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Ok, this is not a paid advertisement or anything of that sort. Elvert is just so fond of Bretton. But take note, not all Café Brettons are created equal. So far we’ve had our “multidisciplinary artist” discussions in Robinson’s Ermita and Mall of Asia (I find the Greenbelt branch much too noisy for my taste). We agreed that the Robinson’s branch has the friendliest and super accommodating staff.

Every time I go to Bretton, I order something different. I am not a crepes person so I always make it a point to surprise myself. I also never make the same order.

Yesterday, we were joined by Neil.  Before that, I had fun observing how pensive and happy (two emotions that are poles apart, I know!)  Elvert has been recently. This night’s discussion: the commercial art exhibitions of Manila Art 2010, which is currently being held at the SMX Convention Center. Gelo Magno gave me two complimentary tickets to this event so I’d be damned if I didn’t go, so I reserved Sunday for it.

Elvert and I have the same brand of camera but the models are different. He has no qualms basking in yellow and red lighting, while I am still struggling with my settings. I want the individual colors of my subject to pop but he is right, Tungsten white balance do make my subjects look like corpses.

My first order is Galette Bretonne. It has spinach, shrimps sauteed with crab meat, fresh cream, Gruyere cheese. I have no idea what Gruyere cheese is but I eat anything cheesy. Sometimes, even my desserts have cheese.

Oh and yeah, it tastes as good as it looks! Elvert, on the other hand, ordered a dessert crepe. I am not sure if it’s the Mango Loco or the Fire Ball. I just know it flamed and my Shin-Chan2 couldn’t capture the flame the way I wanted to. (Elvert fixed my settings a little later; he had been a Lumix user for a long time.) I settled for shooting the crepe after Elvert had taken a bite.

I got my own dessert crepe after about an hour’s worth of discussions.  Gwenn Ha Du is made up of raclette with black cherries preserve. The waiter told me that raclette is another kind of cheese.

After taking photos of the various crepes Bretton MoA had to offer, I realized that the ones available in Robinson’s Ermita are more photogenic. Seriously. Here’s a photo Elvert took of the dessert I ordered at the Robinson’s branch:

I was telling him that everything I liked doing in photography were inspired by him. Leo Santos (current Chairman of DLS-CSB’s AB Photography) taught me the basics, but it was Elvert who showed me that you can break the rules to come up with something different and beautiful. I also love the way he shoots weird angles. I’m trying to master that.

Hoo, boy! Lots of discussions about what constitutes art, what constitutes tasteful art, then there are the ones I call “lazy art” (that persist in riding Duchamp’s 100-year-old ideas or have potentially good concepts that failed in the execution), and in what context an artist lives. Neil called me an interdisciplinarian (which is true), although I told him that Elvert and I call ourselves “multidisciplinary artists” because we don’t believe that our individual crafts are rooted in Fine Arts. (Mine is very cognitive. Visual Communication rules emerged from the Social Sciences, its aesthetics from Humanities. My dad’s illustrations, as another example, are heavily dependent on Mathematics…)

I wonder why it’s always a Bretton restaurant that witnesses discussions like these…