when my grandfather passed away last year, my cousin bea and I turned the space into this marc quinn-ish garden growing out of oriental rugs. all sorts tropical flowers species mixed with colorful stargazers, and other 'western' flowers (I will get killed if anyone reads about this in manila). down to the scent... we even made sure it smelled like paradise (l'artisan candles)! we also did all the 'thank you' cards- a molto cool rephotograph of him in his 20's in rome (bea said..'oooh it looks like he's saying hello from the eternal city' and called it eternal paradise)! a few days ago, my grandmother passed away. I don't know if it's just me, but I seriously think that everyone must leave/live (same thing) in style.
***for the funeral, I wore a grey margiela vest over a black jil sander top, with drawstring heavy cotton linen yohji trousers and black balenciaga wedges... (sorry, about that)

so, efrem, I'm not sure if there is some god out there... maybe 'style', art, and the small funny things might not be so bad... to me funkiness is paradise(god???)! live free!

daft punk - digital love
player - biggest part of me

It was on the eve of his final days here in America. My good friend Wilson Hsu and I drove out to Little Saigon in Orange County. We had no soundtrack, just a destination---but later for that. Our first stop was a quaint little restaurant called Pho (pronounced "Fa" or was it "Fuah"?), Pho 59. I didn't understand the meaning behind the numbers till much later. He did most of the ordering, so I can't recall what I had, but it was good and we were treated(!?) to a host of Vietnamese music videos. The strange looks I got from the regulars there reminded me of our class trip with Perry Kulper to Lone Pine... Anyway, our next stop was Little Saigon. We visited a mall there. Not very impressive but for one thing: its ceremonial spots where their Gods reside, watching with fierce, colorful faces, unmoved by the whims of their subjects as they venture through their lives raising families and burying loved ones and friends... It was quite sobering. Sobering in a way that says Paradise is as colorful and unmoving, eternal and kind, a wisdom that stands before complexity...

"So, are you ready to pray?" he asked.

"It would be fair to them." I indicated the statues. "Besides, I don't think they'll listen anyway."

"Sure they will." Wilson went over to the incense holders, various kinds were offered. He lit one and explained to me the ritual and procession of the prayers. He also expained to me that these shrines are common in public spaces (which I thought was very interesting that the 'notion' of space is 'theological').

"Okay, your turn." I went through the ritual. I asked for something, thinking back on it, dumb like good success and a happy life... yeah, great job...

being in my own space has been paradise given that I now have to produce images in such a confined and limited area (a place that may have seemed too familiar). I have been shooting non stop. (for work).

it's fascinating what you see when you aren't looking too far.
maybe it's what they call intimacy...

***lily! remember the title of our studio in vico??? ha ha ha

Some more realistic images!!! I am going to be there! Yeahhhhhhhh!!

I am back! Tired from too much partying, too much junk food, too many Proseccos! I was reading Mel's post about blue. I adore it too. Color of the sky, color of the water, and yes...ah ah ah ...the color of my eyes!!!! I was actually thining about blue too this morning when I woke up. I was day dreaming about a beautiful beach, me laying down reading a book and with a cocktail next to me. I need a place to relax, with the blue water in front of me. But for now, I have to enjoy this crazy weather. In a week I'll be enjoying the beautiful blue sky of Sankt Moritz and the dreamy white snow. White below, blue above (I am praying that it will not snow when we are there). Isn't it at the end the same thing as my dreamy beach???? White sand below, Blue sky above! Sankt Moritz will be my paradise for an entire week. ML surfs through the blue waves leaving her trace in the water I will ski under a blue sky leaving my marks on the snow. And at the end of the day...a cocktail will be waiting for me!!!!

colors

horizons

traces and marks..on the water...on the snow...

for lily, carnavale is over. for me, no surfing for a while. back to normal. what's that?
can't it go on? for just a little longer?

I don't know who looks forward to the summer. I spend the summers in the city - indoors. where it's quiet and I can imagine away... construct my own paradise(s)... in peace.


