reborn

Ok, so some of you probably seen my “blog” in blogspot.com, that one have not been updated for quite sometime, so am starting all over again, and this time right here at WordPress.

I’ve decided also that I’m not a particularly good blogger unless I’m really inspired by something cool happening –and when something cool happens I usually want to enjoy it rather than worrying about writing it down. Or when I just need to share thoughts that going through my head.

So, though I pledge to do my best on the blog entry thing . . . I think most of the time I’ll just check in and let you folks know stuff that you might find exciting, inspiring, or intriguing. 

That’s kinda how I think the blog thing is going to work out for me.  I’d like it to be interactive.  I’ll check in and let you know what I’m reading, listening to, watching, or thinking about – then you (the collective ‘you’ out there) write me at thisfire[at]gmail.com and let me know what YOU’RE thinking, reading, listening to.

How’s that sound?!

Cheerio for now.

PS: Wrong grammar & spelling ahead, please feel free to point out.

deep fried vol. 6

it’s friday and i’m in love.. with deep fried!

yes, time to wear those dancing shoes and shake our groove thing!

deep fried vol. 6 - time to dance!

art & dance

If you’re looking for something to do that is different from your usual Saturday night, you might like to check out this two events:

 

ART:

 

DANCE:

sawasdee!

It’s nearly two years since I last visited Bangkok, and am glad to be back. Thailand is the second country I’ve been outside of the Philippines, and I remember how surprised I was back then, on why these people seemed happy & content with their lives, while back in Manila most people complain about their lives, even though there are people in parts of the world who are in worse situations. Maybe it’s Buddhism or maybe it’s just how Thais are.

Anyway, it’s good to be back in Krung Thep and I look forward in seeing some familiar faces & visiting some familiar places!

pride & joy

Happy (Gay) Pride to my brothers & sisters who were at the march yesterday!

If you are not from Manila, you probably wouldn’t know that Gay Pride is being celebrated here in the month of December, as the month of June is not an appropriate month for us, because it’s the time where our country experience frequent typhoons, so that is the explanation.

 

So this year’s theme is the same one, like the last two years, and it’s to pass the “anti-discrmination” bill in the Senate here.

 

This year, I joined the contingent of “Project Equality, spearheaded by no other than Jonas Bagas, who is confident as ever that this new grouping will fill the void that currently exists in the LGBT rights movement in this country, by taking action on several fronts. You can read about Jonas & his good-hearted fights for our rights here.

 

My attendance this year was un-organise, cos basically I didn’t put enough effort to have a group to go with me, so I went off alone. I arrived past 3pm already at Remedios Circle, where everyone joining the march conglomerates. It was nice to see some familiar faces, and one of them is a guy I met two years ago in the same event, Eon. He was with a girl friend named Jodie, whom I clicked with right away. So yes, I end up having the two of them as my company.

 

One of the new thing about this march is that for the first time in its 14-year history, the generally festive atmosphere was tarnished with placards and calls for “repentance” from church-based anti-gay protesters, which is strange, because the local church community would never engage in this manner. Yes, the protesters weren’t local, they’re foreigners. I mean come on, how can they be so sure that “god” approve of what they’re doing?! Good thing that the progressive and gay-affirmative Metropolitan Community Church opposed them with banners emblazoned with the apt retort “Would Jesus Discriminate?”.

 

Of course, the bitchy in me couldn’t help it, so I also shouted back “God couldn’t careless!”. And Eon sarcastically joined with his “Ugly people can’t go to Heaven”!.

 

I guess this was all perfect, because it’s happening, to put it philosophically.

 

Anyway, as the march ended the three of us had a  break, over a cup of coffee at Cafe Adriatico, yes, we decided it’s better to support a local company rather than the monster Starbucks coffee shop. And it was just oh so fine. I had a real & juicy conversations with Eon & Jordie about things that excites us and all.

 

After spending an hour or so with them, I told them I had to go to a Christmas party in the area, so we agreed to meet after, for a dance in the street of Orosa, where the program & dance is happening.

