Oct 2 weekend

Dream weaverFashionista Clint Holton P. Potestas takes a stroll down the catwalk with a soon-to-be fashion icon.

[email protected], October 2, 2010

Celebrity club

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

movies

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feature

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cover story

CHERRY ANN LIM Managing Editor, Special Pages and FeaturesJIGS ARQUIZA Editor CLINT HOLTON P. POTESTAS Writer

Sun.Star Weekend | October 2, 2010C2

RALPH RHODDEN C. CAVERO Graphic Designer

PHOTOS: MARK NICDAO MAKEUP: LALA FLORES USING DIVINE WINE AND PERSONIFIED PLUM FROM THE AVON ULTRA COLOR RICH MEGA IMPACT LIPSTICKSTYLING: AGOO BENGZON AND ANA KALAW

Dream weaver

In the beginning, some mistook her decision for a life crisis. She had a pretty good deal in one of the country’s most lucrative industries - the perks, the money, the glitter - but she still took a brave step out of her comfort zone to conquer the fear of the unknown. Or better yet, to chase what she truly loves, even if it meant moving to a smaller market. Isn’t this attitude very Cebuano?

“I was at a pretty good place in advertising when I suddenly realized that

there were other things I wanted to experience - some people may call it a quarter-life crisis, but I just never believed in living my life with ‘should’ves’, ‘could’ves’, or ‘would’ves’,” shares Stephanie “Tippi” Ocampo on why she decided to launch a self-labeled fashion line in Manila after spending years in advertising firms, which was her occupation after graduating cum laude in Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines-Diliman.

“Advertising is a very exciting, well-established industry, and the pay and perks were really good. It’s also more conceptual and strategic as an industry. On the other hand, fashion is more tactile, sensual, and is more creatively intuitive. Fashion, especially in Manila, is not yet established as an industry the way it is in other parts of the world,” the 39-year-old fashion designer continues.

What she missed about her former employment, though, is the opportunity to combine her “twin” interest of writing and drawing. So when Tippi was able to find an opporunity to indulge in fashion designing, she managed to create an outlet to express her love for words, pairing it with - this time around - fashion.

C3Sun.Star Weekend | October 2, 2010

feature

Celebrity club“She looked innocent - surprisingly,” exclaimed

Carmela Domaboc on the first occasion she met Paris Hilton in Los Angeles, California when the hotel heiress bought a chain necklace from Mai Collections, Carmela’s custom-made line of jewelry.

“Pretty much, Paris has her own world. I wasn’t able to talk to her because she didn’t care about who made it,” Carmela laughed, “she liked it, so she bought it.”

Born and raised in Cebu, Carmela never thought she could be included in the stylists’ list of top designers they often go to for magazine promotions, fashion shows, and red carpet arrivals.

She finished her master’s degree in Special Education at the Cebu Normal University after she graduated from Bachelor of Fine Arts major in Advertising Arts at the University of San Carlos in Talamaban.

Before she decided to make her own pieces, she first sold accessories from Sepa, made by Josefa Dianne Espera.

“L.A. is all about what the stars wear. It becomes an instant trend once it’s worn by the stars,” she said, taking it as the most effective strategy in building a fashion business in America.

For almost two years, after she moved from Cebu to Los Angeles in 2008, Carmela struggled to reach the right market, hopped from one boutique to the other and literally “begged” buyers to give her a minute of their schedule.

Buyers are official representatives of boutiques who choose items or labels that they would market to the costumers.

First, she researched on the individual names, the contact numbers, the address, and the companies these buyers have been working for. Then, she would either send an e-mail showing photos of her designs, or book an appointment, which she barely got.

“I never received any reply from them,” she admits ruefully. “The best way is to wait for them in the parking lot. Since I was a ‘nobody,’ I made up stories just to get through them.”

Establishments have been acquainted with walk-in designers who offer the same products - not to mention, the same sales talk - so they provide a small box in the counter for business cards.

Carmela recalled one instance when she decided to sell her designs to Saks Fifth Avenue. “When I got inside the shop, wala ko tagda (I was totally ignored). I told the clerk I have an appointment with the buyer (but I really didn’t make one).”

