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Creative Commons License All works on this site by Camille Diola are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License unless otherwise stated as belonging to their respective copyright owners.

ALL ANGLES

rasterize, rock, Rothko, rhyme, Rohmer

Since how to's are such a web phenomenon that teach a wide variety of activities such as how to swim, how to speed read and how to annoy people at the movies, I thought I'd give it a shot and put my first instructional list here. As always, let's pretend I truly know these things:

1. Learn that January 1 is not just New Year's Day, as in the first day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. It also happens to be the anniversary of the success of the Cuban revolution, the founding day of Taiwan, the octave day of Christmas and the solemnity of Mary as mother of Jesus -- a holy day of obligation for Catholics. Meaning, it's like a Sunday, and St. Peter's flock should head to Mass today.

2. Have some serious breakfast. If you still have some holiday ham in store from that hearty Christmas dinner, this is the best time to rethink its purpose. Check Serious Eats' what-to-eat-for-breakfast-on-Christmas list or Andrew Scrivani's breakfast and brunch recipes and see if there's anything else worth trying.

Don't forget espresso shots to jerk you up from last night's countdown party. The Philippines' own liberica coffee (kape barako) has the one of the most appealing aromatics and flavors around, not to mention the local industry needs support to keep up production.

Hot espresso for the first morning of the New Year. Photo by Fredrik Selander under CC BY-NC-SA license.
3. Get a well-designed coffee table book and listen to glorious music by Leonardo Leo, Vivaldi, Mozart or Corelli smooth streaming via SkyFM to set the mood for the year. Lore has it that whatever you do on New Year's Day will determine whether the rest of your year would be as auspicious, and nothing like classical music to makes things right, at least emotionally.

I embedded a classical music channel below. Click that big blue button if it annoys you, though it shouldn't.



4. Don't whine, have some wine! Some genuine French fizz will do, and several good bottles below Php1,000 such as Feuillatte, Lanson Black Label or the Louis de Sacy Brut Grand Cru are available. Say you have a non-alcoholic ring to swear by, reconsider it! Watch Heather Johnston demonstrate the art of wine tasting and see what you're missing.

Key is temperance, temperance, and we won't have problems. (Getting drunk makes the entire affair aesthetically and sensibly ugly, so don't.)

For starters, cocktail choices range from Agent Orange to Zombie. Personal favorites are light martini and strawberry daiquiri. Photo by D Sharon Pruitt.
5. Spend time with family and friends (real culture lies in love and friendship. Whoa, that's deep.), go buy books, hunt for a DVD of your favorite classic film or BBC documentary, or take photos of people having a swell time at the park. This is the kind of rest that should make the rest of the year as fruitful as the last. #
AAAoAAoA Rewind (from J117 January 5, 2009)

Carousel Christmas

It rained lightly on Christmas day and the yearly perya at the heart of Antipolo City was deserted except for a few souls who braved the 20-degree weather to enjoy some rides and games.

A thrilled overgrown man was in a kiddie elephant, small children sharing a single carousel pony constantly waved at their beaming parents by the fence, and a teenage couple screamed and laughed aboard the dizzying Octopus. These were the few, isolated scenes in the amusement park that could have been more alive if only the sun chose to shine.

The Mendozas opened the gates at nine o’clock in the morning, way earlier than normal days when business hours would start at five in the afternoon. It was the day of the year when they expected the fair to get most crowded with families willing to splurge on amusements.
But this year, it was not as opportune.

“Last year was definitely better,” owner Cristy Mendoza remarked in Filipino. She could only describe the usual Christmas frenzy in her perya, and for someone who grew up in and inherited the business from her parents, she’s one person who could tell.

“People would always leave (the park) on Christmas eve to be home for noche buena and then return the morning after. It would get so loud around here, (there would be) so many people. We won’t be able to hear each other at all.”

Cristy, known to carnival operators and ticket vendors as “Aling Tilay,” is the owner of Andaya Amusements contracted by Ynares Center, the city’s coliseum, for the past three years in time for the holidays.

“Since way back, we’ve always spent Christmas eve and the day itself camped right here,” said Cristy, who permanently resides in Marilao, Bulacan with her husband and three daughters. “It’s our unique tradition.”

On an ordinary day, one would see Cristy and her daughters managing a small sari-sari store within the park. The store proper displayed various brands of junk food, sodas and instant noodles. Inside the shack were makeshift beds, a small kitchen and a television set – all partly hidden from public view by multi-colored drapes drawn like room dividers.

Although brought up adopting such atypical, nomadic-like lifestyle, Cristy’s 16-year-old daughter, Michelle, does not feel shortchanged.

“We’re used to it. Anywhere is home,” the high school student said in Filipino. “The perya is always fun and Christmas day has never been drab because there are always people around even when it’s raining and I feel like we’re sharing (the occasion) with them.”