 

So I arrived at the Christmas party, of this apartment block alone and with no-one that I know that well. I was fortunate enough to be invited by Chiqui whom I met the week before at her stall in Legaspi Village, yes the Organic Market that happens every Sunday. Chiqui welcomed me in her place so warmly, that I felt at home already. She introduced me to all the people in her flat, including her brother & his lovely wife, and also her charming father – whom I had a stimulating conversation about Buteyko, the breathing technique that I’ve been practising for the last 8 years and that I’ve been spreading the word about to support the work of my dear friend Jac. So that was that, and slowly but surely the room starts to be in action, people start coming & going.

 

Just to give the gist, every year when they have this Christmas party, the entire apartment block becomes “one big living room”, where all residents of each unit & their invited guests can come & go to everyone’s living room (and bedroom too).

 

Delicious food are served. All kinds of booze are up for grabs. And each living room have some kind of entertainment, from live jazz to live DJ performance, yes the whole thing was a trip. And I wasn’t even on drugs.

 

Familiar faces from media come and goes, Politicians and their kids lurks, Restaurateur and business people converse. Models and wannabes strutting their stuff. And me, overwhelmingly happy & blessed to be part of all this.

 

My plan to stay for only an hour or two, stretches up to 7 hours!!!, yes that’s how much fun it was for me.

 

The highlights for me in this party was 1.) to be toured around by Chiqui & Margarita, and seeing most of the living space of each resident, 2.) to hear a non-mainstream jazz singer bring the house down – thanks to Ms. Sandra Viray, you are the bomb! She did two Gershwin songs that I just oh-so-loved!, 3.) to have a moment with a little kid who was there, having fun at his age and just being “left in the middle” by his cool parent & aunt, and 4.) to be able to converse with people that I don’t have in common with, but ending up liking them, and managing a reasonable conversation, and even dancing with some of them. So that was a good social exercise for me.

 

Thanks to you Chiqui, and of course Karen & Mikko for having me introduced.

 

So after 7 hours of my stay at the party, yes I still managed to keep my word and followed Eon & Jordie at Orosa Street, where the two of them are dancing their shoes out. A few were dancing on the street but not enough to call it a scene, I guess some people are still shy & not-so-willing to let their hair down.

As the night progress, Eon & Jordie are in & out of Bed, where they’ve been dancing, I didn’t go in, cos I thought the 400 pesos door charge was rather expensive, I know that they sponsored the event & all but I didn’t that amount is quite fair, but I guess I was just in a stingy mode.

 

Anyway, I was happy to mosey the street of Orosa, look out for familiar faces, which I happened to see some, so I came up & greet each one of them with “happy pride” smile, some are responsive and some are plain as day, uninterested.

 

I also waited for Eon’s main squeeze for the night, Earvz to arrive at the party so he can join us for a last minute dancing.

 

It’s 5.am when we left Orosa, and a big night out like this needs some topping up of lost energy so how do we do it, we topped off the night by having a snack at Aristocrat’s Cafe at Rajah Sulayman, it was an unhealthy thing to do before going to sleep, but I know my game anyway, and I would never go to sleep with full stomach, so I was happy to let go and just joined in. After gluttonising, we bid each other goodbyes & head off to our direction.. home.

muscle up!

So yesterday, my friend Cam & I decided to finally enrolled in a gym near her place, we’ll try it for a month and see how we go. Cam, would like to trim down and i’d say i’d like to tone my body some more, so yeah we paid the 800 pesos monthly due, I thought it was cheap enough.

 

Today was our first session, and I’d say it was alright. Our instructor who happened to call himself, Love was helpful enough. Cam hit the treadmill & I hit the weights, strangely enough I didn’t remember “warming up” first, which was not pointed by the so-called instructor, but pointed out to me by my very dear friend Jac, who had a history in going to gym. Well the point is, the 800 pesos didn’t include “private instruction”, so I can’t really complain. Now I know.

And no, I’m not turning into a mascula-doll or “gym bunny”. :p

elysium

Two days ago, I organised my second Alanis Morissette FoE party, the Rockla Edition.

(Rockla means gay people who likes rock music). There were quite a few people who express interest but of course, only one or two of them confirmed on the actual day of the event, so for practical sake, I put it off for next year and instead turn it into a different kind of party. I invited Cam whom I’ve met 5 years ago online, digging the same interest and that is Alanis, it’s funny because it took us a few years to really hit it off as buddies.

