Let us help fellow Filipino Christian San Jose and his friend Archan Nair to win DBH10K Design Contest. Winners will win an eye-popping amount of $10,000 bragging rights included. We can be a part of this by registering to DBH and voting for Siren Song.
Please vote for Siren Song @ DBH10KRead on how you would win 5 exclusive DBH shirts
Designers won’t leave us empty-handed though. Registered voters shall have a chance to win 5 DBH shirts when you promote Siren Song through social networking sites (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and blogs. You will have to email at promo@voteforsirensong.com with the subject Siren Song including your links where in you promoted Siren Song. Here’s how to win:
How to Win
It’s a bayanihan call for all of us. Vote now, show them who’s boss! We Filipinos have very good backgrounds in voting and campaigning (pun intended.)
Oh glorious milk tea, I can drink you for the whole day! I wish I’d lived in other parts of Asia though to maybe have discovered this earlier.
Milk tea craze has surely hit the PI already! But before it had hit mainstream, a few outlets only had served milk tea. One of those is Bubble Tea in The Block and Megamall. There go my frosh days when I just have to have my milk tea fix before going home. Or just chill around when everything’s lax and laid back. Milk tea wasn’t everyone’s thing though. I’d heard mixed reactions on this.
Okay let’s give credit to Chowking’s Nai Cha, but it’s kinda… lame. I just don’t get it.
Three years later, however, milk tea had its time in the Philippine street fare scene. My fellow milk tea-drinking friend Hanna and I was surprised to see a stall [I’ll describe it na lang since I don’t have any pictures of it pala :|] with metal casks with labels of different kinds of tea, and a sealer we first saw in Zagu, which is manned by a Chinese woman and three jejemon-gangster-looking crewmen (I’m not even joking when I typed that :P) Located conveniently in front of our school’s gate, we were happy we can now get our fix anytime at a whim! Happy Fanshu is a milk tea joint based in three areas: front of FEU, UST Carpark, and Dapitan st. (near 711) all in Manila. You can check out a Facebook page here dedicated to all that Fanshu goodness.
From the Fanshu page
Usually I like my milk tea with extra pudding, or pearls if it doesn’t come with my tea. ALSO! I like my tea manually shaken. Ice-blended Nai Cha by Tea Zone in the newly opened OMS Food Court in Morayta sells ‘buy one take one.’ Aside from the rough feel of the blended ice, It also tastes like more sugar than milk tea. Well, I must note that not all milk teas are great tasting. But I just cringe at the fact that more students liked it than Fanshu :(
So the fact that there is milk tea craze and not all milk teas are good made me go for those I know and trust. Just when my ever-milk-tea-loving friend Hanna was on the lookout for lunch other than chicken fillet and rice, we stumbled upon Zen Tea in the Pearl Drive area.
Zen Tea looks like Burger Machine but also like a café stall.
This cute cork board for customers caught my attention.
AND THEY DO MILK TEA THE RIGHT WAY! That gave me a hint that this may be good. Lo and behold — a very well-executed Milk tea.
Almond Milk tea
Nai Cha for Hanna, and Altitude for moi
And it was good! Too bad it’s far from where I live (hello BULACAN?!) The almond in my milk tea was probably too strong but the Nai Cha was just perfect. Even better than Fanshu!
Almond and Pearl Milk Tea
What is your favorite milk tea joint?
P.S. My eyes were photosensitive that day we had milk tea on Pearl Drive. Thanks to Hanna for lending the shades, which btw I love!
It was a random evening for me and my friend Ame, one Monday night.
Jamming in Manila Bay
I went to Taft to fetch the belt I left with Ame, and see how she was doing with her film [to be shown tomorrow, if I’m not mistaken.] It was great! I can swear Ame has a future in the digital arts! I wished I copied her music video though [feat. Alon by I-forgot-the-singer’s-name] so that I could share how good it is. And brag that she’s my friend. But her lappie betrayed us by dying in itself and leaving us ‘WTF!’ Anyway, it was rather early so we headed somewhere and decided we’d jam for the night. Of course we’d cover Up Dharma Down songs! Ame is a fellow UDD junkie.
