Messing With Luck

We only had one round fruit for Media Noche (New Year's eve midnight meal).



Grapes.

The Launch

I was into the NBA even before the Jordan era. Like most here in Asia, I followed players and not teams. We got the games via the UHF channel feed from the old Clark Air Base. I tried, and failed, to copy Bird and Magic, and ended up being a fat kid with a respectable 3-point shot, an awkward running baby hook, and funny-looking blind passes. I also wanted to copy Barkley but I cannot, for the life of me, get even just one inch off the ground. So, it was the trash talking that I picked up. Then came this skinny kid from Wilmington. He took flight and left the whole world gawking. No Internet then, so I turned to magazines. I had a bunch of them, all having Mike on the cover. So, every month, in Dau, while my much older brothers were secretly buying "Club" and "High Society" from PX stores, I would be browsing for Jordan magazines.

While waiting for a beer call I went digging through some of the boxes in one of our storage rooms. I knew I still had some of those Jordan magazines. Some, because majority, the better ones, have been given away to a friend who rode the Bulls-Jordan Bandwagon when they were already kicking everybody else's butts. (Yes Chris, that's you!!)

I found some.


A skinny kid in some Italian made shoes.


The same kid being helped up by a "fat" guy in shoes that kiddies today think was inpired by AJIVs. SMH.


The fat guy taking flight.


You can click the images for slightly bigger versions.

Another One Bites The Dust

It is over for this pair. They have taken their last steps. Their master, they have served well. It is time for them to take a rest in the great sneaker heaven. A rest well deserved.

Gender Bender

Celebrating the amazing feats in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Nike has created a series of limited edition shoes inspired by the achievement of their female athletes. The campaign is for a line of trainers called Sister One +. Pledge to train like one of the Nike Olympians and you could win their shoes.

Jessica Mendoza (Softball) 
Hope Solo (Soccer) 
Sanya Richardson (Track) 
Diana Taurasi (Basketball)

 
The one-of-a-kind shoes each feature a piece of fabric from the athlete's  Olympic uniform stitched onto the tongue. 

Girls (13 and above) can go to http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikewomen/en_US/sister_one and enter to win their own pair of these inspirational shoes by pledging to train as hard as the featured Olympians. 

Judges will review the pledges and the most inspirational will win the beautiful shoes and have them presented in person by the athlete. The contest ends March 31, 2009.

Times like this I wish I am a girl. LOL. No, not in that way. See, I might be the biggest (and heaviest) fan of Diana on this side of the planet, and having a memorabilia like those kicks would be such an achievement. Some thing like those will be the only thing that will go against my sneakers motto of "Sapatos yan, hindi trophy" (Those are shoes, not trophies). Those would go really nice with my Taurasi jerseys and autograph card, placed in a clear glass shelf. So, anybody out there want to make a pledge on my behalf? Win a pair for me and I will send a box of pure love your way!!

Flying Under The Radar

Many predominantly black Air Flight '89 has been released. Similar in appearance and varying only in the materials. I have two right now, with one on the verge of joining the one that is already in sneaker heaven. Just came out is another black F89. And like always, people will be passing up on these classic styled shoes.



Tempting.

Game Over

Holy! Turned out that LAIKA, the animation studio producing the movie version of Neil Gaiman's Coraline, is owned by Nike chairman and co-founder Philip H. Knight. Now, people have a chance to win a pair of Coraline-inspired Nike Dunks by going on some sort of scavenger hunt while they are watching the movie or browsing the official website.

To quote the man himself. "There will, however, be a limited edition of 1000 pairs of Coraline Nike Dunks, winnable from watching the film and through the website, though, and they will look like this, with black buttons and stitching and such..."



Just my luck! I am so bad with these kind of games. Hook me up, anybody??

The Nines

A few of weeks ago I broke out a new pair of 89s - dark cinder/cognac/fog. The last one to come off storage and into the rotation. Bought more than a year ago, I paid US$45 for these, shipped, as I have a limit of $50 for sneakers. The guy who offered it to me wanted more but could not get more since he did not have the original box. And since I am the only one who actually buys this model (Air Flight '89), he was forced to sell them to me. Today, out of curiosity, I checked the inside tags. Whoa!! NINES. Glad to have another. My previous samples are all in sneaker heaven now.







Being a cheapskate does have its benefits. You sometimes get good deals that turn out being real steals. Go ahead, be one now.

CDP What???

While everyone was going crazy over the Air Jordan 11/12 CDP release I was in bed getting very little rest. I got in really late from our company Christmas party (which sucked, just like all the previous ones). After about three hours of sleep I had to get up for Little Popot's Christmas presentation.

We arrived at the school around one in the afternoon. The place was already packed. We had no choice but to sit in the back rows. That meant our point-and-shoot digital camera would be useless. It was up to the trusted vintage video camera to do her thing.

It was a good show. Of course, it was not perfect, far from it, but you cannot (and should not) expect much from bunch of preschoolers. The kids all looked so cute in their various outfits. The show lasted for more than two hours with each kid going on stage for three to four times to perform. Little Popot was part of the opening, singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. She also went up to dance to Pearly Shells and to some hip-hop song that I really do not like. The final act was all the children going on stage to sing Give Love On Christmas Day.

Sorry, no pictures, for reasons already stated above. Teaser videos will be up soon. I just need to get some shut eye first.