deux mil six

For the most part been partying since Christmas. And now everything is catching up with me and I'm sitting here with nursing a cold. I really do need vacations from my vacations.

Saturday we had our Guitar Hero party of a few friends and cousins. We set up a screen, projector and sound system to get that large screen gaming effect. While everyone else's hands cramped up hitting the blue, red, green, yellow, and the all dreaded orange buttons on the playskool looking guitar device, my cousin's friends played like they were typing a paper hitting 95% on expert settings for songs, even on songs they never knew. Hmmm...somebody's not studying in college. Actually, my cousin says they study for 50 minutes with a timer then they get 10 minutes on Guitar Hero before getting back to studying.

A friend of mine brought Intellivision Lives for Xbox. When my cousins looked at the box, they commented, "wow these are like from the 1970s!". One even guessed they were from the 1940s. Indeed technology is so ubiquitous in their generation that they can't even imagine how recent a development all this technology has been.

We'll have to do it again when one of us gets a Wii.

Sunday we slept in before checking out the "Pioneers of Philippine Art" at the Asian Art Museum. The display that includes Luna, Amorsolo, and Zobel closes January 7. Indeed transnationalism is not a recent phenomena, and all three were highly influenced by Spanish art and Zobel had studios in the Philippines, US and Spain. Luna moved from the historical scenes of "Spolarium" to painting current day people. Amorsolo most known for his colorful idyllic provincial landscapes also remained in Manila during the Japanese bombing and sketched the war as it happened. I really enjoyed his subtle use of color as it transitioned between light and shadow. Zobel a modernist who painted with a syringe to achieve the thin linear lines from the oil paints is both a contrast to and by-product of Luna and Amorsolo's works.

Afterwards we stopped by auntie's house for a few hours where the electricity promptly went out for 2 hours. Nothing like a brown out to make Filipinos reminisce about the Philippines. One of the women even recalled how her area had no electricity for a month. After the brown out we headed to the sister's house to spend time with the nieces. At midnight, the neighborhood went nuts with fireworks and the neighbors stepped outside with their noisemakers.

It's back to work tomorrow and a new year to ring in.