Scout: 2016 February

FEB RUA RY 2016

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S C OU T M AG . P H

f ilt er FREE MA GAZINE!

T OMMY ESGUERRA

I S S U E NO . 1 7

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1/25/16 6:01 PM

contents 4 news

prime time

6 portfolio rob cham

8 art + design

10 how to

ku romillo

life skills

12 music

14 essay

john pope

violent dialogues

by Leiron Martija

16 music

record setting

18 sports

ode to my family

24 market

w h a t ’s t h e o c c a s i o n ?

25 market bright eyes

32 fashion downtown

40 fiction

the decline

by Petra Magno

44 scene

wonderfruit

20 food

munch month

w w w. sco utmag . ph Group Publisher

BEA J. LEDESMA Editor in Chief

JED GREGORIO C r e a t ive D i r e c t o r Ni単a Muallam Managing Editor Cai Maroket Art Director Martin Diegor Features Editor Romeo Moran Editorial Assistant Nico Pascual Cont ribut ing Writers Lex Celera, Leiron Martija Contributing Photographers Ralph Mendoza, Cenon Norial III, Gerard Del Mundo, Abby Magsanoc, Paolo Tabuena, Paolo Crodua, Pat Sarabia, Fotofabrik Contributing Illustrators Angelica Regala, Lee Caces Interns Dani Chuatico Editorial Consultant Ria Francisco-Prieto Board Chairperson Alexandra Prieto-Romualdez Finance Advisor and Treasurer J. Ferdinand De Luzuriaga Legal Advisor Atty. Rudyard Arbolado V P/ G r o u p H R H e a d Raymund Soberano VP and Chief Strategy Officer Imelda Alcantara SVP and Group Sales Head, Inquirer Group of Companies Felipe R. Olarte AV P f o r S a l e s Ma. Katrina Garcia-Dalusong Sales Supervisor Polo Dagdag Ke y A c c o u n t s S p e c i a l i s t Angelita Tan-Iba単ez Senior Accou nt Execut ives Thea Ordiales, Abby Ginaga Accou nt Execut ives Charm Banzuelo, Andie Zu単iga, Sarah Cabalatungan Sales Support Assistants Rechelle Endozo, Mara Karen Aliasas Marketing Associates Erle Mamawal, Jann Turija Marketing Graphic Artist Lee Caces, JR Larosa Business and Distribution Manager Rina Lareza Circulation Supervisor Vince Oliquiano Production Manager Jan Cariquitan Production Assistant Maricel Gavino Final Art Supervisor Dennis Cruz FA A r t i st Kristine Paz

26 on the cover To m m y E s g u e r r a

Le tte r fr o m th e E d i to r Last year I went to see a friend’s dad’s art exhibit. The dad in question was artist Oca Villamiel, who just finished creating an installation of more than 10,000 cast-off bovine horns. This massive event was the culmination of nine years of painstaking scouring and collecting. The horns seemed to spring from the ground like weeds on steroids, some creeping up the walls as if at last orchestrating a long-planned jailbreak. It was an eerie, imposing landscape to behold.

This morning I Googled Oca’s Mga Damong Ligaw to see what people wrote about it.

The critics and art bloggers debate the meaning but share similar evaluations. It’s a grand, thought-provoking, goosebumps-inducing masterpiece from an inimitable visionary.

What’s not much said about the experience is the actual going there. Oca, after all, chose to show in Light and Space Contemporary, a gallery space nestled in West Fairview. It’s far-flung, even by already impossible QC standards. Indeed an inextricable part of it all is the requisite long drive. Oca provided a family van to shuttle some artists and friends to the gallery and back to the main road home.

It only recently occurred to me, like a chance coup de foudre, that the experience of art largely involves intentional participation. To see the collections of the Louvre, one has to fly first to Paris. A three-Michelin-star restaurant is rated precisely thus because it’s “worth a special journey.” Of course the glass ceiling of galleries have long been shattered by audacious artists who brought art to the streets and other more inclusive fora. The medium of art is fundamental to this. I remember the time when Alexander McQueen’s “Plato’s Atlantis” was live-streamed online. Those armadillo platforms stomped to the anthem of Lady Gaga. You didn’t have to be seated front row in Paris to see that.

When I was first approached more than a year ago to edit Scout, what I found most exciting about it was its trailblazing business model: The idea that you can bring a quality free product straight to your audience, and they need not journey for it. Scout is a free magazine for millennials, each month brought directly to them. Students can pick it up in school, and young professionals who are running a cappuccino errand can get it at cafés, too. We have since grown and multiplied our distribution points to include leading bookstores and other establishments that deemed Scout a valuable asset. After a year of being in Scout, I can’t be more proud of the achievements of our many colleagues and collaborators.

I guess you can say that this enterprise of actively bringing something or someone closer to audience is also what happened to our cover subject this month, Tommy Esguerra. He used to be just a fashion model, most often seen in magazines and on exclusive designer runways, until a new medium—television—introduced him to a new throng of adoring fans. Millennials tend to be cynical about fame and the cult of celebrity.

Yet even those who doubt must concede that what makes a character so mesmerizing to people is never a simple, replicable formula. And I think that’s always a fascinating story.

@scoutmagph scoutmag@h i p.ph

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feature

prime time The biggest stories around the world right now, explained as fast as we can, as best as we can

By ROMEO MORAN Illustrations by MARTIN DIEGOR

THERE’S NO OTHER WAY to put it: there’s so much happening now. Contrary to what you might believe, there’s actually a whole, real world beyond what happened on your favorite TV shows or when the next superhero movie is coming out. You will encounter people and situations in which the conversation is about the graver issues around the globe today, so you’re gonna have to come in prepared if you don’t want to sound like an ignorant kid who lives in a bubble.

Due to the nature of current events, things might (or will) have changed by the time you get to read this. Even then, however, we’re still helping you out by puttubg together backgrounders—everything you absolutely need to know—for eight different issues by trying to explain them the best way we can.

SYRIA IS BEING TORN UP...

THE VIOLENT RISE OF ISIS

This all began when angry Syrians finally decided to rise up against autocratic Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. What was originally another display of civil unrest—one more nation following in the footsteps of the Arab Spring—turned hostile after the Syrian government decided to quell the uprising with force. The opposition decided to arm themselves, resulting in a transformation into a rebel force and the eventual escalation into a civil war. The war became no longer about democracy, but a conflict between pro- and anti-government forces, leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead.

The opposition side gradually became a sectarian force consisting of extremists, and other countries were drawn into the conflict one way or another—Russia is supporting the regime, while a coalition of powers led by the US are targeting ISIS forces inside Syria while trying to avoid interfering in the war. Attempts at political solutions to end the war brokered by the US, Russia, and the UN have also failed.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, was pretty much born out of the carnage the US and coalition forces wreaked in Iraq. A jihadist insurgent group called the Al-Qaeda in Iraq that had been fighting against the US over the past decade had undergone a number of rebrandings until it merged with the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, calling itself its current name. In 2014, ISIS took control of the Syrian city of Raqqa, its current headquarters; shortly after, Al-Qaeda decided that even ISIS was too extreme for them and cut their ties.

ISIS continued to move and occupy territory in Iraq, eventually building up to the formation of a new Islamic caliphate (a historical form of Islamic government, led by a caliph—a self-proclaimed successor of the prophet Muhammad) that lays claim to Muslims all over the world. Their aim is to mobilize and fight back after years of injustice and violence against them, recruiting and converting people to their cause by actively encouraging anti-Muslim sentiments. They’re not afraid to do this through terrorist attacks, such as the shootings in Paris last November. (And this is also why the key to beating them is through suppressing Islamophobia.)

...AND SYRIANS ARE FLEEING According to the BBC, as of last September four million people have fled the country since the conflict began, while 7.6 million are still internally displaced. Around a million have been trying to enter Europe this year mostly by crossing the Mediterranean, and the EU is currently asking its member countries to grant refugees asylum.

More conservative countries such as the US, UK, and France are rejecting refugees due to a myriad of reasons—preexisting overpopulation, racism, bigotry, and xenophobia.

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THE MESS THAT IS GRACE POE’S CITIZENSHIP There were five different disqualification cases against Senator and presidential hopeful Grace Poe. (The 1987 Constitution requires that candidates for president, vice president, and congress be natural-born citizens—that is, born of Filipino parents and to have been residing in the country for at least 10 years.) One case, filed with the Senate Electoral Tribunal (the body handling election-related cases after the elections) seeking to disqualify her as a senator due to doubts regarding her naturalborn citizenship, and four with the Commission on Elections (which handles cases prior and during elections) seeking to disqualify her as a presidential candidate.

The issue at the root of everything revolves around two facts: one, that as a foundling, there is a chance that Grace Poe may not be a naturalborn Filipino citizen; and two, that she hasn’t been in the Philippines for at least 10 years.

Those who believe Poe is a natural-born Filipino do so as a matter of social justice,

SHOOTING UP AMERICA

believing that foundlings found in the Philippines should enjoy the same rights as any natural-born Filipino until there’s evidence of the contrary.

However, the Constitution plainly says that the candidate must be the one to prove that he or she is natural-born. Since Poe can’t prove that she has Filipino biological parents, she at the very least can’t say that she’s a natural-born Filipino. Even if logic and common sense and instinct will tell you that she’s probably naturalborn because she was found abandoned at a church in Iloilo, the law says she isn’t until she can prove otherwise.

As for the 10-year residency issue, the COMELEC has ruled that her frequent trips to the US in 2005 don’t line up as an intent to make the Philippines her domicile, and even if it did, the fact that she was still an American citizen when she lived here again stopped her from claiming the country was her permanent residence.

The case is now before the Supreme Court.

WHO ARE THE LUMADS, AND WHY ARE THEY GETTING MURDERED?

WHY GREECE WENT BANKRUPT According to the Gun Violence Archive at shootingtracker.com, the United States has seen a staggering 353 mass shootings in 2015 alone, and the year isn’t even over yet. That’s an average of almost one shooting a day, and it’s the main reason why Americans have been calling for stricter measures when it comes to gun possession.

