September’s Monthly Musings

It’s been what, a month since I last placed anything in the blog? To the readers of this blog, thank you for the continuous support that you have given me. I’m quite surprised that there were people who emailed me and there were still readers despite the inactivity. Been really busy at work and life in general, nothing serious or life-endangering. I’ve also decided to do other things that would either be an investment in time, or I won’t feel that my time was wasted.

Speaking of productive things, I’ve decided to visit two exhibits during the month of September. To be specific, I decided to go out with some friends during my birthday just to take a look at galleries. I’m not exactly talking about the fine arts gallery here though. As for that picture with the classroom, I’ll get to that later =D

First stop is the Lego exhibit. Unlike the usual lego exhibits wherein lego builders try to create stuff out of lego, this exhibit used lego in conjuction with other things. Such as that dog over there.

I do wonder, where did these guys get all those cats to gang up on that poor dog though. This is my second favorite piece in the exhibit. Its no secret that I like cats, but I would personally prefer to keep a dog, a really BIG dog, like a Siberian Husky with the build of a Mastiff.

Again with the little kitties. In our country we have lots of stray cats here and they have learned how to tear apart layers and layers of plastic bag to get food from the trash bins. Despite being dirty, its hard to resist not petting them XD. I’ve been to foreign places, but I rarely see strays around the urban area. Do you guys have stray cats anywhere near your place that you feed?

This totally reminds me though of how I used to build buildings made of lego stacks when I was a kid.

Various structures and settings incorporating lego stacks. I like the house here with the woodsman coming home from work. His house seems to have huge glass windows on his walls. I think the fixtures were also made up of lego as well.

Face with lego on them or a face covered with lego? I prefer the latter actually.

This was my favorite. This lego work wasn’t just some legos placed together to form a face on a cardboard. If you’ll notice not all the lego stacks are facing a certain direction nor are they arranged ‘properly’. Must have taken a lot of thought before making this one.

Aside from the lego exhibit, we also went to the Ayala Museum for the Manga Realities gallery which featured the works of different manga artists from Japan. If you guys can will have this exhibit in your country i suggest you go. Don’t forget to bring your student ID to avail since museums usually give discounts to students.

Just right outside of the first floor exhibit is a drum set and a live projector with different snippets from the manga BECK. And near it is a collection of illustrations from the same series as well. The illustrations there remind me of CD covers, maybe that’s what the artist had in mind?

And just right beside it is the exhibit from Nodame Cantabile. I’m not really a fan of the anime BUT I totally love the live action of this series. As you guys can see each artist had a different feel in their respective areas in the gallery.

I forgot the name of this artist, and the name of the series he made, but whoever made this had a wild and creative imagination to conjure up parrots like these.

Aforementioned artist’s drafts were also on display and the top layer of the glass had the english translation of the manga.

This one was from the manga Sugar sugar rune. The exhibit isn’t as lit up as the pictures I’ve posted. I turned on the flash so I can get a better pic since the lighting there was weak. Entire place was decorated making it feel like Halloween came a month early. If you’ll notice most of the works here are cut-outs placed in different sections to give it that 3d vibe. Magical indeed.

This one was from Children of the Sea. Really love that drawing on the cloth. The way the cloth was positioned and the dots on it made it really immense when you stood underneath it. You should see it for yourself!

Sennen Gaho intrigued me because the exhibit was so simple. Upon checking the artworks, I noticed that everything that this person made didn’t have any words in them. However if you take a look at the artist’s works, the stuff she makes speaks a lot more than most mangas that have words in them.

Oh there is a computer there for easier viewing of her works which you can find over her blog.

Moving up the third floor (because the second floor had an entirely different event altogether), I saw a bunch of drawings right outside but it felt too random and there was only one TV dedicated to showing snippets from this work. I’ll learn a week later that this was part of the exhibit.

Remember that classroom setting that I showed you guys a while ago? Well the artist of “The World God Only Knows” is part of the event as well. It’s astounding to see the level of effort placed here to make it look like a classroom (or a Filipino classroom rather, the chairs are a dead giveaway compared to the other exhibits in other countries).

In case, you guys were wondering what was written on the blackboard.

Oh and there were some illustrations here with the girls from the series as well. Kanon, Haqua and Ayumi were my favorite arcs (or stories of conquests rather ^^) in the series, what about you guys?

No this is not some random picture of a japanese room. This was the exhibit for the series Solanin. I didn’t find any pictures but I found words sprawling outside the room (which I failed to take pictures of). The setting here actually aroused my curiosity. I mean, most of what I’ve seen here only featured pictures and illustrations, this guy used a room and words. Check out the manga! It’s a good read, especially for people who just recently graduated from college and are at work (like me).

