Meiday! Meiday!

Ohoh yes, mark thine calendars. July 18, 6 o’clock.

Meiday at Cubao X

Bringeth ye olde (but usable) stuff for school– supplies, toys, clothes, books– for them youngins. For the benefit of ISANG BATA FOUNDATION.

Bless thine hearts and rocketh and rolleth.

Purveyor, in cooperation with Love One Another Studio presents..

Go Ahead Punk! Make Meiday!

July 18, Saturday, 6 PM at Cubao Expo. FREE ADMISSION!!

Featuring..

The Wuds, Itchyworms, Pedicab, The Dorques, Ciudad, Halik ni Gringo, Ang Bandang Shirley, Filterfilter, Arigato Hato, Markus Highway, Gorgoro, The Lowtechs, The Purplechickens, Outer Hope, Techy Romantics, The Discodall, Swissy, Sunflower Day Camp, The Charmes, Only Revulotions

*Donation boxes will be set up for school supplies, textbooks, uniforms for kids of Isang Bata Foundation

Toodles!

Vintage Pop is Closing its Doors, Did You Hear?

So who else knew that Vintage Pop was going to close down?

I guess I can consider ourselves lucky for canceling plans tonight and deciding to pass by Cubao-X instead. And yes, Xai, you’re right, the impromptu trip to Cubao-X was highly driven by the hopes of coming up with awesome ideas for this site, and what do you know, I got what I needed to see, and more.

Most of the shops were already closed when we got there, at past 9PM, but the usual Friday night hangouts were still in full swing. Walking past Vintage Pop, I wondered why the place that used to be teeming with vintage wall clocks, and lamps, and furnitures, was now near empty. And on the walls, in place of those intricately designed wall clocks, were clocks drawn with chalk.

We went in and found out the sad news: Tonight was their last, they’re closing down.

Bong Salaviera, the owner of the popular vintage shop that, for a good five years, has been in the center (literally and figuratively) of everything that Cubao-X is, chatted with us like we were good old friends (really nice of him). He let us write on the walls with chalk. He allowed us to take photos of what’s left of the place, and with him. He offered beer. (But no thanks, I don’t drink anymore.) He answered questions.

Apparently, their application to migrate to Canada was approved last March, so they had to make the hard decision of closing Vintage Pop down. It was only in June that they started telling friends about closing down the store, so yeah, those people got the first dibs on the clearance sale (Okay, I just had to add that bit, argh!)

They didn’t really plan on making a big news out of it, Bong said. They thought it would be better to disappear quietly.

Continue Reading

X’s Version

While I’m rotting silly in a place some eight train stations away from the object of this website, R is sneaking past a certain meeting just to do her assignment: to come up with a concept and a gameplan for this awesome, result-of-insomnia-attack project (That’s why you were there, right? *winks*)

Yep, I am the culprit behind the obligatory first post. I did not even delete the automated comment, whaduway know. But that’s R’s job; she’s the techy expert, whilst I provide… charm? and all-around gayness.

(I use hyphens a lot, btw, you’d know it is I.)

As far as stories go, this is my Cubao X tale.

Continue Reading

A State of Mind, A Sense of Place

Behold, the most heart-felt review about Cubao-X one could ever find online, first posted in 2006, and reposted sometime in 2007. A lot may have changed since, but the words “a state of mind, a sense of place” will always ring true for everything that Cubao-X is. (Okay, I cry now.) Read on. :)

Posted by Noman Nimer on PinoyCentric.com on March 11, 2007. Original post from here.

* * *

Cubao X. The artist community. A state of mind, a sense of place.

A term coined by a filmmaker during a gathering (no staid, formal meetings here, just people sitting back, relaxing, drinking the drink of their choice and chatting unhurriedly with likeminded people), Cubao X refers to the group of artists running their own shops inside the historic Marikina Shoe Expo at the Araneta Center, but it has since come to mean the epitome of creativity and cooperativism.

Galleries, cafes, a paraphernaliac store, a bookshop, an Italian restaurant, a furniture shop, a toy store, antique shops galore. The local Greenwhich or Soho, many say. The place where nothing special really happens, some critics say. And the critics are correct some of the time.

During the day, and whole day Monday, most of the shops are quiet (because most of the artist shopowners hold down day jobs to support their art) but by 4 pm onwards, the place awakens.

Continue Reading

The Story Behind Cubao-X.Com

I like background stories. I like finding out how famous people came to be and how successful businesses started. And I like it because I always learn a thing or two from other’s humble beginnings, being someone who’s still trying to find her place in this world.

So yeah, since this website’s going to be famous and thriving with traffic someday, I’d like to post its monumental humble beginnings, you know, in case you’d be interested to look back and find out how it came to be.

Also, as the first few readers of this site, I’d like to let you in on what the game plan is.

La la la la la la.

Uh, yeah, we don’t have a game plan.

Maybe you can help us come up with one! Lol.

Srsly, the concept is still under development, so we’re inviting all of you Cubao-Xers to watch it unfold with us. The grand idea is to have a place for everything Cubao-X online, like a mini-Clickthecity, only our world revolves around that little artist community in Cubao. Get the picture?

* * *

By the way, that was Xaris who wrote the traditional Hello World post, not ME. (Mixed up login details are part of soft-openings, after all.) Don’t be deceived. Xaris is the one responsible for all the gay-ness in this site, and she’s the better, more fun, half. I, meanwhile, am the one who writes long boring introductions, and abuses commas like crazy.

And yes, I think it’s important that you know the difference between the two of us, if you’re going to frequent this site. (Oh and we bet you’re going to, because we’re confident like that.)

Continue Reading