Guess who came back unscathed from the torturing heat of sauna-esque Manila...

I had a blast at the 33rd Annual United Architects of the Philippines Convention (Link warning: shield your eyes from the tacky twinkling headline) Everything was fabulous... well maybe except for the fact that we were treated like meat. Meat, in a sense that we were moved (No I Know What You Did Last Summer meat hooks involved) from one huge freezer to another transported using mobile refrigerators known as "air-conditioned vehicles". I am all for the movement against global warming but I don't think I could have survived 10 minutes in Manila without air conditioning... I have hyperactive sweat glands, we Baguio folk just ain't cut out for hot-humid lowland weather y'all.

I am not a spell-freak, heck I don't even proof read my blog entries. But upon registering, I couldn't help my inner editor from cringing when I saw the convention ID.


Did you notice the unfortunate typo? And it's in all IDs... tsk tsk.

Our three day weekend of debauchery was beyond my comprehension. I found an inner source of stamina I never knew I had. Just when I thought I couldn't possibly get dressed and go out anymore, a sponsored night out had me picking clothes from my trunk... I never refuse free booze... from friends and paint manufacturers alike.


Me, Dona and Tine in one of Malate's bars... Bars are Malate's mushrooms, they spring up everywhere regardless of the availability of sunlight or parking space. Smoking beside a gas dispenser was a first. I'd post more pics but they're pretty much predictable not to mention redundant. (Us eating a Cabalen's... Us eating at Rai Rai Ken... Us getting liquored up in Dencio's... Us getting plastered in Tropezz... Us getting smashed in a friend's condo... etc. etc... The dionysian life baby) We always found ourselves checking into our hotel rooms by 4 in the morning... like clockwork.

Our days, or what's left of them, were spent at World Trade Center attending (okay, sitting idly) seminars. Most of them appeared interesting on paper but between the inaudible sound system and the newspaper textured catered food, they didn't hold our interest very long. So the CONEX 2007 (Convention Exhibits) were a perfect diversion/ way to spend the remainder of the day. It is here we are introduced to new or improved construction materials and technology (and freebies to boot!) One particular exhibit that caused a stir was a stall that showed a 3d printer. I have seen the technology on TV but never in person... I was starstruck. Here's a "print-out" of a prototype rubber shoe sole.


It uses powdered plaster and a solvent of some sort to bind the powder. It costs helluvalot but I want one!

Our early evenings were spent at the Manila Hotel. I couldn't help but strut like Sydney Bristow on a black ops heist whenever I walked the hotel's plush carpets, especially after I go through the metal detector. Being in a lobby of people clad in suits and sayas has that effect on me.


The last night in the Manila Hotel was particularly memorable. First, we saw a handful of distinguished architects wearing superhero costumes (a contest) They went all out with unflattering white leotards and red spandex. There was a flash and a "mini-me" flash, a mutated wolverine that looked like Winnie the pooh, and several incarnations of Lastikman. Second, Boysen (a major sponsor) showed this TV ad for a new antibacterial paint they were marketing. It's an interesting product, but the ad was frickin hilarious! It was a beyond miserable adaption of House, MD. The main character is a pompous dufus named Dr. Home. That alone had me going stark laughing mad, add the ridiculous one-liners and the background music and I was sure I had lost my sanity.

Lastly came the raffle. I have the worst luck with these things as I've previously blogged about. The grand prize was some something inch LCD TV, which someone from another chapter got. The first set of prizes they handed out were file cabinets. YES, File Cabinets!!! We were laughing our asses off when we heard about the prize. The instant communal image in our heads were those huge clunky metal file cabinets we all grew to detest. That was the first raffle I've ever participated in where everyone, in our table at least, prayed not to win. A couple of my friends kept saying "Mananalo ka! Promise!!!" (You will win) I just crossed my fingers went to my happy place. The raffle drawer announced that third one to win the prize came from our chapter, we were pointing at each other like deranged witch hunters... dramatic pause waiting for a drum roll... and irony of ironies... my name resounded from the speakers. My instant thought was "Fuck!"... and my second thought became "Fuck it!". I am not one to bow down to the humiliating powers of a file cabinet. So I rose with as much grace as I could muster and walked gingerly toward the stage to claim my prize. It wasn't the clunky metal file cabinet we thought it would be... It's a whole lot smaller and is made of plastic. It has found a home in my room now... a tangible manifestation of my abhorrence for raffles.



