Saturday, November 29, 2014

№ 196. God's Search for Meaning

From the beginning there was God.
He was alone.
The void echoed with its emptiness.
In the vastness, God searches for himself.
Without his multiverses, he is incomplete.



Thursday, November 13, 2014

№ 195. I'm neat, ergo, I'm likable.

Q: It is a long day, Sam,

K: Done with the telephone conferences?

Q: But why did they leave me with a pile of dishes?

K; I know! Everybody ought to have a maid.

Q: Uhuh. Nice ones, Neat ones. Ones who will do the dishes for me.


Wednesday, November 12, 2014

№ 194. Gravity and Light

When I think about the past
I think of the surplus of waking hours
Preying on images.

Last, Lost, Lust for Four Forgotten Episodes by Toym Imao

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

№ 191. Missing Seinfeld

Missing the nightly fix when I was still in school. Soup Nazi, there has to be a better way to serve comfort than a long line up.

Monday, September 8, 2014

№ 190. Do the Magic Seven

For now, I swear off these vile victuals. For how long, remains an unknown.



This is definitely for those who have very little time for exercise. Don't we all?

Seven minutes is all it takes. Twelve exercises for thirty seconds each and ten second rest intervals. No special equipment or weights necessary, just a wall, a chair and your own body weight. One important thing: the sequence of exercises is critical.

And there is a science to the magic seven!

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

№ 188. Love Loves to Love Love*

Piano
by PATRICK PHILLIPS

Touched by your goodness, I am like
that grand piano we found one night on Willoughby
that someone had smashed and somehow
heaved through an open window.

Sunday, August 31, 2014

№ 187. Deathly Sunday Thoughts


"De Beauvoir anticipates Sartre's death. She knows he is dying, but she cannot tell him. Existentialism's acceptance of death does not console her." --- A Farewell to Sartre


 


"Every man dies. Not every man really lives." -William Wallace, Braveheart

Nobody really wants to think about their own mortality, but the cold truth is that sooner or later, it’s going to happen. Now, your personal beliefs on whether or not you will ascend to Heaven, reincarnate, or simply just be dead don’t really matter; you’re going to leave a body behind when you go. It has now become a custom to either pump dead bodies full of formaldehyde and seal them into a steel and concrete vault or be cremated and have the ashes just sit in an urn.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

№ 186. Instagram: The Shrink Wrap

Impatience is a virtue, I think.

An offshoot of this virtue is that business finishes quite early. Too early for dinner and, well, too late for an afternoon snack. That late afternoon in August carried dry winds with the weak sun. Quite unusual for the tropical ghost month.

I have time to kill then.



Monday, August 25, 2014

№ 185. New York State of Mind

"Tanong: 
Nakalatag kung gabi, kung araw ay nakatabi.
Kung gabi ay dahon, kung araw ay bumbong.
Kung nakatindig ay kawayan, kung nakabuka'y karagatan.

Sagot: Banig" (Bugtong Pilipino)


Whenever
I hear this song, I
imagine

Saturday, August 2, 2014

№ 184. Venice Through Square Lenses (2)

2 August 2014

Pictures for now, coherent narrative to follow. But in my defense, a picture is worth a thousand words. This is worth at least about 5,000, then.


---oOo---

5 August 2014

Ok, here are the random, arguably, still incoherent narratives to go with the photos.



If there's one thing near omnipresent in Venice, it is the sea. The air is redolent with the faint, cool smell of salt. The briny scent accents the insular feel of the mazes of canals, alleys, dead ends, pocket parks, Churches, courtyards, private gardens and quays. To be sure, Venice's maritime roots and history are expressed indelibly in its surrounding moats and waters. Perhaps because of the city's affinity with the Adriatic, its people also draw near the shores and congregate just about anywhere near the sea--- where the view is unfailing and grand.

If one tires of the crowds, as I often did, it's not difficult to lose them. Go away from the shores and head inland, into the sanctuary of the old structures. One really need only to stray from the tourist vortices by the sea such as the Rialto, St. Mark's Square, the grand passage facing the Lido on the San Marco's south side and the sidewalks along the Grand Canal.

There are more than enough unexplored and often deserted alleys and Churches that offer quiet breaks from the horde.



Friday, August 1, 2014

№ 183. Friday Find: 50 Shades in the Dark

"No man can surpass his own time, for the spirit of his time is also his own spirit." --- Georg Hegel

Cheap Venetian masks redefine kinky
especially if dipped in dark shades of thick chocolate.

