Syrup & Honey

The Diner from sopleasedonteverchange on 8tracks.

Every time it rains, I listen to the Rainy Days and Diner Dates mix I have in my iPod. While the tracklist is absolutely flawless, listening every time it rains during the monsoon season can get quite repetitive. So, I'm really glad I found another one just like it. It's this mix from 8tracks and I just love it. In my mind, I am immediately transported to shiny linoleum floors, jukeboxes that play the oldies for a quarter, servers on roller skates, thick strawberry milkshakes, greasy fries and maybe some grilled cheese hot on my plate. Maybe I even feel a little like I am in a group with Archie and the gang, hanging out at Pop's Diner. Maybe. Anyway, I'm sorry I haven't been around lately. It usually means I have a life, the kind where you're actually busy doing stuff instead of writing about wanting to do stuff. And since the prospect of actually having a life happens only once, maybe twice a year in my sad life, I really don't (didn't? I'm not sure, I think I'm slowly inching my way into having no life again) mind having less "me" time. Here, listen to a diner mix. Have a grilled cheese sandwich while you're at it. 

Happy Birthday, Tita E!

A few years ago, Tita E baked this cake that rose to be what we now call a bleeding heart cake. This is the result of leaving the oven in the presence of two cousins who, for their lives, cannot stop talking when they are together (that, and we did see the bleeding heart, we just didn't want to be the ones to break it to everybody.) 

I can associate my aunt with this cake of hers, for she has a heart that gives and gives. Among many things admirable about her, it is her generosity that far surpasses even those traits she seems to have an abundance of--grace and faith included. I am glad I have someone like Tita E in my life because in many ways, she is like a mother to me. She has never failed to support my own family in all our ups, downs and lowest of lows. She is a constant reminder that while life is tough and often times cruel, I will never walk alone. 

Happy birthday, Tita E. May you have many more to come. 

This Means War

I watched this movie over the weekend and I've been watching bits of it every night after I come home from work. It's just an adorable movie about two spies (best friends, no less) pining over the golden blonde, gorgeous girl. Although it's a typical romantic comedy with an utterly predictable ending (which I liked, by the way), I still love it. It's a good movie for anyone with spare time. It has bits and pieces of Gustav Klimt, guns, cars blowing up and a silly but hilarious scene involving a Friday Night Spy version of This Is How We Do It. I've always liked Reese Witherspoon and I cannot, for my life, stop staring at the gorgeous eyebrows framing those deep blue eyes of Chris Pine. What are you doing? Watch it! 

Here are some other links I've read this week: 

Why Phillip Phillips won American Idol. - SoCal baby Jessica Sanchez losing to Phillip Phillips of the Mid West is perhaps the most upsetting news in our country today, after the soap opera over at our Impeachment Court and the constant push and pull between respecting LGBT rights and Church dogma.

Speaking of American Idol babies, have you seen Katherine McPhee playing a naive theater ingenue on Smash? Why haven't you started a TV marathon yet? It's like Glee for Broadway babies and theater nerds. This is the show Rachel Berry would watch and follow until oblivion had she been a real person. 

Slate Magazine (a sister magazine of Foreign Policy) explains how cranes get on top of tower skyscrapers. (I've always wondered how. You have been, too.) Slate also has a piece on the best comedy/mockumentary show out there today, Modern Family, on its cold-witted but warm-hearted humor. I love that show. 

Facebook and the redefinition of public space from Rappler. Follow Facebook's stocks here. 

Sweet Bonus: Life inside Facebook from Time Techland because it is the coolest office in the world right now.

Deadly Meetings in the Workplace from WSJ. I think this is quite helpful especially if you're with a team or a department that conducts weekly or daily meetings. Which one are you?

I love these very unscientific drawings about the anatomy of sea life over at pleated-jeans. I love the octopus best, of course. *cough* 

Favorite cooking blogs: Momofuku for two (because I do not live in New York and therefore, don't have access to the Momofuku Ssam Bar anytime I want to) and breakfast & brunch recipes from 101 cookbooks. I am happy to note that I have finally perfected fritata for one. Wee! 

Lastly, Stephen Walt's smart-ass article about the recently concluded G8 convention. I especially love the wonderful Star Trek convention reference, although I'm pretty sure Sheldon Cooper will beg to digress. Bonus: How to refute the logic of a Thomas Friedman op-ed, in which by imploring Michael Bloomberg to run for president, Thomas Friedman refutes the past version of himself. And in an excellent display of reason, Stephen Walt lists ten things that would have happened had neocons backed off and let realists run U.S. foreign policy.

