One of those few occasions when I like both the song, the music video... and the parody video.

Who Knows Who Cares

Local Natives | Who Knows Who Cares | A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

h/t Barry

Need You Now

Being a big fan of sports, fun and Cut Copy, this video was inevitably enjoyable.

Cut Copy - "Need You Now" from stereogum on Vimeo.

Tourettes Karaoke: Erasure's "A little respect"

At first I felt guilty at laughing at this video. Then I read about him being married, having two kids, and I found myself feeling that life is affirmed by all this cussing. Good job buddy.

hi!

Cut Copy released their latest album, Zonoscope. If you're on Twitter, you can log in and listen to it stream here.

T. Enami and new music

I've always felt that photography was meant more to make one curious about the world we live in, rather than explain it all away. That's not a modern or post-modern take. Even at it's conception, photography was already doing that. Which is why I have a thing for early photography

I found T. Enami via The World's Best Ever and you can learn more about him, and see more of his photos HERE.

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Thanks to my buddy, Barry, for giving me the heads up. I'm now listening to the new Shout Out Louds album, and looking forward to the new The Magnetic Fields album (which is described as folksy).

a day for the absent

I woke up this morning, before 5am, and I found pictures of you. I sometimes forget we have lives of our own, until I see pictures of you.

I remembered that, yesterday, while buying a gift for my dad, and books for myself, that I had also gotten Outerhope's second album, a day for the absent. Quite apt for the morning I'm having, and their music is helping me ease into the day.

And so I'll take this chance to say that Outerhope's launching this new album this weekend. Details here.

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Like I was saying, I was getting a gift for my dad yesterday. It was his birthday. My dad says that by May next year, he'll retire from the job he's had for over two decades. I seriously doubt that, but my wish for the man is that he'll find some time for rest and what whatever else this life has for him. So I decided to get him a book. Picking one out was a bit of a task.

I first considered stuff by Dumas or Chabon but thought he might find them frivolous or irrelevant. Then I thought about brainless fun like Tom Clancy or Dan Brown but decided that he might find them too pedestrian even for a former Reader's Digest fan. I considered non-fiction by Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens, but that's really more about me than it is about him. Finally I found Manila, a photography monograph by Ricky Davila. Which is perfect since it's about shared things: photography - my dad used to shoot, gave me my first camera, lent me his old lenses; and Manila, the city we both love.

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I woke up this morning, before 5am, and I found pictures of you. I sometimes forget we have lives of our own, until I see pictures of you. But to be honest, I'll be fine.

Last Saturday, I did make it to those two album launches. Right after the Us-2 Evil-0 set finished at Mag:Net, I ran over to Saguijo in time to catch the last opening act pack up their gear, right before Musical O's set. A set which I didn't finish by the way. I was dead tired. Ended up in Hap Chan with bad dim sum but great milk tea and chilled taho.

I'm so happy for Us-2 Evil-0. Half of the band are my friends and I am proud. I don't know the Musical O kids, but they should be proud too.

By the way, look at these awesome album art. Both album art were photographed and designed by the brilliant couple at Everywhere We Shoot. You can say all you want about the Philppines. Yeah, the country is a madhouse ran by madpersons. But we make music and art that kicks serious ass. I don't plan on being any where else (except, maybe Hong Kong or New York, and just for short periods of time).

debutantes

Two bands are launching their first albums this Saturday.

Musical O is launching their debut album at Saguio.


Us -2 Evil-0 is doing theirs at Mag:net High Street.


Do they really have the word, "debutante" on both their albums titles? Try and make it to both!

So Much Excelsior

Owel Alvero, guitarist and song writer for one of my favorite bands, Ang Bandang Shirley, released his solo EP, So Much Excelsior, online and for free. Listen to, and get it HERE now.

I've had this since last month, so I've been remiss in saying that I enjoyed Zach Lucero's album, Fall Crash Infect.

My friends at Sputnik have been tag teaming me into getting Apol Sta Maria's "Alamat Ng Panget..." Making it to Cubao X last Friday with some actual cash in my wallet, I finally got my copy. (Only 200 bucks and less than 10 copies left!) This crudely drawn collection of crass visual and verbal gags belie the intelligent commentary this comic makes on life and art itself. Ramon De Veyra writes a better review here.

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I miss writing entries here compared to the inane little things I post more often at Twitter. It's a bit of mind job how the Internet can actually be used to minimize information by spreading a whole lot of it. The possibilities of the Net is uselessly endless.

