Sunday Sound 2

YouTube is truly one of the better avenues for singers/artists to have their work picked up by anyone, from fans to fans who push for more and hopefully, eventually, record labels. Among the plenty of channels/artists on YouTube, there are five great singers I always go back to when I'm pretty tired of the usual suspects. If you have a YouTube account, these five are highly recommended for you to subscribe to or follow. And actually, they all share a certain sound to them that I think, is more of my taste in music and the kind of voice I PERSONALLY want to have. Enjoy!

Gabe Bondoc is easy listening. He's made some original songs that I personally feel will do good outside of YouTube. Mostly covers is what Gabe does, but he gives it this soft, almost sweet take on everything he covers. Even when they're sad, sad songs, he makes them sound good. He gives Chris Brown's Strip a little more romance and class, and it's beautiful.

Ebrahim I learned from my officemate, Joanne. Since then, I've been hooked. Love, love, LOVE his voice. He's covered Frank Ocean's Swim Good and made it sound, sorry Mr. Ocean, terribly better. He also has an original which I couldn't get out  my head, I'll Be Alright. But this cover shows you just how talented he is

and what good knowledge he has of music. Be patient on this one, cause it's all worth it.

Homebound

Everyone's here!
Photo by Felix Octa

21613 Teaser from Dem San on Vimeo.

To my dear batchmates and to all the guys who've graduated from Lourdes School of Mandaluyong, we will see you all there, at school, on Saturday, February 16, 2013. In behalf of team 07 (batch 2007), I'm personally inviting everyone to drop by and celebrate with us. Just give us a minute of your time and we'll be happy to see you. Besides, it's rare for us to come back home anyway, might as well make it worth the while right? We present to you, Team 07's little teaser. See you all there! 

P.S. Ignore my face please, thanks. AND, I'll be saving the huge post for when everything we've done is with me. Cause Shane is slacking off...I'm kidding...

Team 07 Credits:

The Boss, Mikey Mendoza. Thanks for bringing us ALL together. Good job!

To the 07 core group, y'all are handsome and great men, see you Saturday and BIG thanks for the support and time and help: Lawrence Santos, Keane Landoy, Dean Africa & Miko Abrina

Creative Director, yours truly with the amazing help from my very talented brothers and sisters: Shane Marante, TJ Estrada, Jojo Galan, Dean Africa, Jan Jan Lisondra, Miko Abrina & Jerich Eusebio.

Video by Shane Marante, Dean Africa and Jan Jan Lisondra.

Photographers Miko Abrina and Felix Octa

Music, Marvin Gaye "Sunny" Mercury Edit II from YouTube

And to everyone who made the video possible, thank you, thank you and we will see you on Saturday!

- Gerard

Pull(ing) Me Down

Couldn't get enough of Mikky Ekko's Pull Me Down. Literally pulling me down here Mikky, you sound amazing it hurts. But really, I'm glad he has an official music video for this. Some of us mainstreamers have spotted the talent through Rihanna, which might be quite a long shot for other listeners--because you'll really find it hard to connect the two if you don't know what Rihanna's capable of aside from the party hits, but they sound well together AND have pulled out from each other, probably plenty of good thanks to their song Stay.

While you're figuring out who to listen to now if you're just like me, floating on a musical limbo, fill up your library with some Mikky Ekko (rhyming unintended). Personally this is a diamond. Like I've said before, it takes you somewhere, into some deep place and that sort of cross between the song's drag and beat does give off that impression of water, as if someone really is pulling you down. The lyrics is genius, I'll probably never get over I want you to know that I've got your back, Even when the whole foundation seems cracked just because it's so honest and candid and believable. And while it may sound like a truly sexy song--cause it is, there's a catch to it that there is always that chance that while he's offering herself to her completely, there's not one bit of assurance that she will pull him down. Hurts, I know, I know. But like most painful, beautiful songs, you'd just might want to take the risk cause if it sounds this delicious, I'm all in.

Check out Stay with Rihanna. Also Feels Like the End for something pretty (and) tragic. Sedated is more upbeat and could verge on some rocky vibe, but then it gets all cool and mellow, I couldn't even describe it properly anymore! He sounds like he could do a great bluesy record one day, I don't know. Just because I always like the challenge and the effect when singers get out of their element. I'm having my eyes on Mikky. While he sounds very familiar (Ryan Tedder), the overall feel to his songs combined with his high, soothing voice creates an atmospheric sound, like we're all always in slow motion, running through woods or swimming off in too far...And it's alll good. You'd like your music to take you away somewhere else, right?

