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.
i booked plane tickets for my art department staff around august last year so they could join me in my mindanao birthday celebration this year. i planned out a week’s itinerary for them, most of whom never stepped on cagayan de oro before. this list of activities included white water rafting and ziplining. unfortunately, about a week before we were to fly out from manila, we received news of a tragic accident resulting to the death of a bohol tourist while rafting in cdo. i tried to tame down fear by explaining this is an isolated case–only 3rd death in 17 years since the rafting industry came about; happened also on friday the 13th (june 13 2014). yes, superstition but whatever. eventually i got the group to agree on no rafting and instead do a tour of camiguin.
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ive been to camiguin in the 80s and then around the year 2000. this would only be my third time there. the place almost hasnt changed and that’s a good thing. what’s also great about the place is it doesn’t cost much to go there. here’s my attempt to persuade others to visit camiguin by listing what we spent for this year (june 2014).
to get to camiguin from manila, you can take the plane to cagayan de oro. promo fares on cebu pacific normally are issued out 6-8 months before the travel period. after taxes and surcharges, one would be paying PHP1500++ promo fare round trip manila-cagayan de oro (no check-in baggage). normal plane rates run around PHP6,000 round trip if purchased maybe a week before a flight, cebupac or pal (pal is normally more expensive by p200 haha). upon arrival at the airport, take a shuttle (ranges PHP 150 to 200 per head) to bring you to the city 30 minutes away (normal drop offs are at centrio mall or at limketkai mall).
from wherever you are in CDO, take a cab or jeep to agora market. ask to be dropped off at the bus terminal or where the vans going to balingoan pier are located. cab may be around p100. jeep is 7.50 per head.
there were 11 of us in the group to camiguin. the barkers struck up a deal with the driver (normally, you wouldnt be able to talk to driver until later not unless you have contacts) and explained to us the van had a 14-person capacity and they were charging us 1,650 package rate for all 11. we agreed, got on, and van immediately left for balingoan pier.
we wanted to leave CDO early and hoped to arrive at balingoan pier around 10AM (cdo to balingoan will take about 1.5 to 2 hours) but we got out of the house late. it’s always a challenge herding a large group especially on vacation where schedules are mere suggestions. the driver did assure us we’d catch the 11.30AM boat in balingoan pier. and we did.
upon arrival at balingoan pier, we headed straight to the ticketing office. ferry tickets to camiguin (benoni port) cost around P150 per head. plus P2 environmental fee. plus p2 terminal fee.
we arrived at camiguin’s benoni pier around lunchtime. a driver with a multicab was supposed to meet us there (i made reservations prior). right when the boat approached the pier, porters started coming up the boat including a guy who came up waving a sign with my name on it. “that’s us.” we followed the guy who led us to a purple multicab and endorsed us to the driver from the resort we were staying at.
the day before leaving for camiguin, my brother-in-law and i were already in contact with the owners of paguia resort (contact number 0917-310-7085, look for ruel) and we booked for a big room/house that would fit our group of 11 for only P2000 a night, including an extra bed. the same resort also sent out
the film we worked on for about a year of our small, insignificant lives (compared to fallen heroes who fought for our liberation) just released a teaser trailer! sharing with you a glimpse of the biggest movie we’ve all worked on, so far! i give you jerrold tarog’s HENERAL LUNA!
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directed by JERROLD TAROG cinematography PONG IGNACIO production design BENJAMIN PADERO & CARLO B. TABIJE music JERROLD TAROG editor JERROLD TAROG catering JERROLD TAROG free coffee JERROLD TAROG sunscreen JERROLD TAROG (kadaghan bas imo ngalan diri JERROLD TAROG) screenplay JERROLD TAROG ED ROCHA HENRY FRANCIA producer ED ROCHA executive producer FERNANDO ORTIGAS
please like our HENERAL LUNA facebook page.