I hope it doesn't look as boring as this cup of coffee... although it does look like waves! or birds!

royksopp- what else is there?
jose gonzales - teardrop
*** I am laughing about how pathetic this all sounds! looking at the the 2nd to the uppermost image...those are tears! how melodramatic and how funny!

summer here has officially started. the ocean is flat. no surf til may. but in my mind it was fall all day! the scent of figue and fresh flowers in muted light!
daft punk -one more time

Colors, funny fashion, music and often a lot of alcohol! This is carnival! This is, for a week in a year the Paradise of all good times! At the end though, what is left, beside the exhaustion from all the parties, are the small confetti, stucked between the streets pavements as a rememberance of a good time, an urban event that will happen again...next year!

lily used to describe our studios at school as the barrio. there was that vending machine for watered down coffee, now it's nespresso.the 50cent beer has been replaced by martini bianco, tanqueray, proseco.(like a cranach landscape, where the clouds, the grounds, the horses and people are all rendered in the same way,it's really just made of the same stuff) more than a physical space, the spaces we occupy and work in are mental. some have the past in them, some a present you can't really describe, except in pictures

I was in bed ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL day...I woke up at 8PM!I didn't even know it is friday!disorineted, first thing I do is walk into my sister's next door and the music is blasting, a very funny song by kayne/estelle(?) called american boy was playing,she was in party mood looking around for flights to barcelona.(since there are no good parties here) I miss a good party ... back at sci arc there was always something going on, not just on fridays. time to fly out for a one...the influence of music can be lethal, takes you inside its own space. no matter how lame the song might be.
great party album: ete d amour, plus some old school disco!

on one of anne troutman's trips to rome, where we were "supposed" to be exploring the city, I think they call it architecture and urbanism (ha), I was escaping to via condotti to shop. one day I actually ran into lily somewhere near via del corso. for most of the summer, when NOT shopping, I was going to natural history museums, zoos and botanical gardens. and then I missed the entire trip to the zumthor baths --- I was at the venice bienalle!

Lily, do you remeber this?

Lily and I took a class, in the old Sci-Arc, on urban theory with husband and wife, Margaret Crawford and Marco C. These were the days Lily and I would break from the studios to explore the City, in this case it was Century City. We both had our cameras, cigarettes , expresso and our own personal soundtrack. It was great! We invaded those buildings behind her, took pictures and ecaped without getting captured by security.

lily is allergic to certain foods ... I am allergic to the city, not all cities, just this one. walking outside for 20 minutes, and I am sneezing. like right now. for 2 weeks I was locked in my apartment. doctors orders.I am supposed to avoid walking on the street, so the only time I can leave, really is to head for the ocean or the airport.... destination : (funky paradise which is) away from here!

imagine being allergic to the city you live in???!!! when I moved back from school I actually got hospitalized! followed by asthma attacks, on and off for years.

***now I have to stay more days in bed. again! my solution is to turn my apartment into my very own self sustaining funky-jungle paradise! I just grafted some HUGE tropical vine and put the cuttings in water! I hope they live! now back to bed... smiling!

I loved sci arc, everyone had their own style. it was such a thrill to just go to class, everyone had attitude, and were visually intriguing. just like their work. though, ultimately I think I liked clothes more than I liked buildings. and I probably still do.

during seasonal barneys sales, where they would serve up champagne while you shop, I would cut class, I'd run into some classmates there! this meant, an empty classroom. since we were only 7 or so. weimar culture. I'd ran into jose zaldivar. years later while I was at grad school in new york, lo and behold. I run into jose, at barneys on madison. later that night, I crashed a magazine party, and again, there was jose! hilarious! (he would do up his jay vanos design development drawings on photoshop! now that's the spirit)


no barneys here, but I've been shooting for my friend's label eiarth. (I can't release the images yet, but here's an old out take from spring 1999) this particular dress blows up like a balloon when it's windy! it's all I wear these days.

***come to think of it, I think I chose sci arc because everyone looked cool...and yes, it was a very funky paradise!
music: heart of glass - blondie, massive attack -the blue lines album

Yes indeed! Yesterday I had the urge to get some junk food! Talking about LA, about the states I had the serious need of something awefully junky! I wanted a burger desperately. But I can't get Mc Donald's anymore since I had the luck of getting food allergies. I had to make it myself...and that was a big deal. Got the meat, the bun, the special mozzarella for the freaks who have allergies, pickles, tomatoes and fries. A big freakin deal, especially for the time. Started cooking and produced a huge cheese burger and sat in front of my tv watching "The Closer". My first bite was interesting: the burger for some reason decided to run away and ended its escape on the floor! The remaining chunk, still in my mouth was terrible! The worst burger ever! Screw junky funky. I ended my dinner with an orange!
That was the moment when I started smiling, alone in front of a tv show, where the entire crew of detectives was happily eating...burgers! I loved junk in the states. I remember at school, in the middle of the night cruising through the city of angels looking for the most incredible disgusting things to eat: Taco Bell, Carl's junior, DelTaco (worst than my burger), El Pollo Loco. All of those we called "survival food". We would go back at the "old SCI-Arc" spreading an amazing fragrance all over the place! Our lives were dictated by this orderly routine. Junk town! To that we added some fabulous urban food, simply gorgeous: Johnnies Pastrami, Tito's Tacos, Singapore Express...I am salivating thinking about that! But I am in Switzerland now. In a hole town in the middle of nowhere. Nothing. The junky funky stuff we can get is kebeb! Now I have to cook, no more cruises in the land of greasy food! Now the order of my culinary routine is very structural, and that goes well combined with my profession: as Jay Vanos used to say (I am smiling right now) architecture is like food; structure, layers, colors and form. Yes indeed! I only hope that my buildings dont end up like my burger: unattractive, ugly. Simply a structural collapsing mess!

