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
romel dearest, i am floored by your description of me. true enough, you have stripped me of my multi-layered onion-skinned facade (i believe artists are, and if it's possible for me not to post my works so i cannot be open to judgement from anyone, i would). i keep telling people there's more to me than meets the eye, I am schizophrenic. they wouldn't believe US.
ReplyDeleteabout my life as a fashion model slash director, thank you for bringing that up now at a time when new found friends could not conceive of me having a 24 inch waistline.
regarding mindanao, i find it so beautiful that i can't imagine myself living anywhere else. so i have to show them why. it's a good thing i have evolved into a photographer, for my poetry sucks.
and yes, you are as sweet as ever. i remember you to be one of those few good looking young men of substance I taught in modeling, whose constant facial expression was, "why am i being dragged into this mediocrity?" You were a man of few words, nay, even fewer smiles. They were more of smirks.
I am so happy I found you again online after all these years, because despite a lot of catching up to do, we somehow knew this strange kinship comes from a better understanding of our "renewed" selves.
If you pass by Davao, I owe you coffee with Deanna (our other barbaric friend). If I pass by Tandag (as I think am supposed to take portraits of Kuya johnny), you owe me your life story.
Thanks again for the very nice intro.
Fondly,
Jojie
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.
Bandayanon-Ramos hahahhaha, now that's a first for our friend. That's why I never give up my equally famous family name. Hahaha. :-)
ReplyDeleteromel, 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