- Gerard

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. 

Weekend Hits

I have to admit, I miss writing magazine-style updates on my blogs. It's the thrill of collating things, seeing them together and being able to tell a story that has gotten me interested and excited for years since I learned that I was capable of doing it. And while I rarely make the rounds these days, I've made sure to spare time  to write tonight about the things that I'm obsessing over and of course, give you a few cool things to keep you inspired and in the know during the weekend. WEEKEND HITS, coming your way!

Frank Ocean in the season's coolest sports coats with Odd Future.
Story by Amy Wallace & Photographed by Peggy Sirota
GQ December 2012

>>> OF COURSE I'll be obsessing over Frank Ocean appearing on GQ, why wouldn't I? This is like two of my favorite things coming together, like peanut butter and jelly or a cigarette and an ice cold mojito. The feature on Ocean is pretty packed, Wallace covers much of the artist's plans for his career (third album coming soon, I believe and will definitely wait for), that controversial letter on Tumblr of course and it gives you a glimpse into Ocean himself. You combine that story with Sirota's humorous, light photography and GQ's no-fail styling and you get yourself a good, good deal. Grab your copies, read the story and if your weather permits, plug into lots of Ocean and sport those damn good-looking coats...

The ML574 Mojito: mita sneakers X OSHMAN's X New Balance
High Snobiety

>>> I'VE WORN THE HELL out of my New Balance sneakers and have since been my go to shoe for dressed-down days. New Balance just is a trusty brand. When I saw the Mojito (my favorite drink too), I felt that hard beating in the chest and I know I've found a great purchase. Three brands come together, marking the collaboration with tons of those super cool "X"s for the Mojito: mita sneakers, OSHAMAN's and New Balance. The color way, materials and that leaf lock present a sure hit pair of sneakers that's bound to go massive and viral in no time. Imagine a slim black jacket, buttoned-up white shirt, lean black jeans and these? I just collapsed. It's that cool.

Latch

When Joanne at the office played this, my bosses were having a meeting and even when the volume was turned down, barely audible, I felt that click, how great songs make you just feel a moment the second you hear it. And you know what got us all hooked on this track aside from an already cool start and verse, is how it gets better. The build-up to the chorus just kills you, until all you'll ever want is to have the biggest party in the world with this on repeat. 

So I've ran to this song, walked far to this song, slept to this song, smoked to this song, you name it. It's that good. By now it's already one of the best tunes I've heard for 2012 and I have to salute Disclosure and Sam Smith for such a beautiful song. I've envisioned a music video to this one, ads even for probably perfumes, watches, hair products even toothpastes. And what I see is a shower, it's probably dark and really sexy with all those beautiful people you'd expect to star in videos. But the official music video is more quiet. I've always seen this song as intimate (cause it is about an intimate moment) but a bit grander than what the music video shows. But anyway, it still rocks. 

I'm not surprised Latch keeps going up the charts. It's heart-racing, puts you in a trance like you'd want to drown in this song forever and awfully too cool not to abuse the repeat button for. Someone on YouTube said the songs makes you want to have a relationship. I agree. Imagine if your first encounter with love sounded like this...Dear Jesus. Who wants to get it on?

If Disclosure goes here, I'll definitely get tickets. 

- Gerard

Skyfall

Daniel Craig for Skyfall 

A frustrated Bond movie-goer here: hope this suffices as a good disclaimer. I know little about the James Bond series, aside from the obvious facts. I didn't know exactly what it is that just didn't click with me with the Bond series. Growing up I've seen the music videos of Garbage and Madonna for the theme songs of the films, but I just didn't want to watch the films. Now some years older and having embraced the love for all things dramatic, super cool and sophisticated (spy movies, the Oscars, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Raid: Redemption, etc.) I understand all the fuss over Bond. Still, I just didn't see a good enough reason for me to actually watch. Maybe it was Pierce Brosnan that didn't sit with me well. My mom loves him and I couldn't blame her, he's handsome, very suave and British (all the qualifications of an ideal mister, he's probably got).

Inside A Model's World

Thanks OUT.com for posting this. Now, RJ King is the voice of our generation. Do models/talents in the Philippines behave the same way? Thankfully with the ones I've worked with, they're ridiculously good-looking, work hard and as far as I know, don't see the world the way RJ King does. And I think that's a disadvantage...