There were always people, indeed, and the perya environment is festive even in the middle of the year. Every night, the park was bustling with crowds visiting from nearby towns. The noise from the rides’ engines, karaoke machines in every corner, and cheering bettors reaches its loudest that visitors could only communicate by signaling with their hands or shouting.

The spacious walkways were either mobbed by children running around and parents running after them or by slow-strolling adolescents grouped by their favorite music genre. Those in their twenties and thirties lined up for their turn on the karaoke microphone while mothers placed bets to win plates and casseroles and fathers stayed for the bingo.

It was a welcoming, albeit deafening, atmosphere, and that was just on a normal, average day. Imagine how much more it could have been if it didn’t rain on Christmas.

There are ten amusement rides in the fair, the most popular of which are the nerve-racking Octopus and the children’s Merry-Go-Round. Most of the mobiles look old and crude, with their paint chipping off and safety devices at a minimum. Based on the numbers, however, they are surprisingly secure.

“I’ve been in this business all my life and I haven’t seen a single casualty,” Cristy, who is in her forties, said. She used to enjoy the rides herself but now that she’s more mature, she admits getting sick after a round.

“Even if the rides were handed down from my parents they are well-maintained and they function like new.”

Cristy is not the only perya veteran in the park, though. Octopus operator Jonie Rivera has also been in the business “forever.”

“I don’t recall being trained to manipulate these machines,” Jonie said in Filipino. He was shouting at the top of his voice to be heard amid the loud whirring of the engines. “I’ve been doing this all my life, and I make people happy in the process.”

Like the Mendozas, Jonie also spends Christmas at the fair. “But everyday here it’s like Christmas,” he said, beaming. “There’s always music and laughter around.”

Aside from the rides, numerous concessionaires offered games and prizes to daring bettors. For a one peso wager, a lucky contestant could win kitchen wares, toiletries, umbrellas and junk food.

One boy was on a winning streak in the pellet gun game, toppling toy soldiers and plastic ducks every time he pulled the trigger. He had filled a small plastic bag with acquired goods.
Jonie’s right. It needed not be Christmas to receive gifts.

For Sgt. Semiliano Vocal who is in charge of security in Ynares Center, the perya had become a valuable part of the community because of its cheap, wholesome entertainment for the masses.

“It’s no Enchanted Kingdom, but it’s definitely a refuge,” the officer said in Filipino. He continued to look around, his eyes alert. For him though, one of the greatest rewards is how the perya makes Christmas more special to those “who can’t even afford a decent meal for noche buena.”

“Even if they have nothing to eat, then can enjoy much for a fifteen-peso ride,” he said. “Christmas, you know, is something that doesn’t have to come with a hefty price.” #

Photo: Dizzying Carousel by Swamibu on Flickr
I interrupt our usual cultural programming to deliver a think piece (or so I attempted) on an advocacy close to my heart: the cross between journalism and education.


Not everything we read off our favorite news sites and blogs makes us think — most sites give us bits and pieces of things that are meant to be taken as they are.
How many “OMG!” Yahoo articles, snarky opinion pieces and arresting news stories actually make you smarter? Aren’t we often more inclined to just pause and say, “This writer’s right,” than to question her?
Then we go around carrying our day’s fix of info, parroting the written facts as if they’re all that’s true. And therein lies the danger, especially now that information is more accessible than ever – now that it’s social, mobile, dirt cheap and democratic.
Some would even say we Millennials are “the smartest generation” because of this access, and teachers are already asking how they can adapt instruction to our unique learning skills. But the trouble comes when we fail to draw the line between information and education.
While it’s easy to agree we have too much of the former, the latter is inarguably more valuable. Education, after all, is a fundamental right and key to full human progress. If we call for quality, accessible education from our social institutions (government, schools, church, family), I don’t think we should demand anything less than that same quality and accessibility from the media, the so-called “Fourth Estate,” as providers of information. 
Read full story on The Next Great Generation »

Photo: I'm thinking of by David Restivo under Creative Commons BY-SA 2.0 license
A Van Gogh is in my workplace. I stare at this painting several times a day. And though it doesn't ease chronic eyestrain caused by the lovable LCD computer screen that doesn't love me back, it's comforting to look at great art while next to some industrial business furnishings such as a boxy, anachronistically-designed Lenovo CPU and mismatched desk and chair.

A reproduction of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" (1888) hanging on our office wall.
This particular work is the third in the series of sunflowers Van Gogh completed and displayed in Munich. Van Gogh loved sunflowers and considered them his. It also caught Paul Gauguin's attention, as he wrote in 1889:
"Gauguin likes them extraordinarily. He said to me among other things - 'That...it's...the flower.' "
I wonder why contemporaneous modernist works are the most accessible that they can just be hung in informal, personal spaces without any hesitation. Maybe because they're not as heavy in thematic as Renaissance works? Or is it because their artists also intended these to be works for their own? Van Gogh himself instructed that the painting be kept by his brother alone, and not be sold to anyone else.

