An Inconvenient afternoon with Al Gore

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Al Gore Live in Manila on April 30 @ SMX Convention Center. Tickets will be available soon in all Ticketnet outlets. Call 911-5555 for more details about the convention.
hmmm where do i start... At first i was kinda sad coz i wouldn't be attending the said event, but alas! the gods heard my prayers and some good friends were bless enough to offer me tickets for the said event.
Upon arriving, at SMX we didn't have trouble finding a parking spot since it was just outside/in-front of SMX. Some carpark supervisor and security guards were somehow making the traffic bearable.

We didn't have a hard time finding our area. SILVER area that is. 
Ushers we're accommodating although some didn't know which one is nearer. We went in, saw booths of Discovery, Pepsi and others i forgot, advertising materials of waterless urinals and some newspaper. Got up the escalator and there it was the area of the Silver and Bronze together. (almost)

here are the bonkers ticket prices. All seats are reserved seating.
       Platinum   Php   15,840    WTF???
     Gold           Php   10,560
     Silver         Php     5,280
     Bronze      Php     1,056

and only the Platinum and the Gold ticket holders has an access to the cocktail or pica-pica area. Crazy ticket prices right? i know, with that about i'd rather invest it or use it to save up for the new iPhone 4G! hehe

Anyways, it wasn't very hard to find our seats, some bad breathed usher was kind enough to guide us to our seat. and there we were, seated on the silver area. The event took up the whole 2nd floor of the SMX convention center, and our place wasn't even close to the middle. The event place has like 6 big-ass LCD screens scattered in the front giving equal view to the inconvenient crowd. Waited around for like 20-30 minutes while watching sponsors advertisement and SM's commercial on the screen.. So i took some ugly pictures using my cellphone. In my defense, i thought cameras were prohibited inside but it wasn't people we all flashing and everything the big screens.

I wondered what took them when they said they were about start in 10 minutes but ended up in the 20 minute mark, eventually more and more people came in, i didn't get to see much TV personalities and other famous people as i was quite far from where the action is and then the voice over... (surprisingly, the voice over was really good, great even.)
"Please welcome, the president GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROY" or something. Oh that's why! We have to welcome the outgoing president. And then the program started.

It opened with some group singing and dancing around with some songs english and tagalog connected to the environment. I think the group was "Stages" and yes i didn't think that it was wise too put them in the opening.

After that, there was welcome remarks and introductory of the SM's President. with Mr. Hans T. Sy, He was a little stiff, and uncomfortable in talking, commas and periods was not a sign for him to follow as he reads. I guess maybe he was nervous or not really in talking mode, or maybe it was just because of the hugeness of the event. The building up of the introduction to Mr. Gore wasn't that great but it survived.

As Al Gore came in, he started with his usual ice breaker 

Al Gore: "I am Al Gore and i used to be the next president of the United States of America" 
(audience laughs)
Al Gore: "I don't find that particularly funny."
(audience laughs again)
yeap he was kinda funny.

Then moved on with the picture of the earth and so on and so forth. The talk was enlightening, i was aware of this and watched his documentary, but hearing it again and again somehow sends some urgency for me to take action and made me more concerned on the environment. the talk went about the environment issue for about two hours and before the question and answer portion, Al Gore somehow ended the talk with line that somehow stirred me, "It is not a political issue, it is not an economic issue, it is not a social issue, it is not a security issue.... IT IS A MORAL ISSUE." 

And then about 30 minutes of asking questions from the audience and more questions from Ms. Che Che LazaroI even joked that Al Gore had a "nose bleed" from the questions thrown by Ms. Lazaro. She is really good! the questions were direct, and really made sense and it was really hard. Mr. Gore was stuttering a little and somehow didn't know how to answer Che Che's questions but managed to work around it. Ms. Lazaro's even asked him about his failed marriage, she asked if it ever was a hindrance of affected him in any way. and Al Gore's answer was like "not really" (or something to that effect). A few questions after, Plaque was presented by Mr. Hans T. Sy again and BOOOOOM!!! it ended.

I heard some people asking for a refund of their purchased tickets. haha i wouldn't be surprise. The tickets were pretty high.

COMMENTS (personal opinion)
Mood: Chosen songs that were played has no what so ever relevance to environment, and it didn't fit with the event. Direction of lights was bad also.
Opening: hmmmm i didn't like Stages opening the said event, these were too many songs. It was kind of boring and dragging. On one portion of their speils or throwing of lines one girl said   "...blue trees, green skies!!" Ha ha.. imagine that... their spontaneity ruined the lines. hehe it was hilarious, people were looking at each other. LOL

Talk: During his talk, all lights were turned off, i dont know why but the screens was all bright, and even if there were lights turned on. So here, FIND WALDO!!!
He he yeap there he is, and he is talking and making gestures as if most of us can really see what he is doing, he still looks at the audience and still connects. and i thought, where the hell is the follow-spot??? and i dont take the crap that Al Gore doesn't like to be lighted.(im sure this will be the response of the "director') and if he didn't like that, then i guess he didnt like when all the photographers were using flash photography when he came out, that photo op session lasted like 15 solid minutes, It was like Al Gore became lady Gaga's Paparazzi. NSee him? thats where he stood.
To sum it up, lights and sounds sucked.
Ending: Now that the talk ended, the employees assisting before didn't care now, even the supervisors making traffic and some securities wasn't there anymore.

So there, that is the brief review of the event that i attended. whew. 
So now lets save mother earth!!!

Mix signing out!

P.S. Thanks to my good friends who's responsible for the ticket! 











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