Although American federal law requires legal gun dealers run a background check on customers to see whether they’re allowed to own a gun (the list of restrictions is long, including certain types of mental illnesses) the flawed system still ends up letting people that end up being shooters through. Pro-gun control Americans want stricter rules such as universal background checks, while anti-gun controls use shooting incidents themselves to justify why more people need to be armed. President Barack Obama is about to bypass Congress, however, planning to issue a set of unprecedented executive actions tightening gun control.

Greece’s imploding economy started in the 2008 economic recession. For one reason or another—most likely corruption, and a little too much freedom granted by the EU with regard to its budget policies—the country hadn’t been totally forthright with the state of its economy.

It turns out that in 2009, the country had already had a debt of 300 billion euros, equal to 113% of its GDP. (The EU’s limit is only 60%.) Greece was forbidden from borrowing money internationally, and by 2010, it was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

Greece going bankrupt would have launched a new global economic crisis, so there had been three bailouts that would ideally go toward rehabilitating the economy, along with austerity measures to help make sure the country gets back on its feet. The only thing stopping Greece from recovering now is a lack of political will on the part of its government to commit to some real economic reforms.

The Lumads are a collective group of different indigenous tribes who live in Mindanao. This year, there were reports of a number of incidents involving the military committing acts of harassment and violence against Lumad tribes.

These involve the shutting down of schools in the province, rape of Lumad girls and women, and killings of civilians the military accused of being communist rebels, among other terrible acts. This is mainly due to the Lumads’ insistence on not allowing mining and logging operations in their homelands, an area rich with metals and forests. A good number of them have since been displaced, seeking refuge in Manila and enlightening people about their situation. n

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portfolio

caption this Visual Artist Rob Cham discusses why releasing a wordless comic was his best move yet

By NICO PASCUAL

Works in progress sketches from Rob Cham’s upcoming graphic novel Lost

“THIS IS WAY HARDER than I thought it would be,” confesses visual artist and illustrator Rob Cham. I just asked him about his recent comic, Light, which he published last year to critical acclaim and went on to become a bestseller.

Light can be seen as a subtle departure from his usual work, mixing his quirky art with a wordless story of an intrepid hero, his trusty sword, and a map that leads to adventure. The lack of words in the comic did not take anything from the material; every page makes you flip to the next one, and its culmination leaves you wanting for more. This can be seen as a change for Rob, who previously focused on autobiographical work and the gritty details of human relationships. When asked about his influences for Light, he says that he put his childhood idols such as KC Green, Craig Thompson, Daniel Clowes, and Charles Burns on a shelf to make room for new mentors. He tells me this decision “just sort of happened” after he wistfully picked up seminal works that many fantasy comic book fans start with: Akira

by Katsushiro Otomo, Bone

by Jeff Smith, and comics

by Moebius.

Light as we know it today didn’t start out in book form. Rob was originally commissioned to create a card set by Neonmob, a notable card publisher.

For the original project, he first pitched Light as a card-centered adventure where consumers have to collect all the cards to fully understand the story. But he made an important decision to have each card stand out on its own as an illustration, making them more collectable. After asking friends, he finally pitched the idea to his friend Carl Joe Javier, the head of Anino Comics, to make Light into a full-length comic. It is now on it’s second print run, and when asked about his thoughts on this decision, Rob remarks, “I am forever grateful for that.”

Rob’s use of clear, bold lines and strong colors seem to illuminate the panels where his characters come alive. This was taken, he tells me, from the ligne claire style of art that he feels most at home with. This style of work was used by previous cartoonists such as Herge, creator of the famous Tintin series, to great effect.

When making a comic book, Rob points out that it is always good to achieve a balance of “words and images,” much like how novels find that balance between vocabulary and tone.

“In a comic, the tone would be dictated by how

portfolio

“Everyone has to improve themselves, otherwise they would feel bad about getting left behind or stagnating.”

characters are drawn, how much detail is shown, the composition, pacing, and so on.”

When asked if he still keeps creative company with his influences, he simply remarks, “I continue to take pieces from other people and see if they work for me.” I nod in agreement.

Learning from others is an essential part of the creative process, and Rob sees no harm in melding his influences with his own personal sensibilities. “It’s how we find ourselves.”

Rob, like many others, got his big break through the rise of social media, which has become a viable publishing venue and bridged the gap between author and reader. He tells me that an artist finding himself caught in the fast-paced world of local comics is reassuringly easier now. “It has already saturated to a level where you can find your own support group, no matter what kind of comics you do.” When asked about the misconception that the comics industry is elitist, Rob dismisses the idea, saying that everyone is given the freedom to dabble into any genre they choose. He adds that it is a supportive industry. “That if you make comics, you are one of [us], and people welcome you openly.”

Would there be anything worth improving in it though? He muses, “It definitely lacks honest criticism and a strong editorial hand. We’re all making these comics without really having a support structure that make us do better.” He quotes Film Crit Hulk, an online review site, who had quoted from Quentin Tarantino: ”There really aren’t any bad movies or art. Each one, as bad as it is or flawed, should be seen as opportunities to learn.”

When asked about the future, Rob adamantly tells me that he doesn’t want to remain stagnant.

He has been keeping himself busy by working on several comics simultaneously, one of which is Lost, a follow up to Light, designed to be a stand-alone book. Another project is a comic with fellow artist Adam David, entitled Rise, which is about stories set in one floor of a condominium. Perhaps his most personal project would be the comic Y (originally called Hipsters), which started out as a graphic novel idea Rob wanted to do about the youth culture in Manila. It then became about the millennial generation growing up.

For most, all that would be an enormous amount of work, but for Rob, they just feel like another day in the office. With the cool, calm way he answered my questions, it is as if he never cracks under the pressure most of us would succumb to. I ask one last question: is constantly bettering oneself essential?

He replies, “Yes, everyone has to, otherwise they would feel bad about getting left behind or stagnating.”

How about the rest of our generation?

How can we cope? Rob then responds with the sketch below, which fittingly caps off our interview. n

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profile

easy does it In today’s fast-paced art world, oil painter Ku Romillo stresses the importance of taking one’s time

By NICO PASCUAL

KU ROMILLO TALKS ME THROUGH her artistic process while we are sidestepping the cats in her studio. “Don’t mind the cats, they are just vying for your attention.

I hope you don’t mind,” she remarks before sitting on a chair and answering my questions about her new work. Her studio is a small nook, adjacent to her parent’s dental clinic, and it is covered in various articles: easels, palettes, art books, and the occasional feline friend.

There are also several of her works, all of which are neatly scattered around the room. There are still life paintings, commissions from abroad, and a number of unfinished works that have been scrapped, ripped out of their frames, and piled up in a corner. When she notices me eyeing the latter, she laughs. “Oh, those? Well, everything has to be done well and when I am not happy with something, I scrap it. I never sell anything that I feel is not good. I never show anything that is not good. That's why I have a pile of canvases that I ripped out of the stretchers. I'll make new ones when the time comes.” There is an air of unhurried calmness in her words, which I later learn applies to herself as well.

Ku is 26, yet she breathes the wisdom of someone older. I briefly saw her at Floating Sound Nation’s album launch in November, where her work complemented the introspective soundscapes of the musician. She tells me now that she is still pacing herself by taking her time with her craft rather than rushing headlong into exhibits or art shows. As a traditional oil painter, Ku wants to paint portraits that evoke the timeless, ethereal feeling of the masters she chooses to emulate. Drawing her influences from artists such as Caravaggio and Edward Poynter, she hopes to revitalise the notion that an artist’s passion is just as important as the work they put into what they do.

This attitude stemmed from her persistence to attain and ultimately exceed the expectations of those around her. She has always felt pressure because she comes from a family of doctors and dentists who expected her to follow into the family business, but Ku had other plans. After a semester taking up

Clockwise The Sound of Silence (Self portrait) Oil on canvas 36 x 24 in.

2015 Old Habits Die Hard Oil on Vans shoes 2015 Hope Oil on canvas 18 in. in diameter 2015 To The Fairest Oil on canvas 18 in. in diameter 2015 Changeling Oil on wood 24 x 18 in.

2015

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“My work is not just something pretty to hang in your house. I want a part of me to be in it all the time.” pre-med, she became disillusioned with what others wanted her to be and took up painting, “because I didn’t want to be around bodies anymore. I wanted to do something with a deeper meaning.”

This change in direction helped Ku decide what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. She quickly realized that it is not hard to be an artist, despite what everyone else thinks. “The people who say it’s hard are those that don’t try hard enough. You have to believe that you can do it, but most importantly, you have to put meaning into your work, or else you’ll just be another painter.”

This idea is evident upon looking at her paintings, all of which are influenced by her love of fairy-tales and mythology. As a child, she took up ballet at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and would sneak a peek at the actors and the costumes they would wear. She has always found plays intriguing, and when she started painting, she would recall these childhood memories and put them in her work. Afterwards, she caught the attention of different art collectors who would commission paintings from her. Now, selling to collectors is Have any of your paintings found a good home? I ask. her main focus. When asked why she prefers “Well, some paintings will have a good home, like this collectors to exhibits, Ku says. “Collectors recent commission work. This random guy living in Virginia know what they are doing, they intend to commissioned it.” Ku motions to a canvas on a nearby easel, keep the paintings for a long time and really perched higher than the rest of her paintings. The work, preserve them as they are. They think about entitled Changeling, depicts a child sleeping wistfully on an their children with regard to who is going to get oak bench surrounded by various flora. what painting. They really want to make sure “He just asked me if I wanted to do a portrait of his that it goes somewhere good.” daughter,” Ku continues. “I have no idea how he saw my work, but then I asked if there is a certain way he wanted it to be done, and he just said I had the freedom to do anything I wanted. At the time I was reading a bunch of fairy tales, modern fairy tales by Holly Black to be exact. So I then poured out all of that into this work, and here we are. I guess what I’m trying to say is, my work is not just something pretty to hang in your house. I want a part of me to be in it all the time.”

The conversation then moves from the art world to mutual friends then back to her work. Most unusually and disarmingly, Ku answers the questions with honesty and frankness, but she always steers the topic back to her oil paintings. She prefers the attention to be given to her work rather than the person behind the canvas. “That's my main goal. My paintings have to be durable and they have to last [after] I am dead or long gone. A hundred years from now, I want them to look how they look now.”

