And I thought this week already had its fill of movie industry deaths: Dudley Moore, Milton Berle, Billy Wilder, and then yesterday, Filipinos observing Good Friday had a most unpleasant shock* to find out that 25-year-old actor Rico Yan had died of cardiac arrest in his sleep while on vacation in Palawan.

Since media shuts down in this country during Lent, I found out about it from Arn who, like everyone else I assume, received an SMS at around noontime yesterday. We couldn't tell if it was true or not until cable TV stations aired footage of Yan's grieving family late in the afternoon.

*I'm no local showbiz fan but Rico seemed to be a genuinely good role model for the youth. May his soul rest in peace.

12:43 AM
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March 28, 2002

This perfectly encapsulates my thoughts on being self-employed:

This bliss... comes from not working for other people any more. Thatís the change. Thatís the shift that makes dawn crack magically, happily, daily. I am not enslaved any more.

[Brand New Person, Brand New Life]

However, I do feel "controlled" every once in a while. Take this example: a big client initially wanted us to redesign their site to look almost entirely like an existing successful site. Now it's totally against our principles to rip off designs, let alone rip off designs by friends, but Arnold & I are saving up -- we needed this bread and butter account. Ack, dillema central!

Note: We reached a compromise -- the interface can be how they want it, fine, but the design's all ours. I also recently got together with the to-be-emulated-site's designers and we just had a good laugh about it.

***
For the visitors Jessel sent this way: my bro found this PEx thread about the Ely-leaving-the-Eheads issue.

***
Hey, mistah Adam is looking for writers and artists who might want to contribute to his zine anthology. Click here for more info on the project.

***
Local design scene news:

1. Kakosa talks to excellent 3D animator Jauhn Dablo of NullPointBase.

Dabz was in Ogilvy & Mather with me years ago, and was actually the one who introduced me to Claris Homepage back when the WWW was still virgin territory (around 1996, was it?).

2. This week's Philweavers featured member is talented web designer and fellow UPCFA survivor J Lucas Reyes aka Sushihendrix aka Mandala's other half.

***
Thank you Powagrrrls, HalfProject, Redberger, and Robocore for sending lotsa visitors to my redesigned folio.

11:46 AM
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March 26, 2002

Yesterday, I woke up at the break of dawn* to catch the Oscars live via satellite. (Even Arn was here on the dot to watch it with me.) I won't bother listing who we expected to win versus who actually did, but would just like to comment that it's about time there be a Philippine entry in the foreign language category, yeah?

*The red carpet show started at 6am Manila time (and we also watched everything again at 8pm).

***
Local music fans: Yes, it's true. Ely B did up and leave the Eraserheads.

***
Weekend highlights:
1. Mass and then birthday dinner with my family and Arnold on Saturday. Of course it had to coincide with every other person in Metro Manila's graduation party dinner (read: heavy traffic along EDSA).
2. Our friends Dean & Nikki's baby Sage's baptism and merienda sienna.

***
Thank you for the greetings! (:

08:17 AM
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March 23, 2002

Know what I have in common with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, rock star Damon Albarn, and actress Keri Russel?

We were all born on March 23.

Yikes, I'm 30! (:

***
Thank you for the early greetings, Arnold baby, Naomi and ate Pam!

07:07 AM
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March 19, 2002

Something Arnold & I toiled on these past few weeks:

The Sacred Works of Ryan Cayabyab, produced by the SMFPA is a 2-cd choral album featuring Mr. C's award-winning Misa 2000, among other religious pieces (Anima Christi, etc). The accompanying 20-page booklet boasts of all-new original digital paintings by my very talented Arn, of course.

Some of the booklet's art.

***
It's been a money-out week so far: annual insurance bill - P9k; driver's license renewal (inclusive of medical exam & newly-implemented drug test fees) - P600+; pager termination - P2k. Siiigh, excuse me while I go back to work (and earn my keep).

03:10 PM
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March 16, 2002

We recently got to see A Beautiful Mind which was just plain awesome. Oh and if you ever felt bad about not qualifying for Mensa, now is the time to feel good. (I'm quite happy with my normal life and slightly above-average IQ, thank you.)

On a different note, The Time Machine is really what my Arnold can't wait to watch (yes, despite the bad reviews) since the HG Wells classic is the very first novel he ever read.

***
While we're on the subject of first novels, mine is Jack & Jill by Louisa May Alcott (cool beans, an online version) which I read back in 4th grade.

Isn't the classic cover much nicer than the new one?

What's yours?