Links I love: Fab Five Edition

Hello! Here are the links I love this week.

How to Find Your Purpose and Do What You Love by Maria Popova (Brain Pickings) - I love this quote from Steve Jobs:

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” 

Why We Love: 5 Books on the Psychology of Love or What Oscar Wilde has to do with Hippocrates and the neurochemistry of romance.

Harry Benson’s Luminous Black-and-White Photographs of The Beatles, 1964-1966, From pillow fights to world domination, or what Beatlemania has to do with Jesus Christ - because a young Paul McCartney is one of my favorite faces in the world:

Sheryl Sandberg and the male dominated world of Silicon Valley. I've always liked profiles by the New Yorker, and this lengthy read is no exception. Shery Sandberg is one of the women I look up to, what with her gift for organizing and mobilizing structures and people, excellence in execution and overall personality. She is everything I want in a leader. My favorite snippet of the article, however, ties her success as a fruit of solid and extensive mentoring--which is really important when you are at the start of your career--and how it is hard for other women in the workforce to find someone akin to Larry Summers today.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, who directs the Gender and Policy program at Columbia, read Sandberg’s speech and took exception. “I think Sandberg totally underestimates the challenge that women face,” she says. Hewlett agrees with Sandberg that women must be more assertive, but she believes Sandberg simply doesn’t understand that there is a “last glass ceiling,” created not by male sexists but by “the lack of sponsorship,” senior executives who persistently advocate for someone to move up. A third of upper-middle managers are now women—“the marzipan layer”—she notes. This number has increased in recent years, but the women aren’t rising to the top. She believes that Sandberg is insufficiently aware of this problem because she has benefitted from sponsors: “Sandberg, to her great credit, had Larry Summers. She has had sponsors in her life who were very powerful, who went to bat for her. That’s very rare for a woman.”

And lastly, a profile on the golden child of our generation, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg. In a world that's in constant flux and  chaos, do we really want or need that kind of accessibility? 

Zuckerberg’s critics argue that his interpretation and understanding of transparency and openness are simplistic, if not downright naïve. “If you are twenty-six years old, you’ve been a golden child, you’ve been wealthy all your life, you’ve been privileged all your life, you’ve been successful your whole life, of course you don’t think anybody would ever have anything to hide,” Anil Dash, a blogging pioneer who was the first employee of Six Apart, the maker of Movable Type, said. Danah Boyd, a social-media researcher at Microsoft Research New England, added, “This is a philosophical battle. Zuckerberg thinks the world would be a better place—and more honest, you’ll hear that word over and over again—if people were more open and transparent. My feeling is, it’s not worth the cost for a lot of individuals.”

Filed in: Beautiful Books

Links I love! (Because I have nothing to offer you but the possibility of procrastination)

• I love and want all of Coralie Bickford-Smith's Penguin Classics covers. 
• In music, Tupac Shakur was back on stage (as a hologram) performing with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.
• Today seems like a good day to re-read a masterful 2011 magazine piece on what the Secret Service does.
• When Did Hillary Clinton Become the Coolest Person on the Planet?
• The Atlantic asks, "Is Facebook Making Us Lonely? As a society we're more isolated than ever. Is social media to blame?"
• The Top 10 Racy Novels--that awkward moment when erotica tales become literary sensations, and you just can't get enough. 

And finally, if you are a slave to your inbox like many corporate drones today:

What's chicken, good lookin'?

While waiting for some of my shows (GCB, Suits), let me post a little something about stuff (well, the ones that aren't too heavy boots for strangers I don't even know, anyway). First things first, how wonderful is Birdy's rendition of Shelter? I'm writing this down because I am listening to it as I type. I didn't have Birdy when I was in highschool but this is exactly the background music you want for young, immature love. This drivel about music, however, has nothing to do with my post--which is about food, glorious food, because my love affair with food is the only thing constant in my life. 

We had roast chicken for dinner today and while roast chicken is one of the easiest things to make in the kitchen, I find that the variety in the method of cooking changes flavor, texture and overall satisfaction in just a snap. I didn't get to take a photo of today's chicken, but it was so delicious-looking in its beautiful, brown, salt and pepper specks here and there, glistening all over crispy skin that I now regret why I didn't. I have a tendency to repeat tried and tested recipes though, so this photo from two hundred plus days ago still works: 

In any case, I'm sharing my choice recipe for roasted chicken. I like mine with the juiciness of an oven-roasted chicken and the crispy coating of a fried one. Incidentally, this kind of roast chicken is one of the easiest to achieve. For my recipe, I use a combination of garlic, lemongrass, thyme and oranges (instead of lemons). Here we go!

