Refuse was my go-to zero-waste shop back when Covid wasn’t a thing yet. Since they closed and I’m no longer able to scavenge for loose tea leaves as freely as I would love to, I went back to buying commercial teas like Lipton, Twinings and just recently, Steuarts. So I was so happy when I chanced upon Nature’s Apothecary’s ad.
They had this short video promoting their Flower Power bundle which you can get only for Php 995, free shipping, and cash-on-delivery! Yes, you read that right, free shipping and COD! Needless to say, I was blinded by that offer and I immediately hit the “Buy it now” button
So, what’s in the bundle, you ask?
Lavender (25g)
Chamomile (25g)
Butterfly Pea (30g)
Hibiscus (50g)
Stevia Leaves
Mint Leaves
Tea Strainer
The products came from Agusan Del Norte, Mindanao and came just 10 days after I’ve confirmed with their customer representative my purchase. It was expected to arrive 5-7 days upon shipment, but 3 days of delay was understandable due to the holiday season.
I’d have to say that even without the free shipping offer, Php 995 is still “sulit” for 4 jars of loose tea- not to mention the added stevia and mint leaves, and the tea strainer. Depending on which tea leaves, they are sold per gram, while the tea strainer could amount to Php.149 - Php. 500
If you buy them separately, you’d probably go over Php 1,500 or higher if you were to buy them from a different brand or if you choose to physically go somewhere to buy them. I remember scheduling my visit to Refuse only when I’ve completely finished my tea leaves, when I needed to buy a new bamboo toothbrush, and only if I have something else to do or meet in ATC- basically every 3 months, give or take.
You can buy Nature’s Apothecary’s Flower Power Bundle via this link.
Music is a common interest in our family. My parents are frustrated singers and they always do karaoke whenever they can.Even when my father had to leave the Philippines to work abroad, he still managed to send us cassette tapes with him singing on a minus one. And we’d do the same. My mother even bought me a keyboard which I failed to learn how to play. My father sent us a media player, so I could practice singing. I grew up in a family that does music more than we do our prayers. My family’s passion for music is basically the reason why they pushed me to be a singer and compete when I was a kid.
I try to listen to all sorts of music as much as possible, and I try to nail those 100s on every Karaoke session. Unfortunately, music doesn’t love me the way I love it. I never learned how to play any instrument, and my singing voice can pass as average. ButI still sing more than I pray; I still sing more than I read, eat, and maybe blink. Despite being a music lover, I would say thatI’m one of those who forget to appreciate what my fellow Filipinos have - talent, especially in the field of music.
The time I spent going to places and meeting people is now the time I devote to binge eating, watching TV series, attending free webinars, and listening to music. I’ve been learning a lot more about our homeland and its people these days. Our rich history shows how much potential Filipinos have, but it’s such a waste that we’re taking that for granted.
We’re a melting pot of talents, and I can’t help but feel disappointed sometimes. Did you know that the first few countries in South East Asia to produce feature films include the Philippines? Oh, and we were the bomb in the industry! Did you know that there was a time when Filipinos were thought to be the best dancers in South East Asia? That we’re considered to be great singers? Oh, and did you know that the Philippines had the first hip hop scene in Asia?
You read that right, the Philippines is sort of a hip hop pioneer in Asia. Currently, we associate hip hop with streetwear, graffiti, MCing, flip top, break dancing, YOLO, swag, and of course, rap music. It’s not always easy to the ears, unlike pop music. It’s deemed to be childish or immature sometimes. But it’s unapologetic, and it continues to impregnate new subsections like trap, lo-fi, drill, and many others. The scene itself is ever-evolving, and so are its artists. Our rappers are collaborating with musicians from other genres and artists of different forms- they are making bigger ripples in the industry or at least in their respective communities. One of these evolving and striving hip hop artists is Ceaseman.
THE ARTIST
Ceaseman is a 26 y/o rapper with a lot of titles under his belt. He recently released an album with 31 tracks, and it doesn’t seem like he’s slowing down any time soon.
The subliminal rapper is a member of the hip hop group Kaustik Route. Apart from that, he’s also a film writer/director. Ceaseman is the founder of PFK Collective, the drummer of a surf rock band called The Chingks, and he also represents GSIDE Records, RESBAK, INGAY LIKHA, and The Toymaker Productions.
Life wasn’t exactly kind to Ceaseman. He’s a first-born child in a very conservative family and was expected to carry the responsibility as the breadwinner. But his father went missing, he was detained and eventually had to drop out. He has gone through failures after severing ties with his band back then in hopes of forming a new one among the many other misfortunes that happened in his life. He has seen and experienced a kind of world, not many people his age would have seen, and it’s evident in his compositions.
The variety of life’s horrors, pleasures, and rewards in his music reflects his life as an artist, as a Filipino, and as a man trying to live his life to its fullest. His comrades, Filipino arts and music scene made him feel the need to give everything he’s got to his craft and dreams.
Ceaseman sees himself as a “revolutionary artist” hoping to send messages through film and his music. He also believes that “that ignorance is a choice in the age of information and technology, “ so it’s expected that most of his songs tackle certain social issues that are particular in the Philippines. His bars aren’t always black and white. The lyrics would seem like provoking you to see different perspectives, which would sometimes require you to listen to it a couple more times.