She waited for hours in the parking lot until the buyer arrived, uninterested in her offer. Carmela continued, “She was trying to avoid me. We were walking toward the boutique while I

presented my designs.” “They thought I was retarded or something.” And this was how she got the appointment,

saying: “She told me to call her secretary, but I replied, ‘I’ve already done that and it didn’t work. Trust me, I am not going to bother you if you don’t like my designs, but please, give me five minutes of your time.”

Although Carmela was invited to the buyer’s office, her turning point came in November 2009

while watching television.“I saw Oliver Tolentino (L.A.-based fashion

designer) on TV, and I Googled for his number. I called, and luckily, Oliver himself picked up the phone and asked me to visit his boutique.

“When he saw my designs, he said, ‘Okay, let’s do it’.”

Since then, Carmela has been exposed to PR officers who would organize cause-oriented fashion shows. Thus, her pieces have been handpicked by stylists and been sashayed down the runway for the New York Fashion Week, early this year.

And now, at 26, she’s far from nobody, name-dropped by no less than Courtney Semel, the daughter of Yahoo chief executive, for her accessories. Mai Collections has also been featured in Spanish Vogue and Music and Fashion magazines and has distributors in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and soon in Dubai. (CPP)

Not By The Book: Fashioning Design, the recently-released book she authored, documents how she goes through various steps in achieving a certain design, from choosing the fabric to tailoring it on the sewing machine to fitting it on the client. Thus, “not by the book” was how her husband, Ito, often refers to the style ethic she has believed in for more than a decade.

Tippi also maintains an opinion column in Metro magazine called The Tippi Point where she writes about her thoughts on fashion, inspiration, latest click, and her first-hand experience on field.

“My designs have often been described as being very feminine, whimsical and elegant (and sometimes humorous) with a modern Filipina sensibility. Personally, my fashion designs are a reflection of the things I see and experience, translated into collections that can be shared with others,” she states.

“The most challenging, as well as the most fulfilling, part of fashion designing is keeping a fresh perspective on things and managing to combine keeping a pulse on what’s new and exciting with a designer’s unique point of view.”

For more than 10 years now in the business of fashion, Tippi still has fresh memories of the first gown she designed that became the country’s representative to the Concours International des Jeunes Créateur de Mode in Paris, France.

While it garnered applause from Italian fashion editors, it has also inspired her to invest more in the business, saying: “That was the turning point I had during my sabbatical leave, and the sign I took to mean that I should continue to pursue fashion.”

Just when you thought that she spends too much time on glamour, she instantly explains that she is not the high-maintenance type. But her simplicity has qualified her to promote the latest line of Avon, called Ultra Color Rich Mega Impact Lipstick that is created with Chromapixel technology to enhance the shade’s hue by reflecting light and intensifying shine.

“I was excited to be part of the Avon campaign because it focused on both sides of feminine beauty - the external and the internal. Without internal beauty, I find that external beauty fades pretty fast,” she shares, speaking like a true-blue Cebuano.

After all, she was born in Cebu before her family moved to Manila when she was three years old. Her early recollections include swimming lessons in Casino Filipino and Club Filipino and hitting the nearby beaches

Since her mom’s parents (Mario and Lucy) still reside in Cebu, Tippi makes frequent visits to familiar places in the city.

“I visit Cebu often with my husband - our favorite thing about the city is that it’s cosmopolitan in a laid-back kind of way. Cebuanos are very open and friendly and generally down-to-earth, but with a fun, crazy side. Cebu is definitely a city that’s close to my heart,” Tippi says, imagining the white sand beaches, sun-tanned skin, sumptuous island dishes, and of course, the throbbing desire to go down south after a stressful work week in the capital.

movies


IMAGES FROM THE INTERNET

Oliver Stone was making a statement on the glibly money-hungry times when his “Wall Street” came out in 1987 and, with it, the iconic figure of Gordon Gekko declaring that greed, for lack of a better word, was good.

Twenty-three years later, greed is still getting a lot of people into a lot of trouble. The entire country, in fact. And so Stone’s latest, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” is the rare sequel that feels not only relevant but necessary.

Of course, his hindsight is 20/20. Everyone’s is. But here, Stone takes the economic collapse of 2008 and places Gekko - played masterfully by Michael Douglas, returning to the role that earned him an Academy Award – in the middle of it. Having been released from federal prison after serving time for securities fraud, money laundering and racketeering, Gekko is now free to swim among even more dangerous sharks than he ever dreamed of being himself. The question becomes: How will he react? Will he use his shrewdness to try and beat them at their game, or will he actually have found a moral center during his time behind bars?

