THIS WAY PLEASE ] Welcome to Swank

We're going for a little irony here. Okay, more like we just love the sound of it so much we're trying to redefine the word, reposition it, and with a dishrag strip the thing off its ostentatious affectation, and its porn association. Hey, its the last year before the first decade of the millennium is over, the world is changing before our eyes and nobody knows what the future holds--we can now do whatever we want. Which is mostly to pull back a little, take things slowly, not worry about next year and take advantage of these times when we can still blame the overall dark mood on the economic crisis. Hey, we didn't put ourselves in this position, America did. The guys in Congress did. The lady in Malacanang did.

But make no mistake, we're not saying quit your job and take to the couch and wait for your 200 friends to update their status on Facebook. We're saying take advantage of this post-careerist times to go back and do the things you've previously pushed aside because you wanted to spend the entire day in the office to impress the boss and get that promotion. We're saying write that song you wanted to write, learn to play the guitar, make your own chair. Clear your working desk and install those shelves already. We here at Swank, we're finally doing the magazine we've always wanted to make (and by we, I mean me and the undersigned. And probably the two guys who designed the pages here and figured out the blog html stuff). We don't know where this will take us but isn't that the beauty of it?

Hopefully, we'll be able to fill Swank with lots of cool people and ideas and things, without the usual hype and PR palabok. In this first issue, we won't ask you to buy a new pair of shoes or have a suit made. In fact, we're suggesting you wear the same thing you wore yesterday, the same pair of jeans you've been wearing since 501s were invented. And we're suggesting you be damn proud of it.

We're saying you might want to get that tattoo you've been dreaming about since high school--if you're ready for it and especially now that you're over your obsession with your yellow feathered friend Tweety. We're asking you to follow your passion and hopefully earn big bucks from it (like our cover man), to face your fear of that blank canvas (Bogie Ruiz has a few thoughts). And what's a cool magazine without Lourd de Veyra? Don't just stare at the ceiling, think about the little ironies he posed in our lessons from The Word of The Lourd, then maybe you could write something of essence the next time you update your facebook status.

We'll have a lot more in the coming days. And by 'we' I mean me and hopefully some friends and the two art directors who designed the pages, JR Agra (Metro Home) and Neil Agonoy (Metro and Metro Home). We'll try to give you new stuff everyday. If we don't, just think of it like we're doing both of us a favor: we're allowing you to read a chapter in that book you've never read, and you're allowing us to ponder the ceiling for a bit.

Have fun now. I'm guessing we'll be buddies for awhile.

Jerome Gomez

ON THE COVER: Mark Nicdao photographed by Devi Madrid, 11 March 2009 during set-up for his show at Greenbelt 5.