Happy Anniversary Rogue Magazine!

Luis posted this entry on his blog. I'm reposting it here becasue I feel the same way:

Has it been a year already?

So my copy of the July 2008 issue of Rogue arrived on my doorstep yesterday -- it marks the magazine's first-year anniversary. (Anne Curtis is the cover feature -- photography by Mark Nicdao, styling by Millet Arzaga, words by Nick Azarcon. Great job, Nick!) There are many very good reasons to grab a copy of this issue, but I'll focus on two: first and foremost, of course, is the new story by Yvette Tan, Seek Ye Whore. It's twisted, funny, sexy, and deeply disturbing. (Here's a quote out of context: "It was oddly exhilarating, making love to a half-formed body.")

Second is the "24-page recap of Rogue's past 12 months" -- Yvette and I have been involved, in one way or another, with almost every issue since the magazine came out, whether we wrote cover features or short essays or just made suggestions, and it was great fun for me to page through the retrospective and remember all that stuff. (Am particularly happy with the Sanya Smith interview I did, Yvette's account of her encounter with Neil Gaiman, and of course the fiction we wrote.) Reading through all the accolades just made me prouder to have worked on the magazine. Of course, it's fun to page through the feature whether you were ever a contributor or not; the pictures alone will make you swoon, and the little behind-the-scenes bits make for great reading. If you don't have a complete run of the first year already, be warned; you will feel the need to fill in the gaps of your collection.

Sadly, this anniversary issue is also the last for Features Editor Erwin Romulo. Erwin has decided to move on and do other things, and it's safe to say the magazine will never be the same again. It's impossible to overstate his importance to Rogue: whether it was absorbing and thought-provoking subject matter, beautiful and controversial photo shoots, or an array of expertly chosen -- if occasionally surprising -- contributors, from writers to photographers to visual artists, Erwin brought that edge that other magazines can only dream about. Personally, I credit him with breaking the years-long slump I had been mired in, regarding my fiction. "Tell the Sky" (from the December 2007 issue) was the first story I had written in a long time that I was happy with, and without Erwin's initial inspiration and constant encouragement -- plus of course Yvonne Quisumbing-Romulo's artwork, and the Rogue bosses' approval -- it would never have seen the light of day. (Yvette had a similar experience with "Seek Ye Whore" -- it was Erwin's persistence that compelled her to speed up her already-swift writing process.)

Erwin has a way of not only choosing the perfect people for a certain feature, but also getting the best work out of them. Whether he accomplishes this through undisclosed telepathic powers, the unspoken threat of bodily harm, or simply the assurance that whatever his contributors come up with will be presented in a way that they can be proud of, it's hard to say -- but whatever his methods, they were instrumental in shaping the first year of one of the best damn magazines in the country today.

(If it sounds like I'm sucking up to him, it's because I am. Because if there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that I'd like to keep working with Erwin, and collaborating with the other creative individuals in his army.)

Meg Article in the Philippine Star

My article on the Meg Face 2008, which has discovered actors like Marian Rivera and Ehra Madrigal, came out last Friday. I'm going to take a page from Kenneth's blog and post part of the article here as well. The better to entice you with, my dears.

Thanks to Kenneth, by the way, for posting about "Seek Ye Whore's" appearance in the July issue of Rogue.

About face!
By Yvette Tan
Friday, July 18, 2008

Appearing on the cover of a magazine is a dream for many young women, and for one lucky girl, that dream will soon become a reality.

Meg recently magazine unveiled the top 10 finalists of the Meg Face 2008 at Alchemy Bar. “Our purpose is to find the next talent, a fresh new face with preferably no modeling experience,” says Meg editor in chief Peewee Reyes-Isidro.

Read more

Metro Post is Out

Metro Post, your new lifestyle guide is out! The brand spanking new first issue features Sitti as you've never seen her before.

Also in this issue:
> Where to go on a fun-filled date for less than 500 pesos
> Jack-of-All-Trades (and my personal favorite Didi ever) Ricci Chan
> Why we love Little Asia
> Rock 'Tog Mari Arquiza
> Yummy Vietnamese rolls using only three ingredients!

Get your FREE copy at the following places:
San Francisco Cafe
Old Swiss Inn
Cold Rock
Metro Bar
Malcolm's Place

Shameless Self Promotion July 2008

My story, "Siquijor" appears in Rogue magazine's anniversary issue. It's about a guy who gets a mail order bride. Hijinks and whatnot ensue.

Got to interview Frederrick Peralta for a Y Style article on his very dreamy bridal gowns. Read it here.

