The launch of the computerized CAT involved the delivery of exams by Prometric into more than 360 testing labs at 104 individual locations. While a significant majority of the candidates successfully completed their exams on Day One, various technical issues arose at selected computers in approximately 50 labs that prevented approximately 2,000 exams from being delivered. Prometric has generated new appointments for these individuals and they are in the process of being contacted through SMS and email messages. Prometric technicians have been dispatched to address these isolated problems. To avoid candidate inconvenience and to allow for the necessary repairs to be completed at the impacted labs, Prometric has scheduled a closure of these labs on Sunday, 29 November 2009. Candidates affected by this closure will also be notified by Prometric in the manner described above and provided with new appointments within this year’s testing period.

City	Test Centre	Lab (referred to as Site Code on your Admit Card)
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IIL98
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IIL99
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILA0
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILA1
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILA2
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILDR
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILDS
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILZ6
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILZ7
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILZ8
Bangalore	Garden City College of Science And Management Studies	IILZ9
Bhopal	TIT Group of Institutes	IIL06
Bhopal	TIT Group of Institutes	IIL07
Bhopal	TIT Group of Institutes	IIL08
Bhopal	TIT Group of Institutes	IIL09
Bhopal	TIT Group of Institutes	IIL10
Bhopal	TIT Group of Institutes	IILCE
Bhopal	TIT Group of Institutes	IILCQ
Bhopal	TIT Group of Institutes	IILCR
Bhubaneswar	Silicon Institute of Technology	IILB1
Chandigarh	Rayat and Bahra Biotechnology Centre of Excellence	IILB4
Coimbatore	Karpagam University	IILD3
Ghaziabad	Hi Tech Institute of Engineering and Technology	IIL29
Ghaziabad	HR Institute of Technology	IIL59
Ghaziabad	IMS Engineering College	IILCT
Ghaziabad	IMS Engineering College	IILCU
Hyderabad	Siddhartha Institute of Engineering and Technology	IILE2
Hyderabad	Vidya Vikas Institute of Technology	IILV4
Kolkata	Heritage Institute of Technology	IILH9
Lucknow	Sahara Arts and Management Academy	IILAP
Lucknow	Sahara Arts and Management Academy	IILAQ
Lucknow	Sahara Arts and Management Academy	IILAR
Lucknow	Saroj Institute of Technology and Management	IILCC
Lucknow	Saroj Institute of Technology and Management	IILW0
Lucknow	School of Management Sciences	IILI3
Mumbai	Fr Conceicao Rodrigues College Of Engineering	IIL46
Mumbai	Fr Conceicao Rodrigues College Of Engineering	IIL48
Mumbai	M H Saboo Siddik College of Engineering	IILQ0
Mumbai	Thakur College of Science and Commerce	IILBF
Mumbai	Thakur Polytechnic	IILEA
Nagpur	Priyadarshini College of Engineering	IILBQ
Navi Mumbai	Saraswati College of Engineering	IIL56
New Delhi	Asia Pacific Institute of Management	IILEB
New Delhi	Asia Pacific Institute of Management	IILK9
New Delhi	Delhi School of Professional Studies and Research	IILX4
New Delhi	Management Education and Research Institute	IILX1
New Delhi	Management Education and Research Institute	IILX2
Varanasi	School of Management Sciences	IIL81
Varanasi	School of Management Sciences	IIL82

A disturbing trend I have seen recently in emails and comments is the insinuation that staff are somehow responsible for the current debacle. They are not, and I wholeheartedly condemn any attack on any AMS Staff person whose name has been unfairly impugned in this process. They are responsible to the elected executive and Council, and because they are unable to act as agents of the AMS, they should not EVER be held directly accountable unless the commit a criminal or fraudulent act against the AMS.

I will be deleting any comment that implies that the staff of the AMS are responsible for the current mess. Particularly, no mention of Rory Green, Adrienne Smith and Kelli Seepaul will be tolerated. They were doing their jobs under the direction of the people that they reported to.

