Proof that Filipinos love to dance

Marching some, dancing some, but in a disciplined way. The links to Byron Garcia's videos of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center inmates. Not the best thing to post, but I was impressed considering their situation.

Nanggigigil Kami (Filipino) by Hagibis, In The Navy by Village People, and YMCA by Village People

Algorithm March (Japanese) from Pythagoras Switch

Bebot (Filipino) by Black Eyed Peas and a Cha Cha number

Dayang-Dayang (Indonesian) by Erika Macho and I Will Follow Him from Sister Act

Radio Gaga by Queen

Jumbo Hotdog (Filipino) by Maskulados

Why are all the Filipinos songs macho sounding? Ahahaha!

Birthday barbecue

Malin and Francesco celebrated their birthday by the lakeside on Sunday afternoon. All I can say is, "what a beautiful day!"

Hej bacon munchers*!

Please, nooooooo! "The naked truth about the Danish pig" sounds like a date gone wrong. Only creepier.

There are nearly five times as many pigs in Denmark than there are Danes. Twenty-five million pigs a year, according to the Danish Meat Association. To think that nearly 85% of these are exported (making Denmark the world’s largest pork exporter), Danes still consume the most pork per capita at 145.9kg a year. Compare that to 31.1kg in the Philippines and 3.0 for Bhutan, the lowest on the list (EarthTrends 2002 stats).

My project work has made me believe that if you are serious about climate change, you'd either go veg or eat less meat. Just imagine the greenhouse gases produced by 25 million pigs. And oh, the stench!

While looking up stats, I came across these acronyms. Which one do you think works best?
Slaughterhouse Operators Association of the Philippines (SOAP)
Slaughterhouse Operators Association of Rizal (SOAR)
Federation of Cattle Raisers Association of the Philippines (FCRAP)

You know my pick. Hahaha!

*what Swedes tease Danes, according to Indi's housemate

Dear dairy

I grew up on powdered milk at home, but I would bring tetra packs of milk for recess and lunch at school. Four glasses of milk a day? Most kids would rather die. Later on, my mom started buying fresh milk in cartons. I don't recall ever seeing powdered milk here in Denmark, and the figures show why.


In 2005, the average Dane consumed 136.2 kg of liquid milk products, of which 89.9kg is milk. In contrast, 2005 figures (from a 2003 survey) show that the average Filipino consumed 19kg of milk. The Recommended Daily Allowance(RDA) is 30kg. "It would be noted that while the Philippines accounts for a very insignificant portion of the dairy universe, it is performing fairly well both in terms of yield and cost to produce," says the National Dairy Board. Ahahaha! Manny, magpainom ka pa ng Magnolia!

Some interesting facts from the Danish Dairy Board: Danish-Swedish Arla Foods is Europe’s largest dairy group. Arla, together with 34 smaller dairy companies, make up the Danish dairy industry, which exports €1.6 billion worth of dairy products annually and accounts for 10,000 jobs.

Come to think of it, milk prices in the Philippines and Denmark are nearly the same. You can afford to have milk and yogurt every day in Denmark without breaking the bank. The milk is really fresh, not processed at Ultra High Temperature(UHT). Most milk types are low in fat: minimælk (0.1%), skummetmælk (0.5%), letmælk(1.5%) and sødmælk (3.5%), which is their equivalent of full-cream milk. Nearly the same goes for chocolate milk and yogurt.

Though the French may complain about Danish cheese, there's still a good variety available. I think in the Philippines, we mainly have cream cheese and cheddar. The rest are processed cheese--flavored milk solids.

The next time you spread Lurpak butter (one of those things more popular abroad than in its native land) on your bread, think of the Danes and their dairy products. But oh, what would I give to have some condensada on bread!

Strawberry season soon. Woohoo!

Photo: Peter Blisgård/Danish Dairy Board

Copenhagen's gardens

A walk from Østerport to Nørreport, passing by the Botanisk Have and the Statens Museum for Kunst. In a span of two hours, met two Japanese ladies traveling alone in Copenhagen and staying for a week. It would be cool if they meet.

Copenhagen's mermaids

Den Lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid) statue lives up to its name (little). I find the "other" Little Mermaid is more interesting.

Trying out Slide because I'm getting tired of Photoshow.

Camera update: I will bear with the camera until it's totally unserviceable. Other than the lack of video, I can usually get around the focusing problems by turning the camera on and off. Low light conditions will forever be a problem, but hey, it's a point-and-shoot.

Encore: Roskilde

Having a visitor makes you see things in a different light. After Indi spent two nights at Kristine's, it was my turn to play host to our Århus ka-chismisan on Whit Monday.

Is this the future of househelp recruitment?

laborfair calls itself a "househelp referral community". I can imagine this business concept sprouting wherever there is need for domestic labor and becoming a franchise. Any takers?

[via Springwise]

Hanging out

Met up with the Mariel, Kristine, Indi (Pinay Erasmus Mundus girls in Denmark) and some of their friends in København for the Karneval. We had coffee at the slightly uppity Huks Fluks at a lovely square near the Round Tower. In the evening, we caught Pirates of the Caribbean 3 at Fisketorvet, the mall one S-tog station away from central station. The tickets were expensive (95kr~P820) and we were on the second row. Interestingly, there was an intermission. No kidding.

