The LG Optimus One Fiasco: Taking the good with from the bad

I've been thinking of a good comeback post since I've been on hiatus from blogging for quite sometime now. I wanted to get back on the scene with a positive tone and not end coming up with an average-everyday-existentialist rant (there's gonna be a lot more chances of doing that later).  So I picked one relatively apt event for this: the LG Optimus One 1-hour sale.

I got wind of the news of the LG sale late last week and went on to plan how to get in line early. This despite the fact that I was undecided until the last minute (probably because I had no actual need for a new phone). I just couldn't pass up the lure of a 50% off of a supposedly feature-packed phone. So Saturday came. I left the house.

I was there inside Megamall just around past 9am (courtesy of the gym pass). I was feeling a bit queasy going straight to the line after easily passing by hordes of sale-hopefuls, so I went around walking first to bide my time.

I decided to go to the LG Concept Store after 20 minutes or so of wandering around. Boy, was I surprised to find a queue already! Instead of my originally thought of place in the line to be somewhere between 1-10, I ended up being somewhere along 50-ish (54 to be exact). Imagine that!

And when the clock struck 10am, we assumed that the mall entrances were opened. We gathered this from the increasing number of people rushing to fall into line! The scene was reminiscent of attacking steroid-pumped agile zombies from the movies! It was unbelievable. Little did these people (including us of course) know that they'd be played around by the LG store's organizers like a dog's chew-toy; the increasing crowd was going to be  unscrupulously used for marketing purposes and milked for maximum media mileage.

Carla (who came around 11) was wondering if I was really going for it. I told her, being that we were already there and that despite being still undecided on the purchase of the Optimus One, I'd still endeavor to wait in line - for three and a half hours more. And so we did. We waned the wait with curious banter. Sitting there. With uncertainty.

Every now and then we got a bit impatient and had to stretch our legs; so every opportunity we got we went near the concept store to get updates. We were fed with what I'd like to think as "canned" responses for the restless would-be buyers, as well as some responses that would make you scratch your head in befuddlement. Here are just some of what I could remember hearing: 

• "May announcement po tayo..." (We have an announcement...) - We we're waiting for the rest of the announcement but apparently that was THE announcement.
• We will be cutting the line of those who we can't accommodate for the sale. We will do this before 2pm starts. - Yeah right.  We left past 3pm and the lines of disappointed clients were still there.
• "Sir sandali lang po ha kanina pa po kasi ako ihing-ihi e." (Sir please wait... I have to leave now as my bladder is close to bursting.) Pitiful. 
• We will be distributing stubs so that we may be able to proceed in an orderly and smooth manner. ORDERLY and SMOOTH were anything but present during those hours. Pfft.
• Please don't leave your line as we are not certain yet if we would be extending the sale beyond 3pm. Translation: WE NEED TO SHOW THE MEDIA THAT OUR SALE IS SUCCESSFUL IN DRAWING INTEREST AND THAT WE HAVE A LONGER QUEUE THAN NOKIA SO STAY PUT! Aargh!

And so we waited. Patiently and optimistic at that. Until 3pm.

At that juncture LG thanked everyone who were there. And congratulated those who made it. Only a handful were able to get the phone. And the crowd started booing. One girl (I don't know if she shouted out of dismay at what happened or was just goading the already discontented crowd) shouted an expletive. "F___ y__!"

"We are reminding everyone here to avoid saying anything that would risk the safety of our shoppers. Offenders will be escorted away by our safety officers."

The announcer repeated this line to pacify the crowd that was getting rowdier by the second. Unfortunately this fell on deaf ears as the crowd continued to voice out their displeasure.

"Boycott LG! BOYCOTT! BOYCOTT!"

Before things got plunged into further chaos, we left Cyberzone. Not quite disappointed as the others albeit not too satisfied as well.

Things could have gone better if the organizers were ORGANIZED. It seems that they didn't have much foresight as the utter lack of planning and preparation was so glaringly obvious. Either that or they lacked half-a-brain due to some botched up lobotomy. I don't know. Pick your poison.  

Though we didn't end up getting an Optimus One despite our dogged efforts, I'd like to think this day wasn't as useless as most people would surmise. For the self-confessed impatient Carla, I guess those hours of waiting in the queue could be considered a milestone for her and is worthy of praise and note.

We learned. And instead of walking away empty-handed, we walked away with something  infinitely better. Experience.

Three Expressions In Terracotta

For more information, visit Alliance française de Manille.

