The Adidas Vespa Deck Your Ride Contest- Philippines

Here are some shots from the event,from Chris.










3rd runner up is from Daddy D of the Vespinoy club.

























This is a crowd-favorite, a vintage 60s vespa with a really simple and clean design.






















Hellboy won the Philippine title.





















The latest Adidas collection was also unveiled, I like this minidress, which also comes in a bright green hue.
















The Philippine All-Stars dancers was there to accompany the models in the presentation of the new collection.


















The diamond and swarovsi-studded Adidas shoes was also unveiled. There are only 15 pairs in the Philippines if you want, grab them now. Price is around P30K a pair.

The Vespa Adidas Contest

As you all know, L and best buddy Mike are Vespa afficionados. They are both registered in the upcoming Deck Your (Vespa) Ride to The (Adidas) Party contest.
The two are abuzz about the designs they have in mind. They both talk about simplicity, as any Vespa purist would be. This contest is in celebration of 60 Years of Soles and Stripes. Special thanks to Dandee who will be executing L's designs. While Vespa boys in the scooter forums talk about oggling the girls and meeting Borgy and Tim Yap at The Embassy on Feb 27, I dream about Italy.




L talks about the Adidas-Vespa collection and lusts for the tan and white shoes. He has not seen the brown shoes I found from Streething.com, straight out of the Italy showroom.
























Mike already has the Vespa Gran Lusso in white. It is mid-cut, with a sleeker silhouette and some crispy leather uppers. Priced around P5295 (with 20% discount at The Adidas Originals shop in Trinoma).










While there I also saw vintage Adidas shoes.










Who are the Vespa boys anyway?





















They are a group of people who love the masterful design of the motorcycle (from an aeronautical engineer and airplane makers) and the freedom the vehicle brings!

The Late Adopter

Atat. If there's another description that fits me, this is it. Or as some friends would term it, "All the Time, Any Time", which in certain instances, can be a synonym for impatience. But I have a disclaimer! Only on things I really like- movies, books, outfits, shoes, and only to a certain early to mid adopter degree. (sorry, marketing speak). I don't have a penchant for all the latest gadgets because frankly, I can't afford it, and the wanting, the upgrading can be all-consuming. So that is why I don't have an ipod. It would have been a great gift from you-know-who, but we're not digressing there. (Ok, he always gives me Zara tops and jewelries, and me likey those,too).

Anyway, I managed without the ipod because it has been so easy to rip music onto cds from friends and from friends of friends, the kapitbahay with the unsecured wifi connection,from djs, and the ubiquitous dvd suki, who also has dvd/mp3/audio cd formats that can just be plugged in the car or played in the house. Shared folders at the office are filled with song selections which i can cd-write from my laptop and plug in the car tuner. But cds are bulky- I have 3 cd cases and it takes too much space in the car,certainly not enough to fit in the dashboard. Besides,you can only write 20 or so songs in a disc, and eventhough I can manage to change cds while driving and texting, my recent accident is a warning for fools like me.

But that is not just why I got an ipod. I've been delaying this gratification for so long because there's a substitute. But there can be no subsitute to running a marathon with a great Nike running shoes and an ipod to track my performance. Nice huh? This is the other major reason. But frankly, I like the latest grey/blue Adidas running shoes. When it comes to taste, women like design first more than engineering (and almost all my sports outfits are adidas because of this, of course they are also well-engineered, designed for functionality, like their climacool line of shirts). So although I don't have my marathon shoes yet (this is, after all, a 2008 goal, or to be more precise, running the marathon is a goal before turning 40, which means i have 7 years to train for it.Wow talk about having a long-term plan), there is another (and the best) major reason why i now have an ipod.

This is because it is inevitable; like a wave crashing from the sea onto land, technology has made learning and sharing more practical, requiring less of an effort. Imagine: listening to podcasts, learning more from audio books,watching videos, sharing files, again, learning more from artists and music of the past that can still be appreciated now, and learning about new songs or genres. All in one tiny gadget. And when i talk about the ipod and apple, in general, i am in awe of the brand.

