Bag of Sand

A spent rice sack filled with sand serves as an improvised punching bag, hanging from a tree.


Dangling from a rope, the size of a baby.

Color

Videoke bar/house in quezon, crazy combination of yero, sawali, bamboo slats, old, unpainted balusters.

Something I miss when I'm out of the country-- the straight-up, simple, "I just want a colorful house" house.


Vertical stripes in Manila.

Catching Water

AC gravy?

An antique shop uses an Absolut vodka bottle to gather the typical pesky drippings of an old airconditioner.


Malate storefront.

Ambulatory Seller of Decapod Crustaceans

Average size-- half a normal face.

A roving vendor of live crabs on the bustling Malate streets.


Towel in mouth.

Laid Out

Ten peso empanadas...


And the husband of the woman who makes them.


Drying fish.


Drying peanuts.

Public Shower

A mother gives her son a shower by a Malate street.

Protection

Dried-up flower garlands evidence some offerings.

A juice-selling kariton, protected by a mounted Sto. Niño and rosary.


At siesta break, overturned chair, folded umbrella, cups on standby.

Guitarito

So retro-- coconut trees and sails on little guitars.


As you walk away he offers you successively smaller instruments.

Di Bakal...

Bamboo painted.

... or, when cheap and natural materials replace the standard metal.


Embedded in cement after tying by 3's.


A branch/small trunk in cement.


Branches and bamboo in a parking slot.

Just Another Ms. Gay

A Sangguniang Kabataan (Youth Council) poster in Taguig.

Gay beauty pageants have become a common occurence across our archipelago. Pinoys adore their barangay gay guys. Usually they are a riot, and have so much more bravado and panache than us mere mortals when it comes to performance.

Our acceptance of the feminine, flamboyant types is a curiosity to other nationalities, in my experience-- except to Southeast Asians.