Cinemascian 2014: TALA

I fell in love with Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli the first time I read it back when I was a teeny bopper. The narration and the plot drew me in, held me close and never let me go. We had a film festival last year and the thought of making a movie adaptation out of it came to my mind but alas those thoughts were pushed back to make way for an equally riveting screenplay by Juan Ekis entitled 20 Questions. But since then, I vowed to myself that when the occasion rises for another film to be made, I shall try my hardest to bring Stargirl to life from her pages. 

Thus, what follows are vignettes of the entire production of our short film entry to this year's Cinemascian, TALA.

Pat Odrada as Tala

Cinnamon and Cinnabon

Click this link and like TALA's poster..if you want.....I mean no one's really forcing you....but it'd be nice if you did...cos it would really mean a lot.....so thank you....mwah..

I know some of you might be wondering or maybe have already come to the conclusion as to why I'm writing again after all this time. This may be a publicity stint to some or it may not be. But I just want to express everything in this post since my last post in the Roentgen Group was too scattered and too emotional hehehehe. 

Thank you, Roentgen. I meant it back then and I still mean it when I say that I feel like we've won already with the support you guys are giving TALA. The entire experience of making a movie with you guys was a whirlwind of emotions and stress. I honestly thought I wouldn't be able to finish it or I'd somehow lose my mind trying but I did try and we did finish it and I think the fact that we did is something to be proud of already. TALA is our baby hehehe just like our Speech Choir performance and not to mention our unforgettable Carol Fest number hahahahahehehehe. There may have been times when we questioned why we were put in this section but I believe that things happen for a reason. WE happened for a reason and I can't be thankful enough hehe. Mwah mwah guys!!!

AFRICA

Let us take a moment to sit back, bask in the hot hot summer heat, listen to the steady drone of the electric fan no doubt trained on you or the hum of the air conditioning unit and appreciate the beauty of the Dark Continent otherwise known as Africa. 

Colored pencils on an index card hehe I went on a spontaneous room cleaning spree last night and decided to let my paints rest by keeping them inside a box underneath my desk. Since I had the urge to do something fartsy earlier, instead of creating a huge mess, I made a smaller mess by using colored pencils. It's been such a long time since I last used them and it feels weird but at the same time oh so nice, I'll surely use them more often now!
On another note.................................
Did you know that African elephants are the largest living land animals? Now you know! 

Africa has been dubbed as the Dark Continent since at the time that the dubbing was taking place, it had yet to be explored thoroughly by..explorers. I was planning on bombarding you guys with a buttload of facts but then after wracking my brain for anything juicy that I learned from my Social Studies class, I couldn't come up with anything hehe.

I love Africa; the wildlife, the culture, the people and especially their music. I am such a sucker for songs that have strong drum beats or whatever you call them. I actually cannot bring myself to call the music from that continent, songs because the word 'song' seems so flimsy and that it's simply not enough to name such wonderful sounds. I'm really having a hard time translating what I feel whenever I hear something African-y into words, all I know is that for me it is pure eargasm especially when I hear the very low bass notes being hit and then all of a sudden a chorus of girl voices go on top and then LALALA I'm drowning in warmth because of the sounds hehehe. 

Here are just the gems I unearthed on youtube that urged me to write (and draw) about Africa! I hope you guys like them :D







imgsrc

Semana Santa

semana santa is a Spanish term for Holy Week which is the English term for Mahal na Araw;

basically we Roman Catholics drag our families (optional, you can go alone) to a) 7 different churches wherein we go through 2 stations at each church b) 14 different churches with only 1 station allotted  for each church c) 14 churches while completing the Way of the Cross in every church 

We do it every year and the last time, it was so hot that we had to text our maid right away to turn up the AC so we could suck in the cool air and my dad had to leave the car running so we wouldn't be cooked once we got back. So, when my dad stood by the doorway in my room and said, 'Dadalhin mo ba camera?' (Will you bring the camera?) flashes of sticky and sweaty scenarios specifically images of me lifting a camera strap off my sweaty neck came to my mind, he then added, 'Wag na lang may ipad naman' (Never mind, we have the ipad). My mind was set before I knew it. 

Family picture: a staple

So we did our usual Visita Iglesia thang. In our first church which was very close to our house, after 2 stations (because we always go for option A), we bought food from the vendors. My sister and I each got a cup of corn; hers was buttered and mine was cheese flavored and booooooy did we crack a LOT of Chiz/Heart jokes inside the car hehehehe. But after 2 churches that's when things shifted and my boycotting of the camera proved to be a wrong decision...ooh suspense...

Hehe just some road I took a picture of and edited to be all hipstery

Me in this super pretty church hehe

POPS AND HIS 'RUSSET' HAHAHA so cute!!!!