08:55 AM
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March 15, 2002

Akin Fernandez in UK pointed me to artist Thomas Barwick's website.

Loverly, eh?

***
Arn & I finally got to meet local web-goddess Drew Europeo at a get-together organized by our mutual friend Ninoy at Dome Cafe yesterday. It's great meeting someone you only know online (for years now, actually) in the flesh. (:

***
A must-install: Spam Stopper is a little utility for web designers/web masters that will help keep e-mail harvesting spiders from grabbing email addresses from your website. It's simple, fast, and best of all, free.
(via OnClick)

***
Thanks for the comments on my last post. Now I feel sad for those poor pager companies, looks like their time is up.

09:44 AM
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March 14, 2002

Infopage suddenly decided to bill me (P 2T++) after three years of inactivity. Why only now? Good grief, I've forgotten that I ever had a pager.

R.I.P. IP93060 has since been demoted to paperweight status.

Arnold suspects that pager companies have gone bankrupt since the cell phone boom and that the delayed billing is a last ditch effort to regain some dignity. Sigh, at my expense.

***
Speaking of bankruptcy, my friend Joan L has it that TGIFridays in El Pueblo closed down because they lost their crowd to Eastwood. Tequila Joe's is rumored to go next. How truly sad...

12:46 AM
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March 12, 2002

Kakosa talks to well-known graphic designer/illustrator Robert Alejandro -- who was, incidentally, my teacher in UP over ten years ago. Check out his art at the Papemelroti and INK websites.

One of his responses reminded me of Ms. Lucille Tenazas who is certainly among the crop of designers I respect, but have failed to acknowledge in my write-ups, tsk.

My fangirl moment? I had the pleasure of shaking her hand when she was in the country for a symposium back when she was president of AIGA.

Marvel at her work here.

***
Weekend highlights:
1. Egg tarts and Ali with Arnold. (No, not in Ali Mall either, Shil).
2. Sunday family lunch at Nappa.
3. A visit to my brother (and other loved ones who've passed on) over at Loyola.

08:20 AM
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March 8, 2002

In honor of William Shatner having a spanking new weblog, I present to you the catchy and happily cheesy In Love* by Fear of Pop.

(Betcha Wil hasn't heard of it.)

*a spoken word/instrumental track featuring Mr. Shatner. Fear of Pop is Ben Folds' side project.

06:13 PM
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My Arnold was a speaker at a UP CWC sponsored-symposium held yesterday where he, along with our friend Robert Magnuson talked about their experiences as graphic storytellers in this country where the comic book medium is still under-explored. One of the points discussed is the absence and much-awaited emergence of female writer-artists in the field (that's your cue, Nev) .

Afterwards, I tagged along with Arn, Robert and Luis K (who visits pala regularly!*) to a Trellis dinner hosted by the said group.

*Makes me wonder how many people I know offline read this blog.

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Speaking of the comic scene, my good friend Lala's younger bro Reno is apparently a budding comic book artist and has a website showcasing his work. (Go)

***

Manila-based Chuck Jones fans will be glad to know that a VCD of most of his works, Looney Tunes Assorted Nuts, is available for a mere P150 at Astrovision outlets.

01:46 PM
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March 6, 2002

Good morning, class. Here is today's art lesson:

Japanese artist Heisuke Kitazawa has a bunch of illustration awards, cites Thom Yorke and J.Otto Seibold among his influences and listens to Polaris on the side. The picture above is the cover he did for Weezer's album #4.

(via Elephant Still Missing)

***

Anja Kroencke is an Austrian fashion illustrator - art director whose works may look familiar if you've ever found yourself leafing through Wallpaper, Lurzer's Archive, and CA.

***

London-based artist Graham Rounthwaite, best known for his breakthrough and much-copied Levi's Silver Tab street scene illustrations, is art director of The Face and has worked for clients such as FabergÈ and an assortment of hip-hop bands. Hiking up additional coolness factor points is the fact that he uses a Macintosh.

So whose style did you like best?

09:44 AM
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March 4, 2002

Gosh, how I remember these sea monkeys from my Archie-reading days!

More retro comics ads

***
Pixar and Apple, two of my most-admired companies, join forces to create these cute animated gems.

(via OnClick)

***
One of my kuyas*, Terence Uy married his lovely Rica yesterday. My Arn and I took some photos (...soon, friends), though right now I'm belatedly wishing that we photographed the almost 5ft-high bright-orange marzipan wedding cake for posterity (we know what the lovebirds will be having for dessert all month).

* 'older brother' of sorts

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