the inauguration in san miguel

san miguel de allende was abuzz with regards to barack obama's presidential inauguration. i've noticed that a large number of the town's american expat population seem to be quite socially progressive. suffice to say, i'm ok with that.

so on the morning of january 20, 2009, restaurants & bars opened early and had their large tv screens set to the inauguration. all of them choosing cnn as their channel of choice.

i saw retired expats walking in blue obama/biden shirts and some women in red,white & blue scarves. around 10am, an hour before the swearing in, there were a few of them frantically walking by the jardin looking for a place that was not yet crowded & maybe hoping to score an empty seat or two.

personally, the expat population in san miguel has been a nice surprise addition to my people watching tendencies. i thought my move here would be to enjoy the culture & lifestyle of the mexican people but i also find the expats to be a fascinating unique & separate subculture themselves.


a sports bar advertising the inauguration & the superbowl.


i took a peak at the more prominent "Democrats Abroad" hosted event in this restaurant. soon, people will be turned away as i saw others standing on chairs.


i finally found a cafe that wasn't too crowded. seems like the owner was busy decorating the place for that day. obama buttons were even being sold inside.


the small dinky tv with the spanish telecast (for the latecomers).



applause after the swearing in. the large tv for the american cnn telecast. afterwards, the cafe played the boss' "born in the USA" & jimi hendrix's "star spangled banner", most likely unaware that these were protest songs. but hey, still good stuff.

safe!

it's official. final. done. terminado. after much revisions, a childbirth (not mine), holiday breaks (sadly, not mine either) & a careful lesson in baseball science (looong story). i can now safely say that my 7th picture book is officially completed.

it is an alphabet book with a baseball theme (my second book with the sport). i find it interesting that i've accumulated a number of baseball related projects -- i also did a baseball themed greeting card & a "sing-a-long" baseball picture book a few years back. i'm guessing it was all because of one early baseball image from my portfolio soon after art school.

maybe someday i get to do a basketball book. then again, i may have to write that one.

** a small note: the two images in this post are cropped from that book. i hesitate showing any full images until the book is officially advertised by the publisher, so please don't share the image. just to be careful, i've also decided not to mention the book title.

boy

soon after last month's virgin of guadalupe festivities, a young boy in an aztec costume kept coming up to my wife. we joked that he may be a an aztec fertility god. a sign of what may come. now, she can't get little boys out of her mind.

here's hoping he was just a normal kid in a parade costume.

feliz navidad

border crossing

i just moved to mexico. san miguel de allende, mexico to be exact. which would partly explain my lack of new posts (another reason: usually late in the year the publishers throw everything at me. i suspect the holidays & year-ender deadlines are the main culprits).

i hope to get back on track soon & update this blog. at the moment, i've got a new found fascination for mexican culture & history. san miguel is perfect for that. it's quite an artist town too & i've already met a few of them.

i'm guessing my current picture book will be heavily influenced by the bright colors & architecture that surround me ( it's called "alfred zector: book collector" - about a boy who loves collecting books & in the course, practically drains a whole town of them. more on that later).

last note. in the last 2 months, i've visited both of the US' neighbors, canada & mexico (the hat & the pants, ha). and even though i i've always been aware of this, it's still fascinates me how little we (as in, US residents) know about our neighbors. there is this never-ending caricature of mexico & canada that now seem so lazy & outdated. i get the humor, in fact i find them funny, but i wish a few more americans could see what they are missing out on.

anyway, i'm now excited to explore my new home. there are pyramids, colonial ruins & an exotic rich history to be discovered. plus, andy & red's beach (ehrm, shawshank redemption) is only an extended bus ride away! (publishing gods please be kind, heh).

working on the train...

montreal to quebec. sketching on rails: so much easier than on a plane.
plus points on the view: canada's pretty fall colors.

tv adds 10 pounds to the ears

here's an interview i did last october for a US based filipino tv show that is televised globally. it was also their halloween special so i agreed to throw in a few monster sketches for them.

i planned to show 2 books, "bedtime at the swamp" & "the twelve days of christmas". unfortunately, like always, i probably talked too much & the show had to cut the segment for the christmas book (and a huge chunk of my answer to the last question).

by the way, it was about 4pm and i hadn't yet had a meal that day. not a great idea for a tv show rookie. i think i may have worried the staff a bit with my low key demeanor/hunger. someone behind the camera yelled out "remember macky, ENERGY!" complete with a fist pump. uh, yeah, that helped perk me up.

on the flip side, my mom called & said i looked great! 

but really, i certainly appreciate the opportunity to be on the show. it was a rare treat for a book illustrator like me. it was a lot of fun too & i wouldn't mind doing it again.

my brother, chris, wrote it best in an email:
"they left out the best parts: the bisaya slip (macky doesn't know what's bisaya and what's tagalog) and the 'yeah, maybe lapu lapu. he's the only filipino hero that didn't lose'."

*by the way, chris told everyone he was my manager & everyone believed it. even demanding more make up for me. so i get serious cake on my face... right before the cameras rolled. sweet.