Toyota Art Edge Winners

Here's the artworks of the top 3 winners and the 20 Finalists of the Toyota Art Edge Digital Competition. For the names and titles, check Toyota's site Here.

Jury Awards Mattel $100M In Barbie-Bratz Lawsuit

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) ― A federal jury awarded Mattel Inc. $100 million in damages Tuesday after a serious girl fight between the house of Barbie and the maker of her chief rival, the pouty-lipped Bratz dolls. MGA Entertainment Inc. and its chief executive officer Isaac Larian were told to pay a total of $90 million in three causes of action related to Mattel's employment contract with designer Carter Bryant, who developed the Bratz concept. The jury also ordered MGA, Larian and subsidiary MGA Hong Kong to pay a total of $10 million for copyright infringement. The amount fell far short of the $1.8 billion that Mattel attorneys had demanded in their closing arguments. Still, the world's largest toy maker hailed the damage award as a victory and said it planned to file an injunction to stop MGA from producing the Bratz line. "Mattel has pursued this case first and foremost as a matter of principle," Mattel CEO Robert A. Eckert said. "We have an obligation to defend ourselves against competitors who choose to engage in fraudulent activities against us." Larian said he would appeal, and MGA attorney Thomas Nolan contended that the three awards related to the contract dispute were duplicative. U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson must decide if that's true and determine a final amount to be paid to Mattel at a future hearing. Nolan said he planned to ask Larson to set total damages at no more than $40 million. The jury did not award any punitive damages and found that neither Larian nor MGA acted willfully when they used Bryant's drawings, which could have increased the damages. "We are thrilled that this jury sent a strong message that they want these companies to compete in the marketplace and not the courtroom," Nolan said. Larian said MGA would keep making Bratz dolls even as Mattel attorneys prepared to meet Wednesday to discuss their legal strategies. The same jury that decided the damages phase concluded last month that Bratz designer Carter Bryant came up with the Bratz concept while working at Mattel. Jurors placed the value of Bryant's drawings at $31,500, and awarded that plus interest to Mattel. In his closing arguments, Mattel attorney John Quinn said MGA owed Mattel at least $1 billion in Bratz profits and interest, while chief executive Isaac Larian aided in the breach of contract and owed nearly $800 million for his complicity. MGA attorneys countered that the jury should award Mattel as little as $30 million because the company had built the doll line's value with smart additions, branding and packaging. The jury awarded damages Tuesday of $20 million against MGA and $10 million against Larian in each of three causes of action — intentional interference with contractual relations, aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty, and aiding and abetting breach of the duty of loyalty. They also found that MGA owed Mattel $6 million for copyright infringement, while Larian owed $3 million in distributions he'd received from Bratz-related sales and MGA Hong Kong owed $1 million. After their introduction in 2001, the Bratz line exploded in popularity among "tweens" — girls 7 to 12. The highly stylized fashion dolls have oversized feet, heads and hands, curling lashes and huge, almond-shaped eyes daubed with exotic-colored eyeshadow. In the past seven years, MGA has built the popular brand to include more than 40 characters and expanded it with spin-offs such as Bratz Babyz, Bratz Petz, Bratz Boyz and items like helmets, backpacks and bedsheets. Sales of Barbie — a near rite-of-passage in American girlhood — have slid since Bratz's Yasmin, Cloe, Jade and Sasha came on the scene. Domestic sales of Barbie were down 15 percent in 2007 and 12 percent in the first quarter of 2008, while international sales increased 6 percent in 2008 as opposed to 12 percent the previous year. Bryant settled with Mattel on the eve of trial. The terms of that settlement have not been made public.

(source: The Associated Press)

Haaay, Phone....

So, this baby was finally launched in the Philippines last August 22. Question is, Is it worth the wait? The iPhone3G is probably the slickest and coolest phone, but will it make it to the text capital of the world? It sells at Php 41,899.00 thru Globe. Let's see, There are still little things that many Filipino mobile users will find lacking in the iPhone 3G. Halimbawa, it does not accept business cards nor can contacts from other handsets be sent through Bluetooth, Tapos, it does not have a text-forwarding function. For the heavy phone users, they cannot just bring a spare battery to replace a drained one. Oh, btw, the iPhone 3G does not have an accessible battery compartment for easy replacement of a drained battery. iPhone 3G battery life is shorter than the first iPhone, especially when 3G is turned on. Haaay, Phone.

Talent Festival 2008

It was the night of the talented people, the annual Talents Festival, An annual talent show showcasing talents of people from all over the world. The show was packed with a mix of nationalities, dignitaries, people from different industry and performers. I remember I was one of their feature talent last year, along with the designers from Fashion TV. This time, it was DJ Missy aka Maliha, A Filipino-Bahraini, a student of mine and family friend. She showcased her battle routine with head tones overlapping an electro beat with a ripping combination of flare and orbit scratches. The crowd watched with awe as they saw a young girl performing scratches like a pro. Also in the attraction was a group of Filipino BBoys, I saw these cats perform with world BBoy champion Ronnie at the Red Bull BC One months ago, amazing talents!

Dj Missy with her routine

Pinoy BBoys

2008 DMC DJ Championship - RP Finals!

Who's it gonna be? Who is the lucky brown man turntablist reppin' the Philippines to the world? Battling it out to the crown is a line up of Philippines finest DJs: DJ 3gah, DJ Bass Boy, DJ Gu Goo, DJ J1, DJ Jet, DJ Red-I, DJ Rockadelic, DJ Skin Khadafi, and DJ Tong

Finals will be held tomorrow, 20th of August at the Hard Rock Café in Makati City.

Digital Art Sample

The last time I used my Wacom is when I was working on my entry for the Toyota Art Edge Digital competition, And now I got to have the chance to scribble, I tried composing some graphics using some of the kids' pics and played a little a bit. This is a quickie, took me like 3 hours of straight work. I like the black background but, I prefer the brownish paper-like texture. My daughter Aliyah loved this, I think i'm going to create more series. So enjoy!

Happy Birthday!!! To ME :-)

My Favourite Cake: French Chocolate Ganache from Mr. Baker, Thanks Palangga!

It was my birthday yesterday, August 15th, Friday (I was born on a Friday;-) Well, this one's not like the rest of the birthdays I've had like parties, booze, good times with friends... This time was spent specially with my Family. We had breakfast at home with the kids and had a nice time together, prepared lunch with all "LUTONG-BAHAY" and went to hear the mass in the afternoon and had dinner at Chili's at the Seaside. My Sis came over with balloons (not for me) but for the kids, and my Sis-in-law Rose was there as well... This celebration is probably the most special birthday I had, Thanks guys, I Love You :-)

One of the most sweetest things I had for my Birthday, A gift from my Daughter, Aliyah.

Oil Paintings

It's been a while since I last dabble with Oil paint, I guess I have to invest more time on it to finish some of my newer pieces. These are the stuff I painted sometime in mid 2007, entitled "expressions under the influence" (not what you have in mind:-) It's basically a series of spontaneously undisciplined movement, I should say. Enjoy!

Beauty In The Wilderness
Oil on Canvas
2007

3 Am Metro
Oil on Canvas
2007

Exhale
Oil on Canvas
2007

The Sacrifice
Oil on Canvas
2007

The Force Of The Superstars

Adidas SuperSTARWARS are here! Damn! I'd kill for a pair of these babies! There is no better way to revive a brand than what Adidas and the Star wars franchise have just done. Take two enterprises that have a massive cult following and combine them to create a product that embodies both brands. Shoes starting from $275 a pair. May the for be with You!