cafe*rennais

Today Now!: How To Pretend You Give A Shit About The Election

This is hilarious!

Writing Backwards To Defeat Censorship

“Chinese Bloggers have developed some clever solutions to the problem of getting their thoughts to the rest of the world through a heavily-censored ISP system. One of these solutions involves reversing characters to scramble the message juuuust enough to confound censors, but not enough to render the message itself unreadable, thus giving the fiddle minger to censors.”

Read more at Jordan’s page at NowPublic, a crowd powered media website with news from all over the world. Cool.

Dan and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary last Wednesday by having coffee and hanging-out in Katipunan after a heavy and delicious merienda at Chocolate Kiss. It was also KitKat’s 18th Birthday that day - she’s Dan’s youngest sister. Looking forward to more hang time together!

I’m borrowing the words of Rilke on his take on marriage- but also on relationships and friendships. I’ve learned that a healthier relationship is acknowledging your partner’s individuality, and loving them for who they are and hope to become. A big part of that realization is defending and supporting his purpose. He’s been doing the same for me. Poosh.

“The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down
all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner
appoints the other to be the guardian of his/her solitude, and thus they show each
other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility,
and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs
one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once
the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite
distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them,
if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives
them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole
and before an immense sky.”

From Rilke’s On Love and Other Difficulties. Translated from the German by Stephen Mitchell

Thank Berns for the photo!

Konti na lang and the apartment that I share with Berns will be nice and cozy! Mang Roland is now done with attaching our window and door screens, plus the bathroom mirror, etc. I placed some curtain stand-ins in the meantime. Plus I need to buy a bed because my mattress on the floor looks kawaws. Hopefully by next week everything will be in place and more livable. Really nice and livable. Right now it’s dusty.

Since Typhoon Frank came crashing in the city over the weekend, the office became my evacuation center. It’s really a cozy place — with internet! Some friends who drop by find it really homey. An office with a very homey feel. We think maybe it’s because of the kitchen showcase. We have everything here, you can practically live here. But we’re glad that people like dropping by and hanging out here. We’re crazy for hang time and good conversations.

Maybe when the apartment is pretty I’ll be able to share pictures.

Do I look kilig here or what?!

Yey, here I am with two amazing gentlemen - Napoleon Abueva (Sculptor, National Artist for Visual Arts) and Bienvenido Lumbera (Poet, National Artist for Lietrature). After the 100 Years of UP Through Song and Dance show at the CCP last night, I caught them hanging around at the lobby having their pictures taken with some students. And haha what luck, 2 National Artists!!!

Below are some students with Mr. Abueva. Ack, saan siya nakatingin?

And lucky me, there were buses on standby to take some students and faculty members home to UP that night for free! So I hitched a ride on bus 13 and got dropped off at Philcoa close to midnight. I had fun meeting interesting students on the way back - most of them Freshies. Arigato for letting a tanders like me hang with you!

PECHA KUCHA MANILA

Oh, last June 13 was crazy but lots of fun! Waaah, next time I shouldn’t be so wired noh? Thanks to everyone who presented and showed up (and cheered) at Pecha Kucha Night Vol.1! Maraming Salamat!

For photos on the event, here are some from Berns: PKN Manila Vol.1. Enjoy!

It’s Pecha Kucha Night tonight, 8:20pm, at Mag:Net Cafe, Bonifacio High Street, Taguig City. Kitakits!

Aawww, I’ve been torturing Dan’s ears with my nonstop playing of Arashi songs…but I so love the cheesy dance steps, nice clothes, and great hair!

Here is Arashi’s Kitto Daijoubu!

It’s been an interesting week.

Early last week, I went to the bank to finish some errands for the office. After that, as I was walking on the way back to the office, I noticed that there was a new exhibit up at MagNet. The name of Katrina B. was posted on the glass entrance - and I wondered - “Is this the girl who I met in New York in 1999?!” So I ran inside and looked at the artworks on the wall and didn’t recognize her style from years ago. I didn’t see the thick strokes and bold colors like Van Gogh, but the I felt the same rawness of each line made by charcoal.

Still unsure if this is really the girl, I read the artist’s profile on the table. Then - YES - it is her! Details like “studied in UP Fine Arts” and “Painting - Rutgers, NJ” confirmed it. I called her right away after I got her number and wow, it’s nice to know that after how many years of not having been able to talk to each other, it’s like we just saw each other yesterday in Painting class. Same excited and giggly girls.

Can’t wait to meet up with her soon!

GK Community Library

This is something I’ll definitely do over and over again! Last Saturday, Zak brought us to a GK Village in Aldaba Hills in Bulacan. I brought along Marielle and Japs to help paint the walls of the community library there. When we got there, we were met by volunteers from the village with some kids (some busy arranging the books). It feels like such a warm and vibrant community - with a kids camp happening next door to the library.

What I like most about the experience is meeting the people who will benefit the library. I saw the collection of wonderful books there and I’m really really happy for them, especially for the kids. Another thing, I haven’t painted in a long long time, that’s why I was really itching to do this. This has been something I’ve always wanted to do, paint on the walls of a library. So I’m really grateful that Tomas hooked me up with Zak for this opportunity. The library will formally open on June 14.

More happy thoughts… I’m so happy that Japs had the time to join Marielle and me for the GK thing. I haven’t seen this guy in a long time! I’m really proud of what he has accomplished as an artist…sobrang galeng! I know he’s been busy but when he had time for this, I just jumped for joy. I can’t wait til we see each other again with the rest of the Fine Arts and Antipolo gang. It’s going to be a year since our good friend passed away. I wonder how everyone is doing. I’m sure they’re all doing great.

One more! I saw the site of one of my batchmates from Fine Arts this afternoon and….damn, go Mishel! I’m so happy to see her stuff online and seeing that she’s been really working on her art and exhibiting in the US (she’s based there now). It makes me really proud and happy to see friends pursuing the artist life. Go go go! Visit Mishel’s site here.

Poosh! Been in touch with more of my artist friends lately… I love it!

Oh I just love this Jdorama. Everything is all happy-happy, fun-fun, joy! Thanks to this video on youtube with the show’s end song “Peach” by Ai Otsuka. Everything about it makes my day.

Utada Hikaru - Flavor Of Life (English Translation)

When you say thank you to me,
for some reason it hurts,
Like a magic spell that doesn’t
get undone even after the good bye.
a hint of bitterness.
The flavor of life

Stuck midpoint between friends and lovers,
like an un-riped fruit dreaming about the day of harvest
because of being unable to just move one more step forward
what’s causing this frustration baby

When you say thank you to me,
for some reason it hurts,
Like a magic spell that doesn’t
get undone even after the good bye.
a hint of bitterness
The flavor of life

Sweet talk and tasteless conversations.
it sparks no interest in me
even when things do not go the way you want
it doesnt mean you’ve thrown your life away

When asked ‘ whats wrong?’
I answer ‘its nothing’
The smile that disappears after goodbye
It’s unlike me

The more i wish to believe in you,
For some reason it hurts even more
‘i like you a lot’ instead of ‘i love you’ sounds more like you
the flavor of life

the period when you suddenly remember the scent of someone you had almost forgotten
I want to be able to openly and honestly cherish the white purity of the falling snow more

A future tender and warmer than a diamond
i want to grasp it, in this limited time we have, i want to spend it with you

when you say thank you to me,
for some reason it hurts,
Like a magic spell that doesnt
get undone even after the good bye.
a hint of bitterness
The flavor of life

—-

Poosh! I love this song…i love the lyrics. Bittersweet. Flavor of Life is in the Hana Yori Dango soundtrack.