Speaking of settings and rooms, I’d like to share with you guys my desk space as well.

My desk space actually consists of two tables: One main table which I use for work, studying, and almost about everything that involves writing and reading. The other table is where I place some of my figures, artbooks and where I make gunpla and draw stuff. I also use an exercise chair as well for… a LONG time. I need to buy a new chair that is totally comfy like a sofa-chair or something.

The desktop is a windows-operated computer with a video card that is probably seven years old, which explains why I can’t play some of the newer games in my desktop like Batman Arkham Asylum T__T. Hopefully I can upgrade my monitor and my video card to something better by Christmas.

This is my office laptop, the IBook G4, though almost everyone in the office is using a MacBook, I decided to stick with the IBook since I don’t need all the processing power the MacBook has. I’m currently saving up for a laptop of my own. Those stickers were from cosplaymania last October 1 and 2.

I also place some of my figures on the shelf. I’m not comfortable with placing the heavier figures up here because the shelves aren’t exactly sturdy. So I place figmas and nendos instead

The newest addition to my nendo family, which took two months after being released to be shipped here… Anyone have any problems also with  shipping time as well?

Here we have the gunplas that I’ve properly built (unlike the ones I’ve butchered). I never though I’d get an SD gundam for free thanks to the gunpla building contest during OtakuExpo last September. Didn’t win anything though XD

I also like reading business books as much as I love reading strategy guides. Go figure XD

We don’t have space for the other books we have here in the house so some of them are placed on my shelf. I used to have tons of books and they used to occupy the space where the figures are. But I decided to give them away to my siblings so they can place them on their own respective shelves.

Spiderman has been here even before the figmas, nendos and other scaled figure came! Spidey-senpai!

Speaking of butchered gundams, here is the place where they reside. There are also Starwars memorabilia placed in here and some Marvel toys that I have a hard tmie parting with. You guys have any toys that you have sentimental value attached to them?

Hmmm another semi empty shelf, with Miku, Luka, BRS and some puchi bootlegs given to me. I’ll have to find a spot for the figmas soon once I get my mitts on the Len and Rin figmas.

Oh disclaimer time. That poisoning book isn’t about poisoning but how to prevent and cure poisoning XD. The saber inside here is a bootleg which I plan to experiment on soon =D

Inside the closet door on the bottom is a bunch of manga, my wacom tablet and other boxes. I also stash away the Filipino manga I buy in here as well.

As for the adjacent table, lets first take a look at the bottom. I keep a few boxes in here, and some of the boxes here have been untouched. Nor even bothered to check. I also keep the spray cans here and the dumbbell set I use for exercise. The other plates are missing though…

Sidecutters and sandpaper for gunpla can be located here. I also have some figure cleaning tools here as well. Curious question, what do you guys use for figure cleaning? (maybe I should pose these questions on separate sections or entries hahaha)

I also like to collect artbooks as much as a I collect figures. Speaking of figures and artbooks, if you guys want me to review anything from what you saw just post it over in the comment sections and I’ll try to find time to make a review.

I used to not have a DSLR and I asked friends if I can borrow their cameras. Yep this camera is one of those cams I borrowed from friends and I plan to return this as soon as she comes back from her trip XD. The G-series cams are a bit heavy but they’re very good. I also love using the macro feature this cam has for the figure reviews. Macro modes in cameras like this are WAY BETTER than the macro modes that SLRs have. Buying a lens is costly, so might as well get the camera instead XD)

Some of the figures I leave here are too heavy to be placed on the shelf like the Dizzy figure from Alter. I guess you could say that they help inspire me when I draw ^^

Oh and after a YEAR of waiting, I was able to snag a figma of saber from fate/extra for only 3,000php (that’s about 6,000yen). Good things come to those who wait I guess. Now all I have to do is collect monies and buy the figma saber alter, and then wait for that saber bride that will be bundled with the new fate/extra game AND the fate wearing a suit that you will see in fate/zero.

As much as I’d love to keep talking I’ll leave this entry as it is since this is like three entries compressed into one. I’m planning on making some sort of series for the blog to better organize it, but I wont do it for now because I still don’t know what exactly my blog will be. But for now I guess you could that it’s a figure-gaming-japanese subculture-themed blog for now.

And i need to get rid of that curtain XD

23 replies
  1. Seika
    Seika says:

    So this is how I look like from the back =))

    Solanin huhuhuhuhu 🙁 It still makes me depressed whenever I remember the manga </3
    I really enjoyed Gaho's works tho too ahhh :c I should check out the blog sometime.

    …and did that figma come with an artbook? XD

    Reply
    • Duqs
      Duqs says:

      Lol yeah Solanin, really good read though. Its more of a ‘struggle to live’ than a ‘slice of life’ manga which i think was more mind blowing. I think Solanin was nominated for an Eisner award back then, which really says a lot about the series.

