Philippe Lazaro
OCTOBER 2016

Rosalía, LUX

Ego sum nil

Ego sum lux mundi

This show was truly one of the best performances and works of art I’ve seen. Very few artists succeed at getting reverence and devotion to coexist alongside raw honesty like that. Loved getting to see the mystic alongside the motomami. Left wanting to put even more soul into my work.

1776

Apparently I’m married to a Cool, Cool Conservative Man… never thought I’d say that sentence!

Don’t miss Deanna as Declaration of Independence signer Joseph Hewes from North Carolina in 1776!

Fun Fact: This musical is why Shawn, Cory, and Topanga went to John Adams High School in Boy Meets World.

Alphonso Davies

On to the Round of 16! Alphonso Davies has been one of my faves for a while, so I’m hoping he’s well enough to get his minutes today. My four year old daughter has adopted Canada as her team, referring to them as Team Quebec after our trip to Le Province last year.

Morocco is not easily taken down. Whichever way this goes for Canada, I think they get to be proud of their 2026 showing.

Pink Bus Clinics of Caracas

The "pink bus" of Caracas provides free reproductive, gynecological, and mammogram healthcare to vulnerable and homeless women. These initiatives bring vital medical services directly to marginalized neighborhoods and street environments.

I prepped this video before the big earthquake the other week. Throughout the recovery efforts, la Fundación Santa en las Calles, the same organization that operates the pink bus immediately launched several relief efforts, including the collection of clothes, medicines, and other forms of aid.

Check out Santa en las Calles to see ways to support their efforts.

Summer '26

6/1/26 – Kind of a weird experience when the unhinged Paul McCartney-themed improv set you had on a Friday night turns out to be just what you needed after a week full of good things and heavy things.

6/2/26 – And that’s a wrap on Kindergarten.

Now we’re in the era of our lives where we get ten weeks in the middle of every year of trying to figure out what to do with the kids.


6/6/26 – Kim’s Convenience was so good.

I loved the show so it seemed like an easy layup for me to enjoy the stage production it was based on, but wow...

It has a lot of the culture-clash humor of the TV series but also has an edge/depth that is harder to work into a 20 min sitcom format. Swung the audience from busting up to being moved by the moments without a missed beat.

6/6 – This place is fully committed to the aesthetic experience. The food itself is decently priced and pretty good, but the main draw of course is the Saharan night setup. Demand is high, so you’ll want to book this early.

Most menu items are kebab skewers and mezze, so they trend on the lighter side. Appetizers are good, but seems surprisingly nibbly for a place you have to book ahead of schedule. There are some exceptions, like the lamb shank. Saffron rice was excellent. Do take the side trip to the bathroom, which is also committed to the North African look & feel.

6/7 – Good news, a World Cup Friendly lives up to its name.

A few weeks ago, I quickly snatched up the cheapest tickets I could find, expecting to be in the cheap seats that trigger vertigo. I was pretty surprised to see our seat numbers pretty much had us sitting inside the goal.

Observations:

1) No disrespect to Jordan, but the skill gap between a newcomer like them against a mid-to-upper tier club like Colombia is even more visible in person.

2) Colombia has had some sweet jerseys over the years. Got to see a good representation of multiple years, alternates, and variations on the Cafeteros over the years.

3) The San Diego population leaned heavily towards Colombia as one would expect, but the Jordan supporters were pure class.

6/11 - Just dropping this here:

6/12 - Little big things that happened this week.

Getting all these kids through daycare is a huge and very welcome milestone, it’s also wild seeing all these kids transition over to a very different stage of life.

The early years were absolutely crazy with three kids in two years, but they were also so full of goodness.

I’ve lived the past few years with a deep awareness of how much I’m gonna miss this era someday, and I’m thankful I had that awareness.

This theatre is working smarter not harder

6/20 – When John Green could’ve given his protagonists any names and somehow they’re the exact names you gave your twins…

6/22 – I saw Toy Story 5 over the weekend.

It had a lot of good qualities to it. I thought they had a nuanced take on the whole kid-tech-toy thing. But the movie itself generated a lot of exasperation. ~I can’t believe they’re still going with these!~

I think the franchise could flip that exhaustion into a more welcome, “Ah, we were due for another one!” by taking notes from the best…

The Muppets.

  • With 60+ toys, we don’t need every one in every story. Know which ones can serve as anchors, pair the chaos toys with the order toys, and let ‘er rip. Use some of the others to play delightful bit parts.

  • Toy Story is facing the challenge of many of its original voice actors having passed on. Even Tim Allen does not sound the same. You know who else has had to navigate this? The Muppets. You’ll find a way forward.

  • Stop numbering the movies. Give each one a theme. Toy Story 6 sounds exhausting. Toy Story Takes Manhattan? Toy Story Gets Cast Away? Let’s go.

  • Give us an AUTEUR to perform as a human character in each one. A Tim Curry or Michael Caine equivalent for a new generation.

  • Lean into the music. From Randy Newman to Taylor Swift, Toy Story has some iconic use of songs. Give some bars to the toys… especially the ones that aren’t totally verbal.

