Supreme picks

Head to Puerto Galera for Malasimbo

MANILA, Philippines - The perfect way to welcome the summer season (we’re starting to feel the heat in Manila) is a weekend trip to Puerto Galera for this year’s Malasimbo Music & Arts Festival. The setting will be a grass amphitheater at the foot of Mt. Malasimbo and overlooking the bay, crowned as one of the most beautiful in the world. The event will promote music, art, and the preservation and development of the Mangyan community in Mindoro. The festival will feature dances and recitals from indigenous groups, four DJ parties on the MalasimBOAT, art installations at the Sculpture Garden, as well as music from Mark Zero, Ivan Theory, Jazlagiba, the Mar Dizon Quartet, the Grace Nono-Bob Aves Group, Freddie Joachim, Ms. Badkiss, Miro, Bambu Spliff, Flippin’ Soul Stompers, Jeck Pilpil & Peacepipe, Kristian Hernandez, Gavin Boyd, Yolanda Moon, Similarobjects, Quest, DJ To-Ru, and Erwin Edralin. As a special treat, legendary reggae singer Jimmy Cliff and soul singer Joss Stone will be headlining the act.

Take a chill pill with How To Dress Well

We’re all gearing up for the beach season with our killer diet of choice, but this weekend, allow an American pop producer to take your mind off your body and teach you the rules of fashion. More like music, as How To Dress Well will be taking over B-Side tonight at 8 p.m. with what many describe as minimal R&B. For the uninformed public, How To Dress Well is the alter ego of artist Tom Krell, whose “ethereal” music has charmed Pitchfork, granting both Love Remains and Total Loss Best New Music distinctions. Stereogum has also hailed him as one of the 40 Best Bands of 2010. The music is ethereal all right, a hypnotic lineup that recalls slow summer days from a heightened point of view. Yolanda Moon, Similarobjects, and Eyedress will be opening the act, setting the tone for a chill evening. Dress code not strictly enforced.

Meet the peculiar Ransom Riggs

While we here at Supreme promote a healthy lifestyle that balances both work and play, we still like to promote intellectual activities that hone your brain instead of your alcohol tolerance. As such, we would like to recommend Ransom Riggs’ novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. The author will be here tomorrow to promote his book at 3 p.m., Fully Booked, High Street. The tome is a YA adventure novel about a teenager who goes to an orphanage on an island to discover the truth behind his grandfather’s past. What he finds is not what he bargains for and finds that the orphans are of a special nature. Besides the amazing storytelling and touching premise, the novel is seamlessly built around an authentic set of vintage photographs collected or borrowed by the author. The book tackles both isolation and belongingness, in a world that may be too peculiar for most.

Rock out the Gaijin launch

When you get a Filipino, a Japanese and an American to create music, you know you’re bound to get something universal. That’s the case with Gaijin, the brainchild of Raimund Marasigan, Shinji Tanaka and Jesse Grintr, whose band has created “raw, loud, helter-skelter and wasak” music. And their brand of music is getting an encore with tonight’s album launch at Route 196. Expect the same unbridled energy from the guys who brought you Welcome Back, Earthling. If Motor Girl and Mindanao Sea are any indication, we can see more of the old-school rock-and-roll act we sorely miss. Gaijin is Japanese for foreign devil, and while the three are gaijin to each other, their songs transcend nationality, culture and time. All it takes is a taste for good music.

Two words: Arturo Luz

After a wild night of rocking music, it takes art to soothe the soul and calm your nerves to prepare for another weekday. And it takes an artist of Arturo Luz’s caliber to really relax you. Lauded as the pioneer of Philippine minimalist art, it is a refreshing take on the local art scene bombarded with avant-garde and maximalist themes. The National Artist’s works will be exhibited at Galerie Joaquin in San Juan beginning this week, with a collection of 30 pieces called “Essential Luz.” The collection is a series of acclaimed cityscapes: lost cities, landscapes, and temples. The exhibit will run until March 14.

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