WHAT YOU NEED:

• one whole chicken, I used a 1.3 kg for tonight's dinner

• lemongrass, tied in a bunch + some thyme (I also add rosemary if it's available but I stay away from sage)

• garlic cloves (I used half a bulb)

• olive oil or butter (or a mix of both)

• salt and pepper

• 1 orange (I like it because its sweetish citrus flavor is a lot more subtle than lemons), which may be cut into big pieces or be left whole if it is small enough. Instead of tying the chicken legs by using twine, we'll just use a big orange to close the cavity of the chicken.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

• Take your chicken out of the fridge about an hour or so before it goes into the oven. What you want is a chicken that's completely defrosted.

• Preheat your oven to 240°C/475°F. I use a turbo broiler, you could use that as well.

• The secret to crispy skin is a chicken that's completely dry. Take a couple of kitchen towels and pat, pat, pat your bird dry. Make sure to pat all over, creases and crevices included. Hush, you dirty mind. It's just poultry.

• If you're feeling indulgent, use butter to rub the chicken all over. Follow with a generous seasoning of salt and pepper. Season well, as this will give your chicken flavor. If you're not really into using butter as a rub, you can substitute olive oil instead. Drizzle, then season with salt and pepper, rub all over.

• For juicy meat, make a couple of incisions on the chicken surface. I do the sides, a small one in the center.  You should cut through the skin but not through the meat. The slits should be about one and half inch long, allowing you to touch the meat underneath the skin. Insert dollops of butter and massage all over. The butter will spread inside, all over the chicken meat and it will keep your meat juicy while roasting. I know of a recipe that inserts bacon inside these pockets. Delicious but hehe, I won't even go there.

• Next, put the lemongrass and a couple of garlic cloves inside the cavity of the bird. I like to make tiny incisions in the cloves to release the flavor. I follow up with a sprinkling of thyme (because I don't have fresh ones, I use dried herbs) and then close it all up with a small orange, sliced in half. If you're using lemon instead, prick it all over and heat it up in the microwave a bit to bring out the flavor (I got this from Jaime O.!).

• Place the chicken in the roasting tray, breast side down. Some people like to place their chicken on top of chopped vegetables to ensure even cooking, but I don't really do that anymore. Turn the heat down immediately to 200°C/400°F and cook the chicken for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, depending on the size of the bird. (HUUUSH, you!). No need to baste the chicken halfway, by the way.

When cooked, take the tray or the roasting rack out of the oven (or the broiler) and transfer the chicken to a plate. Let rest for 15 minutes or so before carving. (At this point, I hope we have reached an understanding that you are to discard the stuffing inside the chicken. If you're serving the chicken whole, I hope everyone knows this shouldn't be eaten.) Serve and enjoy.

WAIT, NO SAUCE?!

Some people like gravy with their chicken, I like eating mine pinoy style (with ketchup and worcestershire sauce), over steaming hot rice. Imagine this: your teeth sinking into the creamy, crispy brown skin and soft, juicy white meat, followed by a tangy hit of the worcestershire sauce and the sweet note of tomato ketchup, all lost in the lovely Asian kryptonite that is white rice. Ah, perfection. Don't knock it until you've tried it.

A short book report: Hector and the Search for Happiness

One of the nice books I've read in 2012 is Francois Lelord's Hector and the Search for Happiness. The premise for this book is simple, Hector is a young shrink who's done everything right. Yet, the feeling of listlessness and confusion won't leave Hector as he continues to see that his patients are persistently unhappy. He realizes that despite his excellent training and sympathetic ear, he doesn't really know how to help them find happiness as he doesn't know what it is himself. Even worse, he finds himself becoming increasingly drained and dissatisfied by his own life--in many ways, he is as lost as his patients. Leaving everything behind, including his uncertain relationship with a pharma exec named Clara, Hector books a vacation with a mission--to travel the world in search for happiness. What makes people happy? What makes people unhappy? He searches the world far and wide (exage, Reisha) to seek the truth and find meaningful answers to his questions. 

