Photo by cesarcambay from Panoramio.
Overheard by Anna on the MRT as the train passed a giant Belo billboard on Edsa:
“Ano ba naman yang billboard ni Ruffa, Body Ti-teh.”
Anna’s thought balloon:
“Oo nga naman, dapat ang spelling T-y-t.”
(Apologies to non-Tagalog speakers: humor untranslatable.)
Photo: Jose Tence Ruiz, one of 8 commissioned artists for a large-scale public art project along EDSA, supervises his work along the Barangay San Lorenzo wall. This painting will be unveiled on Saturday, May 7 at 8 a.m.
The Philippine paint manufacture leader BOYSEN, with the support of the MMDA, is launching an urban renewal initiative that simultaneously cleans the air and enables ambitious public artworks to be accomplished.
Eight huge artworks by 11 artists will be executed on EDSA, one every 45 days, until early 2012. In their hands the revolutionary paint product KNOxOUT becomes a medium of social change.
The BOYSEN KNOxOUT PROJECT: EDSA was designed around a paint that is activated by sunlight to transform airborne toxins into safe residues that can be washed away by rains. Scientific texts have demonstrated that for every square meter of surface painted with KNOx-OUT, the exhaust of 10 cars is eliminated.
Each artwork will cover 1000 square meters of high walls. The works will be executed on high walls along EDSA and on a selection of MRT pylons and station walls. At this size, collectively 10,000 square meters, the toxins in the exhaust of 100,000 cars can be neutralized. The project goes beyond “beautification” and beyond illustrating environmentalist ideas by using a paint medium that helps to address one major urban problem.
The commissioned artworks should make the often difficult ride down EDSA more pleasant. The artists are Jose Tence Ruiz, Neal M. Oshima, Baby Imperial and Coco Anne of B+C graphic design studio, the art department of the advertising agency TBWA, Virgillio “Pandy” Aviado, Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, Erika Tan and Tapio Snellman. The Boysen KnoxOut Project: EDSA is curated and supervised by Tao, Inc.
Memo to graphic designers: It’s 2011.
This is us in the 90s.
We restrained our hair and we had no cats.
This is us in the 21st century.
We like our hair dishevelled (What Pedro Almodovar calls the “divento matta” (I go mad) hairstyles in Italian movies) and we begin to resemble our cats.
Pedro is very particular about the hairstyles of his protagonists.
I have a column that appears every Friday on the Channel 5 news site.
Before I forget, two people from our annual “Did You Know They Were Pinoy?” list have been nominated for Oscars: Hailee Steinfeld (A reader pointed out that she is of Filipino descent) for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in True Grit, and Matthew Libatique for Best Cinematography for his work on The Black Swan. We’re trying to get interviews with both of them, will keep you posted.
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At the Nokia lunch yesterday Philstar business columnist Wilson Lee Flores pointed out the number of bus-related disasters during the Noynoy Aquino presidency.
Buses falling off cliffs.
Buses crashing into cars.
Buses in bloody hostage dramas.
Buses blowing up on the highway.
“Do you know why?” Wilson said.
“Why?” I asked stupidly.
“Because in his inaugural speech P-noy said, Kayo ang bus ko.” Har har. Just read his column.
There’s something about the season of peace on earth and goodwill to all men that brings out the worst in people. So I knew traffic would be hell and the taxi situation impossible. There’s some comfort in being right.
I needed prescription lenses for my new frames so I went to see my optometrist Nella Sarabia at UP Shopping Center. (Incidentally if you are in desperate need of signed copies of Twisted 9 and 8 1/2 they are available at Nella’s shop. Her number is 4355685.) My appointment took ten minutes; getting out of UP Diliman took over an hour. After waiting outside the shopping center for several minutes I figured I’d have as much chance of getting a cab if I walked around the campus as I did just standing there and getting bored.
So I took a walk. A long walk. I remembered Jon’s advice and ate a banana-Q before setting out (I didn’t have breakfast and it was past 3pm.) The campus felt abandoned (the Lantern Parade was held the previous day), the foliage was lush, the weather my favorite kind—cool and gloomy. I don’t know how long I walked, but I finished listening to Avalon by Roxy Music and half of Pirates by Rickie Lee Jones (I picked those two because I listened to them constantly in school). At “Traces of the Western Slopes” a taxi appeared, and the driver agreed to take me to Cubao Expo where I was meeting Noel.
By the time I got to Cubao I was famished so I went to Bellini’s, which is owned by the ex-paparazzo from Pisa, Roberto Bellini. Mr. Bellini is so vivacious he is sometimes asked if he starred in Life Is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni). “What will you have!” he cried. “What have you got!” I replied. “Fresh fettucini with clams in tomato sauce!” he said. “I’ll take it!”
The fettucini was excellent. I mopped up the remaining sauce with fresh foccacia, then I had a slice of Bellini’s classic orange cake and an espresso. Mr. Bellini reminded me that I had been going to their restaurant since they opened in 1999. “This is on me!” he announced. Good as my meal was, it tasted even better afterwards because it was free.
Mr. Bellini
Noel had had to cram into the MRT to get to Cubao. There was this cranky guy by the door of the train car, and every time someone came in he said, “Bakit ka nakikipagsiksikan?” as if the passengers had a choice.
We found presents for our friends in Cubao Expo, then steeled ourselves for the MRT ride back to Makati. But then a taxi materialized in front of us, and the driver overcharged but we figured it was worth it.
After dinner we had cake and coffee at our friend’s new apartment, and the view made us forget how tired we were.
GOOD has this infographic of the cities with the most frustrating traffic problems. Manila was not included in the study, but I’m guessing that on the pain index we’re somewhere between New Delhi and Montreal. Though our drivers would probably claim Beijing-level aggravation, just to top the survey.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>