Ok, so there was this soft-porn book. And now, there's the upcoming movie made by Hollywood. I remember the type---Red Shoe Diary variety.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

№ 182. Two Violins

Sitting on the bench of the iconic Shakespeare & Co.,
just before the concert at the nearby church, Eglise San Julien de Pauvre,
Paris, May 2014


Two violins strain
To crack free
A sky dead shut dark.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Sunday, July 27, 2014

№ 181. Life is Beautiful

Eye Purses, Hola Escolta, Saturday Market, July 2014

"Roots are important",
the Saint hums.
She blows a whisper

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

№ 180. Venice Through Square Lenses


St. Mark's Square at 7 AM, May 2014. Pre-wedding photo deals are,
I think, trending among Chinese. I saw a few of these
during the three-day stay.  


It's been three months since the late spring visit. I finally have the time to post these itinerant snap shots.

Venice, after my first visit more than ten years ago, has lost none of its magic. It's still littered with tourists and their trash. This time there are more Chinese than Japanese and Americans combined. I was one of them.

St. Mark's appears half-emptied after the tourists dispersed,
mostly back to Mestre. Venice, May 2014.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

№ 179. Lifesavers

Red chairs at the workshop lounge, Pompidou Center, Paris, May 2014

Dear Helena, wherever you may be,
Let me unfurl you like dawn on my sheets,
When dreams blur into wakefulness.

Monday, June 2, 2014

Saturday, May 31, 2014

№ 177. Selfie

Bearded guy, whirling
Dervish with schticks, selfies,
And, cash loads to burn.

 

PS: Saw this youtube post by Tati, my advanced photography classmate.

Friday, May 30, 2014

№ 176. Rest

Here's a quick rest or pit stop.

Don't you wish you had high technology fused with cedar wood like this?


Monday, April 21, 2014

№ 175. Romblon: Visita Iglesia via the Nautical Highway


Philippine Nautical Highway

If my recollection is accurate, the Strong Republic Nautical Highway plan was announced in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, in 2003, during the time of Arroyo's besieged administration. It aimed to provide a backbone of safe and affordable sea and land transportation for people and goods throughout the archipelago. At least in theory then.

Of course, as with most infrastructure projects, they required huge investments in capital, political will and other essential agents of good governance. Did we mention complex mobilization of resources? Ports, roads and highways had to be built, terminals and transport companies had to be managed and operated and the business models had to pass feasibility.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

№ 174. Questions, Questing and Quests

Why should we bother with these deep probing questions? Aren't we anal enough already about our daily stresses? Daily irritations, concerns, preoccupations, mindfulnesses, tasks, streams of distractions, digital connections that all seem to multiply exponentially. 

Stop. 

Pause.





Think.

Monday, April 14, 2014

№ 173. Idiom and Some Such

You are my idiom:
Socks spooning
My orphaned toes.

You are my color:
Reds lining
My saffron dawns.

You are my nuance:
Bristles nipping
My sore nape.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

№ 172. Me, My Selfie and I

Who are these millenials hiding inside Gen X suits? 

The world is in capable hands, no? These kids will inherit the earth.

They like selfies, traveling and social networks. Their lives are dipped deep in tech and indulgent ecology. Yes, they swim in it like prehistoric life in the primordial soup.

Are these accurate and fair descriptions? Does it matter?

1. Self-centered,
2. tech driven and savvy,
3. unafraid to explore the physical and virtual realities and the spaces in between,
4. sexually fluid and less inhibited,
5. very visual or aural or make that sensual.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

№ 171. Happy Birthday Gmail, Quo Vadis?

Here's food for digital thought: What are the options and risks of Gmail usage. Costs and benefits? Where are we headed? 1984-esque?

Gmail is a superb service, which doesn't cost me a centavo. Yet, as the CNN article said, it's not free. Nothing in life is, as the cliche goes.

I started out with Yahoo but then moved to Gmail not for anything quantum really but simply because the service and the search features were killer. It's all about the delightful user experience. I don't mind sharing my information. As long as I control the bits and pieces I disclose and get to be apprised of the data they're going to mine, dig in big brother Google.

So here goes another turn for singularity. Happy Anniversary Gmail. Maybe I'll regret this much later, but for now, I can't say I'm on the losing end of the deal.



