There are actually TWO things that prompted me to post an update.

1) A conversation I had with my friend Ramon a few nights ago. He said that he and Neva have been wondering why I haven’t posted anything new in a while. Often wondering about that myself, I arrived at the conclusion that, well, unless I do a major overhaul and talk solely about how I make money online¹, no one will pay attention to this entry, or even this blog. In this age of Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, “About Me” blogs have become passe, I figured . They are so 2001 and so is this site. *mopes*

but then…

2) Surprise! A comment came this way (why thank you Rand Al Thor) and this fact offered me some assurance that this site is still getting visitors! Triple exclamation points!!!

… (silence)

… (cricket sounds)

Aaaanyhoo ..  for the benefit of the lovely readers who still drop by every now and then (yes, all three of you LOL), I will try my best to fill you in with what I have been up to since the last time I checked in.

Eraserheads The Final Set

* Eraserheads: The Final Set. You all know that this band holds a special place in my heart so naturally, we were there for their last. ever. reunion. concert. Arn has videos of some of the performances on his Youtube.

KL Design Week 2009

* KL Design Week 2009. Arn & I flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with our good friends Carlo & Nina to stalk Stefan Sagmeister… I mean, to see, meet, and listen to some of the world’s top graphic designers talk about their thought processes and showcase their latest work. Aside from Stefan Sagmeister, other highlights for me were the presentations by Kuntzel&Deygas (the French duo behind Caperino & Peperone and the memorable Catch Me If You Can opening title sequence) and Lava Architects (the Australian firm that designed the glorious Water Cube that was launched at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, among others).

Nins and I did actually manage to corner Stefan Sagmeister and ask for a photo with him each — twice — so that’s now off the bucket list.

* Volunteering for Rock Ed Philippines and designing / maintaining Rock Ed Radio‘s website. I first met the brilliant Gang Badoy in the early 90s but she flew off and lived in the US for a decade.  Armed with several masters degrees, she put up Rock Ed Philippines upon coming home in 2005. Rock Ed is a volunteer group dedicated to promote alternative education through holding classes on different areas of knowledge such as music, the arts, sports, science, and cultural studies. It has been (and still is) always a pleasure knowing that our contributions, however small, are helping make this country a better place.

* Saying goodbye to Wedding Essentials Magazine as Design Director. It was a difficult decision to make² since Editor-in-Chief and good friend Marbee and I make up the “we” in Wedding Essentials. We saw the magazine from its inception, to its birth in 2004, and through its growth into the big player that it is now (seeing how successful it is now kinda makes me feel like a proud mom). I thought it was time for me to move on since I knew the magazine would be in very able hands with Marb and Kitten at its helm anyway, although I am still with them in spirit. The issue above is the last one I worked on.

…but wait, Marbee and I have a wedding blog, We Heart Weddings. Because we really love weddings (and we really do like working with each other!)

* My Arn made a short film, his first ever. Arn has always wanted to make films, ever since he was a kid, so now that he can, he did. This is the trailer for the suspense/thriller short he made called Chapter:-0ne. We held screenings for it during the second half of last year at Fully Booked (twice) and Nomnomnom. He hopes to make another one soon, so watch out for updates on here.

* Uno Magazine named me one of their “Women on Top”. Me? Really? Aaaawwshucks *blush*. Being in a 12-page spread along with smart, innovative, trail-blazing women makes me feel that I probably am doing something right in my life.

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That’s it for now. Next time, I will give you a sneak peak of the super secret project I’m working on. (Clue: it starts with an E , ends with heads and it will come in a box)

1. just see how many hits this site will get with that keyphrase plugged in!
2. many tears were shed, yes

* My husband Arnold Arre is Powerbooks’ Author of the Month for February!

Arnold Arre Book Signing at Powerbooks

Arn has a book signing at Powerbooks Trinoma this Saturday, February 28 from 3-6 pm. Come one, come all! You may RSVP here.

Check out the awesome trailer he made for the event. We hope to see you there!

