vintage photos

catching up on greader posts: came upon one of the sartorialist's vintage photos blog posts and was reminded of some i had on my external hard drive. i scanned these back in the summer of 2004 when working on an ancestral project final for environmental design 11a (intro to drawing).

my project focused on the story of how my grandparents (my dad's parents) met during wwii. my grandma was among a group of people who were caught publishing underground anti-japanese literature. as a guerilla, my grandpa coordinated a mission to rescue them from execution. talk about filipino-american history.

doesn't my brother resemble my grandpa?

considering submitting one of these to the sartorialist. any thoughts on which one? i've got a few more here too.

it's 9am in the philippines

i imagine my mom is still jet-lagged from her flight and my dad has made his way back to manila from bali.

the house in merville filled with relatives, food, and sadness.

let the sun set on this decade

because i can't take anymore
tragedy, loss & heartache

quickies before super/ fat tuesday

sharing time: i was telling my dad about how i know someone on the cover of this week's TIME mag and explained the headline. in response he got to talking about how about how young people are tired of the old politics. then he continued by saying, "you know what young people call old politicians in the philippines? trapo." short-hand for traditional politicians while poking fun by referring to them as washed up rags.

what's new: for the first time my dad & i are both supporting the same candidate. it's very strange, my dad...the bill o' reilly-watching reagan republican, who i will argue with anger if we talk about the current president...wants to vote for barack in november. granted our reasoning is different, but yah that's a new one.

song dedication: by the late great sam cooke

for your eyes only

i've seen so much on my travels this year...and have hundreds of photos to prove it?
nope

not that i don't have hundreds of photos.
it's just that no matter how skilled the photographer, no matter how fancy the camera, nothing can match the life and world you see from the complexity of your own eyes, your own mind.

sometimes you just gotta take your finger off the shutter, put down the sunglasses that shade the bright rays, or roll down the tinted window and allow your eyes to observe the grandeur, the life, the humanity around us.

stats and roots

islands visited: 9 (luzon, cebu, mactan, panglao, bohol, olango, nalusuan, panay, corregidor)

photos uploaded to my portable drive: 890

mosquito bites: too many to count

halo halos consumed: too many to count

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this weekend's trip to bicol was really wonderful. to think there is a beautiful place where when you look out across the landscape all you can see are coconut and banana trees or rice fields...and that's where most of my family is from. yesterday i was in libmanan, my mom's hometown. our stay was short, but i got to see where my grandpa's farm was and the corner store where the whole family worked (my grandparents, my mom, my uncles and aunts). my oldest cousin owns the land now and sells animal feeds in the store. the highlight was when my mom went behind the counter and started telling me stories: waiting for my grandpa under the box of salt to open the store at 4am, watching her admirers as they rode around the block a few times, waving to her boyfriend who worked in the store across the street..."this was me behind the counter," she said.

and as i tried to fall asleep last night, i couldn't help being overcome by emotions of humility, gratitude, and love.

a long awaited return

this trip arrived faster than i anticipated.

as the plane descended on a grey Manila dawn, the sentimental side in me suddenly realized that it has been a lifetime, literally my lifetime, since i have touched down upon this land. twenty-two years since i inhaled the warm breath of the motherland. setting foot into a land that i visited before i could even walk, before i could even remember.

it's been a good return. many things familiar, many things foreign, but altogether home.