End of the road.

I've mentioned before in this blog about my love for all things celtics, so it should come as no surprise that I am still reeling from last week's game 7 finals loss to the Lakers.

The damn Lakers.

Maybe I should be happy that this team even went this far. Just last March, I was silently expecting a first round flameout by the celtics.

Then they started moving up each round, taking down Wade, Lebron & Dwight Howard. We made it to the finals. It was celtics v. lakers. A series for all the marbles. We had to get this.

You know the rest of the story.

Still, it was great to root for a scrappy, feisty team that still had a puncher's chance at the title even until the final minute of the season's last game. I must admit, however, that this playoff run has left me exhausted & deflated.

I really shouldn't complain. They made the finals & I've seen much worse.

In the 90's, I was that awkward teen with a celtic hat, rooting for a 15 win team. Earlier that decade, I collected newspaper clippings about Reggie Lewis, the team's young star, collapsing on the court then dying of a heart condition.

There was coach M.L. Carr (gag!), coach Rick Pitino (blech!), a season's worth of tanking for a shot at the Tim Duncan lottery (and ending up with Ron Mercer), team captain & mr. celtic: Rick Fox, uncle Dominique Wilkins & his #12 celtic jersey, John freaking Bagley & then future savior, Vin Baker.

whew, I'm tired.

But come november, you can bet I'll be at it again. Rooting for the team in green.

I'll be ready.

Welcome to life as a celtic fan, kid.

Hey, neighbor.

the past weeks have been all about daily diapers & deadlines, so it was a nice to see a fresh new twist one morning. it looks like a tiny new neighbor is moving in and has been quietly building his new home in my bathroom window. seems like a nice spot for a new feathered family.

the little builder is at the top right of the photo, nervously watching me while perched on an outside wire.

one drawback is that i've now been consciously watching my time in the bathroom because it frightens away our little friend (let's call him larry joe bird.). au revoir, long showers.

hopefully, larry joe & his growing family sticks around & realizes we're not a threat. there's enough room for another new set of parents and their little baby in our house.

poll dance

in two days, the whole country will be voting in a big chunk of the next administration. from the executive to legislative branches, from national to the local government. from president to senator to mayor to even city councilor.

in davao city, where i live, we are asked to choose 24 candidates whittled down from a list of hundreds. a little too much to ask of the common tao, no?. wouldn't it be easier to separate these elections? sure, but this is the philippines we're talking about. we don't do easy in this country.

the streets, lightposts, trees, every visible wall (you name it) have been stapled, glued & tied with electoral banners & posters. trucks with speakers blaring out indecipherable campaign jingles roam the streets all day (and night). the songs are guaranteed to remain embedded in your head for weeks, even months, whether you like it or not. just imagine the bombardment of radio & tv ads. these days, i am glad i do not own a tv.

amid the heated partisanship and campaigning (as well as the occasional election related violence), there remains a distinctly festive atmosphere. it's as if a semi-permanent fiesta has enveloped the whole country. personally, i find the vibe somewhat fun, energizing & bewildering.

this election has been like no other. modern technology has seeped into party campaigning. twitter, facebook and the like have opened a new front. this will also be the first fully automated elections. yes, the first time. yikes.

campaign tactics have slowly morphed too. though there are the ever present campaign songs, slogans and colors (yes, here, a candidate's chosen color matters), logo designs and indirect advertising are also slowly working their way in.

this billboard doesn't mention the candidate's name or national position he is seeking, just his logo (a stylized V from his name) and his party's color (orange). a white background behind a collection of campaign stickers that form the V logo. I would call it sharp subtle messaging except for the blatant ripoff of the nike logo (again, this is the philippines. check your trademarks & copyrights at the door).

on the local front, the change slogan has been effectively adopted by the city's opposition party. i can't say i am surprised by this. it was easy to see that the US elections two years ago would influence many election campaigns globally (we all know how that change candidate in the US fared).

hollywood style billboards proclaiming "change is coming" like a summer film teaser surround the cityscape. for good measure, a bisaya version (the local dialect) is placed below this larger billboard.

not to be outdone, the incumbent party retaliates. it may be an effective rebuttal, but i could do without the extra exclamation points (should i mention the red & green all caps letters on white? i think i just did. merry christmas).

i will now leave the last word to sean connery. upon seeing this ad & knowing that the candidate is a long time james bond fan, this gave me good chuckle. whether mr. connery is aware of his endorsement or not (my bet's on not), i had to admire the playfulness of this billboard.