I then ask if she has an end goal in mind, or when can she say that she is done with painting. Ku shakes her head, pauses for a brief moment, and then smiles. “No, I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing this, because the journey is what matters. Look at us right now: we are talking and it’s all spontaneous and free. That’s what is important in life.

Painting at the speed of life. That is my mantra. As along as I’m alive, I am going to keep painting and I am going to enjoy every minute of it. That will be my legacy.“ n

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10 how to

watch and learn Survive the 21st century with 20th-century skills

By ROMEO MORAN Illustrations by MONICA ESQUIVEL

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2

IT’S A FACT OF LIFE that with every new generation comes some brand new, shiny technology that ends up making life easier. That’s the whole point of technology and innovation, anyway: to do things that we once could only dream of doing, things that used to belong in sci-fi stories and wacky inventors’ imaginations. But with every new piece of magic also comes a gradual, inevitable fading away of the crucial life skill it improves.

What happens when you have to rely on yourself and your abilities, only to find that you can’t hack it? Here are the six skills the youth of today (and, subsequently, their inevitable descendants who will first learn the things their parents already know) are slowly forgetting.

NAVIGATION

REPAIR SKILLS DRIVE STICK-SHIFT

This encompasses everything that is likely to go kaput in your lifetime: car maintenance, home repair, and even troubleshooting your own computers and gadgets.

According to a University of Manchester study, young people expect everything to just work, therefore not knowing what to do when things go wrong. And it’s true: we know how to use all our stuff, but when shit hits the fan, we’re running around with our heads cut off until we get to a service center or find a relative/friend with some IT knowhow. It makes sense when someone older has problems with their broken internet machine, but this is still a prevalent problem with the youth. It isn’t so hard, really, to channel your inner McGyver for some way to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Even if the problem can be easily solved by Siri snarkily pulling up a quick Google search. (Especially if it’s that easy.)

This actually isn’t a superimportant life skill to have nowadays, as automatic cars are always available as a legitimate option if you want them. And why would you? Taming the clutch is one more thing to learn among a million other things that could go wrong in an already finicky machine. There are a lot of conflicting reports on whether manual transmission is truly making a comeback; if it isn’t, we live in a world where manual cars are cheaper and in a country where old cars—zooming hunks of stainless steel and imagination—still roam free. If you drive, you’ll never know when you have to, say, commandeer an owner-type jeep or a boxtype Corolla or any of the automotive relics that are still around, all of which require the mastery of the humble but hard-working stick. (It’s the donkey of cars.) There are some people who still know how, especially if their dads insisted on it as their initiation into the wild world of motoring, but if most people had a choice not to learn it, they probably never would.

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We’ve already covered this here: so many people (like millions on millions, according to their usage numbers) have begun to rely too heavily on Waze and Google Maps that they’re neglecting to use and develop their inner navigational instincts.

When they don’t have access to their handheld GPS services—and even when they do—they become utterly lost, and not many people can map out places and where they are in relation to one another in the mental pictures showing in their heads.

Even when there is a map to follow, we’ve become enslaved to the efficiency of having a robot (or Terry Crews, or Elvis, or a boy band reject, among others) tell us where to go, where to turn, how far to keep going straight, step by step. The point is in life, there will be times you will be lost in the unforgiving concrete jungle (where dreams are made of) and the only person you can rely on is you. (It is also entirely possible to still get lost even if you ask for directions if you don’t know how to apply them, but thankfully, nobody tells you to go 40 degrees north nowadays.)

4 BASIC STITCHES You may have had Home Economics back in grade school and/or high school, but how many of you have actually retained those skills long after you’ve graduated? According to a study by the University of Missouri back in 2014, relatively few millennials showed mastery in sewing.

But even back then, it was never really a branch of education that schools focused on, especially if they didn’t have the budget.

(The only exception, of course, are trade schools, fashion schools, and people who go to them.) Nobody ever thought of how sewing a pair of pajamas or a new apron would ever be useful in the real world if that wasn’t the career path they wanted, but we also never thought that repairing our clothes with a needle and thread would ever be a great skill to have in the clutch. We were all wrong there.

5 COOK

A MEAL

It’s not a coincidence: there is a trend where all the Home Economics stuff is declining among the youth, and the noble art of cooking—despite young people’s love of food—is not spared. To be clear, the definition of “cooking” in this case is not the art of boiling instant noodles or heating frozen processed meats; we’re talking about the skill of preparing a complex dish. A poll conducted by the BBC showed that the average millennial knows how to cook only four dishes, and those are dishes one can make in, like, five minutes. And why should they go longer, when paying people to cook your food is always more convenient? According to the 2014 Nielsen Shopper Trends Report, more Filipinos would prefer to eat out because ain’t nobody got time for cooking. But think about it: in your heart of hearts, do you really, really want to keep coming back to Jollibee for dinner? n

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12 music

what happened in paris?

Musician JP Del Mundo spills on the parties, the art, and the beats that rocked a global music festival

By MARTIN DIEGOR

THEY SAY PASSION can take you places, but JP Del Mundo didn’t expect that it would send him to Paris. Going by the names John Pope for his experimental electronica and Arms Akimbo during DJ gigs, 24-year old JP was chosen out of 4,500 musicians across the globe to complete a diverse group of 60 individuals who took part in the Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) in Paris last November.

“None of us knew what the selection process was like,” says JP. The requirements included a demo CD and an extensive application form that contained questions ranging from musical preferences to their favorite French film. “All they told us was that our applications were reviewed by at least two judges from different musical backgrounds.”

Founded in 1998, the RBMA introduces itself as a global institution that is “committed to fostering creativity in music.” It has been held in cities like London, Tokyo, and Dublin, with Paris as the latest cultural hub to play host.

Photos courtesy of JP Del Mundo

En route Every year, the Academy opens its doors to up-and-coming singers, producers, DJs, and artists for a chance to learn and work with the industry’s finest, whose lectures are recorded in an online video archive. But the selection is not just about talent. The RBMA looks for people who make a difference in the musical landscape, very much Nicolas Godin’s live 360-degree audiovisual show like JP who is the first Filipino to be accepted into the Academy.

Aside from his personal gigs, JP plays guitar for Never The Strangers and produces tracks for local acts like Curtismith and crwn. He has even scored for films Agos: The Manila Dream by Lyka Gonzalez and PASAN by Jorel Lising, which were presented at the Court Mètrage in the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

Before becoming the musical genius he is today, however, JP started not with an uptight background from a prestigious music school but in his bedroom, with an urge to learn the guitar chords of Green Day’s American Idiot.

“I’d like to think I lived a normal childhood.

You know, video games, Nickelodeon shows, video games based on Nickelodeon shows,” JP Program proper muses. It was actually his sister who learned to “It was just non-stop music play a musical instrument first. “But you know 24/7,” JP recalls. [what happens when] children are forced into The RBMA has a public piano lessons. I think there was a point where I program with art installations, was playing her Casio keyboard more than club nights, and concerts. It’s [she did].” basically heaven, if angels Over the years, JP learned to take cues from were into Soundcloud.

French electronica with the likes of Daft Punk, “At every show in Paris, no matter the style of music, how ‘weird’ The Toxic Avenger, and Madeon. His interest it might be, whether they were familiar with it or not, everyone was eventually grew into a commitment, and he paid paying attention and listening. That never happens in [Manila]. his dues by practicing, learning music theory, and They are on a whole other level when it comes to consuming and immersing himself with what the Internet can respecting art.” teach him. “I just always took it seriously, I guess, Held at the La Gaîté lyrique, the Academy also created an but it definitely helps when you’re having fun. It exhibition called the Paris Musique Club, with Parisian art collective never feels ‘serious.’”

Scale brought in to create multi-sensory experiences of music, designed to be viewed and activated collectively. They worked with talents like Beat Assailant, Carl Craig, and The Queens, among many others, to produce 360-degree projections, video mappings, and virtual realities.

On the other hand, the lectures were dotted with notable names including renowned American singer and percussionist Sheila E, onehalf of French duo Air Nicolas Godin, and Stereolab vocalist Lætitia Sadier. For JP though, one lecture hit home closer than others. It was the session of British singer Adam Bainbridge, a.k.a. Kindness, who talked about the business and building your own identity.

“He stressed that it was okay to make mistakes,” JP says. “For someone like me who always has self-doubt, that was super huge.

[I learned that] you don’t have to figure out things the first time around. Hearing it from someone who has been through as much as [Bainbridge] drove the point all the more.”

“On the last day, we had a listening session in the lecture hall where we listened to all the tracks that we made during our two-week stay.”

music 13 “Sebastian a.k.a.

Malard from Barcelona, one of my closest friends during the Academy.

This was in the middle of the maze in the Garden of Versailles.”

“They told us there was going to be a surprise performance during the first night at Le Badaboum, and it turned out to be gospel group, The Joubert Singers! They performed a 10-minute version of their hit, Stand on the Word.”

“At every show in Paris, no matter the style of music, how ‘weird’ it might be, whether they were familiar with it or not, everyone was listening. That never happens in [Manila].”

The takeaway The way we create and listen to music has grown drastically. Spotify has more than 20 million songs in its archive, and as of January of 2016, Apple Music already has 10 million paid subscribers, considering they’ve been around for only six months then. The Internet has given young talents everything they need to succeed, but also maybe everything they need to be scared of the vastness of the global music community. The reality of starting out and finding one’s distinct sound is overwhelming, but perhaps that’s the most important cue JP took home.

“I should just be the best me that I can be musically,” he shares.

“I mean, that’s why they got me in the first place, because I was just myself. Before, I had a lot of doubts, but now, I definitely learned to be more fearless when it comes to making music.”

JP landed back in the Philippines on Nov. 13, but Paris is definitely still with him, along with the realization that Manila has a lot of work to do.

“A unique artistic voice within newer local mainstream music is very few and far between, because the our music industry only focuses on short-term gains by recycling well-known songs and formulae,” JP remarks.

“Before we ask what should change in the local music industry, we should ask, ‘Is there anything we should change about ourselves as consumers of music?’ My set in Paris was technically not my best because I made a lot of mistakes, but it felt like the best because everyone actually listened. I’m still shaken by that.”