That story line alone could have provided the basis for one meaty, worthwhile movie. “Money Never Sleeps” also crams in a father-daughter story, a few different mentor-protege stories and a romance. It’s big and loud and brash in an almost operatic way – and knowingly, joyfully so. For a movie about a depressing topic that we’re all-too familiar with, “Money Never Sleeps” is surprisingly entertaining.

The dialogue from Allan Loeb and Stephen Schiff is biting and propulsive, and the hugely esteemed ensemble cast is a kick. Besides Douglas, who’s better than ever even as a toned-down snake, Shia LaBeouf is solid as an ambitious young

trader – he feels like a grown-up, finally – and the two stars have a couple of electric exchanges.

But there are plenty of showy supporting roles, as well. A beefed-up, suspendered Frank Langella provides both gravitas and humor as founder of the powerful Keller Zabel Investments; he also serves as a father figure to LaBeouf’s Jacob Moore. Susan Sarandon chews up the scenery as Jacob’s tacky, talkative mother, a former nurse who’s been enjoying the good life as a high-end Long Island real estate agent. And Josh Brolin is a formidable villain as Bretton James, a billionaire partner at a rival investment bank who ruins Keller Zabel with rumors of debt, then arranges a brutal takeover. Just listening to him describe why he has a particular Goya painting in his office is intimidating.

Eventually, “Money Never Sleeps” goes soft and loses its way. The romantic subplot between Jacob and Gekko’s estranged daughter Winnie, of all people, feels needless, even though it does allow for the radiant presence of Carey Mulligan. It also raises some questions: As Gekko himself so astutely wonders, if Winnie hates her father so much, why would she get involved with a man who does the exact same thing, which she found so reprehensible? Jacob’s dream of funding an alternative-energy company is intended to redeem him somewhat, but really, he gets that same gleam in his eyes when it comes to the prospect of getting rich.

And what happens in the last couple of scenes especially stands as a stark and almost laughable contrast to where these characters began and what they’re supposedly made of. Then again, as the song goes, money changes everything. (AP)

WALL STREETMONEY NEVER SLEEPS

Sun.Star Weekend | October 2, 2010 C5

audiosyncracyshort reviews

ALL IMAGES ON THIS PAGE FROM THE INTERNET

iTunes Top Ten

October 2eroTap at The TaproomChallenge The Taproom’s sexy ledge dancers and get a bottle of tequila for free if you win! The Taproom is along Ma. Luisa Road, Banilad, Cebu.

DJ MIA at Club P.U.M.P.Dance to DJ Mia’s exquisite beats at Club P.U.M.P. at the GrandCon compound.

In the PinkFormo’s Disco DeLuxe goes pink with Nu.Vo’s DJ Arnel giving you glam and disco mixes from the eighties! And for the whole month of October, enjoy Pink Your Drink: Cocktails for a Cause. Party on with a Pink Soda, Pink Martini or Raspberry Mojito and help out a good cause. At the Banilad Town Centre, Banilad, Cebu.

Ongoing until October 10It’s Munchen TimeCelebrate Oktoberfest at the Marco Polo Plaza and enjoy German cuisine with their Bavarian Foodfest. Also, enjoy dining at the hotel’s El Viento Restaurant and Pool Bar and BLU Bar and Grill with set menus for less than a thousand pesos as Marco Polo Plaza joins Restaurant Week 2010.

Every FridaySink ‘n’ Drink Fridays: Beer PongBring your friends and challenge them to a game of billiards, darts and the all-time favorite BeerPong! Only at Sulanders Sports Bar, Roofdeck, Mactan Pension House, National Road, Lapu Lapu City, in between the old and new bridges.

