These bottles of Soda Pop from The Pop Shoppe look so old-School-Cool.
Not surprising if you consider that they’ve been around since the 60s!
Bonus: the 2 flavors are both ultra-faves! Hello Root Beer and Black Cherry!
Oh the joys of new discoveries that pop!
She's officially a Social Media Influencer, and it's so gratifying to see that she's using her influence for good. In particular, she was one of the speakers on the topic that's close to her heart - Cancer Awareness.
Watching her talk, it's easy to see why she has a lot of followers. She's very engaging and approachable, and she really resonates with young people, and they're majority of the audience members yesterday afternoon.
Ah yes, the things you discover on Netflix!
My latest binge watch is this singing contest hosted by Tituss Burgess from "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt". It's a show entitled "Sing On!"
It's such an addicting show, that I found myself sitting through one episode after the next.
Will this be my new binge watch?
Oh, it's on!
Today is the last Friday Magic Madness of February, which also means that it's the last "Heart" themed song, at least for this year. Or maybe not.
With so, so, so, SO many great songs with "heart" in their titles and lyrics, it's such a challenge to choose a song to feature today. Several questions came to my mind while choosing the song:
- What decade should it be from? Should it be from the 60s, 70s, 80s or 90s?
- Should it be a ballad, a jazz song, a dance song?
- Is it a local, US, or European act?
In the process of thinking, I suddenly remembered the film from a few days ago, "The Prince & Me." This film featured a Danish Prince. The people from Denmark are also called "Danes." And when the word "Danes" pops-up, a favourite singer from the 80s who I've written about several times already, comes to mind.
And with that, our "Heart" song for today's FMM is...
Yes! "Tell it to my heart" from Taylor Dane!
You don't need to tell my heart that this song is awesome. It was awesome when I'd listen to it as a boy back in 1987. It's still awesome listening to it now.
Nope, this isn't about that iconic animated series from the early 2000s.
But make no mistake, I loved watching that series.
This is about another series that was the subject of my binge-watching this weekend - "Next in Fashion."
Simply put, "Next in Fashion" was Netfilx's foray into "Project Runway" territory. It was a fashion design reality show featuring 18 designers - both established and aspiring - vying to be the next big thing in fashion.
What's interesting about the cast of this series is that some of them are actually quite famous in their hometowns. Designers like Angel Chen who already has multiple stores in China and is considered a young fashion wunderkind at home. There's Daniel Fletcher who's also the Creative Director of Fiorucci. There's Marco Morante who has a big following in LA. And that's just a fraction of the cast.
So, to say that this was a competition of the best-of-the-best could be considered an understatement.
Among the 18 designers, there was one who really caught my eye from Episode 1. She's the very humble, very unassuming, yet supremely talented Minju Kim.
Minju Kim is from Seoul, and her design aesthetic was very true to her roots. She was unconventional, innovative, with an eye for prints, patterns and proportions. Even the way she dressed during the competition was very Seoul.
She wore a lot of loose clothes, jumpers, aprons, long sleeved shirts with pants, and a lot of layering. She also was very Asian in a sense that she didn't want a lot of attention, she was very self-effacing, and would be genuinely surprised when she won a challenge.
That's why it was such a joy to see her when she (Korean) won everything. (Sorry, I couldn't help it. Harhar.)
Yes, Minju Kim is the Next in Fashion!
Her winning moment was truly magical. And I've watched and re-watched that moment several times the past few days.
Now, I have to find her store the next time I go to Seoul.
The past days, I've been playing flims on Netflix while working. Call it multi-tasking, but it's fun to turn your head to a nice film as a breaker from reading emails and doing layouts.
Yesterday and today, the movies that were playing were oldies but goodies. They were comedies from the mid-2000s, and they were very fun and feel-good films.
Aside from those factors, there was also a thread that connected these 2 films. They were both set in EU countries.
The first, "The Prince & Me" from 2004. This is about a Danish Prince who studies in Wisconsin to try and find "wild college girls from Wisconsin." But what he found was love. (More cheese, please!)
Bonus: this stars one of my all-time fave actresses - Julia Stiles! More on her later!
The second, "Wild Child" from 2008. Basically, it's the story of an American Girl who's exiled to a British boarding school, and this is where she learns more about herself.
Watching these 2 films, it makes me smile when I think about how uncomplicated yet compelling movies are back then.
Now, I have to look for more films of the same genre during the same time frame. Methinks that EU streak must continue.
Let's start with the elephant in the room.
Today is 2.22.22!
And it's supposed to be a Palindrome Day. Better yet, it's Palindrome week!
Since we're in the subject of 2s, today's blog is something about 2 - particularly, 2 years ago!
While looking for a white shirt in "the stash," I came across this Zebra-print pants that has been there for 2 years already! It turns out that I haven't gotten around to giving it to Ate.
And in the same moment of discovery, there was a loose, black shirt from Penshoppe that also hasn't seen the light of day.
We all know what happened next, of course.
Just like the first outfit made from these pants, this new - and more casual - ensemble is also less than a thousand bucks. Heck, it's even cheaper than the original outfit since this black shirt was bought during a super online sale.
Ah, the looks you find when you're not looking for them.
