im both happy and sad that my favorite contestants were the top two at season’s end. it’s bittersweet that one has to bow out for the other. both sean and amanda had strong collections and was really hard for carlo and me to see only one contestant get declared the winner. and the winner of project runway season 13 is…
above is a photo of me and a mural found at haji lane in singapore. carlo and i had to go see this awesome street with curio shops but we were in a hurry and didnt have time to stop and make purchases. i did wish we could have stayed longer.
i finally deactivated my twitter a few days ago. i almost didnt go through with it because i thought id miss out too much on the world’s news. i have about a month before my account gets permanently deleted so i hope i dont forget to reactivate.
during the previous day’s shoot for regal film’s shake rattle & roll XV episode 2, i weaned myself from reading comics (as ive finished upto the last recent issues of the x-men, the walking dead, the massive, and saga) and finally started to read an e-book version of “hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy.” i found it easier to read white letters against a black background (perhaps due to my slight astigmatism) and i learned i could go longer without my eyes hurting.
this morning, i was going through my storage boxes in search of piano music sheets for use as props in a shoot tomorrow and i came across my unread books. i pulled out my copy of gabriel garcia marquez’s love in the time of cholera (didnt finish this in college) and started to reread it during lunch while waiting for jollibee delivery. i do miss reading and without the distractions of social media, i might actually finish this book finally, along with hitchhiker’s guide. finally. so help me God.
posted this a week ago on twitter. so far i think ive been productive in other things, including upping my game levels in the mobile x-men battle of the atom game hehehe and ive caught up on the all new x-men title with the time-displaced original x-men. it’s like reuniting with your favorite uncles in their teenage forms, including vintage costuming. suspension of disbelief helps here. the time and space continuum in the comics is just shit like the continuity in GLEE, including the ages of its actual actors. for the x-men, as long as cyclops continue to brood, im fine.
cyclops still does it for me, especially his current older self with the kick-ass costume. theyve already killed off professor x and wolverine. jean grey is currently dead and her younger self is dealing with her developing powers and all the convoluted events in her “future” and killing off an entire galaxy as the dark phoenix. younger cyclops has gone off to join his father out in space (and this runs off in another title) and corsair is constantly featured topless. ive no qualms about that obviously. equality for all. chos.
hopefully the next step is to actually pick up a book and be committed to read it. ive so many books in my college that ive never actually gotten to read (or have started and never finish) and is just cultivating mold in boxes in my room (and sometimes used as props for tvc shoots). hello gabriel, i missed you. i might actually get to pick this up again and finish it. pray for me.
another week off facebook and all other social media forms of distractions. tomorrow ill see how far i can stay away from twitter as it is currently my only connection to any form of national news, aside from the regular doses of online rants from friends, witty quips, and the occasional naked pics.
cheers and more later.
we’re roughly midway shooting through the 2nd episode of regal film’s widely anticipated horror anthology, shake, rattle, & roll, now on its 15th version. carlo and i are working again with jerrold tarog (director), mackie galvez (cinematographer), and benjamin tolentino (editor). we did our first SRR episode years back for punenrarya (blogging about that here) and got a lot of notice for that episode, especially from the brilliant performance of our lead, carla abellana. this time she’s back working with us along with dennis trillo, john lapus, and the magnificent chanda romero. watch out for SRR 15’s 2nd episode in december 2014!
it pays to do research. while learning more about places worth visiting in bangkok i would come across a few articles mentioning the rot fai market. night markets are a dime-a-dozen in southeast asia and the biggest night market in bangkok is the chatuchak. however, little is said about rot fai except that if you were to look for vintage items, you would find them there. i enticed faisal, my friend based in bangkok, to bring us to this haven and on the 2nd day of our stay in thailand, we did find ourselves in rot fai (train) market.
and by a lot, i mean, this was the motherload! it’s like cubao x in manila except rot fai market is maybe 10 times bigger (about 6-8 long warehouse stretches of shops in brick) with so much more stuff . the shops are so gorgeously designed and their wares so nicely curated, it’s a pack rat’s candy store. except it’s as big as a mall. an outdoor big-ass mall.
look at all those trucks! most of the stuff on display is in pretty good condition (unlike the stuff we have left in manila). i did not bother asking for prices because it would only break my heart knowing i did not have money for them. waaaaah.
drool all you want, for a production designer it was practically disneyland! the shop owners were nice and allowed me to just take photos. and shoot i did. they also had the regular tiangge market and a food area. when we were there, a real muay boxing match took place in the middle of the parking lot. more pics on that later.
rot fai market is open from thursday (opens late afternoon) all the way to the weekend. previously, rot fai market was located near chatuchak but it has since moved to its current location in Srinakarin Soi 51, behind seacon square shopping mall at the west side of bangkok. get more information here.
im tired. emotionally, spiritually, physically, creatively. and social media is white noise, loud and empty. yesterday, i deactivated my facebook account. in times when im in this conflicted restless anxious state, i get off facebook and keep only twitter and my blog for sending out smoke signals when i need to. i tried to deactivate my instagram but there was only a delete option. without batting an eyelash, i went for the delete. no more instagram. my avoidance of the greater watering hole of online society tends to go for only a few days. i do hope i get revived faster than usual. i make no promises. what do they say about wizards again?
totally unrelated photo of ET being “bathed” by steven spielberg. cheers and have a happy, fruitful life. go read a book or something.
benjamin padero 