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NSFW drawings by Jose Legaspi

Geraldine Javier wants to know what you think art is.

Alwin Reamillo does stuff with the innards of old pianos.

They’re like burial plots for the colorful undead.

Clearly Poklong Anading wants you to ask what the hell that is.

We forgot to ask gallerist Albert Avellana what this is. It looks itchy.

Art Fair Philippines
5-8 February 2015
The Link (across Landmark), Ayala Center, Makati

In other art news, Picasso’s granddaughter plans to sell art, worrying the market. Because she inherited about 10,000 pieces by Picasso, whom she hated. Ooh, a glut. Can’t have prices dropping.

She was a small black cat, extremely frisky, always trying to get in the door. We had to be careful when going down the stairs because she would dart between our feet. She didn’t have a name, we didn’t give her one, she was just “yung pusang itim”—if we gave her a name she would become part of the household, and we already have three and a half feline housemates (Three indoor cats, one outdoor cat who walks the earth and appears at mealtimes). She lived downstairs in the garage with the other strays, and was particularly close to Meriadoc our outdoor cat—we’d open the door and they’d be curled up in a single ball on our welcome mat.

This morning the guard reported that she’d died. They found her in a corner, by a stack of old furniture. She got sick and went quickly. We last saw her on Sunday night and she seemed less frisky than usual. Sad. Terrible things are happening in the world, violence and bloodshed and body bags, and we mourn over a nameless black stray cat. On balance she had a fairly comfortable life—she had regular meals, shelter, and the company of other cats. And she could roam the neighborhood, though she stayed close to the garage. And her life didn’t go unnoticed.

And if all Oscar nominees were required to dress themselves without the aid of stylists we would start watching the Academy Awards again.

We’ve been using Moleskine notebooks with unlined pages for many years and have no complaints, but we’re curious about other notebooks. Must be what marriage is like.

At the bookstore the Leuchtturm and Moleskine displays were right next to each other. They cost the same, so neither has the advantage price-wise. Leuchtturm has a wider range of colors—orange, fuchsia, dark green, bright purple, etc—than Moleskine, but Moleskine has the limited edition themes— Star Wars, Lego, etc.

Both Moleskine and Leuchtturm notebooks are available with unlined, lined, and squared pages. Leuchtturm notebooks are about one centimeter wider.

Price: Tie
Colors: Tie
Size: Leuchtturm

Leuchtturm pages are numbered, and there’s a table of contents so it’s easier to find the notes you need.

Convenience: Leucchturm Leuchtturm

The limited edition Moleskines come with stickers so you can customize the designs. Leuchtturms come with sticker labels for the covers and spines for easy filing.

Easy filing: Leuchtturm

Moleskines come with a “history” (they co-opted the story of the generic notebooks with elastic bands) and so do Leuchtturms.

History: Tie
Ease of pronunciation and spelling: Moleskine

We started using our Leuchtturm yesterday, and the quality of the paper is the same as Moleskine’s, although it is slightly thicker. However, it does not open flat on the table.

Paper quality: Tie
Flat-opening spine: Moleskine

Decision: We like them both. Good thing we’re not married.

Empires fall, but seldom all at once. They fall slowly, piece by piece. Barbarians mass on the borders. Unrest builds in the capital. Weak rulers poison strong ones. The army wins battles but loses provinces. The collapse can take years. Afterward, no one is able to pinpoint the precise moment when the old order failed. There was no single moment. There was only an epoch of decline, followed by the spreading realization that what used to be the empire has now become something else.

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