I also miss baring my heart online and in public. Haha. I remember when posts in my old blog were just rawer, intense and personal. I miss it, but I don't think I'll ever do that again. A major part is that I really am old...er now. Thirty really isn't the new twenty, no matter how much we package and market it to be. You know why I know that? Because I gave up my old camera backpack and bought the same version but with wheels. (Also, the old camera bag is for sale. Check it out here. End plug.)

Back to the baring of one's heart. I don't think I really miss public and online emotional seppuku. I just miss the fact that I, once upon a time, could.

I live in the city where people are conscious of the company, or the lack of it, that one keeps. I say that because whenever people find out that I sometimes watch movies or take lunches by myself, I get funny looks, or comments about having to have friends, or what not. I have friends, great friends, even. But I've also figured out how to do a lot of things alone, and there's some sort of fun and/or comfortable solitude to be derived from it. You get to do things on your own time, you get to get some reading done.

One of the things people should do alone is to watch gigs. I tried this out last night when I arrived at a gig around an hour before any of my friends showed up. I sat in the back, at the bar, among fellow stragglers. These people seemed to be there for the music,which is how it should be in this city of scenesters. I know for sure one guy was in it for the music. He was the band's manager. Haha.

Anyway, last night, for some time, I took comfort in being an anonymous appreciator of the experience of music played live. And it's cool that, among us sitting in the back, there is a camaraderie from this shared experience that manifests itself in the exchange of knowing looks and heads starting to nod to the beat as one.

do you hear what I hear

My brother and I, despite a five-year age gap, get along on many things. We both like the same Star Wars trilogy (sequels, damn the prequels), and we both enjoyed reading Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy plus the succeeding duology. In fact we like Star Wars so much that, one time, while having the car tuned up, we got into a full blown argument over the Force, whether it functions as a religion in the SW Universe, and if that's a good or bad thing.

We like other stuff the same way too. Like this 90's Civil War movie, Glory. We both enjoy quoting from The West Wing, and we have annual viewings of the whole series, usually over greasy pan pizzas. We both grew up reading The Chronicles of Narnia, and took turns sharing our one copy of The Lord Of The Rings.

Even if he is younger, I try to get his opinion on a lot of stuff ranging from hair product and politics. We see church in the same way (a waste of precious weekend downtime), and I can ask him if my tie matches my suit. We both like eating except he works it all off while I... play poker and run NBA fantasy leagues.

Anyway, we both think of each other as fairly rational, level-headed people. We have mutual respect for how the other thinks, arrives at his conclusion, and expresses his opinion.

But, I cannot, for the life of me, understand his choice in music. And the confusion is mutual. He likes Justin Timberlake, Jason Mraz and Maroon 5. I like Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene and The Magnetic Fields. He says he loves pop and is proud of it. I say he loves pop and I hold his choice in contempt. I say I like my independently-produced alt/folk/electronic/shoegazer/displaced era music, and he calls it obscure and hipster. He likes the craftsmanship and production value of his music, I like the raw authenticity of mine. Hell is other music.

The only possible common ground is some OPM. Most of the time, it's relatively peaceful. Until we're in one car with one iPod hook-up. Then there can only be one.

Sleepyhead

Passion Pit "Sleepyhead" from MySpace Transmissions


You can download the songs from this session from the Myspace Transmissions site.

young adult fiction

Barry: Alam mo yung pains of being pure at heart?

Me: Ano yan, band?
Barry: No, yan ang current emotions ko.

That's how I found out, just recently, about the pretty cool, My Bloody Valentine-influenced, earnestly-named, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart.

POBPAH for short.

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I saw Greg Mottola's Adventureland last night. I wanted to see it for four reasons. One, it's set in a theme park, and theme parks really look great in mixed lighting. Two, it's a period piece! Set in my home decade, the 80's. Three, Yo La Tengo features prominently in the soundtrack, a soundtrack with a lot of 80's stuff that you didn't get from The Wedding Singer. Like Rock Me Amadeus. And four, it's written and directed by the guy who did Superbad.

Like Superbad, Adventureland is a coming-of-age flick (oh, reason number five) wherein characters navigate the choppy waters of post-adolescent life, wherein money and dreams, and sex and love, as always, weigh heavily on everyone's hearts.