After visiting our 3rd church, we spotted the row of super cutesy and nicely colored houses on the side of the road and since we weren't in a hurry and the weather was so nice earlier, we drove around inside the village and had a looksy! The houses in Marina ____ (I forgot the second part of the village's name I am quite dumb) were so nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I swear I wanted to buy one hehe as if I could but still I couldn't help but fall in love with the very Westernized as in white-picket fence/no-gate-at-all-complete-with-a-front-lawn-that-kids-in-movies-never-want-to-lawn houses.

Bidding the houses farewell, we found ourselves in Manila oh Manila. We went to the Malate Church and got sidetracked by the heaps of paintings just scattered in front of a statue all sun bathing. They reminded me of all the youtube videos of street painters that I've seen and it had me taking 'see a live street painter in action' to my bucket list.

I don't usually wear sunglasses because I have a weird fascination with squinting like it makes me feel.......good and thankful that I live in a place where it's sunny and not gloomy hehe

We looked for a restaurant called David's Tea House which was supposedly beside the church but then after a bit of walking and asking we found out it got renovated and so we trudged on like tiny soldiers in the valley of towering buildings. We formed a single file with my dad in front, me next, my sister and my mum covering up the rear and so I was walking walking walking when I saw a familiar scene above my dad's shoulder. WE WERE IN REMEDIOS CIRCLE!!! It was so weird to see it NOT through the glass windows of our car hahahaha. We ALWAYS ALWAYS as in everyday we pass through that place and I've never been it sans the solace of our vehicles hehe so I was all ecstatic and shocked especially when we saw this seedy KTV thing called Bedrock that I always find amusing and lo and behold David's Tea House was right in front of it!!

We ate and bonded and visited Feliz and Kuya Ipe and had merienda and visited our last church and prayed and when I got home I finished watching Silver Linings and I have been talking to my friends and I feel good hehe. I may not be THE most religious person, but being this happy and contented with my friends, my family, myself, my hobbies basically my life, I feel all spiritual and I thank God for giving me all this and I hope that you feel good too. And I hope you be happy hehe. 

Celebrate Art!

It's been quite some time now since I last drew or painted and I kinda miss it already. February was such a toxic month that I did not have the time AT ALL to just sit back and work with my hands. The reason why I'm bringing this up is because I just stumbled upon this video of the 250th anniversary box set from Faber Castell.

 The 250th Anniversary Limited Edition set contains a magnificent assortment of products for a range of creative uses including all 120 colors of POLYCHROMOS^® colored pencils and Albrecht Durer^® watercolor pencils. Additionally there are POLYCHROMOS^® artists pastels, PITT^® pastel pencils, Castell 9000^® black-lead pencils, PITT^®woodless graphite pencils, PITT^® compressed charcoal sticks, and much more! Accessories include an eraser, double-hole metal sharpener, watercolor brush, water bowl, and other supplies to enhance the artistic experience.

While watching the video, I was sort of hoping that if they were to be sold here, they'd only cost about P5000 huhu. According to the website, it retails at $1,700 and if you do the math and multiply it by 50 you'll get P85, 000. I think I just heard my wallet cry. I don't think I'd be able to use it too if I were to be mysteriously and anonymously gifted by a secret admirer in the form of the Prince of India or something since  I'd be hesitant to break and sharpen these babies especially since I don't use a sharpener when I sharpen, opting to use a cutter instead hehe. 

This is just one of the many artistic videos that I come across in the internet and never fail to inspire me. This guy is just the baws at what he does, I cannot fathom how he did what he did in the video ugh what is pure talent.

Mark Crilley has got to be one of the most talented artists I have ever known in my entire existence. It's amazing how he can go from drawing anime to boggling everyone with his hyper realistic works. Below is just one of his shindigs wherein he draws an inanimate object right next to the model and absolutely impregnates your mind by blurring the lines between what is real and what is drawn. He also has videos on how to draw and paint thuper duper realistic eyes. I love drawing eyes. He draws nice eyes. Ergo by TPE, I love Mark Crilley!

Mark Crilley

Can I just say that I love art. If art was a person I'd have married him a million times over already and I wouldn't grow tired of him. Hopefully this summer, I could go back to my old ways and just spend my free time drawing away or painting by my window and being gay because of all the feels that I get whenever I work. I hope these have stirred something inside you guys like they did to me :D

& Of The World

Last week had me finally visiting my dentist after a gajillion years, catching up on my cross stitching and watching The Munsters causing me to broaden my love for monsters. I don't limit myself now to just zombies, rather, I've grown fond of monsters by Boris Karloff hehe. Anyhoo, I decided to draw Uncle Herman and the classic Bride of Frankenstein, after 2 days or so of flooding people's Instagram, Twitter and Facebook feeds, I finally finished them hehe. 

All this talk of monster couples has got me thinking about the upcoming very fancy party wherein we get to dress up as...fancy people also known as our prom. I just think and wish people would just stop whining about specific venues and other pubertial stuff. What matters is if you'd have fun or not. And that would depend on your initial attitude towards the party itself. Because really, if you come to a party wherever it'd be held, buzzing in excitement then you're bound to enjoy the night lest someone pours a bucket of pig's blood all over you and your purty purty dress then you really have the right to get majorly pissed off. 