So I told Cam what happened, and so we opted for “party no. 2″, which is to hang out and talk/listen about Alanis. We were later joined by a friend Mikhel, whom is not-so-familiar with Alanis, and so we don’t have a choice but to have him swallowed a Jagged Little Pill, hahaha. It’s fun to see how he melted his inhibitions and how the three of us became at home in this high five. And yeah, we were giggling again for no reason. 

 

Fast forward to a few hours later, we were joined by Cam’s friends who came and brought some firewater, and yeah we been on the sauce for an hour or so. It was nice though, sometimes you just need to stop being in fine fettle and drink like someone under the table.

 

Thanks to Basol, Martin, Alden, Mike and Cam for sharing this wicked jollification.

2008 lgbt manila pride march

Come and walk with me.

come & walk with me

deep fried

After a big day doing workshops with Jac, then attending a pretty out there birthday celebration of our dear friend Ling, at the Green Papaya Project in Kamuning, we topped off the evening by going to Deep Fried, which is a monthly dance party organise by the man behind Groovenation and Terno Recordings, no other than Toti Dalmacion. Toti used to do Consortium back in the 90s, which I have to admit I’ve not heard of, and sadly was too young to be attending, thanks to his blog I was able to go back in time. 

 

Anyway, Deep Fried is a must for true, open-minded and adventurous house-heads who want more than the usual dance music played in regular clubs in town, this is the event where you can dig, good quality modern electronic dance music. So make sure you come and shake your butts with us next time.

 

Thanks to those lovely people whom I once again bumped into the dance floor, and to you Toti D., I salute you for your perseverance!

 

For more info on Deep Fried, click here.

baguio

 

Finally, I managed to visit this cool, laid back place.

Its like a dream come true for me as I’ve been wanting to visit Baguio since my enthusiasm in travelling started.

 

Originally my plan was to travel alone & be adventurous. But two days prior to my leaving Manila, one of my closest friend Cam, texted me to ask what I’m up to over the (All Soul’s) weekend. I told her that I’m going to Baguio, and she said “let’s go together”, and so I thought “why not?!”. So I just put aside the whole plan of travelling alone and being adventurous – philosophically, this shows that in the end, it’s already decided for us.

 

So Cam booked the accommodation, and we agreed to meet at the Victory Liner bus terminal here in Pasay at midnight.

I got to the bus terminal before her, so we agreed that I should go ahead and get us tickets, which I did but the next bus trip that was available is not until half past two, so without any fuss, I bought the tickets and Cam arrived shortly. The ticket from Pasay to Baguio cost us 460 pesos each, by the way.

 

So while were waiting for our bus to arrive, we sat in the cafe in the terminal, and kill time over a can of cold Red Horse beer, and Cam & I chat away.

 

It’s past 3am when the bus left the terminal, and we’re off. Bus trip to Baguio could take up to 5-6 hours travel time normally, but the bus were on took nearly 8 hours!

Cam said normally, it would only stop twice – but the one were on stop thrice. So there..

 

We arrived nearly lunch time, so we checked-in at the hotel that Cam booked, Hotel Paladin. It was a reasonable twin sharing room that cost us 900 pesos a night. The room we got don’t have a window, but who cares – we didn’t plan to stay inside anyway. So after settling our stuff, we head off to have a bite at Cafe by the Ruins, which apparently is a “must place to eat” when you’re in Baguio. So we ordered, Cam had Pasta Carbonara, and I had the Meatballs Spaghetti – it was good as I expected. We also tried the special Kamote bread, delicious!

 

After feeding our hunger, we walked slowly to the direction of Burnham Park, which is another thing to do, to really experience the place.

It’s Saturday noon, and a lot of people are out and about in this park. Lovers holding hands, kids running around, and some family gathers in one corner picnicking.

 

It’s refreshing to see kids enjoying the outdoors, instead of sitting inside their houses glued on watching television and/or playing video games. Do I sound like a mother? lol

 

After awhile we head off to Tam Awan Village, which is a small village that showcase local art, dance, etc. It was happening – some people were watching this Ifugao dance, some are being sketched by a local artist, and some are cruising the village to look at the actual habitation of the old Ifugaos. 

 

After roaming around the village, and watching the dance & checking out the art gallery, we crossed the road to Arko ni Apo, which is an Art cafe.

