Being Josh Aviñante

Omnia Vincit Amor, meaning “Love Conquers All”. Virgil. Ironically, love could lead to disaster and end yourself up dancing with the devil under the pale moonlight, wreaking havoc on other people’s lives and yours too, until you find someone who will turn your world upside down. And when that happens, a place so sinister and foreign suddenly feels like home. And if that relationship fails, you reset to the beginning, the cycle repeats and you end up dancing with more devils. And as the kwentong bartender from Big Sky Mind goes, “Carry on compadre!” My cool and wicked brother has asked me about drinking in Australia so let the story begin. Well, people drink for many reasons and besides that of seeing and being seen under the pretense of chilling out, you have to admit that it is actually to prey on something exciting to happen. For me, I had no choice. I’m back to dancing the devil although this time under the protection of the Almighty. I know now why he had to suffer which i

This article begins the first day of the next period of my life. I have begun my third career shift to culinary, from what seemed to be a glamorous but directionless Bachelors degree in International Studies and unsuccessful Master of Science degree in Marketing. I may have to contemplate a fourth if two years of kitchen science and art will only lead me to dishwashing, not to mention a heavily desecrated pair of hands. As you may have noticed in my previous articles, my early life was a struggle for glamour, for a sense of creativity, for something worthwhile. My food articles were press releases and I wrote like horse blindfolded and following the scent of a carrot, whichever direction the press release desired. My fashion articles were no different, except that I had an idea of what I wanted to wear and at least had a few droplets of my opinion. The rest, let the veteran writers be the judge of that. I was born in May 30, 1975, a decade too early. I was raised in an upper midd

Once upon a time there lived a sea lion who had lost the sea. He lived in a country known as the barren lands. High on a plateau, far from any coast, it was a place so dry and dusty that it could only be called a desert. A kind of coarse grass grew in patches here and there while a few trees were scattered across the horizon. But mostly, it was dusty and sometimes wind, which together make one very thirsty. Of course, it must seem strange to you that such a beautiful creature should wind up in a desert at all. He was, mind you, a sea lion. But things like this do happen. How the sea lion came to the barren lands, no one could remember. It all seemed so very long ago. So long, in fact, it appeared as though he had always been there. Not that he belonged in such an arid place. How could that be? He was, after all, a sea lion. But as you know, once you have lived so long in a certain spot, no matter how odd, you come to think of it as home. There was a time, many years back,

I always thought that women who flirted with part-time message handlers were fugly. Well, this one wasn’t. There she was clad in her white uniform and standing between two ladies – a rose among thorns. Too good to be true. It was an ordinary day when I set the date. The campus was a romantic place with all the Romanesque architecture and its gardens. One attraction was the statue of the querubin which was said to be the patron saint of the homosexuals. The thought was disturbing but there was just the two of us surrounded by fallen leaves, a scintillating silence and the mystique of that lone statue. I could still remember the feeling. Act 1: Oh, did I mention that she had a boyfriend? Yes, she had. She said that she misses him. I could still remember the cheerless expression on her face. The thought of it was sad but not tragic. It was too early to fall head over heels. At this point, the excitement of courtship was all that mattered. One time, I forgot that the car I was driving with

Ana Isabel Ramirez Bosch, lead vocalist of Analog, quietly passed away last January 11 from cerebral aneurism. She gave a good fight. Her ashes lies at the family compound in Pasay City. The wake will last until her birthday on January 25 during which a mass will be celebrated. She would have turned 33. After the mass, food and drinks will be served. As tribute to the rock goddess, there will be music, poetry reading and video presentations. As early as now, the Lemuria Compound where her ashes are kept has become a monument to her brief but fruitful life. Besides Analog, Anabel has also been part of Tropical Depression, Electrikoolaid, Spy and Cocojam. Her rise to fame in music is narrated in her last blog found on dizzychick76.multiply.com written in December 2008. According to this entry, she began jamming with Cocojam in her Uncle Pepito’s which was a haven for artists and home base for Cocojam. That was in 1989. She was just 13. Her music career ended at the sweet age of 32. In t