0126E: Random Musings After the O Bar Ortigas Anniversary

Initially Tobie and I had no major plans of heading out last night. We were both pretty tired from the previous night's festivities plus all the family-centric holiday stuff over the weekend. But given it was the actual anniversary celebration for the Ortigas branch of O Bar where we hang out almost all the time, it felt worth the effort to venture out one more time.

The bar was a lot less packed than on a weekend but it it wasn't exactly empty either. It sort of reminded me of the early days of O Bar Ortigas when the abundance of space was readily apparent, which was a good thing from a comfort perspective but understandably not ideal for the bar. These days the place is packed to the rafters on the weekends, even on Sundays! It's crazy amazing how far things have come, and in some ways it's nice to have been a part of O Bar Ortigas's growth, even as mere customers / observers.

Good friends were with us including the struggling O-Bard Mahar given his on-going project related to the bar's performers. It's crazy to think he's been to O Bar about a dozen times this month alone, haha! That's definitely some sort of a record, one that I'll never be able to match (nor do I have plans of attempting either). I'm glad he's been making good progress with his interviews this week - it's a pretty exciting project that I hope to see reach fruition in time. No details for now until things are all locked in and ready for launch, as it were.

A weird side benefit of the increased space at the bar last night was the fact that I was a lot freer to take photos without people getting in the way. So despite my initial promise to myself to ease up on the photos (with my arm aching to some extent from the previous night's documentation efforts) and maybe get back down to my average of 200+ photos of before. But since I had a lot more space to move, I ended up with just under 600 photos which I pared down to about 572 by my final tally. I blame the poi dancers for being there last night - they always make for rather fascinating photo subjects and I'm more than happy to keep snapping away to see what I can capture. When the action is a fast and dazzling as the poi lights forming all those cool patterns, you can only do so much to keep up and see what turns out.

It's nice that people appreciate the photos that I take at the bar - I know I wrote about it yesterday, but I'm still sort of gushing over it today. Or something like that. I know some people don't quite understand why I spend so much time taking photos the way I do. The usual argument against my photo-taking efforts are more about how it means that I'm not really participating in the fun and that sort of thing, but I don't feel that way at all. As I wrote about yesterday, this is just me trying to leave the bar with something to more or less hold onto, in a manner of speaking. And these photos and videos are my fond reminders of how much fun we have pretty much every time we're at O Bar.

Mon, one of the owners, said that he was designating me as "official" photographer for O Bar. It's a funny thing to consider, especially since it's just me with my little point and shoot camera. But hey, it's really intended as a compliment related to my efforts and that is something that I can clearly appreciate. Of course if this photographer designation gets me perks somewhere down the road...LOL, I'm just kidding! This is really more of a passion at this point and I don't foresee the need to get paid. I just wonder if this will lead to me taking photos of complete strangers or something. Now THAT would be kind of crazy.


But what I won't stop doing is documenting the fabulous O Divas and their crazy antics. It's hard to imagine a night at O Bar without their unique stylized performances to add some flair, color and style to the night. And last night the Divas were certainly in top form. They really added that extra oomph to the night's anniversary festivities.

Beyond the drag queens and the dancers, it was also a good night for our extended "family" of sorts. This all started years ago, shortly after Tobie and I had gotten together as a couple. Nico had declared himself our "son" (talk about proactive adoption) including his official name, which I have saved on my phone where it will remain for now.

And now Nico has a lovely partner in the form of CK, who is proving to be a really sweet guy and quite the skilled singer. Tobie and I are rather protective of Nico, much like being actual parents I suppose, and I think it's fair to say that that sense of care and concern has started to extend to CK as well. While it seems to be writing about them in this manner, but I just wanted it to be put "on record" that I really like how the two are developing as a new couple and I really hope for all the best for both of them. This isn't something that I haven't told them directly / in person, but again it felt important enough to write about.

That's the funny thing about a lot of my efforts. These side "hobbies" of blogging, taking ridiculous numbers of photographs and all that good stuff seems related to my efforts to keep a record of pretty much everything that goes on in my life. Sure, it's a rather public record to boot, but aren't the most important things in life the ones most worth proclaiming to the world?

So here's to more years of the unique brand of family that O Bar brings. While I've been going out to bars since 2003, I have to admit things haven't been quite the same ever since I started going to O Bar. And for all the memories, the great friends and the crazy nights, I'm all the more thankful.

Much love to you all.

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