And that was how I spent my weekend.

FYI, my camel made it back to Baguio safe and sound as well.










.

Labels: architecture, blah (3x), i-rate, nyt-out, travels

Kaffeeklatsch is literally "coffee chat" (in German). This is the type of casual convention, small talk and especially gossip enjoyed by housewives who meet in the afternoon for a cup of coffee. Wikipedia.

We weren't housewives, nor did we meet in the afternoon, nor did we have a cup of coffee, but Joanne and I did our fair share of Kaffeeklatsch-ing last night at Caffeeklatsch. The C to K first letter change is probably a copyright thing, according to Wikimapia, there are established Kaffeeklatsch coffee shops in Alabama and Chile.

I met my friend Joanne last night for dinner at Pizza Volante. (Volante is Italian for flying... nope, they didn't throw pizza at us when we ordered them) I haven't seen or talked with her in a year, so over Mussels in Red Sauce, Vegetarian Pizza and a couple of fruit shakes, we caught up with each other's misadventures. We went to Caffeeklatsch after.

Joanne and I share a special weird kind of friendship defined mainly by laughter and flatulence. We make fun of each other, at unknowing strangers and of anything as mundane as a weird looking lamp.


Klatsch Brewers (I think, this is what I decoded from the vocalists words) played that night. They were a good acoustic ensemble reminiscent of MYMP, although with a male singer. I wouldn't be a band groupie, especially when they didn't know the songs I requested, but I wouldn't mind coming back to hear them play. I liked their renditions of Stitches and Burns (Fra Lippo Lippi), Mahirap Magmahal ng Syota ng Iba (Apo) and You to Me are Everything (The Real Thing)


Caffeeklatsch is a unique establishment in terms of its interior. Studying for five years makes architecture graduates harsh critics of the buildings we visit. We'd give reviews of restaurants we frequent and shops we go to. The professional credo states that "I shall confine my criticisms and praises within constructive and inspirational limits", but I'm sure you'll criticize it too when you need to limbo when you enter a door or when climbing a staircase requires you to bend your knees at 90 degree angles.


The mezzanine low ceiling, approximately 5'-10" because my head nearly reaches the ceiling, the humongous beams, the trip-prone spiral staircases and the low-watt light fixtures are worthy of criticism, but in the case of Caffeeklatsch, it works. These elements add to the cluttered, cozy hominess of the coffee shop. It is like a hobbit bar. I love stylish clutter: mismatched chairs, an assortment of decorations and conversation pieces strewn here and there. There is always something to see and something to talk about.


Some things didn't escape the subdued critic in me though, the shaking mezzanine floor when someone walks and the weird shaped comfort rooms with low doors. But the good clearly outweighs the bad... Be sure you include a night spent Caffeeklatsch-ing when you visit my city.

Labels: baguio, cafe, nyt-out

Yesterday evening, I met my married friends Rai and Cheerie. It was a pre-birthday celebration for both of them. Rai's is on the 11th of September, he was dancing and getting drunk when 9-11 happened. Cheerie's is on the 13th, and when she was pregnant with Asti, we all hoped he'd be born on the 12th but it was a gestative impossibility. The great thing about Rai and Cheerie is you never felt like a third wheel when you were in their company and we never ran out of things to talk about.

I was at their hotel room sometime around 9 in the evening. I haven't seen them for about a year, they live now in Manila, but still I felt like I just hung out with them yesterday. Bert arrived. After catching up with the latest things Asti did and work and whatnots, we were headed to Cactus Bar. Rai was a regular there during our college days. He was/is an amazing bassist. Think of the songs of Kala and you'll get not only a good idea of the music his band played but also of his personality.


