DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER...
Or at least till the next typhoon blows them down.Last August, I wrote a post about the current urban renewal projects happening on the Pasay side of Roxas Boulevard in downtown Manila. And although I reported that the street pavement patterns were promising (In brick toned swirly designs ala Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro) and haughtily taunted Manila City Hall that the Pasay side just might eclipse the Malate-Ermita side of Roxas Boulevard in terms of architectural beauty - I shall now eat my words with a side of humble pie. The new lamps are finally up and they are, um...hideous? surreal? aspirational? I still can't find the words to describe it. All I know is that I can't use the words "pretty" or "tasteful". They make the Malate-Ermita lamps look positively sublime in contrast. Sigh. The jeepney-fication of Manila goes on. I guess that isn't a bad thing though. I'd rather have tacky than decayed any day.
posted by carlosceldran @ 12:20 PM
25 Comments:
Except for the spindly, silvery post and oversized lamp frame that resembles an x-mas latern, the lamps look fine. There is also this question of scale - they look too big for the narrow sidewalk. Thanks, I'll go and see this place when I go for a visit in Manila.
Grotesque kaya? They look like they belong in a sleazy spaceship themed motel room :S not on a brick-tiled road.
Hmmm...better than "decayed" as you said. I wonder what kind of illumination they provide.
BTW, Carlos, I'll most probably sign up for one of your Intramuros tours after the holidays. I think I'll learn a lot from doing so.
Thanks!
mai's comment about the lamps belongin to a "sleazy spaceship themed motel room" made me laugh. perhaps another branch of hotel paradis would fit perfectly in the area.
Hay, nanakawin lang ng gmga tambay yang mga bombilya nyan.
re: "sleazy spaceship themed motel room" -hey, it's pasay after all. probably the same supplier.
I'd like to see if people actually walk in the area. the right side of the picture doesn't look like an active urban edge.
of course people walk when there is something to see, do, or go to along the path. I hope this path does that (girly bars as an urban destionation?) otherwise it's just borloloy.
then again, it is way more urbane than "bawal umihi dito" painted on concrete walls.
Ugh, just saw them on my way to Manila. They are definitely uglier than the disco balls on the Manila side. Can't the cities hire an aesthetic consultant so we don't have these costly eyesores forced on us?
Someone's family or friend probably made a killing passing these supersized wands on us. I wonder if they conduct lightning?
I used to work as one with Manila City Hall. Trust me. They will do things exactly as they want even if you spelled things out for them in neon lights. Sadly, good taste is something you can't legislate. It's not even something you're born with. It's something you learn only through constant exposure. And lord knows, being constantly exposed to good taste aint easy. Or cheap.
so..they are building these structures...okay. then what...
question is..can they sustain and maintain them?
They're built too close to each other. They are very bright at night, though although I can't say how long these will last.
Either the next typhoon or your next-door tambay will get to them soon enough.
Ed, Hotel Paradis has nice rooms. *wink*
the lamps are beautiful, Carlos.
also, check my blog. I've posted you yesterday.
The lamps are beautiful.
Carl
Hey Carl! Thanks for the post! Ya. Others have stated the same opinion. Maybe I'll get used to them soon. It's just me being bossy and imposing my opinions on everyone again. :o)
wow. judging from the pictures they are...well..."breath taking.?!"
They're somewhat tacky, but they're not all that bad. At least, the municipal authorities seem to be making efforts. Incidentally, they have street lamps with 1970s movie tech effects in Paranaque, too. The poles are all lit up!
True. True. You should see the new lamps outside the new shopping center built in front of the old AdB though. Mind blowing. DNA helix shapes, swirls, among other pschedelic shapes. Welcome to the China Century. Because I'm pretty sure that's where all these lamps are from. I'll post a picture soon.
Oh my God! Well, all things considered, they at least made some kind of improvement. I worked in the DFA (which is the ADB Bldg.) and I can't say my view of the area was very pleasant. Well at least when I go home for Christmas, I'll see something.... jarring, but different. :)
Well, they suck. It's that simple. Bad taste to the extreme. But i agree with carlos, at least its better than urban decay. And they do light up the street at night, so what the hell...but if they were going to do them up anyway, why couldn't they have done it with a bit of style? sigh...
funnily enough, i brought up the pasay streetlamps issue in the SM Baguio thread before i saw that you had a separate post for them.
From a tourism point of view however, i reckon we're better off with a Spanish colonial streetlamp theme, sort of like Cuba and Puerto Rico. A bit of old world charm in the tropics is always a good idea to pull in the tourists. Look at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore for instance...
Ya. I noticed that post. What a coincidence. I agree with you about the lamps. But the Spanish streetlamp theme would definitely work if most Filipinos would first embrace their Spanish side. Take it from this cono kid. Spain is finally dead and gone in downtown Manila. If ever, the Spanish Filipino is more based in Alabang than anywhere else and its the era of the Chinoy for the rest of the city. Taipei is more of the design template of Manila than Madrid these days.
I disagree that we first have to "embrace our spanish side" for the streetlamps to work. Why? it's a marketing tool for tourism, we just need someone in govt to have the vision. Doesnt even have to be spanish, some american colonial architecture is also nice. Places like the old army-navy club are nice, or used to be nice. Intramuros is nice. Manila city hall is nice with that clock tower. FEU is nice. The Manila Hotel also was great but since that guy from the Bulletin bought it, it has completely lost its historic charm and is now a second-rate hotel with a horrible design aesthetic. ask bambi harper about that. the guy ruined it.