Despite the realities of the local scene, JP still thinks it’s not entirely impossible to catch up. (“But it will still be a long-ass time before we do so.”) In the meantime, he’ll be doing his share of catching up. An EP is in the works as of writing. Who knows what kind of music JP will come up with this time. Staying in one genre was never his thing. Whatever it is, Paris, and the world, is surely listening. n

“This was taken on the very last night, on a street near the Eiffel Tower.

Some of my participant friends and I decided to go by train on the last night, because when else are we going to get to see it again?”

This was right after the avant-garde show at Garage MU, while waiting for the shuttles to take us back to La Gaîté Lyrique so we can make make more music in the studios until sunrise.

14 essay

essay 15

violent dialogues The true danger of a generation that refuses to acknowledge a bloody past

By LEIRON MARTIJA Illustration by ANGELICA REGALA

AT THE RISK of exposing ourselves to the trappings of a discussion about politics, there’s a serious need to talk about Marcos apologists, as recent chatter about the coming elections has given birth to a motley of political pundits and dilettantes who generously broadcast their views.

Anyone who’s ever put their ear to the online ground will be familiar with the experience. You’re online, minding your own business, and every now and then you’ll encounter maybe three, five, or 10 comments that start hijacking the discussion.

Keywords suddenly start popping up: “discipline” (or the lack of it), “iron fists” (or the need for it), and the creatively destructive and radical hypotheses to curing our social ills—”Abolish Congress!” “Kill all the criminals!” “Declare Martial Law!” If there’s one thing we can all agree on when it comes to apologists, it’s that hyperbole seems to be their dialect.

Without even discussing facts and statistics first, just the mere dynamic of how they stonewall themselves argumentatively, the apologists seem to confuse stubbornness for stoicism. I can talk about the thousands of desaparecidos—victims of extrajudicial killings, mostly student leaders, and other men and women found dead all over the country—and they dismiss this unfortunate statistic into a mere footnote with one word: “dissidents.”

They were dissidents, in the same way that the hundreds of protesters killed, injured, and detained during the Globe Steel Mfg. Inc. protests back in 1984 were dissidents. Leaders like Edgar Jopson, Evelio Javier, and Bobby Gana, they were all dissidents for standing up to the military. Senators Diokno and Salonga, the religious leaders and indigenous chieftains who resisted martial law abuse, they’re dissidents too. Even Senator Ninoy Aquino, who tumbled from his plane down to the tarmac, bleeding away his life before he could even set foot on our country. These stories of martial law abuse are lies, apologists seem to say. These are just the result of propaganda and fearmongering.

To think this way is not only factually inaccurate, but morally reprehensible. No conversation with an apologist ever ends pretty.

But we’re Filipinos: forgiving to a fault, coy, and mild-mannered. Talking about these things demands a certain degree of open-mindedness and a sense of humor. Pity the fool who engages the apologist in a quixotic quest to arrive at a discursive middleground. Woe to the reasonable man who goes out of his way to accommodate an apologist instead of leaving him be with his dangerous opinions. I say dangerous here because the Martial Law Apologist thrives in our political environment, one which is perpetually exhausted with democratic conflict.

This is not to say that it is entirely the fault of the internet. Even the most reasonable people will have it up to here with circular political debates.

The most passionate exchanges and the most convincing points eventually won’t matter, because when the chess game is over, all the pieces go back

A DICTATORSHIP WILL NOT

SOLVE TRAFFIC.

A DICTATORSHIP WILL NOT

BRING ABOUT PEACE

IN MINDANAO.

A DICTATORSHIP WILL NOT

RID OUR GOVERNMENT

OF CORRUPTION, WHEN

IN FACT IT IS THE KIND OF

POLITICAL SYSTEM THAT

ENCOURAGES IT.

to the same box. We leave them be, and they feel emboldened after. They go their way, and I go mine.

How does one win against an apologist, then?

They seem so stalwart, so deeply entrenched in their belief, and engaging them seems like such a waste of time and energy. We have to keep in mind what is at stake every time we are in discursive engagement. There is a need to go beyond the usual conspiracy theories, a pressing need to substantiate a meaningful response, while at the same time, refuting the apologist’s of against “dissidents.” Never mind the fact that majority of these people seem to dominate the comments section of news blogs and hastily put together viral photos.

As far as apologists are concerned, the danger lies in their numbers. To pick fights with them is exhausting, pointless, and misses the meat of the matter—these are people under the spell of an intoxicating hypothesis, of a world where they see themselves exempt from the wrath of a dictatorship. They are under the spell of apologism, and the cure to that is counterapologism. I wouldn’t claim to know what that kind of thinking embodies, or of a set procedure to deal with apologists, but it should at the very least be unafraid to engage people both online and offline about hard truths and political realities. It should, at the very least, tell the truth and fight for it.

A dictatorship will not solve traffic. A dictatorship will not bring about peace in Mindanao. A dictatorship will not rid our government of corruption; in fact, it is the kind of political system that encourages it. Behind the platitudes and courageous boot-stomping apologists make in political conversations is a deplorable kind of fear and laziness.

We are all tired in this democracy, but that should not be confused for being tired of it.

There’s nothing dissident about criticizing the way things work in our country; in fact it is our responsibility to constantly hold the individuals in power accountable to the people.

I cannot say for certain what kind of country apologists imagine ours would be if they had their way, but I’d rather have a people free enough to disagree with the government. We are, after all, only as free as the most disagreeable opinion allowed to be discussed, and the fact that apologists have room in this fragile democracy to discuss taking it down must mean that ironically, they need the very same freedoms they seek to destroy. At its most fundamental, apologism is of an opinion: dangerous and perhaps reprehensible, but still an opinion. Bad ideas are countered by good ones, beliefs against other beliefs, and our capacity to tolerate and ultimately correct misconceptions on both our history and our values ought to illustrate our civility and love for freedom, instead of our pettiness and lassitude. n

16 music

record setting How to dip your toes (or take a dive) into the vinyl lifestyle

By CAI MAROKET and ROMEO MORAN Illustrations by MARTIN DIEGOR

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

PEOPLE GET INTO OLD-SCHOOL analog music for a variety of reasons. Some still have their parents’ old turntable and some classic records lying around while others are interested in the different sound quality the medium provides. (And there are those, of course, who are into it for the hipster elitism.)

Vinyl records don’t always come in black. They can come in a lot of different colors— even transparent.

It is actually possible for the sound of the music to physically ruin a record, if the audio engineer didn’t mix and master it properly.

“It’s one of those nontangible things that’s hard to describe,” says Francis Regalado, a music enthusiast who’s been collecting records since he was eight years old. “It’s a lot warmer.

Because it’s mixed and mastered differently, you get to hear nuances, the way the artist would have intended. For example, you pick up a record like My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Loveless.’ It would sound different on digital; it sounds colder, harsher, with the frequencies and stuff. When you listen to the actual record, you get to hear it as Kevin Shields intended it, where frequencies go in and out of focus and stuff. You get to hear things with a lot more detail.”

SOUND BITES

How to appreciate the true sound of music: play these four songs on vinyl, which unlocks little nuances MP3s won’t

“Music for Airports”

By Brian Eno

Physical releases are sometimes a medium for visual art. “A lot of my favorite ‘90s bands, they have really extensive liner notes and stuff,” says Regalado. “Especially if there’s a painter or visual artist in the band, liner notes would always have this amazing artwork that tells a story. And it’s something I would always look for in a release.”

“Loveless”

By My Bloody Valentine “Souvlaki”

By Slowdive

“Prayers on Fire”

By The Birthday Party

music 17

JUMPING IN

If you’re already serious about getting into it, then you have to have something to play it on. Records are easier to come across, but with a turntable, it’s either you already have an old rig ready (or almost ready) to go, or you have to go find yourself a new one.

BEST PLACES TO GET RECORDS Satchmi Bebop Records makati cinema square

AstroVision

Heima

IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A RIG Make sure it works. If it doesn’t, there are shops in Makati Cinema Square along Pasong Tamo, Makati that fix turntables.

Chances are it’s still functional, and you’ll only have to replace a few small parts. “That’s usually where people start; that’s where I started,” says Regalado.

If you only have a turntable but no sound system, you’re going to need an amp and actual speakers.

Most audio stores will have the gear you’re looking for.

IF YOU DON’T HAVE ONE YET Figure out what it is you’re listening for.

If you just want to play records you like, getting a relatively cheap Motorino from Satchmi (P7799), or similar small and/or portable turntables with built-in speakers (anywhere around P3,000-8,000) so that all you have to do is plug and play, will do.

If you actually want to bring out the best sound possible, you’re going to need a full set-up with a better record player (conservative estimate is around P10,00015,000), a nice solid-state amp, and some good speakers (around P5,000 each).

Nocturnal Records recto

Yesteryears

Vinyl DUMP

maginhawa

cubao expo

Tres Kuleros mandaluyong

Fully Booked AUDIOENGINE A5+ speakers, amazon.com

MARSHALL amplifiers

MOTORINO turntable, Satchmi

AUDIO SPACE tube amp

Happy Dads Vinyl Shop quezon city

HANDLE WITH CARE

1

2

3

4

Don’t touch the surface of the record (the part with all the micro grooves) with your fingertips, especially if they’re wet and/or dirty.

Handle them along the edges and the center hole.

Don’t store that stuff in hot places, especially not in direct sunlight.

Records can warp and become unplayable.

Do store your records upright. The weight of the record should not be supporting itself.

Do clean the turntable’s stylus from time to time.

The needle can acquire dust and gunk over time, no matter how much you keep your records clean. (You can buy cleaning accessories from most audio stores.)

Classic rock, jazz, and oldies both local and foreign

Metal (of the death and dark and black variety)

Pop, rock, hip-hop, indie, and most things contemporary

ode to my family

18 essay

How the demise of ESPN’s Grantland left a huge void in the sports journalism landscape

By STAN SY Illustration by LEE CACES LONGFORM IN SPORTS JOURNALISM is almost a lost art.

Once upon a time, there was a place called Grantland. It was a unique brand: an online magazine founded by former ESPN and current HBO personality Bill Simmons that tackled sports and pop culture in his image and likeness. Known for his unapologetically brash and biased (but self-aware) opinions on sports and personalities, Simmons, along with several contributors, sought out to create a site that was fresh and edgy and applied it to their content.