To the talents I work with, I am kidding. I love you guys. For the rest of you, watch RJ King and his ridiculously good-looking friends live the life of models. Funny. 

Kidding aside, New York Fashion Week's soon so best watch out for these faces.

NOW, I have something good to follow. Keep me sane. Excited for more from VFILES!
-Gerard

A Whiff Of Cool Air

Whiff Teaser by Robert Javier on Vimeo.

There's been plenty of startups going on around Facebook, some of them I have "liked" and most of them just fail to at least look legit and tasteful. Now here's a startup I am placing high expectations on. I believe some of the people behind this label I might know, like Luigi Alba (you better start telling me about this Alba) and all his other cool friends...

Actually, if I am right, then maybe we're truly in for a treat. I've seen these kids and how they dress and the Instagram photos they post and I know that they're not faking cool, but were just born with it. With an introduction to their label promising something like "We concretize a lifestyle of simplicity", and understanding that when it comes to fashion (and other things as well) "simple" is a fairly dangerous word that connotes not the boring, but something that is truly elegant, cool and timeless minus the fuss and the pretension, I am more than excited to see how they deliver (because they will).

When a whiff of cool air passes by, it refreshes and tells of a change in weather. I hope Whiff arrives sooner than later and bring along with it a change or at least more awesome alternatives and options for and in Manila style...

I am watching you.

-Gerard

Commercial Beauty

One of the best commercials. Glorious and cool.

It's a good ad, I admit and heavenly fitting shoe
but it's just not for me.

My sister once told me, after laying out for her my amazement over the stories I've heard from people I know, celebrities and their endorsements and things of the same caliber, how easily sold I am of what people tell me. She's never said though that what I've been hearing are complete lies, she's just keen on pointing out that it's not hard for me to believe things people say. It's not the first time I've been called gullible too or any other word to that affect, so maybe I am. Although the truth is, I could sense pretty well when people tell me bull, unless I am faced with a genius liar, then...

In my case, I may seem like I agree or believe in certain things, but I try to detach myself once I feel like I am biting into something that I still have doubts with. While this happens often, there are also those many times when I am just floored at the details that wrap either the wonderful truth or some awful lie. Sometimes, I believe in things because of presentation or anything that has to deal with the physical. It is shallow, I know. But I'm a bit hopeful that the reason why things are well presented, good to look at, or just basically pleasurable to the senses is because there is at least a pinch of something beautiful in it.

To Inspire

Been dry on the fashion front lately. I used to be so into it, that I had committed to memory so much things about fashion. Now, I feel like I've lost touch. Well maybe not completely, but to put it in better terms, I've placed more time and effort on other things than the pursuit of all things fashion.

I might've mentioned before, under much pretense, how fashion is my first love. Truth is, it's not. It's one among the many things I've conveniently bundled under the label "BEAUTY" or "ART", which I love dearly. But I can never deny that fashion plays such a crucial role in my life and how I view things.

I'm the kind of person who---honestly, believes it's a valid excuse to pass on an event when I'm not dressed accordingly. That's valid in my book. Like that successful Magnum ball last Wednesday. I was so out of it, I went to the launch looking like I tried to meet the event's dress code, instead of actually wearing it. This close I tell you, to calling it a day for that event, but all turned out well and happy and fun, even when I didn't dress the part.

I'm also the kind of person who notices style and how people dress. It's the story angle about it which I love and I find incredibly exciting about fashion and style. How a camel blazer looks different on different guys, or how those "mandatory" glittery, hanging tops look sexy on others and ultra feminine on some.

This all started when I came home last night, at around 3 in the morning I went on YouTube to see if my favorite, favorite model--Garrett Neff, had anything new on video. His latest one was an episode from Brad Goreski's series and it showed Brad styling for that DETAILS issue with Ashton on the cover (September 2011). Here's the case in point and you'll understand how things look incredibly different for different people. Even when both Garrett and Ryan are models (and they do look alike somehow), both of them lend their own touches to styled looks. It's that personal touch I look for, that feel of anything unique and for a lack of a better term, the personal in fashion, which I always find so interesting and inspiring.

And while I've decided to get back on updating myself in terms of style and fashion, I'm glad the internet is home to so much inspiration, you'll never have a reason again to say no to an event (like me) because you're not dressing the part.

I hope you enjoy these collection of inspirations, things, you've noticed, I really love to do for my blog, and I hope you'll find something enlightening in everything here as I have.

