Ulysses

Have I told you I have the biggest crush on Daniel Craig?
Not yet. the Bond for me.
@ FilmSchoolRejects

We are not now that strength  which in old days

Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are,

One equal-temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

--- Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Beauty by Camus and Ton

This just wowed me. It's this close to being perfect.
Bette Franke by Tommy Ton for Style.com

Might've been the big F. Scott Fitzgerald fan in me that has taught and changed my perception of beauty that beauty, in whatever way, is best enjoyed when its fleeting, moving and easily burned. Not to say that all things ugly ought to stay while things beautiful should only last for seconds. But it's probably the best way to have it. 

It's always that empty and yearning feeling beauty leaves that you set out your life for, something I obviously picked up from The Great Gatsby, and as Khalil Gibran said (my all time favorite quote) " We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting..." So what beauty is, actually is the great heaven or nirvana that you chase after and design your life for. Once encountered, you will definitely want to look at it more, love it more, be with it more until finally, you completely understand and get what it is and what makes it beautiful. 

So imagine just how happy I was after seeing this photo of Bette Franke by Tommy Ton. It is everything I have pictured "beauty" to be in today's context. She is effortlessly put-together, very stylish , a human being in fact, but somewhat someone above us...Truly beautiful. If I had been there, I'd sigh and have the memory of her breezing by tattooed in my head. I know it might be too much of a reaction, but if what I see everyday is this beautiful, I would be literally, on a high. Albert Camus puts the feeling best in words. 

"Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time." --- Albert Camus

Just plain beautiful.

- Gerard

Laws of Beauty

You just might be the beauty Chad Buchanan's eyes are seeing.

I've tweeted this before, something about frogs and I remember Bryle retweeting it. Let me quote myself here: "When I'm a little sad about being single, I tell myself there are people out there who like frogs, so why wouldn't I be liked, I'm a frog." Which went totally far off track than the original thought I had in mind. 

What I meant was, if there are people out there who like frogs, and to me, frogs aren't at all likeable, then there must be someone out there who likes me, when, in my head, I don't find myself incredibly attractive at all. But don't worry, those are just the few times I allow myself to feel insecure. 

It is however, captured in this quote by Ivan Panin the truest thought I've attempted to describe in 120 characters: 

"For every beauty there is an eye out there to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart out there to receive it." --- Ivan Panin

And while the laws of beauty and art may seem to draw at something universal, there are also those moments of beauty, truth, love, whatever it is you want to talk about that captures you and you alone and then the universally acceptable, beautiful and real just don't matter anymore. Suddenly, these moments become your laws of beauty. Don't you agree?

Haha, what a way to open up my long-gone Good-looking weekend post. Feast your eyes on this weekend's beauties. Because for every beauty, is an eye to see it. Enjoy... 

Beauty-ing the Weekend

Been doing my homework this weekend and after visiting most of the blogs and websites I frequent, I am pleased to say that everything's looking splendid lately. You know that when inspiration comes, you better drink it hard while it's there. Without further a do, here is the splendid, artsy, super beautiful weekend of everything that matters!
Enjoy.

Lanvin's little girls collection @ DesignScene

She sewed to dazzle her daughter, and in doing so dazzled the world. ---- Louise de Vilmorin on Jeanne Lanvin's love for her daughter

Sean O'pry for Wonderland Magazine

Everytime I look at Sean O'pry, The Picture of Dorian Gray comes to mind. I could might as well write O'pry a novel...He's that handsome, it'll sometimes sting your heart and no piece of medication would ever cure it. I would never know if it's jealousy or a strong admiration for humans blessed and kissed by God on the cheek that I'm feeling...Whatever it is, it's incredibly strong. Beauty's a gift O'pry, take care of it.

Arabian Harper's Bazaar featuring Houda Shretah

Houda Shretah stars in this damn right sexy and beautiful swimsuit story shot by Jeff Tse for Arabia's Harper's Bazaar. Need I say more? Let the photos do the talking, I am currently recovering from a heart attack.

The expensive Twin magazine @ Selectism

I have no idea, what Twin magazine is. But from the looks of it (and that $ 35 price tag), I believe it's quality publication right here. I want one. Anybody willing to give me a copy?

The Cindy painting (not the title of the painting) by Daniel Peddle 

Boys' First Looks by Daniel Peddle

I badly want to go check out Daniel Peddle's The Undertow at NPCAC New York. I mean, look at those water color paintings? Beautiful... I badly need me some art folks.