i saw the trailer a few weeks back and i was excited for this. i totally forgot this was by luc besson when i went to watch LUCY this afternoon with my mother. i was a major fan of the professional and the rather quirky fifth element with corbin dallas multi-pass. the concept of maximizing human potential was interesting but i felt its writing in LUCY could have been more thorough and more fleshed out. the visuals were interesting enough but kubrick did a much more spectaular job in 2001: a space odyssey. having said that, scarlett was perfect for the role, with her raspy alto voice, and morgan freeman, for always being there when you need him. as i said, i forgot luc besson directed this film and while watching the movie, i kept saying, this feels like something luc besson would do. the pace, the damsel in distress, the empowered female, the basic feel of the movie, the french police and the car chase through paris, the musical score (by longtime collaborator eric serra), even a korean version of gary oldman. btw, included in a montage is a snipet from the philippines of our cebu prisoners dancing. and maybe another scene that involved delivering a baby (could also be any southeast asian country though). 3.5/5
a lot of people on facebook (at least in my facebook news feed) have developed an annoying habit of sharing stuff from annoying websites like viral nova and sfglobe feature videos and articles with slogans that annoyingly challenge your curiosity to click on and see if it really will “blow your mind away, literally!” the content may be cute or interesting but what gets my goat is really the way they present stories that if you do not click on, you’re gonna lose half of your life. come on!
screencap of san francisco globe
i have to screen stuff all the time and well, today i found myself reading up on food waste in europe and how supermarkets can help out. the Philippines do have food waste but since we’re a much smaller country, i feel our food waste is still manageable and our daily produce somehow do end up somewhere where people still eat them. but still, a larger percentage of the food that have wilted or turned brown while in supermarkets and palengkes stay there until they are really bad and will have to be disposed. i heard that in SM supermarkets, a supplier has to keep his shelf fully stocked all the time. i wonder where the stocks that have wilted a bit would have gone. in palengkes, we do see that vegetables that dont get sold eventually just turn bad and then gets dumped. now i hear the philippine market is opened for imported produce from the states.
read on Veggie Tales: U.S. Fresh Vegetables Now Available in Philippines
is this really a good idea? we’re already dealing with so much surplus (not everything gets purchased and consumed) amidst poverty and hunger plus our farmers are already struggling to grow perfect vegetables that will fit the supermarket standard (good enough for a photo-shoot). it’s bad enough we are importing rice from vietnam instead of investing on our rice farmers. i think we cant really afford to have competition from importers. and we havent even discussed GMOs here.
so today i was also reading up on this supermarket’s goal on selling the not-so pretty vegetables and educate the public that these are totally the same as their pretty counterparts. they are just as nutritious and ok for consumption. and selling them at a cheaper price is a great marketing strategy to lessen europe’s food waste.
this other website talks about the first german grocery that attempts to lessen packaging by selling wholesale items into tingi-tingi, the same idea as our sari-sari store, except the store is prettier and they cut out excessive packaging. click on the photo for the link.
how are you as a consumer? do you have a healthy balance of purchasing from supermarkets and palengkes? here in katipunan, we have 3 choices of supermarkets: Rustan’s Fresh, SM Save More, and Shoppersville. of the three, rustan’s is obviously more expensive. their vegetables are pretty but that’s the premium of a high-end supermarket and obviously they are more expensive. SM Save More is cheaper and some packed vegetables are less in quantity so you get it “cheaper.” i like that shoppersville is not a chain supermarket and has been in katipunan for a really long time! their stocks are great and i really havent done a comparison but i think their vegetables are priced cheaper than SM Save More’s. if you really wanna go cheap, take a cab to marikina market and even if you compute transportation fare, it still comes out cheaper than having shopped at rustans, i kid you not. we once spent P1000 ($23) on vegetables and a few crabs, fish, and chicken (including cab fare). had we gone to rustans, it would have set us off at around P2300+ ($53). how smart a consumer are you?
outside rustan’s in katipunan, there’s a fruit and vegetable stand where i sometimes buy my bananas after having shopped at rustan’s. lemons in rustans are p20 (46cents) a piece while the guy outside rustan’s sells his lemons for half the price. and they’re practically the same kind of lemon. which would be a smarter choice, eh?
we havent even talked about purchasing local and cutting down on carbon footprint. i once tried purchasing local products instead of my usual brands and i did find very minimal differences, or none at all. instead of colgate for toothpaste, i picked happy (produced by ACS, a filipino company). instead of head and shoulders, i tried human nature (pretty awesome local brand selling all-natural, organic products but slightly expensive). our products are as good as their imported counterparts. we’re just programmed to think imported is always better, unfortunately.
ive ranted enough. my blog is really going nowhere. one minute i talk about movies or set design then i talk about something like this. i should get back to regular programming.
benjamin padero 