In his first stop (China), he meets a lonely businessman trapped on the money-making treadmill, a prostitute who teaches him about love, and a monk high up in the mountains who asks him to return once his journey is complete. In Africa, he meets a doctor working with very poor patients, holds a conversation with a drug lord and a bartender and runs into the local mob. On his last stop in the United States, Hector sees a "happiness expert", one that helps him piece through all of the realities he has seen and experienced during his travels. There, Hector manages to draw a few more conclusions about the connection between happiness and relationships. 

Here are the lessons that Hector has learned in the course of his travels, how or why did he come to these conclusions, I'll leave for you to find out. Buy the book! The writing is simplistic but the plot is very nicely laid out--expect a hard hit of wanderlust and  heaps of existential thinking to kick in afterwards. As always, enjoy!

Lesson 1- Making comparisons can spoil your happiness.

Lesson 2- Happiness often comes when least expected.

Lesson 3- Many people only see happiness in their future.

Lesson 4- Many people think that happiness comes from having more power or more money.

Lesson 5- Sometimes happiness is not knowing the whole story.

Lesson 6- Happiness is a long walk in beautiful, unfamiliar mountains.

Lesson 7- It’s a mistake to think that happiness is the goal.

Lesson 8A- Happiness is being with the people that you love.

Lesson 8B- Unhappiness is being separated from the people that you love.

Lesson 9- Happiness is knowing that your family lacks for nothing.

Lesson 10- Happiness is doing a job that you love.

Lesson 11- Happiness is having a home and a garden of your own.

Lesson 12- It’s harder to be happy in a country run by bad people.

Lesson 13- Happiness is feeling useful to others.

Lesson 14- Happiness is to be loved for EXACTLY who you are.

Lesson 15- Happiness comes when you feel truly alive.

Lesson 16- Happiness is knowing how to celebrate.

Lesson 17- Happiness is caring about the happiness of those you love.

Lesson 18- The Sun and the Sea make everybody happy.

Lesson 19- Happiness is not attaching too much importance to what other people think.

Lesson 20- Happiness is a certain way of seeing things.

Lesson 21- Rivalry ruins happiness.

How about you? Are you happy with the life you lead? Do you get to reflect on things while you travel? Do you write about them? I hope so. I find that one of the exciting pleasures of leaving is the opportunity of coming back a changed person--a smarter one, at least. 

Read so hard, libraries want to fine me.

How can you not love a rap song with a line like, "You use a Kindle? I carry spines..."

"He said Shay let's get married at the Strand, his Friday Reads so bad, he can't have my hand."
"Nerdy boy, he's so slow. Tuesday, we start with Foucault. He's still stuck on the intro? He's a no goooo."
"That shit cray. Explainy, ain't it, A? What you readin'? (de Montaigne)"
"You ball so hard? Okay, you're bowling but I read so hard, I'm J.K. Rowling." 
"War and Peace? Piece of cake. Read Tolstoy in three days, straight through, no delays, didn't miss a word, not one phrase"


And my personal favorite, "Burroughs, Golding, Shakespeare--all dead". Hahaha. Tangina this. 


This print's rare,
R

Indulge me: A heart-stopping pasta recipe

One of the more famous blog posts here is my tomato cream pasta recipe (an absolutely no fail recipe, if you ask me), which is quite funny because I don't even love the stuff nor do I like making pasta that much. I find it a little easy and a little less challenging. Since I am yet to win my battle with slow-cooking beef brisket (the last time I did it, it took me 2 whole hours only to admit defeat and transfer everything to the pressure cooker for another hour and half), I've decided I'd just share another favorite pasta recipe, one that is quite as delicious as tomato cream but is definitely a lot deadlier. 

Happy Easter, my darlings. Have a heart-stopping aligue pasta (pasta in sauteed crab fat or crab roe)! :) There are many ways of preparing this particular dish, off the top of my head are three specific suggestions:

1. Aligue pasta with shrimp and squid (always a winner!)

2. Aligue pasta oozing with toasted garlic bits 

3. Aligue pasta with cream and other seafood bits from mussels to crab meat! (this one I have never tried nor do I have plans of trying, because when done repeatedly, this a death sentence waiting to happen)

My version works with fresh ingredients, a lot of lime or calamansi, freshly chopped tomatoes and basil. I find that the sweetness of the fresh basil and the tart acidity of freshly chopped tomatoes cuts through the heavy sauce. I sometimes add cheese in the end but only on very rare occasions, such as right now. Let's get to work! 

