Supremities

Lit wit: Filipino writer in ‘Nylon Guys’ May 2010

MANILA, Philippines - Montreal-based Miguel Syjuco tells the magazine about the rejection his debut novel, Ilustrado, was initially met with. “I thought of giving up,” he tells Paul Caine. But his persistence paid off. After shopping the book around, he won the prestigious Man Asian Literary Prize in 2008 and a book deal with Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

A former fixture of Manila’s millennial party scene, Chuck, as we know him, now calls picturesque Quebec City home. “It is letting me learn French, while offering me the back-up of earning money in an English-language job. But I fell in love with Montreal and have stayed here longer than I planned,” he told the Financial Times in 2009. If you think appearing in Nylon Guys’ Montreal Street Style special was awesome, he has also been written about in The Guardian and Cathay Pacific’s in-flight magazine, Discovery. We are f**king proud of you.

Spread your wings and fly, Iron Butterfly: David Byrne does Imelda Marcos

After writing a book about his travels around the world with his fold-up bicycle and mounting an art exhibition devoted to his obsession with chairs, the former Talking Heads frontman and founder of Luaka Bop Records has embarked on yet another eccentric project: a rock opera about Imelda Marcos.

Called “Here Lies Love,” the opus sprawls across two CDs and enlists Brighton DJ Fatboy Slim to provide beats which nod to the ex-First Lady’s penchant for ‘70s disco. Róisín Murphy, Florence Welch and Sia are just some of the cooler-than-cool names who did vocal duties on the concept album about the glamorous wife of a despot. If the thought of Martha Wainwright singing The Rose of Tacloban makes you LOL, don’t worry; the lyrics on Santigold’s track, Please Don’t, are even more surreal: “And you may find yourself in a Coconut Palace, with 3,000 pairs of beautiful shoes, and martial law on the streets and you may ask yourself… how did I get here?” D-oh!

While the Latin-tilted beats can get repetitive after a couple of spins, it’s worth downloading. Like Ferdinand’s waxy corpse, this, too, is a piece of pop culture history.

Borgy Manotoc models for Calvin Klein with Eva Mendes

While we are on the topic of Imelda, let’s go to B Side — nope, I don’t mean the Makati downtown hipspot, but to the Imeldific’s grandson, the equally controversial Borgy Manotoc. Borgy is currently in Shanghai, China where he just modeled for Calvin Klein. With Eva Mendes, the current face of Calvin Klein Jeans and Calvin Klein Underwear, no less!

Borgy was one of the 70 models who showcased the brand’s Fall 2010 collection at a historic show that was held at the Bund 1919 (a former textile factory dating back to the 1920s) located in the scenic Huangpu River. “I feel elated about it. I was just going to attend the event and then they told me that I was gonna model, too,” Borgy told Supreme during a cover shoot for a teen glossy before he left for China last Thursday. The shoot happened to fall on Borgy’s birthday, April 9.

 The show last night ”brought together three of the designer brand’s creative directors — Italo Zucchelli (men’s Calvin Klein Collection), Francisco Costa (women’s Calvin Klein Collection) and Kevin Carrigan (ck Calvin Klein, Calvin Klein Jeans) who showed their designs in the company’s first multi-brand show since 1994,” writes William Stolerman for Luxury Insider, an online luxury magazine focused on Asia.

Other high-profile names attending the event were Korean actress Soo Jung Lim, Taiwanese actor and model Ethan Ruan, Chinese film and television actor Liu Ye and our very own Georgina Wilson, who went to China with the executives of Bench, of which she is an endorser.

“Calvin Klein’s latest global event in a series has made stops in locations such as Milan, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro. The seismic occasion will also mark the launch of Calvin Klein X Underwear, the latest range from Calvin Klein Underwear,” says the online luxury site. “Yes, I’ll be modeling in Calvin Klein undies, too. Can’t wait to meet Eva!”

Yes, Borgy’s back.