Weekend Hits: Darker Now

Falling into the dark side...
Diego Fragoso for Slurp magazine @ models.com

Embrace the dark side...That's what I'll suggest to you right now. And no, we're not turning all evil and demonic here. It's just one of those phases you slip into when the things you've been liking fall under a certain mold or category and they all just work! For my Weekend Hits post I'm bringing together sight, sound and loads of sense on some things pretty sinister and while it's ironic, please enjoy!

>>> MIKKY EKKO's PULL ME DOWN

The video is like a spell, really. Keep watching.

My encounter with Mikky Ekko is thanks to Rihanna's new album, Unapologetic. Stay is my favorite track on her album and she sings it (pretty well) with Mikky Ekko. At first I thought it was Ryan Tedder, but then the song's credits obviously mentioned someone else. Then I went searching all over YouTube and landed possibly one of the coolest songs I've heard this month (definitely for the year too). Pull Me Down sounds like a long, night swim, the moon watching, stars hiding, and it's just you and this vast body of water. The video helps a lot with the song. The song itself is quite simple (he basically wants you to be his girl but sings it so damn good, you'd want to be a girl for him...) and it meets your expectations somehow, especially come chorus time, you'll find yourself smiling at how liquid and right it sounds. Mikky Ekko's songs all share that same, bittersweet quality about them, when you know love's not always loads of sparkles and sprinkles. He definitely puts you on that dark sink-and-swim feel you'll never want to rise from.

>>>> JERICH EUSEBIO DRAWS

Honoring & Overcoming by Jerich Eusebio
from his Facebook page

One of my best friends (since 5th grade) has been dabbling in the arts since I've known him: literature, theater, music, film, the fine arts, he's had some happy experience with. But as we've all grown old, it seems his forte lies heavily on the basic pen-and-paper, not as a writer yet, but as an illustrator. As a registered nurse, he's not 24-7 exposed to art and knowing him, he pretty much needs his dose of it at least once and a while. His solution? Draw with his trusty pens and pour it all out there. What he lacks in color, he makes up for in texture and detail, giving his images weight, depth and a sense that what he does, he wants to do well in his own terms. Honoring & Overcoming is my favorite. I'll have to talk to him first to know what it really means and who the image is, I'm thinking Jesus, but who knows...And what's most fascinating about his works, aside from his signature strokes and well-improved style, is his reference to so much of these dark elements and arts. The stories told behind the images, the references pulled out from the very best and cool of arts and fashion and literature and film, I mean, what he does has great potential. If only he had a space to share these images to others with...I'm quite lucky I have him on Facebook. So consider this, dear best friend, a baptism into the other side of the world. 

>>>> THE TURN OF THE SCREW & THE INNOCENTS

the thing was as human and hideous as a real interview: hideous just because it was human, as human as to have met alone, in the small hours, in a sleeping house, some enemy, some adventurer, some criminal. It was the dead silence of our long gaze at such close quarters that gave the whole horror, huge as it was, its only note of the unnatural. If I had met a murderer in such a place and at such an hour, we still at least would have spoken. Something would have passed, in life, between us; if nothing had passed, one of us would have moved. The moment was so prolonged that it would have taken but little more to make me doubt if even I were in life. (9.6) (Quote from Shmoop) The Turn Of The Screw

As a writer, one of my dream works and frustrations (since as a writer, you have always-always, work in progress) is a horror story. A quiet, disturbing, haunting tale that'll just stick to you like a scar and written the way James does it (Above). And as research and learning, I made sure I grabbed myself a copy of Henry James' controversial and genius work. For 25 pesos I got my hands on the classic horror novella, The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James. It's a thin book I could easily devour overnight, but with its content, I think I'll have to sleep with the lights on. Anyway, while I haven't flipped through The Turn Of The Screw's pages, I've done some preliminary look into the novella and learned that the 1961 horror film The Innocents (which they say is pretty reminiscent of The Others) was inspired by James' book. Now, what I'll be doing this week is read The Turn Of The Screw and then watch The Innocents. I'll have a creep fest all on my own. Check out these videos of The Innocents and imagine: O Willow Waly's disturbing lyrics singing you to sleep and Miles, reading you that poem. 

>>>> MIHARAYASUHIRO FALL 2013

Mihara's Best look. Check them out here @ Style.com

You're probably tired by now everytime I say how I've liked Miharayasuhiro since that Little Prince-inspired collection he did back in Spring 2010. Well, I'm still a fan. With Miharayasuhiro it's often energetic and lively and a bit loose but not at all tacky or baggy or fat. And that's what I've liked about him. But for Fall 2013, he's done a complete 360 in mood, still with the signature enthusiasm and genius tailoring he's known for, only this time a shade darker. The inspiration, as Tim Blanks says, comes from the hard hitting gangsters of Tokyo. Everything here is lean in silhouette, save for some free-flowing trousers that I personally wouldn't get myself into, and sober thanks to so much black and charcoal and the occassional warm yet cool camel (still a fashion favorite). But the exciting part comes when an icy blue, animal printed shirt breaks the tough blacks on the suits. Or when a camel DB gets some serious business deal with a thick shawl collar peek on one of its lapels...At once the collection looks really soft thanks to Miharayasuhiro's fluid lines, but then you study them and you get a bit excited to try them on and feel, at least everytime you wear them, like a real bad ass. Slick, stylish and seriously chic, there's more to love at Miharayasuhiro's Fall 2013 collection. 

>>>> DIEGO FRAGOSO

He looks perfect for this one. Givenchy Fall 2013 @style.com

Look at that face. @ Tumblr

Diego for Slurp magazine @models.com

Diego Fragoso, I am currently rooting for because he looks different from the other models I've liked. His colored tattoos work for him and it gives him this quirk and an advantage. A young father too, whose named his son Troy (thank you Dolce & Gabbana for that information) Diego also could've been a basketball player if he hadn't broken in the modeling world and wowed every single one of the fashion world's citizens. Well, if he did become a pro basketball player, he'd still surely have endorsements, what with that face and body. What I like a lot about his face is that he's the complete opposite of his fellow Brazilian and contemporary, Francisco Lachowski. Lachowski's a pretty boy and looks every bit a goody goody. Diego however has those eyebrows that arch, that nose, that set of teeth and those eyes which all make him a look a bit devilish in a handsome way. You'd trust that when campaign directions and editorials are after some edge and dark feel to it, he'd carry it well and make it look powerful, sexy and magnetic instead of creepy. Armani and its brands have booked this one for years, Dolce & Gabbana has him as a regular face on the runway, Givenchy too and I'm just waiting for him to seal an underwear ad, just because he has the body to pull it off. I'm placing my money on this one now. That #50 spot on models.com's Top 50 he'll leave sooner than we think. 

- Gerard