A little advice for the bachelors between us who want to stay that way.
If you meet a girl the first thing you ask her is:"Do you want to marry me?"
She will say:"Of course not are you crazy" or something like that.
Your turn again: "Great, that's settled then. Do you want to go on a date with me?"
Another blast fom the past.
I shot this a year ago.
A fashion shoot inside a cigar manufacturing company. It was supposed to be for UNO but those guys are too messed up. Didn't get published and I didn't get paid.
It is always good to work with professionals.
The factory is Tabaqueria, the biggest cigar manufacturer in the Philippines.
Oktober 13. 2007
Flamenco
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A friend of mine, Dona Esteban is enjoying herself with some flamenco improvisations. She is really good at it, having a lot of fun.
You can't see the fun thing.
There is nothing like a happy flamenco dancer.
As shot for The Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Again and again we get fooled by traditions and conventions
overpowered by deeprooted fears of change.
Rogue Magazine, to which I contribute occasionally, had it's 2nd issue party at Nuvo, Manila, Philippines.
As featured in Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Oktober 10. 2007
Maximum Security
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Some friends of mine and I are going once a week into the New Bilibid Maximum Security Prison south of Manila to give a variety of workshops. There are creative writing, acting, poetry, fashion and design workshops and I handle art and photography.
The purpose of that is to give the prisoners opportunities and inspiration to create, keeping themselves busy and possibly developing some kind of livelihood for them and their families. It is made possible by the Lamb of God foundation created by Gov. Jalosos which is instrumental in the improvement of the prisoner's conditions and responsible for a lot of charity work within the prison.
Besides the victims of the crimes those prisoners have committed, there are also a second set of victims¡Xthe prisoner's families. Most of the inmates are very poor and their family has no means to support themselves. We can use your help. If there is anything you want to contribute or sponsor please let me know.
On October 20 and onwards we will have exhibitions and perfomances of the various arts and we would like to invite you to the event:
The LAYA Concert!
(L iving A cadem Y of A rts )
(LAYA is Filipino for free)
October marks Prisoners' Awareness Month for the country, and to inform inmates and visitors of the positive changes that are taking place inside Maximum Security Prison , the LAYA Project is staging a special concert entitled "LAYA!?Freedom Within!"
On Saturday, the 20th of October, 2007, 3-6pm , witness the first LAYA Production, two short months after its birth in the Maximum Security Compound of Bilibid Prison, Muntinlupa.
Featuring LAYA performers, back to back with guest performers, the theme of What is True Freedom? will be artistically defined.
The "Living AcademY of Arts" (LAYA) is an inter-denominational and multi-cultural group of volunteer- artists within and without the Maximum Security Compound of the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa, Philippines.
LAYA Workshops have been held 3x a week, led by volunteer teachers, experienced in all forms of art, who donate their time and talents to the LAYA Project. The classes conducted are music, literary arts, performance poetry, fine-arts, photography, theater, and fashion design.
An initiative of Lamb of God Foundation and Our Life Foundation volunteers, the LAYA Concert and Project capitalizes on the success of artists, whose works inspire and empower others through the realization of personal responsibility and guided values, encouraging potential artists to use their creative gifts to enhance the quality of life for themselves and others, regardless of status or environmental conditions.
Oktober 9. 2007
Autumn view
On a lighter note.
Just a beautiful autumn morning from my Mom's bedroom window.
Oktober 8. 2007
Two Friends
About a week ago, I went for a check up on my cancer in Munich and as it turned out it seems that it has vanished. It was a bizarre situation. Somehow in my mind I had closed that issue, wrapped it up and tossed it over my shoulder a long time ago. I was really surprised when the Doctor happily told me that my cancer was gone. It was like I woke up from a trance. I just haven't thought about it at all even I was there for a check up.
Than it occurred to me, hey that's a cool thing.
I went out to a beautiful sunshine, bought myself a beer and walked all over the Oktoberfest looking at the attractions, bringing back memories from long ago.
Life can be really beautiful.
Than, a day or two later I received the very sad news that a good friend of mine, Juuf died of cancer.
Juuf, I and few other friends spent some magical days in Kalinga, in the mountains of the Northern Philippines.
You will be missed, Juuf.
Juuf, rest in peace. Click on the pictures to see some more pictures
While I was still mourning my friend, I received another message informing me that another good friend of mine died of cancer as well. John Rice was one of my drinking pals. We knew each other forever, battled each other in thousands of games of billiards and the occasional round of golf. John was very good at those. He was also a great animator with a wicked sense of humor.
