BBC on 53. WTF destiny?!

flicked on the idiotbox and discovered the preposterous! destiny cable has moved the BBC to far off channel 53. yes. it has taken the most intelligent channel on the idiotbox and moved it even further than TV5monde (french channel) and TVE (spanish channel (both faves of mine). apart from its usual post at 44 with cnn-41(duuuhhhhh!) and fox-42 (F*CKS!)

first they took out the all-football channel in 2006, a despicable move i haven't gotten over. then they lost espn-star (that they later regained). they made me pay extra for the mandarin movie channel that used to be free. and now this. i don't give a f*ck if destiny has 2nd ave or that it doesn't have star world and star movies or cinemax. i really don't. i couldn't care less. i sorrowfully stayed with destiny despite of the all-football supersports channel getting dismissed. i stayed because it still had fashion TV (also at a distant channel, but hey, i can understand big-girl sensitivities). i stayed and consoled myself with the history and the biography channels (ALSO at far-off channels)

sure, what's to complain about, it's just a different flick on the remote. the point is, moving the BBC to 53 has nothing to do with the remote. it simply shows that majority of destiny cable viewers prefer sensationalist-shallow news reporting that is CNN and absurd-pseudo journalism that is fox. what is despicable is that destiny cable's programming sensibility has gone the way of gma and abs-cbn.

i shall console (disillusion?) myself with the reasoning that they had to move the BBC to 53 AWAAAAAAAYYYY from cnn and fox because it is. in content, style, language and presence. eons apart.

fine IX - tie no. 1 scenography in toto

grand scale production designs are his forte. this ilonggo-pinoy in new york expresses incredible vision, meticulous art and exquisite craft. eduardo 'toto' varela sicangco, with all his achievements, is unbelievably salt of the earth. far less talented and accomplished individuals have glorified themselves tenfold a tad bit too early. think jay. (you know what i mean, don't you naomi? LOL)
visit his exhibit at the ayala museum. (oh, the museum is closed on mondays.)
i am so honored to have met this robust, ingenious artist!

fine IX - tie no. 1 discover 1521

brought us to tears. the food did. every single dish.
it was cinematic. think god of cookery, chocolat, eat drink man woman, errr... ratatouille? it was dramatic. a gastronomic adventure. poetry oozed from mafel's lips.
tanke tankeko's restaurant 1521 along shaw boulevard (across babyland beside mr. poon's) is foodie haven. the aperitif of bad banana chips is soooooooo goooooooooood!
on special evenings, you can cap off with a game of taboo. but if tanke gets her way (and she can bulldoze!) you get to have breakfast the next day, by staying up for it. but who's complaining?

fine IX - no. 2 taken by brainstorm

it has been five years since their last performance. not sure, was it in 2003 at the fort? i've been at brainstorm's gigs since they started playing gigs, fifteen years ago. classic rock, advertising creatives, a yearning crowd.

composed of (then) advertising creatives, brainstorm members have gone on to head their own departments, establish their own agencies, gone freelance; two have gone abroad: one to become a martial arts instructor in singapore, the other to further drumming adventures in germany.

mag:net at bonifacio high street. fleetwood mac-dreams, lady marmalade, the pretenders-middle of the road, mustang sally with cisco on vocals, taste of honey-boogie oogie oogie... and steppenwolf's born to be wild as encore. an electric supercharged night!

fine IX - no. 3 ben sherman and the centerfold

three days of ocular on foot. a dozen sched changes. a week of fittings. and a rockin' red corner boxing day of a shoot! kristine reyes and company-ben sherman, stylist millet and lourd ramos, al de leon and tin-the makeup forum and photog-fantastic mark nicdao and the 11 individuals of this year's top agency and contenders.
merlee jayme was a knockout in red. bebot ngo's makeup TKO.
my idol from ASAP's 2007 conference, jimmy santiago wowed me with his ingenious presentation of jingle-production to a video-oriented audience. jimmy was a revelation: hip and dapper! way to go!!

fine IX - no. 4 what's ahead, eHeads?

yes, we all know the eraserheads reunion concert story. on again, off again. and yet again. with the brand's sponsorship a matter of massive controversy, philip morris never had it so good. department of health-DOH and its cohorts have presented the cigarette company the much-needed advertising it so wanted to prevent philip morris from using. tsk tsk tsk.
postscript: sans ads, the stage was all lights, band, music. simply a spectacle! thanks, DOH.
(read: adobo magazine issue sep-oct 2008 issue or www.adobomagazine.com)
take care of yourself ely. we look forward to the re-reunion!

fine IX - no. 5 greek and geek. fit, not pffffft

whatta man, whatta man, whatta man! what a might good man! a mighty mighty good man!
some remarkable and memorable men of 2008 were both smart looking and pretty intelligent individuals. chaotic hormones, calm down..
in no particular order, david jones-marketing VP, friendster. he spoke with a drone, his voice barely audible. he blamed it on a cold he was nursing.
bond, simon bond. imagine a clone of england and newcastle striker michael owen and ex-liverpool footballer jamie redknapp lecturing on nike's online marketing campaign. oooooohhhhhh! methinks he is a manU-rooney fan. or was that just part of his presentation. i don't know, couldn't really concentrate.
alex fernandez, unilab's marketing whiz! outstanding fellow. had my mouth open his entire talk. good balance of data, charm, insight, charm, charm.. thank goodness for all the questions, he stayed longer on stage.
nonoy niles until recently was the highest placed pinoy as nielsen's asia-pacific big boss. he's entering the academe to teach. lucky studes! and he's a horse breeder. lucky studs!
and having me, the editor and the sales+marketing guy totally enamored (and you can see why) here's TGI Friday's 'thank god it's alex' bar manager. he demonstrated how to make margaritas at yahoo! day out. we just wanted to drink his. margaritas, i mean. there's something about a man who can hold his drink. in more ways than one.
on a blog i posted earlier, i mentioned rafa lopa, the lawyer behind the ninoy branding. he makes it to this list too.

