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7 Years Married, Painting In The Dark

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This is my first time to see this painting in daylight. A quick and dirty mural we painted in the dark last week accidentally and appropriately captured the color, energy, and an appropriate amount of turbulence that this marriage has grown through. So fitting. I see colors outside the lines, rough edges, our children, and overflow. I guess that that's what marriage is: painting in the dark. Nobody knows all the answers, or has a playbook from day one. At best, you have a rough sketch. Nobody really knows how it's all gonna turn out. But trust even in disagreement. When you can't trust Read More

30 Hours in Hanoi – (Part 1 of 2)

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How rich our experience was in Hanoi’s Old Quarter is a testament to how dense the town is. Here are our key tips and things we discovered in our altogether too short visit to Hanoi. Go to the Cultural Exchange Museum first. This museum is not that popular. In fact, we walked right past it, and the lights were off when we first stepped in. Some sort of guard came out of a security office and turned everything on when he noticed us. We actually stumbled upon it on google maps, where in icon that said “Culture” indicated that some sort of museum or historical site was there. Without Read More

The Significance of Children’s Parties

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Emma turned four. She's been eagerly awaiting this day since August. As the last birthday of the year, she has to watch her sisters get their parties first, steeping in the mild jealousy that only a middle child could truly understand. My dad came to me two weeks before and said to make sure that Emma got a birthday party too, as her sisters did. The truth is that we were always going to have one, but organizing these DIY parties really takes the steam out of us parents who already work hard on the weekdays. Nica gives up several hours of sleep to make all the drawings for decor, the craft Read More

“Of Miracle” (Christmas Collection 2015, 1 of 6)

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Stretching some old legs, Nica and I decided to put together a friends and family collection of canvases for Christmas. It was a challenge because A) I had not worked on canvas for almost a decade; and B) we decided to match the individual works to the recipients' personalities/homes. This also posed yet another challenge: how do you put together a cohesive body of work for such a diverse group of people and homes? I'll be posting the finished works over the next couple of weeks and you can decide if we were able to meet the parameters we had set out for ourselves. This first piece is for my Read More

Life Partner

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Last night on the drive home from my in-laws' house in Cainta, Summer, who sits in the Chewbacca seat, asked me to "Please play mom's song." Nica's not super fond of listening to her own recordings, especially the studio stuff. Nevertheless, we do let Summer get what she wants every once in a while. I pulled over and cued up "Oras Oras." It's a pre-master version that I happen to have, which is loads better than the cut that eventually made it on to the record. For those of you who have never heard her sing, Nica's awesome. The girls drifted off to dreamland to the sounds of their Read More

Live Long and Prosper

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I've not yet been able to pay tribute to one Leonard Nimoy. Here goes. Contrary to what most may think, I'm actually not that big a Star Trek fan, though I am certainly one. And yes, if I had to pick a character from Star Trek that I most relate to, then that character would undoubtably have to be Nimoy's. But when I think about which of his works I appreciate the most, I think I'd have to say that it was through one of his more — what's the word? "Mainstream" directorial projects. Three Men and a Baby. I'm never going to be Spock, but at some point, I've been all of these three Read More

Naming You.

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Dear Jo, On October 16th, 2014, you came into our world. It's been one month today. Much like your older sister Summer, you arrived as early as you safely could, just over 37 weeks. I called Lola Nelia at 1AM because your mom started having contractions in the middle of the night. Lola came to watch Summer and Emma while Lolo drove us to St Luke's in QC. From that point, the whole process of going to the delivery room and having you took less than 3 hours. Mom tells me that she only pushed twice and there you were. There you were. And here you are. If I'm honest, we did have some Read More

Kisses Through the Window

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Summer always insists on saying goodbye to me twice every morning. First, she'll kiss me first and say, "Papa, you go to office," as if she's the one who determines how each member of the family is to spend the day. After waving her hand in a "bye-bye" fashion, she'll turn around and climb onto the compressed-board Ikea coffee table positioned by the window. Sticking her head out into the condo corridor, she'll wait for me until I'm passing by on my way to the car. One more kiss through the window. I guess it's more than two goodbyes though, because she'll actually stay at the window Read More

No 1 Craft For Christmas: Family Holiday Cards

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Surprise! The final craft in Veronica's 12 Crafts for Christmas is written by yours truly, the Carlos in carlosandveronica.net. And the final one, the No 1 Craft for Christmas is... (drumroll please....) our family holiday cards! We really wanted to have a fun and colorful family portrait on each of the cards. For my part, I thought that the photos should show how fun-loving we are as a group. So one evening a few weeks ago, we had a little photo shoot at my parents' living room by their big and beautiful tree. As with all of our crafts, they are 100% DIY, so we did not enlist the help of a Read More

Go Somewhere. (A Short Film)

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In 2011, my childhood friend Isel Garcia and I took 2 days to write and shoot this little run-and-gun short film. This was in the days leading up to Isel's departure from Manila to live in New York City. The piece was intended to reflect the sentiments that we had towards the changes that were happening in our respective lives. For me, Honeycomb was still in its infant stages, and Nica was still pregnant with Summer. So I was preparing to become a dad for the first time. After shooting, I also found that it also ended up serving as a sort of visual love-letter to Manila and the people who Read More