We planned to ransack a friend’s condo, but decided to hit the Bay for the night. We WALKED from Vito Cruz to Manila Bay and there settled. She played, we sang [am not a musician] sample below. Oo seems to be a personal favorite for the both of us :)
Ame’s cover of Oo by Up Dharma Down
And I took some shots also. Trying to be really creative. I have a portfolio to make also, so this is some kind of training.
Guitar and Sea
While playing Oo
[insert thought bubble here :)]
Emo shot
It was a very laid back evening for the both of us despite requirements to finish the next day. But both of us need a good unwinding, especially before doing films.
It was 12 mn when we started aching for food, so we strolled around the Bay area for some quick fix. Luckily we found places that weren’t closed yet, and we went to Icebergs for late dinner. It wasn’t a cheap place, but food was — what appropriate word to say — Orgasmic! I know already that the parfaits and everything that has ice cream here is rockin, but never tried their dishes yet. It’s kinda perfect, and yes random, because Ame and I was thinking of coming up with a food blog post. This was it, I supposed. Only that she left her camera. There’d be more, she said. *more food blogs yay!*
Icebergs, according to my mom, has been in the dining and dessert place scene since her college days, serving mouthwatering parfaits among other ice cream treats. Despite being known for cold treats, the ice cream parlor-restaurant also offered gourmet food. You can view their menu here.
The biggest fish in fish and chips [fries] I’d ever seen
Must-be-silkier Tofu Steak with Spinach Rice
Gambas and Spinach Rice
It was the biggest fish in fish and chips, errrrr fries, that I had seen and eaten. The fish didn’t taste bland, wasn’t dry, and medley-ed with the mayo-garlic sauce. I didn’t like the tofu steak so much though. I think it was so-so. The sauce was good, but it could be better if the tofu is silkier. Ame told me that the gambas was not spicy [which should be spicy, right?] but anything shrimp for the lady can pass for her. I tasted the sauce, and it was alright, just the right tang for the shrimp. The spinach rice was fairly executed, but tasted spinach anyway.
Sundaes in midnight! <3
My Kahlua Chocolate Sundae
Ame’s Cappucino Sundae
Dessert came and yeah Ame shrieked in excitement to see ice cream on the table. Mine was a Kahlua Chocolate Sundae, and hers was Cappucino. We tasted each other’s dessert [I know very few people who share their food in the restaurant :) This made me remember Joey Tribbiani from FRIENDS] and the Cappucino was a little anemic. My Kahlua Chocolate, however, was strong; rich chocolate with kahlua liqueur. It made me gulped a glass of water a number of times. Icebergs is really a dessert place, their desserts are just old-fashioned-goodness! All in all the damage was almost PhP900, but the food was worth it. Definitely not for everyday though, or I’ll go broke. I’ll be back to regular Mcdo diet the day next. LOLJK!
We walked to Ame’s place full and elated [read: orgasm by food] with the night. Being the nocturnal us, we hadn’t noticed that it was already 2am. The night was totally spontaneous and random.
Film + Sea + Music + Friends + Food + Some time off = A very memorable night.
Ame being excited over food and avoiding a picture with her Gambas
Death by Splurge//Orgasm by Food fansign on a receipt
Death by Splurge//Orgasm by Food fansign on a receipt
To more chillax nights, Ame!
So when did you last spontaneously spend a day/night?
I am not a musician, nor a music enthusiast. My collective knowledge on music is not extensive. I listen to music mostly on what my friends recommend, what movies play (if they’re really good), or whatever I hear on the radio (impossibly MY radio, I have no radio. It must be the local transportations’ radio, loud stereos on the streets, or somebody’s iPod playing on subwoofers that fit the ears.)
Gratitude to my friends who have contributed in widening my interest for music. My playlist had grown from 10MB to 10GB of music. My former 16GB iPod, which I sold at a whim, was never enough to contain all of it. Of all the bands, solo artists, and instrumentalists, mainstream and indie, that squats in my music folder, I have to say Up Dharma Down will have to be the most played band in my playlist.