Elected people are responsible for taking the advice of the staff, and responsible for the actions that they direct the staff to do. It is their job to manage, and the buck stops at them, not any staff person, when everything goes up in flames.

There has been, over the past two days, a loud and almost violent reaction to the filing of a complaint to the UN without first seeking the approval of Council. I am somewhat shocked at the response. On any other issue at the AMS, I have gotten maybe one or two emails expressing an opinion. On this, the floodgates were open. I have even begun to get emails from people who I am unacquainted with. I have had people who’s acquaintance I made briefly years ago come up to me who were angry about the AMS.

The vicious response has been against the complaint itself, and how embarrassing this has been for UBC. This, in and of itself, is not my major bone of contention – rather, I am upset that this was done without any measure of consultation, without going through the proper AMS procedures, and without seeking the consent of Council. The striking thing is how similar this seems to previous goings on at the AMS. Like the Cylons say:

All this has happened before, and all this will happen again…

My Own Adventures with Pivot

I received a call yesterday from a Councilor who sat on Council during the time that I was VP External. It was remarked upon how this seems strikingly familiar to a motion that I brought forward near the beginning of my term. I had become very concerned about the impact of Bill C-38, An Act to Amend the Canada Elections Act and the Public Service Employees Act on the ability of students (with our non fixed addresses) to cast votes in future federal elections. I wanted to join a Charter Challange to this law, sponsored by (you guessed it) Pivot Legal Society. Now, here’s where the stories diverge – instead of going behind the back of Council, authorizing the payment of legal fees to a firm that is not the AMS’s usual lawyer, and pushing ahead with what was, in retrospect, probably not a very good move, I brought this motion to Council, where it failed. Following this, I stopped working on it. That’s how things are supposed to work. You shouldn’t try and circumvent people, as was stated in the Ubyssey by one VP External Tim Chu,

because “there are certain people at AMS Council” who wouldn’t approve of filing the complaint.

This demonstrates a knowing deception of Council. The UN Complaint was a bad idea, but having bad ideas isn’t wrong in and of itself. Acting on them without a mandate from Council, or even a resolution at the executive committee, is. There were ample opportunities for the Execs in question to bring forward, and they were required to provide updates on what they were working on in updates to Council and in their Quarterly Reports. They were working without accountability, and it is unacceptable.

Pivot itself is frustrating. I contacted them late Thursday night and left an urgent message to call me back. They did not. I called again on Friday, but apparently too last to get into contact with anyone. As we move towards recall, I hope that we can get into contact with them (as a Director of the Society that has them on retainer) to more fully understand the extent of the fiasco.

The BernieGate Fiasco

On December 7th, 2004, then President Amina Rai fired then General Manager Bernie Peets and had AMS Security escort him out of the building. This touched off a firestorm of controversy that led to the reversal of the decision (as Council has the authority to decide that actions taken by the Executive Committee are not their jurisdiction, but rather Council’s) and a request for the executive to resign. Now, this is slightly different from what was done by these two executives, in that the 2004 crew actually decided something in Executive Committee, and the 2009 disaster was done without the knowledge of anyone other than the execs themselves and the staff that report to them.

This is a much higher level of misconduct, as it circumvented every single deliberative mechanism that the Society relies upon to ensure appropriate policy development. Their complaint contravened AMS policy, and violated AMS process. They embarrassed the AMS, its Students, its Council and the institution with which we are affiliated. They have decided that their opinions supersede the will of the democratically elected legislature, on this and other occasions. I cannot trust them to not do this in the future. I cannot trust them to appropriately represent the students of UBC during the Olympics. I believe they have lost the moral authority to hold office.

My Last Two Days

It’s been a frantic last couple of days. I’ve been mostly trying to finish papers whilst fighting my compulsion to check the blogs. I spoke briefly to the Georgia Strait about this issue.

