Sense and simplicity

The Royal Philips Electronics of Netherlands is a brand that has strong recall here in the Philippines — as it does throughout the world. It’s most commonly known simply as Philips, and enjoyed over 23 billion euros in sales in 2009. Organized in sectors, there’s the Philips Consumer Lifestyle, Philips Lighting and Philips Healthcare, and together, through the years, the company has received many awards for design, innovation and business standards. Founded in 1891 by Gerard Philips, in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, its first products were light bulbs and electro-technical equipment. In 1939, the introduction of the electric razor — the Philishave — saw its true entry into the consumer electronics, personal care and domestic appliances market. Back when I was a child, I recall how each time I’d have a sprain, or my father would have problems with his back (a slipped disc condition), my late mother would bring out the heat lamp, and we’d joke about how the infra-red lamp and I shared the same name.

Here in the Philippines, Tocoms is the exclusive distributor of Philips Consumer Lifestyle’s Domestic Appliances; and at their recent event, Philips and Tocoms joined hands in showcasing the irons, rice cookers, toasters, deep fryers, blenders, juicers, hair dryers and stylers, shavers and trimmers, vacuum cleaners, infra-red lamps and oral care products that exemplify how Philips appliances take the best in design and “intelligence,” fusing it with function and practicality, to truly set the standard in this arena of Lifestyle applications — appliances that inhabit the world of people-centric solutions.

Among the highlights that truly caught my eye: A Rice Cooker (HD4755) with AI (Artificial Intelligence), as it discerns different kinds of rice, and has automatic individual settings for congee, soup, stew and cake! And there’s a Keep Warm function and timer. One of the models even looked like an Anime toy/robot, and not like your average Rice Cooker. The Aluminum Juicer (HR1861) features different control settings for soft and hard fruits and vegetables, with no need to precut the fruits as there’s an extra large feeding tube. The Blender (HR 2094) cuts and crushes most anything, with a dedicated Smoothie function and an Ice Crush Button; its long lasting serrated blades results in clearer juice without seeds. And there is an electric shaver (the top of the line Arcitec) that costs around P25,000 — they were trying to explain why this would be the very last shaver one would buy, but not being very facially hirsute, its merits weren’t that applicable to me.

But truly, I was impressed with the product range and with specific models. I’m like the last person to keep abreast of what’s going on in this sector of the appliances industry, so to note the advances in terms of technology, the diversity of functions, and how the design element plays an integral role in how these appliances and consumer products hit the market was a real eye-opener.

From thin air to soaring heights

The three novels today talk of disappearances and reinventions, of chaos in a year in the life of one eccentric advertising agency, and how the true incident of a tightrope walker brazenly performing a stunt between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center can become a metaphor and elegy to the lost innocence of America in the mid-1970s.

Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon (available at National Bookstore): This is one intricate juggling act of a book. Three seemingly distinct narrative strands are presented; one involves Miles and his search for his schizophrenic brother Hayden who disappeared for points unknown but cryptically leaves hints of where he is, and then there’s Lucy, a 19-year-old who has run away with her college professor, a person she barely knows, and lastly, there’s Ryan, who’s now living with his bio-dad, a man involved in Internet scams. Ryan in turn is believed to have committed suicide back in the town where he lived with his foster parents. The magic in this novel is Chaon’s control of the material as the narratives begin to connect and unfold against each other in very unique ways.

e2 by Matthew Beaumont (available at Fully Booked): This is one hilarious read, and in terms of style, it’s quite different — a modern epistolary, as the whole book is written in e-mails, SMS messages and blogs. It basically follows one year in the life of an advertising agency, and it’s chock-full of revelations about the management and staff, about the dynamics that go on between the people in the agency — think TV series The Office. There’s Liam, a genius in marketing, but also a dedicated klepto who puts anything and everything on eBay. There’s Harvey Harvey (his real name), who flies to Africa to save some girl who’s written an e-mail to the world asking for financial assistance. There’s Milton, immersed in gay denial. A really wonderful read — laughs on every page!

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (available at National Bookstore): Winner of the National Book Award, McCann takes the true incident of the Twin Towers tightrope walker, and astounds us with a plethora of stories and voices that together pay tribute to a city — New York, and a time (the 1970s) when a vestige of innocence and earnestness were hallmarks of the era. What’s outright genius is how he introduces us to various characters, and then he makes them connect in ways we would not have foreseen. And they’re all memorable creations — a Park Avenue doyenne who lost her son in Nam and bonds with mothers of grunts, how the said Park Avenue habitue is married to a judge who tries the case of the aerial artist — it just goes on and on, highly recommended!