Lucy Hale Loves Bench

Lucy Hale, star of the television series Pretty Little Liars, was at the SMX yesterday courtesy of Bench.

She's the newest endorser of the top local brand. She's cute, bubbly, almost talkative. Fans knew she could sing and was asked if she'd be releasing at least a single soon. She said there are plans, but refused to sing a line or two when the audience shouted "Sample!"

She's so accommodating, even kind, and has no superstar attitude (at least from what we saw on the stage).

She signed the shirts of the Facebook winners, had photo ops with the Twitter winners, signed autographs, and answered questions from the press and bloggers.

Tim Yap hosted the event which started at 5 PM (instead of the announced 4 PM). And because I haven't been to an event like this that started on time, I arrived at 4:30 PM. :D

But before Lucy Hale went to the stage, the audience was treated to a mini-fashion show. Pretty female and male models paraded in front of the audience.

Lance Howard, who was on television lately for being the boyfriend of PBB evictee Wendy Tabusalla, also walked the ramp.

On my way out after the event, I saw the most-good-looking-male-model-at-the-event sitting idly in one corner. Asked him for a photo and he was so kind.

Ben Chan himself was also there. He sat with Lucy Torres-Gomez and her daughter Juliana who was with another kid.

It was a fun Saturday, especially that the first of the four pyromusical Saturdays at MOA's Seaside Blvd. happened right after the Bench event.

I was supposed to meet with my friend Jong for the pyromusical but something happened he wasn't able to get there. I ended up watching alone in the middle of the crowd. :(

The Best of Anime 2011

The Best of Anime is an annual event for anime fan. After its successful debut last year, it is now one of the much-awaited anime event in the country.

The Best of Anime 2011 happens on September 17-18, 2011 at Function Rooms 4 and 5 on the 3rd level of SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City.

This event is organized by Primetrade Asia in association with the Manila International Book Fair.

For more info on this event, like The Best of Anime on Facebook.

Likewise, you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

E-Games' Domination V

I was at the e-Games Domination V last April 2. I arrived at SMX around 4:00 PM while the Shure Band was performing. The band was the 2nd place winner of the battle of the bands during the R2D5 NCR leg.

The event was hosted by Eri Neeman and two other girls I didn't get the names of.

SMX was packed but I think there were more attendees last year. Well, correct me if I'm wrong but I could barely roam around last year. Or was it just the floor plan this year that made it seem more maluwang?

There were computers for free play but the line was oh-so-long. I just busied myself with watching Ran Online's "Flip Top" challenge in the game's booth. The last two standing battled it out on the main stage.

The judge was no less than Gloc9, who confessed that he doesn't freestyle himself. He just chose the one with better construction and rhyming. The one in black, named Gabby(?), won the battle, while the one in red, I guess, will be dubbed "Yo!" after that.

Audition Dance Battle also had a dancing event. Just like in Ran Online's, teams of three dancers were screened at the Audition booth and the last two remaining groups battled it out on the main stage. And one group was so obviously better than the other.

Of course Team 1 (the all-male team) won.

Highlight of the event was the cosplay competition. I had two favorites:

Unfortunately, none of these two won.

Open category was won by Rolando Logronio, a familiar name in cosplay, as Hades and Eli Chan(?) as a nymph from some anime.

E-Games category, on the other hand, had Christian Umali in the second place and Zyka Managad (?) in the first place. Zyka cosplayed a character from Granado Espada.