One of the things that seems to be bouncing around in the Blogosphere is an idea that this whole recall thing was my idea. I would like to be perfectly clear that while I am in favour of impeachment and against the complaint to the United Nations, this was not something that I could have possibly done alone. This is not vindictive, nor is it personal. If I had my way, this wouldn’t be happening at all. I wrote the form out because I knew what had to be on it, because I know the Code – this was not Naylor driven; I’m just along for the ride. If anyone is following Council votes, you would know that I don’t have any kind of control over Council whatsoever – I just present arguments and see where things fall. My fervent (and fruitless) support of the return of Slates to the AMS should serve as evidence enough of this.

The Gathering Storm

The meeting tonight promises to be intense and emotional.

Blake and Tim have decided that it’s less important to come and be held accountable for their actions than do whatever they were planning to do beforehand. I cannot confirm this, but I heard that they will be out tripping the light fantastic at the NDP convention, making the rounds at workshops and hospitality suites. I personally think this is a feeble attempt to quorum-bust.

Mitch Wright is storming the Knoll bedecked in blue helmet and UN Flag, finally freeing the AMS from its dictatorial overlords.

AMS administration is trying to find a room big enough to accommodate everyone (at the time of writing, 339) who said they were going to be coming to the meeting. Even using the 33% Rule for Facebook, this is way more than Council Chambers can accommodate.

The Ubyssey is liveblogging. I’ll be posting sporadic updates.

Seems like Prometric has made a complete joke of CAT 2009. Funny stories and incidents are surfacing across the internet. I’ll post some selected ones here below. PLEASE note that these comments do NOT reflect my opinions / view and just indicate what students across India are posting on the online forums.

1)  So CAT 2009 started with a big crash. Today the server which was supposed to conduct the online CAT exam, crashed due to heavy load. It was the first time the CAT was conducted across India on online computer systems. Students are surprised to see the behaviour of much hyped Prometric online site. Now experts are questioning the technical feasibility of the online CAT. CAT 2009 exam was canceled at the centres in these cities- Bhopal, Lucknow, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkatta Indore and New Delhi. An American firm, Prometric, which has developed the online examination system for CAT, said it would be able to disclose the problem only after 2 P.M.

2)  … my friend in pune got 2 n half to answer… coz the paper dint strt at the same time… the invigilator told them to skip the tutorial if they want… so she got 2 n half hrs ….. and i am quite sure shes knows to read the time… the invigilator was not really bothered…… i spoke to another fren who told me tat the paper took 15 mins to load n therefore got 2 hrs to answer…

3)   They were around 200 ppl in Garden City college. Initially they were seated in an auditorium and divided in 6 slots. 3 slots didnt have names in the list of candidates. The rest of them were sent in and for them either the computer crashed or they were not able to login.

4)  …. Came back from my test center at Bandra, Mumbai, first day first show slot. The test registration started off almost smoothly (if you discount malfunctioning biometric devices and digital cameras used to profile candidates). After registration, the staff had no clue as to when the test might start. My room eventually started test roughly 20 mins behind schedule. The test ending showed just how poorly trained the Prometric/NIIT/center staff was. After the test was over, we were kept seated at our places for 1 hour extra because the staff didn’t know how to end the test. People started getting frantic, some people who had to catch trains left without saving the tests, signing a declaration that they didn’t care if their scores were lost. All in all, I was disgusted at how badly it was handled at my center. But after seeing how the situation is nationwide, my center looks like an ace show ….

5) At a centre in chennai some of the systems were not accepting the end of the exam after prolonged trying the end of the exam was finally accepted by the systen….LOLZ talk about fiascos.