Since we have some plants in our garage, it's not unusual to have little insects flying around.
Due to this factoid, we always make sure to have Katol in the vicinity.
And because having a Katol is now the norm, we thought of making the Katol experience easy and aesthetically pleasing.
Which led us to these:
A Katol-holder that's shaped like a wire cage, and a lighter gun to make the lighting of the coil easier.
Now, having a Katol at home suddenly feels cool.
For a time, JLo was one of the queens of RomCom.
Like millions of film viewers, I smiled and swooned at J. Lo in "The Wedding Planner," "Maid in Manhattan," "Shall We Dance," "Monster in Law," among others.
But it's been a while since we last saw her in this genre. And admittedly, we miss her!
So, there's a giddy thrill when the trailer for "Marry Me" dropped. Plus, the film already opened in theaters in the US!
This is a surefire rom-com formula. There's JLo, then there's Owen Wilson - another rom-com stalwart, then there's the "Notting Hill-esque" plot of a superstar and a regular bloke falling in love.
Hope they show this in Manila soon. Or at least in Netflix.
I'm down for it!
No, this isn't a post about that awesome song by U2 and Bono. Which, by the way, has an equally cool MTV.
This post is about this cake:
It's a sweet concoction with an equally sweet message printed on top. And yes, the message is from our go-to karaoke song by The Turtles.
Happy Valentine's Day!
No, this isn't a post about Madonna's iconic 80s song.
Though I like that song a lot. And my 2 sisters used to love dancing to that very infectious pop tune.
This is about a book that I've finally gotten around to start reading.
A book that chronicles the evolution of dresses, "The Dress: 100 ideas that changed fashion forever," is such a rich resource for anyone who's interested in fashion.
It takes the world's biggest dress trends and tracks its historical context - some as far back as the Ancient Egyptian times. It clearly shows how fashion has evolved, but at the same time, is still rooted in the rich history of the generations and races that have come before us.
Another thing enjoyable about reading this book is that it features some of my favourite fashion designers and some of the breakthrough fashion moments. From Paul Poiret to Madame Gres to Paco Rabanne. From Issey Miyake's pleats to Dior's "New Look" to Azzedine Alaia's body con dresses.
Reading this is making me want to bring out my sketch pad and start doing my chicken scratches again. And hopefully soon, those sketches can be brought to Joy who will bring them to life as dresses.
So, there are 2 big things happening today.
First, it's the Feast of our Lady of Lourdes. Which is a very important date for me since I'm a Lourdesian and this feast is close to my heart. Memories of my grade school and high school days, hearing mass and having Marian celebrations defined this day for me.
Second, it's Friday Magic Madness day! And as explained last week, all of my FMM songs this February will be "Heart-themed."
Which brings me to this perfect song that combines the Feast Day and FMM Day. A classic song from Phil Collins from 1985.
How can this song not be perfect?
Being a Lourdesian and a devotee of Our Lady of Lourdes will always be in my heart.
Finally, Mark was able to visit the new shop in Katipunan early this morning! And Ate Bullet and the family were so glad to see him.
Bonus: we were able to have a good and heart breakfast there! Courtesy of Ate's excellent cooking skills, of course.
Here's to more get togethers at Dexter's/Bite The Bullet/Kuro soon!
There’s truly a plethora of awesome memories I have of Tokyo and Japan. That has been well-documented on this blog.
But one of the daily, quiet memories that I cherish are those ordinary and daily trips that Mark and I would take on either the JR line or the Marunochi Subway line. This was often from IH2 to GRIPS.
During those daily rides, while waiting for the train to arrive, Mark would usually sit down and i’d Be scouting the nearby vendo machines for something to buy.
One of those things that I often get is this Salt and Lychee drink from Kirin.
I’m a huge fan of Lychees that’s why this drink is always on top of my list. Along with Fanta grape.
Not only do I buy this at the Eli, but whenever Mark and I would go to Lawson, Mini-Stop, 7-i, Aeon Supermarket and other obscure konbinis, i’d buy this drink whenever it was available.
So, imagine my thrill and surprise when I went to the Japanese store near the house and found this:
It's my Kirin Salt and Lychee drink!!! Mark would understand why I'm so psyched about this. Harhar.
Cheers to finding this and getting to enjoy it again.
It's safe to say that I'm one of the few people who actually like pickles.
As a kid, I'd always raid our fridge for the bottle of mixed pickles, pickle relish and dill pickles, and actually eat these as a snack.
In college, as a crew member of McDonald's, I'd always ask for extra pickles on my sandwiches. And if my co-crew members removed the pickles from their burgers, I'd be the one to eat them.
One of the reasons why I'm so into Triple O's so much is the fact that there's a huge dill pickle outside the bun and on top of the sandwich. Same appreciation with Tropical Hut and how they put big slices of pickles in all their sandwiches.
So, imagine my thrill when this product became available at my snack haunt!
Pringles Dill PIckle!
Although I haven't tried it yet, I'm sure this is going to be a big dill. Oh, I meant deal!
Gosh, this is one of those: “I wish I wrote this.” Moments.
And I can almost hear Sheilah Marie shouting: WITTY1!!