For this recipe, you’ll need:

Spaghetti noodles  (I used half of a 450g pack)

4 medium-sized tomatoes, chopped (Summer is a good season to work with tomatoes, they're juicier and plumper)

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 of a red onion (or white, whatever works), minced

a fourth of a small bottle of crab fat (about three heaping tablespoons) 

juice of 2 calamansi pieces (Do not include the seeds, duh!)

Freshly torn sweet basil 

salt and pepper to taste

a tablespoon  or two of olive oil (EVOO is a waste of money)

Some cheese if you're like me (Well, actually, I had a huge block of parmegiano regiano from an aunt based in Italy that has been sitting on the freezer for so long. So, I just shaved and shaved slivers of cheese over mine. Bake or heat for 5 minutes until it melts! Oooh, sin.) 

Instructions:

Cook pasta as directed, drain and set aside. 

In a pan, saute garlic and onion in olive oil over low heat until fragrant and brown (the garlic, the onions will turn transparent). Add the crab fat paste and then add the juice of the calamansi. Bring to a simmer. Toss in the cooked pasta and season with salt and pepper to taste. Throw in your chopped tomatoes (FRESH!) and your torn basil leaves. Mix and serve! Top with parmesan cheese. (I like topping mine and then popping it in the microwave to melt the cheese.) You can add whatever you want, from sliced black olives, chopped bell peppers, sun dried tomatoes, even capers! Your choice. For an extra layer of taste and texture, I added a few pieces of truly delicious yellow fin tuna belly on top of mine. Yum. 

Yours in sin, 

Reisha

Meet Medusa!

You know what, it's not really nice to only write about the bad stuff so why don't I tell you about silly, mundane things. Can I tell you? About my prickly new pet. 

A few weeks ago, I got a very happy call from my sister telling me that she was in the honor roll. I'm big on spoiling my sister because in my book, it makes up for just how stern I am when it comes to school or in everyday life (I have an award-winning short temper). So, like the way we celebrate most of the momentous occasions in her young life, off we went to get her a new pet. For those of you not in the know (just kidding, I just needed a transition statement), this prickly little fella is a cinnicot-colored hedgehog. Her name is Medusa (after a favorite romance novel heroine's pet hedgehog) and she's a pinto African Pygmy hedgehog, just like most pets of her kind. More after the cut!

Mississippi Mud Baby Cakes

 Here are the links I love for this week:

• The foreign language of Mad Men from The Atlantic
• The benefit of bilingualism in The New York Times
• It's lonely at the top -- is China the world's loneliest superpower? 
• Daniel Drezner's So you want to get into a PhD program in Political Science? part one and  the best paragraph he's ever read in a dissertation prospectus. Clearly, I enjoy reading his blog. 
• A recipe for steak salads (but let's not trim the fat!), what I had for lunch yesterday and what I'll have for lunch tomorrow. You're welcome. 
• Another recipe for oreo cheesecake cookies, because what's life without the sugar and spice? 
• In your honor, a recipe for Mississippi Mud Baby Cakes (pictured up top, with marshmallow cream).

Here we come, in praise of the sun

In the summer of 2010, my good friend K put up an "Endless Summer, Endless Youth" mix and let me tell you, what a gem of a mix it is. It has, among many things, a fun Major Lazer track, Foster the People's Pumped Up Kicks (Yes, y'all are two years too late), Let's Go Surfing from The Drums  and  my personal favorite--the "I wish I had a boyfriend, I wish I had a loving man in my life..." intro to Girls' Lust for Life. I'm not going to post a mix but I figured I'd do a little list of the old and the not-so-old songs I've been listening to because a.) it's summer and b.) I kind of miss the beach. Not just any beach though, this.

• Swimsuits - The Cool Kids ft. Mayer Hawthorne
• Beautiful - Pharell & Snoop Dogg
• Lust for Life - Girls
• Call It What You Want - Foster The People
• My Sun - The Temper Trap
• Honey Bunny - Girls
• Georgia - Yuck
• Learnalilgivinanlovin - Gotye

What will you be up to this summer? Traveling elsewhere, I hope.

Real or not real?

 

 

 

The bad, we choose to forget. The good, we always remember. 
In which I sleepily write about the most fun I have had in quite a while.

Summer is here!