6) … given the magnitude of the test takers its bound to happen.. but dint know it would be “first day first show”….. and i feel the guys who ve taken the test ll ve got a true feeling of cat… what to expect…… hope prometric gets into damage control mode real fast….. its about lakhs of lives they re dealing with …

7) … being a CAT aspirant doesn’t mean shutting your mouth up, and letting them test you any way they want. Yes, one wants to be a future manager here, and THAT would mean an ability to distinguish between right and wrong irrespective of your standing (in this case, we are test takers, and PROMETRIC is testing service provider). They are NOT gods to test aspirants on their fate. prometric has done a mistake (rather mistakes since registration till testing), and aspirants should definitely come out, blame them and tear them apart, so that next time one takes up a project to decide one’s future in India, he better be well prepared …

Are the Servers and Infrastructure meant to crash or tackle such disastrous situation bravely? PROMETRIC is not a novice institution in this field, in fact it bagged the contract only because it has been conducting GMAT & GRE worldwide. This is a FIASCO……really, not expected from them. They could have undergone demo tests for judging themselves…

9) … one of the headlines read “FIRST DAY FLOP SHOW”.How embarrassing for IIMs …

10) … THIS IS A FIASCO OF MAGNONIMOUS PROPORTIONS. I just want to put down whats happening with cat in the past 4-5 years….

• CAT 2003 exam paper leaked.reexam.
• cat 2006 an utterly ambiguous VA section a disaster to the students.No clarifications on why a particular answer was the right one.
• cat 2007 an encore w.r.t cat 2006
• cat 2008 a decent APTITUDE paper relative to previous years
• cat 2009 A FIASCO

11)  one of my friends was supposed to give cat exam at jankapuri centre , new delhi and what is being told by prometric to him that your exam will be rescheduled either next week or next year …

12) they should have given contract to TIME instead of prometric aimcats were pretty well handled, never got any problem….

13) Kapil Sibal: No rescheduling of CAT for students who were not able to give today. They can appear tmrrw…

14) We are being used as lab rats for their ‘experiment with pride’.

15) Nothing that the IIMs have said till today has convinced me about the CAT going online. As far as ‘Going Green’ is concerned I seriously doubt that the amount of paper used in the CAT is large enough to call for an online CAT. And, by the way the centers now waste more electricity, so that argument’s gone down the drain.

16) We all read the mail sent by prometric and also about their contingency preparations…when they had plans for earthquake and terrorist attacks..what the hell is this now….

17) jus saw NDTV side of the story, apparently people are discussing while writing the test!!

18) Who knws may b this is just a publicity stunt?lolz..

19) .. Fingers crossed…. ..  Ditched my engineering college (RVCE) and took Garden city college.. God bless me on the D- DAY… rather God bless the SERVER..

20)  Guyz among all the chaos there is another news that is raising its hairs that.. In Lucknow centers students were discussing their CAT exam…. wtf man ..  how can u discuss while giving the paper …. 

21)  … some students names were not there in roster and were not allowed to take test  … some cud not login and some cud not even see the options after logging …  all came on NDTV ..

22) … This is what we can expect from an extreme Autonomy of the Institute….They cant feel apathy of the students who are travelling across the different cities with their relatives and after that came to know that the exams are cancelled and rescheduled….i think in india the IIMs and IITs are are too much of autonomy….Govt should have control on this…. Restrict the actions of IIMs….Its because of some foolish people in the committee who decided to go for CBT CAT with an excuse of Time saving…. but where is time saving…previously in paper-pencil based CAT it takes almost 50 days to have results and now i will take 55 days to get the results….GOD Bless IIMs from such People …

23)  .. Prometric screwin up.. I like that.. i never thought they deserved to be chosen in the first place… how do american guys know the challenges in INdia.. WAKE UP PROMETRIC! ..

