More than a year ago I was able to live–albeit briefly, my dream of working in a magazine. I served as Editor of Square, a magazine for young people. I chronicled that marvelous experience here and here. After that, I spent last year doing what I usually did, in terms of work. Until early this year, when I got a call from a friend who recommended me to be involved in another magazine.
The magazine, called G21, was sort of a competitor of Square because it used to be about education and career, and targeting young people as well. But Square wasn’t just about education; it was about lifestyle, fashion, and other things that interested young people. In the last 6 months though, G21 has undergone a metamorphosis of some sort, turning into a magazine that is focused on older girls and young women. It’s a very interesting concept, full of exciting possibilities.
So I came in as a Creative Consultant (although my scope of work covers some editorial work as well) on a 20-hour a week basis. I’m basically in charge of how the magazine looks. I’m giving myself (I think the same goes for the company) a 3-month trial period for this. If I think the working relationship is working, I will consider a longer involvement. I hadn’t signed a written contract, and this might be best under the circumstances.
A couple of weeks ago, the first issue that I was involved with came out. Feedback was generally positive about the issue, but personally I think there is enough room for improvement. Unlike with Square, where I had complete editorial and creative control, G21 is completely a collaborative effort.
G21 March 2009 Issue (first time to feature a couple in the cover)
Also, I was in India last week. The two previous posts were written in my spare time in the evening. Sadly on my 3rd night the Wi-Fi stopped working until the day I returned to Cambodia. When I had the chance I looked at Indian magazines and purchased some. I was amazed at how cheap the magazines were. They ranged from $1.50 to $2.00 only. So, as a homage to fuchsiaboy’s style of blogging, here are the magazines I got in India.
Harper’s Bazaar India supposedly a collector’s item because it’s the maiden issue, also, it has crystallized Swarovsky elements on the magazine name
Cosmopolitan India Freida Pinto found fame thru ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, she is in two magazines this month, the second being
Vogue India Freida’s photoshoot here is way better than the Cosmo shoot, shot by Regan Cameron
Vogue Fashion Supplement 66 pages of fashion stuff, probably because India Fashion Week happens every March
Men’s Health India Personally, I find Indian men hot hence the purchase of this magazine. I would’ve loved to get GQ as well but the store didn’t have it.
Men’s Health Magazine Style Supplement This is on the flip side of the magazine and I think the model is hotter than the cover guy.
I read in an interview that Allan Ball (creator of Six Feet Under) first read ‘Dead Until Dark’ at the airport, liked the book so much, found out that it was the first of a series of books (what would came to be called the Sookie Stackhouse novels), and read the series before phoning author Charlaine Harris to discuss the possibility of developing a TV series based on the book(s).
And the rest they say, is TV history. Equally reviled and acclaimed by critics, the series won its lead star (the wonderful Anna Paquin) a couple of best actress awards, one from the Golden Globes.
I saw teasers about it on HBO and Cinemax and I was pleasantly surprised to see it in my friendly neighborhood (pirated) DVD shop. I immediately bought it for an impromptu DVD marathon. I would say that Six Feet Under was much better than this series. However, compared to other non-Alan Ball shows, True Blood is great. There are lots of sex and gore, which made me think it can’t be shown intact on HBO because coming from repressed Singapore, it censors its films (I later learned it will be shown on Cinemax instead, proving my point). But the story is equally horrific, funny, and allegorical–three things I like in my horror/fantasy films. The allegory might be a little obvious (God hates Fangs? C’ mon!) but the whole series was cleverly written and made many surprising turns.
I’m looking forward to seeing more of ‘True Blood’. I heard that the first season was based on the first book. There are 9 in the series, so there. I hope it lasts longer than ‘Carnivale’, another great HBO show that ended prematurely after only just 2 seasons.
Like Alan Ball, I first saw ‘Twilight’ in one of the bookshops in Suvannabhumi Airport in Bangkok. Because I had a long lay-over at the airport, I bought the book and started to read it. However, after about 150 pages, i wasn’t still engaged into the book. So I stopped reading it and got a foot massage instead. I felt the same way when I tried to read a Harry Potter book. For a vampire novel, it was anemic–like a vampire who has not feed for years. And there were 4 in this series of books!
Fast forward to early this year, and the book, like most bestsellers, has been turned into a movie. My hopes for the film rose when I learned that Kristen Stewart would be playing Bella. I loved Kristen in ‘Panic Room’ and ‘Into the Wild’. The guy who was playing the vampire was being hyped as this super-handsome guy, which I didn’t quite buy into. In my opinion, the guy who played Prince Caspian (whose names escapes mo now, sorry) was hotter.