Happy Friday! Here are the links I love for the week:

• What are the chances of you being here? A graphic-heavy but celebrate life-y poster on the miracle that is Y-O-U! 
• The poverty line: What does being poor actually look like? (A photo essay of food a person living below the poverty line could buy from Foreign Policy.)
• Happy International Women's Day! Amy Chua profiles four female tycoons in China who bucked tradition to get very, very rich. I especially like the first sentence, "Like a relentless overachiever, China is eagerly collecting superlatives."
• Baked omelette with asparagus recipe from La Tartine Gourmand (You must recreate this but not before checking out the lovely photos of eggs and things in the same post!)
• How can you be smart, pretty and (less) awkward?
• The Myth of Funemployment from Thought Catalog. Look, I know I shouldn't be wasting your time by linking TC articles but this one's too close to an impending quarter-life crisis to resist.
• On Art & "Literature": The end of an era--Prospero writes that the beguiling lure of Chick Lit is finally waning. Also, a really nice article about the Steins in Paris, acquiring Matisse and Picasso like it's nobody but their family's business.
  
  

Random, but greatly recurring thought: I want a bulldog so bad.

Ogling puppies at the pet store every weekend is counterproductive but I can't help it,
Reisha

Happy Friday!

What will you be up to this weekend? As for me, I couldn't be happier that February is almost over and though things are yet to fall into place, the worst has come and gone. Anyway, here are the links I love for today:

• This week, I've been having one-too-many crepe cakes. You've got to try these, they're delicious! The baker used to be a pastry chef for NY's Dean & Deluca, so you know she knows the good stuff!
• Dining After Downton Abbey, why English food isn't as famous as it used to be.
• The most adorable puppy photos by Bruce Weber (for Vanity Fair)
• The wonderful Grant Gustin, all lovely and sexy singing Glad You Came
• John Steinbeck on Falling in Love  (My professor tweeted this link and it's such a nice letter that I kind of feel like it's meant to be shared. It also reminds me of a site I really love, http://www.lettersofnote.com/)
• The pleasure of re-reading: How Reading Books More Than Once is good for the health. (Hah, I'm not crazy! Hooray! Auntie Jane will be pleased. And by Auntie Jane, I mean Miss Austen because I read her books more than I read the things I should be reading.)
• Also, I finished reading Matched last night so I'm starting the second book, Crossed, this weekend. I guess this means I'm back reading YA and finally out of my romance novel reading phase which, in this last few weeks, I have come to know as the Venus flytrap of reading addictions. (It is interesting to note that the idea for these reading selections came from one person, we shall call her Mary.)
• A recipe for Ginger Scallion Sauce from Lottie + Doof. Finalement! I've been looking for this everywhere.
• Last weekend, in a snapshot (Filed in: Sometimes, I'm really happy I have work and that I have people beyond my level who I can talk to--it's fun because they have more to share!): 

A late happy heart's day!

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope yours was a good one. Here are the links I love for this week:

• I didn't get any macarons this year but it would've been nice if I did.
• Things we can all learn from Jeremy Lin (Forbes).
• Adele's interview in Vogue. I love this part,   “I am quite loud and bolshie,” she says (British slang for unruly and clamorous). “I’m a big personality. I walk into a room, big and tall and loud.” Bonus: quotes from Adele's album of love from Huffington Post. 
• Brainy models changing the catwalk, God help us all (normal women in the world) in The Economist. 
• PDA: Presidential Display of Affection from Foreign Policy, photos of world leaders locking lips, gazing wistfully, and other awkward moments.
• 55 Powerful Photos from 1955-2011 (winners from Every World Press, a yearly photo contest in Amsterdam) and a look at a novelty Chinese Sex Toy Factory (made me remember the film Lars and the Real Girl and the fact that sex is, in many ways, a trade).
• The trailer for Pride and Prejudice (2005). I didn't have time to read Pride and Prejudice this Valentine's day (I always do) but I did start and end my day watching this film. It is my favorite film of all time--the electricity, the beautiful screenplay, the amazing soundtrack c/o Dario Marianelli. Oh goodness, this movie is a dream. 

Pop-A-New Guineas!

