Last Saturday in Receipts

Last Saturday was, in my standards, packed. It started with dinner in Tong Yang, because I've been craving for shabu shabu for some time, and I wanted Tong Yang because I can eat trays and trays of their grill-it-yourself beef.


In light of the current food crisis, buffets may seem a bit decadent, but I made sure I only got enough to get me stuffed. There was barely any leftover, so that's very good. I staggered out of the place very, very full and smelling like a kitchen, but I brought an extra shirt to change into for my good friend Kate Santos's art opening at Saguijo.

Kate's ironic pieces are white tables laden with the requisite items that litter the so-called high life (in both senses of "high"). Examples are empty bottles of alcohol, pearls, packets of unknown tablets and capsules, champagne flutes, shoes, condoms and a pair of handcuffs covered in fur.

Everything is painted white, making all these items oddly glamorous and decorative in their pristineness, and contrary to the empty mess that these things make out of those who worship them. In the light of current controversies surrounding so-called socialites, whose lives are outwardly pristine but are exposed to be decadent and abusive inside, Kate's pieces are dead-on and timely.

I especially loved the miniature French fries and hotdog sandwich--aptly the least whitewashed things in the tableau--dwarfed inside a big plate. It speaks directly about the wildly imbalanced diet of those people: a little food against tons of alcohol and drugs. All in all, I was very happy to see another side of Kate as an artist, one in which her point of view is very defined and convincing.

I decided to make a French exit and I tagged along with Chinkee, Jezer and Matt to Club Ascend in High Street because without them, my way out of the unfamiliar Guijo Street was uncertain. Besides, Kate was busy entertaining her other guests.

It was my first time in that club, which I thought was all around just dreary and uninspiring. And the people: None of them will be in any list any time soon, maybe not even on D. I had as much fun as I could in the company of good friends whom I haven't been seeing as regularly as I did before. They were as much fun as before. If anything, I'm the one who's becoming dowdy recently.



The night ended with a meal at Next Door in Makati Ave, and Matt, being Matt, put some blemish on a perfectly good night with a bit of tantrum. We all believed it's because he did not get to go to Tiesto, but who knows? We love Matt anyways.