24)  as per CNN IBN …..11 centers cancelled der test… center in jasola south delhi 25 studentz could’nt giv da xam becoz der individual comp. were not workn…. more than 250 students affected…

25)  .. What next !! have they seen the Q-papers and then cancelled in between..if so then the paper is already leaked to them !!! if they appear for rescheduled Exam again then they already have the idea of format and Questions… which was not supposed to be disclosed as per Prometric instructions…

26) THE PROBLEM IS WID THE CENTER SERVERS. Now for this PROMETRIC IS RESPONSIBLE. So, did the centers not run any LOADING TEST?? Prometric dint trained centers???? Unfortunately the answer is YES. One more thing the quality/reputation of Test Centers in UP(particullarly LUCKNOW) is not good. Hav IIMs asked PROMETRIC to choose these type of centers???NO!!!!!!!!! Prometric could hav choosen top government colleges / top private colleges.  Anyway, I wish that IIMs come up wid a solution. I hope everything would b alright.(aur kar bhi kya sakte hain?)

27) There doesn’t seem any clarity. I can tell you that in Mumbai the exam was delayed by an hour, and to make things worse, my exam got hanged for about 20 minutes.

28)  Now, really all this wasnt expected. Have been following the news on all channels(CNN IBM, Times Now, NDTV) nd they r reporting a centre each in Kanpur, Bhopal, Bangalore, Chennai, Lucknow, Mumbai as of now. Though we should be waiting for concrete information nd candidates to second that. But this is really shocking. Is there a guarantee that the server problems will not happen in the future exams.. For how many candidates or centres can Prometric keep rescheduling d exam..

29) How do u reschedule d exams of candidates who have not been able to give it today? Every1 had preplanned nd booked d slot. They r office goers, engineering students who have their exams atleast in Mumbai university starting next week. They r guys who wud have planned official or leisure trips which cud go for a toss. I for one have to give this exam on Monday and my official presentations nd meetings have been planned for every dam day through this week. If i dont get to give it in my slot on Monday, i cud get screwd in Office..

30) What about students who started d exam nd mid way had technical problems. They wud’ve seen d paper pattern, markings, questions etc. Nd wudnt ut be unfair that when they give it again they will have a good idea abt what questions to expect.

31) It really does a lot of harm to d mental preparedness of d candidate who goes to d center experiences problems for no fault of his nd has to reschedule nd give it again.. All mental build up goes for a toss.

32) I’m really appalled at d preparedness of the IIMs and Prometric for the biggest exam in Asia atleast. They shud’ve rather continued with d paper pencil format than create these problems for students..

33) It is better CAT authorities tone down their language because in a democracy anybody can discuss anything and CAT is not some military secrets and the Indian sub continent is going to come down if somebody discusses CAT examiantion in public. The Pakistanis could enter Mumbai and kill with a useless Indian security and is CAT such a secret document or an examination?

34) The major drawback is the candidate will hv 2 click 60 times to go from ques 1 to 60…… Confirmed by a frnd who took d test frst day, frst show …

35) …  its realy pity thing to hear that these sorts of things happening to one of the most competitive exam across the world. ..

36) … first they messed up everything with online registration. then they extended the deadline to purchase the cat voucher ( i don’t know for what reason they felt like extending the dates ) and then editing options. then cat server failed … and problems are still coming and coming….. ppl were having username problems….ppl were leaving n entering… it was annoying….pages kept stuck for one person…

37)  Everything was fine in the process until the part that used technology arrived. They took 10 minutes to register me due to a server snag while allocating me a terminal. It was like waiting at an airline check-in counter with a failed computer. Anyway, once they got the network up, their biometric device and digital camera failed.

.

.

SOURCE: Compiled from various Online Forums !!!

DISCLAIMER: The comments above are collected from various discussion forums online, and we are not responsible for whatever has been stated here. If you are related to IIMs or Prometric, and feel that any of the above is a violation of your instructions, please notify us. We would take the post down!

<Last updated at 5:00 PM IST  i.e. GMT + 5.5 ….   KEEP Watching this Post for UPDATES>

Click on Mixtape Cover for Download

WHATZGOODMUSIC.?