Woody Allen is once again gleefully messing with his ridiculous characters’ lives in “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” but there isn’t much joy for anyone watching. Set in London like Allen’s recent “Match Point,” ‘’Scoop” and “Cassandra’s Dream,” ‘’You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” similarly features the intertwined lives of the rich and the far less privileged who covet such wealth. And like “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” – his best film in quite a while, which earned Penelope Cruz a supporting-actress Oscar – this comedy has a narrator commenting on the characters’ misadventures in stiff, almost mocking tones, quoting overused Shakespeare to illuminate his points. (AP)

I’m Still HereJoaquin Phoenix may truly have walked away from a much-heralded acting career two years ago to pursue his artistic expression as a rapper. His look, which went from dark and mysterious to shaggy and doughy, may simply have been part of his transformation. Or not. It becomes increasingly difficult to care about discerning what’s real and what’s a hoax as the documentary “I’m Still Here” drones on. We have to use the word “documentary” loosely, however, because it suggests an attempt at capturing fact on film. What “I’m Still Here” captures is questionable. (AP)

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

Mark Ronson & The Business Intl’s “Record Collection” is a thumping party, but its the album’s eclectic guest list – including singers, songwriters and musicians – that’s worth tweeting about.

There’s a very raspy Boy George on the steel drum-tinged “Somebody to Love Me,” and Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ghostface Killah joins Ronson when the Grammy Award-winning producer makes his vocal debut on the love-jaded “Lose It (In The End).”

And while it sounds like neo-soul pioneer D’Angelo is singing from inside a fish aquarium on the sonically warped “Glass Mountain Trust,” the crooner’s cameo is a surprise after nearly a decade without releasing an album.

First single “Bang Bang Bang,” featuring Q-Tip and MNDR, is fun and upbeat – representing a shift from the horn-backed, retro soul sound that Ronson achieved with Amy Winehouse, or the melancholy mood he created with Daniel Merriweather.

The b-boy-influenced “The Bike Song,” and “You Gave Me Nothing” – which includes vocals from former Pipette Rose Elinor Dougall – reveal Ronson’s latest penchant for synthesizers and keyboards.

“Record Collection” is a bold shift from Ronson’s two previous studio albums, but he flourishes in the new territory. (AP)

Mark Ronson & The Business Intl, “Record Collection” (RCA Music Group)

iTunes’ top 10 selling singles and albums of the week ending Sept. 27, 2010, according to the Associated Press:

CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: Mark Ronson layers African guitar rhythms with a U.K.-dance feel to create something fresh on “Hey Boy,” featuring rap newcomer Theophilus London and Dougall.

foreview

1. “Just the Way You Are,” Bruno Mars2. “Like a G6 (feat. Cataracs & Dev),” Far East Movement3. “Only Girl (In the World),” Rihanna4. “Just a Dream,” Nelly5. “Teenage Dream,” Katy Perry6. “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love,” Usher7. “Dynamite,” Taio Cruz8. “Club Can’t Handle Me (feat. David Guetta)(From “Step Up 3D”),” Flo Rida9. “Empire State of Mind (“Glee” Cast Version),” “Glee” Cast10. “Telephone (“Glee” Cast Version),” “Glee” Cast

1. “Hands All Over,” Maroon 52. “You Get What You Give,” Zac Brown Band3. “Wake Up!” The Roots, John Legend4. “A Thousand Suns,” Linkin Park5. “Guitar Heaven — The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time,” Santana 6. “Recovery,” Eminem 7. “Sigh No More,” Mumford & Sons 8. “Passion, Pain & Pleasure,” Trey Songz 9. “A Year Without Rain,” Selena Gomez & The Scene 10. “The Sound of Sunshine,” Spearhead, Micahel Franti

Singles: Albums:

dog-ears in the wrong notebook


TEXT AND IMAGES FROM WWW.FULLYBOOKEDONLINE.COM AND THE WEB

books

by Aaron Goldman

You know you’ve hit it big when your name becomes a verb – and no one knows that better than Google. In just over 10 years, Google has become the world’s most valuable brand, consistently dominating its category and generating $6 billion in revenue per quarter. How does Google do it? In a word: marketing. You may not think Google does much marketing. Indeed, it doesn’t do a lot of what has traditionally been viewed as marketing. But in today’s digital world, marketing has taken new shape – and Google is at the cutting edge. In Everything I Know about Marketing I Learned from Google, digital marketing expert Aaron Goldman offers 20 powerful lessons straight from Google’s playbook. Taking you deep into the inner workings of the Googleplex (which are simpler than you think), Goldman provides the knowledge and tools you need to build and grow your brand (which is also simpler than you think). Along the way, he shows how Google’s tactics are being used by a wide range of successful corporations, from Apple to Zappos. Key principles include: • Tap into the Wisdom of Crowds: Get the signals you need directly from your customers • Keep It Simple, Stupid: Craft messages people can grasp in a nanosecond and pass along • Don’t Interrupt: Join the conversation – but avoid disrupting it • Act Like Content: Provide value, not sales pitches • Test Everything: Take no detail of your program for granted; you can always improve • Show Off Your Assets: Distribute your brand everywhere The beauty of it all is that these Googley lessons can be applied to every aspect of marketing, in organizations of any size. Whether you run a PR department in a multinational corporation or serve as the sole marketer in a small business, these tactics work. In its mission to “organize the world’s information,” Google has rewritten the book on marketing. Use Everything I Know about Marketing I Learned from Google to remake your own organization’s marketing – and engage more customers than ever.

