The Boxcutters: A Wasteland for the Wild, the Wicked, and the Weird

“The Boxcutters” (www.theboxcutters.wordpress.com) is a blog dedicated to those brave enough to live life according to their own rules. Here’s what ‘The Boxcutters’ is all about: Graffiti artist Banksy once said, “Think from outside the box, collapse it, and take a fucking knife to it.”  We at Boxcutters are fueled by a desire to break [...]

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Anne Frank had just turned thirteen. Like any other adolescent, she undergoes physical and emotional changes that are a source of both curiosity and frustrations that she records in her diary as letters to an imaginary friend named “Kitty”. However, Anne Frank is no ordinary schoolgirl; she is a Jew living in Amsterdam during the [...]

Berlin Stories: Part 1

“I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking. Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed.” – Christopher Isherwood, 1930 Waiting. That’s what happens when you get older. When [...]

New Wave Revolutionaries: The Sleepyheads

Orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski once said, “A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.” While most people see music and visual art as separate entities, The Sleepyheads, often serving as the opening act in Manila’s premier galleries such as Silverlens and Mo’s space, construct their songs to serve as the [...]

Three Women

“Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother’s love is not.” — James Joyce As the hotel elevator doors opened, I wondered what my mother and grandmother would say to me. I was going to join them for a tour through Europe. I had not seen my family since I [...]

Into the Valley of the “Vigo”

Crank up the “Vigo” Volume Challenging mainstream musical conventions, Vigo combines jazz, rock, traditional pinoy balladry (kundiman), modern beats, and a dash of folk to create their own unique sound. With each artist having already forged their own reputations in the Manila soundscape, Vigo is more than just your run-of-the-mill garage band. Vigo is a [...]

Some Shel Silverstein…

*A little bit of Shell Silverstein is always a great way to start the day. Woke up at 5 am …and for no good reason! Despite the lack of sleep, I do enjoy the churning silence of dawn.  As Allen Ginsberg once wrote in “An Eastern Ballad,” “I wake to see the world go wild.” [...]

Friday Finds to Get You Through This Complex Sphere of Life (04/30/10)

Wohoo! Welcome to another long weekend. “Dancers Among Us” by Jordan Matter (“Photographer Jordan Matter took still frames of dancers from the Paul Taylor and Martha Graham Dance Companies performing interesting moves all around New York City.” via NBCNY ) Tomorrow is May 1. The date close to my heart. It’s the day I fell [...]

Friday Finds to Get You Through This Complex Sphere of Life

via someone’s Tumblr Ah…the weekend is here again. …what the heck took it so long? Happy Earth Day…whatever that means. I read a quote that made me LOL (Lay Off Liquor): “Maybe this world is another planet’s Hell.” — Aldous Huxley But then again, Mr. Huxley is the man who wrote about a global orgy, [...]

Brand Spankin’ New Travel Video/Slideshow

Nothing brings back good travel memories than good music and re-discovering some old photos… Featured locations: Morocco, Berlin, Cape Town, San Francisco, the Philippines, Rome, Paris….and an iron bird flying above the clouds. *All photos were taken by Michaela Lola Abrera (that’s me!) and the song is called “Postcards from Italy” by Beirut. Check out [...]