me with Hana as we gamely posed in the photobooth while everyone was away.

Just a little nostalgic trivia: I got into digital photography around the same time as Karl when he got his 1.3MP Olympus point–and–shoot, when my father gave me a 2MP Fuji Finepix. Back then, the two of us would always talk and dream of buying a Nikon Coolpix 990/995, the king of digital cameras several years ago. My first digital SLR, a Canon EOS D60 which I still keep, is from Mimi & Karl’s long list of battle–tested photography gear. (I’m actually writing this in the hope of being first in line once they decide to upgrade from the 5D. Hehehe.)

Talking about the Cliquebooth, the latest iteration rocks big–time! If you think the one you got to try at the blogger food fests was fun, then the latest version is fun squared! More shooting and more prints but without the wait. You’ve got to try it.

Here’s a cool slideshow video from the W@W Christmas Party:

Getting married? Now you know the photographers you should get for your wedding. Unless they’re already booked for your date then your next choice would be me.

3 Replies· 2007.12.06