* Together Forever: A Valentine’s Day Exhibit at Pablo Gallery/CubaoX
Arn & I are honored to have been invited to participate in Pablo Gallery‘s Valentine’s Day exhibit. Other artist couples who participated are Bru & Marcushiro (Electrolychee), Nico & Katwo (27+20), Ryan & Garovs (Everywhere We Shoot), Ivan & Pauline (Acidhouse), Mitch Mauricio & Paolo Ferrer, and Jowee Alviar & Momon Punzalan (Team Manila). It’s still ongoing so please do drop by if you find yourself in the vicinity.

Chances Are by Arnold & Cynthia Arre

The task was to create an artwork to reflect symbiosis and each couple had to produce two works (each individual working distinctively on one piece) that when combined creates a holistic, definitive expression of their partnership.

View the photos (here) or watch the video my husband made (above).

* Not By The Book by Tippi Ocampo
My dear friend, fashion designer Tippi Ocampo had her first ever one-woman fashion exhibit (a first of it’s kind too!) in November of last year and she also came up with a whimsical little book to go with it. The book’s design was a collaboration between Tippi, Lizza Gutierrez, Chinggay Labrador and myself. (Photos below are by Sheila dela Cuesta)

Not By The Book by Tippi Ocampo

The book is filled with Tippi’s sketches, pics of her award-winning work, and some bits and pieces about her work ethic & design philosophies. You will also find some fashion tips and DIY projects you can try your hand at. It’s bound in brown shantung silk and the title & logo are embroidered on a fuschia ribbon label because we wanted to keep the overall look within the fashion theme.

You can have Not by the Book delivered fresh to your doorstep by shooting them an email.

Check out the photos of her exhibit pieces & setup here and opening reception here.

and finally,
* Fruitcake 2.0
The new edition of the Eraserheads’ Fruitcake, a book I illustrated in 1996, is now available at your favorite bookstores. Because of the high demand for E-heads merchandise after last year’s reunion concert, Anvil decided to re-release the book in December of 2009 and the new edition boasts of a new foreword written by Ely Buendia as well as a tweaked cover (by yours truly). Please grab a copy when you can! Only P295.

Fruitcake by the Eraserheads circa 2008

1. the subject heading, I mean. It’s a song lyric like always

Sleeping Like A Marble Girl

(Thanks to DidipusRex for the beautiful photo!)

We had the exhibit opening for Frailty – the all-female exhibit I posted about before – last weekend. Some pics below,

Frailty Exhibit Opening

… and there are *tons* more via these links: one two three four five six seven

If you were there, in behalf of the 33 chickas young and old, thanks so much for dropping by and supporting the event!

***
If you’re wondering if Arn and I attended the most-talked about concert this year decade, why of course we did! And we had a blast!

The added bonus is that an impromptu reunion of sorts with almost all our friends who share the same love for the Eraserheads and their music happened right there in the open field. Lots of photos here.

And for those who missed it, there’s reason to smile because there is talk of a part two. As one of the band members said when I asked him about the possibility of a repeat show, “well we do have a show to finish”.

I would love to write more about how sentimental the concert made both Arn and me feel but I need to go back to work. In the meantime, this entry should speak of my fandom.

You can watch two songs captured live via SonyBMG’s Eraserheads channel.

***
As I probably won’t be able to update again in a while, I wanted to leave you with this song. Later, operator!

***

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I know 2007 is SO last year but I just wanted to list the good things that came out of it, in no particular order.
1. Poptastic and The Paper Basket, our Cafepress shops. Yay to designing for fun — and getting paid to do so!
2. The trips to Japan (March), Singapore (April), Dumaguete (August), and Hong Kong (November). We hope to do more sightseeing this year, finances permitting.
3. Engagements! Some of our close friends and a family member are tying the knot soon and Arn and I couldn’t be happier for all of them.
4. Reconnecting with long lost friends & relatives, strengthening ties with the ones I’m in touch with, and making up with missed, estranged (well, estranged no more) ones. All thanks to Facebook.
5. Papa coming home for good. He’d been travelling to and from Japan since I was little and had lived there as a visiting Professor for a year in 1978, three years in the ’90s and then another six years before retiring last year. It’s such a comfort to know that he and Mama are both at home, right next door.
6. Arn and me turning four years strong as man and wife. Looking forward to many, many more wonderful years together.

