chillin' in zi city

cross city skiing

a week's past since the last entry. over the weekend, a big snowstorm hit the city. for me, a welcomed change actually coz the whole winter's felt much more like spring and it was good to see some white downpour once again. despite the blizzard, was out saturday night. was at cafe gigi with el the dutchie, sarah the dane (who's now swiss for fear of being burned), and fellow pinoys madz and seng.

enjoyed the nice 3 bottles of wine and the slices of pizza. most importantly, enjoyed the conversations—now know a little bit more about "kosher" food and the rift between israel and palestine. after dinner at gigi, we went to lava gina in alphabet city to meet with other friends there. the place was empty save us and a few guys from africa (who were hitting on the girls). was quite fun nevertheless. nothing like world music to entertain such an international gathering of people in the middle of a terrible snowstorm outside. quite chill actually.

director joel reed

the saturday brunch at cafe esperanto and the sunday hot choco at satchmo's were quite chill as well. in esperanto, was seated next to a filmmaker in his 80s and a 30something friend of his. was all set to be on antisocial mode as i had brought my laptop to send emails but i ended up having a great conversation with the pair. turns out joel, the filmmaker, had lived in the philippines for a few months in the golden days of marcos and sampaguita pictures. he knew quite a bit about manila, of joze rizal, luneeta, CCP, etcetera. he knew quite a bit of southeast asia and the advertising world as well. it was great conversation. such a character with tons of stories. quite a pleasant surprise. (and stupid ignorant me, turns out joel is a quite famous cult director in the 70s as well and is a friend of oliver stone. hmm, maybe i should shoot him an email. where's that biz card he gave me?)

satchmo at his cafe

satchmo cafe was a fine fine discovery. a minute's walk from the apartment and has that very neigborhood feel to it. (kinda sucks though that they're opening up a dunkin donuts right across the street) the owner is such a character as well. very nice. very hippie-like, and such a free spirit. in the few minutes we had chatted, he was already showing a video of his dog, satchmo, saved on his cellphone. ended up talking to the hipsters (or at least hipster-looking group) at the next table as well. like gigi and esperanto, satchmo's a great place. some of the few places in new york where you don't feel like you're rushed out of the place, or deemed a complete nutcase if you start chitchatting with the persons at the next table.

bodies the exhibition

thursday was field trip day in the office. we headed down to the south street seaport for the bodies exhibition. it showcased preserved real human bodies and highlighted the complex systems of organs and tissues that drive every aspect of our daily lives. i liked the exhibit although by the time i saw the brain (and cross-sections of it), i had started to become a bit too queasy. though a bit gross, it was good to see the different organs with diseases—made me want to never ever eat or do anything unhealthy ever again (although i did have kare-kare for lunch yesterday). speaking of healthy, i had a great racquetball game saturday morning. ended up playing with a guy who's 10 times better than i am. ok, 11. nevertheless, it was a great workout and til now my butt and thighs and forearm are aching from running after the ball and hitting it like crazy.

meeting with the oldies

wednesday night was a bit of a mess. was in a meeting at one of the boardrooms at the philippine consulate—organizing a party/concert in may. as usual, most of the people were late. plus, some people were a bit territorial on who gets the credit for what and who's doing what. must be a generation thing though coz i was the only young one there and everyone else was perhaps an average of 15 years older. oh well.

quite slow today here in the office (hence, all this time to blog). already had a great start to the week, 2 compliments from colleagues about my new haircut (although the russian barber who did it asked me out of the blue if i worked at the post office, must be the mailman crew i got myself into), an invite for lunch this week, and an i remembered you when they showed an italian soccer team tribute at the olympics because of your jacket story. and over lunch, as i was paying for my clam chowder and sushi at the lobster place downstairs, kate winslet and her son were right infront of me.

looks like the start of another eventful chill week in the city.