So how was the movie? Well, in keeping with the pun I started in a previous paragraph, the movie simply sucked, and not in a good vampire way at all. For starters, the mythology for me was too convenient. And as the lead, Bella’s character is virtually a damsel in distress who can only be saved by someone who is very strong but very prone to violence. A vampire who hits his girlfriend? That would be interesting! Anything than this chaste, pseudo-brooding mess of a movie. And it was a huge hit! I’m probably not the real target of this movie, having reached a certain age and a certain level of cynicism. FYI, as I am writing this, release dates for the next 2 films have been announced already. (Gasp!)
Just so we’re clear: I abso-fu***ng-lutely love True Blood, and would rather much see Twilight disappear into the night. I especially love the main theme of the show, which I have attached in this post. Hope ya enjoy that song, y’all, as I did. I’m currently reading this book, another bestseller, whose movie version I read somewhere will be released on 2010. So far, it’s living up to the hype. I am so loving this book!
The other weekend I traveled to Siem Reap to be with two men.
The first man took the bus with me. I’ve known him for about 8 months. We’ve been seeing each other intermittently over this period of time. Having coffee. Having sex. This was our first trip together. I was going to spend the weekend with him. Although a tour of Angkor Wat was not in our agenda, although there was a possibility that I would be his kept-boy in his hotel room, I still considered the trip a holiday.
A friend told me once that taking a trip together will help you get to know a person you’re dating (or just having sex with) better. I mean, a trip constitutes more time spent together compared to coffee or dinner dates. A trip means staying after sex, sleeping on the same bed (or in the same room), and seeing each other in the morning.
So while I had no real hopes that my current involvement with N will go beyond what it is now, I still accepted his invitation. I mean, it is always nice to visit Siem Reap. I’ve grown to love it partly because of K. Siem Reap was almost our second home–our love nest, if we ever had one. Besides, I had other plans. I had no intentions of becoming that boy (okay, man!) inside a hotel room, waiting to service the guy he’s with after his day’s work.
The bus trip was okay, I guess. N wasn’t pleased to see one of his colleagues in the bus with us. He expected this guy to have taken the morning trip. At the stop-over, the three of us sat together at the table. They ate noodles while I drank iced coffee. N sort of ignored me. I didn’t get upset at all. After all, I’d been with many closet cases not to be surprised by this behavior. Back in the bus, however, I was touched when N apologized for his actions in the restaurant. He said he wanted to hold me but didn’t want his colleague to see him that way. I told you, I’d been with many closet cases to be flattered with this platitude.
The evening was uneventful. We had a great dinner in his favorite restaurant on Pub Street where he ate Beef Stroganoff while I had Spaghetti Puttanesca. Got a great foot massage. By the time we got back to the hotel, I was mellow from the massage. But he remained frisky. In the morning we didn’t take our breakfast in the hotel. After he had gone to the training that he was conducting, I dawdled around the room. I went out to have brunch at Blue Pumpkin at 10AM, checked my emails, and browsed around shops that I always went to.
At 1PM, I met someone for lunch at AHA. This is the second man that I went to Siem Reap. I’ve known him since last year because we were both bloggers. But this was to be our first meeting. I was excited and terrified. Most probably because I am aware that I cut a more interesting figure on-line. I’m aware of the fact that face-to-face, I can be very boring. This is why I’m always hesitant to meet people I know through the internet. Sure, I’m good enough for a witty chat time and again but in person I can be very un-interesting.
However, I’ve been really wanting to meet him so I braved through my insecurity and made an appointment with him. After sitting for a few minutes in the restaurant and taking pictures of its delish interiors, I soon spotted Fuchsiaboy’s towering figure step into the restaurant. There’s a strong sense of the familiar–like deja vu, like I’ve met him before. After ordering the sumptuously-described food, we launched into such a pleasant conversation that my worries of not being impressive vanished altogether. It didn’t matter.
After an excellent dessert, we parted ways, with promises of seeing each other when one of us in each other’s town. I walked under sun and dust on Sivatha Boulevard to buy my favorite Khmer sausage in a shop a few meters from the road. Then went back to the hotel at around 4PM. I napped and woke up minutes before N went in the room. We talked about the things we did in the day, letting the TV run with its darkly comic film starring William H. Macy.
As N planned our dinner, I was thinking of routines. Contrary to this routine, however, we had sex before going out to dinner. I think N did so we can exchange knowing smiles as we sat in the restaurant waiting for our food. He pointed out that the waiter was flirting with me. As always, I was clueless about this. The waiter was cute, though, if not too boyish for my taste.
