IMAGES
great captures from my Cybershot
Happy Halloween!
Ciao! God Bless!
THOUGHTS ABOUT AVANT GARDE
THOUGHTS ABOUT AVANT GARDE
a post about art and film
Melbert's effort in portraying a vehicle.
Avant-garde.
The name itself is a primordial description of the past eighty to ninety years of modernist perspective on both the society and the arts.
The complexity of the realm of art dispossesses me in owning this commentary. There is always a sense of wondering, amazement of how disproportionate my personal bias would do in my analysis of this wave in art. Cultural discrepancies, sexual perpetration, language disinheritance, and borderline causality are some aspects that i'm quite aware of, not that it meant hell to make an effort in challenging this particular frame of history.
As a matter of fact, i must admit that most of my analyses are influenced by my emotional confections. This is what i speak here, that we are ourselves are subjective when it comes to opinions and to comments. The best way to justify the figure of art to one self is the establishment of an objective heart, which is impossible to do.
Thus most of my observations are base on my concrete emotional reaction to the topic.
Avant-garde is satisfactory enough to be considered a part of history. To be a part of history is to be the vehicle of change. The noise surrounding the political nature of history is engagingly important when someone talks about avant-garde.
Picasso, Pablo. Woman Playing the Mandolin (1909)
State Museum of New Western Art, Moscow, 1931.
There is a quest of freedom in avant-garde. This is not just the freedom to express one self, but also a political right to free from the blunders of political repressions. If one becomes a part of avant-garde one must break free from a lot of conventions. One must be free and free-spirited.
INFLUNECE OF AVANT-GARDE IN MODERN DESIGN
Twenty-first century.
Music is savvied with the new wave, EMO. It is produced by a cataclysmic effect in modern expression and has crossed borderlines of disciplines. The basic thought of EMO transpired to every design in fashion.
Notice this shirt.
Icarus. Manolo Yanes.
Photo Credit to him.
The complexity of the realm of art dispossesses me in owning this commentary. There is always a sense of wondering, amazement of how disproportionate my personal bias would do in my analysis of this wave in art. Cultural discrepancies, sexual perpetration, language disinheritance, and borderline causality are some aspects that i'm quite aware of, not that it meant hell to make an effort in challenging this particular frame of history.
As a matter of fact, i must admit that most of my analyses are influenced by my emotional confections. This is what i speak here, that we are ourselves are subjective when it comes to opinions and to comments. The best way to justify the figure of art to one self is the establishment of an objective heart, which is impossible to do.
Thus most of my observations are base on my concrete emotional reaction to the topic.
Avant-garde is satisfactory enough to be considered a part of history. To be a part of history is to be the vehicle of change. The noise surrounding the political nature of history is engagingly important when someone talks about avant-garde.
Picasso, Pablo. Woman Playing the Mandolin (1909)
State Museum of New Western Art, Moscow, 1931.
There is a quest of freedom in avant-garde. This is not just the freedom to express one self, but also a political right to free from the blunders of political repressions. If one becomes a part of avant-garde one must break free from a lot of conventions. One must be free and free-spirited.
INFLUNECE OF AVANT-GARDE IN MODERN DESIGN
Twenty-first century.
Music is savvied with the new wave, EMO. It is produced by a cataclysmic effect in modern expression and has crossed borderlines of disciplines. The basic thought of EMO transpired to every design in fashion.
Notice this shirt.
A typical emo-designed shirt.
photo credit by him.
photo credit by him.
An emo design can be characterized as circular in shape almost compressed in one part of the canvas. This art work is a transformation of the Avant-garde painting style of Picasso, the cubist and some symbolist painters. The combination of these styles collaborates the new art of EMO wave.
Icarus. Manolo Yanes.
Photo Credit to him.
The new trend in art for the 21st Centruy is, I believe, the transformation of the Avant-garde style into new forms of expressions.
INFLUENCES IN 21st Century MODERN FILM-MAKING
Romania. 2007.
