My friends have friends that make cool s%^&.
Bottom to Top by Miles Bonny x B.Lewis
-s.
Listen to and download on iTunes or milesbonnyxblewis.bandcamp.com
The Platform Show 2012 Video to be shared by you only if:
- You believe in the creative Filipino youth
- You were there
- You weren’t there but wish you were
- You know someone that should have been there
- You didn’t know what our city was about, but now you do
Hi everybody.
I am taking this short break from writing my mildly overdue newspaper column to write something else completely - an outpouring of sorts likely, that has no final destination. And like many things with no particular place to go, chances are it’ll amble its way to you and you will be kind enough to entertain it until you realize it has overstayed its welcome.
I write this with clumps of mascara in my almost bald set of eyelashes; which nobody warns you is a possible side-effect of being in the modeling industry, just like they forget to tell you early on that you are in the business of professional rejection. Jolly good thing I got a head start on that when I moved to Manila as a pre-teen. Shutting shit down without just cause. Closing the door before even trying.
And though this is an attitude that gracefully committed suicide as the years progressed, it makes you wonder, doesn’t it, what that Graveyard of Potential holds. Crumpled pieces of paper with the beginnings of a genius blueprint. The cure for Cancer, maybe. A new color. A vital proponent of peace.
And so I have felt about music, on many days. What of collaborations gone awry? Lyrics lost to the grapplings of frustration, beats abandoned because of a sample that was just too much effort to clear?
Ah, well. Here is a story about what was able to both breathe, and give breath.
—
I first met Miles’ voice when it punched me in the groin.
There I was, alone, thankfully. Buckled over, slow to straighten, lingering in the confusion of palpable unfamiliarity, but feeling indescribably…safe.
Unable to pinpoint a place or a time on his music, giddy with the newness of this thing I had no name for. Something I could not, would not, attempt to thumb through folders to file. Something I wanted to run to Momma with, to slap my ex-boyfriend in the face with, to wrap up like I did my newborn and hold like nothing else mattered.
Miles Bonny, I soon realized, made sense between anything my iTunes shuffle could have possibly tried to sandwich him in - from Gangstarr to Jackson Browne, Sade to Jai Paul.
It was ‘Lumberjack Soul’ that made it’s way to my phone as a ring tone, in an effort to balance the frivolity and transience of an electronic ringer with as much mead as possible; timeless, honey-laced, balance-altering, thirst-quenching, truth serum.
But it was ‘J.Birly’ that had me horizontal.
—
A voice that lays me out, meets beats that —
…frankly, make me want to do things I am not at liberty to describe to you in detail here.
Jesus, B. Lewis
Deftly able to take listeners on journeys that make you try to remember whether or not he was actually there. The one that got away.The one you haven’t found yet.
Lacing cosmically deranged beauty with a gutter-morphed Pharcyde lyric on one beat, to wordlessly describing a crisp sock-footed spring morning in pristine sheets on the next; B.Lewis is the dude that waits for you to appreciate your perfect sunny side up before scrambling the f*ck out of it.
(Then he drops a calling card on your breakfast table that says, “Yin and Yang: Matchmaker”, and nonchalantly walks away with a piece of your toast in his mouth.)
—
From the gate of the Graveyard of Potential, with love.
With the fleeting acknowledgment the internet bestows new music, and the improbability of predicting the impact of this collaboration, the 7-tracks on Egg Black might have been lost to you. But even as an individual that is violently territorial about music that moves me, I am quick to recognize that not sharing this would be detrimental to everything I stand for.
So consider this the first time I let you in. Let you stay.
The first time I offered to make you breakfast, in nothing but everything I was born with, because that is what this deserves.
Together, Miles Bonny and B.Lewis have me laid out and scrambled.
Partake. Sustenance. Egg Black.
milesbonnyxblewis.bandcamp.com
-s.
An appetizer.
—
Build and they will come.
-s.
Props to DJ Fabian for being a propagator of passion.
It’s time! What we’ve been working on for the past few months comes into fruition this Sunday, March 18th 12nn-8pm at the Ronac Art Center, Ortigas Ave. cor Santolan
Manila’s First Youth Culture Convention. Free Entrance.