And it worked. Throughout its run, Grantland consistently churned out longform articles that had something for every type of sports fan there was. If you were into finding humor in the boneheaded plays your favorite NBA player made, you could enjoy the meme-heavy articles of Jason “netw3rk” Concepcion or Andrew Sharp. If you were into analyzing every minutia of a team’s playbook and critiquing why a team was on the rise or was on the decline, you would read Zach Lowe. If you loved stats presented in an ergonomic and efficient fashion to describe the trends in basketball, you would go for Kirk Goldsberry or Bill Barnwell.

The best part about Grantland wasn’t just that it was any ordinary sports website. It changed the game in sports journalism by executing creative ideas that you wouldn’t think about finding in your regular sports website. It welcomed the idea that a sports fan isn’t just a sports fan because you could very well be into other things, too. And why couldn’t you? Why can’t you be an NFL fan who also happens to love Survivor? Why can’t you be a baseball fan who also enjoys Oscars season? Why can’t you be the fan who happens to see professional wrestling as a text and want to analyze it?

The site was filled with content that just appealed to different palates. They had columns, reviews, and podcasts that brought out the personalities of the people working on the site and poked our collective consciousness about the things we enjoyed watching. A great example would be one of my personal favorites, in which Simmons created an Action Star Championship and defined the eras of Hollywood action movies depending on who the dominant action star was at the time.

Former Grantland staff writer Brian Curtis had one of the most interesting pieces on the site last January when he wrote a meta article on the “Talk About”—criticizing how the media can get very lazy when interviewing sports personalities by asking them to “talk about” something that happened, instead of asking “how” or “why” questions.

Jonathan Abrams was one of the best writers the site ever had, using his expertise in profiling and feature writing to present the oral history of events like the infamous Malice at the Palace from 2004.

Hell, the Philippines was also represented on Grantland on numerous occasions through Pacific Rims author Rafe Bartholomew, who was a features editor on the site. There were several features written about the idiosyncrasies of our country as a sports nation for both basketball and boxing. A Pacquiao fight was good enough of a reason to send Bartholomew here to cover a live screening in Mandaluyong, where the People’s

Champ had his first professional fight. The incident where former NBA first-round pick Daniel Orton got fired from the PBA for his comments about Pacquiao also made waves. As a Filipino sports junkie, it felt wonderful to be represented on such a global platform since the site was owned and operated by ESPN, the largest sports network in the world.

These were the things that made procrastinating on the internet fun. Finding a Grantland article was the perfect way to get through the 30-minute writing block while writing your report or to get through a slow day at the office. At the same time, you knew you weren’t just consuming fluff pieces from wannabe analysts regurgitating stuff they’ve heard from someone else—or worse, things that didn’t even have sound logic behind them.

What made the site so likable was that it had become its own little community. “The thing people don’t understand about Grantland was it was about the relationships. And people saw at the outside, people saw the writing and just the output people did everyday,” Simmons said on his new podcast under HBO. “But people didn’t see how hard people worked. We were understaffed the whole time and people just really gave a shit and they really worked as hard as possible to get that site up and to make it good. Everybody cared.”

In as much as the people working for the site were like a family, its readers had also turned into a community of sorts. Imagine the joy of going through your Facebook news feed and finding out that one of your officemates who you don’t really talk to posts a Grantland link. The site wasn’t all that popular, and was more of an “insider community” thing. So seeing it on your friends’ news feeds was kind of like wearing a badge that said, “Hey, I enjoy their content, too! I’m part of the club!”

For example, one of those bonds was an online community that Grantland’s wrestling

essay 19

What we saw, read, and heard on Grantland wasn’t just a team of people sputtering out content for the sake of it. We see and hear too many of that on the regular. The site created a niche for itself and for its readers, where it made longform journalism mainstream.

columnist, David “the Masked Man” Shoemaker, had built with Hot 97 DJ Peter Rosenberg through the former’s column on professional wrestling and its complementing weekly podcast, Cheap Heat. Fans of pro wrestling have long had to endure taunting from people who have grown out of the sport, constantly reminding them that “that shit is fake.” But when Simmons and Shoemaker started writing about wrestling both as a text and as a feature, people began to take wrestling more seriously as a form of entertainment.

Now, if the site had such a loyal fanbase and such talented writers, then why did it suddenly get the rug pulled from under it? ESPN President John Skipper said that it wasn’t due to financial reasons at all, and that ESPN just didn’t want to continue expending time, resources, and energy to “continue the excellence of Grantland.” But if you dig deeper through the numbers, you’ll actually notice that not everything has been magical for ESPN and its parent company, Disney.

Over the last two years, financial reports have shown that ESPN has lost about 7 million subscribers in the United States from its 99 million subscriber base in 2013. That number translated to about $650 million less in annual profits, which it pinned on cord-cutting, or the trend where subscribers chose to cut off their cable subscriptions in favor of streaming content through on-demand online networks like Netflix or Hulu.

Simmons confirms as much in the November 19, 2015 episode of his podcast with former Grantland writer Chuck Klosterman, where they question why ESPN never made an effort to build traffic towards the site. They cite things like not having an app, and merely having a small hyperlink in ESPN.com’s mobile site to direct users to it, as one of the reasons they felt held down. To be fair, Simmons acknowledged that the ESPN brass also didn’t anticipate the rise of iPads and mobile tablets as a more favored device for accessing online content when ESPN was experiencing its boom in subscribers in 2013. To simplify the story into a matter of politics makes it all the more heartbreaking.

One of my favorite things about Bill Simmons was that he was unabashedly open about his bias for Boston and its sports teams, which was why—being a Celtics fan myself—I found myself drawn to him. He called anyone out, from players to coaches, executives, owners, and beyond.

This also led to his eventual downfall at ESPN, when he set his sights on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

There had been allegations of treating NFL players unfairly aimed at Goodell, and Simmons was one of the commissioner’s most staunch critics. Goodell came on Simmons’ podcast in September 2014, where the latter criticized

the former about how he handled the Ray Rice domestic violence case. What got Simmons eventually suspended by ESPN was when Simmons called Goodell out for lying when he claimed that he did not know the contents of the video tape showing Rice physically assaulting his wife.

When 2015 began, several of Grantland’s writers like Wesley Morris, Jay Caspian Kang, and Rembert Browne—all of whom helped cultivate the signature voice the site had become known for—had begun leaving. Little by little, it showed that the site we had come to love had started to change.

But it wasn’t until ESPN publicly announced on May 8, 2015 that it would not renew Bill Simmons’ contract that people began to speculate about the site’s future. At the time, ESPN assured audiences that the site would continue to run under the leadership of interim editor-in-chief Chris Connelly.

Some five months later, Grantland’s own writers would find out on Twitter that the site would cease to exist.

The site’s demise was a huge blow to sports journalism because it was an outfit that actually made longform writing cool. What we saw, read, and heard on it wasn’t just a team of people sputtering out content for the sake of it. We see and hear too many of that on the regular. The site created a niche for itself and for its readers, where it made longform journalism mainstream. All of a sudden, reading a quick piece on Yahoo! Sports about how Kyle Lowry has become a better NBA player after losing a lot of weight in the offseason just doesn’t give you the same kick after a Grantland piece.

Even other online journalists weren’t spared from the negative repercussions of the site’s sudden death. It sent the message that even though the trend has been to go from traditional media to new media, online journalism isn’t as safe a bet as they thought it would be. At the end of the day, all it boiled down to was politics and business, things that we sports fans don’t normally pay too much attention to.

Sure, Simmons is still around, this time under HBO, who have given him his own channel, Channel 33—named after the jersey number of Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird. He has a new podcast, too, and he’s brought several former Grantlanders along with him. Zach Lowe and Kirk Goldsberry are still writing for ESPN, albeit under different outfits, with Lowe writing for ESPN.com and Goldsberry writing for its analytics-driven affiliate, FiveThirtyEight. But it just isn’t the same.

As big sporting events like the NBA Finals and the Super Bowl come nearer, social media will continue to be filled with “expert opinions” from every keyboard warrior. After all, when these big, trending topics take over the internet, everyone’s

suddenly an analyst. Without the safe haven that Grantland brought to those of us who sought something more intelligent, creative, and satisfying, trying to get through that lazy morning in the office just became so much harder.

In the end, it was the grown-up games—the ones played behind the scenes, not the ones played on the court or the field—that cost us one of the most brilliant bastions of sports journalism of our time. And we’re all the worse off for it. n

ALL-STARS Pieces you need to dig up from Grantland’s dusty archives

“There and Back Again: The Philippines” That time Rafe Bartholomew and Jason Concepcion came over to cover the first NBA game in Manila

“Person of Interest: Jeremy Lin” A sharp profile of the ChineseAmerican once-superstar in the middle of his rise

“Frontlines of Ferguson” Not a sports story, but a moving blow-by-blow coverage of the 2014 Ferguson, Missouri protests

20 food

munch month Live a little and wreck that new year’s resolution with 29 of the best eats around the city

1

By CAI MAROKET, MARTIN DIEGOR, and GIAN BERNARDINO Photography by GERALD DEL MUNDO and ABBY MAGSANOC

Vest Ramen In Town, Malate

TANTANMEN

Eating at Erra’s/Vest Ramen in town is about more than just good noodles; it’s an experience where you are taken into another strange world in the darker side of Malate. It may be frightening or intimidating at first, but good broth and cheap beers make for a refreshing respite from the hectic goingson in the area.

5

Cantino, Makati

CHORI PASTA

Finding a nice, quiet place in busy Pasong Tamo is quite a surprise in itself, but to find that it also serves good, hearty (and cheap!) food is a treat. Cantino’s chori pasta is the right kind of salty for a light lunch. Best consumed with its vinegrette properly mixed in.

2

Stockton Place, Makati

STEAK & TRUFFLE FRIES

This is a little bit pricier than the rest, but for good reason.

Stockton Place’s steak is as delicious as it smells. Served on a bed of crispy truffled potatoes, this carb-and-protein combination is just what you need for a family dinner, lunch with friends, or if you just want a really good steak.

3 Beni’s Falafel, Makati

FALAFEL

4

Manam, Makati

WATERMELON SINIGANG

The good thing about having watermelon in sinigang is the surprise of it tasting not like you imagined. The fruit simply brings a light twist of flavor to an old recipe, but it’s a huge, crazy difference.