Syd Barrett Would Rock and Roll in his Grave

We were extremely disappointed by what the bar is now. It used to be one of the places-to-be, everyone dressed to kill, great local bands, beautiful people... beautiful music. Now, mediocre is an understatement. I haven't been checking out the local live-band scene lately, my friends and I now go for the bar with background music kind of scene. I guess its one of those growing-up things.

The other so-called happening places now are usually jammed with incoherently noisy gangster wannabes. I could appreciate, and even really like, some aspects of hip-hop culture like music, clothes and expensive jewelry (I am irked by people with no African-American heritage saying "bling"). However, the whole need for stabbing, unlicensed guns and a thirst for violence escapes me. I thought night outs are for good times and not visits to the hospital emergency room, I guess they changed definitions without me knowing.

Thankfully, Cactus Bar wasn't one of these places. It just became bland and boring. The torture did come, but in another form. The oily-haired, looks like he just came out of bed vocalist sang Another Brick on the Wall... terribly. This was an insult to Pink Floyd. I get the "image" he's trying (or not trying) to portray, but c'mon, take a bath for pete's sake. The greasy hair looked good on Ethan Hawke when he sang I'm Nuthin in Reality Bites, and you dear... are no Ethan. When the vocalist did Elvis' Suspicious Minds we paid the tab and left. How many songs must he murder?


A Hop, Skip and Jump

Across the street is 18BC, another buzz worthy bar during the golden era of barhopping aka our college days. It was a viable contender of Gimbals for the yuppie demographic then. Gimbals is now closed... a big loss *sigh*. It didn't seem as full as it did outside. We spent just a short while in the outdoor waiting area when a group of Koreans left. As we sat on the same red metal chairs, it felt like a time-loop... Nothing about the place changed. Well except maybe for the fact that the crowd was 50% Korean.

Koreans come to Baguio in droves! Mainly for a cheap English language education. Cheerie is an English tutor and we talked alot about the misadventures of the profession. How it all starts with a point-point teaching methodology, and later a barok type of English defined mainly by the use of nouns and verbs and the absence of prepositions and grammar. Bless these Koreans for giving us another source of employment. I find them a pleasant people always smiling and very fashion forward. I have yet to make a Korean friend to know what they are really like. All I know about them are the Koreanovelas I don't watch.


Space Flower and Access Band

Space flower is an amazing Ska band. Each band member, nine of them, wore suits and did something different with their head. One had dreads, another a semi-combed-over mohawk. One had a golfer's hat, another a fishing hat.


The vocalist looks like a chubbier Alan Cumming (fabulous shades included). As I've learned from a friend, any song can be Ska-ized(?). They did a couple of Bob Marley songs, some Frank Sinatra, some originals (really good), and some pop songs. When they did Lady is a Tramp, Cheerie and I wanted to get ur hair done and "dress to the nines" and use phrases like "I do declare".

Access Band is as much a staple in our bar scenes before as beer was. That night they did their memorable renditions of Half Crazy, Universe and Bongga Ka Day!.

We were so glad we changed bars. We left while Space Flower played Putre-ska's Manila Girl appropriately changed to Manila Boy to match the vocalist's gender. And on the other side of the road on our way to the hotel, we heard another ghastly rendition of a rock classic at Cactus.


Chasing Cars

On my taxi ride home, a dog out of nowhere was chasing us. I've always seen this strange canine behavior on TV but I never actually saw one. He chased us the whole length of Legarda Road. It made me think that a dog chasing a car was much like a generation gap. You hear about it but never really know what it is until it chases the taxi you're in. My mental juxtoposition of the bar scenes during my bar-hopping days and the current one made me realize I'm old(er). However, thanks to 18BC I'm comforted that the spirit of my bar era is still in a way, alive.

I hummed Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars in my head as I watched the BMW infront of us with its top down. I felt like I was in a 007 chase sequence and I was a back seat passenger in the villain's car.


18 BC Bands:
Space Flower Friendster Page
Access Band Friendster Page



Oh yes, before I forget. I was tagged by J. I'm gonna make this long post even longer!