Other than that, I truly hope this year's remaining major events turn out to be magical and definitely memorable for all of us!!!!! This is the point where I get all sentimental since we only have more or less 2 months to go til the school years ends and the sweaty-palm inducing college entrance exams loom ominously and slowly inch closer. 

This is also the part where I'd end this post in a witty way 

but I really can't think of anything witty to say 

so maybe this is the price I'd have to pay.

Happy Birthday

Yesterday was my 16th birthday. Twinkle and I celebrated our birthdays (mine on the 16th and hers on the 29th) together surrounded by our friends huhu who never fail to make us feel very very happy and content and special and loved and every good adjective there is in the world + sexy HAHA. 

Super cute and funky couple

Mum, me, my sister!

We had lunch at Chili's in Greenbelt. What made it so fun and stuff was because we merged like a ton of our groups and what we got is this lovely bunch of people who are all mutually connected and happy and very fun and quite autistic.

Twinkle, Bea, Dana, Daryl, me

We had to wait a while outside since the place was packed and so we had our photo ops first cos we we're 'growing up too fast' and 'so high school-y' hehe. It felt like we were one of those poor kids in American movies wherein they had to painstakingly endure their parents' stageperson-ness with all the picture taking and fussing hehe.

Daryl, Dana, Bea, Twinkle, Chloe, Jazz, me, Russ, Nath, Erik

We finally got seated and had tons of fun while we ate. I have this weird thing where I don't eat bread like the Gardenia ones and burgers but I eat cakes and garlic breads. I don't remember how it started but one day while I was a kid, I just started not eating bread hehe. Last January 1, I ate my first burger since it is the supposed last year on earth for everyone. I then ate another burger with my sister while my parents were in Thailand last March and yesterday, December 16, I ate my 3rd burger yay HAHA. 

da twins

da couple HAHA joke

I got this sword from Daryl and it made me look like Myrtle the cosplayer HUHUHUHEHEHEHUHUHUHUHU. This is me slicing the cake with my cosplayer skillz

Chili's people making a ruckus singing a Happy Birthday song hahaha

Twinkle blowing the Gab candle

Chloe, Diana, Bianca!

Churro gurlz hehe yellow red blue hehe cool hehe

Bea with the painting that she made for Twinkle huhu what is AMAZING!!

Some love triangle going on

After we ate, which made us feel like grown ups what with the paying of the bill and all, we decided to skip watching a movie, visited a few stores and went to the Ayala Museum hihihihi. I was so stoked since I've always wanted to visit a museum with mah fwendz, so stoked that I forgot that I've already been there during a field trip back when I was still in St. Scho HAHAHA.

"Chloe The Tour Guide: A True Story"

The museum trip was very........................autistic. HAHAHA I really can't find any other word that suits it perfectly. Chloe got possessed by some tour guide's spirit and she started spewing nonsense all over. She also went back to her roots when she saw the Chinese people in the Philippine history section HAHA. We also had fun sidling up next to the famous people thingies on the wall which had their height thingy hehe. Turns out I'm taller than Jose Rizal, Carlos P. Garcia I think or maybe Romulo? and the Aetas, I am as tall as Emilio Aguinaldo and I am definitely not as tall as an American Soldier. 

We dawdled around the Gold and Embroidery section more on the Gold section since it had lovely couches and a huge projector screen thingy that we took advantage of since our feet hurt hehe. After the whole museum trip, we went out and became fashion blahgahs.

Jazz + Twinkle

Bianca and Russ

Erik + Diana

DA TWINS DANA AND DARYL

Chloe + Nath 

Me + Bea

We went to Powerbooks and stayed there for some time just messing around and occasionally buying stuff then we'd go back to doing nothing and then doing something hehe.

Cheesecake

People360

Gumaganern

Raccoon at Filbars hehe

 We met up with Chloe's family and said goodbye to her. The rest of the gang went to Razon's for snacks while Jazz, SD Nath and I went to Topshop. After a while we went back to Razon's and then I had to bid farewell to everyone since my family and I were gonna hear mass in the chapel.

After the mass, we headed to Cyma for our dinner yay. The food was just so tasty. I love food. I am embracing my love for food. The ribs were ugh. The eggplant lasagna-ish thingy called moskus(?) was ugh. Everything was ugh huhu. So yummy ugh hahahhahaha.

Ugh-ful hehe

After getting our bellies filled, we walked towards the parking lot when a wall of tube paints caught my eye. That had to be the best Fully Booked branch for me. I died and went to art heaven. There were so many pretty things that my senses went into overload huhu. 

Had to end this post with something artsy hihi

Today has got to be the best birthday I've ever had...yet. The time spent with my friends AND my family is priceless. I couldn't ask for a better set of friends AND family hahaha. I love you all hihi.

*Don't forget to join GBG!