Male Supers & Madonna

Maybe it's about f-ing time guys get the spotlight and have the titles "Supers", right?

And what better way to prove that point than to have Madonna put these four super males for her latest video.

Sean, Simon, Jon and Rob... Although I'm not too keen on Rob, but hey, I'm no hater plus when Madonna and models.com has say on it, then it's the word.

- Gerard

Stars

Happy to have received, as 2011's last gift for me from my dear best friend Jerich, the Adele DVD of her concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Scouting for a gift for him and for my Tita Sharon, I saw the DVD and I knew I needed it in my life. As I've said to my sister, the motto for 2012 is "things you don't need will make you ugly" (proud to have coined it, hoping no one's ever thought of the exact line before hahaha), but this one, I understood was a necessity-though created, it still is needed. Thank God Jerich bought for me.

So almost all the songs I love. All of them. But what really hit me was when Adele "The Goddess" started talking about Make You Feel My Love and how, after Amy Winehouse's death, she started dedicating it to one of  her biggest influencers and one of the world's most celebrated artists. In classic, recent concert style, she asks her audience to use their phones or cameras for lights. So she starts singing, the lights go down and all you'll see is a hall full of swaying blue lights.

"She can see us now." Adele says of the late Amy. And to make things better, more dramatic, more painful, a huge disco ball descends from above, white lights projected onto it and it creates just this moving (in all sense of the word) atmosphere. It was beautiful. I would've loved to be there and just stay there for as long as I could. It makes you want to cry or at least feel incredibly at awe over such a simple yet beautiful thing.

So she sings the Bob Dylan original and the Royal Albert Hall looks like a swirl of stars in space...Like a milky way. With Adele's voice like honey, it's a recipe for heartbreak, for peace, for a haunting...It's just that beautiful. And what makes it more touching is when people sing along to it. It kind of reminded me of that Justin Timberlake performance of Until The End of Time at the Madison Square Garden (that too, I have a DVD of. Thanks mom)... Though different songs, they both achieved a mood, a feeling that lingers. Pure magic, I tell you.  

Of course, she follows it up with Someone Like You as the second-to-the-last song and I had to tear up at the end of the song, especially after she tells the story behind it. 

It's one of the best gifts I've ever received since birth and I am so thankful to Jerich for this. I've kept watching since Saturday and it's incredibly official, I am an Adele fan. Mainstream pop she may be, but it's actually just as cool as those artists you'd never find on iTunes or on Google. 

I highly-recommend you spend good money on this cause this one will be a real deal in the future. Trust me.
After watching it, I suddenly wanted to revive my singing and make out of it, a serious career. Haha. Oh well.

-Gerard

The Walk

I. LOVE. MAYER. HAWTHORNE.

Period.

His old school voice, this video, his style and just everything about him I worship. Now I couldn't remember how I stumbled over Mayer Hawthorne, but I'm sure that the coolest Lourdesian I know, Paolo Ramos, likes him too. 

So...This one's just genius.

I hope that by the time I do go back to the states---which is next year, I'd get to see him somewhere. 

- Gerard

Pairings

Good morning.

Just got home from a really busy weekend. I had to go fly to Davao with my sweet Patti Grandidge and my super favorite make-up artist, Diana Santos for an event. Four hours locked up in a make-up room, some minutes of dinner, some minutes searching for a good smoking area (where no one gets penalized), some minutes drinking with the two beautiful ladies, some hours of sleep, an hour and fifty on the plane back, church and now, I'm quite alive. 

Of course I had to check out what's going on with my favorite websites (since I was on call for proabably 25 hours for the job, today being my real weekend) and I'm happy to present to you two pairings that I'd file under the Great-looking weekend post I've loved doing for you guys.

Here's Sean O'pry and Tobias Sorensen for Simons (above) and Freja Beha Erichsen and Clement Chabernaud for Jill Stuart. For the two boys, it's quite a good combination: O'pry's kinda soft and somehow reminds you of something fluffy while Sorensen's all edgy and rough and rock n' roll and the two combined is just amazing. Erichsen and Chabernaud on the other hand could've done something together a looooonnnggg time ago. They match and they match well. I'm happy. Even though I'm pretty tired and sleepless, I'm still happy. I only dream of doing pairings as big as these. Someday... Imagine how easy it is and how gratifying it'll be to do something like this...