- Gerard

The Beautiful

To look at that face for an entire day...not enough
Diane Kruger for Madame Figaro

"That pleasure which is at once the most pure, most elevating and the most intense, is derived, I maintain from the contemplation of the beautiful." ---Edgar Allan Poe

Under the Weather

Well, someone looks miserable...It's the attempt...I ought to stop feeling like this.

Photo by Lesley Choa

I wrote this poem, for a story I'm working on and I had all the urges to pair it up with these photos, but had opted against it. Not only does the poem ring such a different sentiment from these ones I have---which, by the way, looks pretty miserable because I look miserable, but Lesley, nevertheless has done a splendid job, but I'm having "Under the Weather" syndromes: too lazy, too moody, too happy, too schizo...It's bad. And that's what they teach us in school, to be masters over our moods instead of being slaves to them, but you can't blame me for falling trap under such changing weathers. Last week (this picture was taken) was pretty cool, and then this week, it's starting to warm up for summer...Which is also one reason why I couldn't blog as much, aside from the work I have.

Hopefully this week or next, I'll start getting on steady blogging. I've been missing this too you know and it's my kind of therapy. 

This look, I really love. Well, I'm starting to love. If I tell you who inspired it, and if the person reads it, there's going to be a lot of trouble. So, this look I'll just say is inspired by someone from school. People who can't pick context clues well might call me copying, but that's so highschool. Anyway, I just remember waking up to this day, and the first thing that comes to mind is that person's one look. I loved it cause it really relaxed but at the same time spelled out a pretty cool attitude. And just like Henry Fielding's "Fashion is the science of appearance, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be", I'm not necessarily trying to be someone, but it's an attempt to emulate something that I admire from someone. Don't worry, you might've lost me there, I lost myself too. hahaha... But I really do like this look. Thanks to my favorite Uncle Ed for the nice hoodie/plaid shirt. You know, I never thought I'd be able to like these sort of hybrid clothing items, like a cardigan with a hood (that's still not something I'm open to), but this one I really like. Probably cause my uncle knows exactly what I want, sometimes knows better.

P.S. No more under the weather posts after this....I'll try... 

-Gerard

Fever 50

photo by Lesley "Le Sizzle" Choa

Jack Kerouac

Neil Cassady (white t-shirt) and Allen Ginsberg (middle)

So during the holidays and while it's still an on-going fascination, the 50s has not only proved that it's back (in style of course) but it's also giving me the biggest fever I've had in ages. Suddenly, all I think about now is the 50s, the 50s, the 50s, what they'd wear in the 50s, what they'd smoke in the 50s, what language they used in the 50s, and why the hell did I ever leave my 20s behind?

I tell myself it's a phase, cause I'm quite the pathetic type, you know? The kind that when it's all I ever think about I let it consume me until I'm tired of it and I tell myself, well, you've felt how it is to go Gatsby, now it's time for some Kerouac. It reads like a pretentious kid trying to write instead of just writing...But hey, I'm honest like that. I guess it's all the movies I've been watching lately, thanks to Film Class, the magazines, the books, fashion...And you have to ask yourself, even when you're not as open or easily swayed as I am, why is it that at certain times we resurrect certain pasts and fall in love with them? I'm staying as close to the things I believe I understand such as fashion and film....Like suddenly Howl (which by the way is the core of this fascination with the 50s...well, at least one of the biggest factors) and other era-inspired shows like the super sleek Mad Men... Fashion I see is turning 50s too... Or maybe not, but the idea is that our times have been incredibly open to looking back at the past, loving it maybe because we see in it the present...Don't you think? I've never lived in the jazzy, dizzying 20s or the smoking, paired-down 50s (and the Beat generation I've always heard in Western Literature class) to say that sure today, it's just like those times...but there has to be something about them that we find so addictive, so important that they're worth the reliving...

And while we leave those daunting questions slightly unanswered, I finally pinned down the all-important Ms. Lesley Choa for a photo of myself. hahaha...That sounded crappy...So, the inspiration behind this look, aside from my mood, was the colors I've constantly seen in Howl...It's mostly olive green, navy blue, brown like the ones from those handsome tortoise shell glasses, mustard yellow and they're all so very masculine, poetic even and for some reason, romantic. The shirt is from my grandfather's, the man whose style I will always admire and place as a touchstone...And yeah, it's a 50s inspired look and I'm pretty much in love with it now....Who knows what I'll be wearing tomorrow...

But you do have to admit, Allen Ginsberg, makes perfect, perfect sense here:

"The weight of the world is love. Under the burden of solitude, under the burden of dissatisfaction." ----Allen Ginsberg 

And that's one of the reasons why I'm mad about my course (meaning madly in love) and mad about the olden times...

