i met jojie eons ago--okay in the 90s---when she choreographed a fashion show in davao city where i was one of the models. in that show, i had the privilege to be the groom in the muslim wedding finale, wearing a barong made by boy ginoo, davao's pitoy moreno.
back then she was davao's most sought after fashion model from ateneo. but typical model she was not: she danced; she wrote; she read heavy stuff; she hosted corporate shows; and she was into mass media.
fast forward to 2009. i chanced upon her comment in one of the blogs i visited, and that led me to her site. through swapped emails, i learned she's now a celebrated, multi-awarded davao-based writer and photographer, which only proves she has more layers than an onion. and because she has reinvented herself so often, i now begin to suspect it's her middle name.
but what impresses me most is her advocacy to promote mindanao through her pictures and stories. that i plan to kill her from sheer envy, these pictures will show why.
tinuy-an falls
cagwait white beach
hinatuan's enchanted river; these pics made it to PAL Mabuhay!
kaliguan festival dancer
visit jojie's urls and be enthralled:
http://www.witerary.com
http://jojiealcantara.multiply.com
http://www.dabawenya.com
hi, joj.
ReplyDeletei love it that you've left some lines here. i mean, not all blogs can snag a comment from a multi-awarded writer and fotog whose shoot sked is much, much longer than maharlika highway!
we're kindred souls gyud diay. we write; we read; we're fashionistas (wajajaja); we crack at signages that would make jean edades flip over in her grave; and we can't read and write poetry even if our lives depend on it.
btw, please give me a heads up when you get here in tandag.
i was there in davao a full moon ago, and the rich-but-not-so-famous deanna bandayanon-ramos treated me to some shabu-shabu at tong yang.
bitaw, joj, salamat kaayo.
ooops, patay ko sa husbandry ni deanna ani kay na mix-up nako iyang apelyido.
ReplyDeleteto deanna (if you happen to drop by): i so love MENDOCINO and Other Stories. the book makes me want to try my hand at fiction writing again.
romel, am happy for you. creative writing is such a sweet torture (and it will not earn you much money). technical writing is a blah, but I have long sold my soul to the devil. so.... i am rich now, wahahahaha.
ReplyDeletejoj and deans,
ReplyDeleteato-ato lang ni ha? actually it was a freudian slip on my part. you see, married women who rock the economic cradle, however temporary, should rule the world by becoming reverse hyphenates! ^_^
joj, before you accuse me of being mean, it was actually deanna (by letting me in on a little secret) who led me to commit the faux pas. parenthetically, you mean the "surname-that-shouldn't-be-mentioned-no-matter-what" is more famous than "alcantara?"
deans, i'm so envious of you. no, not the fact the you've become rich. it's the fact that the devil has found some value in you. ^_^
peace, gorgeous girls, peace.
pahabol:
ReplyDeletedeans,
oh!my!god! it's only now that i've realized that VIGNETTE is your ID, in fact you had been using it when commenting in my two defunct blogs.
why did it escape me? grrrr...
i used to be a genius.
ReplyDelete