—
Expect 40 booths of dynamic brands offering everything from eyelash art, vintage sunglasses, sneakers, wedge heels, to fish tacos, tailor made button downs, original men’s and women’s Manila wear, and barbershop services!
—
Raffle prizes, open bar, live art by Egg Fiasco, and carefully curated music care of Sunny Side Up. Check the roster:
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It’s also the culmination of our posturaproject.com 30-Day challenge to wear something Filipino made every day!
—
And here’s my ANC guesting from Wednesday morning, just in case all of that wasn’t enough. :)
See you on Sunday!
Come prepared to buy whatever catches your eye!
All my love,
-s.
Once upon a time…
…a few kids decided to throw a party in conjunction with Sinulog, a religious festival on the Philippine island of Cebu.
But it was more than chance that grew the crowd from 400 people to 50,000. It was a unique blend of history, passion, devotion, and love for life and music that made this one of the most pivotal events in verge culture history.
Avicii, bottles of Patron, face paint, whistle blowing, and dancing — all topped off with the “Pit Senyor” chant over Hip Hop, house, and dubstep beats that the crowd spontaneously erupted into every fifteen minutes.
Church.
-s.
This video was created for and by Out of Scratch. DJs on deck are DJ Aryan and Nix Damn P! The event was a brainchild of the boys behind Rhipstop, and supported by Bodyrock Lifestyle.
June Marieezy ft. RBTO with “Sometimes”.
Making music. #itsmorefuninthephilippines
Pulled this link from a Philippine Airlines Tweet, of all things, and was surprised to find our city nightlife options quite comprehensively represented.
Save this somewhere, for a future trip, an e-mail to an overseas friend, for you or a friend’s moonlit tour of Manila’s best.
http://eastgatepublishing.com/2011/12/nightlife-manila-style/
Smiling. What I love most about being part of this little lady’s journey is witnessing the process of progress. Especially the 3:47am e-mails of edits she wrote, vocalized, and mixed herself.
2012 is going to be so soulworthy for you, my BG. Stand up straight, arch your back, and unfold those wings!
𝄞
Because we haven’t shown any kind of preview of the stuff we’ve been working on for a while! Expect a track of “Lost” by RBTO and Gap from People’s Future featuring June Marieezy soon!
I highly recommend this event.
I’m on a reblog/retweet rampage telling my friends. You do the same, and we’ll see you there?
-s.
Katy Perry’s “Fireworks” - Baihana style.
So my cousin (Anna) and her group Baihana are just, like, the greatest thing since…well…evar.
They performed at our wedding, and since then I’ve had the pleasure of guesting them on my radio show, watching their first solo performance (with legends in the audience, like Ryan Cayabyab, Basil Valdez, Celeste Legaspi, and Jim Paredes), and now…I’m participating in making them your favorite viral Asian 2011 edition of the Andrews Sisters. LOL.
Share!
-s.
Kaplow.
This video is…
1. …exactly why I do what I do.
Why I can never turn my back on this country. Why I fight to leave but only to come running back with more ideas, and renewed commitment to letting our voices be heard and setting our heartbeats loose. Heartbeats, with melodies laced on top of them, lyrics lingering only long enough for us to say “yes…this”. Heartbeats, interrupted by breath held, skateboard wheels grating against metal, the exhilaration, the anticipation…the air.
2. …a glimpse at what is in the hearts and minds of our youth.
Parents need not be afraid in this country. Children stay close enough to home to kiss their parents on the cheek more than once a week. Families still pray together. But this generation…their imaginations and passion run free, and they know the world is not a world of confinement, but one of abundance. They know that for as much as there is war, the capacity that love has to overcome it exists. They have seen excellence - if not in real life, then from someone else’s…online. Access has given them an opportunity to recognize what they do and do not want. This has made all the difference.
3. …a collaboration of talent.
And the spirit of collaboration, of sharing, of building, and uplifting - this is the spirit that the people in this video have lent me. So to Gef - and his commitment to empowering his peers by communicating messages with his video camera and outofscratch.com, to June - and her choice to stay true to her heart song, and to NixDamnP - and his courage for fighting for what nobody else sees or believes…
…you are the why, the what, and the how.
Manila, stand up.
-s.