fine IX - no. 6 ASAP, like now!

i joined my first professional association this year, and what an adventure. wrote my first continuity script without training and with barely a briefing for the next wind conference. thank you allen velez and cristy serrano. i wrote speeches on the run. loved every minute writing for ASAP USAP, the newsletter. and on this its pearl (30th) anniversary, the souvenir program for the next wave, as well.

had a great time, guys! looking forward to nico mallari as my sector head under creative services. congratulations to nico and the new board!

fine IX - no. 7 pop you!

graphics artists. designers. graphic designers.
clothing designers. videographers. photographers.
film directors. commercial directors.
2008 was full of them.
most impressive kustaa saksi. finn. amazing art. reminded me of books i read in grade school in ateneo. kustaa acknowledged those inspired him as well. at least, we had that to talk about. and balearic music. kustaa is pop fashion, MTv, and well havaiianas.
toki doki is another. loved the predominantly pink stuff. moda italia meets japanese pop and you get lacoste.
team manila. seen their rizal icon on LJ on the stevie*xabi sites. what can i say?!
dell art was a great idea. spray paint on VWs, redesign Crocs. DJ Caliph8 had a field day.

fine IX - no. 8 rafa lopa, bono-inspired

meet rafael lopa. lawyer like no other.
inspired by bono's red campaign fund-raiser to combat HIV in africa, rafa lopa went pop and fashion, marketing and branding. charities benefited from iamninoy. no politics, please.
team manila and analog soul responded and took residence in rockwell.

fine IX - no. 9 yahoo! press junket

got an invite to a yahoo! press junket in early april. singapore, all expenses paid!
what's not to like?!
got my own room with two large beds.
walked around, window-shopped and ate. and ate. and ate. what else do you do in singapore?
total time in yahoo! events : 5 hrs.
yahoooooooooooooooooooo!

www.flickr.com/25789632@N07

cherries to top 2008

new year's eve. looking at the IDs of 2008, i spent most of the day pondering on the last 12 months. shortlisting the significant ones wasn't difficult. choosing the images took longer. my fine IX follow hence.

i dedicate the list to mafel. i don't know why. i just want to.

here's to you, maffy!

enough rope to hang yourself with

tomorrow is the last day of 2008.
what a year! struggle, struggler, strugglest!
seminars, conferences, conventions and expos
anniversaries. shoots. day out and concerts.
out of the office, ain't all that bad, though. a couple were actually unforgettable!
these are just the tags. the PRs, flyers and programmes, CDs and bags (!!!) are another story.
spaghetti tags, plastic phantasmic. what a year.

football ender revised

fulham drew with chelsea!!!
wooooohooooooo!
merseysiders on top 3 points ahead of stamford bridge boys!

shoe-throwing and the definition of assault

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/assault

laura bush says the shoe-throwing incident on her husband, out-going (soon-to-be- ejected, not friendly and warm) US president bush is an assault. yes it is. the word is not alien to her. that's what her husband did to iraq.

in her defense of her husband, she said he 'laughed it off' and that he was 'quick and a natural athlete' in avoidance of the, errrr, assault. whatever. in retrospect, he's just lucky the reporter was male. if the reporter were female (do they have female reporters?) she could have thrown, well, killer stillettos! ooooooohhhh...

what a yearender!

yet again!
reds pull a 5-1 victory over the magpies!
but don't let the score fool you. magpies keeper shay given, errr.. gave a better performance than our own reina.
xaBaby was on the bench, so was keane. alonso came in with 20mins of the game. with a foul on ngog, and with stevieG already out, BabyBoy took the penalty and clinched it!
oh well... made my day!
michael owen still looks good. bet he'll always look good. much like jamie redknapp. :D
my MOTM is given. 7 fantastic saves!
that's it. that's my 2008 football ender!

liverpoooooooooo1 !!!

yupyupyup!

liverpool 3-0 bolton!
great passes xababy! i knew you could do it, but, what a game!! great passes.. no other words.

highlight: reina bowling the ball to XaBaby. XaBaby passes to benayoun, to keane. GOOOOAAAAALLL!

Quick thinking xabi! as always, criticial tactics from alonso.

wooohoooooooo!!

tick tock tick tock to sunday.

basking at noon

i can still smell the sweetness.

one of my fave pics

the day i took this image, left the city at 4am, with just 2 hours of sleep, to reach san pedro by 5am. 6am we started work. we covered an entire village, a golf course and a resort in a day, ending at 9pm. it was a long, laborious day. but it was a glorious one, picture perfect.

post christmas post

what a christmas! except for the blogs, i have done nothing. oh, well, i gave the guards their presents. i think they were happy about it. i hope they were.
looking forward to the liverpool matches in the next two days.

have been awake more that 18 hours. headache time.

fifteen months after my first post. this is one activity i should sustain.
holiday greetings, people!