Every little thing you wanted.

Yes, Fashion is a hobby of mine, but I think I'm into it so much because I'm using it as an escape. Maybe if I wore my shades, no one would look at me or maybe if I had a killer outfit, they'd forget about how ugly I really was. I do believe that my personality is rather pleasing - I can say I'm respectful and caring and responsible, but why is it that the people or person I want to impress doesn't even notice me, while the people I have no interest in are like obsessed with my existence. This makes me think that I'm really not good enough, that I have nothing to show for myself. I really don't like bragging nor fussing about my accomplishments and yet, others do to climb the social ladder. I really don't give a fuck of where I am in the hierarchy - All I want is to be happy. Just a little bit more to what I'm used to. 

 

I wish I could be every little thing he wanted. Sometimes I wish I were pretty. Maybe, just maybe he would have never left me.

Passenger.

I can't say anything has changed, though I wish it had. I'm not even sure why I'm still here. A lost passenger waiting for his stop. Deja vu meets mother of sequels. Someone seems to have taken the directions. I wonder where it will lead. How it will end. Where's the next stop.

Keep driving, he says. Never look back. Another bus will come.

The Women's Journal--September 2010

CAPT. IRENE MORA
Lady Pilot

Photography: Dustin Ibay
Styling: Gio Emprese
H&MUA: Roy Tambong of Salon de Roy

On Capt. Mora by Goulee Reyes

MIXOLOGY GRAND LAUNCH

Last Friday, August 20, we lived up to what MIXOLOGY was all about- GLAMOUR. FASHION, MUSIC, PARTY!

What a scene it all was to take in! Gorgeous people dressed in their finest designer garb, drinking the best grooved to the beats of  Manila's finest DJs- Funk Avy, Martin Pulgar, Ace Ramos & Ron Bernardino like royalty and partied like there was no tomorrow! VODKA WAS OVER-FLOWING THAT NIGHT from every corner or tiny space, of the gigantic club- which was jam packed with party-philes who were willing to party until the break of dawn. Everyone who was someone went to fill in the club into a luxurious sea of beautiful people
turning every spot into their own dancefloor!

Didn't we tell you your FRIDAY nights would NEVER be the same again? And since we all never fail to deliver, have we not yet proven that indeed, once you experience MIXOLOGY -- your FRIDAYS will definitely and significantly be altered.

To those who have been a witness to such, we've all heard your raves and we never failed to impress--- spread the word! To those who have not yet tasted what A MIXOLOGY FRIDAY NIGHT join us this Friday as we give you nothing but the best beacause every great performance deserves an ENCORE!

NOTE: Photos by Drake Santos & Denise Nicole

I LIKE IT WET.

PHOTOGRAPHER: DUSTIN IBAY
ASSTD BY: NADIA MANALASTAS
STYLIST: GIO EMPRESE
MODEL: CHILL TORRALBA

SUB-ZERO

PHOTOGRAPHER: DUSTIN IBAY
STYLIST: GIO EMPRESE
HAIR & MAKE UP: DAKKI BAUTISTA
MODEL: CHILL TORRALBA

BOOT-Y CALL

PHOTOGRAPHER: DUSTIN IBAY

STYLIST: GIO EMPRESE

MAKE-UP: MELVILLE SY

MODEL: CHILL TORRALBA

when the beat just goes on.

Since I'm not keeping a portfolio or anything of some sort, here are some teaser shots of the shoot I styled last night.

I didn't get to get a snapshot of everyone's outfit but I managed to 'steal' what chill had on.  All it takes really are a perfect pair of boots and lots of attitude to rock them!

I am super inspired to style lately. I hope something comes and I get to have the freehand. (: The secret! The secret!  

I will change the WORLD.

Things happened. Ugly things. Terrible things. Things that destroyed some parts of me that I thought would be irreparable. I was trapped in fear that I myself raised, fed and kept. I've housed a lot of bads that there wasn't enough space to keep a good stay long. When's the traffic light going to go red? I watched The Secret and it did. It makes you wanna throw all the baggages out the window (they aren't LV's anyway). Live lighter. Happier. I've never felt so powerful. So connected and so... here. There were flashbacks about how I created the life I'm living now and how I thought about it and how I wanted it to happen.

Thoughts become things.
When I was a kid I would often visualize dancing at a club with a what-the-hell-are-you-wearing outfit and meeting all the people that matter. I wanted to see myself on TV and be featured in a magazine. I've always wanted to live alone and have a view of a city skyline. Drive my own car and everyday that I used the PC I crave for Mac even more. Hey, they're all here.

I still feel weird about when someone from the movie asked to look at the hand and that it's actually see-through because it's energy and that we're all connected. It seemed a little bit k-hole-ish to me. Ngek.

This isn't just a high that goes away after a couple of hours. I think it isn't, so it really isn't.
 