The original Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers, Munich, Germany.
Vincent also wrote:
"You will see that these canvases will catch the eye ... It is a kind of painting that rather changes in character, and takes on a richness the longer you look at it."
True for me, too. These flowers have new life everyday. They never wilt, and they just stay there against the wall. #
Received several invites last week to theater shows, new museum exhibits and an awards night. May I say that all of them sounded tempting? If only I had more time, I'd be around all those, but this is wishful thinking.

To make up for my lack of presence virtually anywhere except the office, the house, and some select place, there's the hapless blog that can make one ubiquitous. As if she'd been there.

First up, the Pinto Art Gallery in sweet home Antipolo. My friends and I visited it twice last year, but there's something about its air of mystery and seclusion that can make even art newbies want to return. The gallery reopened yesterday and its invite promised the graces of the likes of Anthony Palomo, Gilda Cordero Fernando, Mark Justiniani and Plet Bolipata.

The map to the Pinto Art Gallery, Silangan Gardens, #1 Sierra Madre St., Grand Heights, Antipolo City.
Then of course my alma mater bias. The Vargas Museum at the University of the Philippines Diliman has a used book sale at its west wing porch until the 9th. Sales shall go to the museum's upkeep and projects. The Vargas is perhaps the art destination with the cheapest rates around. So we're looking at Php20.00 to Php30.00 here, okay? With that coveted UP identification card, entrance is way cheaper than chips.

Some ongoing exhibit at the Vargas, "Doll Eyes" by Joy Mallari. Opening and launch of the children's book by Eline Santos who adapted Mallari's work is on Friday at 4:00pm.

"Doll Eyes is a story of Tin who searches for her missing friend Ella through the busy and treacherous streets of Quiapo. The author, Santos, initially wove the story from the first large-scale painting created by Mallari, and in turn, Mallari again painted another set of works that best expresses Doll Eyes, thus the conversation between literature and the visual arts." --from the Vargas Museum Blog
Venus de Milo, public domain photo
Been checking out the website of Hong Kong Museum of Art lately, and a sculpture exhibit is ongoing. Pieces from France's Louvre Museum were replicated and transported for this season's "Touching Art" thematic exhibition. And the title says it all. These valuable sculptures (their originals, at least) such as Michelangelo's The Rebel Slave (1513) and the famous Venus de Milo (2nd c.BC) will not just be there for visual show, but to be literally felt, touched.

What is most notable about the Hong Kong Museum of Art, for me, is that it always presents interactive art as this. I remember visiting it last year to witness the "Charming Experience" exhibition. Even my younger sisters who don't know much about art were able to appreciate it.

My sister Kim Diola enjoying an installation.
Curator Grace Cheng successfully executed to create an experience of art "with different senses" instead of isolating art forms into visual, auditory and written. The exhibition provides answers to some curious questions: How can we see and feel sound?

"Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No.5 in C Minor, First Movement" (2009) by Otto, Li Tin Lun. Mixed media and video installation.
This sculpture by Otto visualizes Beethoven's piece that demonstrates the rise and fall of notes and rhythm. It makes possible for the hearing and visually impaired to experience the virtuoso composer's work in their own way, though not the way Beethoven intended it to be.

I hope next time they can do a sculpture for film, which is primarily a visual and auditory combined form. It can give an altogether new meaning to 3D cinema.  #

Mimimayhem by the fountain outside the museum, with McDonald's bag in hand.
Crime across the Philippines’ 7,000 islands reportedly plummets to zero every time champion boxer Manny Pacquiao fights in the ring. It’s as if every single soul in the country is glued to their screens to see him win yet another title.

Although a single criminal offense (a jewelry store heist) broke this trend last November 13 while Pacquiao was beating up Mexico’s Antonio Margarito in Texas for the WBC World Super Welterweight title, it’s still astonishing how some boxing match can even triumph over hunger and poverty that fuel crime.

The fact that he does a better job than police forces in controlling crime is just one piece of proof. Pacquiao, who’s now among history’s greatest boxers, enjoys not only considerable celebrity in his homeland, but also bridges economic classes, religious denominations, cultural gaps and age groups.

Read full story on theNextGreatGeneration.com »
The house I grew up in lies right at the border of Angono, Rizal and Antipolo City, the first is famous for its artistic locals and another for its pilgrimage sites and native food. I never realized that just a few meters away was a colorful art district where every block has a worthy gallery and chance exhibits. It took me 15 years before I discovered it, and that's when I'm already living in Quezon City. Isn't it ironic, don't you think?

