Sunday school

Kembali ke Sydney

2006-10-15T16:37:00.000+10:00

Yakk, kembali ke Sydney. Kembali ke kesendirian, kembali ke kepedihan dan juga tak bisa menghindar dari kesedihan. Cepat banget kayanya libur satu bulan. Baru juga menginjakan kaki ditanah ibukota rasanya, tiba-tiba udah berada di airport Soekarno-Hatta lagi dengan koper besar ditangan kanan, gitar ditangan kiri, serta backpack digendong dipunggung. Terimakasih buat yang udah ngaterin juga. Hihi, sudah ke tiga kalinya yah kalian ngaterin gw? Entah masih berapa banyak lagi kalian harus ke airport Jakarta yang cukup busuk ini buat ngaterin gw kembali ke Sydney dalam 2 tahun mendatang.

Banyak banget hal baru yang saya temuin di Jakarta selama menikmati liburan semester ini. Mulai dari begitu ributnya warga Jakarta menjelang dibukanya Krispy Kreme di mal Pondok Indah -entah berapa banyak orang yang ngantri dari jam 10 malem di depan tokonya, padahal toko baru dibuka tepat pukul 10 pagi, sungguh warga yang cukup gila menurut saya, tarif parkir yang begitu mahal dan tidak berkeperimanusiaan di Kemang food fest, wejangan dari teman dan juga orang tua tentang "JANGAN PERNAH LEWAT WARUNG BUNCIT!" yang saya acuhkan dan berakibat fatal karena saya terjebak dalam kemacetan yang sungguh sangat ruwet dan membuat pusing, serta yang paling parah adalah aksi protes warga di sekitar bandara Soekarno-Hatta yang membuat jantung saya serasa mau melompat keluar. Bayangkan, meraka menaikan sangat banyak layang-layang di sekitar bandara, dan ini merupakan tindakan yang sangat membahayakan bagi para penumpang pesawat. Bagaimana tidak membahayakan kalau layang-layang bisa tersebut tersedot oleh baling-baling pesawat dan membuatnya jatuh. Gila pikir saya ketika saya melihat jarak layang-layang dan baling-baling pesawat hanya sekitar 10 meteran dari jendela pesawat. Esoknya, ternyata hal ini di bahas di koran Kompas, dan dari situ saya tahu kalo warga menaikan layang-layang sebagai aksi protes karena merasa tidak diperhatikan dan diberikan "subsidi" oleh pihak bandara.

Membahayakan nyawa orang lain demi kepentingan pribadi ataupun golongan. What an Indonesian way of thinking!! Ternyata Indonesia memang belum berubah

Mari berbahasa Indonesia

2006-09-19T13:27:00.000+10:00

Akhirnya untuk pertama kali saya bebas untuk mengutarakan pendapat, pemikiran, pengalaman, serta tulisan mengenai hari-hari saya dalam bahasa Indonesia. Melewati 4 bulan penuh dengan menulis dengan bahasa kedua saya, cukup dirasakan penuh dengan tekanan dan kebosanan. Entah berapa banyak artikel juga essay diluar blog ini yang sudah saya buat dalam bahasa Inggris. Yahh, walaupun memang sungguh sebuah kesempatan baik untuk belajar dan membiasakan diri dengan bahasa bule tersebut, entah kenapa rasanya jauh lebih nyaman untuk berbahasa Indonesia. Dan tampaknya momen dimana saya sedang berada di Jakarta ini rasanya cukup tepat jika juga mulai menulis dalam bahasa Indonesia.

Kaku?? Bisa jadi, saya memang penggemar bahasa baku.

The bravest man was killed by a fish

2006-09-06T19:33:00.000+10:00

The world has lost another great person. Steve Irwin who known as the bravest man in the world has died because of a stingray attack. Irwin was widely known because of his television show crocodile hunter which often show he fought and got close to dangerous animals. Crocodile, snakes, sharks, poisonous spiders, and many more which sometimes i even do not know what kind of animal is that. But i never thought that a brave man like him will be killed by a stingray, an animal which only killed people once in Australian history. Yeah, not just me, i think no one ever predicted that his life would be end like this. So sad and tragic it was.

Irwin's tragic story has made me think that God is almighty. Even the bravest man's life in the world could end in just a second. A second when the stingray's barb struck into Irwin's chest and BLAMMM!! it's all over. No matter what we do, no matter where we are, we should always prepare for that second.