Sorry I haven’t updated this in some time but here you go. Lupe Fiasco’s new mixtape.

http://usershare.net/klg8z9dlyjtx

Or if you want an alternate fanmade cover:

O Resultado não foi um sucesso. Confira.

O Resultado do novo Orkut ia até ontem, eu ia fazer o sorteio ontem mais por causa de umas bugingangas pessoais, não pude postar ontem a noite, mas deixando de papo vamos ao que interessa

Só foi uma pessoa que participou, então não houve sorteio, em falar nisso, essa pessoa colocou o link do Orkut inválido, iremos tentar contato com essa pessoa.

Mas ainda tou distribuindo convites para as quatro primeiras pessoas que deixarem 1 comentário aqui, mas deixe o link válido, não deve ser do tipo Main#Home, deve ser do tipo Main#Profile….

Isso é comum em blogs com poucos dias de vida como esse algumas promoções serem fiascos, pretendemos no próximo mês investir pesado na Dog Incorporated e na DSLTechno, pois quero que a Dog cresca e se torne realmente uma empresa!,  pode demorar anos, mas nós vamos conseguir!.

Lupe has done it again. Me and Flyy Guyy were having a deep conversation about how amazing this Tape is. I mean it’s so Dope he went with a Casette Style who else can pull that off. Right now my favorite Track will have to be “Yoga Flame”. He kills the old lil wayne Fireman beat with a fine example of lyrical progression. Honestly this is a must have tape if you are a true Hip-Hop loving individual. Linkage below…

(Click the Picture)

LINKAGE: http://limelinx.com/files/34a0b9cee06943ac6913e56943483f64

Stayyiinn Flyy

-Victory

The new mixtape from Lupe Fiasco has arrived!

Download-HERE|HERE

Oh yea…and another one is coming…

peace! and remember to smile, love.

Alright, here it is. Lupe chose to release the mixtape on a great day. Good music alongside a turkey feast, makes a perfect day. Make sure you stay tuned as he will be dropping another mixtape next month.

Tracklist + Link after the jump…

Enemy of the State: A Love Story tracklisting:

01. Intro

02. The National Anthem

03. Turnt Up

04. Yoga Flame

05. Lazers (skit)

06. Angels Remix

07. So Ghetto

08. Say Somethin

09. Thank You

10. The One

11. Popular Demand

12. HP Skit

DOWNLOAD: Lupe Fiasco – Enemy of the State: A Love Story

Brand New Lupe. Dropped today Thanksgiving 09′. Thank You Lupe! Apparently Lupe came out with this in response to not making MTV’s list of the ‘top 5 hottest MC’s’ in the game. No new production on this, rather Lupe chooses to spit over beats by Drake, Lil Wayne, Slaughterhouse, Jay-Z, Clipse, even a HP commercial?? This is the split tracks version, rather than one long mp3, that way you can skip around.

click here to download

1. Intro (Keri Hilson: Knock You Down)
2. The National Anthem (Radiohead)
3. Turnt Up (Travis Porter)
4. Yoga Flame (Lil Wayne: Fireman)
5. Lazers (Lupe Fiasco: Shining Down)
6. Angels (Remix) (Diddy-Dirty Money)
7. So Ghetto (Jay-Z)
8. Say Somethin’ (Timbaland x Drake)
9. Thank You (Jay-Z)
10. The One (Slaughterhouse)
11. Popular Demand (Clipse)
12. Summit On The Summit (HP TV Commercial)

Well, it is Thanksgiving and not only do i want to wish you all a happy holiday but give you the link to Lupe Fiasco’s new mixtape that dropped today. Its already an instant classic to me. And That picture up there isnt the actual cover, I got this from 2dopeboyz. I’m not too big a fan of the original cover but if you like it, its in the folder when you download it. So, on that note…enjoy !!

http://www.mediafire.com/?4wzdnmfn2z5

O, and one more thing, he’s dropping another mixtape on Christmas Day called Friend of the People