Wednesday, March 26, 2014

№ 170. God of the Testaments


№ 169. Benjamin & Bree

"The life of a good dog is like the life of a good person, only shorter and more compressed."---- Anna Quindlen, from Life with Beau, A Tale of a Dog and His Family.

True, life can be made simple.
A cold nip and lick, 
Earn vigorous strokes and love pats.

Monday, March 10, 2014

№ 168. Ordinary Risks

The sea wants to kiss the golden shore
The sunlight warms your skin
All the beauty that's been lost before wants to find us again

I can't fight you any more, it's you I'm fighting for
The sea throws rock together but time leaves us polished stones

We can't fall any further
If we can't feel ordinary love
And we can't reach any higher,
If we can't deal with ordinary love



Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Friday, February 28, 2014

№ 165. Takipsilim / Twilight

Anna, huwag kang magtampisaw
Dyan sa katinikan ng mga karayom.

Mahirap na, uhaw ang pangil nila
Sa katas ng papel mong sakong.



Tumawid ka na lang
Nang nakatiklop ang bumbunan.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

№ 164. Mine Us Up, Scotty!

The reality is that our personal data footprint is now becoming unfathomably wide, deep and large because it has become (technically speaking) entirely possible for everyone and everything to be tracked, recorded and...mined. Soon, the question will no longer be whether we have the technological skills and horsepower to do something, but why, when and where we should do it (never mind the thorny issue of 'who').


Saturday, February 15, 2014

Saturday, February 8, 2014

№ 162. Sunday's Best

Seriously, this is funny. LOL.

№ 161. Canon Conundrum

I have been a Canon consumer for years. Actually make that twenty-five (25) years. Yes, twenty-five. My experience with its products and after sales service had been mainly, to use their marketing term, delightful. Until recently.

Delight

1. First, my grandfather who nudged me to photography had been mostly a Canon user. He and my uncle mentioned the magic of Leica and Nikon, but I remember only his collection of Canon lenses.

2. Second, my first film point and shoot was a Canon, I don't recall the model now, and first single lens reflex (SLR) camera was EOS 500N. I was happy breaking into a new hobby with adult toys.

3. My first digital SLR was EOS 350D which I bought in 2005. Then I upgraded to EOS 7D in 2012 (Tools of My Twins). Needless to say, the quality of the shots, the functions, features and build of the cameras were peerless.

Disappointment

1. In 2010 when I went to Lombok and the Gili Islands, I brought my EOS 350D paired with Canon EF 24-105mm 1:4 L IS USM zoom lens (Serial No. 386771).

Often, I had to shield my lens from the extreme variations in temperature and humidity of the airconditioned rooms and the tropical outdoors. Despite caution, however, my equipment got exposed to the elements, all of which were necessary evils of the hobby--- a bit of rain, some humidity, usual dust, salty air from the sea, et cetera. I experienced fogging inside the lens, too.

2. As soon as got home I had my camera and lens checked. Canon Service Center (Mandaluyong) found my camera in good condition but my lens had to be repaired. The lens repair cost me some pain---about PhP9,000 (US$209, at PhP43 to US$1).

3. I was able to use the lens after that until I upgraded my camera to EOS 7D in 2012.

4. Whenever I use my 24-105 with EOS 7D, I began noticing some noises and difficulty in autofocus. Specifically, the camera viewfinder indicated Error 01, or faulty communication between the camera and the lens.

5. I had it checked again last February 6 at the Canon Service Center (Ortigas). After a week, I was advised by text that I have to shell out about PhP13,813 (US$321) for the repairs! They said they needed to replace the power diaphragm, image stabilizer, barrel assembly focus!

6. I went to talk to the engineer/technician in person to ask about the numerous replacements and the expense involved. He explained that, generally, because of wear and tear, lenses need servicing every three years. But I wasn't satisfied why it was such a major and costly repair so soon after the first in 2010 (barely three years)!

Questions

1. I verified with Canon that the 24-105mm I have is genuine, is a luxury, top of the line lens manufactured in Japan. My expectation is, naturally, that it will stand up to most rough and tumble of a photography enthusiast. When it was exposed to normal travel elements in Lombok (take note it did not get soaked in water, or even get dropped or banged at all), why did it give in easily? I would have expected it to be more weather resistant and tougher, being a luxury lens.