An ode to a good friend of mine

2006-09-01T00:47:00.000+10:00

You are such a good friend for me. A very good friend indeed

You always be there wherever and whenever i need you

You always be there for better or worst...never asked...never questioned. Silent is what you always do

Keep accompany me from dusk til the dawn. From the time i close my eyes, til' they open again for sunshine

Never feel tired and never feel exhausted

I like you....

Yes i like you in everyway

I like you when you help me doing my assignment

I like you when you help me communicate with my overseas friends

I even love you when you sing me a song, and love you more when you sing my favorite song when i tell you to sing randomly

But sometimes you are very annoying and i feel like i want to kill and destroy you my very bestfriend

Chop your head off when you erase my file. Throw you against the wall when you working really slowly and simply say "not responding"

Maybe you are too old now. It's time for you to retired.

Don't get sad, this is called life my good good friend....... friends getting in and friends getting out

It's time for me to have a new friend my old friend

A younger one. A slimmer one. A faster one....

The one who has an apple tattoo on his body

So long my good friend "Compaq".

Be prepare for your long winter sleep

The Soundtracks of My Life

2006-08-26T05:46:00.000+10:00

It is interesting since the roles of music are not just to entertain people, but it will also provide a certain emotional feeling for its listeners. That certain feeling that ones may experiences might be different with another person. So basically, each person could experience music in a different way from the others. For me, music is like photograph, which always portray my life journey since i was born until now. When you are looking at a picture of you while you were 8 years old, wearing scout uniform, it will return all of your memories of that moment, which will make you either happy, sad, giggle, or miss that moment. This nostalgic feeling is suddenly experienced by me when I am listening to some particular songs. It’s like there is a particular song for every chapter of my life.

I still remember every detail of a moment in my life back when I was 10 years old. I, my brother, and my driver were stuck in a traffic jam for 3 hours after we went to the dentist. And there was a Beatles’ song called ‘Hey Jude’ played on the radio, it was the first time I heard ‘Hey Jude’. Now, every time I listen to that song, I’ll think about my driver and my brother stuck in a silver Toyota Corolla. There’s also an Indonesia song called ‘Dan’, which is the soundtrack of my life back when I was in Junior high school and had a camp at the back of my school. Satrio, Danang, Hanie. I wonder what are you guys look like and what are you doing right now. We have never contacted since I moved to Sydney.

High school was the best. Thousands of songs for a trillion moments. “I Shot the Sheriff” by Bob Marley reminds me of the greatest new year in my life. It was the new year of 2004. We all went to Puncak, might be around 40 people. Since my high school was a homogen school, there were only boys. Haha, hide ourselves from the outside world for 4 days, we party all the days and getting drunk. I remember Memen ate a slice of bread not with jam or nutella, but he puts beers on it, while he drunk. I can’t imagine how it tastes. Novdut finished all the food in the refrigerator, and all of us got angry. Pane was thrown to the swimming pool. However, Bacum and Gobel were left in Jakarta (you missed the greatest moment in your life dude!!).

“Cherub Rock” with its memories, will always be my favorite song ever. Still remember the last day in school before graduation day. Took photo together, hang around for the last time before walk into different directions, spent time using ‘kotak-kotak’ school uniform for the last hours, and cried watching the our high school documentary. Whenever I listen to this Smashing Pumpkins’ song, I’ll always daydreaming about the greatest moment in my life.

I believe that every single person in this world has their own songs that illustrated their moment in their life. We don’t need a camera, all we need is just a combination of pitch to portray every detail of a moment.

Twenty, the golden age

2006-08-23T23:33:00.000+10:00

Some people say that 20 are the golden age. It is the starting point for us as human beings to get into the second part of life. 1-19 years old are the part where we spend almost of those times to learn in school, home, or other education institutions. 40-60, which is the third parts of life, is the time where we live to work. But to be 20, it means that we have to work to live. This is the most crucial moment in our life, because in this part of life we have to choose direction, choose our own pathway, and decide where we gonna step very carefully to continue our life.

However, many people still don’t know which directions should they choose while 20 is already one step closer to them. Have i chosen the right way? Have this thing is really what i want to do? What I have to do right now? All of those questions might be the questions that they always think in their mind. But what is the right answer of all those questions? The answer is simply start dreaming and aiming high than you have ever thought. Soon after you have your dreams, you will have the motivation to achieve it step by step, and you will feel so alive while you could achieve it and dream more. It is also fine to dream beyond your expectations because it means you have more motivations to make it come true. Don’t just dreaming to be like Rupert Murdoch who owns 70% of Australian newspaper market, but motivate yourself to be more than just Rupert Murdoch with your own 80% Australian newspapers market.

