YIN-YANG

J's FB status last Saturday: "After attending a Hello Kitty-themed children's party, we were off to a tattoo convention. How's that for yin-yang balance?"

From pink...

To black...

I love the range of colors that paint our dating life! =)

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Now, allow me to share my inked hubby's thoughts on "Dutdutan X: A Decade of Artistic Ink," written Saturday, Sept. 25. (Maybe one of these days I'll also share a photo of his amazing back piece. *wink*)

Top Three Mainstream Moments at Dutdutan X

Okay, Philtag's event is a decade old. But Philtag is the Philippine Tattoo Artists Guild and Dutdutan is a tattoo convention. Never mind that there was a mixed martial arts competition yesterday and a bikini open tonight, but I have never seen the World Trade Center filled with so many people. On second thought, alternative has been mainstream since the '90s. I just wonder whether their appreciation of tattoo is beyond skin deep.

3. Local tinseltown's current toast, celebrity couple Robin Padilla and Mariel Rodriguez posing atop the hood of a vintage muscle car.

2. Robin Padilla asking for permission from his “wife” if he can take off his shirt on stage and show off his tattoos: “Magpapaakalam muna ako sa asawa ko. Dahil ang mga tattoo ko ay dating pag-ibig. Ayos lang ba na ipakita ko?”

1. Robin Padilla showing off his tattoos: “Alam n'yo po, ako rin ay punung-puno ng tato!” Then shows his collection—one on his bicep, one on his chest, and one on his back. It's just that his three fistfuls—even when combined—will be dwarfed by the single backpiece of the little girl in one of the booths, gamely posing for photographs, exposing a bit of her boobies.

Anyway, after seeing all the tattoo flash, tattoo artists, and tattooed people, I'm now itching to shave my legs. Nothing kinky, though. I just want to get large leg pieces. I'm thINKing of having them done by Tatay Nero, the famed founder of Philtag, with his pointilism style.

The right leg will be a contemporary rendition of ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock prints), inspired by the works of Masami Teraoka and Hisashi Tenmyouya, perhaps with a hint of modern hentai or traditional shunga.

On the other hand, or more aptly, leg, it will be a reworking of the propaganda posters of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, circa Mao's era, jazzed up by the Propaganda Pop and Cynical Realism art movements of the '90s, as represented by the works of Wang Guanyi and Yue Minjun, respectively.

My piercings have almost all closed up and I haven't been inked for over a decade. Maybe, it's about time.

SO GAGA!

Had a blast over Lady Gaga's concert last night! Where does the woman get her energy?! I'm in awe!

While we, girls (watched with my cousins), were being Gaga-fied, my dear hubby patiently waited for me. I couldn't convince him to watch. Gave him the option to go home ahead of me. But no, he wants to be around the vicinity - to make sure I'm safe and all. So from 8-10:30pm, he surfed away in one of the cafes in the Big Dome area.


We were in the same row as this Gaga Fan! S/he even had his own Disco Stick! Bongga!

Gaga-fied!

Araneta was packed! We were seated in the Upper Box, except for C who watched with her fashionista friends from the front row.

EHEADS: THE FINAL SET

Pinoy music history was made on March 7, 2009 at the SM Mall of Asia concert grounds with the Eraserheads: The Final Set concert. And I'm happy that J and I were among the 100,000 or so who were part of the momentous experience.

I wore my Sex & The City t-shirt (it's a t-shirt event), my skinny jeans and my silver studded ballet flats. J wore a black tee, military pants, his Samba, and a Levi's trucker jacket with safety pins (a punk subculture thing).

Thanks to GL, we had free VIP-section tickets. We arrived in SM MOA around 7pm so we had time to grab a quick bite at The Big City – a hotdog joint. The posters claimed they were serving imported hotdogs – “ala-New York?” I haven't been to New York but watching too much Discovery Travel & Living – including a mouth-watering, sumptuous feature on US Hotdogs – had me excited! But one's up for major disappointment whenever one sets her expectations high, too high.

We each had bratwurst on a bun with relish, with fries & onion rings, plus iced tea (each meal costs Php120). Sounds like a good hotdog treat, right? Wrong. It tasted so ordinary. I would have been happier with a Purefoods hotdog on stick / on a bun. The deli suasages we buy from the grocery was way tastier. The relish (what relish?!) was almost non-existent. The fries were too soggy. The onion rings looked sorry – too thin (Burger King as the minimum standard). My rating: Laman-tiyan.
Good thing there was the concert to look forward to.

We got in the concert grounds past 8pm. We found a spot near the VIP area's disabled platform , around 150 feet away from the stage (we didn't mind). J considered my safety – he knew I was not a pro at open-air, huge crowd, standing-only rock concerts. He made sure we were near the First Aid Tent.

From “Magasin” to “Huling El Bimbo” (we left after that, we thought it was the last song), we had a blast. The concert was a celebration of Pinoy music, a trip down memory lane, a shared musical experience among generations, a tribute to Francis M, a date J and I enjoyed. We sang with the Eheads and the crowd. We screamed for more. We danced – well, actually I danced with J hugging me from behind. All throughout the Final Set, we also worried about Ely Buendia – will he survive the show? Thank God he did.

The first concert J and I saw was Julia Fordham's (PICC 2000). He was still courting me then. That date was kilig. The Eheads: The Final Set date was rockin'!

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P.S. from my Hubby J:

J's (rear) entry...considering I'm just riding doggie back, er, piggy back on this blog entry.

This is the end. Or so they say. Despite vastly improving their technical skills as individual musicians, as a group, the Eraserheads still sounded every bit (and beat) like the garage band that they were in the early 90s. With this farewell concert, The Final Set, I think they pretty much ended they way they started – with a bad live performance. At least that is how I remember them, maybe 15 years ago, as virtual unknowns auditioning for regular gigs (or at least to play for pay in between sets of regular band performances) at 70s Bistro, a hole in the wall bar, where I was sitting in a table, a spitting distance from the non-existent stage, forced to listen to Ely's bad singing voice and the bad acoustic play from the rest of the band. It's been long since I've rocked the night away, but here I was, doing it in duet with my wife, on a pair of freebie concert tickets, listening and humming along Ely's bad singing voice and the bad acoustic play from the rest of the band, 'til the Eheads sang their final encore. But between the many sets that came between that distant desolate date and this Final Set, I guess nothing and everything has changed – with the band, with me, and with all of us.

**Photo of SATC shirt & tickets: Taken by me