From a marketing point of view, the key word is heritage. it's just more attractive to tourists. That's what makes the raffles hotel so cool. that's what makes Cuba,Puerto Rico or many islands in the caribbean more attractive, aside from the tropical vibe. it's the heritage architecture that appeals to people.
We don't embrace taipei do we? and yet as you say taipei is more the template these days. that is correct and that's precisely the problem. taipei is baduy. The taiwanese are rich but have poor taste. you've seen the tourists and what they wear. So why are we emulating or embracing kabaduyan? that is the real question.
Filipinos are great natural designers yet we have a strong baduy streak. Is it the chinese influence? But the chinese are an ancient civilization with some great original design as well. so what is it then? why are we so cursi?
I don't know what we'd have to ask Bambi Harper about. What does she know that we don't? Columnists are not authorities!
Bambi's a side point, though.
I think what Carlos means is that we have to stop hating our history. So we were a Spanish colony & American colony; there's nothing wrong with restoring & respecting styles & buildings from those eras. We have to get away from the sense that we MUST have a native, non-colonial aesthetic because it's somehow pure. This is both a Marcos holdover & also a post-colonial kind of thinking.
Because the truth is: we're a colonized country; our culture is colonial. So embrace it. We're not pure. Our competitive advantage for a long time was English; imagine how much more of an advantage we would have had had we encouraged Spanish as well. We can be hostile to American policies but we can embrace aspects of the shared history.
We're not cursed -- some people who had the decision-making power just didn't have the right taste, that's all. We can complain about it, but as long as public money is spent, that'll be the case. It's mass taste.
A private initiative for restoration is one possible solution for the taste problems of Manila: Harness the wealth that's around & put it in the right, non-baduy hands. It's a matter of the right policy choices.
No no, i simply meant that bambi harper has some things to say about the manila hotel. If you want an earful talk to her hahaha.
As for your other points, i agree completely. In fact it's what i've been trying to say-- use our colonial heritage to our advantage-- esp in terms of tourism and the big bucks that it can bring in (if you check out the lonely planet website, we are described as the 'forgotten country' in asia.) Pls re-read points re raffles hotel, puerto rico, etc.
Like it or not, the essence of pinoyness is really a sort of cultural fusion-- the sum total of our colonial and neocolonial experiences. The whole native, indigenous thing is no longer representative of today's filipino. Maybe it never was.
Question is though is still: why are we baduy? Or more accurately, why are there so many baduy filipinos, in effect outnumbering those pinoys with good taste; so if you wanted to be really democratic about it, noone on this blog should be complaining about horrible street lights because the majority seem to like it. I guess have the answer to my own question in one word: poverty.
btw, cursi is a spanish term for baduy, or kitschy.
Ah. The sprinkling of the Spanish. Totally acceptable. Sprinkle away!
The answer to your question could be more self-wounding, as in: we also have to stop hating our elites and glorifying poverty. ("We" is probably unfair, "many of us" is probably more correct.) One manifestation of anti-elitism is kabaduyan. Done with good taste, anti-elitism can be good taste too (when kitsch crosses into camp or clevery irony), but done with the driving idea that somehow beauty is associated with the rich oppressors produces bad results.
The answer could also be: as a country we're poor. We have a finite amount of resources, and a lot of that is being spent on things other than developing and promoting design, culture, cultural literacy and cultural recognition. This is a whole package: restoration, education and so on.
But I really suspect the answer is: most people are baduy. Most Americans are baduy. Many French people, even, can be quite baduy. A lot of places in the U.S. and France are saved from kabaduyan because the design decisions are placed in non-baduy hands. So again it's a decision about how resources are allocated and marshalled. Expert decisions need to go to experts.
Solution? Either we get richer or we make better decisions about the resources we have. If the government isn't going to do that, the private sector is going to have to go to bat and hire the expertise.
well that is key-- to get the design decision-making into capable hands, but how? is the question. Like, how could the private sector have gotten involved in deciding on the Pasay streetlights? That was ultimately Peewee Trinidad's call.
Thing is i know the Trinidads. And they're not baduy. the son Buddy is a terrific pastry chef with loads of experience in top restaurants abroad. i know he's here now and is close to his dad, so how does it happen that a design monstrosity has been erected in Pasay? Still, what the hell, as carlos says, it beats urban decay...
I like the lamps.
Funny thing, taste. A few decembers ago, I was in london when a house found itself on the news. It had become a tourist attraction because it was decorated in a 'baduy' way. Big bright colourful lights cascading down the entire house and up the roof, reindeer and santa about to take off the roof, snowmen on the lawn, etc. Other people interviewed hated it ("tacky"), others loved it. It looked just like the houses in some of the posher villages here during xmas.
I think some things are probably universally condemned as ugly by everybody from mongolian herders to vogue editors (yellow vomit on your footwear, for instance). And then there are things that provoke either a strong positive or negative reaction...and i happen to like the lamps! =) And so does a 5 year old kid i heard...and if a 5 year old likes it, that's good enough for me...
hey! the lamps are really nice.. you guys should check it out first before giving REALLY negative comments (especially on the 1st few posts :D) Although i must agree that they are a little bit too close to each other.. but other than that, they give life to an otherwise DEAD part of Roxas Boulevard===It's good urban development! FYI: The entire stretch from CCP to Baclaran is actually lit with these lights. :D
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