Everything I Know About Marketing I Learned From Google

To presume that I have the right to talk about birds is to presume that I either love them, which I don’t, or that I hate them, which I don’t either. Which, therefore, leaves me much with the obvious recourse to either description or fact: that on one day in the middle of September, at the end of summer beginning of fall, in a place far away from home, at the St. Louis Bird Sanctuary, I come face to face, eye to eye, its sharp beak to my fleshy mouth, to nothing less symbolically than the American Bald Eagle. If there’s any moment that should finally confirm the inevitable fact of my being without doubt or hesitation here, it should be, with no lack of irony or overdetermination this. What has heretofore merely been the rough outline of quarters, or the insignia of post office packages, or that indelible visual mnemonic of movie freedom, was dipping its head into a pool of water, and cleaning its beak--- right in front of me. This eagle, of course, is merely one of many others, other eagles, that is, and well, other birds: winter owls, turkey vultures, a fifty-year old blind brown pelicans, and a bird whose beak is shaped like a human smile appropriately called the Laughing Kookaburra. They’re all gathered here, of course, on the premise that they’re rare, if not endangered, that they’re beautiful, if not to the untrained eye of a stranger then its master, and that they’re valuable—meaning worthy of all the effort and money and manpower that’s been put into keeping them here, in this place, where they won’t be shot at, bumped into, mistakenly hit, stuffed and displayed on prize walls, or cooked. It goes without saying that all of this is for the future generation. And you can say that I’ve always been a huge admirer of these endeavors: efforts at extending the limited and limiting human scale into something farther, grander than the singular lifespan or specie. Extending notions of time and space into the before us, or the beyond us, or the other than us--- because what is today, need not necessarily be always tomorrow, or that the one we catch by eyesight or net, may sometimes not be the one of many but the last. Efforts such as the St. Louis bird sanctuary also become a testament to an enduring notion of the stewardship of humankind: wisest (if not the most wasteful) of all the natural world, whose task remains to care for the rest of animal kind, (even if it mostly means protecting the errant bird, the lowly lizard, the voluptuous snake from its, meaning man’s, reckless self-centeredness. Guilt being the rough counterbalance to the crime that is being ourselves. Not that I am not also skeptical of the innocence and the purity of these notions of protectorship. I’ve always been wary of the seemingly unavoidable anthropomorphism that permeates through this specific relationship between human and animal. (That I may call you by name so you may be like me.) As if the only reason for sympathy be the imagined possibility that a four-legged mammal, a feathered bird, may perhaps be “like me”. Stewardship