Shout out to 2dopeboyz.com http://2dopeboyz.okayplayer.com/2009/11/25/lupe-fiasco-enemy-of-the-state-a-love-story-mixtape/

Enemy of the State: A Love Story is available at the following link:

http://usershare.net/11pfpkd2htzo

Earlier Today, I posted an article about Lupe Fiasco’s upcoming mixtape and i just found out the title via The LupE.N.D Blog/ his twitter and it is *drumroll please*…

Enemy Of The State: A Love Story

What was yall sayin about No Ceilings ?

http://lupefiasco-lupend.blogspot.com/2009/11/enemy-of-state-love-story.html

Diddy dropped this via his twitter, picture via LupEND, DL link thanks to UHTN. I was anticipating this remix more than any other. Enjoy.

Dirty Money feat. Lupe Fiasco- Angels Remix

Well well well, seems like my prayers have been answered and Lupe is coming out with a new mixtape on Thanksgiving. To me this is a breath of fresh air seeing as though all I’ve been listening to for the past few months is Gucci Mane(smh), Waka Flocka and local artists(not that I don’t enjoy local artists, they make some of the best music). The mixtape is supposedly the newest addition to the “Fahrenheit 1/15 series”. Here’s the video confirming it as well as 3 other albums  and AT LEAST one other mixtape.

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=20957761&blogId=519629107

I’ll post the link on Thanksgiving when I get it

Nota: KH
Fotos: Esther Lanuza

Hace un tiempo, Joan Sebastian ofreció un concierto en Guatemala; donde las hermanas Esther, Margareth y Emilia Lanuza fueron sus teloneras. En dicho concierto, el señor raboverde posó sus ojeras sobre la más joven de las tres; Margareth, quien ese entonces tenía 17 años. Ni lenta ni perezosa, la familia Lanuza aprovechó la invitación de Joan de ir a México a pasear. Dicho paseo también incluía en su agenda la discusión de la futura carrera de las hermanas. Así que tanto las tres chicas como su padre, Edwin, fueron a la Ciudad de México.

Pasado cierto tiempo, Edwin y Emilia se regresaron a Guatemala. Cierto tiempo después, viene lo que muchos consideran como un plan publicitario que beneficiaría a las Lanuza. Y es que Edwin acusaba públicamente a Joan de secuestrar a sus hijas en México. Múltiples apariciones del señor Lanuza en las principales televisoras hispanas se procedieron a dichas alegaciones. En varias de ellas se le ve llorando y pidiendo que regresen. Emilia expresó que Joan les ofreció como carnada que fueran a México a discutir el futuro de su carrera. Estando allá, de pronto los planes cambiaron y Joan les ofreció en su lugar que fueran sus coristas. Las chicas dijeron estar dispuestas a empezar desde abajo y a medida que pasó el tiempo, ya ni eso. Emilia compartía esta anécdota mientras lloraba con intensidad.

Mientras tanto, Margareth y Esther gozando de la fama. Eran seguidas a todos lados por los paparazzi y se les veía muy felices de compras por todo México. Se transportaban en un vehículo a nombre de José Manuel Figueroa (nombre real de Joan Sebastian).

Para ver la entrevista de José Manuel hijo, Click aquí

Por su parte, José Manuel cuestionó el talento de las chicas: “Ellas… Yo no las conozco… No las conozco como cantantes, no las conozco como actrices. No sé que hacen, no sé si bailan bonito no sé que hacen”.

Escándalo TV

Hace un par de semanas, las hermanas se presentaron en el programa Escándalo TV de la televisora Univisión en Miami, Florida. Yo, por casualidad prendí la tele y violá. Me enteré de todo el rollo ahí. Ni sabía que todo esto estaba pasando.