First stop: The Blanco Family Museum. I swear they'll get you wishing you had some of their genes.

The Blanco Family Museum in Angono, Rizal looks unassuming from outside.
Inside, it's a maze of passages lined with works of prodigious skills.
It's amazing that when the Blanco kids were only 6, they could draw better than you do now. I mean, I'm not the stick figures level type at least, but the Blancos' work made me feel like mine's enough to be on tissue paper.
"Yakan of Basilan" (1990) by Peter Paul Blanco when he was 10 years old.
"Panag-arawan" by Jan Blanco, when he was only 13 years old.
Peter Paul, Michael, Jan, Glenn, Noel, Gay and Joy's earlier creations seem to be on modernist canvas, although of course they weren't aware of it then. Their later works are realist. They even go as far as photorealism, like their works depicting China.


Okay, so this one's not quite photorealist yet, but we're getting there.

The guide said Jose "Pitok" Blanco, would require his children to complete a thesis, or a mural-sized work like this one.
We met Michael Blanco, one of the children of the late great Jose "Pitok" Blanco. He welcomed us into their museum, which they also turned into a school. He talked about his parents, and how they were fond of each other even in old age, and that they couldn't eat without the other.

The elderly Blancos retired in Batangas till the end of their lives. The children now have their own professions, but also return to painting from time to time. Michael paints and teaches art full time, while refurbishing and expanding the museum. "Nakita n'yo na ba yung mga paintings ng tatay? Ang lalaki, 'di ba? (Have you seen father's paintings? They're all huge!)," Michael asked, enthusiastically. It's amusing to hear him talk about his dad, even after he passed away, like an keen fan would.

Detail of one of Pitok Blanco's paintings. Recurring themes of his work are rural life and religion. And how the heck did he make that hay? Hey!

"Fiesta sa Angono" by Pitok Blanco is an enormous realist work. Characters in the scene are real town folks at that time. Many faces are also of his wife and children, especially the youngest son, Peter Paul, who appears more than 4 times in the painting.
Jose Blanco, who worked in an advertising agency for a time just like other great Filipino artists, wanted his children to have the discipline he acquired in the corporate-creative world. He discouraged waiting for artistic moods or inspiration before they can create something of value. Michael said his father, while kind, is stern in training them. Whenever Michael and his siblings looked at mediocre artistic works to imitate, their dad would ask them to check at Rembrandt and the old masters instead.

"He wanted us to learn from the best," Michael recalled. And among the best are what they became. #
Smash it! Grab it! Leap higher!

I'm not sure whether kids today still play the games we used to enjoy. Being a '90s baby who has grown up with digital technology and cable TV, I'm still fortunate to have had street life (or school corridor life) back in early elementary. Though I haven't had the chance to climb trees and pick fruits, my playmates and I still surely smelled of sun after afternoons spent playing outside.

Seems like city kids today, outside varsity affairs and PE classes in their respective schools, rarely explore Filipino-Asian kiddie games that require as much energy and skill as Western parlor games and Plants versus Zombies. Also, they can be missing out on more than a few aspects of our culture that teach various virtues, and it's some sizeable lost.

Good thing my friends and I just had the opportunity to rediscover our natural Pinoy party instincts that have been tucked away for some years now. Do you still remember them? I sure can help you with that.

Chinese garter game

To help your team win a Chinese garter round, you have to leap as high as you can. This should help train you for the pole vault event at the Olympics.


You'd need a considerable amount of willpower, an I-don't-care-what-I-look-like attitude, and luck to uncover the mysterious coin underneath that mound of flour or gawgaw.


Make sure that after participating in a longest line game, you could still find those valuable items you parted with. But don't worry, used socks rarely get lost. Surely this is an exercise of giving up personal things for the common good. (No allusion to communism here).


Channel your inner Hercules sinews and Superman x-ray vision to smash that palayok! Keeping in mind that there are mouths waiting for candy teaches selflessness and generosity.



It doesn't matter if you get trampled on, elbowed or kicked in the process. Pabitin definitely gives a lesson in fortitude, precision and determination.


Sharing something humanly and spiritually uplifting before my silent hiatus.

Stop motion animated film by Jeremy Casper, Isaiah Powers and Stuart Bury tells the story of an old guy Cecil who lives in a seemingly hopeless, dreary town. He sets out daily to labor after making sure his bow tie is neat and presentable. He goes about his work quietly, full of hope and without complaints. In a remote, inconspicuous way he tries to reach out to the town's apathetic but equally impoverished folks. Thanks to his a day-to-day ordinary heroism, he changes their world.

Cecil is true to what a saint calls "our mission to transform the prose of this life into poetry, into heroic verse."

