photo diary #2

The other day I had the first batch of pictures from my newly-rebought Aqua Pix camera processed. 

My first Aqua Pix was green, a souvenir my cousin had gotten me from Taiwan that I'd taken for granted, because I didn't know at the time how much I'd end up adoring its lo-fi-ness, poppy colors, blurring, and light leaks. She, of course, borrowed it a couple years later and it got back to me all scratched and broken, missing its winding knob.   

I found it again recently and mourned my loss for all of five seconds before I found out Lazada sells them pretty cheap and I could get one in pink and have it delivered ASAP. It's so light and cute and well-designed; I never get tired of pressing the shutter-release button and hearing the click-click-click when I wind the film. 

The following photos were taken during my first Art in the Park with Ate Inah and Patti and at the cemetery when we gathered for my grandmother's first year of death.  

photo diary #1

So. My life has completely flipped over the last month and I'm not sure I want to write about it. (A first!) Let's just say I've been a big mess lately. Too much information, too much to process, to much to do, too much to feel. Never any time.

But, for context: I got a job. A real job. With, like, decent pay, and stuff. Doing something I love. In publishing. While I'm still a student. I'm an editorial assistant, and it's both everything and nothing like I expected. I've met such amazing people. It's mega cool.

I'm just not 100% happy, and it's hard to explain.

[Cue Britney Spears's "Lucky," am I right?]

For the last few weeks I've finally been getting back to a healthy mindset. Then this monumental shift happened and the sads picked right back up. But that's a story for another time, if there's one.

Anyhoozers, I'm going to take advantage of my Internet (Former) Teen status now and throw together a couple of shitty low-quality phone photos I took recently. I'm actually pretty glad that the iPhone age, coupled with noughties nostalgia, has made them ironically hip/aesthetically acceptable again.

A couple of weeks ago I got to go to the Makati office of Canva, a Sydney-based graphic design app. It felt like walking into that Parks and Rec arc where Blake Anderson is the head of Gryzzl, a super zeitgeist-y, actually pretty terrifying startup. Needless to say: beyond cool.

The huge corkboard is right above my desk at work and I was so delighted to find a Phrazes-era Julian Casablancas flyer (of his pseudo-iconic Palace Theater residency!) on our mood board. 

I attended a launch party for Perro Berde VI, a free magazine that's a joint project between Instituto Cervantes and the Spanish Embassy. 

I'm obsessed with the all-pink, plant-adorned ladies' room in the newly-reopened A.S. pavilion one. 

I bought a book of poems from the stall in A.S. a few months ago and it had everyone from Sylvia Plath to Anne Sexton to Philip Larkin. I hadn't heard of John Wain when I read this, but this poem had a tight grip on me from the get-go. I'd never read anything so closely resembling my life. 

I attended my first Art in the Park with Ate Inah and Patti just yesterday. This above piece is very Adam Green-meets-MGMT to me. I couldn't afford anything save for two postcards, but it was nice to be looking at nice things in the company of people I liked spending time with and the outdoors, even if it was scorching. We capped the day off at 8 Cuts and I had a burger with only onions and truffle creamed cheese, which is a revelation.