***
So this year kind of started with a bang — on my hard drive and consequently, my wallet. One of our home computers, the PC I use for work, CRASHED. See if this happened to my Mac³, I would’ve known how to fix it but PCs are as alien to me as Bode Miller⁴ so I had no choice but to bring it to a shop that charged x amount for labor, another x amount to install an OS, and x amount for a new hard drive to replace the damaged one. But then I was prepared to spend whatever it cost to retrieve the magazine layouts I slaved on over the holidays (wouldn’t you, now?) and hooray, hooray they were all safe. So yes, Wedding Essentials Jan-June 2008 will be at the stands soon … er, soon enough.

***
It was a different case for our media collection though. We lost ALL the music, tv series episodes, and movie files we’ve accumulated these last couple of years. A few had been backed up on file, some are in our iPods, but most are now gone… forever. Lesson learned? Backup your files, backup your files, BACKUP!
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1. Get ready for this: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/3395. Where was TinyURL when you needed it?
2. A slightly easier to remember http://members.tripod.com/~cbauzon
3. Actually I hardly use my Mac for work anymore, it’s so jurassic it can only handle web-based projects (which I choose not to do so much anymore too).
4. Sorry, Arn is watching the world cup right behind me and I know absolutely nothing about speed skating and curling and what other winter sports there are

The first two are the booklet’s back and front covers and the rest are sample inside flaps.
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I wanted the design to have a painted, dreamy quality using macros of almost indistinguishable nature elements because the “want” in the album title connoted “dreams, desires, & wishes” to me. (Uhm, that made sense, right?)
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After I submitted them, there was no word for a few days. I finally called to ask what the status was and then was told that they² wanted something that looked like her old stuff³ and so have decided to just ask their in-house designer to do it…
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And this⁴ is what it looked like when it came out.
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Oh well. But there’s a happy ending to this tale: I was paid a discontinuation fee.⁵
***
Here’s another design story, one that pushed through. San Miguel Philharmonic/Master Chorale’s “Great Original Pilipino Music album”.
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Mr. Ryan Cayabyab is always a joy to work with, mainly because he has excellent taste not just in music but in the visual arts as well. He especially likes it when there’s a concept behind the design you present him.
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When I was sent the track list for the GOPM album, “Tuwing Umuulan at Kapiling Ka” stood out at once so I started sketching a couple of lovebirds under a red umbrella almost immediately. I wanted to show the surroundings in blue so that the couple (who were in color because they’re in love) would be the main focus.⁶ As for the jeepney, well there had to be something to make it Filipino, the title is “Great Original Pilipino Music” after all.
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Here are my rough, initial studies. First in pencil, then a study in color.

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Mr. C liked it right away! I told him I would clean it up and improve on it, i.e. ask my talented artist hubby to render it like a painting.
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Arn actually took it a step further. He thought the jeepney was cluttering the background so he arranged the elements in such a way that the artwork looked like it was telling a story.⁷ I liked it much better already!

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But then Mr. C said that he liked the fact that the couple was already together under the umbrella in the first study although he likes the impressionist quality of the new layouts. He also told us that we could lose the jeepney if we wanted. Hmm, maybe he was right.
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We came up with this. The lamps are supposed to make it look like the scene is in Luneta, but if you didn’t get that it’s perfectly okay. Overall, I thought it looked more romantic and was quite sure we had nailed it.

And we did! It got approved. And produced shortly after.

***
Before I end this, I would like to share something with you.

We met him! And had dinner with him⁸!
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The last time he was here, we queued in Gateway but didn’t get a chance to have our books signed, although Arn had a lucky encounter (and photo op) with Mr. Gaiman in the washroom. A few days later, Azrael posted that photo in his blog. Mr. Gaiman saw it and wrote Az: Thanks to you… I learned that the nice man next to me at the sinks in the mall was Arnold Arre, whose art I had been admiring a few hours earlier. (And I wished he’d introduced himself.) Mind-blowing, right? Two years later Arn, who was a judge for the Graphic/Fiction Awards’ comics category, finally had the chance to introduce himself properly, and Mr. Gaiman was gracious enough to actually remember Arn’s name and the incident, and reiterate that he really does like his art. What a fine, fine gent.
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More kwento and tons of photos in my Multiply.