Christian Mungiu exploded a new wave of Romanian cinema. This big step is debuted in his film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) which won Palme d'Or last year. it is characterized by long takes and magnificent movement of the camera to instill to the audience the realism of the new style.
This explosive effort of Mungiu was a transformation from avant-garde style of film-making.
Watch this movie clip and see what avant-garde film making is:
The film is made by Andy Warhol, one of most famous avant-garde film makers. it is entitled, Eat (1964). it is a 45 minute film involving a pop artist Robert Indiana engaged in the process of eating a cheeseburger at the whole length of film. The film has no sounds and it's filmed in black in white. It is purely avant-garde.
The Andy Warhol style precipitates in Christian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) which involve long shots to intensify characterization. The more the shots lengthen the more the audiences dwell into the emotional fabric of each character. The story has this deep portrayal of its theme.
This is a clip from Christian Mungiu.
IS AVANT-GARDE DEAD?
Avant-garde is not dead.
Most of film studies authors that i have read considers it a disappearing art movement left in 20th century backdrop. But, I believe that it is just being transformed into multitudes of different forms.
The challenge is to how we dwell and exist into these forms and how we honor it's roots - Avant-garde.
Ciao! God bless!
INFLUENCES IN 21st Century MODERN FILM-MAKING
Romania. 2007.
Christian Mungiu exploded a new wave of Romanian cinema. This big step is debuted in his film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) which won Palme d'Or last year. it is characterized by long takes and magnificent movement of the camera to instill to the audience the realism of the new style.
This explosive effort of Mungiu was a transformation from avant-garde style of film-making.
Watch this movie clip and see what avant-garde film making is:
The film is made by Andy Warhol, one of most famous avant-garde film makers. it is entitled, Eat (1964). it is a 45 minute film involving a pop artist Robert Indiana engaged in the process of eating a cheeseburger at the whole length of film. The film has no sounds and it's filmed in black in white. It is purely avant-garde.
The Andy Warhol style precipitates in Christian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) which involve long shots to intensify characterization. The more the shots lengthen the more the audiences dwell into the emotional fabric of each character. The story has this deep portrayal of its theme.
This is a clip from Christian Mungiu.
IS AVANT-GARDE DEAD?
Avant-garde is not dead.
Most of film studies authors that i have read considers it a disappearing art movement left in 20th century backdrop. But, I believe that it is just being transformed into multitudes of different forms.
The challenge is to how we dwell and exist into these forms and how we honor it's roots - Avant-garde.
Ciao! God bless!
TRINOMA: Singles Night (pt. 3)
TRINOMA: Singles Night (pt. 3)
post from the heart
FIRST BLOOD: STARBUCKS at the Garden
MRT is the shortest possible route from Cubao to Trinoma. So we took a ride.
Our cards get rejected by the machine. I thought we can never get out of the terminal! Glad we did!
Trinoma.
We went directly to Starbucks at the Garden, showing our desperate need to sit or to make 'tambay' (That seems too coño!) Or my desperate need for a Venti Caramel Macchiato. In any way, we really need a place to hang out while waiting for the not so ubiquitous Loiuse Larren Allianza.
Starbucks is really, really good place to hang out!
MRT is the shortest possible route from Cubao to Trinoma. So we took a ride.
Our cards get rejected by the machine. I thought we can never get out of the terminal! Glad we did!
Trinoma.
We went directly to Starbucks at the Garden, showing our desperate need to sit or to make 'tambay' (That seems too coño!) Or my desperate need for a Venti Caramel Macchiato. In any way, we really need a place to hang out while waiting for the not so ubiquitous Loiuse Larren Allianza.
Starbucks is really, really good place to hang out!
Clarke: Tall White Mocha Frappe;Adrian: Venti Caramel Macchiato
Almira: Tall Chocolate Cream chip Frappe!
Almira's effort to capture me while i capture her.
Ciao! God bless!