being a mere extension of, rather than an exception from, the self-consciousness that so characterizes us. And also because the history of preservation has also in more ways than one been also a history of confinement. As in the inherent argument of cages: “that you will not move, not leave, because this is easiest, the quickest way to go on living”. Behold the implements of this double-sided kindness: tethers, and ropes, steel wires and hooks, the glove upon which a hawk perches holds the food that entices it to feed and remain. That this entirely human compartment of a cage attempts to mimic its “natural environment” (rope be the texture and thickness of branch, steel hook hanging on the roof be the purported canopy of flight) becomes either pure genius or utter illusion. Even as it is the human onlooker that is fooled of this belief, and the bird know its for now inescapable state. It becomes an actual relief to see the chickens. In cages yes, but also in their little houses, their coops. No pretense of “home” or “natural environs” is needed considering that for the longest time they have lived in the lucky or unlucky vicinity of farms, and barns, and sheds, in other words, human homes. Their domesticity being evidence of kind co-habitation that does not call itself “sanctuary”. (Or perhaps the moment of their domesticity occurred at a similar impulse to protect and preserve? Even if the evidence shows otherwise. Utility, in this case, seems less ambivalent, more honest.) Or maybe I am comforted by these chickens as they are birds I am most familiar with. Having always seen them on visits to my grandmother’s house in Danao. Or hearing them crow every single morning growing up—our house being right beside an empty lot that housed the owner’s collection of roosters primed by vitamins and smoke for the weekly derby of a cockfight: tuktugaok! Or that among my father’s stories, there is one I remember most: about him growing chicks, under a bulb, at the back of his house, as a child. How when they grew up, they were killed for the feast that was his birthday. And that was alright. My father, who just over weekend, over the internet, asks how I am and tells me that the atibas has arrived in his garden, the atibas being the migratory birds that come to mate or rest in Cebu come September, yearly indicator that the world was right, and that winter had come to wherever they were from: which in this case was Russia. I tell him that they’re probably from St. Louis, right outside my window, having left last week since fall had finally begun. St. Louis, where more than a century ago, in the world’s fair, a family of indigenous Filipinos were brought in g-strings and by boat into the alien weather of Missouri, in order to showcase what a “typical home” of a Filipino was. I don’t know if it was a cage or a stage. The story goes that some of them couldn’t make the trip back, because they died of the cold.

MigratoryIM

AGE

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THE

INTE

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circus of fanciesPami Therese Estalilla

Sun.Star Weekend | October 2, 2010 C7

49 Gen. Sepulveda Street, CebuTel. No (032) 255-0105 & 412-5551

Fax No. (032) 412-5552Email: [email protected]

website: www.palazzopensionne.netGot something to share with us? Sun.Star Weekend invites readers to contribute original, unpublished

poems and essays or commentaries about funny or memorable moments in your life. Please email your contributions to: [email protected]

BED & BREAKFAST

Little girls (and some little boys) love to play dress-up. Some eventually outgrow this game. Some never do.

Those in the second category manage to apply this love for dressing up in their adult lives. They become “cosplayers”, models, fashionistas and actors, clothing themselves in different roles, different facades, different back-stories, if you will.

Being a guilty member of the percentage that never managed to outgrow it, I understand why it can be addicting. Dressing the part is the first step to living a fantasy. There are days we want to step away from our everyday selves and into a different persona. This doesn’t mean we try to be someone else entirely; rather, we try to tap into an aspect of ourselves that we are rarely able to entertain. In every film, we may try to put ourselves in the hero’s shoes, but no man is a complete protagonist in real life- we are all, instead, mosaics of hero, villain and bystander; we are wise old kings, wicked witches, jovial raconteurs and ferocious dragons all rolled into one tapestry of fairytale and nightmare.

When you’re so often stereotyped as Mr. Nice Guy, it is incredibly refreshing to don a villain’s cape, whether it’s for a stage audience of hundreds or the office Halloween Party. And by donning the cape, I mean truly tapping into that villainous streak that you suppress with the best of intentions- that little cackle of laughter in the bottom of your soul that you can almost hear when your co-workers almost make it inside the elevator doors, but don’t. It is ever so liberating to let it unfurl into full-force diabolical laughter (sans convenient crack of lightning) when you’re in the right setting for it, when you’re dressed the

part and can attribute it to “acting”. (To tell you the truth, though- all actors, as well as all storytellers in every form, borrow heavily from themselves.)

Not only are the seeming opposites of our everyday selves so comforting to step into. “Enhanced” versions of ourselves are perhaps the most tempting to dress up as- personas that are very similar to us in essence, yet bigger in many ways. Characters that are a lot like us in personality or appearance, but are ultimately more powerful, more accomplished, more beautiful. Putting on their clothes (and demeanor) is a lot like moving inches closer to those versions of ourselves that we wish we were or aspire to become someday. I suspect that this has a lot to do with who people choose to portray in cosplay events and costume parties.

But it’s not limited to costumes. Personally, as I approach my wardrobe every morning, I let my mood decide who I am to be. As a result, I occasionally attend formal affairs in sando and jeans, and casual ones in Gothic party dress. (I do forgo the velvet and knee-high boots on sweltering hot days.) Why do I frequently go to the effort of full-blown outfits to tackle my daily nondescript routines? Because when I’m feeling rotten, dressing prettily makes me feel otherwise. (And I am NOT a morning person.)