Women in Art

Just wanted to share this. I have a soft spot for Ingres' 1853 portrait Princesse de Broglie (1:26) because I saw "her" at the Met and I was spellbound by...her dress. Ahahaha! It was more beautiful than a photograph

If it were 12 degrees outside and drizzling, would you wear this?

You gotta admire their spirit in this weather.

Yesterday was Pinse Karneval in Copenhagen. Instead of a pre-Lenten carnival, the samba schools did it in time for Pentecost/Whit Sunday. 2000 dancers and musicians paraded through the main shopping street up to the City Hall.

Maybe it's no match for our Sinulog and bonggacious festivals (I wouldn't know, actually), but it was still a lot of fun. I found myself bobbing up and down to the beat while taking photographs. Since I haven't had my camera repaired (and maybe never will because talking to the other Pinays made me dread the Philippine postal system), half of my photos came out blurred, but there were still some decent enough to upload.


Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

Movie bits

Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark is being made into an opera at the Royal Theater...for the 2010-2011 season. [via Variety]

Warner Brothers is up to something. Take a good look at this companion site and then this teaser website for The Dark Knight. No, it's not an error.

The website for the new Lindsay Lohan movie is a scary vlog. Now there are age restrictions on it, but when I saw it two days ago, there were none in place.

A new Macbeth movie set in London is showing this year. But I think seeing Roman Polanski's version is enough bloodshed for me.

A Japanese anime that looks like an R-rated Spirited Away. Paprika!

Korean popstar Rain (Bi) might appear in the Wachowski Brothers' Speed Racer film. As much as I think he's a great actor, what could the twins possibly make him do to prove that to Hollywood? Stephen Colbert will have a riot. [via IHT]

And if you haven't seen the trailer for the Stardust movie based on the Neil Gaiman novel yet, it's worth a look.

"No pity, please"

Try painting that with your foot.

That's exactly what Amado Dulnuan did. I remember interviewing him for a school project around ten years ago. My mom helped me find him through AMFPA, the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists (AMFPA), which sends us greeting cards and calendars featuring works of artists without hands. Amado was born without arms but started painting with his foot at a young age, even taking up Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. For a married man with two daughters, his everyday life is surprisingly like a regular workday (except that he works from home and his artworks are seen by people all over the world).

AMFPA marks its 50th anniversary this year. What better way to celebrate it than with quality cards? Help support these talented artists. Check out the local sites for Denmark and the Philippines, as well as AMFPA scholar John Roland Feruelo's website.

Paintings by Amado Dulnuan

Beauty in breakdown

My camera works.

My camera doesn't work.

It works.

It doesn't work.

Works.

Doesn't.


Yes.

No.

Longest word in Danish?

arbejdsløshedsforsikringslovgivningsudvalgsmedlemsskab

It's possible that this word isn't used in daily life because the length makes it impractical, but it does mean something: membership in the committee that makes the laws about unemployment insurance.

Flashback: Bornholm

Raymond has videos of Dueodde beach, Svaneke Brewery, Baltic Sea Glass, the røgeriet, the Rocking Stone and Li rolling down the mound outside the museum. But my favorite has to be the cave. (And not because I'm in it for a split-second and you can hear my voice--those take away points in my book.) You might wonder what all the exclamations were about. There's nothing like being there, I think.

Salsa evening

I had never gone to a real salsa event, so I jumped on the chance to see the Danish-Cuban Grupo Danson perform at Gimle. Before the band came on, we had a warm-up and a short dance class. Given the Danes's reputation for being reserved, it was nice to see them take to the floor. Then again, those who go to these are most likely prepared to dance. Too bad there were hardly any young people (average age: 45). Though the the music was very good, I didn't stay long--just avoiding the possibility of being stuck on the dancefloor with middle-aged men. Hee hee.

Killing with kindness

Cruel 2 B Kind is a great game! Here are some players in San Francisco on Current TV.

Killing with shorts

Time, that is. When YouTube is not enough.

blip.tv it's your show. Great for vloggers.

Break from the looks of it, this is where men go to watch girls. Plus other man stuff, of course, like United 300

MediaStorm well made documentaries

Revver another wannabe that promises big bucks

Rocketboom daily with Joanne

BBC film network watch quality shorts

Screensavers aren't eco-friendly. Let your computer hibernate instead of running full-power indefinitely. But I must say, flickrvision, which shows you newly posted Flickr photos, makes a nice screensaver. Diggexpose, on the other hand, combines Snap and Digg.

Then there's good old TV Links.

For your mp3 collection, part 6

Back in London, Elaine went ga-ga over Dan's stuffed toys, especially the monkeys.

The Ben Fowler Quintet: Modern Hymn-the gospel of chill

Club 8:"Whatever You Want"-your new driving song

Dinosaur Jr:We're Not Alone-and I believed you

Funky Nashville: My Corazon-until that day

Grand Archives: Sleepdriving-stay awake

Jape:"Floating" clap with me

Julie Doirin: "No More"-it's gotta stop

Lewis and Clarke:"Before It Breaks You"-walk away slowly

Lucky Soul: "The Great Unwanted"-trip-unhappy

Nowhere Man and a Whiskey Girl: "Lung Lady"-folk to sway to

Switchyard: "Virgins"-dive into the unknown

Listen to more at Daytrotter.com

More of Funky Nashville here.