2. After the repair in 2010, the lens did not really perform optimally as before. Why? Did the repairs fail to address the original problem of the mechanisms?

3. About three years after the first service, why do the power diaphragm, image stabilizer, barrel assembly focus have to be replaced? Is this really normal wear and tear of top notch Japanese technology? Were the replacement parts inferior or not as sturdy as the originals?

4. Take note that, with a little more than PhP13,000+ cost of the repair, I can source an array of cheaper brands and/or brand new lenses to replace the 24-105. With the alternatives available on the market, purchasing and maintaining these premium lenses seem too prohibitive. Are Canon L lenses not worth their red rings in gold anymore?

5. It's disappointing to part with a brand you grew up and learned your chops with, but is it time to try out other brands and formats (mirrorless, excellent phone cameras, Go Pro, et cetera)?

6. So where do we go from here, Canon? Is this the beginning of new, beautiful friendships? Can I dare flirt with other tech toys? Hmmm.

№ 160. The Consolation of Grief

Grief is a curious beast.
He's barbed, so you know he can sting.
Also, he's quite reserved and shy.

He comes for visits.
But you have to invite him in.
You have to insist he stays a bit.

Of course, he declines, at first.
He's a little embarrassed by the invitation, 
As is his nature. But he accepts, anyway.

He thinks it's just impolite to ignore a second offer.
So you finally see him seated in your living room.
Quiet. A little out of place on your sofa. But there.

You offer him a brew of black bitterness.
He loves the aroma. It scalds the sinuses
Like the sniffles from a December smog.


Saturday, February 1, 2014

№ 159. Batanes Through Square Lenses


These are random images of a second visit to Batanes, last year. 

The Batanes archipelago is the usual alley of typhoons exiting to the north after entering the Philippines from the Pacific Ocean in the east. So the islands see their share of two to three destructive ones every year. Fortunately, the network of roads are again reconnecting the small barangays scattered in the big island of Batan.

Street art in the capital

It is still relatively expensive to fly to Batanes. Because it is the northernmost province, it takes a good one-and-a-half to two-hour flight by propeller plane. 

The locals tell us that there are no ferry boats able to shuttle people from the mainland. The Balintang Channel, they say, acts as rough sea barrier where the West Philippine Sea and the Pacific Oceans converge.


One of the many art pieces by Pacita Abad

№ 158. Special Effects Sunday

Academy Awards: Best Visual Effects Oscar Winners from Nelson Carvajal on Vimeo.

№ 157. Cafeteria at the Edge of the Universe


 

Saturday, January 25, 2014

№ 156. Manila Walks: Manila Central Post Office

I had lived in Manila for close to three decades. And I had never explored this heritage building, until I moved to another city.

Sometimes, despite the almost conceded urban decay, I can still see the vignettes of the capital's charm. True, there aren't many. It takes a lot of faith and purpose to find them. But these enclaves in the middle of chaos do exist.


One such enclave sits in Lawton Plaza.

It is near the equally-historic Manila City Hall. By the banks of Pasig River just across Escolta and Binondo, it is an aging relic of Manila's post-colonial past. Just about a ten-minute walk from either Jones Bridge or Sta. Cruz Bridge, the Manila Central Post Office in its neo-classical architecture, fortunately, still looks elegant despite the fiscal neglect over the years.


The building, viewed from outside, looks sturdy and well-kept. But the interiors really need some face lift.



I hope for the day when we have enough resources to fix the place and restore it to its post-colonial, pre-martial law glory. These resources would entail funds, cultural capital, bureaucratic will and time.

Soon, I hope.

№ 155. Mindfulness & Quiet

"In A History of Reading (public library), Steven Roger Fischertraces how we went from the dawn of symbols to electronic text, and in the process deconstructs what it actually means to read.

He offers a poetic frame in the introduction:


'What music is to the spirit, reading is to the mind. Reading challenges, empowers, bewitches, enriches. We perceive little black marks on white paper or a PC screen and they move us to tears, open up our lives to new insights and understandings, inspire us, organize our existences and connect us with all creation.

Surely there can be no greater wonder.'" Brain Pickings


Friday, January 24, 2014

№ 154. The Question Mark

What is the shape of a curious mind?