This is going to be hard coming from a major prophet of doom like me. I mean from a former major prophet of doom. And it's not going to be hard. See, I'm working on it. :P Positive thinking never sounded appealing till today.

Being passionate about complaining how your day's turning ugly means your sending bad vibes out into the universe that will find the same negative energy to bring back to you so you can have more things to complain about.
In other words, mga bakla makinig: pag kinarir mo ang BV, pipitik ka. haha!

For me to get the bads out I need to focus on the things that make me feel good. Feeling good attracts good things. Feeling bad attracts bad things and when you respond badly more bads come. Seriously, it's not as easy as it sounds. Like instead of making fun of people with bad styling I'd rather kalkal the true beauty within. Apparently, it's not as fun too. 

"Hintayin mo lang... I will change the world"
I don't know how many times I said this to people. I don't know how. I don't know when. I don't know with what. I don't know through what. I just know I would. I feel it. Strongly.
I used to picture myself being interviewed by Oprah. I used to imagine being watched by billions of people as I receive my first Oscar or Grammy wearing something really, really expensive. I still sing in front of a full length mirror with a remote control or a brush in one hand. And I still want to be on TV. I want to save animals. I want to save my country.  I want to be on a magazine cover.

And while I wait for these things to happen, I'm working for another DREAM--
to wear the white coat and help save lives.

thoughtsbecomethingsthoughtsbecomethings
thoughtsbecomethingsthoughtsbecomethings

I'm gonna start being grateful about everything and pen down things I feel good about. The world (or fans) awaits.

Unrelenting.

I'm sitting on the sideline, watching and waiting for an opportunity, a chance to be in the forefront, the spotlight on me starring me, in the story of my life. Right now the leading character doesn't seem to be leading much of anything. It's a lonely feeling seeing my life pass before me, sitting juxtaposed to and accompanied with my selfless shadow. There are a lot of things happening, people moving fast, friends moving on. No doubt the scenes are changing, but have I?

A friend recently told me that I've changed, so much so that he wonders if he ever knew me. I started rationalizing that in the course of a few years, it's natural for people to change. Or maybe it was him that changed. But now I wonder if he's right, that I’ve been a double agent all these years trying to be something or someone I'm not.

The one thing that's for sure is that I haven't felt more alone than before. There's a world out there that has moved on and the one thing I can't seem to do well is just that. I'm holding on to something that I'm not convinced is there. I question whether it’s worth trying so hard to believe that things haven’t changed, that we’d have something worth holding on to.

The question now is where to go from here.

GLITTER IN THE AIR.

 Celebrated my 21st birthday at Attica, Makati.

Thanks to everyone who was there. It wouldn't have been as great if you weren't.
it was a frigging blast. and a slight blur--I live for the nights I can't remember with the people I'll never forget.

I like to talk about my friends. only because they exude such interesting positivity. meticulously hand-picked like clothes from the latest catalog. which is why not everybody is invited to my party. i don't just wear clothes just because they fit me. they must look good on me. they must make me look good. this is how much friendship matters. choose your friends and your clothes wisely. my mother would always remind me to do so.

 MORE PHOTOS! CLICK! CLICK!

As for what I wore?  I sported a two-piece suit by a good friend, Pauline Abustan. A bowtie from Top Man, white long sleeves and shoes both from Zara.

 

A NEW NIGHT IS BORN--MIXOLOGY FRIDAYS AT ENCORE!!!

July 9, 2010

A new night is born to cater to your nocturnal cravings…

All new MIXOLOGY Fridays @ ENCORE Superclub!

House, Pop, R&B and Mash-Up Music ALL NIGHT!

Featuring:
DJs Martin Pulgar, Marc Naval, BigBoy Cheng
With MC Warren

STAMPS ARE VALID AFTER-HOURS @ REPUBLIQ!

See you there!
-Gio Emprese


FOR EXCLUSIVE GUESTLIST AT ENCORE EVERY FRIDAY:

EMAIL NAMES AND MOBILE NUMBERS OF ALL GUESTS
BEFORE 8PM FRIDAY TO:

gioemprese@gmail.com


STRICTLY FOLLOW THIS FORMAT:
Date of the Event: July 9 Friday
FIRST NAME LAST NAME CONTACT NUMBER

(ALL CAPITAL LETTERS & ONE NAME PER LINE PLEASE)

No need to wait for a confirmation. Automatic inclusion after submission.
Guest list under: GIO EMPRESE

FOR INQUIRIES, BIRTHDAY & TABLE RESERVATIONS: 09274472215

21 year old me.

so I'm 21 already.

Wow! head rush. I still cant believe it (at least, like what I told mom, my eternally 16-year old self still cant believe it) that I'm twenty PLUS. I'm no longer eighTeen, not even nineTeen. heck I'm twenty PLUS one. how eerie is that?

