ETERNITY

ETERNITY is the title of NUI Bodypainting Awards 2010. As NUI Bodypainting Competitions’ (NBC) 10th bodypainting presentation since 2001, ETERNITY is about life when everything on earth has been over used and over consumed; how Man survives after the extinction of his kind; how animals and plants adapt to a new wasted world different from their past environment. Can man adapt or evolve when his power to rule over flora and fauna become mere history?

This year’s bodypainting event will be the biggest ever, since three major events comprise ETERNITY:
The International Photoshoot which will be participated by over 90 photographers from 8 Asian countries on November 21 followed by the ETERNITY Prequel Dinner Presentation at the City Auditorium at 7:30 pm.
The ETERNITY Photo Exhibit,
and the Grand Presentation Night on December 4 at the City Auditorium.

Fifteen models and artists will be presenting their talents to win the title of Grand Champion, Model of the Year Award, and 2 Photographers' Choice Award.

Viajerro, San Julio Realty, Inc., and the newly formed San Carlos Digital Photographers' Assn., promises one night of passion, concern, art, and music which will be performed by one upcoming band from Bacolod, Pedro's mind.

In behalf of the presentors and artists, we would like to thank the City Government of San Carlos for their big support in making the International Photoshoot an event to behold. Thank you.

For all interested photographers who want to join the Photoshoot on December 4, Saturday, please email me at nui_cabales@yahoo.com. We would love to share with you the beauty and talents of San Carlos.

FAMILY PORTRAIT

I wanted to post many weeks ago but there is nothing worth writing about. Would I react about the freedom of speech of the youth today as evidently written in the Facebook account where my niece was tagged or would I react about the news of Police harassment seen lately on tv? There are many things that should alarm us, there are many things to speak about, and there are many more things that we must not overlook.
I wanted to post and I looked for an inspiration. Scanning the images in my laptop’s folders, I happened to come upon the images during my pre-nuptial photoshoot with Weng and Jay. I took some photos of a family who were about to go home after gathering firewood along the river in South Villa.

I want to write more but I guess these images could tell their individual stories and their story as a whole. I am out of words because these images have words written that will haunt me for a long time.

We are luckier we have cellphones yet we ask our parents for ones which are newer for friends to see and be envied; we have computers and internets and FB accounts where we have the freedom to speak what we want, befriend whom we want, shout our hatred about anything; we have food on our table what we ask for something that has not been there since lunchtime; we have curly hair but we want what is advertised as “in”; we have clothes but we like a color our friend wore last time and we would lock in our rooms for our parents don’t have the extra for a new dress but still we win because no parent wants to disappoint a child and would drive extra miles for that dress.

We are luckier, right?

I have placed aside in my files, a program called “Art for the Streets (A4DS)” which should have happened one year ago. This is about giving back what we have, giving out some clutters in our walk-in cabinets, sharing our little ideas to those who have less or none at all. If Facebook is so full of non important shout outs, writings on walls that cannot add to the society’s needs and unfinished sentences wanting for others to comment and thread until the 190th comment when all was said was “hehehe” then maybe we could turn this social networking medium to help and let others be helpful to society. We just cannot rely our government to solve the problems all together but maybe, just maybe, in our “own little way” we can touch lives, feed souls, and make someone else’s life better.

Let us work together, make the A4DS program a reality.

For those interested to volunteer and support, please email me at nui_cabales@yahoo.com.

Aren’t we luckier we have email ads?

OF BREEDING & BEING A "SWINE FLU" By: Arl Cabales

This is a CALL to all MOTHERS: Kindly read all comments posted against Alexa, who happens to be my niece.... would you, as a Mother, allow other kids to lambast the dignity and person of your child just because she happens to be "fat & ugly" and "eew, "subak" "swine flu" , "salot", etc.? Me? I won't allow it!! And, I won't take these snides and mudslinging "sitting down"! Facebook used to be fun, for me at least, and when down-moments happen...we share them here and then friends send suggestions, and voila! Somehow, they brighten my day! But look what happened now, this became the avenue of kids' bad remarks, unaware that when they do so.... they reflect the kind of upbringing they have at HOME and the kind of EDUCATION they get from COLEGIO DE STO. TOMAS-RECOLETOS!!!! So, ATTENTION too: ALL PARENTS & TEACHERS OF CST-R. Our FAMILY do not want to think that these are indeed so. i hope parties concerned can do something.... we abhor to think that respect for other people has gone awash with this generation. An old adage come to mind: "The YOUTH IS THE HOPE of the FATHERLAND", but how can this be so when this group of kids do not yet know the rights of any individual? That NOBODY, and ABSOLUTELY NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO PUT PEOPLE DOWN, and HURT SOMEONE, whenever their whims strike them. DO NOT EMULATE PLEASE.