Dressing up is not just vanity (though there’s that too)- it’s expression. Not all of us can spew sonnets like the Great Bard, or weave pain into pretty colors like Van Gogh. But we can clothe ourselves in our own exclamations, and in that way, be the canvas for our inner works of art.

Climate change is happening more rapidly than expected. As in many developing countries in the tropics, the Philippines’ poorest are already directly hit and they are the first ones feeling the impact yet least able to adapt.

September 26, 2009 with the advent of Ketsana with almost 500 deaths and billions lost became the inspiration for the United Acrhitects of the Philippines, the Climate Change Commission, the City of Taguig and the MyShelter Foundation to go beyond the traditional way of repairing after the storm, but building better habitat braced for a cycle of climate challenges.

The Philippines is consistently on the top ten on the Climate Index Risk as having the most deaths and property damage. Therefore, more and more there is a need to reorient the focus from Low Carbon initiatives, and look to a vision of Zero Climate Casualty initiatives.

Design Against the Elements (DAtE) is global design competition to look for new blueprints from the best architects from around the world for urban solution for communities already being hit by the early manifestations of climate change. Through this project it would be a way to bridge the movement of new ideas on how to build resiliency through the use of design and architecture which can lessen the impact of the yearly expected flooding and drought which cause massive migrations of low income urban sectors.

On this one years anniversary after the most damaging typhoons to hit the country, DAtE would like to request for your support by publishing this competition that will revolutionize housing in response to climate change. The winning design will be built in the prototype community for displaced teachers in Taguig City, Philippines.

There are currently 74 professional architects registered as of present for category 1 and another 110 for student entries from around the world. Easily one of the most participated design competitions in Philippine history.

The registration to this competition is extended to October 15, 2010. For more information, log on to www.designagainsttheelements.org.

Design contestfor a cause

Of lace gloves and leather boots


peeps (people, events and places)

Beauty, beats, and brews...

PARTY ALL NIGHT! (Clockwise from top) David Puentez and Hanna Hansen; Vijay Vassandani, Dennis Velez-Ting, Jojo Mangguerra and Boobie Mancao; Lorelei Malinao, Gino Cambonga, Pazu Eteve and Jackie Deen-Lotzof.

OKTOBERFEST! German consul Dr. Franz Seidenschwarz, Marco Polo GM Hans Hauri and Chef Dietmar Dietrich.

Hanna Hansen+David PuentezThe dynamic German duo of Hannah Hansen and David Puentez treated Cebuano clubbers last Saturday, September 25, to a great night of beauty and beats as they dished out their own brand of house music at The Penthouse over at the CJRS Bldg in Asiatown IT Park. The two took turns spinning the turntables, with both DJ and DJane rocking the house.

It’s Munchen time!Marco Polo Plaza yet again treats Cebuanos with another iteration of its monthly Culinary Journey, this time featuring German cuisine prepared by Chef Dietmar Dietrich. Members of Cebu media were treated yesterday, Friday, October 1, to a sumptuous lunch, with mugs of beer to wash down all that good food. The event also marked the start of the month-long Oktoberfest.

BUDDIES. Han Kintanar and Ann Marie Tan.

MORE BUDDIES. Maureen Mauricio (top) with Julienne Guanzon.

Fare thee well!Plantaion Bay Resort and Spa and its general manager Efren Belarmino hosted a farewell party for outgoing Marriott GM Roy Abraham last September 8. AMong those who attended were the general managers of the other resorts and hotels from both Mactan and Cebu City. A couple of weeks later, another farewell party was held, this time for HIS GM Kazuyuki Matsuda.

FAREWELL. (Top photo) Farewell party for outgoing Marriot GM Roy Abraham with Plantation Bay GM Efren Belarmino, PB staff and other hotel and resort general manag-ers; (Bottom photo) Akitaka Shimomura, HIS, Toyoda Atsushi, HIS, Wataru Yanagawa, PTF (Philippine Travel Factory), Ryota Kinoshita, Attic Tour, PB GM Belarmino, Charo Abecina, Kazuyuki Matsuda, HIS, Jid, Hero Moromasa and HIS staff.

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Oct 2 weekend