Looking at it, I'm kinda excited and thrilled (what's the diff?) at being 21. new challenges, more responsibilities, new relationships (platonic, thank you very much).

in the Major Arcana, the 21st card is the World, represented by a person in a Circle, surrounded by the four Elements of Life. it symbolically represents the completion of a Cycle, and the progress to the Next. just like what I'm going through. or had gone through, depending on what perspective you look at. I've completed the Cycle of Youth (physical age, please), and now moving on to Maturity.

amazing, isnt it, how the Tarot reflects what and who we are (in this case, me)?

hmmm.. im technically an adult, whatever that means, now. hmmm..

Woke up older.

Today I turn 21. For one, I can drink in the USA. For two, I really don't know.

Somehow it intrigues me - why is it that on a normal year, I would normally have the birthday blues at a normal 24-hour period before my special day? now I guess everything turned to be not the so normal me.

2o has been really doing a lot of things to me. It made me realize things in life that I can do more than what I have so long believed I should and rubbed in my difficult head that there are some things in life that you can't just take hold on unless you work really really hard for it.

I'm dealing with the realization that my parents would love me a lot more if I changed in ways I couldn't; that if anything about the drama at home went beyond this house, it would bring my whole extended family down with me; that the love I believed in since I found out what love was doesn't actually lift me up where I belonged or move mountains, or close the miles or save the day, or even heal a goddamned hurt; that somewhere out there, people my age are worrying about tomorrow's movie date while I'm worrying about a steady job I won't get until three or more years from now, which will help me pay my own way out of here to somewhere I don't have to be on guard all the time; the frustration that I really do wish I could complain about pimples or hangovers or parents who wouldn't buy me a new car instead of all this.

What if this is actually me growing up even more, and now that I'm 21, it'll be even even more? I'm so tired, and so envious, and so stuck here. It's not fatalism or a sort of giving up and thinking "woe is my entire existence, what can I do but complain about my existence-driven maturity???" I'm just looking at this whole thing and wondering, how did I get here, and how did I even manage, and how can I go back?

But I guess, I am happy. Now whenever I hear loud laughs from a random group of people, everytime I see happy thoughts and experiences posted on facebook and twitter, each day I see people living their life the way they want it and each moment I learn how happy the people I love are - makes me even happier - and never guilty that I am one of, if not, the happiest.

My being 21 has just begun. Maybe it'll be great! Everything will be perfect. please give me the best vibes. =)

Envy is a bitch.

Never knew you could actually feel so unimportant... it's 3 days till I'm 21 and yet strangely I don't feel any excitement at all. I mean not that I'm not thankful for what i already have, god knows i thank him everyday for making life livable, but what if i don't want it to be normal? What if i want to be extra-ordinary? i mean how do you go about doing that? i envy people who have direction in their life so much, the dreamers, people who are involved in helping other people out, people who have like really huge problems yet they just breeze through life. and God knows i envy couples who i see walking around, mostly cos of the resolve they have in making things work, it also shows me that even if they go through a lot of hurt in the process they still enjoy being together, and that even with the risk of being hurt they still take that chance.

For the people involved in charities, people helping other people out and people fighting for a cause... i envy you because you have the drive to help other people out without ulterior motives, to spend so much time for people you hardly even know, for a cause that for all we know is hopeless to fight for. I envy you because of your compassion and determination in making that dream happen.

For the people who have direction in their lives, i envy you because you know where you're going. That no matter what happens in the now, you'll always know where you'll be a couple of years from now... i envy you because you already know what you're gonna be. what job you'll take, who you'll marry, and what you're going to do when you get all of that...

For the dreamers, i envy you because even if most of it doesn't come true, still you dream and hope for it to come. Because in dreaming you get happiness, and a sub-conscious effort to make that dream come true, and most of all i envy you because when one day your dream does come true I'd love to be able to feel what you feel.

For the people who breeze through life.. i envy you because even if youre hit hard with problems all you do is glide through it, yeah it does get bumpy along the way but you don't let it affect you. After the storm has passed you act as if no problem has ever blown your way. I envy you because in the end it will be you guys who the people will look to for hope when the mood is grim. It'l be you who will become pillars of hope for all the people around you.

I know im not one of these people, i do take pride in what i am and what i do, but not enough.
i wish one day i could be envious of my own shadow...

Devirginizing.

No, I didn't have my cherry popped just now. For the record, it hasn't been eaten yet.

I’m Gio Emprese. 20. Gay. Student. Club Promoter. Pseudo fashion stylist and Genuine passion-pusher. 150lbs. 5’7”. Cut.

Now that’s more I like it.

This is another shot at stripping off my fear of homophobic bitches. I am praying that I could see the rainbow everyday and be as candid as possible in relating to you my day-to-day experiences in the not-so-straight
world.

I have waited for the longest time for me to have a space to blurt out all my musings and now I’ve found the right hole to fill in my ramblings.

Now join me in my pursuit for the pot of gold at the end of every glorious rainbow. I am gonna be the most sincere queer in here; after all, this is my crib.