What’s really amusing is his versatility as a musician. Before he became a rapper, he was first a drummer for a post-hardcore band. He also plays melodica as well as other percussion instruments. Ceaseman definitely has the ears for the beats. His skill for weaving words together developed from being an emcee, which requires someone to be quick-witted, interactive, and creative. Bring his musical inclination, life experiences, critical thinking, collaborative mindset, passion for the arts together with his wordplay and you got a recipe for a good hip hop artist.
THE ALBUM
On the 30th of October this year, Ceaseman released an album entitled “Carpe Omnia” which is currently available on Spotify, Youtube, Amazon, Itunes, Medianet, Tiktok, and other major music stores.
The title means “seize it all” following the theme of its precedent, “Carpe Deym” (carpe diem), which is the Latin translation for “seize the day.” The recently released album has 30 songs with a hidden track only available on the physical copy. The bonus track is in collaboration with two distinct figures in the hip hop scene and was recorded in Tondo, Manila.
Carpe Omnia will definitely take you on a ride with its variety of hip hop subsections. The jazz and lo-fi flavors, as well as the forgotten Tagalog words like ruweda (wheel), galugad (scouring for something), and bagwis (feathers), made the album refreshing and interesting.
Ceaseman said that he wanted to overwhelm the hip hop community and hype up his comrades by releasing this many songs. It’s like a compensation to his 3-year hiatus, which he spent playing as a drummer for Roots and flowers and The Chingks.
“So technically, Carpe Omnia is 3 albums in one for the three years that I should have released a single album per year.“
Among the many songs in the album, Ceaseman particularly likes Bon Vivant, Onis, Avant Garde Bagwis sa Hawla, and the hidden track. I personally loved Bagwis sa Hawla, which I think is the most personal. This sounded like a narration of his life when he was just deciding to pursue his passion, choose himself, and leave their home to take a chance- like the story of most artists who have a family member that doesn’t believe in their passion or dreams. The other songs I keep playing on repeat are Para-paraan, G, J. Crapola, and Ruweda.
THE FUTURE
Despite the pandemic, Ceaseman is planning to release yet another album early next year, which he will be entitling “Carpe Vitam” or “seize the life.”
Ceaseman said that he still has 4 albums worth of content in his creative bank, so there are definitely many possibilities for this young artist. He’s hoping to collaborate more with other artists, especially those that have greatly influenced his music.
It seems like Ceaseman is already claiming 2021 to be his year as he’s planning to do an album tour for Carpe Omnia, and release music videos and a new single along with his comrades from the PFK Collective. Supporters should also expect live hip hop sets with a band real soon.
Even if we don’t want to admit it, the standard has always been the Western’s in the music industry. With the scope of their influence and the history we’ve shared with them, we sometimes can’t help but work on their shadows. As much as we want to be proud to be Filipinos, to be an independent nation with a culture and history of our own, we can’t seem to detach ourselves from the colonial influence. But artists like Ceaseman, who seemed to want to desperately get out of the mold and share as much of himself in his craft, is what’s making the Pinoy hip hop scene really ours. Artists like him who strive in their respective fields, though sometimes shunned by their kin or fellow Filipinos, are the very people that are saving the Filipino creative industry. They make it feel as if it’s not hopeless at all.
Hip hop is unapologetic, is critical of itself, is flexible, and is resilient- much like us, Filipinos. Pinoy hip hop may not fit the masses’ interest like how western hip hop does- it may not be as dominating as K-pop. Still, there are definitely many Filipinos who are passionate about it and have the talent to pursue it. We just got to acknowledge that potential, really see them, and support them. And guess what? We don’t need to do much.
Though I’m not able to go hoard books at an actual and physical Manila International Book Fair (MIBF), I’m glad that I get to have the opportunity to know more Filipino writers and books that try to recover and reimagine the Filipino history and culture through webinars like this.
Charlie’s book, Children of the Postcolony, is a collection of essays about the Filipino intellectuals “who have contributed to the foundation of the cultural archive of decolonization“ namely Edith L. Tiempo, Fernando Zobel, Bienvenido L. Lumbera, E. San Juan, Jr, and Jose Maria Sison that raise a few concerns about the Filipino decolonization:
How would Filipinos be able to break free from the corruption of the American interference?
How was the interference affected the forgetting of the early history of the postcolony?
How do we go about the process of reconstruction when contamination is inevitable?
Is Filipinization a Filipino idea or an American one- is it a corrupted idea or a revolutionary idea?
Charlie said that the book wasn’t meant to criticize the past, but to provoke the scholars and students to “reconstruct those lost years in Filipino memory.”