Placed upon my hands, I try to capture the experience of owning an ipod.
->My first thought: that it is a very well-thought out design. It's light and none of the over the top marketing attempts to shock the senses away from the product. This, I learn, is also due to the very dynamic way apple responded to its customer feedback, changing and upgrading the product to make it the simplest.
->The packaging is very simple, and in fact, stripped down to its essentials.
->The manual, i love the manual: it is graphical, easy to read, with lots of white spaces, and very straightforward with words.
Compare this with Nokia (and I'm very brand loyal here too), but apple is way ahead, a design that seemed to answer just what you need, something so simple but not a lot of brands quite get how this can be done. It is so simple that it's just.. magic.

My mantra just recently is simplify, simplify. I promise to get this under control, and that my gadgets will not include swarovski-studded laminated sheet cover and other accessories for my nano. And yes, a nano is enough for a simple girl like me. Even if I'm 3 years delayed in adopting.

My Nokia E61

I write this because I am no longer the sole owner of E61 at the office. Mr. E has been in awe of this phone because of its wide landscape screen, and is, gawd, replacing his communicator with an E61. Why?? My dream phone is a sleek communicator but since I can only afford a plan 2500, I learned to love my E61, but I guess more so because I get to be unique. So unique that when a badminton playmate saw my phone, he immediately noted that it looked like his Aurora calculator.

But I love its many features. I don't use all of them (and for this I think I may have the wrong phone- specs is over my requirement), but here are some of its features I love:
1. The wide screen allows me to have a real pleasant internet browsing and blogging experience. In fact most of my blog entries are now done in my phone. The wide screen with a 5-turn joystick, the fast loading of screens, together with the P10/30 minute charging of smart makes it no longer necessary for me to have a landline installed at home.
2. The qwerty keypad allows me to type fast and write notes during meetings, send it via bluetooth to my laptop and send it via outlook. Now this could all be done on the phone itself if I had a Blackberry Connect or mail connection, which I don't have. This is actually a great feature because even Blackberry users rave about the E61 because of this option. So in meetings you'd find me with just a phone and if you see me with my phone, I'm either typing up notes, synthesizing the meeting, surfing or blogging (when I'm bored with the pace, or the speaker). Sometimes I do all three in the same meeting, using the WLAN connection for internet access.
3. Reading my documents/reviewing a presentation/practicing a presentation. Again, I just send the file via bluetooth and the phone recognizes Microsoft Office applications like Excel, Powerpoint, Word and even Adobe Acrobat. So when I'm done with a presentation, I send it to my phone, and I practice what I'm going to say. God, I did this by fly when I typed up my Docent Script Saturday from 6 AM til 8 AM, then when I changed my choice of paintings, I had to revise my script at lunchtime and practice my script before my 3 PM practical test. I loved it!
4. The voice activation feature lets me know who my caller is, along with the ringing tone. It's cool.
5. Sleek design. It's modern, it's light, it looks business-like.
6. Standby applications mode- i can talk on the phone and then go back to surfing, or text then switch to browsing. This is a real neat feature.

There are downsides of course, and here is my list:
1. The size is too big to fit in a pocket.
2. I know we're not supposed to text while driving, but we do. It's a bit tricky to do this.
3. You have to have an sms accelerator installed because when you send a hundred text messages a day, it somehow needs help. The software patch fixed this.
4. If your fingers are stubby or big, don't get this phone. This fits my fingers perfectly, but sometimes my letters still get mixed.
5. It can't hold birthdays on the calendar, which should remind you each year how old the celebrant is. There is an anniversary reminder, but not a birthday. Go figure.
5. No camera

So yes, whenever somebody asks me what my phone is, I tell them it's my calculator. Oh, but it holds my life, too.

Car Art

I don't know much about cars, but I do appreciate things of beauty, and so I decided to attend the car art show at the Ayala Museum with good friends Divina, Cielo, Lady and Bob. This is a part of the world tour through international museums and features BMW automobiles designed by artists Ken Done, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol.


