Skip to main content
"What's in the bag?!"
Last night, we went to Saguijo to meet up with my cousin Oliver. We got there too early. So after eating chicharon bulaklak and salpicao (yeah, yeah, the diet was supposed to start January 2, i know), me and Wella went upstairs to check out the stuff at Baul. Of course, Baul mostly sells clothes for women, so there was not much for me to look at.

When I saw this bag perched on top an old Chinese box and wondered who used to own the bag (and the box). I wondered if the previous owner left behind a letter or a postcard that she forgot to send. Maybe there was a matchbook of a restaurant that closed down years ago and scribbled in the matchbook was the number and the name of her lover.

I thought how wonderful it might be to have a store that sold such things and people would get a free story with whatever they bought. Maybe they would find a crumpled up love letter in the pocket of a jacket, a note in the drawer of a old writing table, a family recipe stuck in the pages of a cookbook.

Just thought it would nice to find such surprises.


"Are we there yet?"


On my way to work, I saw this couple resting near the Manila Peninsula. Something urged me to take their picture. Maybe it was because they were neatly framed in front of that landscaped backdrop. I wondered why they were here and what made them decide to come to the Philippines. Were they on their second honeymoon? Visiting friends or in-laws? Did they hope to see that famous Filipino tradition of staging coups in hotel lobbies?

And I thought about how Wella usually can't walk long distances. (Her feet hurt all too quickly And how she'll need a massage at the end of the day.) I once joked about how were we supposed to travel and go sight-seeing if she couldn't walk so far. Then she pointed out that I was the one who didn't like to travel. (True, but I was thinking more about going to the San Diego Comic Con.) I'm not really a big fan of road trips or land travel.

And I wondered if me and Wella will be like that old couple: still going on trips, traveling (against my will), seeing new sights, checking out the new restaurants (where Wella will probably just order the chicken), and after resting a bit underneath the shade, we'd just keep on walking.

And the light turned green.

And the taxi lurched forward.

And I was late for work.

Comments

Hilda said…
If/when you decide to make stories about the bag and the couple, give me a buzz. They should be mighty interesting!

Popular posts from this blog

Couple of weeks ago, Ms. Diyco featured another campaign made by the creatives here at Harrison Communications. Here's her review about the Neozep "Neozerye" TV campaign: Romancing the mighty colds cure ADS AND ENDS, Nanette A Franco-Diyco BUSINESS WORLD Vol. XX, No. 139, Friday-Saturday, February 9-10, 2007 http://www.bworldonline.com/Weekender020907/main.php?id=marketing_diyco The four television commercials that serialize the life of pretty housemaid Luwalhati, culminating in a storybook wedding to her once-upon-a-time señorito from the imposing mansion belong to an ad campaign awards class all its own. There have been other spoofs of soap operas selling other brand categories in the past. But for several reasons put together, the Neozep series of commercials that began with honest-to-goodness ad teasers that looked and sounded like teasers for true-blue soap operas proved ultra entertaining and more importantly, "reinforced Neozep’s leadership and further s...
The Flag Bearer I have always found it curious that in Philippine pop culture, there has never been a popular flag-bearing character. In United States, the obvious example would be Captain America; followed by Wonder Woman (with her red, white, blue and star-spangled outfit) and of course, Superman (whose costume follows the color motif of the American flag). They became symbols for the American people during World War II. In the days after 9/11, more New Yorkers were seen wearing their Superman and Captain America t-shirts. If we take a look at other countries, they didn’t seem to see the need to create such a character. Even when Marvel created characters like The Guardian (a Canadian super-hero) and Union Jack (a British super-hero), they didn’t seem to develop a big enough following and have comic book titles that reached the 100th issue or spin-off to become a TV or cartoon show. Here in the Philippines, popular characters like Darna and Panday are not “flag bearers”. I guess, ...

Will you Play it Safe in 2025?

One of my favorite songs which I learned about early this year. Our boss at the agency played this at one of our town hall meetings. It's reminder to all creators that we will always be told to "stick to safe ideas" (which is fine, if you just want to get the work done and go home) but there will always be this other voice at the back of your head that will ask, "Maybe there's another way to do this? Maybe there's a better way to tell this story? Maybe you can tell if from a different point of view and make this old story feel like new? Maybe you can spend a few more minutes working on it? How about it? Let's give it a try? Another hour trying to re-write? Let's give it a go!" What I love about this song is how the lyrics take on the conservative point-of-view and how the visuals show us the exact opposite. One of my favorite bits of this song is this part, where the lyrics starts to give you a "list of commands", like it's a list o...