Hello! My sister has been so good to her first guinea pig, Chloe, that another guinea pig didn't seem like a bad idea. Behold, she now has four (two fluffy Abyssinians and two American guinea pigs) and I'm happy to write that they get along swimmingly in their new "cage". It isn't really a cage, it's a rather long and spacious aquarium I filled with wood shavings and food. They did a lot of running around and popcorning the first time we put them there. Aren't they cute? :) All they do is eat and run around but I'm hoping we can train them as a special squad that will later on help save humanity, you know, kind of like G-Force? Yup. I noticed that Chloe doesn't wheek as much as she used to when she was alone. I guess guinea pigs are really social animals, a lot like my sister but a whole lot less like me. Although, they do eat more than they ought to and that gives us a common ground. More pet news after the cut.

The type of kisses where teeth collide

"I've been trying to figure out exactly what I need, call up to listen to the voice of reason, and got the answering machine."

Looks more and more like Bob Dylan everyday, this one. Alex Turner's acoustic performance of Reckless Serenade by the Arctic Monkeys. 

Feeling a bit like Beatrix

Honeymals - Some of our pets are more photogenic than others and personally, I play favorites. The first being my very playful and sweet dog, Fendi, who isn't a stranger in this blog. He's always so happy to see me,  jumping around no matter how late I come home from work or school. Next to my dog are my chirpy budgies, Dean and Colette, in their beautiful, very rarely ruffled, teal and yellow feathers.

The rest are just dumped in a "Oh gee, I hope they last long." "Oh, they died already? Well, it's a bit longer than the last one..." set. My sister is past her baby bunny phase and has moved on to guinea pigs. (Thank God, for so many bunnies have come to die in this household!) The guinea pigs squeak and they don't stink as much but good lord, can they eat or what?! They also popcorn, so I'm pretty excited for when the pig begins to do that. Now, it's basically just a white furball squeaking for spinach tops or a carrot. I really, really, really hope this one lives long enough to get a new friend. (As I have whittled down her pets to just one per purchase because they never last.)

PS. The Beatrix reference is from a book I recently read. The heroine, Beatrix, is very fond of animals. I believe she actually prefers the company of her four-legged friends much more than that of talking bi-peds. We can't really blame her now, can we? How can you resist this kind of cuteness?

My heart is wrapped up in clover

Before Adele Adkins, there was Jamesetta Hawkins and both are singers I love. My heart sank a little when I logged on Twitter and found out that Jamesetta (Etta James to everyone) died at 73, from complications of leukemia and dementia. She's one of my favorite singers and it's a little sad whenever great pioneers pass away. It always feels like the end of an era. A few months back, I posted a video of Adele singing Etta James' I Just Want To Make Love To You. It's still one of my favorite covers and I get a kick out of singing along whenever it plays on my iPod.

Tonight, though, will be a short tribute to Etta James. She is and will always be the matriarch of rhythm and blues. My God, that voice! She can easily and perfectly transition from R&B to rock-and-roll, jazz and soul without changing that sultry and emotionally-charged singing voice. I think this kind of raw singing, this passionate, powerful vocal assertion is the reason why I love both Etta and Adele.

Etta James is most famous for her song "At Last", which is commonly played as a first dance in weddings. Most recently, the song was a source of a juicy celebrity catfight when the Obama power couple picked Beyonce over Etta James to sing it at their first Neighborhood Ball. I love how fearless and feisty Etta was, insisting she would've sung it better than Bey. I believe her. Never doubt, never doubt.

Here are two of my favorite Etta James songs, Something's Got A Hold On Me sung during her younger years and the equally beautiful Etta singing At Last many years later. God bless you and keep you, Miss Peaches. Thank you for the music. 

PS: One of my favorite mixes, Rainy Days & Diner Dates by DJ Euric, has At Last as its first track. I'm posting the download link just for kicks (you should really go ahead and get it though because it's awesome and fun to listen to on any given work day). It also has Duffy's Syrup & Honey, a song that's been swimming in my head in and out for a whole week now. 

Don't you be wasting your money, on syrup and honey... 

Picasso: Suite Vollard

I feel a little awkward discussing art when I just really like looking at it and don't really bother with techniques, or any other complexities of the seemingly impenetrable art world (scene?). Indulge me, anyway, because I only talk about those I really like. Two months ago, the good people of Fundacion Mafre and its Instituto de Cultura very kindly lent several Picasso pieces, created between 1930 to 1937, on loan to the Metropolitan Museum as part of an exhibit called Suite Vollard. The Suite Vollard, named after art dealer and curator Ambroise Vollard, is a collection of etchings by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso using different techniques. I'm pretty sure the francophile in you would find it interesting that these etchings were made in Paris, while Picasso was on a self-exile, back when he vehemently refused to show any of his works in his motherland, Spain, because a certain Francisco Franco was in power. (I do like that name, Francisco, if I may say so myself. Franco, too.)