“I have tried to give a vivid depiction of speed. If a car is really fast, all contours and colours will become blurred”. Andy Warhol is an icon synonymous to pop art and his car is just that- a perfect depiction of his interpretation of a car at speed. I watch in awe at the video as he paints the car himself, taking no more than 24 minutes, translating the cost of the six-cylinder engine to a whopping 10 million euros. This car has a top speed of 307 km/hr, and has raced for the first and last time at the 1979 24-hour race at Le Mans, France.

Although that night, it was more about fashion than the need for speed, I couldn't help but remember about a piece I read many years ago on driving. Etienne Lebrunne wrote that love is like riding a fast car. You feel the rush in your body, the wind in your hair, but you never know when it's going to end. She may leave at some point, leaving you to take the rest of your destination on your own, or it can lead to fascinating discoveries and wonderful memories. We can't control how the journey ends, and so he tells us to enjoy the ride and the memories that will linger after the ride is over.

The car art show is open from March 3 to March 30 at the Ayala Museum in Makati.

Rock Steady

In a sudden turn of events, much like how life unfolds, Toot Toot's vacation turned into a visit filled with many surprises. It turned out to be a rockband tour of some sorts. We started off with a Thursday meet with Marco who was pleased when I said he reminded me of Toshiro Mifune- Akira Kurosawa's favorite actor. Marco is a musician and a photographer, but keeps his day job as an IT guy. Xaymaca was our destination, although we were planning to go to Makati's Saguio. Still adjusting from his inebriated days in SG, Toot Toot was not able to enjoy our happy ending... with ox brain and liver, that is.


*****
Wednesday turned out well, with what was supposed to be a Vespinoy meet turning out to have Gary V, Rivermaya and True Faith as the backdrop for the EB. I was double booked that night, while I was watching Bimbo Cerrudo's Classico..Classic Ko!, Toot Toot was enjoying his quality time with Mike as they make their way to Metrowalk. Turns out 99.5RT is spending their 3oth anniversary there. It was a pretty cool crowd. Vespinoy came with their rides, Lambrettas and Vespas, some as vintage as 1955. Ron lets me ride his Vespa. Can't believe he's 40. A perfect ending to this beer and music fest is a beef pares fest at 3 AM.

***

I don’t usually attend Oktoberfest because the crowd gets rowdy each year, but this year I made an exception to accompany Toot Toot as he tries to shoot with his new Canon D30. A VIP pass allowed for an all-access entry. I watch as he makes his way onto the stage, clicking away as Rocksteddy, Milk and Money, Brownman Revival, Sugar Free and The Dawn perform. He’s getting better with each shot as he learns to adapt using different lighting, lens and actually using the menu. I find myself assisting him, wondering where all that superhyperactive energy came from. He goes up the stage, kneels, moves forward, goes down, changes lenses, moves back, then up again. Think Tazmanian devil. It was past 3 AM, and even The Dawn concedes with the crowd;Jett Pangan saw the crowd less responsive, wanting more but could not give the kind of energy for him, so after 4 great songs he dismisses the crowd. Toot Toot sees Buddy Zabala, formerly of Eheads, who recognize him from UP org. They exchange numbers and promise to keep in touch.


So we were driving and he was thinking, and he finally blurted it out. I didn’t recognize it, I was in denial. But those were the words. His words.
I said ok.
All weekend he was humming.
And that is the story of how Toot Toot and I became rock steady.

Vespa and Waspies

Let me tell you about my guy and my guy's guy. Mike and Toot Toot are neighbors. They are the kind of neighbors that need no permission to go to the room of the other. And eventhough Mike's family and Toot Toot's had a falling out because of Luzviminda Estrada, my guy and my guy's guy love each other to death. What ties, what binds them together?
They are waspies. In their rooms they collect miniature, die-cast cars and bikes, and in real life they have their own babies- Vespa and dogs. Mike has a Lambretta and a 98 Vespa, and Toot Toot also has one. They would often ride out together on weekends, or when they decide to meet fellow waspies to share their own love for this Italian heritage. It is interesting how they would tinker in the garage and sometimes forget that their girlfriends are there with them. Recently, Mike has had a chance to get out and meet fellow interesting waspies. Check out http://www.pinascoot.blogspot.com/. Mike told me how he missed my guy, and wished they could have ridden in the rain together.
We promised to share Toot Toot when we go out to see him in SG.