Okay, that’s not entirely true¹ — a lot has happened since my last update. I’ve quite forgotten how to write blog posts so allow me to do it in bullets.

* 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[ back]

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!

A pleasant and prosperous brand new 2008 to all! Here’s to fresh beginnings, shiny new hopes, and clean slates aching to be filled with happy memories.
–
Can I also just share that this year, I will be “celebrating” my 11th year aboard the world wide web. Before I acquired the domain in ’99, my very first address was at good ole Geocities¹ and the next one was at Tripod.². Unfortunately (or actually, fortunately) I don’t have screenshots of previous incarnations of my site but *gasp* it seems the wayback machine holds the key to my shame. Please promise not to laugh.

***

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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?[ back]
2. A slightly easier to remember http://members.tripod.com/~cbauzon[ back]
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).[ back]
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[ back]