I like how there is this whole bunch of actors who are providing an alternative honest and great performances to the well-chiseled bodies and botoxed faces of Hollywood. We've got that guy who played the older brother in The Squid And The Whale. We've got that girl who played Jodie Foster's daughter in Panic Room (and, hmm, Bella in Twilight). We've got that guy and girl from SNL, and this other guy from Party Down. And we've got, well, Ryan Reynolds in just about everything now.

Anyway, Adventureland is showing only in Ayala Cinemas and probably won't last more than a week. See it now.

Remember that crazy MGMT video for Kids? The one with a freaked out kid surround by monsters that scare even me (easy task, actually)? The one I posted above? Anyway, one of my favorite blogs, We Love You So interviews the director Ray Tintori. I like director/photographer interviews, so enjoy it here.

Also, I haven't been writing much, I know. I've been thoroughly enjoying being home. I know I've only been away for some three weeks but it's like I've gone nutty. I drive myself and I look for things that have changed. A lot have apparently.

Yet in the face of little upheavals I am, surprisingly, optimistic. Weird, really. Maybe because despite everything else, it's good to be home and be among you all again.

boys and girls in america

Yesterday could have easily been a bad day on this trip of mine. It started off wrong early. But I managed to catch one of my favorite bands, The Hold Steady, in Williamsburg, where I withstood moshing kids and flung beer, to listen to powerful music played by a hard rocking band.

My day ended on Lia's two-seater couch (which I have come to know and love), sleeping in my unbuttoned jeans, drenched in the sweet scent of dried, fermented barley. It was glorious. Life 3274, dead empty existence 304.

I want to kiss this girl, sorry.

Lately, I've had nothing to say, other than post stuff about movies, music and photography. No new epiphanies or realizations. No poignant experiences or life defining acts. It's because Twitter has taken over my life.

Or maybe it's because things have been all right. Meaning, I've been very happy to live my life the past couple of weeks, and I really can't be bothered to write about it. But I will try.

I know it sounds pathetic to say this, but maybe Star Trek started it off by just being awesome.

Then work got going, checks started coming in, and, professionally, I'm satisfied. At least approaching the first half of this year. I'm also happy to be finally on a very promising book, after many false starts. All those books I mentioned here, I swear to you, I haven't been able to finish more than half of them. But this one now, Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, is dense and fascinating. I like the challenge of reading it, and I like it when staying on it pays off.

I've been catching some good music live too. I saw Sleepwalk Circus and Encounters With A Yeti just this past week alone.

Also the NBA Playoffs have been the most fun and exciting in recent years. I like it more than last year, even with Boston and Lakers were in the Finals. This year, and at this point it's the conference finals leading up to the Finals, it's full of exciting match ups and awesome games. Even as everyone assumed that it would be a Cleveland-LA showdown at the end, peaking teams like Orlando and Denver (Chauncey!) are giving them a serious run for their money. I just saw a well-made documentary about the opposite yet same demigods that are Kobe and LeBron, and their stories are truly inspiring. Or at least Nike tells me so.

But it really is a good series, and when people ask me who I'm rooting for, I say, without an ounce of bullshit, that I just enjoy watching these guys compete. Basketball, with the glory of winning and the obliteration by defeat, is a purifying experience. The drama is true. If I had to live my life, earning a (lucrative) living, just being one of those talking heads on ESPN, who cover game after game, I'd be very content. It doesn't get any better than that.

Also, I will be taking a three-week vacation in a couple of weeks. I don't deserve it. In fact the whole expense of it, compounded by the fact that I'd be missing out on work for such a long time, was making me sick. Then Star Trek came along and made me love life a little.

I'll be visiting New York again, after, wow, five years. And I think I will take immense pleasure revisiting old bookshops and favorite museums. I will check if my favorite deli is still on the corner of Park Ave and 17thE, get a sandwich and flavored water, and eat it at Union Square like I used to. I will go back to Central Park and finally find "IMAGINE" on the ground. This time around, I will be hanging with great friends, and it should be funner. Then I'm off to San Francisco to attend an uncle's wedding.

I just saw Bottle Shock, and while it's an okay movie, it made me want to go to Napa Valley again. But this time, I want to go off the wine tasting route and just head off to the real vineyards and take more pictures. Then back home to Manila for my brother's birthday.

The next six weeks of my life have been planned. And while that somewhat terrifies me, at the rate I'm going, I'll probably be all right.

David Byrne Live EP

Hey look! I can embed David Byrne's awesome EP!