-Gerard

The Gatsby Effect

Redford and Farrow on The Great Gatsby 1974

"His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the turning-fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete."

---- The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

The original movie had the handsome Robert Redford as Gatsby and the thin and frail, wide-eyed Mia Farrow playing "the fool" Daisy Buchanan. For the new version, it's Leonardo Di Caprio and Carey Mulligan. This ought to be exciting.

And above is probably one of the most moving, haunting words in the book. I couldn't describe my first kiss, but whenever I try to write it down I aim at making it sound like it's a Fitzgerald writing. Amazziiinnnggg....

To Nikki, I will work on my Gatsby piece for you this weekend and to Bryle, have fun reading my favoritest book of all time!

-Gerard

Flaubert via Dalton & Dean on Speech

Jimmy, my favorite mutant of all...

Unlike yesterday, my Sunday's been pretty handsome.

I ran, I watched, I ate, I walked, and I had some serious Sunday slow fun (which is rare to come by in my case). Thank God for that.

But to top it all off, I revisited my long, rusting love affair with The Mutant King by David Dalton and since it's reading, it's the sweet blood red cherry for today. For the first time in weeks, I've found myself flipping through (with full interest) page after page of James Dean's biography. Now, it's getting all juicy, informative and hypnotic just because I'm way past half of the read and we all know that ideally, the better bits of any story comes in the middle. And I came across this wonderful quote that Dalton placed as the last block of words to end a long chapter:

"Since human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes to make bears dance, when our desire is to touch with passion the stars." --- Taken from David Dalton's The Mutant King. Originally by Gustave Flaubert

This came to be cause Dalton was explaining Dean's acting in East Eden, how his role in the movie afforded him the outlet for his frustrations about life, frustrations he couldn't find in words...Which I believe is the power of acting. For people like Dean, sometimes by playing a role, you get to play yourself...Right?

Anyway, it's off to homework. I feel like a kid, like I'm in elementary again, talking about homework and figuring out f-ing fractions and crap...Well, this is all about philosophy (again) and...what was my other homework? Now I forgot...See, that's the use of planners. Now, where the hell did I leave mine?

Crap.

Good night everyone!

OF COURSE, I ought to mention Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao. He's incredibly humble, which is probably why I started liking him...Plus you know he's got reserve in the ring, even when he has all the right to go ballistic over Margarito's face...They're both good fighters and it was nice to watch them. Congratulations...

-Gerard

The Face

Fashion's latest Hellen: Fei Fei

I wonder how many ships she'll set sail with a face like that?

"We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting."

- Kahlil Gibran

Cause he's damn right

One of my favorite vacation reads

"...I loved her--- and I really wanted us to fit together. But just because you want something, and you work hard to make it happen, doesn't mean that it's right."

- Andrew Gottlieb, Drink, Play, F@#k

Still one of the best paperbacks I've picked up at an airport. And still, one of the funniest, nod-able reads I've had. I like to call it the guy version of Eat, Pray, Love.

-Gerard

The Touch

by Michelangelo

"How can we live in Harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God" ----St. Thomas Aquinas

Imagine That

"A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality."

Imagine that, a date with the late, great John Lennon.

I must admit that when I got the assignment from the boss, I felt threatened. I didn't grow up listening to the Beatles, has probably Can't Buy Me Love buried somewhere in my aged iPod along with Imagine sung by Lea Salonga and has 46% knowledge of Lennon. Of course I know he's a talented man, a wonderful poet and advocate of sorts who had passed away too early for our slightly starved generation. Heck, I don't even know how old he'd be if he still lives up to today. Then again, I am trained and driven to know anyone and anything for a job that I love doing: writing.

Besides, all my years of education (and common sense) would only go to waste if I cower at this task. So, I decided to go on a Lennon fever for an entire day tomorrow. The assignment is to describe an icon's style, their influences and how people of today could learn from them. It's actually easy once you sit down and slap yourself across the face to get to it and when you're done, and it reads like a dream, it's gratifying. But of course, before it reaches Gatsby heights, I have to go through a painful process of editing (God knows how long that'd take). But then when the computer's got the best of your bloody eyes and your brain's reduced to a peanut, it's all worth it. Maybe that's my masochistic inclination to writing...Like how one of my best friends, Bob, has this odd fascination with headaches and not sleeping for days and days. I guess Bob and John Lennon would be good friends, not cause they're both weird in their own special way, but because I know they'd click.

How's the weekend so far?