1. My G4 is turning 8 next month! I hardly use it anymore.
2. I’m actually not sure as to who “they” referred to.
3. Why oh why?
4. It doesn’t look bad but I’m sorry, looking at it again 6 years later, I still think my design should’ve been given another chance. At least mine had a concept.
5. And so should you if you begin a project that doesn’t get fulfilled. Remember to have that clause in your contract.
6. Cliche, I know but hey, it works visually.
7. That’s my hubby, a natural storyteller!
8. Well technically with him tablehopping in the room. But we got to talk to him and we actually really had dinner with his son Mike who was seated at our table.

Halloo, Arn and I are back from a brief vacation in Japan¹ with my family. This time we took a Shinkansen² to the Kansai area so we were able to cover more ground compared to past visits.³
Spring had just sprung when we arrived over a week ago and we were lucky to have witnessed the once-a-year blooming of the beautiful Sakura during our stay. You can view some photos at the following albums: Kyoto / Kobe / Ueno Park / Ohanami in Ibaraki / Tokyo

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Please pardon the sporadic blog updates, but remember you can always IM me on Twitter and iLike.

1. Obviously we love the place, that’s why we keep going back. Add to that the fact that my Papa always invites us over and generously sponsors our trip.
2. aka Bullet Train. On a regular train, the ride from Tokyo to Kyoto will take 8 hours. Via shinkansen, it only took us 2 hours, tops!
3. Kyoto is actually special to me because we stayed for a month in Kyoto when I was 7 (photo here).

1. Oh no, Peter’s trademark “bang” (singular of bangs) got cut off! I don’t think it’s the end of him though.
2. Also because I’ve been glued to the TV and my deadline is looming and on top of that Arn and I are FINALLY going away on vacation again next weekend
3. it’s still accessible though
4. like the world cares, right?

• Cast 10: Issue 10 of the charming Nautilus Comics series that revolves around the lives of high school stage play actors. Story by Jamie Bautista, art by Arnold Arre.
• Graphic Classics: Jack London volume 2. Arn illustrated the somewhat tragic Jack London story “The Wit of Porportuk”, adapted by Tom Pomplun.
• Bandang Pinoy, Lasang Hotdog. A re-issue of the original Hotdog Tribute album which was first released in 2001. The line-up includes all of Hotdog’s best-known, well-loved songs and a host of today’s hottest bands.

***
I was supposed to write a travelogue about our trip but work got the better of me and so I only managed to make the following articles²:

• The Ghibli Museum in Mitaka
• NHK Studio Park in Shibuya

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We’re currently putting together the 5th issue of Wedding Essentials and the articles and features are pretty amazing as always³ so for the brides-to-be reading this, I hope you’ll watch out for it.
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Here are a few photos to whet your appetite⁴:
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Among the perks of being freelance is that Arn and I can work anytime of the day and still be able to squeeze in some R&R like an occasional movie (or grocery) date, coffee with a gal pal at a nearby mall, dinner with a best bud, the odd blog entry, and the once-in-a-blue-moon-thank-goodness-for-Nest-for-making-it-happen night out with old friends.
[Soundtrack of the night: opening riff of The Final Countdown]⁵
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The bunch in front of the spanking new Blow-up Babies branch at Serendra: Buddy, Earnest, Myrene, Arn, Lia, Raimund, and Quark
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The “shiny happy people” shot. We contemplated having dinner at “Abe: Where Good Friends Dine” but it was just so given, diba?
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Because Cupcakes by Sonja was closed for a private function (hmph!), we ended up having dessert at Cafe Mary Grace which actually turned out to be a great idea (You have to try their Tsoknut Tsokolate, it’s a yummyness!). This photo was taken before the waitress recognized Quark⁶ and asked to take photos with him. A few minutes later, she also recognized Budz and Raims⁷ and then asked to take pictures with them and eventually the whole group hehe.
UPDATE: Coolness, Nest has a complete recap of the shiny, happy night out including the dialogue between Jona (the very friendly girl who waited on us — Ms. Mary Grace, in case you’re reading this: she’s a keeper!), Quark, and Budz when she realized who they were, hehe. Clicky click, velly funny.