6/27 – My wife is playing Declaration of Independence signer Joseph Hewes (NC) in a stage production of 1776 this week, so our 11th anniversary photos will look quite odd when put next to the other anniversaries.

Marriage remains ever the adventure!

6/28 – Improv has become such a big part of my life. A silly part of my life, but an important one in a lot of ways. Played one last set with Metal People last night the crew that got me back into it after decades away. Cheering for all your journeys!

7/1 – Pizza Night with Juniper

7/7 – Got to chat with my friend Nathan on the Braver New Worlds podcast. We talk storytelling and even tell some stories… imagine that! Listen HERE

Reliving History's Most Awkward World Cup

World Cups are inevitably awkward and full of political drama, and this year's is no exception. If anything, it's especially messy. But in my opinion, it's still a ways away from being history's most awkward.

There is another is widely considered the most "awkward" tournament in history due to a chaotic mix of frantic last-minute team withdrawals, a bizarre tournament format with no actual final match, and an eerily silent post-match atmosphere in a half-built stadium.

Amsterdam 2026

📍COPA Football Flagship Store
🇳🇱 Amsterdam, Netherlands

If nothing else, this place is a visual treat and a well curated display of retro football kits from different eras.

If it’s in your budget or you’ve been on the hunt for an especially rare kit they happen to have, then it’s a treasure trove.

Either way, it’s a great spot to hop in and explore for a little bit right by Amsterdam Central.

Sadio Mané

At this point, Senegal is extremely unlikely to advance, which is one sad ending for Sadio Mane’s last World Cup. Mane was always a favorite to watch when he was with the EPL. Can’t say I keep up with what he’s doing over in Saudi, so getting to see him with Team Senegal was a treat. Solid team leader.

Time To Romanticize The (2010) World Cup

The other week, I got to enjoy a World Cup friendly match right in my hometown of San Diego. Colombia and Jordan faced each other in a low-stakes but high-fun matchup. Safe to say, the friendly lived up to its name. There was a sloppiness when it came to getting a big international sports event into our city’s smaller stadium, but overall a good time.

I brought my six year old along for the fun. As I’m trying to get him more active, I’ve been leveraging the World Cup to stoke an interest in global football. I noted how special of an event it was, only taking place every four years. He’ll be an elder ten year old by the next time it goes down!

I love that four year cycle. It tends to make things more special. It also means that each World Cup is a time capsule of sorts. I can link each tournament to a snapshot of my life at the time, each one looking so different.

The World Cup intersects with geopolitics in really messy ways. It’s gotten harder to romanticize and enjoy the World Cup with full naivete. At the same time, it’s also hard to totally dismiss the magic of it.

Whenever I think of my favorite World Cups of past years, I immediately think of the ways they’ve given me a glimpse of a more accepting world that celebrates where people are from.

I remember the different travelers walking through the Doha airport in their jerseys in 2022. I remember discovering LA’s Croatian enclaves in 2018 when they made the finals. I remember my Taipei hostel all walking out to watch the games from a public square at 2 am back in 2014.

But I think the one that stands head and shoulders above the rest of them has got to be 2010. South Africa.

Prior to this, I had kept loose tabs on previous World Cups. But 2010 turned the worldwide nature of the tournament into something I could physically feel and walk through.

That summer, I spent a semester in Siena, Italy. It was a great summer for romanticizing… well, pretty much everything.

Siena modernizes in secret. It hides its retail stores and contemporary homes within the exterior of ancient buildings that have stood for centuries. Every day I got to enjoy hot Tuscan sun, Italian zest for life, and the walks to class that felt like the opening of Beauty and the Beast. For a moment, life was like a storybook. The language. The food. My 2010 Summer.

I lived in an old building that had been converted to a dorm right above Piazza Antonio Gramsci. I had a little balcony where I could sit with an espresso and watch people walk their daily routines every morning. The espresso would’ve been made very poorly with a department store moka I purchased and had no idea how to use. That was all part of the Italian magic.

To get to my apartment from town, I usually passed through this central plaza area which connected a small grocery store with a few different shops. One of those shops was an athletic clothing store. Normally they sold running shirts and shoes, but one day I came to see its storefront completely transformed for the World Cup.

They dedicated a small section of the store to each participating club, along with a massive oversized bracket to keep up with the tournament.

I remember walking through, passing the displays of jerseys and fan gear for Coté d’Ivoire. Cote d’Ivoire! Was there really this big of a fan base for the West African nation here in Siena, Italy? I was intrigued by the aesthetic of their club’s orange-and-green color scheme. Something about seeing large-scale representation of countries that don’t always get the most attention was intriguing. The fact that I was experiencing this while already being in an immersive world away from my own home was also a delight.

A few weeks later, I was in class. A fairly easygoing Italian language class. (If your Italian class isn’t easygoing… are you actually learning Italian??) I was sitting by a window, when suddenly an eruption of shouting and outrage came from the street below. I tried glancing out the window and seeing nothing, I leaned further out. It seemed to be coming from a bar.

“Ah,” my Italian teacher calmly pieced it together. “I take it Italy has just been eliminated.”

