Lexi Schulze

By Heinz Bulos

hether writing about music or
adocating reading among
children, this pretty, unny, and
smart writer, model, host, and
text addict has plenty to say.

What's keeping you busy nowadays?
\e`re starting this new magazine or
Music1 called M1 Press. It`s about music,
moies, whateer`s being sold in the store.
It also coers dierent types o genre
people tend to be associated with pop too
much because it`s the only thing that`s out
there, ery mainstream. My boss, Anton
Ramos, o course apart rom the Chill
Out Project, he also wants people to be
aware o classical, o jazz, all these
dierent types o art orms that are really
not recognized.

Are you competing with Pulp?
Actually, we wouldn`t really want to say
that. It`s really just a plain old music
magazine. \e don`t see anyone as
competitors. \e welcome anyone who
would like to talk about music and inorm
people about music. It`s a magazine world,
at this point, there are so many out there.
But we would just to oer something a
little bit dierent.

\e got a lot o eatures, a lot o
interiews with local and oreign artists.
\e hae our own ery talented artists.
Since Music1 is ocused on selling, apart
rom OPM, a lot o oreign artists, we
want to gie attention to both.

You'll be the editor of that?
\es.

Prior to that, you wrote for Young
Star?
\es, \oung Star magazine is more o
liestyle, more geared towards teenagers.

Do you still write for them?
No, I don`t. But I always thank Ginggay
Joen, she`s the editor in chie. She got
me started with the whole writing thing.

So you got started to write...
I am a writer by nature but I neer got
published because I didn`t eel really that
it was an aenue or work, but when I got
started with Ginggay.

How old are you?
25, 26, I just turned 26, but I`m 25 till I`m
30! So, 25!

How did you get started with
modeling and hosting?
Modeling, I started when I was ery
young. I was 15, but I stopped or a while,
you know, studies. losting, I started early
as well, but I went to college in Australia,
so I stopped. \hen I got back home,
competition became just really sti. I
don`t know, I was riends with Amanda
Griin, my cousin Bianca Araneta was
also into hosting.

Basically, it`s another way to make quick
money. I mean don`t see modeling as an
end-all, because it doesn`t ulill me the
way writing does, but I do not want to
downplay it because it has made me
money and people do it or a liing, and I
bow to them or that. And Amanda is a
good riend o mine, and she will dispel
any myth that models are stupid. I you
talk to her, she`s ery interesting, she`s an
intelligent person.

Yeah, I've interviewed her. She's
smart.
\eah, she`s a smart girl. I just don`t like
necessarily being called a model because
I`m not like a shampoo girl. I do it or
\
un. It`s like I act, I model to act, because
I also like acting.

What kind of writing do you enjoy the
most?
It really depends. Like at this point, when
I write or Philstar, it`s about sex. No
seriously! It`s about sex and relationships,
ery Sarah Jessica Parker. But I like more
on commentary on pop culture, because
my course is Media and Cultural Studies,
so it`s ery now. It`s people`s opinions and
what I do is collate eidence and present it
in a unny manner, because I think that
politics and goernment and eerything is
so negatie that I eel the need to make
people laugh at things that are ery real
yet ery triial.

Now, for my Internet questions.
Okay, wonderul, Internet questions!

I suppose you're not a big Internet
person.
Put it this way, I like the Internet, I`m not
a ery good surer because my thinking
culture is cut to cut, but I like
concentrating on a particular thing. My
riend now, who writes or me in the
magazine, he`s just a wonderul surer. le
has 8 or 10 windows open at the same
time. Me, I like concentrating on my mail,
because I write to my riends abroad. I
like suring about moies, obiously
music, but downloading, it takes oreer, I
can`t wait or it. And I`m not or piracy.
But or personal use, it`s really ine. But as
long as you don`t go out there, there`s this
whole system where the artists are not
gien their due. O course, I use the
Internet. It`s part o my daily lie,
especially e-mail, I just ind that
ascinating.