- Gerard

Heart Beat

On the way to a our visit yesterday, I saw this really cool ad of a new Lacoste perfume and immediately, I knew I had to buy it. For me, the measure of things I buy all depends on if they give my heart a good beating or not. AND if the fast, sort of excited beating still remains the second time around.

This baby's got me beating bad. I've been stuck with the Big Pony Collection (#4) for almost a year, after Clinique and Gucci (please do not take this as a snobby namedrop of things I could afford, cause people out there could afford wayyy better stuff than I do and I'm stating these ones as facts) and have decided that I need a change of scent. 

It's not just the sleek bottle or the awesome solid colors--and you know it excites me more that each color has a different scent, or the cool, cool, cool 20-second video, but it's more of the whole package really. I'm planning a trip to the mall tonight, after work, just to see if the package truly delivers. 

But seriously, this new ad and this new perfume (sorta new) is giving me good cardio. 

-Gerard

The 90s

Oh sure I remember MTV alright, but not this MTV. I've considered myself not much of a fan of the 90s, but I appreciate the 90s cause we had great music then, style too was cool and there was something more appealing about the 90s for me than the 80s---it was probably the whole mood that got me.

This video, I like a lot. It's cool, it's pretty much how the models of today are backstage. But the reason why I just had to post it here is cause I want to see what you think makes the 90s male models different from the ones we have today. I could spot a few differences, but not all of them. Maybe I ought to study more...Right? One thing's for sure though, Mark Van Derloo is ageless.

-Gerard

The Heart Breaker

For my birthday, I want to see them.
I just hope that by my birthday I finally have someone significant to share it with, just so that when I see them live, the lyrics won't get to me as much.

I'm kidding, you could shoot me now. Up Dharma Down has always been such a heart-breaking band. They're proof that most great writing whether it's for music, literature or just a plain blog entry, involves a lot of tragedy and loss and confusion and anger (and of course, the omnipresent love). Don't you agree? But don't ever confuse a bitter, pathetic angry post with great, tragic writing okay? There's an ocean of a difference.

So I haven't given myself time to digest what Armi sings here, but surface value is already a 100 for me. What more if I finally get to sit down and read the lyrics, right?

God bless them for capturing how pain ought to sound like (in my opinion at least).

Such a great band.

- Gerard

Love Is A Losing Game

Amy Winehouse came to my life at an opportune time. You know how books, movies, songs, artists and other things suddenly enter your life at the moment that you felt you needed them most? For me, Amy Winehouse was the voice for a phase in my life that I couldn't really give one to. It wasn't just because she had catchy songs or songs that sounded fresh and new, but for me it was a connection, a relation to her words, to how she sings...And I've loved her since. Love Is A Losing Game felt like my song during a time and until now whenever I listen to it, a loop of memories would go rolling in my head. Her other songs are also favorites like Just Friends, Wake Up Alone and a lot more.

I claim no pure knowledge of her and her life or who she sounds like and who her references are. All that mattered to me was that she was here, singing songs I wish I could've written or sung or heard and songs that have compressed feelings I've felt within 3-4 minutes. 

So obviously, the news of her death just left me incredibly sad. Despite her problems, Amy Winehouse was a genius...Though troubled, she was one of the more human singers of recent history and for me it's amazing that way. Sure I wish she could've gotten herself together. But life's that way sometimes...

What's most admirable about her is how honest she is...Her lyrics are as telling as how she is in public and I believe that the reason why people love and hate her is cause of this. You can only expect honesty, purity and transparency from so little of the people we see today and Amy Winehouse was one of them. 

What I've learned from her is that in life's weakest moments, there is always strength you could muster, strength to face them through music and strength to share your life to the world, for who we are and what we're made to be is destined just for that...

Now, you deserve all the peace the afterlife could afford you...

Rest In Peace Amy

- Gerard

Satisfaction

The boys are here...

Jules starts the whole thing, which is great. I mean, come on, he's everything that's worth the craze anyway.

So Justin Wu, is my new hero. He's the pioneer of these awesome, cool cool videos. Soon, I want this done...(I'm praying my bosses are reading this).

Less talk, more watching kids.

See, this is why Menswear is wayyy more fun than womenswear. The girls are always all so pretty and too pristine to mess up. Boys are funner, and they make sure the shows are funner.

P.S. I'm glad that a week into work I'm back to my first year college weight (which has been my goal lately), which means I'm this close to being their weight. (I'm dreaming) 

- Gerard