This was one of the last places you’d find the best falafel in the country. A hidden gem in the heart of Makati, today, Beni’s has upgraded and moved to A Venue mall with a more pleasant interior, but the most delicious falafel around still and is as great as ever.

6 Wai Ying Dimsum, Binondo

HAKAW

Wai Ying’s magic also comes from the fact that they’re in the middle of Chinatown, meaning their food couldn’t be more authentic. For a safe first visit, get a steamy serving of Hakaw dipped in spicy soy sauce. The meat is firm and the wrapper is nicely moist. Once you’re done with that, order a few more for good measure.

7

Ooma, Ortigas

ABURI MAKI

If you ever find yourself tired of the same old California maki, head on to Ooma and give their aburi sushi a try. They blowtorch the fish, giving the dish an extra crunch and a bold, smokey aroma and flavor. It is best eaten with a brush of ponzu sauce.

11

food 21

Halal Guys, Ortigas

La Grotta Cucina Italia, Makati

TRUFFLE PASTA

8

Kanto Freestyle, Kapitolyo

CHAMPORADO

La Grotta Cucina Italia is the place to go to if you ever find yourself with a strong, weird craving for truffles. Made with perfectly al dente pasta, porcini mushrooms, parma ham and incredibly creamy truffle sauce, their Tagliatelle di Tartufo Crudo is one of the best truffle pastas in the country.

Kanto Freestyle’s version is a simple, honest-to-God good champorado. Drizzled with cream and topped with choc-nut pieces, the chocolate porridge had us going way back to our childhoods at lola’s house meriendas. If you’re craving for comfort food for whatever reason (or excuse), Kanto Freestyle’s Champorado is the go-to dish.

Silantro, Kapitolyo

12

Goto Monster, Makati

GOTO SPECIAL

Finishing Goto Monster’s big bowls can be quite a task, but just get that spoon and you’re good to go. The mix of garlic and salted egg brings the right amount of flavor. Squeeze the calamansi and add some soy sauce to taste. Perfect for drunken cravings.

10

9 QUESADILLA

Silantro’s Quesedilla is just damn good. It overwhelms you with a plethora of cheese and chicken, all topped off with tasty, crisp fries that taste like they were deep-fried in beef fat. Combined with the remarkably reasonable price tag, this is our top pick from the best Fil-Mex in town.

13 Hossein, Makati

MEGA PLATTER

Besides being generous with the servings, Hossein’s dishes are authentic Persian food. Their platters give you the chance to try different kebabs they prepare in one go, from lamb to chicken to two types of beef.

Each platter comes with a big plate of biryani rice and saffron rice, and is good for four to five people.

GYRO WRAP

We fondly remember lining up along 53rd street in the cold New York weather in anticipation of the best street food in the area. From its crisp, succulent meat, to the searing heat of its hot sauce, Halal Guys Gyro Wrap ups the playing field on simple but wholesome street food.

14 Taco Vengo, Kapitolyo

BACON LENGUA TRIPE SUPER TACO

This container van taqueria is here to make sure that splurging on a well-loved taco is more than just grubbing and messing around with our favorite comfort food. The bacon lengua, for one, is a play on gummy texture with strong flavors from the relish and drops of lemon.

Mendokoro Ramenba, Makati

SHOYU RAMEN

There are lots of ramen restaurants around Manila, but Mendokoro’s tight menu and limited seats (just 21!) elevate the game with artful and complex renditions of our Japanese favorites. The Shoyu has a tasty and soft pork swimming in rich broth.

Sip it up hot along with the long noodles.

22 food

LIQUID ASSETS Makati

THE BONBON CLUB

17

MADAME GENEVA

If The Bonbon Club opened its doors in the morning, this drink would be perfect for brunch. Made with Ungaru premium gin, pomelo, aloe, lemon juice and syrup, Madame Geneva is the most refreshing on the menu with a very strong and sweet citrus flavor.

16

DR. SYLVIUS

Pepper is the first thing you’ll recognize upon sipping off of this cocktail, but as soon as it goes down, a curious ginger aftertaste take over courtesy of a mix between ginger and lemongrass.

CRUICKSHANK’S MAD HOUSE

If anything, be prepared for a spicy cinnamon taste that is oddly refreshing. It’s a drink that’s perfect if you’re looking for something that will last you a long conversation.

Bonifacio High Street

SINGLE ORIGIN

SALTED CARAMEL LATTÉ

Skip the usual and enjoy Single Origin’s rendition of a good morning: a sweet and salty combination of espresso poured on caramel and textured milk, with sea salt to finish and picture-perfect coffee art to boot. Have it with your favorite pastry.

VALRHONA MOCHA With premium French Valrhona chocolate swirling in your glass, it guarantees a wealth of deep, velvety layers putting fast mocha drinks to shame.

HONG KONG MILK TEA

A simple concoction of Assam Sewper Tea steeped in milk and sugar, this drink offers a much needed respite from hot afternoons in the Metro with its subtle sweetness.

Makati

ALCOHOL BY VOLUME

JUPITER ST.

Named after the street the speakeasy is on, this ABV original is primarily made with single malt scotch, lime, Proseco reduction syrup and Stanford & Shaw Ginger beer. There’s virtually no taste of the alcohol as the ginger beer dominates the drink and goes down smoothly.

GIN BASIL SMASH

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First created in Paris in 2008 by Jorg Meyer, this award-winning cocktail is the mojito’s younger, more vibrant sibling. There is barely any hint of alcohol and is all basil and lemon on the tongue, despite containing Tanqueray gin and Cointreau. Tread lightly.

KENTUCKY BOURBON TRAIL

The first thing that kicks in is a pleasant wooden taste, followed by a subtle chocolate aftertaste and ending with a nice, quick burn in your chest.

It’s a strong drink, reminiscent of a neat whiskey, only a bit more flavorful thanks to the lemon.

19 Shawarma Snack Center, Manila

BEEF SHAWARMA

The beef shawarma in Shawarma Snack Center is what the wrap is supposed to be. Strongly reminiscent of the ones served in food stalls across New York, they do shawarma like no one else in the country. The beef is crisp, flavorful, perfectly seasoned, and unpretentious.

food 23 Garde Manger, Ortigas

Izakaya Kikufuji, Makati

MU SHU SESAME CHICKEN ROLL

GYU KUSHI

For a different take on Japanese dining, head on to Kikufuji and order the gyu kushi, skewered beef cubes that are so tender, they just dissolve in your mouth. Each stick has four cubes that are perfectly seasoned— very flavorful but not overwhelming, and still lets the taste of their beef shine.

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21 Bawai, Quezon City

COM SUON CHA

When most people think of Vietnamese food, they think of pho, but a quick stop to Bawai is sufficient education to the world of Vietnamese cuisine. A standout is the Com Suon Cha, a double-grilled pork belly, served with a mushroom egg pie. It’s a melt-in-your mouth experience with a very savory, sweet and subtle smoky flavor that isn’t cloying.

Mr. Diggins, Quezon City

SPECTRUM

23 Tonkatsuya, Makati

Don’t let the Instagrammable and Pinterest-esque presentation fool you into thinking that everything Mr. Diggins has to offer is sickeningly sweet.

Everything is surprisingly balanced and well thought of, as the sweetness of the ice cream and toppings is neutralized by the inclusion of a waffle.

This one’s for all the people who like spring rolls but are allergic to shrimp. Garde Manger’s Mu Shu Sesame Chicken Roll is a healthy yet filling lunch with a good balance of protein and vegatables. It’s sweet and fresh, with chili hoisin sauce that complements the rolls well by adding a subtle kick.

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25

TONKATSU SET

You know it’s the real thing when you walk in a Japanese restaurant and Japanese people are actually eating there. With a smoky aftertaste and wild hot wasabi on the side, each bite off this tonkatsu is worth every peso.

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BLK 513, Ortigas

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Quezon City

BLK 513 is a new take on your classic froyo. Tastewise, the yogurt itself is just the right amount of tart and the right amount of sweet, with a good selection of fruit, crunch and sauce add-ons for extra layers of flavor. It’s healthier than the average froyo, being gluten-free with activated charcoal, a detoxifying agent (and the reason for its grayish hue).

For people who crave dessert but are not a big fan of sweets, caramel apples are the way to go. Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is chocolate heaven and has a large enough assortment of confections to please everyone, but their many versions of the apple treat deserve the highlight.

Tart Granny Smith apples and their caramel sauce is a winning combination.

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BLACK YOGURT

26 Café Seolhwa, Makati

MANGO CHEESE BINGSU

Korea’s bingsu is like a simplified halo-halo. It uses less ingredients, more cream, and a lot less shaved ice.

Café Soelhwa uses this to their advantage as having fewer ingredients allow their desserts to be more cohesive.

The Mango and cheese bingsu is a refreshing, light pick-meup for those hot upcoming summer days.

CARAMEL APPLES

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Farmacy, Bonifacio Global City

TIN ROOF

We might not have been around for the golden days of ice cream parlors but Farmacy’s Tin Roof feels just like we’re right there. Combining any three scoops of your favorite ice cream flavors, topped with rich hot fudge, whipped cream, nuts, and a cherry on top, Farmacy’s Tin Roof is just what you need for a sweet dessert for two.

29 Diner on 16th, Kapitolyo

S’MORES MILKSHAKE

Yes, it exists. This tower of a milkshake is basically s’mores melted into a mason jar. If you don’t have a black hole for a stomach, better bring a date to finish the whole thing with. n

24 market

w h a t ’s t h e o c c a s i o n ?

Scout rolls out the fancy dinnerware

By MARTIN DIEGOR Photography by JOHN DEE

THERE WAS A TIME when you invited your friends over for dinner to serve them Hawaiian pizza and soda in disposables. Those were the days when decent table napkins were nothing but a luxury. But there is an inevitable point in your life when you’ll finally need to go through an important rite of passage into adulthood—hosting a proper dinner.

When that time comes, worry not, we’ve got your back. With designer plates, cutlery, and accessories, Scout sets the table with all that you need to make dining oh so fine.

is the oldest metal known to man, with its discovery pegged as far back as 10,000 B.C. In fact, a copper pendant found in Northern Iraq was dated at 8,700 B.C. copper

Celeste stoneware, Crate & Barrel

Cocktail shaker, Pottery Barn

stoneware is very hard and dense, which is created by firing up the pieces at very high temperatures.