Story and message aside, the film's visual imagery is consistent and convincing, and the score splendid. Technique and level of professional quality are unquestionable, well-deserving of the Student Oscar it just bagged.

Alex Pushkarev on Vimeo put it as "fantastic. The atmosphere is so perfectly conveyed that my mouth went dry." Head on over to http://vimeo.com/5086128 to read comments of indie filmmakers and enthusiasts.

Till next time, guys! #

Many a gallery this month. I've been dying to blog all about them chronologically, starting from earliest I visited to the latest. But the time element's tricky in reporting, so I decided to write about this one-man, one-night exhibit last October 15 -- "Visions" featuring "surface wearable art" by Angelo Magno. The invitation says, "printmaker," but when I got to the the posh Shangri-la Place hall where his works were displayed, I wasn't quite sure I'd still believe that.


It's probably not my job to be an art pundit, but if it's for artists to challenge established definitions, then maybe I can object. First of all, Magno uses shirts and bags as his canvas, and paints directly on them (as far as I could tell). Nothing new in that, school kids going on camping express team spirit on their white cotton shirts. Still, the exhibit openly proclaims this as "printmaking." If it's not mediated by technology, then where's the "print" in that? Why not call it "usable painting" or something else? Unknowingly though, all this must really be part of the trick, the artistry of it.


The artworks show no coherence that the styles range from Kandinsky to Adarna children's books, except that they're all on textured, white surfaces. The one above, "Mother and Child," is one of my personal favorites. Being exclusively black, it stands out from among the colorful, varying other displays. Its pattern is almost abstract, but more characteristic of printmaking traditions. But if the criteria is if this would still look like a valuable piece when worn and taken for a bus ride, I doubt it would be noticed.


This one with the girl playing guitar is most attractive due to the vivid colors and pattern detail. The genius of it is in the close-up, when the viewer leans over and tries to appreciate its craft. But as an image, it's hardly moving, even emotionally neutral. It is, however, characteristically Asian, and that has credit for me. Many other displays also speak of Philippine history, at least from its captions, though I wish someone didn't write such lengthy descriptions.


I admire the idea of painting on an uneven fabric that loops, bulks and is crude, making the level of difficulty high for the artist and audience alike. The display above could have elicited bravos if it were covered all throughout and placed in the center of the room for audiences to view 360 degrees. That would be a real showcase of skill. Nevertheless, the attempt is of its own worth.


This is one work I can say that capitalizes on size, texture and "wearability" of the bag. The vertiginous imagery, especially when worn on the back, impacts the viewer with the intense colors and tempered lines.

"Visions" was organized by students of UA&P's Entrepreneurial Management program We've got to give it to those guys for pulling off a fleeting city cultural experience.

And by the way, the food was great, too. #
Elephant Sunset

Reviews generally rave about DisneyNature’s Earth as “beautiful” and “breathtaking.” Top critics commended its visually stunning portrayal of Mother Earth and her constituents, while audiences appreciate its matter-of-fact statement against climate change. The James Earl Jones-narrated film is a feature length adaptation of TV documentary series Planet Earth that follows three animal families of bears, whales and elephants in seasonal migration.

Boston Globe’s Janet Page, however, sees Earth as a picture without anything new to say, even though it presents “some newly entertaining ways of saying it.” Former journalist and blogger David Etlin also feels it is some quite old film hyped up as a novel spectacle. He writes, “the script and editing let the (photographers) down.”

Even with Darth Vader’s voice commenting on live animals in their natural habitats treated anthropomorphically in description, Earth broke new ground in visual storytelling and in effectively presenting an environmental advocacy known to all but envisaged by only a few.

Photo by DisneyNature




Jason Chatwin in Dragonball

Newcomer Justin Chatwin stars as Goku, a young martial artist, in a quest for the seven dragonballs that possess the ultimate power of the universe. He teams up with master Roshi (Chow Yun Fat) and friends to save the world from evil Piccolo who is also in search for the legendary dragonballs to destroy Earth. Adapted from iconic Japanese animation franchise Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama, Dragonball Evolution fails fans outright, even months before its theatrical release, with the exception of a handful of people who hoped for its faithfulness.


Sarah Cada, a blogger, gives it some credit in saying it is actually more enjoyable and comedic than it is a terrific movie. Too comedic maybe, that even the serious parts are funny, she says. Another blogger writes, “At least the kids in the theater enjoyed."

But it still sounds as if it never really satisfies. Zac Berthschy of AnimeNewsNetwork.com highlighted its “cheesy” dialogue (calling it an “absolute, unmitigated disaster”) and “nonsensical” storyline (“Kids aren’t dumb enough to fall for this.”).