Are you half Iilipino?
My amily`s name is German, Schulze, and
I`m ery much Spanish as well, because I
got it rom my grandparents. My
grandather is Armando Goyena, a
lilipino actor. 1hat`s where I got my
lilipino blood.

Any favorite sites?
I like 1heOnion.com, it`s really unny. I
also like obiously \ahoo. \hat else do I
like Billboard, there`s this radio station in
the States called Alice and I go their \eb
site a lot, because they hae the new news
on talents and artists. 1he Spark was okay
or a while but it clogs your inbox. Stop
sending me stu! I`ll ind it on my own!

Are you familiar with blogs?
\es, Blogger is also okay.

Do you have your own?
Not yet, but my riend did. \e used to
work together and now we don`t, we just
blog away. \e just gie our thoughts or
the day, just random thoughts, ery
interesting concept.

Is the Internet a good medium for
writers?
lor writers, yes, but I still don`t see.until
I see it on paper.I`m still one o those
people who don`t hold a PalmPilot
because I beliee the printed word will
neer disappear, whereas or the
PalmPilot, just one conking out o the
battery, that`s it. Some o my riends hae
lost all their inormation and I`m like I`m
neer gonna use a PalmPilot!`. I`m not
just a techie. I just do appreciate the act
that it exists and people`s lies hae been
made easier or it, but I`m really more o a
naturalist, I guess you could say.

So you don't have gadgets like.
Not really, I hae my cell phone. I loe
my cell phone to death. I`m connected
24, but gadgetry, not really.

Can you live without your cell phone?
No! 1hat`s probably the one gadget I
cannot.honestly, at irst I didn`t want
one, because I could be ound anywhere,
but now I discoered silent mode! I I
didn`t hae to listen to it and I`m not
going to answer it. At least I know the
messages are there and wheneer I like to
get back to you I will. But I`m not usually
like that.mom and dad ,laughs,, you
know how to ind me. I really think it`s
amazing and I just hope that this whole
concept o cancer through the radiowaes
or whateer is not true because pretty
much my baby will be born with a cell
phone in her hand. Leryone has one,
rom the drier to the electrician, anyone,
eeryone has one. lor me it`s great, but i
it`s going to stop you rom working
properly or other negatie things, I`d
rather not. But now, obiously I cannot
lie without it.

What was your first phone?
My irst was the 30.oh gosh, the 2810,
the Nokia, just the standard.

What's your phone model here?
1his is the 8310. I just borrowed it rom
my boyriend because I hae the 3210 but
it`s kinda diicult to text. It`s a ery sporty
phone, that`s why I like it, when I bang it
or drop it.

Are you into the more advanced
features, like MMS?
No, text, not een oice actually, pretty
much text. I`m a text addict.

Do you think that texting is raising a
new generation of bad writers?
I`e seen the eect on some o my
brothers` classmates and my brothers,
because instead o you`, it becomes u`.
But there`s a way to train people to do it.
Obiously, at this point, I do a lot o
shortcuts but I`e been trained preiously,
so I don`t know what eect it will hae in
the uture. I do think it will scar them a bit
and I`m hoping it won`t. But I`m seen its
eects and it`s not looking ery positie.
lonestly, I hope that people make a
conscious eort to try to teach
Generation Z. I don`t think that kids
should hae cell phones so early. I see
people who are like 8, 9 walking around
with cell phones. It`s really cute, maybe i
it`s gien to the yaya, something or a
mode o communication when they go
out, but it just teaches them to be ery
riolous at a young age.

You're supporting a cause.
\eah, the Read to Lead` program rom
Visine. \hat we do is we tour around. \e
tour the malls, we educate dierent
schools also the importance o reading
because people tend to orget. 1he
Internet is not stopping that, it`s just
dierent to sit down with a book where i
you do sur the Net, isit interesting sites,
now it`s all pop culture, which is all ine
and dandy. But i you`re a kid, you hae to
know a lot more things. And I think this is
what the Internet does. In a way, it
educates kids a lot more and a lot aster.
1hat`s a good thing, but still, read!