Smashing Pumpkins in Manila

Last August's concert at Smart Araneta with my brothers. Thanks for taking us, Kuya Erick :-)

Up Dharma Down - Capacities

I can't wait to be at the UDD album launch this Wednesday!

Toe Live in Manila! (Updated Jan. 19)

Toe is a Japanese band formed in 2000. They're one of those bands that are hard to really pin down into one genre. I was first introduced to their music back in 2007 and have been hooked since then.

With a presence that spans the seas from Japan to the US and everywhere in between, this 4-piece has been reigning over indie math-rock for nearly a decade. Thoughtful thrashing meets passionate and precise percussion, culminating into jubilant jams of the instrumental influence. 

(Updated Jan. 19)

Toe + Death Cab for Cutie on the same month! Thank you for deciding to stop by Manila, this is really  unexpected! Terno, thank you for organizing this! March is going to be expensive. Fantastic first quarter of the year! 

Death Cab for Cutie Live in MANILA!

Death Cab for Cutie is coming! I didn't know this could even be possible! To the organizers, thank you for bringing them here soon!

First Sunrise

Embarking on a visual sojourn, my good friend Paolo Ruiz catches the first sunrise of 2012.



Shot from Antipolo to Laiya, Batangas, Philippines

Follow Paolo at http://iloveportraits.tumblr.com

Tadhana

This is the best cover of Up Dharma Down's Tadhana, passionately sung by Anj Sulit.




Tadhana - Up Dharma Down

Sa hindi inaaasahang pagtatagpo ng mga mundo
May minsan lang na nag-dugtong, damang-dama na ang ugong nito
Di pa ba sapat ang sakit at lahat na hinding-hindi ko ipararanas saýo
Ibinubunyag ka ng iyong matang sumisigaw ng pag-sinta

Ba’t ‘di pa patulan ang pag-suyong nag-kulang
Tayong umaasang hilaga’t kanluran
Ikaw ang hantungan at bilang kanlungan mo
Ako ang sasagip saýo

Saan nga ba patungo, nakayapak at nahihiwagaan
Ang bagyo ng tadhana ay dinadala ako sa init ng bisig mo
Ba’t di pa sabihin ang hindi mo maamin
Ipauubaya na lang ba ‘to sa hangin
‘Wag mong ikatakot ang bulong ng damdamin mo
Naririto ako’t nakikinig saýo

Billykirk

http://www.billykirk.com/

Foster The People - Call It What You Want

Wave Thursdays

This is a happy Thursday afternoon :)

Behind Tom

For a few years Tom Sachs worked odd jobs, including lighting displays at Barneys New York. In 1994, he was invited to create a scene for their Christmas displays and titled it Hello Kitty Nativity, in which the Virgin Mary was replaced by Hello Kitty with an open Chanel bra, the three Kings were Bart Simpsons, and the stable was marked by a McDonald's logo.

This contemporary revision of the nativity scene received great attention (not all of it positive) and demonstrated Sachs' interest in the phenomena of consumerism, branding, and the cultural fetishization of products.



He is a sculptor, probably best known for his elaborate recreations of various Modern icons, all of them masterpieces of engineering and design of one kind or another.

Enjoy this short film by The Selby celebrating the genius behind Tom Sachs.

Cate Blanchett collaborates with Nathan Coley, turns into an Architect

Atist Nathan Coley, presents images of insignificant structures and spaces from Glasgow and Melbourne. The presentation of these buildings is narrated by Cate Blanchett, who speaks as if she were an architect responsible for each of the spaces.



It’s pretty hilarious. About the stacked stones that make the entrance to the derelict building above, the architect says: “The carved stones act as a contemporary sign post. On the left side, the stones are carefully positioned, adding order and stability; on the right, it’s a bit more free and romantic.” Coley says the video is teasing about the pompous attitude of the architecture world while at the same time celebrating the found and unconsciously made.

via thefoxisblack.com

Vincent Fournier's Space Project

Vincent Fournier’s Space Project constructs a new reality in the fantasy of space exploration. Over the past decade and a half, Fournier has captured a wide array of space organizations from around the world: Gagarine Cosmonaut Training Center (Russia), Mars Desert Research Station (USA), Guyana Space Center (French Guiana) Atacama Desert observatories (Chile), International School of Space (Kazakhstan), Kennedy Space Center (USA) and other facilities.



Through the seamless compilation of photographed space, he has created an identity of the space traveler that is simply human. His artist statement reads, “The project came from the experience that we all have whilst looking at the stars during our childhood, when we suddenly realise the infinity of the universe and that we are but a tiny part of it.”

His spacesuit photographs are striking as they take on personalities of their own. Sometimes the suits look lost in a foreign land, like the 2008 Mars Society creatures venturing across desolate terrain. Others seem completely domestic, as in the 2007 Star City space suit photographs, where hues of the space suit blend perfectly into the wallpaper as if it is a fixture to hung on the wall like a clock or a collection of well loved trinkets. Even Fournier’s machines look like sleeping giants ready to awaken, beep, gurgle and then turn their gaze to sky.

via thefoxisblack.com

Awesome Use of Voice and Mouth

Another youtube talent, Mike Tompkins, featuring his A Capella Cover of Rihanna's Only Girl.

What Square?

Say hello to a cashless world. Say hello, Square.