Two years ago, when I was battling my own cancer, John drew this cartoon for me and sent me this limerick:
Andy is a man who is full of surprises
For example he has balls of two different sizes
One is so small
( Actually nothing at all )
You will be missed, John.
John, rest in peace. Click on the pictures to see some more pictures
Both my friends, Juuf and John knew how to enjoy life. I will keep the fun moments we had together alive in my memory.
I took a stroll around a small lake south of Munich called Wesslinger See.
In honor of some famous guy who lived there, they named a small road, Alzheimer Gassl.
For some reason I can´t remember what he was famous for.
Another blast from the past. I wrote this 4 years ago. Yesterday my Mom and I went back. Nothing special new happened so I post the old story again:
My mom and I went to the monastery of Andechs, 50 kms south of Munich. Kloster Andechs, a very old monastery sitting on top of a small hill is a famous tourist destination. Especially for the people from Munich it is a regular ritual to take the car or the train to a valley nearby and from there walk for about an hour up that hill to reach the monastery. You would think that those people are very pious to undertake such a strenuous pilgrimage. Although many of those religious disciples will readily proclaim their spiritual intentions, I have to point out that there might be the occasional ulterior motive behind all that devotion.
Kloster Andechs is famous for:
a) a great cheese,
b) really good Bavarian cuisine and most importantly
c) those monks brew a hell of a beer.
After an hour walk and a short obligatory visit to the old chapel, everybody ends up either in the vast beer hall or if the weather permits in the beer garden.
The next couple of hours those devotees get totally hammered on the monk's finest ales and stuff themselves with gigantic Hax'n (pork knuckles) or Leberkaes (meat loaf).
In the afternoon, droves of those good Christians, spiritually revived, are tumbling down the hill again.
Now that is a religious ritual I can understand.
It is the closest I ever come to some kind of spiritual enlightenment.
As I mentioned above, Kloster Andechs is also famous for its cheese. You can buy their cheese only at the Kloster and there is a reason for that.
The cheese smells.
It actually stinks so bad that it is impossible to bring it into a enclosed room or to transport in any way without risking to get lynched by the people around you.
It would blow the windows out of your car if you tried bring it home. If they would have found some of that cheese in Iraq, Bush and Blair would have been vindicated.
I guess it would qualify as a biological weapon of mass destruction.
My mom actually bought one for me. In the train on the way home we had to put our bag in the next compartment and the we tried to look indifferent.
People started to sniff, distorting their faces and looking all around the train for some kind of a dead animal.
My mom and I were pretending to look around as well.
The cheese tastes really great once you get it past your gas-mask.
Oktober 2. 2007
Zappa plays Zappa
I have been a Frank Zappa fan since I was a tender 15 years old, fanned by the album Sheik Yerbouti. Ever since it has become some kind of an obsession. Over the years I collected 75 Zappa CDs
As a kid for some reason which I can´t recall I wasn´t very fond of going to concerts. I missed out on opportunities like Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley and even my idol - Frank.
Now I am more excited to hear live music. So recently when I heard that Dweezil Zappa would come to Munich for a show entitled Zappa plays Zappa, I was high on expectations. Especially since it would feature one of Frank Zappa´s original alumni, Ray White.
The concert hall was only three quarters full and my friend and I were probably the youngest people in the audience. Geeks and weirdos, one with a large Frank Zappa tattoo, were staring in awe at Dweezil who looked very much like his dad without the beard, glided through the classics.
He was under major scrutiny by die-hard Zappa fans. What was he going to do? Follow his dads music note by note or interpret it in his own style?
Anybody who ever listend to Frank playing can tell that reciting his music note by note is a major accomplishment. But Dweezil pulled it off with ease. And he rounded it up with a good dose of his own character.
(A couple of years ago I went to a concert by Ziggy Marley. He tried to interweave his music with his dad´s. Unfortunately for him nobody in the audience liked his songs. They were met with stone(d) silence. But everytime he played Bob Marley hits the audience went wild. He left without an encore.)
Several songs, especially chosen to feature Ray White like the "The Illinois Enema Bandit", sounded like they were straight from the album.
At one point Dweezil instructed his band to improvice. He directed with gestures almost identical to Frank´s way of conducting. It was like a Deja Vu all over again.