6 Random facts about me:
1. I answer try Yahoo! crosswords everyday.
2. I hate the beans they put in halo-halo.
3. The first novel I read is The Prince of Tides.
4. The one I'm reading now is David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day.
5. I have a Spice Girls cassette tape. (don't ask)
6. My left hand is rapas. (a straight line running across my palm)

This tag ends here. I saw this meme on a lot of my regular reads already. Breathe a sigh of relief fellow bloggers...

Labels: B-days, baguio, memes, music, nyt-out, quarterlife

What is slower, more frustrating and mind-numblingly boring than watching paint dry?

My internet connection. The wi-fi service we have here at home sucks... big time! (I'm not saying what it is... but it isn't SNART) After the choppy connection a few days ago, today, it is totally down. Customer service is, of course, not gonna knock on our door anytime soon.

So... desperate to send some CAD drawings to Ma'am A for a split-level house I was drafting for her, I've resorted to a more archaic method... dial-up. I had to switch back to the old Yahoo! format just to access my mail. The Beta was just too much for my 28 kbps connection.

While waiting for my e-mail attachments (which took forever), I played minesweeper, which as I've come to realize is THE most infuriating game ever created! I have developed an aversion for yellow smileys. I played a gazillion games (Files Attaching: 50%) My minesweeper success rate: 0%. The smiley with X'es for eyes when you hit a mine is just plain sadistic!!!


Finally sending the e-mail, I dared to blog. My blog took (yes I timed it...) 10 minutes and 17 seconds to fully load on firefox. I had a bloghopper advise me once to truncate my long posts and reduce the images I upload so that my blog would load faster on dial-up connections... now I know what he meant (but knowing how stubborn I am, it won't happen)

You have to give me credit for "fighting spirit"... despite the ghastly connection, I was able to blogroll a bit, leave comments and now post an entry. SNART needs to fix the problem post haste!

My only consolation tonight is that I have a Bamboo concert live on my radio. Thanks to 97.1 WLS. I discovered this Manila station when I was looking for 96.7 K-lite. Thanks to this station I can listen to live rock concerts in Manila, which sadly, are rare here on my pine covered plateau. Bamboo are (is?) singing songs from "Light, Peace, Love" ("Truth" baby, and "Much has been Said") and some from "As the Music..." ("Masaya" great track) and some old school tracks from Rivermaya of the 90's (214, Kispamata, Elesi... the good stuff)

I saw Bamboo on concert early this year and the new funky Bamboo (the vocalist) is a demi-god! And... (All hail!) Ira Cruz (bow before him!) can make that guitar sing better than anyone in the industry to date.


My dial-up connection isn't half as bad when you have Bamboo in the background... If only I could win a game (just one game!) on blasted (pun intended) Minesweeper.

Labels: blah (3x), filipinowledge, i-rate, music, nyt-out

Another rainy day in Baguio. That didn't stop me from enjoying the day, all I needed... my trusty umbrella and a gang of rambunctious friends.

4 pm. I met Tine and Ely to buy die-cast Volkswagens for our friend CA who was gonna celebrate her two-week delayed birthday celebration later on in the night. That's one of the things about growing up and having jobs, we rarely celebrate birthdays and even rarely do we celebrate them on time. The beetle matchboxes were requested gifts and CA was registered at her favorite novelty matchbox shop.

We had 5 hours to kill. I stayed up late because of Wikimapia, so I still felt a little groggy and disoriented. I needed a caffeine fix. So we checked out Paliz Zata, a new cafe our friend Joyce raved about. It was at the roof top of Porta Vaga, a mini-mall (I'm using mini here... Philippine malls keep getting bigger and bigger)

We decided to take the long route. Tine, Ely and I sharing one umbrella. Tine and I actually had umbrellas of our own, but we were just too lazy to bring them out of the warmth of our bags. We passed by The Baguio Cathedral and I had to take a picture.


The cathedral looked so ethereal with all the mist. The usual pastel pink walls were diluted by the fog. The church looked so majestically neo-European. We reached the cafe, the lower part of our jeans soaking wet. It was a nice cafe overlooking Baguio and had a revolving-restaurant-ish ambience. We chatted about personal stuff and pondered the structural integrity of the cafe which was 75% enclosed with glass. Wind pressure, glass thickness, beam-window connections... stuff I won't bore you with. I'm pressing the fast forward button...