Those outside the circle of followers of the original series also say that even if the audience knows nothing about the original material, it still “stinks” as a movie, “in pretty much all areas." #

Photo by 20th Century Fox


Some postcard I made for a university. I don't think it's ever going to be used--change of minds--so I'm posting it here instead and adding to that abandoned portfolio.

Those Dante tickets were a lot of work, but my favorite item is the dragon pennant. While working on this, I discovered the easy advantages of using the Burn Tool to make surfaces realistic. Also really put a lot of thought into those shadows, but I'm still not happy with the auditorium Polaroid photo flap which looks a little fake. #
After a heavy previous post that scrolls down a mile, here's how I recommend we take a break from long hours in front of the office computer and from heartbreaking news from the wires.

A few months into the job, this worker bee has found her occasional solace at the roof deck where it's closer to the heavens and far from the bustle of mankind.







Cityscape photography only rarely beats the natural aesthetic of landscapes. But if the view outside your office window is like these, who's to complain?
* Reposted from TwentyFourProject by Camille Diola, Claire Jiao and Jovan Cerda

There is no such thing as overtime in her line of work. Twelve hours in the office is a daily affair, even on weekends and holidays. There is also no such thing as illegitimacy. After all, times are hard.

“It’s for the kids,” said Airah, a mother of six, who wakes up at seven in the morning and works from 9 AM to 9 PM. Every day, she sets up stacks of pirated DVDs and groups them into the most recent releases and the high quality, Blu-ray versions of classics and months-old movies in her stall at the Metrowalk.



"We always have time here, at home we don’t,” Airah, who is fluent in Maranao, said in Filipino. For others with a regular job, working until 10 in the evening is beyond overtime, but it has been a way of life for her. Vacation time? Airah hardly has one.

“We only close when all other establishments (in the area) close,” she said, explaining that she only gets to rest whole days once or twice a year.

Not only is her work schedule tight and demanding, her meals are also irregular. Airah has breakfast and lunch at noon with four of her relatives who also man the booth. They take turns in entertaining customers who usually arrive two hours after the open for business. They end the day with a quick dinner before finally heading home.

“My husband, who has another job, takes care of the kids until I get home,” Airah said. She cleans the house for the next day before she goes to bed if her family doesn’t watch DVD movies first.

Airah’s youngest child is four years old, and her eldest is 13. Only three of her six kids go to school though, while the rest alternately help her in the store and take care of house chores.

Given rather difficult circumstances and economic conditions, Airah finds selling bootlegged videos – technically a criminal offense in the country – a safe and a profitable means of livelihood.

“Whenever we hear we are going to be apprehended (by authorities), we always discover beforehand,” Airah said. These unnerving instances only happen rarely though, in fact they are considered contractual concessionaires.

“We pay for our posts here, and we have a management,” said Airah. She explained that all other DVD storeowners in the area purchase from a common supplier and pay monthly fees for the space. “(Retailers) actually don’t have competition here because we’re all similar (in endeavor).”

Around 80 discs are sold on a good day. With each DVD costing Php40 to Php50, Airah and her team earn around P3,500 daily. They divide this sum between the five of them and contribute equally in paying the P6,000 rental.

Long hours on the job are highlighted by loyal customers who buy 10 to 20 titles all at once and doubtful ones who complain about their last purchases. Airah encounters different personalities and consumer behaviors each day, and her cheerful disposition helps her deal with them.

“We try to be understanding,” Airah said. Knowing some of the copies she sells might be defective, she accommodates her customers’ requests to exchange as often as possible. “If they are rude, we wouldn’t sell to them anymore. Sometimes we give their money back, depending on their attitude. If they are nice, we readily return the money.”

Being a businesswoman, albeit an illegitimate one, she makes sure she gains the trust of consumers. She offers to demonstrate selected DVD titles with a television set and a disc player to new costumers to ease their doubts.

“Loyal costumers don’t try the DVDs anymore, they only return the copy (when it has defects),” she said.

After all, Airah is also a costumer. Every two weeks, they order titles from a bulk supplier and acquire ones. Titles of new movies are sold to them at P10 a piece while copies of original DVDs cost P20 to P30 each.

Some new copies are recorded from cinemas but despite their poor quality, people still buy them. “There are really those who can’t wait for better copies,” she said. In any case, Airah is not the kind of seller who recommends titles to the indecisive ones. Lying, for her, is a business strategy.

“When they ask if a film’s good, of course we say yes,” Airah said. “In the end, we just want it sold.” #

photo by Andres Rueda on Flickr
Okay, so that's such a pathetic title.

After roaming around a whopping number of four art galleries today, I realized, and this is some splayed consideration, that I have several short feature articles in the past that can be uploaded in AAAoAAoA. After all, it's disguising to be a culture blog run by some rookie. This gives us an opportunity to widen our horizons, speak in the third person, and be read in a more detached fashion.