Unglazed and undecorated, they usually come out brown or bluish gray.

Copper bar tools, Pottery Barn

Coffee pot, Alessi

Jonathan Adler OP Art saucers, Dimensione

Moscow mule copper mug, Crate & Barrel

Grocer serving dish, The Wareshop

Areaware distortion candlestick, Dimensione

You tea infuser

by Miriam Mirri, Alessi

An experiment by University College of London professors done in 2010 concluded that chrome is the steel that leaves the least metallic taste when used in cutlery, while the worst spoons are made of zinc.

Colombina cutlery

by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, Alessi

Colombina salt and pepper shakers by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, Alessi

The production of porcelain was a trade secret kept by the Chinese for over 900 years and was considered as valuable as gold. This was until German alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger found out that the materials needed to produce it can also be found in England.

market 25

bright eyes See the world in candy colors

By CAI MAROKET Photography by PAOLO TABUENA

HOT TOPIC round metal cat-ear sunglasses, (Hottopic.com)

NASTY GAL Heart To Heart (Nastygal.com) RUBI Look At Me cateye (Zalora.com.ph)

FACTORIE Misty (Zalora.com.ph)

VANS Shade Lane (Zalora.com.ph)

SUNNIES STUDIOS Lindsay (Sunniesstudios.com)

26 on the cover

nothing was the same Tommy Esguerra is chasing after his own version of the American Dream in Manila Photography by RALPH MENDOZA Styling by MARTIN DIEGOR Interview by LEX CELERA

on the cover 27

28 on the cover

on the cover 29

IT’S SUNDAY, AND I’M IN THE OFFICE. Most of the lights are off, the room is warm, and there are only a handful of us on the whole floor.

It’s past 10 o’clock and I haven’t had my first cup of coffee yet. I go grab my coffee mug and I hear someone entering the office. In comes who else but Tommy Esguerra himself, flanked by a pair of assistants. He’s wearing a navy blue blazer and his hair is slicked back, tied in a knot. He took the stairs the way up, all four flights of them, since the elevator wasn’t turned on as I later found out, but he hasn’t broken a single sweat. He scans the room left to right, and for a moment, he looked like a sailor fresh off the boat, outfit and all, looking at the horizon as if it were the new world ready to be conquered. The dude looked pretty majestic. If this were any more cinematic, the camera would zoom in on him as I shake his hand with a beaming smile and lead him to the conference room, where we would engage in small talk. Instead, I withdraw to grab my cup of coffee. Only when the team introduced me to Tommy did I get to shake his hand, and a pretty flimsy handshake at that. I was nervous.

I was nervous not only because I didn’t have my mojo that day, but also because I didn’t know how to approach to him. In my head were questions I gathered—some questions you just don’t ask right off the bat. I wanted to let both of our guards down and relax. I didn’t want to ask him questions off my notebook the same way I would tick off boxes from a checklist. You

know the classic sayings of poets of old: real recognizes real. I didn’t want to make him think of this interview as another part of his job as much as I want to think of it as part of mine. Honest conversations are the best conversations. I take a sip of water (I decided against drinking coffee after realizing it would make me jittery) and relax.

There’s no space to absorb and dwell on what’s making me nervous.

As it turns out, not that much time as well. I was chilling with the rest of the crew with Tommy a few feet away from us when I got asked if I should already do the interview. I knew we were pressed for time; Tommy had something else to do in the afternoon and between now, some prep work, and the shoot, I just had to do it. And it wasn’t as if he would approach me first. I stood up and asked Tommy if we two could go somewhere quieter for the interview, and he sprung up, towering over me by a good few inches or so; my head was at the same height as his shoulder. As we walked I asked him how tall he was. “How tall am I? 6’1”.” Damn, I mutter under my breath. He laughs. Damn, he heard me.

We both take a seat and I go, so, do you like interviews?

“Do I like interviews?”

My brain pauses. Did I really start the interview with that?

I mean, whenever I interview somebody famous—

“Famous? I don’t know about that…” He shakes his head, his face wearing a wide grin.

We both play it off like I didn’t say that in the first place.

At the age of 18, Tommy left his home in California to pursue a modeling career in Manila.

Call it the pursuit of the American Dream in Manila. You know, the American Dream: the idea that everyone can succeed with hard work and determination.

He’s got this whole tall, dark, and handsome thing going, and at a glance, it seems the gamble of going all the way to Manila to be a model would work in his favor. But it was still a gamble, and Tommy admits that he lost big the first time. “When I came [to Manila], I was with a fake agency. And they scammed my family.

They even had us put in money for the agency.

We didn’t know how all of this worked. My whole college fund, just gone. We lost all that money in the first three months we were here. I said, fuck, this is the wrong gamble. I want to go home. This isn’t where I’m supposed to be. How could this happen?” He was almost on his way back, in the process of buying plane tickets and all, when another agency approached him for a modeling project, and after finding out they had their own office, he agreed. And so the pursuit begins.

30 on the cover

“I DON’T LIKE TO WASTE TIME. I’M NOT TRYING TO WAKE UP 26 AND THINK, ‘I COULD HAVE DONE SO MUCH MORE.’ THAT’S ONE OF THE THINGS I HATE THE MOST: REGRETS.” have total control of his time, but if there is one thing I admire about him, it’s his commitment to his vision to himself, to his own brand despite these hurdles. You know how millennials are: we package our own self-branding (something touched on in the Be Yourself issue in October 2014, where Tommy was on the cover alongside Bruce Venida and Cedric Pasco, FYI). Tommy wants to be an actor, a host, and a singer, to name a few. He wants to be “that 70-year-old guy that says [he’s] done everything.” A man after my own heart.

But the difference between me and Tommy is that he’s hungry enough to do something about it. He’s willing to put in work for it: long hours, lost sleep, the pressure of having everyone’s eyes on him, wanting to know what’s next for him after PBB. He tells me about these acting classes he wants to take. Then he tells me his aspirations of success in five years’ time, having the money to provide for his family (his first priority) and enjoy life to the fullest, and being ready to provide for his own family, kids included, in 10 (“I want to be young enough to hang out with my kids”).

“I don’t even know my schedule for next Monday,” he tells me matter-of-factly. He only gets to know what his plans for a certain day are a day or two before. But that doesn’t faze him. I couldn’t tell if it was foolhardiness or just sheer confidence that lets him pull through with projects that require preparation.

Even after a number of years of modeling under his belt, Tommy doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. He’s just getting started. “I like to make the most out of everything. I don’t like to waste time! That’s my biggest thing. That’s one thing people notice: I don’t like to waste time. I’m not trying to wake up 26 and think, ‘I could have done so much more.’ That’s one of the things I hate the most: regrets. I never want regrets. So, while I’m alive, while I’m here, I’m trying to make the most out of it.”

At 21 years-old, Tommy is at the cusp of his youth. He’s also possibly in a very good position in the entertainment business. What’s next after being part of the Pinoy Big Brother House after all? Tommy knows this. 2016 could be his year.

Yet he also knows the preferences of the industry he’s in, which at times can be tenacious. “I don’t have that personality that the Filipino people could connect to. What if they say things about me, like ‘He’s so rude’ and ‘He’s so American?’”

He tells me of his PBB audition, where he’s lined up with people who, to him, are total artista material: chinito, muscle-bound, Tagalogspeaking, burly men—“Total doctors,” he calls them. Not speaking Tagalog bugs him the most, and what he considers his biggest regret is not learning the language earlier.

What he doesn’t know, or rather what doesn’t faze him, is limits. He takes the time to learn Tagalog in between shoots. He doesn’t

Only when he got in the PBB house did the public know him as more than a face. I mean that in the nicest way. Who wouldn’t be more than a face when you’re under constant surveillance in an enclosed space under circumstances you have to participate in? I knew of him around the time he was in the house, although not because I watched the show—I don’t have a TV. Instead, I found him through one the hashtags trending on Twitter a few months ago, #ToMiho they call it, an amalgamation of his and his now muse Miho Nishida’s name, as all celebrity love tandems have nowadays. Further searches show more but not much about him: slideshows of them together set to romantic music, snippets of them on television being all lovey-dovey, snippets of an interview where they talk about each other—you get the picture.

I mentioned to him how I followed him on Snapchat a few days prior as part of my research.

The contents were sparse, like only two or three snaps, but were nonetheless interesting. All of the snaps were of him and Miho. We were only beginning to talk about his stay in the PBB house when he mentioned her.

You were second place on PBB, right?

“Yeah. I won, though. I basically won. I got Miho. She’s able to get what she wants and stay here [in Manila]. I won. If I got the house and won the million, Miho goes home because she doesn’t have enough work here. When it’s second place, you don’t get as much, and you don’t have as many plans for the year, right? She could have possibly gone home. I wouldn’t want to have all

this success and shit if I’m not able to share it with her, you know? That would suck. We went through all of that together. I’m not gonna. . . damn! You know?”

Pause. Remember when I said real recognizes real? This was the moment I was like, yeah, he’s being real. I think we all have this sense of intuition as to when somebody is being honest. There’s no mincing of words, no awkward cadence when talking, just letting the words come out from the heart. It felt like he was unpeeling layers of himself to me, and it was when he was at his most comfortable and most vulnerable.

There’s honesty that risks being rigid at the face of fear of committing some sort of mistake, and there’s honesty that reveals itself slowly through tinges of self-doubt and hesitation. I want to believe his was the latter. While he was saying all of this, his posture was no longer straight, unlike when we began the interview. His eyes wandered, his thumbs constantly twiddled, and at the end, he was at a loss for words. He looks at me as if he was trying to find the words from a foreign language—like Tagalog. I just nodded at the end when he asked, “You know?” but I wanted to say pare, kinikilig ako. Maybe it’s the romantic in me, but I want to believe in this #ToMiho stuff so bad now. What has Tommy done to me? Love’s crazy, man.

He tells me hasn’t thought about how blessed he is until this interview. I couldn’t fault him for that, really. Life must be hectic when you’re trying to get into that Great Gatsby lifestyle—the glamour and prestige of it all. In a way, there’s something very American, very Gatsby, in how he’s confident, almost cocky, about his determination to be successful.