*from the Up Dharma Down website* Armi, Carlos, Paul, Ean
Although I am still not really that INTO music, when my friend gave me a downloaded copy of Fragmented by Up Dharma Down way way back, I instantly fell in love with music that, in my opinion, so original, and so dynamic. I used one word to describe their music — eclectic.
Fragmented
Up Dharma Down speaks to the soul. It is music fitting to the eccentric, to the idiosyncratic. I always mention that Up Dharma Down is very eclectic. They are indulgent. They are nonconformist. The way they play music in such a bipolar manner creates this curdle in the gut that aches for more and wishes it never ends. Their lyrics are poetry of heaven and hell fused in a melodic mixture of love and hate, fulfillment and regret. It is not pretentious but blooms from the heart that speaks also to the heart. Up Dharma Down, a band that cannot even call a genre for their craft, is the kind of music I would be so enthusiastic about, I thought. Every new song is a new experience to look forward to, and every old song is a beautiful memory to look back to. I may not be a music junkie, but definitely an Up Dharma Down junkie this time. I even go to gigs! HAHA which I never did to any other bands. They are not for the normal listener. It asks to be understood behind all the enigma.
Up Dharma Down’s Hexagon Lounge gig | 08.27.2010
Not to mention that Ms. Armi Millare, the band’s vocalist and keyboardist is such a sweetheart on stage that can sing killer vocals. One friend of mine called her divine, and I cannot exact any other word than that also. She’s free spirited, outright smart, and just completely charming.
I am surprised that I heard Up Dharma Down’s newest single on TV along with GMA’s newest fantaserye. I seldom watch TV nowadays, and only had nakaw-tingin on the boob tube whenever I catch a meal on the family dining table. Anyway, it is very unlikely for indie music to enter this kind of mainstream entertainment, and I’m not surprised that people began digging Up Dharma Down for more. Of course, it’s Up Dharma Down, it gotta be good!
On all these success (along with a number of awards that they won already,) I think Up Dharma Down had hit mainstream already. But what is commendable of the band is they did not bend their genre just for the sake of going mainstream. The UDD touch is always there, and they are still that good soulful indie music that you heard way back years ago. It’s a very rare quality now, in my very subjective opinion, to resist the urge, the opportunity, the tendency to go mainstream. But in the case of Up Dharma Down, they have never veered away from what they do — they are indie that had gone mainstream but stayed indie all along.
Still music, despite profit and fame, is an act of expressing and of not impressing.
I always know that photography, or anything that has something to do with it, has a pinch in my heart. So even the most toxic, and seemingly unnerving day in a student nurse’s life (read: thesis, care plans, and minor subjects that would not stop being pa-major) would not stop this lover of the arts (that I wish I could create one too :D) to march down to Taft avenue from Morayta st. just to see the work of budding photography majors… like my friends!
It was their project actually, but I guess if you don’t tell people it was, I for one could mistake it for a professional gallery. The images will burn into your memory.
*They invited Armi as a guest, but nonetheless she did not make it, she was sick. The whole gallery played Up Dharma Down all night instead!*
No bias, but this is my ultimate favorite. Surreal!
Zeh nostalgia wall
Single shot only
Chic and expressive
Senti?
Here are some takes from the fabulous exhibit. Not to mention, some of the photos were ruined by “natural calamity”(or so it was?) but the overalls still look fantastic.
Ame’s wall
Alecks’ wall
Apple’s wall
Joe’s wall
Food was everywhere, and the cupcakes we’re just heavenly. <3 it!
Zeh zhocolate fondue!
Nacho Libre!
The this-is-so-yummy-I-could-forget-my-name cupcake
Sexy cupcake!
BOY BAWANG!
And more Boy Bawang
Ms. and Mr. Boy Bawang 2010. LOLz!
And yes, somehow, I wish I study here, and also be one of these great artists.
And after a stressful day, let’s camwhore and drain the camera’s battery! *Shots from zeh camwhoring camera*
I had class by 7am the day after, and I arrived home 5:30am, just in time to go to school. I don’t mind the stress, I had fun anyway, and made really good friends.