She was right. After winning the previous championship in 2006, Italy faced an embarrassing elimination after failing to beat a Slovakian team that they should’ve easily beaten. No disrespect to the Slovaks.

After class, when I was out in front of the bar, I tried making small talk by asking an older Italian man how that one got a way.

He slowly made a pinching gesture with his hand and in dramatic fashion gave me a one word reply.

Repubblica.

There you have it!

As I spent much of that summer traveling, taking weekend trips to other Italian hubs, I came across so many other travelers, each with their own different angles of investment in the World Cup. I met Serbian supporters in Rome. English fans in Florence. Some Turks who adopted Mexico as their squad in the Vatican.

The world felt connected. Close. People could bring their stories and their passions to a competition, and the resulting spectacle was fun.

While Waka Waka was the World Cup anthem getting heavy radio rotation, I couldn’t stop spinning K’naan’s Wavin’ Flag, an anthem of village resilience from the Somalian rapper. Nelson Mandela was making some of his very last large scale public appearances.

On a warm night, I remember walking through Venice. Germany and Uruguay were facing off, and I could simply walk alongside a canal and keep up with the game. Every café and bar had it playing, screens visible and audible from the street.

I even walked past a more central plaza, where the game was being projected onto a large inflatable screen. I felt like I was walking through an atmosphere full of the world’s enthusiasm.

2010 may seem like a more innocent time compared to today and more recent World Cups. In a lot of ways, it was. But it wasn’t without flaw. Like many middle-income nations that have played host, South Africa took drastic measures to clear neighborhoods around stadium construction and to keep unsightly parts of its public infrastructure away from the eye of the media. A few years later, I would live briefly in South Africa and would discover these issues up close.

I think there’s a time to face the harsh realities of the world. The human rights abuses, corruption, the greenwashing. But there’s also a time to lean into the romanticization of something like the World Cup. To remember that there’s another way to participate in this, and that things can be really good.

Vitinha

More World Cup art. DR Congo and Cabo Verde are threatening to trash my bracket only a week in, as I have Portugal topping Spain in the finals.

They’ll be alright. Probably. But Cristiano Ronaldo needs to get out of his own way. Portugal’s got a great squad, and Vitinha is one of my faves to watch.

Rice Forever! A Way of Life in LAOS

“Go ahead and have some tea. Keow will be with you soon. In the meantime, you can take a hat.”

I stared at a row of conical farmer hats made from dried stalks of grass. Salakot as they were known in the Philippines, but I had no clue what they were called in Laos.

I stared out over the rice fields. The sky was gray, flirting with rain. My vantage points allowed me to see all the different plots on this farm. The amount of distance I could see seemed at odds with the quietness of the place. People told me Luang Prabang was a cozy and quiet Lao town. I just didn’t expect it to be so literally quiet.

Eventually, Keow did arrive where I was waiting. I had signed up for a hands-on rice farming tour to get to know this staple of Lao life.

“It’s a good hat for you,” Keow greeted me.

“It’s familiar, from the Philippines.”

“So you are from the Philippines.”

“Yes.”

It’s not uncommon for me to go with this answer when traveling. I generally prefer the set of questions that follow this piece of information.

“Okay, let’s go to the fields for the tour,” Keow led. “Traditionally, cultivating rice has thirteen steps. But we know that is an unlucky number so we added a fourteenth step. Eating the rice.”

He led me on to the plot of land where we would be working. At this point I had to literally step in the mud. I slipped out of my shoes and socks. I was glad I opted to wear shorter shorts that day, not always my travel go-to.

Stepping into the mud was, dare I say, fun? The soft earth had been taking in a moderate rain all morning, ready to receive rice seeds and farming feet. It had the color of coffee and the texture of bread flour, squelching wetly as I stepped in. Instant foot massage.

Keow walked me through the early steps of the process. Identifying which rice grains would be ideal to plant. Softly embedding them into the soil. Sticking in the sprouted stalks like performing a hair transplant.

I’d like to think that this all came pretty naturally for me. At least until we got to the part where I was supposed to slice the rice stalks for harvest. He handed me an old jagged sickle, the symbol of so many revolutions and ideologies returned to its state as a very practical, physical, everyday item. I pulled the ready rice stalks taut and tried to slice through. 

At first a hacking motion with the sickle seemed like the classic move, but my first few attempts didn’t quite make the cut. I switched to more of a slice. Increased the friction between blade and grass. The approach was better, but it was still shaky.

“You are from the Philippines?”

It felt like convenient timing for Keow to call me out on my oversimplified backstory. What Filipino goes to Laos to learn how to farm rice?

Well, now we can say there’s been at least one.

Check out my rice farming adventure on my latest video:

Live Remarkably

The reality is that each of us only gets to use one playable character in our lives: ourselves. Life itself is a pretty wild gift, and it gets a lot more depth when you decide to live intentionally.

Having pursuits is cool, but living for the admiration of others is sort of pointless.

You’re probably best off simply living the best version of your life. Whatever that happens to mean. I’m sure it’ll be remarkable.