I hope it's good. I've been a victim of failed plans, ones that I've been waiting for since Monday last week. But there are more better things to appreciate, like my 10 hour sleeps and afternoons in bed listening to my stomach digest...I finally get to rest and read the books I've been planning to. Like James Dean's biography, Zafon's mystery The Shadow of the Wind, and a lot of cool magazines. Those failed plans actually seem like nothing, now that I'm enjoying my self at home. I was this close to feeling moody when I realized that the things I had wanted to do for this weekend failed to push through, thankfully I had knocked myself some sense. It's pathetic to whine about being at home when you're pushing 21...For the love of God, I told myself, I have to grow up...So after that realization I just went to read and hours later, I got lost in worlds unknown to me and before I knew it I was having fun. Thank God for literature...

Well, I'm off to more Lennon research. You, what do you think was Lennon's style about? Or basically what he was about. I know what my Greek Plays professor thinks of Lennon... Dr. Arguelles thinks Lennon's not just about the round glasses and the anti-war fashion, but a man who advocates his vision of the world through his clothes. And I'd LOVE to thank him for that mentoring session. I learned so much about the Beatles and Marcos during those 45 minutes. Imagine that...

P.S. Lennon is actually a good-looking man. Especially when he got older, with the shorter hair. AND he's a Libra....You know me, always rooting for my co-Libras.

Quote from BrainyQuote

.Gerard

Mr. President

I could see you, slacking off Gerard---JFK

Again, penciling in what you're supposed to do don't always inspire you to do it.

This is me, practicing free will. Man, do I feel troubled. Suddenly, everything I've known from Day one as a human being just went zerooooo....

Cindy and I went for consultation hours ago with Dr. Mariano for our report (cause up to now I couldn't spell dispo-something) and were we blown away.

In simple terms, talking to Dr. Mariano is like experiencing Inception first hand. It's amazing. And you don't need 3-D glasses.

You get to see and learn so much when you talk and listen to a man who's so brilliant, it's out of this world. The best part about his style of teaching is that he keeps reminding his students that life is not about the loftiest things, but actually is as simple as a sheet of clean paper.

I aspire to be someone like him. He's one to look up to. And though he talks a lot, shares a lot, you want to know more about him. Like his birthday, his age, where he went to high school, his favorite color and all those interesting things. And he seems almost always patient and excited about a student figuring out that one plus one is damn two, and that there are THREE dimensions in space.

I look up to him so much that I seriously want that tattoo inked on my wrist..."Lift". Well, I hope I'll find me the courage to have it done---because knowing me, I'd rather run from Ortigas to Baguio than feel pain....Or maybe not.

Point is, he's probably one of the brightest men I've ever met. And being a student of him is a real honor. I hope all professors in the world would be like him. Even if we know so little of him, I'm sure that he deserves (even more) that beautiful spot in school...as the President of the university. The moment he looks at you through his glasses and asks you anything such as "Is the red you experience the same red that I experience?", you feel like your soul is being tested or your mind is being purged of all its superfluous knowledge. Well, I hope he'd appreciate our report on Wednesday.

I do have enough time to read two to three readings for my two tests this week. I just have to lift myself off my cold, cold bed (I know, I know, beds are supposed to be warm, but I really like it when my bed is cold...Especially when it's cool under the pillows) and grab my bag, shuffle through papers and readings.

I just spent hours clicking through Carlos Concepcion's blog. I like his style cause it's incredibly different from mine and he's very interesting. I don't know him but I see him a lot in magazines and dropping by his blog sort of gives you an idea about who he is and what he does. Anyway, check his blog out. And just like every other style, culture, movie conscious guy out there, he has a post or two on James Dean. It's true that James Dean has to be one of the most iconic men in the world. Count me in as a billionth something among his dead and living fans.

I am also a HUGE fan of JFK (great segway?! And that's the reason why I started and will end this post on "Presidents"). Whenever summer comes and the sun just kisses you too much, I think of JFK. He is one of American style's most prominent arbiters and also one of the world's most famous presidents. It's such a rare occasion for a politician to influence style and JFK's one of them. And if I may, categorize my style, it'd be JFK trying on 90s grunge. I know, it's so vain, but hey, that's how I feel. Respect (hahaha). And as a closing quote for today's long-enough-for-this-generation post, I conjure the spirit of the late and great JFK for inspiration:

"We must use time as a tool, not as a couch."

Back to my responsibilities.

.Gerard

Going Deep with George

The brilliant George Eliot VOGUE-ing

"That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency, has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotion of mankind; and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity." ---- George Eliot

Good Night

photo from Design Scene

"Rest when you're weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work."

--- Ralph Marston

Mr. Cary Grant

"My father used to say, 'Let them see you and not the suit. That should be secondary.'"

---Cary Grant

source: thinkexist