Gets? Never mind. We're starting today with a review of a book my boss in a tech firm I used to work for asked me to read in a week.



Book review: Changing the Channel
by Michael Masterson and Mary Ellen Tribby
Agora Publishing

Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business covers 12 of today’s most influential marketing channels in detail, describing how each one can be used to deliver messages that bring clients and consequent profits to businesses. From traditional channels such as the radio, television and public relations to new media like online social forums and e-mail, Masterson and Tribby's hardback discusses how to execute successful multi-channel marketing campaigns by not only creating effective sales offers but by building relationships with potential customers.

The book, however, insufficiently presents the disadvantages and needed investments in each marketing channel, and fails to even succinctly include crucial ethical practices concomitant with its use. As suggested by its kicker title, the book evidently upholds the accumulation of profit as the end goal of marketing campaigns, with occasional insinuations on the so-called value of downplaying truth behind media messages to maximize outlay and attract leads.

Changing the Channel, on the whole, is an accessible, handy reference in studying how business-to-customer relations have shifted with the dawn of the Internet and Web 2.0 in the 21st century. #
So I've been looking for an Internet radio since Yahoo! Launchcast closed its doors on my region. These are the moments when you'd wish everyone's generous enough to have a Creative Commons license, but then again that's not entirely possible. And so my hunt began.

Last.FM doesn't really give listeners random tunes as our good ol' radio stations do. It favors personalization, like every other product in the market today, but doesn't quite bail you out from nostalgia for the old ways. There were also those unsure streaming stations which cut you off once you start downloading something else. And so there was almost no hope left to find another Internet radio much like Launchcast, until last Monday.



Since I'm usually a grateful interestingness curator, I'm sharing one of my greatest finds: Sky.fm I discovered it accidentally while googling for free streaming classical pieces for early morning design inspiration. I didn't want any surprises like rap verses in the middle of a serene love song, so I chose the Solo Piano channel for ambient music.

The small pop-up Chrome window first played "David Nevue - Song for Noelle." I wanted to cry. It's soft, slow and quiet. Something a father would play for his little daughter. True enough though, the entire album was written "to express the life-changing magic of fatherhood."

Just last week when I visited home, my sisters and I half-viewed The Last Song, which is pleasantly more than just another love story. The title relates the dying Greg Kinnear character who writes a song / piano tune for his rebellious Miley Cyrus kid. Nevue's "Sweet Dreams and Starlight" solo piano album could have been the perfect soundtrack for the flick.

This is why the old radio way is still so charming. Listeners discover tracks they've never listened to before, and not only those they choose to catch. It's not always that everything newer and shiner is better. Moral of the story is, "old things are old because they're good."* #

*Above quote from current read http://bit.ly/d7bqCO
Photo 1: Two girls and a piano by Jessie Lyn McMains on Flickr
News Writing Basics


I'm sharing this short presentation I made for a talk given to some student writers where I work. Copyright goons, spare me. I did my best. #
"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
~Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. patent office, 1899

Seriously, he must have been dain bramaged to have said that.

Just some interesting finds yesterday. Relogik.com showcasing designs by Damjan Stankovic of everyday objects made much funkier.

Not your usual cutlery

This is Twister, a piece of cutlery for those who don't have much skill (cough, clumsy) eating pasta. I wonder if the customer should carry this around with him or have it requested from the maitre d'? Talk about adding insult to injury.

Night light design
Night light design

Mark Night Light Bookmark looks amazing on your bedside table. Cover it with the book you can't wait to finish the moment you wake up and it shuts off by itself. H0w about, say, if I have this precious, thick Dickens paperback whose spine I don't want notched? I doubt real readers and book lovers would find Mark remarkable.

But let's give credit. Even though when my colleague at work who saw it on screen exclaimed, "That's the most useless thing I've ever seen!" I'm still awed.

Traffic Light Reinvented

Eko Traffic Light is perhaps the best of Stankovic's inventions. This should be his flagship product. See those strips around the red light? They work like a loading timer that tells you when the other lights will go off. Useful for eco-conscious drivers who want to cut engine power while on a halt. #
One of the more entertaining and impressive concerts on DVD I've seen the past years is John Mayer's Where the Light Is, a copy my friend Claire and I picked up from Ortigas after one of our countless working sleepovers back in college. Hard for me to remember details now that I haven't watched it for over a year, but I won't forget the explosive solos, surprising band sets and Mayer's flexibility in delivering messages in a range of genres.

John Mayer screenshot concert

The thing about Mayer, he's not just pop and bubble scoffed at by discriminating critics. He's ultimate. But I'd rather separate Mayer the person and Mayer the artist. It's more comfortable that way. I can follow the tunes without trying to keep up with the personality to the point of creating a hoax Twitter account with potential for psychotherapy studies.