GRILLED: GREAT ECSTASY OF ROBERT CARMICHAEL (2005)
GRILLED: GREAT ECSTASY
OF ROBERT CARMICHAEL (2005)
recent DVD acquisitions
Ultra violence on the silver screen.
Who the heck is Robert Carmichael?
It was the first question in my mind after picking the DVD from Stall 1. The store owner asked me if i am into film-making. I told him i was doing a film blog. He said, "if you know Kubrick's Clockwork Orange, you better watch this." That time, a noobe on films, i didn't know any name like Kubrick. So i asked him where Clockwork Orange was and he gave me a copy. I bought the two DVDs in that single occasion for 150 pesos and just last Monday night i played the Great Ecstasy and God knows how i was astonished by the film content.
It was a tumultuous performance of the director, Thomas Clay! . it is even a more violating film in terms of socio-ideological position that Clockwork Orange. What the film has achieved is definitely a absolution of a sado-masochist form in film. The elegant cinematography is so effective that the audience will question themselves how much the camera's role have done. Thomas Clay uses a circumference long shot on the drug/rape room scene with precision enough to make your jaw drop. The scene was about 10 minutes in lenght. Imagine that!
The last scene pays tribute to Kubrick's breathtaking ultraviolent rape/rob scene. However, Thomas Clay extended this scene into categorically impossible heights in film-making. It offers a lot of question on morality and the role of the audience.
it offers a lot of debate in film-making. The absolute form of expression of sexual violence is at it's height here.
And I do not denounce the film for all of that.
I regard it as a triumph because it rectifies the whole mainstream of film making now a days. Mainstream cinema needs blood, and Thomas Clay gave it a dash with his GREAT ECSTASY OF ROBERT CARMICAHEL (2005).
Enjoy the trailer!
Ciao! God bless!
TRINOMA: Singles Night (pt. 2)
TRINOMA: Singles Night
(pt. 2)
post from the heart
CUBAO TERMINAL
Semester's break. Via taxi we rolled along EDSA towards ARANETA center to purchase tickets. Me, on Sunday; Almira, on a Wednesday; Clarisse, tomorrow! I am glad so glad that i didn't went home on Sunday, but on a Thursday!
Smile!
Relatively lower fare than any other legitimate bus in Cubao!
Ciao! God bless!
GRILLED: FRIDA (2002)
GRILLED: FRIDA (2002)
recent DVD acqusitions
A movie posterA film screen in a canvas!
Salma Hayek is breathless, possibly the most remarkable role she had ever performed as an actress.
Frida(2002) is a feminist film. Every position elucidates the power and right of a women. Frida's struggle as an artist and as a wife of Diego Rivera, a world-famous communist painter, expands the realm of her sensibilty as a woman character.
What i love about the film is definitely the make-up of Salma Hayek. Everything is artistically combined to produce a warm effect on screen. Hayek's costume adds to the vitality of the film screen making it as if it was a canvas. The play of color is immense.
Frida Kahlo's life is also colorful and vibrant. She was in a lot of pain. She suffered on a car accident which damaged her legs and vagina making hewr impossible to conceive. But her frustrations were channeled into her paintings. She was a towering achievement in Neomexecanismo Art movement for being one of the leading influence of modern Mexican art. Her styles varies from realism, surrealsim, and symbolism to represent and display her expressions about her sexuality and her pain, both physical and emotional. All of her paintings are very original. it somewhat touches the true fabric of her being.
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Ciao! God Bless!
Salma Hayek is breathless, possibly the most remarkable role she had ever performed as an actress.
Frida(2002) is a feminist film. Every position elucidates the power and right of a women. Frida's struggle as an artist and as a wife of Diego Rivera, a world-famous communist painter, expands the realm of her sensibilty as a woman character.
What i love about the film is definitely the make-up of Salma Hayek. Everything is artistically combined to produce a warm effect on screen. Hayek's costume adds to the vitality of the film screen making it as if it was a canvas. The play of color is immense.