Therefore, start dreaming and fulfill it step by step. It is okay to making the wrong decisions because it will set us on to the right foot.

"LOVE", according to....

2006-08-18T01:45:00.000+10:00

It is true that LOVE is the most interesting thing in the world. It is just one word but has so many different meanings, and no one knows which definition is right and which one is wrong.

While I was thinking about “LOVE” for my podcast project, I realized that there are so many musicians who defined the meaning of love in their songs, and each of them has different point of view from the others. Here’s the list. Enjoy! N.B: Add some more if could find another one!=)

“Love is Suicide”. –Billy Corgan (ex-Smashing Pumpkins)

“Love is watching someone die” –Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie)

“Love is no big truth, driven by our genes, we are simple selfish beings”. –Kings of Convenience

“Love is all around”. –Wet Wet Wet

“Love will tear us apart”. –Ian Cutis (Joy Division)

“Love is all you need”. –John Lennon and his Beatles

“L- Is for the way you look at me
O- Is for the only one I see
V- Is for the very very extraordinary
E- Is even more than anyone that you adore

L.O.V.E is more than just a game for two” –Nat King Cole

“You can cross the line whenever you want to. I'm calling it love soon. Close your mind and waste some time if you have to. I'm calling it love soon”. –John Mayer

“Love is the answer” –Even as We Speak

“Love is not enough”. –Trenz Reznor (Nine Inch Nails)

“Love is all” - The Rapture

“Love is strong” –Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones)

“Love is sweet exile” –Manic Street Preachers

"Love is like the sky" -Prince

"Love is about trust" -Ashanti

"Love is the answer" -The Doors

"Love is only a feeling" -Darkness

"Love is patience, it is kindness. It is rain after the dryness" -Sixpense None The Richer

"Love is the light. Love breaks the chain. Love aches for everyone of us. Love takes the tears and the pain" -Brian McKnight

Calendar Boy

2006-08-08T02:28:00.000+10:00

Homesick…

It is a word which describes my condition nowadays. I no longer feel comfortable living in Sydney. Especially, during this unfriendly freezing weather which make me shiver all the time. This cold weather also insists me to turn on the heather almost everyday which cost me more than $100 to pay the electricity bill.

Yesterday evening, my old friend called me and told me that he just had holiday with 20 others my high school friends. They went to Bandung which is a small city in Indonesia. They also got a chance to go to Ciater, took a bath in a warm water pool. Ouhhh…what a holiday since Bandung always be my favourite city in Indonesia. The entire story that my friend told me on the phone just makes envy and misses my hometown even more.

Now, I am stuck in the moment. Stuck in my 3 x 3 bedroom. Stuck with my 2000 words assignment. Caught in the middle of a freezing night with computer as my best friend. No longer know what to do and where to go. I can’t concentrate during the class and I have never thought about my assignments again. What I do is reading novel, drinking afternoon tea, and listen to Lisa Ekhdal, Medeski Martin & wood, Feist, and Kings of Convenience which stimulating me to daydreaming about everthing in Indonesia even more. I still have 4 weeks to go before I can fly home to Jakarta but I already can imagine spending the day wearing short and t-shirt go out with all my friends, eating spicy Padang rice, and meet my family and hug my girlfriend.

I have become a calendar boy with 33 days to go. Everyday is like Sunday with spending all evening gazing at the calendar.

My Tutor Has Washed My Brain!

2006-07-30T19:37:00.000+10:00

I went to Sexpo yesterday. This is an annual event that has happening in Australia since 10 years ago. However, this was the first time for me to go there since I used to live in Indonesia and it is impossible to have this kind of event in Indonesia. Honestly, I can’t imagine if Sexpo were presented in Indonesia. There would be a world war 3 between the fanatic religious groups and the people who create the event I guess. Yes, I have to confess that Indonesia is such a Hypocrite country.

I went there with 9 other Indonesians. We were all pretty excited to see an event which we only could see in Western television program or Hollywood films while we were still in Indonesia. However, the event was not as sexy as I thought. There were only a few girls topless and a lot of male stripper performed which made me sick. The sex train which is a ride was also very disgusting. It cost me $4 and it was not worth at all. I though we would see many sexy girls or they’re even naked might be, but what I found are scary naked girls and boys dolls inside the ride. It was more suitable to be a horror ride rather than a sex ride. In Sexpo, I also found a topless girl whose has a skin disease swam in a bathtub. What a surprise!