Does it follow the curves of riddles as they flow out of our thoughts? As we seek out the strings of answers, do we not enter labyrinths with minotaurs ready to engage us in mortal combats? True, ignorance dies a thousand deaths and we gain iotas of neural networks. We also arrive at gardens rife with serpents and seeds of doubts. Seeds that grow into blasphemy, unorthodoxy and many meta-institutional offsprings.

The apple from the tree which was forbidden may just really be a fig of infinite curiosity that doesn't end with a wealth of answers. Answers are just a foretaste of the wellsprings of creation that lay inexhaustible underneath. As the multiverses expand, the supply of energy and matter and the inter-relationships that enrich the whole soup deepen in plenitude.

Mortality which was the price of disobedience is really the death of innocent, blind obedience. To disobey means to take a bite, despite the fiat, and move on for other quests and grow in the process. To disobey is to wander off and wonder where the lay of the land is demarcated between the knowns and unknowns. Reason and faith are really aspects of single reality. To be religious is to be curious and to ask questions. To disobey means to search for meaning, to fall from grace---that flat landscape of medieval earth, and to realize unending horizons of a sphere. Augustine, that bishop who struggled with inner demons, celebrated our happy fault which gained for us redemption.

This article from Brain Pickings is a gem as we are on the cusp of the lunar new year. To know is to experience the burning bush and spark an epiphany:

"This wonder at existence is the condition for an authentic encounter with things and opens up the possibility of knowledge. . . . This is a wonder that does not stop at an aesthetic sentiment, is not reduced to a momentary curiosity, but is the beginning of a process, kindling the desire to enter into relationship with the world, to get to know it."


Friday, January 17, 2014

№ 153. Negative Echoes

Modern world is a noisy, polluted space. It is still inhabitable but we are approaching a threshold that is close to barely. I came across this BBC article, during the quiet sweet spot of 2 AM, which writes about the search for the noiseless places on earth.

There are none that exist.

Even inside the human-crafted anechoic chamber, we can hear our bodies hum--- breathing, et cetera! There is no escape.

Should this be the next portable invention: iQuiet? A wearable contraption that can cancel out and seal off the ambient and intrusive sounds that civilize our lives --- cellphone beeps, tech white noise, air conditioning hum, elevator music, chatter, ad infinitum. Yes, there are just too many species in these aural zoos we live in.

Or even more radical, how about a device to escape from it all, just long enough to let the insanity simmer down: iDisappear? iThink people from Silicon Valley should pay attention.



Andy Warhol Sleep 1963 from screen_tests on Vimeo.

№ 152. Edge of the Word

Little Sparrows

He quivers,
a pat of butter
on skillet.

She's ice cube.
All it takes is his
Warm patience.

More? He asks.
Yes! Yes. Oh God yes.
Lips bitten.



№ 151. Knowledge & Knife

All This and More
By Mary Karr 

The Devil’s tour of hell did not include
a factory line where molten lead
spilled into mouths held wide,

no electric drill spiraling screws
into hands and feet, nor giant pliers
to lower you into simmering vats.

Instead, a circle of light
opened on your stuffed armchair,
whose chintz orchids did not boil and change,

and the Devil adjusted
your new spiked antennae
almost delicately, with claws curled

and lacquered black, before he spread
his leather wings to leap
into the acid-green sky.

So your head became a tv hull,
a gargoyle mirror. Your doppelganger
sloppy at the mouth

and swollen at the joints
enacted your days in sinuous
slow motion, your lines delivered

with a mocking sneer. Sometimes
the frame froze, reversed, began
again: the red eyes of a friend

you cursed, your girl child cowered
behind the drapes, parents alive again
and puzzled by this new form. That’s why

you clawed your way back to this life.


Thursday, January 16, 2014

№ 150. Joy

"Joy cometh in the evening."--- from The People's Pope, Time, 20 December 2013, Howard Chua-Eoan and Elizabeth Dias.

This quote paraphrases Psalm 30:5 of the King Jame Version, "For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."




Doodlers Anonymous

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

№ 149. Eyes Fastened with Pins

Eyes Fastened with Pins
by Charles Simic 

How much death works,
No one knows what a long
Day he puts in.
The little
Wife always alone
Ironing death’s laundry.
The beautiful daughters
Setting death’s supper table.
The neighbors playing
Pinochle in the backyard
Or just sitting on the steps
Drinking beer. Death,
Meanwhile, in a strange
Part of town looking for
Someone with a bad cough,
But the address is somehow wrong,
Even death can’t figure it out
Among all the locked doors ...
And the rain beginning to fall.
Long windy night ahead.
Death with not even a newspaper
To cover his head, not even
A dime to call the one pining away,
Undressing slowly, sleepily,
And stretching naked
On death’s side of the bed.