1. I only played supporting roles in these projects — you know, scanning, photoshop and layout/FA work. It’s really me hubby’s show.
2. They’re quite detailed so if you’re planning a trip to Japan, be sure to check em out before you go.
3. Kudos to Marbs and the girls! And as always, I hope to do them justice with the design and layouts.
4. I’ve to be careful not to give away too much to avoid dealing with copycats flatterers. Remember?.
5. Tinenenent… tinenentnentnent! Pasensya na, panahon namin ito.
6. “Wag Kang Lilingon“! He’s also directing two films for the MMFF — “Super Noypi” and “Shake, Rattle and Roll”. Show him some love and watch his films, yeah.
7. Who were bandmates in… Rivermaya! Ahehehe.

1. Wall of lanterns, 2. Astroboy, 3. Tendon setto at Minggei, 4. Wishing blocks, 5. Meiji Jingu Shrine, 6. Tokyo National Gymnasium, 7. Tokyo National Gymnasium, 8. Yoyogi Park, 9. Takoyaki, 10. NHK Studio Park, 11. NHK Studio Park, 12. Shibuya crossing, 13. JR train map at Tokyo Station, 14. Self-portrait at the Shibuya crossing, 15. Shibuya Station Mural, 16. Laputa Robot Soldier at the Studio Ghibli Museum rooftop garden, 17. Welcome to the Straw Hat Cafe!, 18. A side street in Shibuya, 19. Halloween masks at Tokyu Hands, 20. Manhole cover at the Ghibli Museum courtyard, 21. The “Nekobasu” (Cat Bus) shuttle service to the Ghibli Museum, 22. “Maid in Japan” girls in Akihabara, 23. Akihabara TX station, 24. Capsule toy vendos, 25. Entrance to the Ghibli Museum, 26. Postcard-pretty view of the lake at Mt. Bandai, 27. Hello, fishies, 28. Koi fish, 29. Autumn leaves in Fukushima, 30. Sticky rice balls, 31. View from the Tsurugajo Castle, 32. Tsurugajo Castle, 33. Aizu Samurai Residence, 34. By the lake at Mt. Bandai, 35. I’ve got Tokyu Hands, 36. Arn at the Design Festa Gallery
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More photos in my Multiply galleries:
* Harajuku, Shibuya, Omotesando
* Nippori, NHK Museum, Tokyo Olympic Gymnasium
* Studio Ghibli Museum
* Shibuya and Akihabara
* Fukushima Prefecture

… and in Arnold’s Flickr set.

1. I bowed and almost uttered “arigato” to the customs officer at NAIA. This is what happens when you spend two weeks in Japan. (You just gotta love the Japanese, they’re such a polite society.)
2. Ahh the signs of aging…
3. I love Crunky chocolate but only second to Melty Kiss, particularly the Matcha (green tea) flavor. Unfortunately Melty Kiss was late coming out this year so I didn’t get to hoard boxes of them like I normally do, hehe. (It only appears on the shelves during late fall and winter.)
4. Whenever that may be, sigh. Bitin!

1. Design Festa Gallery, 2. Design Festa Gallery, 3. Design Festa Gallery, 4. Design Festa Gallery, 5. Design Festa Gallery, 6. Design Festa Gallery, 7. Design Festa Gallery, 8. Design Festa Gallery, 9. Hallway of Design Festa Gallery, 10. Mural by the Tokyo Design Academy, 11. Adult costumes, 12. Various stuffed toys, 13. Happy Harroween, 14. “Pet Paradise”, Takeshita-dori, 15. Takeshita-dori, 16. Crepe, 17. Rainy Monday, 18. Takeshita-dori welcome sign, 19. Tsukuba, 20. Tsukuba

Many many more photos in my Multiply album.