The strangest thing happened to me earlier today (aside from kicking the fire water and saying I meant it this time). Continue reading »

I am writing you from the forgotten islands off the coast of Asia. A land where the corrupt government allows the rich and poor remain on their extreme ends of the economic spectrum. The beaches here are white-sanded and green-watered, the city is littered with both squatters and high-rise condos, and the most fashionable thing to do is save money.

This is where I was born. It’s the place I have almost no memories of and have only revisited once, 15 years ago. I have so many pictures and stories I want to share of my trip to the Philippines so far. I am going on week two and I have already taken over 3,000 photos. I’m going to have to pick only about 3 to share until I can return to the states, since the internet here is almost non-existent and extremely slow. Upon arrival at the NAIA airport in Manila, I was met with a million kicks to my senses and I wish I could truly share them all.

Enjoy what I can be patient enough with loading.

Mabuhay.

So Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, and Megadeth are going on tour together. Just fucking great. Exactly what the world needs. Nothing good will come out of this. Douchebags are going to think it’s cool to start rocking mullets again while drunk driving in their fucking Camaro’s and Trans-Am’s. I guarantee the reported cases of attempted rape at these shows is going to be in the high double digits.

The worst part about this tour is going to be the crowd. These bands were huge in the 80’s, which means the average attendee is going to be in their late 30’s/early 40’s trying to relive their “glory years.” This is going to lead to lots of older women dressing in shit they have no business dressing in, using 3 cans of Aqua-net in their hair, getting fucking wasted off the “king of beers” and showing their tits. I’m sorry but I don’t want to see some over-weight, floppy, chewed up titties.

Here is what I need everyone to do. Buy a ticket and a box of strike-anywhere matches. Walk into the middle of the crowd and start lighting the matches and just throw them anywhere. The resulting pyrotechnics will be even better than that Great White show from a couple years back.

There’s a reason Polaroid cameras came back down from attics and grew even more popular in the recent years than they were in the 70′s. For one, Polaroids are like black and white film: they can make anything you shoot look vaguely artistic. There’s also the instant nostalgia and gratification of seeing the old-looking photos that you took two seconds ago. Although Polaroid film is no longer available in stores, the Polaroid hobbyists have been clinging onto the remaining packages for as long as they can. I found “lost Polaroids packs” available at Urban Outfitters for 20 bucks a pack. That opens up a whole different can of worms and is a bit of a digression from what I really wanted to post about.

I use Polaroids for journaling purposes. It’s easy. Everywhere I go, I take a picture, and instead of waiting around to get it developed or printed, I have an instant and perfect-sized picture available for pasting onto notebook pages. In two days, I will be going back to the Philippines to rediscover my roots. This trip is the perfect journaling opportunity. I’m already packing my DSLR and an extra lens so I can have all sorts of photographic orgasms during the three weeks I’ll be there. But I’ve been teetering back and forth between wanting to pack the Polaroid camera and using up my remaining packs of film. The pros, in my mind outweigh the cons. It’s bulkiness makes it so inconvenient, and I’m not sure I’ll have many opportunities to bring it ALONG with the DSLR but goddammit, when else can I take polaroids of the Philippines? Right? or stupid to waste so much energy into packing this extra piece of equipment? help.

In the meantime, check out my little collage of my Polaroid past.

edit: something else to think about. Lady Gaga is the new face of Polaroid’s resurrection from the instant film cemetery. BUT it looks like we’ll be seeing more of these guys around after all! hoorah! This justifies me using up my remaining cartridges.
©Kaia Marie Balcos