 

And while inside, I saw this familiar girl and blow me down, it’s Tenten. So we gave each other kisses and all, and apparently she have company, Milos & his crew (Ace & Raul). Milos was shooting a documentary about this artist who’s name escaped me.

 

So while at Arko, we agreed to have a coffee, Cam had the Soya coffee and I opted for the more appropriate, Baguio coffee. Yes, I do love caffeine!

 

After our lovely time, we bid goodbye to Tenten & Milos, and agreed to possibly meet up at Nevada Square for drinks.

 

As we head back to town, we decided to have a early dinner. And so I suggested to Cam, that we eat at Volante’s Pizza. This was a recommendation by Armi, but as it turned out it’s also on Cam’s list of places to eat. So perfect! I ordered some salad, and the Armi recommended pizza, Chilli-con-Carne. It was good but Cam is not an onion fan especially fresh one, so when she bit the pizza, she shrieked, lol. Anyway, the food is excellent and if you’re going to Baguio, dont forget to include it on your list.

 

After awhile, I was exchanging text messages back and forth with another friend who also happened to be in Baguio, his name is Eon. We agreed to meet up later in Nevada Square for drinks, so it looked like it’s going to be a crowd. Surprisingly, while we are in the middle of dinner, Eon & his lovely guy Jayce, popped in to say “Hello”! I thought that was sweet of them.

 

After dinner, we walked our way back to the hotel, to recuperate and get ready for our night outing! Along the way, I purchased this Rasta-colored knitted sweater from a sidewalk vendor, which I thought was a perfect fit for me. Then Cam, took me inside of shopping stalls better known as Ukays. I got entertained looking at all these clothes, shoes, etc. That’s when my desire of getting a pair of leather boots popped out, but after looking around no such luck for me. Cam ended buying some cool looking socks.

 

8pm and we’re back in the room, Cam & I agreed to have a nap. Two hours later, were up and starting to get into the mood of going out, and because it’s Halloween, Cam & I put on our own show, with the help of black lipstick and fake stitches. See pics here.

 

Of course we didn’t go out looking like that. We dressed up and we took a cab to Nevada Square. Surprisingly there was an entrance fee of 50 pesos to get in, apparently thy do this to keep the troublemakers out, mmm.

 

So there it was, music blasting from different directions. And there they are, on a sloping chairs & table. Tenten, Milos, Raul and Ace conversing animatedly.

 

We joined them and we chatted until we decided to check out “Friday’s” – which by the way is NOT related to the food chain. They went to an R&B club, as Ace wanted to shake his groove thing, and we decided to be with Eon & Jayce. This would be y second time spending time with Eon’s company and I must say it’s getting better. I met Eon at the 2006 Gay Pride and the rest is well, history.

 

So Eon and Jayce are an item, and this is quite obvious to me and Cam. I got a bit jealous looking at them cos they look so romantic together and all, but then again I’m not really the “romantic type”, well at least not in public. Haha.

 

Meeting Eon for Cam is like going into a ball of strings, he’s my acquaintance, he’s a blog-mate of Martin (Cam’s colleague/friend), and he’s a schoolmate in college.

 

Talked about six degrees of separation!

 

Past 2am when we left Nevada Square, and we talked our way to Session Road, where we decided to have a bite, and as much as I know it’s an unhealthy thing to do before sleeping, I put aside the “health conscious me” and just be in it. That was delightful, sharing laughs, talking about music and all with the three of them.

 

Sunday morning, our last day in Baguio.  Lunch with Eon & Jayce was penned at 12nn at Little John’s in Camp John Hay, which due to the growing population of Koreans in Baguio has been appropriately renamed Kim Jung Hei. We got there pretty much on time and waited a while for the couple, and waited to be seated, but to Cam & Eon’s disappointment, the must try “baby back ribs” is no more, so we opted for the all-day breakfast menu!

 

After lunch, we strolled our way to the Manor, looked around at its grandness and took some pics with my analog camera, yes the one with the roll of film!

Then we decided to sit down and talk awhile over a cup of coffee, and cakes. What a life indeed! 

I’m so privileged to be with people who don’t feel guilty that they needed to getaway, just to feel that they’re alive. And I think this is very healthy.

 

So my heartfelt thanks to Cam for being a delightful company, to Eon & Jayce for reminding me that “it’s good to be in love”.

 

And to you.. for patiently reading this.