Nowadays, a hunger for success is better paired with diligence rather than raw talent. And Tommy’s drive might just be his key to the top. I didn’t have to listen to DJ Khaled to know what. n

Grooming by SYLVINA LOPEZ All apparel from SM YOUTH

on the cover 31

32 fashion

On Bruce: Stylist’s own PAOLO RAYMUNDO pants On Peter: RAF SIMONS shirt from Karlo Vicente archive

On Bruce: GOSHA RUBCHINSKIY shirt from Karlo Vicente archive, stylist’s own PAOLO RAYMUNDO pants On Peter: BABE SLAYER sweater from facebook.com/babeslayer777, stylist’s own PAOLO RAYMUNDO pants

fashion 33

downtown Photography by CENON NORIAL III Styling by PAUL JATAYNA

34 fashion

BLEACH X PROUDRACE shirt

On Peter: BLEACH X PROUDRACE shirt and joggers On Bruce: RAF SIMONS shirt from Karlo Vicente archive, THE ARTISAN jacket from SOMA Stores, stylist’s own PAOLO RAYMUNDO pants

fashion 35

36 fashion

On Peter: GOSHA RUBCHINSKIY shirt from Karlo Vicente archive On Bruce: RAF SIMONS jacket from Karlo Vicente archive, BLEACH X PROUDRACE turtleneck sweater

On Peter: THE ARTISAN SHIRT from SOMA Stores, BLEACH X PROUDRACE baseball robe, stylist’s own EAIRTH pants On Bruce: GOSHA RUBCHINSKIY shirt from Karlo Vicente archive, stylist’s own PAOLO RAYMUNDO pants

fashion 37

38 fashion

On Bruce: GOSHA RUBCHINSKIY shirt from Karlo Vicente archive, stylist’s own ADIDAS jacket and PROUD RACE joggers On Peter: RAF SIMONS shirt from Karlo Vicente archive, stylist’s own PAOLO RAYMUNDO pants

fashion 39

Grooming by SYLVINA LOPEZ

feat. BRUCE & PETER, IM Agency

40 fiction

the decline Fiction

by PETRA MAGNO Photography

by PAOLO CRODUA

BOOKS, SHE THOUGHT BITTERLY, waddling across the gray slush. I can’t even afford books now. It used to be that glowing reviews on her computer screen would translate immediately to a detour into the Strand Bookstore, and she would take the subway home with a fresh hardcover in her cold hands, using the receipt as a bookmark. Dinner would be instant ramen, and the book.

It used to be better. Before she got laid off from the PR firm, it was so much better. Now she carried her bank account’s contents in the forefront of her mind, and she watched the digits tick down every time she swiped her card for some small purchase: lip balm, cough medicine, a carton of eggs. The days of carefree lunches— yes to one more drink, yes to dessert, yes to a train out of the city on weekends for a divine little bed-and-breakfast upstate—were over and it was the era of ramen and rereading books she had long finished.

The public library—more like a network, really, of safe warm havens scattered across the boroughs—wasn’t much help either. After a month of forgetfulness and harried apartmenthunting, she managed to rack up a hundreddollar fine on a stack of popular fiction she had simply forgotten to return. Once the library suspended her borrowing privileges, she returned them without fanfare to the branch closest to her office. In line, she found herself hurriedly yanking out from within the books various slips of paper that marked her failure to finish all that she had started. Phone bill. Credit card bill. A passiveaggressive note from her landlord: rent for dec overdue please It was probably time to move. Somewhere further away from the train, maybe sublet a small room for half the rent she was paying now. Carrying the numbers in her head was exhausting. Watching them tick down was terrifying. She knew that if she lost track of exactly how much she was still worth, the results would be disastrous.

“It would have been only slightly more expensive to actually buy the books,” said her favorite librarian. He wasn’t much taller than her.

Bespectacled, with nerdy button-downs that he buttoned all the way up. She watched him scan

the books back into the system, daydreaming of popping those buttons open. From the bottom up, she thought to herself, and I’d leave just the top button fastened at his throat, and we would look at each other and laugh and laugh.

He handed her a long and slippery bill. “Can I pay this with a credit card?” she asked. He made a sympathetic grumble from behind his blond beard. “Mmm, you’ll have to do that online.” If I kissed you, would my lipstick stain your beard? she wanted to say, but didn’t. “This sucks,” is what she said instead, hoisting her now-empty backpack onto one shoulder and stuffing the bill into her pocket. On her way home she bought two more books: one by Cesar Aira, and the other about humiliation. The numbers behind her forehead ticked downward, but for the train ride home she managed to think about words instead.

fiction 41

Hi this is mark from the nipple. U left a notebook in ur book. Pick it up at grand central branch?

She stared at the message. Her phone flashed again. *NYPL!!! Not nipple. Sorry autocorrect Was Mark his name? Mark with the sleepy blue eyes.

Behind her, the boss clacked at his keyboard with purpose. To match him, she typed Markmarkmarkmarknipplemark into her document, and hit Save. WebContent.doc.

She’d erase it later, before uploading it onto the company website. A Web full of content, paying her $9 an hour to keep it contented. Her eye on the clock. Everything she purchased, considered in terms of how long she would have to work in order to afford it. Money, literally turning back into time.

Noon. Lunch would be a sandwich from the corner deli. Five dollars. More than half an hour of typing SEO keywords into the void. Five dollars less from the precious sum she carried in her mind.

He looked up from behind the computer when she walked in, shaking snow off her backpack.

His ears, she thought, turned pink. “Mark from the nipple?” she said, and his ears turned even redder. “Sorry,” he murmured, sliding open a drawer. “Your number was on the first page, so…”

He trailed off as she took the notebook from him. It was really just a few index cards stapled together; she could barely remember what was in it. Notes on the book she was reading, probably.

“Did you like it?” he asked, as she turned to go. People milled around them: an elderly woman was returning a stack of Adam Sandler DVDs. “Did I like what?” She turned back toward him and considered him once more. His shirt today was distractingly shiny. “The Hour of the Star.

Lispector. That’s the book I found your notes in,” he gestured weakly toward her hand, which was digging deep into her pocket. “I don’t remember it,” she said, mustering up a smile, “but do you want to remind me?”

Yeasty heat of the restaurant. She tried not to look at his hands too closely, at the light gold fur on the backs of his wrists. He was already talking about the book, more animated now that he wasn’t working. She ordered soup, two slices of pizza. A calzone. He chose pasta. He had just forked up a gleaming tangle of noodles when it hit her.

Library boy is mad cute very dorko, she had scribbled onto the index card. It was a cold autumn day, and she had been eyeing him over Lispector. Wonder if down to eff? Big d? And below that: Boys I have effed dot tumblr dot com — good blog idea. She felt her head spin. The cheese on the pizza had gone cold and greasy.

“I bet it’s you who’s always underlining phrases in the poetry books,” Mark was saying. A haze was filling her head. She wanted to reach across the table and either smudge his glasses with her thumbs or slap him. “Someone, not you,”

he was still talking, “I guess, had written damn fool in the new collected Padgett, which I think is really unfair…”

“Shut up,” she hissed, and he looked up, blinking. He didn’t look scared, just surprised.

“Did you read my notes?” The reddened ears were a resounding yes. He smiled, “I’m sorry I look dorko,” he began, but she cut him off. “I don’t actually have a blog about boys I’ve effed,” she said, no longer hungry.

“That’s too bad,” Mark said, “I was going to try to get on it.” She looked at him carefully. He still thought she was joking.

“Uh, I wasn’t going—“ Mark began, but already she was motioning for the check. “Hey,” he kept saying, “hey, look,” but she waved him away as the waiter arrived. She handed over her card without looking at the bill, and got to her feet.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” he said, quietly, over his bowl of spaghetti. A small red splotch on his neat shirt. She focused on it, that one humanizing blot. Something was wrong, she was forgetting something. The waiter returned to their table. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but your card…“ She glanced at the paper he handed her. Declined.

Her body became a system-wide sigh of shame. “Guess that library fine went through just today!” she said, brightly. The numbers in her head spun right down to zero. Mark didn’t move. “You know why I’m embarrassed, dorko?” she said, fighting to keep her voice steady. She put her card in her coat pocket, and her coat on her shoulders. “Because I can’t afford to be anything else other than embarrassed. Thank you for paying for this nice meal.” She left without looking back. n

42 humor

humor 43

44 scene That top of the bus got the best view in the venue.

Wear whatever the hell you want.

In a large hall made of sustainable bamboo is the Sharing Neighborhood, where workshops are held.

wonderfruit festival “We’re married!

We met at the first Wonderfruit last year, and we went again and got married!”

We learn what lifestyle festivals are about: less lineup, more overall experience

By MARA SANTILLAN MIANO Photography by PAT SARABIA and FOTOFABRIK I STAGGER DOWN from the rental van, the perfect kind of happy-drunk. The grasslands of Siam Country Club are about 16 kilometers away from our hotel in ladyboy capital Pattaya, Thailand, and my friends and I had a full hour to down an entire bottle of scotch in transit. I stand in awe, observing the prairie lights, the whimsical tents, and all kinds of men and women in crazy headdresses and costumes.

My time in Wonderfruit was a wonderful, surreal blur of lemongrass cocktails, fried crickets for bar chow, organic food villages, curry cooks in flower crowns, haystacks for naps, the forest dance hall they call the Quarry, oysters and bubbly for breakfast, wood-carving classes, playgrounds for kids and adults, and art installations you can paint on. My new friends are tarot card readers, crystal healers, organic gin distillers, dancers covered in glitter, and backpackers from Serbia (where is Serbia?). I got styled for free in the Wonder Salon by a lovely woman from Bali named Fiow Graham, who looks like she’s from the Capitol in the Hunger Games, and later in the night, I watched the sole Filipino band in the lineup, Tarsius, smile giddily as the audience yelled “More!”

It was an unforgettable weekend, except the part where I found a nondescript stall quietly selling happy brownies, because the guy told me to eat just half but I got hungry and forgot, and ate some more. My last solid memory was groggily/giggly singing to Rhye with every intention of experiencing Wonderfruit again.

Some advice: bring friends with lots of energy—you have to do a lot of walking if you want to see everything—and a nice film camera. n

The Sticky Rice Band (Thailand) Catching Flies

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