№ 148. Forced Dialogues

The Conquering Hero is Tired
by Charles Simic

Often I sit at your window
For Hours on end watching you snooze.
You could be in medical school
Sawing a cadaver.
You could be leading men into battle,
Donning judicial robes,
Inventing a new potato peeler, and so forth.
My kind admonition, my well-meant
Remonstrances you receive
By turning your face to the wall.

Blue dusk and the night's gloom
Are your true cronies.
Streets time forgot where fire-sale leaflets
Fly about, the ten-year-old assassin
Twirls his gun, the cats shield themselves
Under rusted cars.

For Christ's sake, turn off the light you plead.
I'm afraid it can't be done.
The bright sunlight, the blue sky,
The little birds hopping and chirping on the sill
Are all perfectly legal.



Sunday, January 12, 2014

Saturday, January 11, 2014

№ 146. Senses of the Analog Self

I was reading BBC's article about the tensions of our human contexts with our digital toys.

The roar of diced onions as they hit the greased pan. The smell of the skillet crowded with bacon crisps. The turning of the color from opaque to amber caramelization. The warmth of an omelet breakfast on lazy Sunday. The memories of many other rainy days wrapped with comfort food. Yeah, I wouldn't trade these tactile information for any digital replica.

I'm still partial to analog. For now.

But, I must grudgingly admit, augmentation with virtual footnotes is already the next logical step and is beginning to creep upon us. The digital tags are already imprinted on paper and ink newspapers, which show additional photographs and links. Still, still some realities are not meant to disappear with the inevitable progress of science.

Analog cobwebs still have a space to inhabit in this world. Humans, in fact, create sandboxes for all these cobwebs.

I still have our cassette tapes with personally recorded playlists--- side A for the uptempo and side B for the slower songs. Our LPs of Children's Folk Songs All Over the World is now about four decades old and counting. That's how we learned that Bahia is a real town in Brazil and not just that 70s place. Of course, our vinyl record for the Sound of Music, although scratchy with time, is still in its original album sleeve. As I write this, below my desk lay carcasses of old Betamax players, fax machines, telephones, VCD players and, yikes, an AT(?) clone.

Many of these things are just sepia colored niches and curiosities of a passing era. They sit like off-key vintage pieces of the thrift shops in Cubao X.

Here's another classic that should linger for those who, while rooted in the past, are not afraid to brave the critters and comforts of our digital future.

Happy New Year kid, so what's the best up ahead?


Thursday, January 9, 2014

№ 145. Toying with Ideas

"I am twenty years old. To a world-wise adult, I am little more than a child. To any child, however, I am old enough to be distrusted, to be excluded forever from the magical community of the short and beardless." ---Dean Koontz

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

№ 144. Minutiae

It was a comedy about, oh, nothing. You know, stuff that really don't matter much. But his nonsense packs a dense field of gravity, LMFAO. He is a demigod of details. Minute observations are the hypotheses that line his lab notes.



"Seinfeld talks about his comic routines as if they're discovered rather than created: observations that are out there, camouflaged against the patterns of everyday life, waiting for him to detect them. One example: the other day, his two sons were arguing, because one of them had farted. "They were accusing each other – 'he who smelt it dealt it!' – and I just thought, Jesus, these guys need some new material. That's the same thing I was saying when I was five. Fifty years ago! Kids! I can't believe they're still doing the same material!" (The Guardian)

And, like Kant, he has stuck to a clockwork method to his comedic madness. He keeps to a weekly routine like a regular zen meditation. And the guy lives in New York!--- the melting pot of neuroses and all that spices that give life a kick.

"All the way through, from first standup shows to stardom, he forced himself to work by marking a cross on a calendar for every day he wrote material; soon enough, he had a long chain of crosses, and kept going partly because he didn't want to break the chain." (The Guardian)

I miss that 90s show.  But yes, well, he has a series that sounds familiar but definitely reformatted for the cloud: Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

2014 is off to a happy start.


Monday, January 6, 2014

№ 143. Happy New Year

Here's an old photo I took in Malasimbo Music Festival last year. I thought it's colorful enough to banner 2014.

So cheers to a bright one up ahead!