Everyone has PRIDE and when you hit that pride "below the belt", you know you are walking on quicksand!!!

ADULTS: Do comment on this blog, our family would appreciate that.... it's time people would LISTEN & BE AWARE. THANK YOU.

click on this link for the Facebook comments.

DERANGED

As a tradition, in every special occasion that VIAJERRO is part of, like the Pintaflores Festival or the Bodypainting Competitions, we create our own personal remembrance to commemorate the event. The 50th Charter Day Celebration was no exception and we took the moment to show the public of our new logo, the dragonfly.
All the VIAJERRO crew were given shirts as a sign that we have done it and we are going to soar high like the dragonflies who fly swifter and more aggressive. But one shirt came back and flew at our back gate. This time the dragonfly came out tattered, wounded and vandalized.
I cannot help but laugh and shook my head for it has proven my hunch that it will come back like one dragonfly who has strayed away from its pond...I was right.
This deed is a very desperate one, it might be very inhuman for all of us but it is a natural action for those who have too much in their hearts. People who have great burden and loads that they cannot carry because they do not want to share their loads to anyone else to be supported and helped by friends and families.
I cannot build any grudge or think negative thoughts about this person for "she" deserves to be redirected to a happier life, she needs to be loved and understood because maybe all her life "love" is a word that has been translated to "sex" and nothing else.
In these new times, moral conduct and good manners have been deleted in many. It seems that most think that one's family name is so easy to be edited in Photoshop or maybe ignored like you want to ignore one person who wants to befriend you on facebook. In our younger days, when my mom was still alive, we are always reminded that we have nothing to be proud of but our family name which is the only legacy we could leave our children. As gays, my brother and I have have been accepted by all our family and relatives, and we are always reminded not to do anything shameful to the name we have been given.
In these days, one's family name is not important anymore. But for us, me especially bearing my mom's complete family name and my father's as well, we are always very careful not to step on our names, our dignities as Estampadors and Cabaleses. This deed (the harrassment of the shirt) might make many furious and angry but let us not let our emotions run over our sanity. Instead, we just have to understand the doer and pray that may the light shine upon her and her heart too because I strongly feel her heart has become so hard that the blood cannot pump anymore beauty into her soul.
As educated and human beings, let us just try understanding the one who are not blessed with education, with right guidance and breeding.
Let us help them see the beauty of life instead blocking them the sunshine we have been enjoying. Living in the caves and no creativity can be hazardous to those outside.

From Dreams to Se7en

a glimpse of the previous bodypainting competitions. music: Valley of Dreams by Enigma

LEGACY

I have been searching deeply for an inspiration to write another post but nothing was found until today. Hearing a news from my dear sister Arlene about my little brother having a gall bladder operation in the not so far away place called "America". Dialing his number for many times just to hear he is OK or just for him to hear our voice will mean everything will be okay but who answers me is the female answering machine...
It is Mother's Day today and this post is for all the mothers whom I know, who I met, who are everybody's mother. Some of us do not really know are mothers - why they are so protective, why do they have to watch what we eat and why we don't take our life seriously.
In the last decade of my mom's life, I can truly say that she has proved her point and her role as the pillar of our home. We have come so close together that even five years since she has passed away, I stood up from my gardening chore and went to my father and asked where mom was. "She was gone already a long time ago," my father answers me with a questioning look. Suddenly, goosebumps. I swear she was behind me when I was loosening the soil in the garden.
Sometimes I see her pass by ,dressed in her favorite purple housedress.
Maybe these are signs that she wants me to visit her grave because she misses the hourly talks as she watches me cut the fabrics for my clients (and ended up making a pant instead of a blouse because she never stops talking), the 12:00 am habit when I she will wake me up to accompany her in the dining table for a quick snack (yes, of left over "pinirito" and rice) for she is hungry again, or maybe I just missed her excited look and criticisms when I make her "once-a-month-new-dress" for her fashion show when she gets out to get her monthly pension in the bank.
We had our many cold wars and many dramatic moments that surpassed the number of happy moments. Our relationship is not different from yours but what makes our relation greater is that she has become one image that I still look up too, one image of authority that needs to be followed and one image who has implanted a legacy not just in me but in stepdaughters as well. These two stepdaughters who became our (me and alvin's) mothers as well.

We have become our sisters' responsiblity, Nang Nene and Nang Alma have become our guards when we were teased as "gays" in the streets, our bankers when we have to study somewhere else and live with them, our "platforms" when we perform for the public for they brought us higher to elation because they are there to cheer us up together with our parents.
We have grown up and our sisters have already become "true" mothers with their own families. They already have their own wars within their members, they already have their own trophies to boost to the other mothers but they never have stopped being our mothers when our mom had long gone. It is because we can never stop loving no matter what, that is mother's legacy.
To my two mothers/sisters, thank you for the ears, the eyes, and the hearts that never stopped beating for their children...

