MINI SNEAKER KEYCHAINS FOR SALE!

Finally! I got around to uploading it. Heads up guys! The 1st part of the Kontra Movement is out.

Kontraspace is our temporary retail space for any stuff that we think would be cool to have. So for our 1st leg, we are bringing you mini sneaker keychains modeled for the hypest and most sought after sneakers.

Check out KONTRASPACE for more details. (www.kontraspace.multiply.com)

Futura Says

“ALWAYS resist being one-dimensional and look for other means of creative outlet. The dilemma seems to be that once you’ve established yourself, you’re locked into creating the work that people are familiar with. References to your own past by duplication. Eventually, that’s insane.”

Another Voice

Today, I would like to post some excerpts from an article I found written by Jim Paredes for his column in the Philippine Star. I felt that it was a great read and I would like to share them with you.

- From April 27, 2008

“In effect, we have adapted well and blended with different cultures. But we have not, in any big, concerted way like other peoples have done, shared our own original music, cuisine, books and ideas, movies, dances, and our stories for them world to assimilate, enjoy and learn from. When we think of Japan, China, Africa and America, for example, we are bombarded with visual themes that speak of what their people and culture are like. But rarely has the world seen the true face of the Filipino.”

“But if we want to move out of the limited image the world has of us, including the derogatory ones like “mail-order brides,” domestic helpers, “Japayuki,” corrupt people, dog-eaters, the “sick man of Asia” and other unsavory epithets, we may have to speak louder and tell our stories with our own voice and walk with a little more swagger and assertiveness.”

“But before we can share more of these and become a major cultural force in the world, there is something that we must do: we have to believe in ourselves. We must believe that we have something to share, as other cultures have. We can’t show our stuff to the world if we have not learned to take pride in ourselves.”

“For starters, we have to be more accepting of who we are as we are. We need not seek approval from others. We must stop bad-mouthing ourselves and our culture, and accept that there is greatness in us. No more bashing ourselves and doubting our capabilities. Let’s start dreaming big. We CAN do it.”

“As much as we have been looking outward, let us also look inward and rediscover our literature, music, arts, theater, cuisine, stories, and proudly share these with the rest of the world. We’ve been trying to fit into other cultures for too long. Let us now invite those cultures to our celebration of ourselves.”

Source: Mr. Paredes blog

We Need To Change, 25 Years Ago.

I’ve always believed in the Philippines. That’s one of the reasons I came back, I want to be part of the change. I was to contribute. Unfortunately, this is not an easy task. One of the few things I realized since coming back is that change in the Government isn’t enough, the very root of Filipino society must be shaken apart. We absolutely don’t have any love for our country, there’s no REAL pride in our people, and NO, Manny Pacquiao doesn’t count. I guess it’s the result of our colonial years under the Spanish, Japanese and American rule, where we look down on ourselves and have this great notion that all things western-made is great and everything that we can do pales in comparison.

Another thing is that we are selfish, human beings are naturally selfish but Filipinos are on some next level “me me me me me” shit. I rationalized it to the thinking that because it seems so hopeless, that looking to the future isn’t an optional anymore, which leads to this type of mentality. If you’re looking for sacrifice for the greater good, well, don’t bother to look here friends. Granted that any significant change possibly won’t be seen by the current generation, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive to improve our situation, and improving our situation can’t be done by changing Presidents, it can’t be done by changing policies or lowering the prices of electricity and food. All those help but our attitude and our philosophy must change, society itself must change, because we are to be blamed. Yes, me, you, all of us are to be blamed for our situation, in our own little way, we have slowly damaged and corrupted our society. By listening to crap ass songs and crap ass shows that hold little intellectual value, by saying don’t take those stupid shows away because it’s the only avenue of happiness that we can afford. That’s bullshit, because by saying that, we again are looking down upon ourselves.

And with that introduction, there are some topics I’d like to tackle for today:

1. Increasing oil prices -

With the past few weeks, one of the major issues in the world is the big increase in oil prices on almost a daily basis. And I believe, currently it’s hitting slightly above the USD 120 mark. And naturally 3rd world countries like ours, the Philippines for my international readers, will be heavily hit. Not only will the increase in oil prices affect our petrol consumption, it also affects prices of goods and services. People will grovel most at the fuel prices increasing on an almost bi-weekly basis. And the reason why it’s terribly bad on our side of the world, is that we lack the proper mass transportation that is available in most metropolitan cities around the world. Cities like Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo and the like, because of good mass transportation facilities, there are less cars, because simply, the need isn’t there and add to the fact that car prices are mad expensive. The math is simple, due to less cars, the consumers won’t be affected that much by the increase in fuel, unlike in our situation, our people depend highly on non-efficient consumers of fuel such as the jeepney and the tricycle. Funny how proud we are of our jeepneys, when these things are badly engineered, cause tremendous traffic with their unruly driving and probably are cause for many car accidents on the road. The message is there, WE NEED BETTER MASS TRANSPORTATION. Enough with the “para po, manong”.

2. Kontra Magazine -

Okay, still trying to get this ball rollin’. I kinda have my sections in mind and some concepts written down. Interviews and articles still need to be started on. What I really need now is somebody who can do basic layouts and who’s willing to do it pro-bono. If you’re looking for an opportunity to work on something different and fresh, this is going to something you’ll enjoy, I promise. So layout gurus and artsy folks, hit me up now now now now!!!

