froulala: Ronald Villavelez

Showing posts with label Ronald Villavelez. Show all posts

11.28.2009

Much Ado About Turkey

I didn't grow up celebrating Thanksgiving. I've never roasted a turkey or manhandled one. The prospect of doing so terrifies me a little. Being a cultural assimilator, I feel that the proper thing to do would be to take part in the full process even if it's only making dinner for two. When I broached the idea of cooking the turkey, the beau hesitantly nodded and hinted with a smile that like anything in life, we should have a back up plan. I was just as hesitant about my skills.

For a couple of weeks, I ruminated on menus and different turkey options from Williams Sonoma, Zabar's, The Fresh Market, Dean and Deluca and Chef Charles Catering . No time for experimentation, it was going to be a toss among the last three options since the first two would rack up a higher carbon footprint. While at Dean and Deluca, a li'l birdie told me about the delicious Bojangles turkey. A chicken and biscuit fast food chain, it is an unlikely, un-Norman Rockwell place to get the Thanksgiving centerpiece. Like my fashion or interior design sense, I wanted to do a high-low approach with the menu but the beau said, the founding fathers wouldn't have approved of the Bojangles fried turkey. Issue was solved when we decided to finally accept an invitation and drove to Greenville, South Carolina with some sweet potato casserole and a case of wine. It turned out to be an intimate celebration with two other couples and their three children. A tasty candlelit meal peppered with brilliant humor and interesting conversation.

While making the casserole, I got the idea to wear this special vintage dress. Thankfully, my extended closet/storage is only two miles away. The dress was my grand aunt, Mama Isabel's, and Ronald Villavelez reworked it with meringue-like asymmetrical hem and sleeves that make me want to merengue!

With a deep neckline, I thought the necklace I made in August using rice pearls, copper chains and balls, carved wooden and jade balls would make the dress more apropos for the dinner table. It looks like it was made to match the Garnier Thiebaut table linens I bought in Strasbourg in 2007. I am a big fan of theirs and these gorgeous linens in vivid colors were my holiday gifts for family and friends that year. They had every color that matched all personalities and homes.

I walked out the door sashaying in these fabulous peep toe platforms from Costume National. Needless to say, fashion inspired by the sweet potato casserole ruled over function. Looking like a well dressed turkey, I had to eat like a bird.

Sweet Potato Casserole

by Bernadette Gallego*

5 cups sweet potato, cooked and mashed

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup butter, melted

3 eggs, beaten

3/4 cup milk

Mix the wet ingredients together. Add to the mashed sweet potato and mix well.

Pour into a greased oven proof baking dish.

Then mix the following together:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup chopped slightly toasted pecans(toast over low flame, stir so they wont burn)

1 cup coconut flakes

1/3 cup flour

1 cup butter, melted

Mixture will be crumbly. Spread over the top of the sweet potato mixture and bake at

375F for 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

*Bernadette is a dear dear friend who is a domestic goddess in every way. One of those charming hostesses who can whip up an amazing multi course dinner pronto for 20, without batting an eyelash. Her famous pastry shop, La Marea, in Cebu makes a TDF brownie cup. Before I moved here, she was so gracious to teach me some standby recipes so I can at least do some elementary entertaining.

11.20.2009

Albi and Me

Many have asked about the story behind my profile photo and the interesting animal in the portrait. Everyone, please meet Albi (short for Albino). His name is not very original and some of you must be thinking, how un-politically correct! Albi was one of three albino carabaos or water buffaloes (the Philippine national animal) saved from the slaughter house and we just wanted to celebrate his nude/ peach/pink color. Which answers the next question---his color or image wasn't photoshopped. He was docile all throughout the two shoots. Our first attempt was a night shoot in his surroundings but the studio shoot worked out better. He only made a fuss when we tried to put on a Swarovski lariat necklace by Miranda Konstantinidou (Konplott) so we left him au naturel. Looks much better anway. The dress by talented fashion designer, Ronald Villavelez, and Konplott jewelry ended up matching Albi without much forethought. When I talked to Ron about the dress, I told him I wanted something in eggshell or nude and a modern take on the Filipino terno (our national costume). He called me for the fitting and my jaw dropped when I saw the laser cut florettes on the sleeves, the delicate ruffles and the mix of nudes. Leave it up to him to create something better than imagined. The jewels were an afterthought. I called Miranda while getting made up at the studio and asked if she had anything peachy pink. The driver came back with a bunch of beautiful jewels and I picked this Swarovski pearl layered necklace and bracelet which look like they were just made for this moment. Albi and I unintentionally matched! If I remember correctly, we wrapped up in 2 hours.
If a picture speaks a thousand words, then O speaks volumes. How long will the story of a photo be after Romero Vergara transforms the subject with his amazing maquillage artistry and then Jon Unson captures that particular image at that moment? Alive yet frozen in time. I am thankful to be part of this book collaboration by publisher Eva Gullas, photograper Jon Unson, and make up artist Romero Vergara. Published in 2006.

A book called O

O is for openness, an open door to

exciting possibilities, a space that

allows access...it is an open

mind, receptive to ideas, and open

to vulnerabilities...

O is just like oxygen, a necessity

to living a life...

O is a circle that gives

a different view, a different

perspective...

Introduction by Jing Ramos

The Company We Keep

It takes more than wit to capture the nuances and mood of a community that is on the brink of turning cosmopolitan. Welcome to our times - Cebu on the throes of constant upswing transformation, peopled by the pages of this book - hopefully viewed with sympathy by the next generation.

The photographs Jon Unson have taken, fortunately, are all for art's sake. And like most of his works they often explore the nature of closeness and disaffection, sameness and anomaly, belonging and exclusion, the tension derived from sentimental expectations of what is supposed to be and the debacle of what really is. Or perhaps the timing is just a coincidence.

Something uncanny occurs in civilized people when they're suddenly confronted by a truth they have long repressed. Our dignity, after all, depends upon continence, in the broadest sense of the word, and Jon Unson's subjects leak their souls. Some sitters were in part souvenirs of initiation and trophies of acceptance.

Portraiture in whatever form is an autonomous high minded act. But if the pictures make you wonder how Jon got them and why his subjects consented to pose as they did, everyone with a true and false identity secretly knows the answer. In the process of becoming visible one risks being seen through. On the other hand the photographs have blurred the lines of class distinction and social roles, while the photographer harrowed the more subjective, unstable terrain of eroticism and gender.

Romero Vergara's aesthetics bring out a distinct reality that can only be described as his own. And it takes a publication like Zee to tackle the challenge of a unique perspective and bringing this vision into the mainstream.