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Vintage Pop is Closing its Doors, Did You Hear?

Posted by Riz on Friday, July 3, 2009 in Online Xighting, Vintage Shops

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.

Me, Bong Salaveira, RicoBong 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.

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A State of Mind, A Sense of Place

Posted by Riz on Thursday, July 2, 2009 in Online Xighting, Xperience Cubao-X

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.

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cubao-xCubao 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.

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