7 pm. We met Joyce at the Filipino shopping hub known as SM. Malls... I have mixed feelings about them. We decided to spend the last two hours in a cinema rather than strain our calves window-shopping. A feel-good movie was in order, we needed to tune ourselves for the party. I wanted to watch Click but Ely already saw it, second choice was...

My Super Ex-Girlfriend

This movie raises the question:

If you had super powers, what would you want them to be? AND... would you use them on worthless scum like your exes?

Achtung! I blabber too much, I might say some things that would spoil the movie for youif you're planning to watch it.

Uma Thurman plays Jenny Johnson aka superhero G-Girl. Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) hits on her in a subway. A thief snatches Jenny's bag... Matt plays knight in shining business suit. G-Girl who does most of the saving, get's saved (in a way) for once. Jenny gets infatuated. Matt fulfills a fantasy after Jenny discloses her identity. Jenny thinks she fell in love. Matt discovers he's in love with someone else. Matt breaks up with Jenny... awful idea. Jenny becomes psychotic, vengeful ex-G-Girlfriend.


What I Liked:

1. Uma as G-Girl is like Beatrix Kiddo on Prozac. She had the best looking superhero costumes, chic but save-the-world-functional.
2. Uma as Jenny... Her portrayal of neurotic Jenny Johnson was reminiscent of dear dear Noelle (The Truth About Cats and Dogs) The usual Uma roles are defined by wit, confidence and excellent articulation, and on these rare occasions where she plays depressed and desperate characters, she becomes all the more lovable.
3. Luke Wilson plays an architect.
   
4. Rooting for Matt and finding G-Girl a psycho one minute, and then completely changing your mind: Finding Matt pathetic and wanting G-Girl to shove that chainsaw up his ass.
   
5. Matt's bestfriend played by Rainn Wilson (Six Feet Under)
6. Anna Faris made the friends that should be lovers thing with Luke Wilson's character work quite well, she is so much better when she under-acts. During the last 15 minutes of the movie, she fell back to her pigeon hole... as Cindy from the Scary Movies.
7. The best thing about this movie for me is the humanization of superheroes (which is what made the last Batman movie, the X-men movies and the Spiderman movies really good) Years of keeping a secret identity can make you paranoid, untrusting and neurotic. Superheroes can also have their hearts broken, they can be petty, they can be desperate and they can use their powers for personal reasons.
   

What I didn't:

1. Luke Wilson playing a normal, tax-paying and clumsy character usually works for me. This time it didn't.
2. The in-your-face humor of Wanda Sykes was underused.
3. The transformation of flashback Jenny into G-Girl should've been okey but they decided to add an increase in her bra cup size as a part of her transformation. Women who have bigger boobs have "super" powers in a way... but having that idea plastered on a movie screen is just tacky.
4. A more charismatic and memorable actor should've played Bedlam... someone along the likes of Jack Black or Matt Stone.
   
5. The last 15 minutes of the movie were predictable and uninspired. Everyone ends up happy of course.
   

My new movie rating system: Haha Value (Entertainment Value), Hmmm Value (Intellectual Value) and Sniff Value (Emotional Value)


All in all, My Super Ex-Girlfriend is an excellent feel-good movie. Watch it if you like movies like Shallow Hal, There's Something About Mary and Mystery Men. It may not be a life changing movie, It only engages your brain a little, but it has definite Entertainment Value.

It served its purpose for us. I left the cinema in party mode. We arrived at Red Lion, 10 minutes late and found out we were the first ones there. Drasted Filipino time. We waited at the bar... and actually had a fun time watching the bar tenders mix drinks and falter every now and then.

One hour and 30 minutes late, our extremely tardy celebrant arrives. We already had a couple of Millers each on her tab. Ok lang... Birthday mo naman eh. Beer, Pulutan, Marlboro Lights, Die-cast Volkswagens and great drinking buddies. It was an awesome night/morning.

Happy Two-Week Belated Birthday CA!

Labels: B-days, baguio, cafe, movies, nyt-out