Tossing the Idea Salad
In search of a new zing in our Saturday night-outs, the gang journeyed to Libis to have dinner at Jack’s Loft. Eastwood City was bustling with metrofolk, mostly of the younger set, with music blaring from everywhere. It had been a while since I subjected myself to such volume levels (that was in Malate early last year) but the readjustment wasn’t too painful.
Jack’s Loft is subtitled “The Dessert Bar” but it does serve some meal fare. Vin and I had the shiitake-embellished risotto while the rest had their beef stroganoff. For panulak, I had the 85-peso iced tea, served in a large and unwieldy fishbowl-shaped glass. The risotto came in all of its one-cup glory, which is great for those on a diet, but wasn’t really worth the 150+ quid in my book, despite the favored flavor. The iced tea didn’t hold anything special as well. Bottomless iced tea will always rule, even if it’s Lipton.
The caramel-drenched chocolate cake ordered by Vin was pretty standard, too. But I remember having a cheesecake there once, which would have been a better option.
Over dinner and loud house music, I raised some questions about our pet fantasy world Hinirang, the setting of the story I’m currently writing. Point of focus was the religious set-up of the world which, again, is based on Spanish Philippines. Because the God-equivalent in Hinirang is three female personages, dubbed by Dean as the Tres Hermanas (Three Sisters), major decisions had to be made about how church services are conducted, the role of women in the clergy (female priests), even down to specific rituals like communion. The establishment of three personages presents interesting creative challenges which have to be readily addressed, as there would be Hinirang stories in the future that will be presumably hinged on or wholly about religion, its role in society, and how magic works given our specific pantheon. More importantly, these challenges need to be addressed as a group, as Hinirang was built by a whole bunch’a people, which makes for interesting creative conversation.
(And all that in the quite trendy Jack’s Loft. We’re such geeks.)
As an aside, I have to find the time to check out Jason’s recommendation – the Philippine Heritage Library – which holds a wealth of information about Spanish Philippines. This is indispensable in my writing of Hierbas (Weeds), I had mentioned in a previous post.
I have to cook up a more stable title for this story soon, because I confess that it is the title that helps me through the storywriting. Titles I’m playing with are “The Confessions of Thorns” and “Peace, Grace, and Mercy.”
After Jack’s Loft, we brought Dean home to tinker with his new DVD player, leaving the rest to coffee and chat at UCC-Podium, where the topic shifted to Vin’s intricate Twilight Empires. After hurling ideas at each other concerning one of the bazillion spacecraft designs that need to be made, we found ourselves in stitches when Marco layered Vin’s concept over the intro spiel of the animated cartoon She-ra. Hilarious, but rather haunting.
Congratulations to Vin for submitting the edited script for the first issue as scheduled! Now I need to crack my knuckles and take a deeeeep breath . . .
In search of a new zing in our Saturday night-outs, the gang journeyed to Libis to have dinner at Jack’s Loft. Eastwood City was bustling with metrofolk, mostly of the younger set, with music blaring from everywhere. It had been a while since I subjected myself to such volume levels (that was in Malate early last year) but the readjustment wasn’t too painful.
Jack’s Loft is subtitled “The Dessert Bar” but it does serve some meal fare. Vin and I had the shiitake-embellished risotto while the rest had their beef stroganoff. For panulak, I had the 85-peso iced tea, served in a large and unwieldy fishbowl-shaped glass. The risotto came in all of its one-cup glory, which is great for those on a diet, but wasn’t really worth the 150+ quid in my book, despite the favored flavor. The iced tea didn’t hold anything special as well. Bottomless iced tea will always rule, even if it’s Lipton.
The caramel-drenched chocolate cake ordered by Vin was pretty standard, too. But I remember having a cheesecake there once, which would have been a better option.
Over dinner and loud house music, I raised some questions about our pet fantasy world Hinirang, the setting of the story I’m currently writing. Point of focus was the religious set-up of the world which, again, is based on Spanish Philippines. Because the God-equivalent in Hinirang is three female personages, dubbed by Dean as the Tres Hermanas (Three Sisters), major decisions had to be made about how church services are conducted, the role of women in the clergy (female priests), even down to specific rituals like communion. The establishment of three personages presents interesting creative challenges which have to be readily addressed, as there would be Hinirang stories in the future that will be presumably hinged on or wholly about religion, its role in society, and how magic works given our specific pantheon. More importantly, these challenges need to be addressed as a group, as Hinirang was built by a whole bunch’a people, which makes for interesting creative conversation.
(And all that in the quite trendy Jack’s Loft. We’re such geeks.)
As an aside, I have to find the time to check out Jason’s recommendation – the Philippine Heritage Library – which holds a wealth of information about Spanish Philippines. This is indispensable in my writing of Hierbas (Weeds), I had mentioned in a previous post.
I have to cook up a more stable title for this story soon, because I confess that it is the title that helps me through the storywriting. Titles I’m playing with are “The Confessions of Thorns” and “Peace, Grace, and Mercy.”
After Jack’s Loft, we brought Dean home to tinker with his new DVD player, leaving the rest to coffee and chat at UCC-Podium, where the topic shifted to Vin’s intricate Twilight Empires. After hurling ideas at each other concerning one of the bazillion spacecraft designs that need to be made, we found ourselves in stitches when Marco layered Vin’s concept over the intro spiel of the animated cartoon She-ra. Hilarious, but rather haunting.
Congratulations to Vin for submitting the edited script for the first issue as scheduled! Now I need to crack my knuckles and take a deeeeep breath . . .
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