Among those disappointments, there was one thing which made me a little bit exciting. A photo booth. Yes, a photo booth which allow us to take a photo with a few topless girls in a sexy, naughty, bitchy pose. Without thinking twice, I sacrificed my $10 to get a photo with those girls. Click!! A picture of me sitting in a sofa with a beautiful girl kissing me and my hand on the breast of another topless girl was just taken.

We went home after that. As usual, before I slept I re-think about what I’ve done today. I looked at that photo and suddenly I thought about Julia Kalytis, my tutor. A feminist, a television producer, a film maker, a teacher, and above it all she is the most idealist female that I have ever met in my life. We spent 3 months learnt about feminism and gender inequality with her last semester. We talked about how women are excluded in the society. We discussed how women are not treating the same as men. And the worst part is we spoke about the exploitation of woman’s body by men and it feels normal. I no longer like this photo. In fact, I regret that I spent my lunch money to take this inhuman picture. I regret that I did not make earth as a better place for women. I regret that I did not support a gender equality idea, instead, I just donated my money to support exploitation against women. I realized that this idea of making money by allowing men to take a photo with nude girls is very sick. It is very inhuman.

What Julia has taught, that this gender inequality feels normal suddenly became so true. I looked with my own eyes that the exploitation that has done by men looks so normal. In fact, I experienced it by my own. However, it does not feel normal again for me right now since I remember all the things that Julia taught and it makes me think twice before I do anything towards women and i am really sick to look at my photo. I have to admit, Julia has successfully washed my brain.

Greetings from Whisper Desire!

2006-07-20T00:34:00.000+10:00

Up until i was ten years old, i always couldn't give the right answer when people asked me what i want to be in the future. All of my friends wanted to be architect, astronout, doctor, or maybe pilot which always be a child's dream. But i've never interested to be all of those. I didn't know what i wanted to be, in fact. Until one evening, i saw Kirk Hammet rockin with his guitar in a Metallica's video klip called "Unforgiven 2". And that's it, that's what i wanted to be in the future. I wanted to be guitarist, i wanted to release my own album, i wanted to play in front of a thousand people, and i wanted music to be my only salvation!

By this article in my blog, i simply want to introduce my band to all of you. Thanks to this new phenomena called Blog and thanks to Peter Podcast who had introduced how to use blog effectively as a promotion media =)

Whisper Desire is an indie Indonesian band which came up in the middle of 2004. Their existence has been highlighted since their first single called "Berakhir/Awalan", a song about how the end justifies the meaning, stood on the first place in a local radio charts for several weeks. In the end of 2005, they also contributed one of their song, "Hope & Wish", as a film soundtrack. The film is an Indonesia film called "Bukan Mimpi Buruk" (Not a Bad Dream), which released in USA. As the band itself base from their childhood dreams, their music offers a comfortable aura, a perfect soundtrack for daydreaming while it's raining outside your bed room. The name also refers to them too, as they simply want to whisper your desire by their music.

In 30th of July 2006, they would release their first mini album, "Berakhir/Awalan Ep.". The mini album contains four songs which took a year process to finished. What should be highlighted is they do not cooperate with a record label to release this mini album. Everthing's done by their self, including distribute it to the local cd store, Negotiate with local radio, magz, and TV for promotion, and designing the packaging.

It will be available in the nearest record store (Indonesia). And it would be available in October 2006 in Sydney by email order.

Check out samples: http://www.myspace.com/whisperdesire

Whisper Desire:
Rabindra - Guitar
Mikael Mirdad- Guitar
Innu- Drum, percussion
Gobel- Bass
Nike- Piano, keyboard
Freddy- Vocal

Further info & Management:
Defri: +6221 70080682
whisper_desire04@yahoo.com

Where's Bin Laden?

2006-07-13T19:35:00.000+10:00

Where's Wally always be my favourite game all the time. I've been playing this game since i was in kindergarten up until now. I still remember how i cried when i couldn't find Wally and i got angry with my mom because of it, I also remember how happy i was when finally i could find Wally for the first time. Haha...i miss that moment so much. I remember I had 4 editions of Where's Wally which took more than a year time for me to found all of the characters; Wally, The Whitebeard Wizard, Wenda, Odlaw, and of course Wally's dog, Woof (my favourite character).

The rule of the game is very easy. You just have to find Wally (a boy who uses red and white striped shirt and a booble hat. He wears glasses and usually he brings stick as well) in a busy picture full of people. No! Do not think it is easy. Try one and you will know it is not that easy, even if you are a grown up person.