And there would be no more listening to scandals and involvements. It's just his designer guitar and pure music. This way, Mayer is where the light side of the Force is.

Also a must-watch, John Mayer Trio with bassist Pino Palladino and Steve Jordan. One YouTube user commented on their performance: "I can't imagine the level of difficulty these guys are playing at." With Trio, Mayer finds his place in blues rock and veers away from acoustic pop. Their beats set the heart pounding with thunderous drums and angelic electrics at 2:35.



He even makes that a rose red guitar with swirly teen graphics look wicked. Hendrix can't beat that. #

Photos blu-ray.com
I will just post chill. #


A screenshot says a thousand words. Image searching is better, faster and easier than ever. We can just imagine how they went about the design process and integration, genius!

Mouse over on this report for more detailed descriptions of features. #
... I have a journalism training and even though I recently got into marketing communications, objective reporting is a professional discipline I can't part with.

Therefore, I resolve to share unbiased judgments. Blogger is wonderful, especially with its new themes, friendly and simple CMS, easy design and layout manipulation and almost universal compatibility. But more and more developers and web designers find Wordpress the more flexible and professional platform. It was the first to feature pages and menu options other than posts, and its themes have been the edgier ones around. It is a little more expensive to integrate and institutionalize though, but when one gets it going, it's tops.

I, for one, used Wordpress to develop Tanglaw University Center's new website, keeping in mind that someday I won't be around anymore to keep it up to date. Someone else has to take over, with or without techie skills, and I figured Wordpress is easy enough to learn when it comes to adding content. One problem solved.

Blogger's amazing layout and design GUI was its best advantage. But not anymore.

Hello Wordpress 3.0 Thelonious.

I don't think that type should be expressive at all. I can write the word 'dog' with any typeface but it doesn't have to look like a dog. But there are people that [think that] when they write 'dog' it should bark.
--Massimo Vignelli in Helvetica (2007)
We Filipinos should seriously rethink our typographic sense. I know several good designers who can whip up a couple of amazing posters in an hour but using typefaces that shout or jump. There is almost no grid discipline and no respect for spaces. And there's ubiquitous clip art, an abuse of Photoshop brushes and simplistic vector elements.

A design should breathe easy, but we sense either hyperventilation or asthma.

Perhaps the best examples I can give to prove how much this developing part of the world has to improve on typography are some aesthetically bereft signage.

confusing signpost
Introducing ultra thin, overly scaled type with uneven bars and stems.

Coke sponsored warning
Inconsistent tracking! Sponsored by Coca-cola

MMDA road sign Manila
It's so against pink and irregular that it's deadly.

Philippine Airlines promo PAL Express
Philippine Airlines for the win. Designer was a non-Photoshop, Notepad-user who doesn't know that small caps exist and that it's a sin to impulsively resize an uppercase letter like lowercase ones. #
Half a year is half a year, and for many workers that translates to regularization, promotion or even instant celebrity. But for those who can speak out, six months of freelance work is something they would want, to just try it out, see what happens, earn a little less or even a little more and have something they'd get excited to do every single waking day.



Sure it was cluttered and spontaneous and a little reclusive, but it was not necessarily so. I could've shut down computer twice a day to meet people and clients more often.

No boss, no charts, no checklists. Only tight deadlines and clients always trying to be nice to get a discount. There were days when work was zero, by choice, but there were also packed weekends to try to squeeze in the smallest projects for almost naught. Hectic. But fun fun fun.

The downside? Minimal team work, the inhuman feel of interacting through chat interfaces and text messages and the haunting uncertainty of whether this suspicious client would lay down what was agreed upon after the work is done. Not to mention, the burden of paying taxes and having no one else to deal with BIR.

Next time, I'll write about what I'm into now. But as someone has already noticed, I hardly fulfill my promises in this blog.

Photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sstrudeau


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About Me

ART AS A PEDESTRIAN

Hi, I'm Camille, and I'm a real journalist from Manila. Without claiming expertise on the subjects, I try to write about my artistic and cultural encounters on this 17-year-old spot.

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Whut!

We will have but one option: We will have to adapt. The future will present itself with a ruthlessness yet unknown.
~Michelangelo Antonioni, filmmaker

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness ...
~first lines of Charles Dickens' The Tale of Two Cities

Culture is to know the best that has been said and thought in the world.
~Matthew Arnold, cultural critic

The only way to really change society is through culture ... it's not through force, it's not through armies, it's not through politics (but) through freedom.
~Dony McManus, artist

You are a fine person, Mr. Baggins ... but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!
~Gandalf in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

"I find television very educating. Every time someone turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."
~Groucho Marx, actor

Don't laugh at a youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find a face of his own.
~Logan P. Smith, essayist

God is in the details.
~Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect

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