3. NBI Clearance -

Related to the bureaucracy and redtape that our government and our professionals are oh-so famous for. Today I went to the Carriedo office to secure my NBI clearance which is something like a police clearance in other countries. I was relatively surprised that despite the shabby structure of their offices, badly placed signs and slightly messy queue structure, I was able to finish within just slightly over an hour’s time. This is the same clearance, that used to take at least a day to finish. I applaud the effort but definitely there are many things that could’ve been done to cut down the time even more. From what I could see, there was definitely an inefficient use of space, the process flow is still kind of messy, even though it helps that there were big ass cardboard signs saying “STEP 1″. Lots of things that can still be improved upon, but props must be given for the effort in improving the system. Oh, automated payment machines were available too, that impressed me a bit.

Back from Hong Kong

After 8 or so fun days in Hong Kong and Macau, we are back in Manila land!

The trip was pretty good, although I wasn’t able to go to the Banksy show due to time constraints, I was able to go to most of the spots that I planned to go to.  The experience was great and the food was superb, most of the time anyway. And although this was purely a pleasure trip, I was able to secure a decent businesss lead, so I will try to see where this might go, more details to follow.

I have so many stories to tell and learned so much, all this and photos to follow as well. Let’s just take this as our prologue.

This Is An Awareness Test

A-MAZING!

The Kontra Zine

The Kontra Zine is an idea that I’ve been messing around with since around mid of 2007. It started out to be a webzine for local art, music, film and the like. In fact, I have developed some idea for certain sections of the zine and have lined up some possible features and topics that the zine could take on, however due to manpower constraints as well as limitations on my experience in creating a magazine, even though quite simply it’s just an online magazine in a blog format. I’ve kept postponing the whole idea, for the fear that I wouldn’t have enough ideas to keep the webzine afloat consistently.

And now, I’ve decided to take another shot at it, in a printed format. This allows me to control the timeline for the releases of material better, that even if I can only churn out 1 issue per year, it wouldn’t feel like such a waste. It’s a personal preference and probably because it’s tangible, it can be the same issue but it can be passed around and would have different effects, hopefully profound, for each and every reader. Nothing is set in stone for now, but I will try to work this thing out. Definitely, this will not be your ordinary magazine or digest. We will be very focused on the content of the features and really get behind the ideals of the topics that we will be featuring. It will be very tough, and I don’t know shit about editing or magazines, but it should be quite fun.

“‘Cause we like to shake things up!”

Doodling

For as long as I can remember, as long as I have a pen or pencil on my hand and a piece of paper in front of me, I will definitely doodle. Whether this act is just a necessary impulse, or just a habit that I’ve grown into, it just happens. Anybody who has been my seatmate or has seen my notebooks and books throughout my schooling life from early elementary to college can attest that no page is safe from my doodling, sometimes it just takes up one small corner and other times it takes up whole spaces. I think it’s a sort of a release for me, a way to channel my focus into something else. I’ve always had a difficult time focusing on a certain task for long periods of time, I need something to distract and shift my attention to, I guess you could say I get bored easily.

I still doodle to this day, like I said earlier, a pen and a piece of paper, that’s all I need. I would say it’s something that became part of my life and it lead me to a path in my life which led me to where I am now. Let me further elaborate, during my early years of doodling, a lot of what I drew was influenced by comics which I read growing up. I read mostly Marvel and DC superhero stuff with some occassional manga like Dragon Ball. Of course back then I thought that I had enough talent to maybe pursue a career in drawing comics, that was before I realized that perhaps it wasn’t the best way to make a living. Money isn’t everything but growing up in a capitalist society and a family that put emphasis on business and making money, it’s not so easy to put passion over money. It’s a struggle that I have with myself until this very day, but more on this in the future.

From this dream of becoming a comicbook artist grew my love for the arts, particularly in the early years, graphic design. Now, this was something I thought I could really sink my teeth into, but at the time, I was past the midway into finishing my degree in Business Administration, and I just couldn’t push through with a resolve to shift courses and finally pursue something that I felt passionate about. I still tried to learn about it and with the help of the internet, I self-studied and actually was able to become decent with Photoshop, but the basics of art wasn’t there and it just fell apart from there.

If there was anything good that came out of learning more about design, I was exposed to a big variety of arts and it’s various mediums, and it’s something that I follow to this very day, in particular graffiti as well as pop art derived from different sources like album covers, magazine covers, promotional materials and the like.

And now I am back to where it began, I’m doing what I do best, doodling. Funny how things have come to a full circle or rectangle, whatever. I don’t regret much that I wasn’t able to pursue a career as a penciller or a graphic artists. Trying them out as possible careers, opened my mind up to so much more things and ideas, and basically a lot of who I am now and what I know myself to be now. It is the path that took me to where I am, perhaps if I took a different road earlier, I would still end up here, the most important thing is that this is who Jason is.

And with this parting, I share something I read in the Philosophy Zine which inspired this whole post. From a verse written by Naoyuki Inoue:

“The path you have taken has led you to where you are now. Who you are now creates the path from here on.“

Maybe It’s My Fault - Jordan Brand Commercial

Inspirational! Great stuff from the guys at Wieden+Kennedy.

Musica Oh Musica

A great song for the upcoming rainy season,

Eight Legs with These Grey Days

And the track where I ripped my blog title from,

The Rakes with The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect

Enjoy!