However, Where's Wally is not popular among children nowadays. They prefer to play with some technological stuffs which i think are not educate them. Playstation, Sega, and X-box are more popular than any other games. Maybe you are curios, how could i said that playstation and other technological games do not educate them? Let me explain, when i was a child, i was raised with Where's Wally around me. Since Where's Wally is a book, it gave me a habit to read and to love books. But what can you get from Playstation or an expensive X-box? It's just made to entertain not educate the children. I think it might be the reason why children these days are less creative, lazy, and take a long time to be able to read.

Okay, enough talking. Go above and look at the picture carefully! Click the picture to make it bigger. Go find a certain person. But, it is not Wally who you have to look for, instead, OSAMA BIN LADEN!! hehehe...I'll tell you the answer in a few days if there isn't anybody who can find him =). Have fun and bring back the child inside you......huhu

*Image taken from politicalhumor.about.com

Yeah Yeah Yeahs loves Indonesia

2006-07-06T23:15:00.000+10:00

Everybody knows Karen O. Yep, who didn’t if the Yeah Yeah Yeahs front woman’s wild and colourful style of fashion, so-called bowl hair style, and her antics personality are copied by every girl in the entire world today.

But no!!
I’m not here to write about Karen 0. Instead, I will write something about Nick Zinner, the YYY’s mysterious guitarist who rarely exposed by the media. I just found out that Zinner put Indonesian stickers on his guitar. The round one is a 50th sticker anniversary of Indonesia sticker and the other one is just an Indonesia flag (red & white) sticker. Waw, this is interesting. So, I tried to do some research about him and found out that around 8 years ago, he stayed in Bali for 5 months to learnt gamelan which is a traditional instrument that only a few Indonesians in these days want to learn. It’s because the perception that playing and learn traditional culture is not a cool thing. Hence, gamelan is predicted to extinct in the future.

We, as Indonesians, should be ashamed. How could Nick Zinner, an American and a famous guitarist, learnt and loves our traditional culture, and we as the Indonesians, who supposed to love and develop our own culture, didn’t appreciate it. In fact, we didn’t care about our own culture. We are more into the western things which make us forget our own origin. Meanwhile, there are a lot of western people out there envy our culture and wishing they could do it.

We still could safe it and make gamelan exist again before it is too late. Let’s start by doing the tiny little thing which is joining the gamelan community in your local area.

Let’s start to learn our own culture. Let’s start to appreciate it. Let’s start to be proud of it.

"I truly feel Indonesia is one of the most amazing places in the world, and even though politically its pretty fucked up, the culture and people are really inspiring". -Nick Zinner

World Cup 2006: "Time to Make Enemies".

2006-07-01T04:46:00.000+10:00

“Fuck FIFA, we were robbed!”

Wow, I just couldn’t believe when I saw that sentence written on the advertising board at the bus stop near my house. A full-of-hate statement which is directly sends to FIFA, the organization that runs the biggest football competition in the world. Without any second thought, I immediately knew that it was written by the socceroos’s fans when their full-of-pride team was crushed by Italy in the 16th round of World Cup 2006. But, fuck yeah, I feel the same way too. Italy did not deserve to win that match and the Australians were robbed for sure by that penalty that wasn’t supposed to be given by the Spanish referee. A clash between Australians and Italians couldn’t be avoided as a result of it.

I just felt that the tagline of the World Cup this time which is ‘A Time to Make Friends’ is not suitable and totally wrong. Or I might just simply say to FIFA, “Hey, Change your tagline A.S.A.P!”. Thirty two countries didn’t come to German to make any friends. In fact, they all came to play hard, beating another countries, score goals, and the most important thing is to win no matter what. That’s professional. Just look when Portugal played against Netherlands, 16 yellow cards and 4 red cards. Imagine, how dirty that match. It’s the biggest number of cards in football history. Did they ever think about making new friends on that match? Kill and throw me in your garbage if they say yes! They just wanted to win in any possible way and show the world that they were simply the best nation in the world for god sake.

Okay, I should take another example might be. Today which is 1 July 2006, Argentina played against the host nation, Germany. And guess what? It happened again, Roberto Ayala, the defender of Argentina, seemed couldn’t receive their lost with wide arms open. He chased German’s official manager and demanded to kill him. Haha, they become enemy now, FIFA. What would you do?

On second thought, I might say that World Cup is a great opportunity to increase your sense of superiority. To become fanatic with a group and kill the others. Just like the only rule of nature; the strongest will always win by eliminating the weakest. Because that’s life all about, to survive.

I might consider World Cup 2006: KILL’EM ALL, as the substitute =)