Frida Kahlo's life is also colorful and vibrant. She was in a lot of pain. She suffered on a car accident which damaged her legs and vagina making hewr impossible to conceive. But her frustrations were channeled into her paintings. She was a towering achievement in Neomexecanismo Art movement for being one of the leading influence of modern Mexican art. Her styles varies from realism, surrealsim, and symbolism to represent and display her expressions about her sexuality and her pain, both physical and emotional. All of her paintings are very original. it somewhat touches the true fabric of her being.
.jpg)
Frida Kahlo, Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace
and Hummingbird, Nikolas Muray Collection,
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin
Enjoy the trailer.
and Hummingbird, Nikolas Muray Collection,
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin
Enjoy the trailer.
Ciao! God Bless!
TRINOMA: Singles Night (walking tall! Pt. 1)
TRINOMA: Singles Night
(walking tall! Pt. 1)
post from the heart
LAUREL AVENUE! It was almost 1:30 in my Lastikman watch, I walked at brisk pace. Walking so tall, reserved but giving, as if i was the only one there who is capable of higher understanding. It’s a typical air of a guy, mysterious, on offense, strict of his composure, and deliberately cordial, i plunge into a lot of people menacing my way towards the jeepney stop.
Blessed me! As soon as i got there, an SM North jeep just landed on my feet. I happily grab a space on that long, straight sit on the left with high expectations of my afternoon. I currently received a text message from my father that he already deposited my allowance for the next seven days. I am such a lucky geek.
So here came
My point of entry was
Walking as if i was a socialite-asshole like Chuck Bass i walked my Chuck (redundant!) Taylor shoes towards McDonalds. As soon as I get there I saw familiar faces. What a treat! They were my old friends from high school.
Ciao! God bless!
GRILLED: BABEL (2006)
GRILLED: BABEL (2006)
recent DVD acquisitions
Babel is a narrative that I was missing for years. The intensity of the drama, the culture clashes, and the voices that pleads for the ultimate validation, the film is riveting. Most of the drama of films comes from the characters; it is drawn from their will to live. The Will to live is being explored in the most sensitive, most explicit way of demoting the precise empathy for the story.
There are only a few moments for breathing. Yet that breathing is repressed, is defective, and is not an assured moment for a psychedelic nirvana. It is but a scintillating, depriving breathing that the viewers must endure. As an audience you are breathing as if that was the only breath you could have. The film explores fundamental themes of human beings. The way the themes were brought up in a complex realism using definitive symbolism.
The human empathy is constricted. Audiences should suffer multitudes of dissonance, fear, and doubts that the characters face. It is a rare phenomenon in cinema. The connection is highly intensified.
It explores the darkness in each one of us, human beings. It expands the darkness which have been preserved by our own capacity to hide it. Everything must be resolved, even our conflicts Human nature is enclave with fear. He must survive his own imperfections and tendencies. There is a reason to fear ourselves. We are responsible for our own extinction. Babel explores all of these.
So here is the trailer:
There are only a few moments for breathing. Yet that breathing is repressed, is defective, and is not an assured moment for a psychedelic nirvana. It is but a scintillating, depriving breathing that the viewers must endure. As an audience you are breathing as if that was the only breath you could have. The film explores fundamental themes of human beings. The way the themes were brought up in a complex realism using definitive symbolism.
The human empathy is constricted. Audiences should suffer multitudes of dissonance, fear, and doubts that the characters face. It is a rare phenomenon in cinema. The connection is highly intensified.
It explores the darkness in each one of us, human beings. It expands the darkness which have been preserved by our own capacity to hide it. Everything must be resolved, even our conflicts Human nature is enclave with fear. He must survive his own imperfections and tendencies. There is a reason to fear ourselves. We are responsible for our own extinction. Babel explores all of these.
So here is the trailer:
Ciao! God bless!
