My first Transformer toy was Sideswipe. He was a red Lamborghini Countach, and he was one of my favourite car characters along with Jazz and Wheeljack.
My Sideswipe was given to me as as a gift by my classmate, Cholo. And I still remember the ultimate thrill and joy I got when he handed that iconic, black Takara box which housed that toy.
That was more than 30 years ago, and a lot of things have changed since then. My Transformers collection was eventually given away to my cousins in the province. My interests shifted from robots to other things. My fandom for the franchise waned, especially after the movie series.
But last week, more than 30 years after I received my 1st Transformers toy, this was given to me:
It's the iconic, black Takara box - updated to the current times - and housing a Transformers car! Getting this brought me back to my HS days.
Transformers toys are really a transformative experience.
Interesting piece of trivia from mi prima, Esther. My nephew, Marcos, is an aspiring cobbler.
She showed me his shoe creations, and the boy has talent.
Because of that, I gave him a book on different iconic shoes and the shoe designs that changed the way they're made.
Then, my cousin asked me if I could find shoe tools that he can use. And because of the proximity of Marikina, I was able to.
Hopefully, these will inspire him to make more beautiful shoes soon.
With this blog as a witness, the early 2000s were my "Converse years."
Back then, I'd have pairs upon pairs of Chuck Taylors and Jack Purcells, and would wear them on a daily basis. When HKG was my home, this was part of my uniform - Converse, ripped jeans, button down and pull-over.
It was in the 2010s when a doctor - yes, a doctor - suggested that I change my shoe brand from Converse to New Balance. He said that since I'm an avid walker, New Balance has more cushion and is better for very long walks.
That's the reason for the shift, and I've been an NB guy since.
But that NB streak is broken this week.
My niece, Alejandra, sent a pair of Converse to my nephew, Kevin, direct from Spain. But when Kevin tried it on, it was just too big! So, they asked me to give it a shot and try it on. Surprise, surprise, it fits like a glove!
So now, a pair of Converse x CDG has found its way into my shoe rack.
Welcome back, Converse!
No, this isn't a song about Christopher Cross' iconic song.
Let's be clear, though. I'm so into that song. In fact, it just might be my FMM song tomorrow.
But I digress.
While watching the Netflix film "A California Christmas: City Lights," one of the antagonists quickly caught my eye.
She looked very familiar - and I spent a bit of time thinking where I saw her first.
Then, it hit me!
It's Laura James! My favourite model - and eventual winner - of the College Edition of ANTM!
It's so good to see her on screen! And she was very engaging in this film.
Can't wait to see her in more movies - both on Netflix and on the big screen - soon!
There's one constant each time my relatives from BCN come home to the Philippines.
Chinese food!
They're huge fans of "Comida China." In fact, they have a favourite "Restaurante Comida China" in their neighborhood in Deu y Mata.
That's why when they're here in the Philippines, one thing that we always do is have our reunion dinner at our go-to place - Peking Garden!
And that's what happened tonight:
Aside from enjoying their Hot & Sour Soup and Peking Duck, they thoroughly enjoyed catching up with the Tios, Tias, Primos, Primas y Sobrinos.
The last time we did this was almost 9 years ago. And just like what happened in 2013, our hearts and tummies were full when the night wrapped up.
Some things never change.
Trust Plains & Prints to keep local fast fashion followers excited to dress up for summer.
They just dropped their Summer 2022 collection which is a collaboration with 3 young and dynamic artists.
Since they started sharing teasers for this collection, I've been watching out for it on their website. And now that they've shown both the Lookbook and the actual clothes, they're so beautifully illustrated and well-designed.
I'm looking out for - and buying - the ones made by Soleil. Her art style and aesthetic are both feminine and powerful.
This truly is wearable art!
In celebration of my Tita and cousins from Spain finally visiting Manila after many years, let's have a Friday Magic Madness song that will fit the bill perfectly.
This classic song from 1973 is a popular song at Jazz bars. There's something so effervescent about the tune, instrumentation and overall feel of the song.
The song I'm talking about is Chick Corea's classic, "Spain"
We should find a place that plays this song and ask the family to go and listen to it. That will be a double dose of Spain in one go!
Whenever the family goes to the US, Panda Express is one of our go-to places. In fact, I've written about them in this blog several times already.
We were excited when Panda Express finally opened in the Philippines, but never got around to eat there.
When they first opened, the lines were so long and it was such a chore to wait for the crowds to subside. Then, a few months after they opened, the pandemic happened, so getting there even became a bigger challenge.
But thanks to food delivery services, we finally got our Panda fix last week.
Of course, the experience of eating Panda Express in the actual restaurant is way, way better than having it for take-out. But in the meantime, this will suffice.
Let the Panda Express pandemonium begin!
There’s something about those online GIF games that ask you to catch an item in the middle of an outline. Whenever I see one, the tendency is to stop and play.
And often, I catch them in one go! Just like this fish!
This, then, is the catch of the day!
It's been 2 years since I last heard physical mass in honour of Ash Wednesday.
As much as I hoped that this year would be the year I would, unfortunately that didn't push through. We were hoping that the Townhouse association would organize a mass and ash-laying within the compound, but they said that the church was busy, too.
Good thing ASC had a virtual Ash Wednesday mass today, so I was able to keep the tradition, albeit online.
Hoping that for Palm Sunday and the rest of the Holy Week, we'll all finally be able to attend masses IRL.
Continuing the habit of playing a film in the background while working, today's choice of films were some of my sort-of-oldies-but-goodies-faves.
The first one is "Something's Gotta Give," which features wonderful acting from the great Hollywood duo of Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton.
The second one is "The Intern," which features an unusual pairing of 2 Oscar winners - Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway.
While the credits were rolling for "The Intern," that's when it hit me.
Both films that I watched today were both from Nancy Meyers!
Gosh! She really knows how to make films that are intelligent, relevant and feel-good.
What Nancy Meyers film should I watch next?
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!