interesting note: it seems like wherever we go, there seems to be an election going on. 2 years ago, we were living in US witnessing the obama/mccain duel. when we moved to mexico the following year, another election was happening. now, it's the philippines' turn. each time, the incumbent party was beaten soundly by the opposition. it's looking like the same thing will happen here.

alison in wonderland.

ok, so i've plunged into this rabbit hole called parenting.

with this little girl as my guide.

it's been a full month now.

i'll be back when i rediscover this thing i call sleep.

catching up

since i've done a superb job in neglecting this blog in the month of november (and december!), here's a quick rundown on what i've been up to in this most recent move to the philippines.

just as i had planned, i'm beginning to branch out with respect to my art. art has, in recent years, mutated into a job and that can get tedious. it's time to return to the days when drawing was fun and not a means to a paycheck.

i always delighted in the idea of doing body painting, but this was not what i had in mind. so much for dreaming of swimsuit edition models. next please.

i do not usually accept side projects from friends. mostly because these type of requests create complications with my already jampacked work schedule (among other reasons).

but sometime in november, the clouds miraculously parted and a friend asked if i could design a quickie logo for a new fitness gym she was starting.

one major plus with the move to the philippines was freeing myself up and getting back in shape. over the years, the freelance illustrator lifestyle has wrought major damages to my lower back. now was the time to fix this thing & get back in shape.

i spend a great deal of time in the gym fixing myself. but there are also times i find myself venturing outdoors. like, for example, this one cloudy morning jogging the streets of davao.

and then there is the day job. the two chapter book series from competing publishers have kept me busy. also, after temporarily swearing off picture books so i could enjoy some free time, i've recently signed on to a halloween themed hidden picture book (i am so predictable).

i've also finished a few more flat stanley illustrations. the most recent of which was a mexico themed book which gave me a wonderful excuse to browse through my san miguel de allende pictures for photo references. i miss that town.

and there is also this thing about a new arrival coming in very soon.

if erap starred in a zombie flick...

it's alive!

last week, joseph estrada, the philippine's former jeuteng lord -in-chief, formally announced his bid to run in 2010's presidential elections. that means i get to draw him one more time! so many ways to draw him, so little time. the guy is practically god's gift to filipino editorial artists.

estrada, the mustachoid former b-movie action star, has been ousted from his presidency, convicted of plunder for taking bribes from gambling lords and linked to unsolved murders. oh, there's more., but i'll spare you the details.

and yet, estrada is convinced that he still has a shot at winning back the presidency -- even if his eligibility (by way of a presidential pardon by the current president. ugh.) is currently in question.

for his campaign, he has voiced his support for an all-out war in mindanao (good luck with that) and for the legalization of jueteng, an illegal numbers game that is directly linked to his conviction for corruption. nice.

even for a nation that is notorious for reveling in candidates who show off their folksy inarticulateness as a matter of pride -- that lack of an intelligent grasp of the sophisticated intricacies of government & disguising it as a populist everyman stance that discards facts & knowledge as mere facets of the disconnected elites, estrada is pushing his luck. (hm, sounds familiar - apparently, this national trait is not exclusive in these modern times).

ah, yes, he's back. and i drew him. it's halloween. i like zombies. so, he's a zombie. in a zombie flick.

can you see him hunched down & limping his way to malacañang palace, mumbling incoherently with empty bloodshot eyes, hungry to seize what he thinks is his? my god, it's already happening.

*** feel free to use my artwork above. just make sure to credit me if you choose to do so.

** to the pinoy northerners: "kawatan" means "thief/magnanakaw" in bisaya.

a little visit.

my rep's nephew had a school flat stanley project & my rep thought it would be nice to have the book illustrator help out (yep, that would be me). i agreed that this was a great idea and a nice way to show a flat stanley photo tour of davao.

plus, any opportunity i get to look cool in a classroom, even if it's 20+ years too late, was well worth the effort.

then the typhoon swept in.

so much for the outdoor shots. though davao doesn't get hit typhoons (unlike the northern philippines), the city still get it's share of heavy rains & gusty wind...

...which almost rips stanley's arms off. maybe taking a 10th floor rooftop picture wasn't a good idea after all. sorry, stan.

so we settled on the next best idea. fruit shots!

and more fruits.

and of course, the durian. this is davao after all.