TRINOMA: Singles Night (Prologue)
TRINOMA: Singles Night (Prologue)
post from the heart
post from the heart
Single.
G:“I don’t believe in relationships.”
B:“Really?”
G: “I mean in relationships, ‘now’”
B: “What do you mean in relationships ‘now’?”
G: “I don’t know i guess between two teenage people, snuggling each other, hugging, kissing in public. Urrggg! I hate those stuffs.”
B: “Me too.”
G: “Exactly! You know what! From now on we swear to each other that we’d be singles for life.”
B: “I swear, my love.”
G: “Excuse me! What did you just called me?”
B: “My love, i called you, my love.”
G: “You are joking, right?”
Laughs.
Sunday at FRIULI: BEYOND MY EXPECTATIONS Part 4
Sunday at FRIULI:
BEYOND MY EXPECTATIONS
Part 4
a post from the heart
BEYOND MY EXPECTATIONS
Part 4
a post from the heart
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Welcome, O life!
I go to encounter for the millionth time
the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul
the uncreated conscience of my race."
----James Joyce (Irish Novelist, 1882-1941)
-------------------------------------------------------------
FOOD: PIZZA GALORE
There is a sense of warmth, a recoil from the degenerate pesto after being served two 2-in-1 delicious pizza. In an instant everything made sense for Keith.
Marinara! 
Pepperoni + All Meat. 
My plate, i just love the color play. 
Can you find the bloody star?
A closer look at the star.
Bill is bull. But then, it's just enough! After the treat we walk towards the street corner and surged into MiniStop Store. We ate some ice cream. Keith had a wonderful time.
How much is this 'heterosexual' to you? 
Just checking?
A moment of a couple. (ES 11 ba toh?)
Banal expectations. Keith amused himself by being alone in KNL (Krus na Ligas) Park.
Keith is this a pre-halloween date with a ghost? Creeepppy!
it seemed confortable waiting. Wag ka lang uutot!
LOL! LOL! LOL! LOL! LOL! 
Keith: "Ass!" Me: "What? i think i have a text message! "
Couple of a moment! (is there such a thing?)
Ikot jeepney and Oracle, whatever that is.Bliss!
Ciao! God bless!
Ciao! God bless!
Sunday at FRIULI: BEYOND MY EXPECTATIONS Part 3
Sunday at FRIULI:
BEYOND MY EXPECTATIONS
Part 3
a post from the heart
BEYOND MY EXPECTATIONS
Part 3
a post from the heart
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Welcome, O life!
I go to encounter for the millionth time
the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul
the uncreated conscience of my race."
----James Joyce (Irish Novelist, 1882-1941)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Continued from previous post...
FOOD: DISTURBING PESTO
Note: if you are a pesto lover, please skip this section.
In my attempt to entice my friends in accepting and appreciating the glory of 'the' pasta experience of Friuli, Gela, who also have the same idea in mind, and I ordered two PESTO servings.
Excited and hungry i played with toothpicks and drank a little Iced tea. The iced tea experience isn't that much great. I know that the trattoria (small Italian restaurant) is cutting some expenses so they served, as what I've theorized, a 3-in-1 Nestea Iced tea. It's as cheap as that, but i don't care if they served me powdered juice for like 60 pesos. That is not the most important thing here.
So the pesto arrived. I expected that the two, RJ and Keith, would be unsatisfied with the look of the pesto.
FOOD: DISTURBING PESTO
Note: if you are a pesto lover, please skip this section.
In my attempt to entice my friends in accepting and appreciating the glory of 'the' pasta experience of Friuli, Gela, who also have the same idea in mind, and I ordered two PESTO servings.
Excited and hungry i played with toothpicks and drank a little Iced tea. The iced tea experience isn't that much great. I know that the trattoria (small Italian restaurant) is cutting some expenses so they served, as what I've theorized, a 3-in-1 Nestea Iced tea. It's as cheap as that, but i don't care if they served me powdered juice for like 60 pesos. That is not the most important thing here.