      It came with a music CD and a small artbook (less than 10 pages hahaha). I can’t buy the new BRS because of that “restriction” we placed in my buying habits XD

      Reply
  2. Miette-chan
    Miette-chan says:

    That’s a pretty cool art exhibit, I particularly liked the ones with Nodame and TWOGK. The look around your room was also pretty neat. I love seeing how other people display and arrange things around their room.

    Reply
  3. bd77
    bd77 says:

    That took me quite a whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiile to reach the end…

    Nice exhibit, and darn, those drawings are good. =D

    Do I spot an SD Astray Red Frame? XD

    Hmm… Sanae wallpaper… MORIYA SHRINE BANZAI~!

    ps. I think you should use the pages tag to break-up loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong posts… IMO.

    Reply
    • Duqs
      Duqs says:

      Sorry bout the long read hahaha.

      Yep, thats a red astray and a sanae wallpaper! (have you seen the touhou kinema-kan with sanae in it? really awesome work)

      Reply
  4. wieselhead
    wieselhead says:

    The Manga exhibition looks really interesting.
    In Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai I liked the Mio Aoyama arc, the Shiori Shiomiya arc, the Sora Asuka arc with the broken game haha hilarious and the Jun Nagase arc was also very nice with the pretty teacher.

    for cleaning off dust from figures I use a duster with syntetic fibres, works quite well ^^
    bootleg saber looks really like a bootleg, were the legs like that from the beginning?

    Reply
    • Duqs
      Duqs says:

      Oh yeah the ‘broken game’ was pretty awesome too! I would(n’t -take your pick) wanna play that game hahaha

      Yeah the legs were like that when it was given to me, i’ll have to repair it soon. But first i have to clean it. Sometimes brushes don’t cut it. The dirt sometimes gets sticky enough due to the humidity. Already thinking of soap and water solution

      Reply
  5. ishokuosero
    ishokuosero says:

    Oh, I’d really love to go to a manga exhibit. =3 Too bad they’d never have one around my area, haha.

    The room for Solanin is definitely interesting. ~ The series sounds familiar, I wonder if that’s one of the manga I’ve picked up in the past that I haven’t read yet (I tend to hoard manga and get to it yearsssss later oTL ). I’ll have to check it out, it has my interest piqued. xD

    That Totooria nendo is adorable~~ *.* Are you planning on getting the scaled one by Phat also, whenever it comes out?

    Reply
    • Duqs
      Duqs says:

      Where you from? The manga realities exhibit is a roving gallery so it might come to your nearest museum someday.

      Check out solanin, its one of my favorite mangas right now. Its like a more realistic/depressing version of Honey and Clover that talks about music and life.

      I’m thinking of it. I’m not really a fan of the Totori game nor the atelier series in general. I just like the character design XD

      Reply
  6. Nopy
    Nopy says:

    That Manga Realities exhibit looks really cool. I especially like those lit-up cut-outs, they do have a 3D look to them even though they’re 2D.

    Reply
  7. Aile
    Aile says:

    Wanna ask, where’d you get the third sketching manga-style book? Ever since I bought the first one, I haven’t seen any other ever since.

    Also, those exhibits are neat, really loved the lego exhibit 8)

    Reply
    • Duqs
      Duqs says:

      I was lucky enough to buy it in fullybooked (including the first book) around 2 years ago.

      Lego exhibit was accidental, we saw it on the way to the manga exhibit. Lucky

      Reply
  8. zzzzzy
    zzzzzy says:

    Love the Lego and anime art museum you went to! Where was it? =D This was an awesome post! Maybe the part of your room should had been a separate post, as I was surprised how the subject changed =P. But it was a very nice room you had there! White and clean color theme ^^. Me and my gf / blogpartner are planning for how our future anime-apartment will look like, so we’re seeking inspiration.

    I’m not sure how I clean my figures, I mostly keep them inside glass shelf… But there’s a blogpost from which we linked to from our newly started blog (EpicMoogle) ^^. -It’s about how to take care of your figures. Here’s the link:
    http://www.hobbyfanatics.com/index.php?/topic/15736-how-to-take-care-of-your-pvc-figure-must-read/

    Have to say it one more time: Love this blogpost! ^^

    Reply
    • Duqs
      Duqs says:

      Thank you very much for your kind words good sir. The museum and lego was in the Ayala museum, Makati in the Philippines. Good luck to you and your girlfriend in finding that perfect theme for your apartment.

      THAT LINK! I’ll try out the stuff there and expand it a bit if i can to help out fellow collectors =D

      Reply

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