Ma nuit chez Maud (My Nights At Maud's)

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Douches froides (Cold Showers)

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ETHA DAM: Hip Hop, African Dance and Capoeira

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Modern Circus Acrobatics: O Ultimo Momento

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Patisserie et Chocolat

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French Spring 2008

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La Bossa Fataka de Rameau

This modern dance company takes us into a magical world in their show La Bossa Fataka. Using extensive visual effects, La Bossa Fataka is a journey into the imaginary world of J.P Rameau, compositor at the court of King Louis XV. Extravagant and poetic, this combination of dance and video installation will leave you and your family dreaming.

218 performances between November 2006 and May 2008 including 38 performances outside France.

CHOREOGRAPHER’S NOTE

The title is a joyful combination of a fragment of a phonetic poem "Die Karawan" by Hugo Ball and the name of a composer of genius from the XVIII century, Jean-Philippe Rameau.

The title is a nod, a bow (but not a historically accurate one) to the founder of the Dada movement, a movement that gave a sense of aesthetic depth to new expressive forms such as collage, assemblage, photomontage and sound poetry, which indirectly form the basis for this work.

LA BOSSA FATAKA DE RAMEAU, freely inspired ON DANSE, is shot through with intense imagination, extravagance and madness, and carries us with it through the hymn to pleasure that is the very heart of the Jean-Philippe Rameau’s philosophy and his musical works. José Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu draw a very sunny portrait of the composer, in contrast to his customary, austere one – a contemporary vision of his aesthetics of pleasure that, in its richness, triumphs over "Les Indes Galantes" and "Les Boréades"

José Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu make use of technological imagery, with its ability to project, to edit and to make collages, and they transpose it, in a series of free and zany whims, extravagant machinery, special effects, tight-walking clouds, transformations, flying carpets and visible changes to the enchanting theatre to bring it to the present.

A playful bestiary links us by a secret chain to the world of Jean de la Fontaine. And the world of the fabulist is José Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu’s thread that leads through the unreal world of the marvelous, the magicians, the metamorphoses, the disguises and the transformations of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s lyric theatre.

The libretto of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s opera-ballet LES PALADINS is inspired by the tale "The Little Dog".

Through a subtle game of quotations, in which the old and the present-day reinforce, elucidate and amplify each other, José Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu invite us to come with them to a wonderland of Rameau-like sounds. Rameau sweeps us off to his planet of light euphoria and of extravagance with its atmosphere of hedonist utopia.

Official Website: http://www.montalvo-hervieu.com/

For more information, visit Alliance française de Manille.

Boulou et Elios Ferré: Gypsy jazz by the bay

The sons of the Manouche gypsy guitarist Pierre Matelot Ferret, who appeared on a few of Djangos recordings, Boulou and Elios Ferré bring gypsy swing into the modern era. They have upset the polite and pleasant mood of many a posh restaurant with the power and inventiveness of their playing. But those who expect to hear the familiar swing rhythms of the standard gypsy combos can leave bemused and disorientated. Boulou and Elios have largely abandoned the "boom chick" rhythms traditionally associated with gypsy jazz. They play gypsy jazz but from the other side of the fence. You have to bend your ear to hear where they are coming from.

For more information, visit Alliance française de Manille.

Charlie Co TIME + SPACE

A Visual Diary, he calls it. Indeed, Charlie Co paints what he sees and feels, depicting any space and time.

For his 33rd solo exhibition aptly entitled “Time + Space” at the Alliance Francaise de Manille’s Total Gallery on April 21st, Co shows a collection of 9 works done from 2002 to 2008 that shows his interpretations of events that happened during this period, dealing with personal, social and political commentaries, developing an iconography of national and global issues.

Known for his vivid colors, Co succeeds in telling his stories into canvass with his own style, often taken as satirical and surreal at the same time. Collectively, his works emits powerful imagery that can provoke the viewers’ minds to think and beckons them to see the world as he sees it.

Co, a founding member of the Black Artists in Asia, is from Bacolod City, where he lives and works. He was a CCP Thirteen Artists awardee in 1990 and has represented the Philippines in the Sao Paolo Biennial and the Asia Pacific Triennial in Australia in 1996. He is presently represented by Osage Gallery of Hong Kong and has held exhibitions in its galleries in Beijing, China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Exhibit has been extended until May 16, 2008.

For more information, visit Alliance française de Manille.

French Spring 2008 Events

For more information, visit Alliance française de Manille.