Di ba nong?


photos courtesy of Saqueo Magallanes Cabales

tHreading a different path

The busy March schedule kept many things postponed, like the trip to Aklan, the opening sale of the VIAJERRO 2010 Summer Collection, and the shoot with Albert. But we have finally managed to squeeze in some, and it is the photoshoot with Albert Leonid in Canlaon.
It took us about forty minutes to the end of the motor road from the City of Canlaon to Brgy. Mapot and another many minutes to Sudlon Falls. "Sudlon" really lives up to its name because we really need to come inside the deep cavern and along the river of waters and boulders.
We have arrived at last! The sky was gloomy, the surrounding was quiet except for the heavy gush of water of the falls. Awed, I was. This is something different, something that I really need because it is with nature that you can enjoy God's given life. We are too busy with finishing the deadline and it is here that time and yout life seem to flow endlessly, nothing can stop the flow even the nature-created dams of big stones.
And we started shooting...
I had a hard time thinking of the concept of the photo shoot, but once you get the vibe of nature breathing underneath and around you everything falls to pieces like the dew from the clouds to each leaf of the Canlaon forest, to the damp moss and gathered together to the little creek forming into a wider body of water.
The water was cold, fresh and filtered. Like being touched by a forest goddess every nerve of your body seemed to relax with the water. "This is what I always wanted", I said to myself.
But time has to be stopped and we have to pack our things and leave nature alone before we wake the sleeping gods of nature.
Back to the road, back to the dirt with nothing much to carry but my camera and many memories - I again felt fear and danger on the rough road ahead. My mind was busy with the images of people we have passed along, the azure sky rejoicing the birth of Summer, the dust powdering our weary and hungry faces and suddenly...
I felt the road on my right side come near me, we were sliding the rough and dirty road! It was like a scene from Matrix where everything was running in 2 frames per second, everything was slowed down.
My legs were trembling but didn't show, my ears went dumb, my shoes were colored with dust yet my camera was safe. Haha, I can really do it. I did it. This has been appearing in my mind many years ago, like deja vu. It was deja vu.
Assessing the damage, there was a little. A few scratches on the motorcycle and on me. Blood flowed a little but it the sting was starting to take its role.
We arrived in Panubigan countless of minutes after. The pain started but it was nothing. It was nothing but it meant many things, I have taken a break, I have riden a motorbike again after years of fear and the wound was the trophy.
It didn't matter. In whatever we have done especially in our age (!), there is nothing more to regret for everything is worth what it is. Live life, enjoy, be ready and share...

Threading a different path? It is finding new paths and destinations, new thread to sew my designs and new concepts for VIAJERRO.



the IMAGES of the adventure in this link

While Seeking For Something We tend to Find Other Things

Looking for ideas, i stumbled upon a genius who incorporated architecture, art and engineering.

Another Year, The Same Faces

After storms and floods, Ibajay and Aklan in general has risen again. It must be innate in us Filipinos to adopt and always rise after a devastating trial by life and nature. My camera was confined in Cebu so I didn't have the urge to get pictures but to be just "one of the spectators and revelers". It is not a spiritual journey anymore but one travel that became a "must attend" one. Arriving later than before, I was excited more of going to "my Kayama" for when I arrived their I finally said to myself aloud "I am Home."

more pics here apple's pics

RELOADED

For the chosen few or the few who have chosen us, VIAJERRO we created a reloaded edition of last year's IBAJAY Ati-ati tshirt.

Forever

Just Another Christmas?

Another Christmas has passed and before it faded like the Christmas carols of the children in our doorsteps, most of us asked ourselves "Why is this Christmas not as joyous as before?"
San Carlos City's 2009 Christmas may have been a cold one - the plaza was not well lighted as the past years, the Centermall Area looked so cold and uninviting except for those who wanted to drink and be merry for the holidays. But what was there for those who wanted a different Christmas every year? Nothing.
Last year, there was the Pasko sa Paseo that made our Christmas worth enjoying but this year was one that we can call "just another Christmas".
The New Year has passed without us having to be excited about the coming year 2010. So what is there that we should be celebrating for? Life for the past year that didn't bring us catastrophe? or just that we are still alive and celebrate "another Christmas?
As Filipinos, what is important is a complete family as we celebrate our Maker's natal day, with siblings who come home for from far away working places just to make the Christmas one that we can call a family occasion, a time to reflect of the hardships of each family member and celebrate the successes of each of the members. It is the time to reminisce and hear what each has to say. And for those who have were not able to come, Christmas even though cold and wanting, can only be complete with a simple phone call.
So it is just another Christmas, and so with each year that has passed. All we have to do is be excited of what is coming and be thankful for the life of each family member has gone through. Well, 2010 Christmas is just around the bend, so better make the 300 plus days more worthy to be remembered if 2011 is about to come.