En Dicho programa, las chicas hablaron de todo. Se le preguntó a Margareth si ella estaba comprometida con él, pues se rumoraba que Joan le había dado un anillo de compromiso. Ella admitió haber recibido un regalo muy costoso de parte del abuelito (a pesar de que su padre le dijo que no lo hiciera), el cual de hecho sí es un anillo, pero no de compromiso. Esclareció que cuando el idilio empezó, ella tenía 17 años, pero ahora ya cumplió los 18. Se le preguntó que si estaba enamorada de él y dijo que sí.

Esther en camerinos, previo a la entrevista en Escándalo Tv.

También aprovecharon dicha visita para promocionar su nuevo sencillo “Amor color de rosa“, el cual aseguraron va dedicado al viejito. Este sencillo marca el inicio de la carrera internacional de las Lanuza como un dueto ya de manera oficial. En Guatemala, su “carrera” era como la de cualquier otro guatemalteco, algo súper informal y usando covers de otros artistas. A veces eran las tres, a veces dos, a veces una.

Desde ese entonces se han dedicado a promocionar dicho sencillo en México y entraron nada más y nada menos que por la puerta ancha, a través de TELEVISA. Ahora es cuestión de que el público les dé apoyo. Si eso llegara a suceder, pues estas chicas ya tienen una carrera por delante. Si no, lograron lo más díficil, esa primera y auténtica primera oportunidad de darse a conocer, que muchos artistas nunca llegan a poseer.

En el programa NXclusiva con Origel.

Fiasco en el Concierto de Joan Sebastian

Pues se me fue la onda y no escuché cuando fue este concierto. Creo que fue anoche o algo así. El asunto es que para variar, Esther y Magareth fueron al concierto del Don y “vaya sorpresa”, la prensa estuvo ahí para capturar el momento. Se veían muy animadas al entrar. Las hubieran visto al salir, ya no se veían tan contentas. Resulta que Joan no hizo acto alguno que denotara que ellas estaban entre el público, las ignoró por completo. Las chicas se veían molestas, un tanto incómodas al salir y ya no quisieron dar declaraciones. Muy contrario a la actitud que tenían a su ingreso.

Las hermanas al momento de ingresar al concierto de Joan Sebastian.

Y hoy, las chicas aparecieron de nuevo en Escándalo Tv dando declaraciones en vivo desde México y aseguran que quieren dejar este escándalo atrás y continuar con sus carreras. Se les preguntó acerca del incidente del concierto, a lo cual Esther respondió con Cantinfladas. Dijo una y otra vez la misma cosa y al final no dijo nada. Pero insistía que ya no querían hablar del asunto.

También el programa “El Gordo y La Flaca” hizo mención del chasco al cual las Lanuza se sometieron al presentarse a “apoyar” al cara de pasa en su concierto. Lily y Raúl anunciaron que las hermanas se presentarán en el programa dentro de dos semanas. Así que parece que el drama no termina aquí.

You know the people, you might even be an unwilling participant. The ones who slow down at an accident scene, drive as slow as possible, and crane their necks until you just know they will need a chiropractor tomorrow, to gaze at the scene.

The past few days have been like that for RWA members. I won’t go into details on my own blog because their is more than enough all over the blogosphere. Just Google RWA and Harlequin Horizons and BLAM! it will hit you upside the head.

This post is more about the fascination we seem to have about watching the disaster unfold. Unlike a real accident scene the blood and gore of this fiasco is only of the ‘word’ kind. Never forget though, that real people are behind the scenes of this Titanic. For all the ‘unrecognizing’ and ‘rescinding’ involved, those words represent real people, authors who are confused right now about ‘what it all means’.

I have spent the last two  days ‘rubbernecking’ the whole RWA/Harlequin Horizons event in the mistaken belief that I need to be informed about these things. I do need to know, but I also need to write, which is something I haven’t done for two days as this all unfolded.

So, I’m pulling my head back into the car, staring straight ahead, knowing my organization will let me know what is being decided while I do what I’m supposed to be doing — writing.

Jill James