Hoping to attend more webinars of this kind. There are two more events for the month of November which you can attend:
Appreciation post for Mount Kiltepan in Sagada, Mt Pulag, and all the mountains I planned to hike this year, but couldn’t due to the corona virus
Now that I’ve gotten your attention with these stills from Write About Love which you can watch on TBA Studio’s official Youtube channel, I present to you the blog post I’ve been wanting to publish but couldn’t because of procrastination and my stubbornness
My New Normal
Unlike the old normal when the first week of the month is the time spent almost solely on planning my travels, my weeks these days just pass by- no more packing and cramming, and creating itineraries and browsing through Google Maps. No more inviting friends to tag along and taking lots of pictures and exploring. Everyday feels like a never ending search for something- something new and exciting which you’d normally feel when traveling. You leave home and go to a place either less familiar or entirely new; where along the way you’ll meet different new people, and you get to try new things or hear a new story. These days, it’s just the same old bed, the same people, the same familiar alley, similar convenience or grocery stores. It’s even sadder to think that I’ve just started going out of my comfort zone, and now I’m back at it again.
Months have passed by and I’ve finally gotten the hang of it. Instead of planning my travels, I’ve been planning my DIY projects and the tasks I’ve put off to make time for other exciting things. It feels like going back to my couch potato self- binge watching TV series, animes and films, drawing, painting, writing and reading. These projects and small-time tasks are more comfortable and relaxing. Though they aren’t as exciting as my travel encounters, they still make me feel alive- and that’s enough.
It’s enough that I’m alive- that my family and friends are alive. It’s enough that I get to be with them, even only virtually. It’s enough that I have what I need to exist- to live. It’s enough that I still have time left.
Good timing isn’t really my best suit and I wasn’t expecting this charm of mine to miraculously change any time soon. My expectations were low, but damn…
So I haven’t been active on social media these past few months especially on Facebook. I tried to see what’s up with my friends these days, perhaps catch up with how they are coping, react to a few posts about the things that keep them sane. Just after three scrolls, ‘yall I saw this heart-wrenching post from Idel:
Heartbroken.
Our entry-exit coastline . . Hanep. Narinig ko na yang gagawin nila tong kalsada, pero wala eh.. it is what it is. . Wala kang kapangyarihan para mapigilan. Lipat tayo ng ibang malilinisang dagat hanggat meron pang natitira. Progress??? It can go hand in hand with environmental protection pero aasa ka pa ba sa ganitong klase ng gobyerno.
“Who suffers if you kill the environment? It’s the poor. And whose duty is it to protect the people? It’s the government. And when you make decisions based on business interests, you have shirked your responsibility. You have lost the moral ascendancy to rule the government because to you, business and money is more important than the welfare of our people.” -G.Lopez
The Tara Linisin Natin To project is a very special movement for me. It started out with just a few friends trying to save their childhood spot. It took only a few years to rid this place of trash, but it took a lot of passion, persuasion, sweat, and plowing, and digging, and now, it’s gonna be a road- for that build, build, build legacy this admin would like to leave us with.
On to the next coast to save, I guess? I just hope we don’t need to save any more, though. But until then, we will.
FILIPINOS URGENTLY NEED YOUR HELP: A CALL TO ACTION
art by the wonderful @franshookie-art (DO NOT REPOST this image without their specific permission. check out more of their art on twitter.)
hi, all.. i know that a lot of our focus is on the BlackLivesMatter movement atm (which is wonderful and should’ve happened a long time ago), and i hate to distract you from that, but there’s something horrible happening in my country, the Philippines (yes, the one being lead by the so-called Filipino version of Donald Trump), right now.
our national government has passed a bill that’ll essentially take away our constitutional rights to freedom of speech and fair trial. it’s called the Anti-Terrorism Bill, but we’ve dubbed it Terror Bill. here’s a summary of what it entails:
if you want to read the actual bill in its entirety, here’s alinkto the official Senate of the Philippines website, where you can download a pdf copy. i’d like you to keep in mind the political climate in our country, though, and just how rampant corruption and police brutality are here.
it has already been passed by the Senate; all it needs is the House of Representatives’ approval, and it will be enforced. if you want to help stop this from happening, here are a few ways:
sign and share thispetition. we’re so close to 300,000 signatures!!!
send e-mails to the Office of the President and the Senate. there’s an e-mail protest currently going on. i have qualms about copy-pasting the message, but ultimately, this method is a lot more effective than petitions:
these posters were made and posted by @tentenyukkion twitter.
educate yourself about the bill and how it will affect us when it’s approved. here are some news articles, editorials, and thought pieces to get you started:
spread the word. on social media, our tags are #JunkTerrorBilland#JunkTerrorBillNow, but don’t stop there; tell your friends and family. please. people need to know this is happening.
your help could save the lives of millions of Filipinos, and we’d really, really appreciate it. i don’t usually ask for much, but when it comes to urgent issues like this, i can’t stay silent. unlike with BLM, i can speak my truth about this because i know personally what it’s like to be a Filipino citizen and to live in the Philippines. i hope it’s heard, and we keep an ounce of what little dignity we have as a “sovereign” country and rights as a “sovereign” people.
some of you might unfollow or get mad because this isn’t strictly studyblr content, but it’s not about aesthetic right now. i need your help. we need to hurry.
thank you for taking time to read! let’s uphold human rights together. #JunkTerrorBillNow!
Let us educate ourselves. Support us to junk this Philippine Terror Bill.