On my last night in Siem Reap with him, N and I spent a quiet night. At about 5AM I crawled into bed with him and we had one of my best morning-sex ever. At breakfast he was exceptionally cheerful. When I told him before that I liked sex best in the morning, he thought I was joking. Now he knew for sure. He asked me if I would be all right going to the bus station by myself for the noon trip back to dear old Phnom Penh. I said it was no problem. He gave me a somewhat long kiss before heading to his training.
I had some salad at the Blue Pumpkin before going to the bus station. As the bus traveled out of Siem Reap, it started to rain heavily. Strange weather. I went home thinking of N. My trip with him wasn’t spectacular, but it wasn’t a disaster at all. I wasn’t prepared to see him being a closet case (because he had told me before he was comfortable with himself) but it didn’t upset me because as a Cambodian, he will never be comfortable to let a subordinate at work know he is gay. I understood perfectly. I hope N learned something new about me also.
I feel somewhat the same about Fuchsiaboy. I can totally imagine us being friends. I just hope I didn’t bore him. As he wrote about in his blog, I am posting our photo here.
Jai Ho – AR Rahman and the Pussycat Dolls Let me say this now, this post is not about the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, which I loved very much (it made me cry in a good way). This is more likely a reflection of the side effects of the fame of the award-winning film on the Indian people. Because the film made a killing at the recent Oscar awards (and the film is quite good as well), most of the people I know think of it every time they see an Indian (or Bumbay–the term I grew up with, evoking images of dark men with turbans and beards and piercing wide eyes).
My friend J is Indian, though he’s been based in Bangkok for a long time now. He is in Phnom Penh working on a consultancy with a UN-affiliated agency. I had dinner with him last Monday, the day after he arrived. I promised him a dinner and a night ‘on the town’ this Saturday. Yesterday V and I spent some time planning the menu. I wanted J to taste Filipino food that is not so alien from his typical South Indian fare.
So V and I decided on Waldorf salad (okay, not really Filipino–hehehe), pork dumpling soup (or molo soup), vegetable fritters (or okoy), Filipino-style chicken curry, vegetable potpourri, and some creme caramel (aka leche flan) for dessert. The curry we chose for obvious reasons. To me the vegetable fritters were kind of like the pakora (which I also love). The salad used sour cream, a common ingredient in Indian cuisine. The flan, meanwhile, was a less-greasy version of the gulab jamun. I think the soup was the only ‘different’ dish in this menu, for J, at least.
We went to the market before lunch time and started cooking at around 2PM. I was content to take the back seat (yes, there’s always more fun in the back seat–hahaha) in cooking these dishes. I helped V process the ingredients (preparing the meats, chopping the vegetables, opening cans, etc.) but basically left the cooking to him–providing quick feedback on the taste of the food. It was always fun (and educational) to watch V as he cooked. This time I was happy to be cooking with him that the hours flew by un-noticed. I almost forgot, I fried the fritters! So, much as I want to claim credit for the food (pictured below), I really can’t. It was, at best, a collaboration between V and I.
By 7PM some of our guests have arrived. I picked J from his hotel and brought him to the house. There he met my flat-mate, his friend H, my friends D and N, and of course V. K and T arrived hours later. J appeared visibly pleased with the food, as well as the other guests.
After dinner, we decided to go to Blue Chilli because there was a drag show there every Friday and Saturday night. When we got there, there was already a sizable crowd waiting for the show. The show began at about 11PM and ended about half an hour later. Since 3 of us (J, H and moi) were scheduled to travel to the province the next day, we decided to go home after the show. After dropping J off at his hotel, we went home and I tidied up the kitchen before finally going to bed and writing this.
post-script: Before dinner I had been wondering who among my friends will bring up ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ when they see J. The prize goes to D (he was actually second on my list). Well, not really. Because it happened like this. Just after we had dinner, while waiting for the coffee, J and D were talking about their respective jobs. After about a couple of exchanges, they both suddenly became quiet. After about 30 seconds of dead air (if that were a television show the producer would’ve already been in a state of panic), J asked D what he thought of the film. D was visibly resuscitated by the question and they proceeded to converse for quite a while, before the others caught up.
Why did J bring up the film? Did he sense that D was struggling with the urge to ask him the question so J decided to just let it out in the open and get the questions done with? Should a Filipino film finally win an Oscar (either as foreign language film or the mainstream best picture), will other people (nationalities) think of that film each time they see a Filipino (and ask us all sorts of questions about the film–or appear wracked with the urge to do so)? Can we be as gracious as J when that question arises?
