Cook and wash in style

Some writers would consider the kitchen (and the area around it) as the heart of one’s home, as from this area emanates the nutrition and well-being that the inhabitants of the house may, or may not, enjoy. So many daily activities, like the regular meals of the day, find focus in this area; and it’s often that the style in which the household is run can be discerned from how the kitchen is organized. In some Filipino homes, we even get the distinction between the showcase kitchen and the “dirty kitchen.” So when you get a company that pushes and blurs the boundaries between function and aesthetics in the kitchen, one appreciates how that can be done with both elements still sharing equal importance. The premium kitchen cabinet maker in Germany, SieMatic, is one such company.

Distributed here in the Philippines by Stephen and Lolita Sy (Focus Global), any budding homebuilder or renovation junkie should check out the SieMatic modules at the Pioneer showroom of Focus Global. As the photo attests, one module of the BeauxArts initiative of SieMatic masterfully blends design elements and style directions that aren’t normally combined. With the centerpiece being the informal food prep/dining counter, food prep and cooking are rightly separated; and what may have been something untraditional for a kitchen, an Oriental cabinet, fits right in. One easily blends wood with stainless steel fronts, and a whole new kitchen sensibility is created!

And if you’re at the Focus Global showroom, check out the Miele Washing machines. Also a German product, Miele is to washing machines as Rolls Royce is to automobiles, tradition and the utmost in quality, without sacrificing performance and technology. At its recent launch, fashion designer Rajo Laurel was present, demonstrating just how sensitive Miele is to delicate fabrics by placing intact roses (without the stems) into the machine and making them go through the spin cycle without any damage.

Music comes to life

One of the CD’s getting very regular play right now in my car is John Mayer’s Where the Light Is. A double CD live recording of a recent gig at the Nokia Theater in LA, it’s especially interesting because it showcases three sides of Mayer: an acoustic set, with his Blues trio and with a full band. Live sets don’t get much better than this, and when an artist is that good, live concerts still can’t be beat. Fortunately for us here in Manila, the tide has really turned in terms of quality acts finding enough sponsors and gate sales to encourage promoters to take calculated risks, and bring current (read: more expensive) artists to these shores. Time was, it was only mainstream “elderly” acts that would get the nod, conventional wisdom dictating that fans of these acts were the ones with significant disposable income. Sponsorship money helped pave the way for Rock, R&B and alternative bands to find their way to our metropolis.

From the first week of August to the first week of September, there are several red-letter days that should  make fans of various strands of music see Nirvana (and not of the Kurt Cobain variety). Alicia Keys, fresh off the success of her latest CD, As I Am, flies back to Manila early August to perform at the Mall of Asia concert grounds, and that should make R&B/Soul fans all excited, even if she is more mid-tempo and ballad-oriented. Panic at the Disco’s Pretty. Odd. CD showed a side to this emo/art rock band that really surprised most of us. I’d best describe it as a homage to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album — orchestral rock that works. Panic is a college favorite, and this first visit in mid-August should have all the PanicHeads in a tizzy. Sept. 3 is a red-day even in terms of hair color, as it’s the night that Avril Lavigne rocks the Araneta Coliseum with her Best Damn Tour Concert. With a “by-now can’t be denied” impressive career that has spanned a good number of years and produced a strong string of hits, Avril’s newfound maturity and song-writing skills could make this one of the better Rock concerts of the year. All in all, something for most everyone, a situation music fans should be happy about.

The high cost of learning

Novels with academic institutions as backdrops, or having education as a main theme, are this week’s largesse. Debut novelist Will Lavender has come up trumps with the creepy Obedience, while the ever reliable Lloyd Jones gives us Mister Pip, a magical treatise on education and colonialism. David Lodge has made a career of mining this world of the academe, and Deaf Sentence is a welcome addition.

Obedience by Will Lavender (available at Powerbooks): You enter the Logic and Reasoning course at Winchester University, and Professor Williams posts that a hypothetical murder will take place at the end of term, and your assignment is to discover who the killer is and prevent the murder from happening. This is the premise of Will Lavender’s novel, Obedience. The blurring between William’s hypothetical and an actual murder that took place in the community years ago makes the tension and mystery of this debut novel a real page-turner. Three students, Dennis, Mary and Eric, have their own reasons for getting too enmeshed in the course assignment, and their personal histories become fodder for Lavender’s writing. While the resolution leaves us a mite dissatisfied, the trip getting there is worth it.

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (available at National Bookstore): A renowned New Zealand writer, Lloyd Jones gives us an example of post-colonial literature that is powerful and riveting. The backdrop is a tropical island that’s in the midst of a bloody revolution. In the rural hinterlands, one white man who married a “native” stays behind as all the other expats flee the country. Mr. Watts takes it upon himself to still make education and literature available to the children, and it’s Dickens’ Great Expectations that forms the syllabus of his classes. The mother of Matilda, one of his “students,” becomes Mr. Watts’ nemesis. As the lives of our protagonists are revealed, and events happening around them impinge with catastrophic and fatal results, we discern just how mature and insightful a writer Jones is. There are no heroes and villains per se, no black and white — reality is much more textured than that.

Deaf Sentence by David Lodge (available at Fully Booked): A pun on “death sentence,” the central character of Lodge’s latest novel is a Linguistics Professor who is, irony of ironies, going deaf. Desmond Bates and wife Winifred lead a post midlife existence, with Winifred rediscovering herself as self-made entrepreneur, while Desmond is just waiting for retirement. The book is filled with wry and humorous observations; like how while blind is tragic, deaf is often considered ridiculous and pathetic. Historical figures like Goya, Phillip Larkin and Beethoven all had hearing problems and there are anecdotes about the stages in their lives when deafness crept in. A subplot involves one Alex Loom, a female post grad student who may or may not be dementia personified. With a thesis about suicide notes, Alex enlists Desmond by seduction, and the book tackles themes like growing old, guilt and secret desires.