over the winter holidays, I don't know why I did it. I flew out to some remote island resort, for so long, that 3 sets of friends came and went. a person could only last there for about 5 days maximum.

there were 3 choices of alcohol, tanduay rum (a large bottle costs less than a pack of cigarettes, I suspect it is actually gasoline diluted with water), red horse beer, it's legendary here, a liter can knock 4 people out, with a 2 day hang over. and normal beer.

I lived in this funky hut, when for a few days while booking was all mixed and messed up (I'm terribly forgetful). it had green and orange drapes! I wanted to die. there were storms, no cellphone signal, no internet. the waves were insane.I must admit, I had an amazing time... to be in a place where you really feel the ocean... paradise.

It all happened this morning. For the first time we were able to meet the 3 of us simultaneously on facebook! 3 crazy people, with 3 crazy lives, all graduated from the same school (SCI-Arc) and living in 3 different continents. Melissa in the Philippines, Efrem in the States and me in the middle of Europe, Switzerland. Ages after our graduation we meet on a virtual funky platform and decided to create a new blog: Funky Paradise! What is Paradise? What is Funk? Who cares!! The good thing is that we got together and, at least on this blog (for now) we will share our funkiness with you, whoever you are! My funky paradise? My life, right now quite boring, but yet funny. My photos, finally digital, become my alternative place of action, my digital home, my forest with a lost treasure! My digital paradise! Colors, [un]wanted contrasts, the unknow, music from below, mean-ing from above!!! What is your funky paradise?

while lily is in the grocery getting a burger. I am here munching on some sweets from around the place I live. chocolate covered crunchy caramels with almonds and the most heavenly mochi ever!

I keep saying this place is super lame. but sometimes I wonder. the neighborhood cafe sells 12 usd sandwiches. there's a spanish bistro, where you can get all sorts of wine and those almond-y desserts and those french chestnuts in marzipan. really... there's something I am missing here... I keep saying I live in the ghetto ( I mean it's so impoverished as an environment), but... at least there's funky food...

although, I would kill for an in and out burger any day of the week!
***some years back, I remember an installation at the palais de tokyo --- in grafitti is said: add elegance to your poverty, then in graphite pencil scribbles (almost unseen) and love to your life... sweet!

delleuze calls it activity. so instead of working, I decided to just play.

in 2007 all I did was go to london and paris. I love being a stranger. I feel so much freedom in a place I don't live in.
jet lagging is one of the greatest experiences. this means I wake up at 4 am. I go out in my pajamas, coat on top, my ipod (sometimes) and my camera. walk around the city when it is still asleep.

music: peter bjorn and john - young folks, train in vain - the clash, matinee -franz ferdinand, (I forget the title of the track) -- sebastien tellier, the boss - diana ross, arcade fire- no cars go

***lily! stop me from posting! I have so much energy when I am on land. I work so much and so fast, all these hours left over, what to do? what to do????

living in manila can be horrible. (air and social pollution --it's full of fake , booorrrrrrrring people), but maybe it's like everywhere else (as I have gathered), since everyone you really enjoy being with is some place else.
and it's not where you are!

late last year, I finally went out and started to explore this country because of surfing. and it is amazing... now to to find people to come along! the winds are always changing direction, taking me where it goes...


***some funky tracks: summer breeze - seals and croft, africa- toto,
best magmu ever-underworld, luetin- underworld, la vandeuse des chaussures des femmes part 1 -tosca, reminiscing -little river band, sitting in the park-georgie fame, rock with you- michael jackson, remind me - erland oye, and i was a boy from school - hot chip

since sci arc, I thought I would grow up. But I didn't!

I am having as much fun as I did then!

this makes me wonder about how everyone else has turned out... so far, it seems we've all remained forever young. still the same. as insane as ever.

Here we are! We finally set up the funky-ex-sciarc-crazy-blog! Mel, Efrem...let's shake it up!!!