Supreme 2.0

Youth empowerment.

With these two words, I started my media career chronicling the happenings in the fast changing youth scene more than a decade ago. I’m more old school than people think, because back in those days, I would print my photos at Island Photo and place them artfully on the table to show the layout artist exactly how I wanted the page to look.  Heck, I even faxed my articles. Handwritten. On a yellow pad.  

Okay, I am not a vampire and I haven’t lived that long.  It’s just those two words above remind of where I started.  It was my colleague Pam who taught me about that cutting edge tool of technology called the email.  When the page asked for my password, I couldn’t think of anything.  Pam asked me, “What do you stand for?” I asked her the same and she answered, “Women empowerment.” I thought hard, and then typed on the blank space provided: youth empowerment.

I seriously think that your password says a lot about you. Only you know it (okay not anymore) and it gives you access to things both important and mundane. That should be a Facebook quiz, and that’s another story. I have also changed my password.

Now heavily into the world of Twitter (twitter.com/iamtimyap). I like the balance of having a weekly voice via Supreme, and a minute by minute churn of events via the online version. New media is here and it’s nice to live with it — I used to be scared of it, but all the more reason to enjoy the strangeness of, at least for me, unusual bedfellows.

Part of Evolution

It has been one great ride so far. I have seen people come and go and then come back again and friends who have turned lovers (or) enemies and then friends again.  I have witnessed small stores transform into nationally recognized brands, and nationally recognized brands turn into global ones. From rave to new age, from being a self-centered “ME” generation to the currently more involved with the world “WE” generation, we are happy to be an active part of this scene’s evolution.

Supreme’s core is all about that—to take an active part by playing up pop culture politics, poking at the way it churns and embracing that favorite word of Obama’s. Not jackass, jackass. It was exactly two years ago when Team Supreme first set foot here at the Philippine Star office to close its first issue. It was like giving birth all over again (okay, it’s not what you’re thinking), only this time your mother is with you. Yes, Tita Millet was with us till the sun rose (literally), half asleep but still eagle-eyed with punctuation and grammar guffaws. We left the office at 7am, excited for the 5 sections we had closed for our debut.

I don’t know how far we’ve gone after two years. In our Supreme sit down sessions, we brainstorm and lol out with each other’s wisecracks and new discoveries. There’s really no measurement of what you’ve reached except how happy you are with your work. I look at our line up, read each one’s contributions and smile at the progress the team has made. At two years young, I can say we are mature infants.

It is this infancy that gives Gino dela Paz that unique eye that makes his trend spotting speed so spot on, he gets to spot youthful inspirations faster you can say Tumblr. Paolo Lorenzana can see something and push it to the extreme. His writing style can be dark, but when you meet him, he’s all light. Jan Ong (short for J Vincent Sarabia Ong) is one of the happiest and most dependable people I know, and he’s made me read more books than my high school teacher. David Milan is my eyes and my ears — he keeps me aware of the hot and the not, and is very crucial in the way the issue looks each week. He is also responsible for the ever-changing Supreme logo. 

In this anniversary issue we welcome back Tara FT Sering, who writes about artists and how they mirror our society and director Pepe Diokno, who, at 22, is already a multi-awarded filmmaker, having won two awards at the recently concluded Venice filmfest. He presents  Supreme’s annual ‘22 under 22’ list.

Team Supreme is now 2.0! Now that is something worth tweeting about. Supreme to the Extreme Awards season, up next.

(Greet us a happy 2nd birthday, and follow me at twitter.com/iamtimyap)