Surefire Finance Tips from Electric Six

Here's something I pulled off the Electric Six website.

It's nice to know that even musicians are concerned about the layperson's financial welfare. Now I gotta go buy stocks in oil. Won't be long till I get my yatch!

Retirement by 40??? Electricsix.com Has 5 Hot Tips To Make It Happen

The economy is tanking. The price of oil is skyrocketing. Unemployment is on the rise. What are you going to do? One route is to blame President Bush and congress, blame Countrywide Financial and Enron, blame China. Another idea is to get a third job.

Or maybe, just maybe, you want to deal with it by retiring while you are still young and laugh at everyone else from the deck of your brand new yacht while you guzzle champagne and fuck expensive prostitutes!!!! Sound far-fetched?? Not as much as you'd think! Chase away your fears and worries. A lavish retirement may be headed your way sooner than you think if you follow these five simple tips brought to you by electricsix.com

1) By low, sell high

Real estate is a tried and true method of procuring quick wealth. No doubt you've heard talk of a mortgage crisis and the housing bubble bursting. Our advice? Ignore all that. Buy a house for not a lot of money, put a new coat of paint on it and then sell it for twice what you paid for it. You've just doubled your money!!!! That was easy!

2)Diversify, diversify, diversify

The market has been volatile of late, but don't worry about any of that. Many young investors make the mistake of putting their money in stocks that aren't oil companies. We recommend strongly that you put your money in stocks that ARE oil companies. And when it comes to oil companies, the more the merrier. Diversify your oil portfolio. Don't just buy stock in ExxonMobil when you can also buy stock in ConocoPhillips, British Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell and the House of Saud. A diverse oil portfolio makes sure that you make more money while the money makes more money.

3) Find that Canadian 5-dollar bill you saved because you thought it was funny that it had hockey players on it

Remember that Canadian 5-dollar bill you kept because you thought it was funny that they put hockey players on their money? At today's exchange rate, that Canadian 5-dollar bill is worth 67,000 US dollars. Find that thing.

4) Steal David Beckham's identity

If you have a free afternoon, go to Los Angeles and rummage through David Beckham's garbage until you find a few of his credit card statements and computer passwords. Then get a hold of an encryption scrambler and an electromagnetic pulse that momentarily shuts down the power grid. Granted, these items are not cheap, but if looked upon as an investment, the return will be massive. Go back home after the EMP blast and enter the keycodes and Fibonnaci sequences into the internet and within minutes you can make David Beckham's money start working for you.

5) Just say "No!"

This might be the simplest tip of all, and also the most important. People in your life want money and payments from you all the time. By saying "no", your will notice your bank account begin to say "yes". You want me to get the next round of drinks?? No...how about YOU get it! You want me to pay for that gas I just pumped into my car? No...how about you stick it all the way up with a red hot ass poker!!!! You want me to pay my credit card statement??? No....let's not and say we did!!! By saying no to every potential payment life throws at you, your money supply never gets depleted. At times, others will react poorly to your financial strategy but the important thing is to ask yourself what is most important. Do you remain focused on the goal or do you let whining ninnies and greedy money-grubbing twits distract you from the endgame? Like anything in life, you have a choice. We believe if you choose to say no and hold the line every time, your golden years will be upon you sooner than you think.

Call the harbormaster....tell him he's gonna have to make room for one more yacht!!!!

Back at Work... Not

So I'm here at work today, only I just got here to find out that I'm not supposed to be in until later because they moved the schedule around and the Production Manager didn't tell anybody. That's bad enough, but what makes it worse is that she was bugging me for our synopsis because we're digitizing today. Which leads me to wonder: was she budding me just for the fun of it or was she bugging me because she doesn't know what's going on in her own production?

In other news, the launch of Night Monkeys went great last night. Saw peeps like Elbert, Cyan, Charles, (sexeh) Fran, Fran's (hot) brother, Fran's (fun) friends, Fran's (cute) dog; signed a lot of books, ate pastries, drank iced tea laced with pandan flavor, got interviewed by Sam of Business World (I think I went on a drunken rant there, even though I hadn't drank anything), and went to Fully Booked afterwards.

What made my night was being able to spend it with Luis. Always a good thing.

Grabe! Dinumog siya ng fans kagabi! It was cute to watch. Of course, if I spotted any of them gatting too close, I would have put on my media mercenary moves and jabbed them in the eye with a pen. He's mine, mine, you hear, bwahahahaha! Unless he's a cute guy, then maybe we can come to some sort of understanding.