So the pesto arrived. I expected that the two, RJ and Keith, would be unsatisfied with the look of the pesto.
Keith, eating the toasted bun. Not so interested in pasta. 
I still defended this pasta dish.I do remember eating pesto for the first time. I always wanted to achieve something different. Remember my post on my nostalgic memories, i made mention there that i had dinner with my friends in Friuli when i was just first year college or seventeen year old.
it was also my first time to go there. We ordered four servings of Pasta and four servings of Pizza and some juice to go with everything. Pesto was served the fourth next to Carbonarra. By just simply looking at it, one could tell that green is not a good color for food. This psychological reaction is a noble trait for human beings. Most of us tolerate the red to yellow part of the visible spectrum as delicious food. The green to violet part would represent sweets like candies and bubblegum; vegetables and fruits.
The tolerance to green pasta is low and disengaging. Once a person sees a green pasta would judge instantly that it also tastes bad and vegetable like. However, during that first encounter with the Pesto, i was not disgusted but astonished by that a pasta can also come in green color. It was a new experience, an adventure, a new beginning. This fancy words may be too much with my pasta experience. But it was true, i thought of pesto that way. I usually like diversions from conventions.
Too bad, I got negative feed backs from my friends:
RJ: "Pasta should not be colored green."
Keith: "Honestly! I didn't enjoy it."
it is sad that most of us would always fall for the conventional look of food. but then, what could people like me do if such conventions have a much stronger sense to the audience's eye?
it was also my first time to go there. We ordered four servings of Pasta and four servings of Pizza and some juice to go with everything. Pesto was served the fourth next to Carbonarra. By just simply looking at it, one could tell that green is not a good color for food. This psychological reaction is a noble trait for human beings. Most of us tolerate the red to yellow part of the visible spectrum as delicious food. The green to violet part would represent sweets like candies and bubblegum; vegetables and fruits.
The tolerance to green pasta is low and disengaging. Once a person sees a green pasta would judge instantly that it also tastes bad and vegetable like. However, during that first encounter with the Pesto, i was not disgusted but astonished by that a pasta can also come in green color. It was a new experience, an adventure, a new beginning. This fancy words may be too much with my pasta experience. But it was true, i thought of pesto that way. I usually like diversions from conventions.
Too bad, I got negative feed backs from my friends:
RJ: "Pasta should not be colored green."
Keith: "Honestly! I didn't enjoy it."
it is sad that most of us would always fall for the conventional look of food. but then, what could people like me do if such conventions have a much stronger sense to the audience's eye?
Ciao! God bless!
Sunday at FRIULI: BEYOND MY EXPECTATIONS part 2
Sunday at FRIULI:
BEYOND MY EXPECTATIONS
Part 2
a post from the heart
BEYOND MY EXPECTATIONS
Part 2
a post from the heart
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Welcome, O life!
I go to encounter for the millionth time
the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul
the uncreated conscience of my race."
----James Joyce (Irish Novelist, 1882-1941)
------------------------------------------------------------
Continued from last post...
JOURNEY TOWARDS FRIULI!
The air seemed crisp from the rain last night.
The sun's heat is billowing on the side walks.
Blanks faces strolled towards the Shopping Center.
It seemed peaceful walking at Laurel Avenue.
Gela: "Hi there little girl!"
Krus na Ligas jeepney station!
ARRIVING AT FRIULI
We arrived at Friuli at about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and the street is dead hot. The air is mixed with the peculiar air of urban life. Walking at Maginhawa St. seemed lonely. Nobody was around. But this melancholy was stripped from our consciousness after arriving at the scene.
Glorified by Friuli! 
RJ and Gela - together, as usual.
Gela, the damsel.
Keith, the sexual predator! Rawrrrr.... Joke! (LOL)
Roger Junior, the other damsel.
Me, the _______.
What exactly are you expressing here RJ?
Ciao! God bless!
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