I love Picasso so I might be a bit biased here. I find his works all at once, prolific, passionate and playful. I like that what would seem like mere doodles in his mind were transformed into impeccable executions of mythical creatures. The collection that was recently in Manila showcased the mythic quality to most of Old Man Pablo's drawings. Some of my favorites are the drawings that seemed to set the mood for future paintings such as the Sculpture Viewed from Behind and the Bearded Head. Someone also noted that they look like "A study of..." drawings, which in hindsight, makes perfect sense. I also noticed that most of Picasso's drawings (or doodles, if you may) had Rembrandt's profile or head in them, as in Rembrandt and Female Heads. This must be a manifestation of Picasso drawing inspiration from the works of Rembrandt himself. My favorites, however, were those drawings that looked like they were meant for a mythical novel, drawings that largely reminded me of Oedipus, Europa and Theseus. I also liked the heavily-sketched Minotaur series. The handiwork itself is impressive but not as impressive as the picture that the Maestro was able to draw. It's interesting to note that Minotaurs, in classic surrealist fashion, are inhuman, irrational and mythic. Picasso was fond of drawing the Minotaur because he acknowledged that there is something distinctly human about being a monster. I like how he chose the Minotaur to depict human savagery and the animal instinct humans possess.

My favorite collection in the exhibit would be the "Battle of Love", where the plates transition from subtle erotic drawings to depictions of full-blown sexual violence. Who wouldn't love that excellent combination of love, overpowering force, human energy, and woman's sexuality? Sex and violence may come out vulgar and lewd (or even tacky) if not executed well but these drawings are really beautiful, skillful and dare I say it, passionate. I guess that's the true stroke of a genius. Pablo Picasso is, in all counts, a master.

PS: I tell everyone that my favorite Picasso piece is La Douleur. Because I am obnoxious. Anyway, here are some of my favorite pieces from the recently concluded exhibit:

Foto A Foto: Portraits of Spain

The Spanish Embassy in Manila, with the collaboration of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, Instituto Cervantes, the MET Manila, Acción Cultural Española and Indra, put together Foto A Foto: Portraits of Spain. The exhibit is a collection of sixty photographs taken all over Madrid and Barcelona, dating from the fifties to the present. What I like best about this exhibit is that every photograph presents a fresh vantage point, a different version of Madrid and Barcelona through a photographer's eyes. There is a distinct variety of visual and aesthetic representations present throughout the collection and I guess that's an inevitability if you put the works of fifty renowned Spanish photographers next to each other. In a way, the viewer gets to see Spain in the eyes of a local and it is very much enjoyable, seeing how these talented individuals view their home country through these photos.

Here are my favorite pieces:

A series of photographs in a town plaza. The term "town plaza" brings to mind two things: the London "ton" where the old English folk walk around to parade new bonnets, parasols and gowns and the provincial town center of my childhood, where children gathered to kick a football, feed the koi fishes (which later turned into mud carps, only in the Philippines!) and run around. The photo set is a little bit of both, it's a mix of tourists walking around and a lot of the locals out and about, doing their daily business. I really like the rural feel of these photos. I especially like the working class drama the black and white photographs bring. 
I'm a big fan of double takes and missed connections, so I gravitate towards photos that capture these moments. It's a little bit creepy, sure, but it is easier to feel empathy towards the subjects of these photos. We've all been there, after all, and isn't it a delightful feeling, when your heart takes a tiny leap the moment you see someone you fancy? Or you know, someone you could fancy, if only you would be given the chance.



I really like these pictures taken by Marta Soul for no particular reason other than I like nice cars and I find the Indian work ethic impressive (and a little terrifying since big companies are relocated from the US to India nowadays).



This is my favorite photograph from the collection:



Again, I'm a big fan of missed connections and double takes. I find this photo so impressive because it leaves so much room for the viewer to speculate the real story behind the visual. Personally, I took it as a fleeting but electrifying attraction but that's probably because I should start stepping away from reading too much fiction. I'm really into stories of longing. I wonder what that says about me.

By the way, this exhibit lets you brush up on your Spanish a bit by providing the photo's description and the artists' brief histories in Spanish text. It could be fun, come visit!

Foto A Foto: Portraits of Spain will run until January 15, 2012 at the MET Manila.