New mix that started when I put Ryan Adams and Bon Iver on loop. (“Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.” is the centerpiece of this mix, even though he says it as eksetera. It’s a darn good song that I find myself crooning in the middle of the day.) A lot of songs I love in between. Enjoy. Download here.

Tracks:

1. “This Heart’s on Fire” by Wolf Parade
2. “405 (Acoustic)” by Death Cab for Cutie
3. “Pale Blue Eyes” by The Velvet Underground
4. “Dry the Rain” by The Beta Band
5. “Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.” by Ryan Adams
6. “Ghosts” by Laura Marling
7. “Say Please” by Monsters of Folk
8. “England” by The National
9. “Lump Sum” (Daytrotter Session) by Bon Iver
10. “Kreuzberg” by Bloc Party
11. “The Wind” by Cat Stevens
12. “Rose Parade” by Elliott Smith

On June 23, my second one-man show, How Still, How Fast opened. I was met by a lot of encouraging feedback, and an overwhelming number of people, most of whom I never thought I would get to see soon. That’s another story. This post is about the day before, when we put everything up.

I literally (physically, emotionally, and a ton of other different ways) couldn’t have done this without these individuals. Yes, even Philly.

Lastly, a video Sarie made of the entire afternoon. 2,400+ manual shots equals a minute:

For the past week, I have been spending time at “the office,” which is the term I use to refer to my parents’ gallery. They go there everyday to do clerical work, run errands, and make the non-art part of the gallery work, while I stay behind to do freelance work, go to meetings, and so on. Since I’ve been “overseeing” preparations for my upcoming solo exhibit, How Still, How Fast, I’ve been going there to have stuff framed and bugging my brother to take pictures of them once the framing gets done.

How Still, How Fast is happening this Saturday (June 23, 6PM), at Blanc Peninsula Manila. I hope all y’all can make it! The show will be up until July 14, in case you can’t make it on that day.

Anyway. This is what the space I use at home normally looks like:

But it’s been in the process of getting cleared and cleaned this week, since I’ve hauled all of this to the office. Once I’m done, I will be fixing this space for a better workflow. I have this unreasonable belief that my productivity is heavily tied to how clean my space is.

My brother’s latest painting.

This is a photo of my first day as a teacher, which was last Saturday! I had lunch with Sarie in Kebabers, a new place along Katipunan, and then I ran into Smile and Glen, both of whom I’d been talking with earlier that day.

My teaching experience has been not so good, so far. Not horrible, but it wasn’t the best time. I fumbled through my words and honestly, if I had been my teacher, student!Carina would have been ranting about teacher!Carina in her locked LiveJournal. I would have Googled teacher!Carina’s credentials and probe into her personal life. I didn’t think anyone would show up so I started my spiel and had to restart it whenever a new person came in—which was every half minute. I was so flustered, I forgot to assign a beadle and the homework. Both are fixable, but still.

And, I can beat myself up about it, but that won’t do anyone any good. I think I really just need to remember not to take things too seriously, because no one cares if I stutter or if I repeat things or if I absentmindedly say things and trail off. This teaching thing will take a lot of getting used to—as expected. Thankfully, I have all semester, starting with this next Saturday that’s coming up.

I guess I’m lucky that it’s a studio class.

Closing on Monday next week at West Gallery are exhibits by Ranelle Dial, Jojo Lofranco, Lotsu Manes & Mervin Pimentel, and Bembol dela Cruz.

Ranelle Dial’s Subsistence fills the space of Gallery 1 with large paintings of deserted rooms, a digital projection of “waiting” and graphic icons a few busted screens. As a commentary on technology and its role in today’s society, there is a visual disconnect between her digital displays and paintings, but they still somehow tell a story together.

Dial offers compelling renditions of deserted rooms—presumably void of people because of the pervasiveness of easily accessible technology found on devices such as smartphones and computers. Venues that are normally swarming with people are now deserted because people seem to “subsist” on technology and their pseudo-connectivity with the world via the Internet and other forms of digital media.

It’s a haunting portrait of how there is currently a lack of humanity, of warmth and of really connecting to and speaking with “real people,” even in the most basic areas of interaction, because we rely so much on being bridged by less physical means.

Read about the other exhibits by Lofranco, Manes, Pimentel and dela Cruz

Part two of the birthday food post concerns a certain Serendra “old-timer” that I feel often gets overlooked. For Isabel’s birthday, we went to DUO. I think I was the only person in this party who had ever eaten there, and the only time that I did, I split a seafood salad with Isa.

I was especially excited to eat DUO’s steak because I heard it was good. Also, because it is a steakhouse. We were all set on devouring steaks, so my dad, my brother, and I each got 400g of U.S. Top Blade (Php 895), which was the only portion they offered on their menu. I did not know that it was going to be huge. Luckily, I had enough sense to have half of it wrapped so I could eat it for lunch or something, since I’m usually left alone in the house during the day.

I ate mine with café de Paris, a sauce that I discovered less than a fortnight prior to this dinner. Unfortunately, I liked that sauce more with the lamb shoulder from Vieux Chalet. I think their steak might have been best paired with the pepper sauce. The steak was pretty good, but not excellent. I would still opt for Mamou, if I were in a state of severe steak crave, and if I had money to burn. Otherwise, this would do. I had mine medium rare, which explains the bloodiness.

Sidenote: I had steak leftovers for dinner a few days later and it was not very good. Perhaps this steak only works when it’s freshly cooked.

My mom and my sister split a Steak and Chicken Duo Combination (Php 595), which I didn’t get to taste. The best part of it all was the large portion of the Duo Salad (Php 695). I split this with my mom and my dad. It’s a beautiful salad comprised of arugula, greens and reds, asparagus, mushrooms, prawns, and escargot. The house dressing was to die for—creamy and flavorful. I’m usually wary of opaque salad dressing (unless it’s toasted sesame—yum!) but this was so good. Honestly, I ended up eating most of that thing and this is something that I do not take much pride in.

Duo is not the first place I’ll think of when I am craving some steak (underwhelming), but I would gladly go back for the salad. Minus points for that Bossa Nova cover of “Creep,” though. More info here.

The painting in the center is obviously not mine.

I’ve gone to the framer’s twice this week, in preparation for my upcoming exhibit, How Still, How Fast. Thanks to my dad, who is the person I bug the most about this particular venture. I literally would probably be streets behind with this exhibit business if it were not for him and his help.

Not for the show, but a part of something that I made.

I bugged people at the office. This is my dad’s desk.

Here’s a ton of old photographs of my lolo. I can’t really post a lot of them yet, but here’s one of him and my lola:

My sister, through the eyes of a fly.

Lately, my brain’s been clouded by a lot of what-if’s but I’ve come to the conclusion that the best thing to do is really ask yourself why you do the things you do. See if the motives have changed from what they had been before. Then, figure out if it’s all still worth it.

I’ve always loved Rushmore the most, and I think it’s partly because Max Fischer just does things because he wants to. There’s a certain allure to fame and fortune, but honestly, I just want to be good at what I like doing.