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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



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.

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.

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.
Book review: Changing the Channel

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.


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.

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.



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.




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.



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. #

I will just post chill. #

... 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)

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.