Wednesday, January 22, 2003

" Appetite for Rachel Bolan "


My, my, my, I never thought that my old school's sweetheart is becoming a gorgeous-looking guy! Aaarrgghhhhh!!! *slurp-slurp* Thanks to Mikey for puting the link in his website. Siapa sih gerangan yang lagi gue omongin inih??

Uh! Tau SkidRow kan? *gulp* emm...sori gue lupa...mungkin buat yang idup pas masa SMP-SMA di awal taun 90-an dimana lagi parah-parahnya terjangkit musik metal (iieeeeyyuu...mokal banget ngaku2! *amazingly starring at my old-fashioned slang of Mokal*).

Hehehe...sebenernya niih...*malu-malu*...gini-gini pernah jadi vokalis band loh kita! Dengan rambut cepak, T-shirt, Jeans belel ketat, gelang bermacam model menuhin hampir separuh pergelangan tangan *Renny Djayusman banget gak sih gue???*, sepatu Reebok tinggi yang sengaja ngga diiket talinya (modelnya sekarang keluar lagi loh! gak tau malu banget!)...*sigh* pada masa itu sih ngerasa gaya itu yang paling keren....hehehe...terus pede nyanyi lagu-lagu slow rock di pentas seni sekolaan gue. Dipikir-pikir sekarang ini, ajegile juga gue pedenya! Biar kata suara pas-pasan (dan ngga tau caranya narik vokal dengan nafas perut!), gue asik-asik aja lolos seleksi dan nongol dua kali di acara seni tahunan yang namanya HSK (Hari Seni Kreativitas). Ngomong-ngomong...siapa yang disini mantan anak SMU 34 Pondok Labu?? Perkenalkan gue Dissi Bolan yang dulu ituh! *huaaaaa...!!! gubrak!!!*

Dan mengenai asal muasal nama Bolan yang nyangkut di belakang nama gue sejak kelas 1 SMA itu, ya karena gue trully-madly-deeply crushed on him waktu itu, meskipun ngga tau gimana awalnya bisa menemukan musik Skid Row dan menikmatinya. Mungkin karena dua lagunya "18 and Life" dan "I Remember" yang waktu itu meledak. Setelah dengerin semua lagunya, ternyata cucok dengan jiwa gue yang tukang ngeberontak itu. Tetapi bukan Skid Row aja yang nemenin gue saat itu. Ada Motley Crue, Metallica, G N' R, Iron Maiden, dan lainnya. Tapi sekeras-kerasnya Heavy Metal, gue cuma paling tahan denger Anthrax...Sepultura atau Kreator nyerah deh!

Saking cintanya, semua penjuru sekolah waktu itu gue beri tanda mata "Dissi Bolan was here!" buat mempublikasikan identitas baru gue yang *ceritanya* bagian dari Rachel Bolan. Di meja kelas, tembok kantin, WC, dimanapun tempat strategis So, untuk mengenang masa jaya-jayanya bersama musik metal, gue ikutin deh link yang ada di websitenya Mikey, pengin tau kabar Skid Row terbaru. Dan ternyata link yang ini lebih bagus, meski Official Site-nya tetep yang ini. Dan melihat Bolan yang sekarang, meskipun doski lahir taun 1966 (means 37 taun!), aduuuhhh....gantengnya kok semangkin-mangkin?? Tampangnya manglingin sekarang, dengan rambut cepak, ngga pake rantai di idung lagi (meski masih ditindik), dan ngga pake kacamata model polisi Chips lagi. Well, meskipun menggiurkan, gue sebenernya tetap nggak sreg dengan kostum-nya yang kadang-kadang suka rada dangdut itu (sori buat para penggemar Dangdut! No offense!). Kostum norak tipikal kostum grup-grup Metal jadul yang serba jaring-jaring dan celana kulit item super ketat yang ngga jelas itu. Mendingan pake jeans dan t-shirt aja deh loe Mas!

Ehm! Maap-maap kate, berhubung gue bukan penikmat musik sejati melainkan penikmat wajah-wajah segar para musisi band, so gue baru ngeh ternyata Bolan itu motornya SkidRow bareng Dave 'Snake' Sabo, dan ternyata dia yang menulis hampir semua lagunya. Gue sih baca peran dia sebagai song writer di lirik kasetnya, tapi ngga se-ngeh itu kalo kontribusinya sepenting itu. Ada juga band lain yang dia buat yang katanya mencerminkan dirinya yang sesungguhnya, namanya Prunella Scales.

Berikut kutipan tentang peran Bolan di Skid Row yang gue ambil dari Unofficial Site-nya Rachel Bolan

At 20 years old, Rachel met Snake at the Garden State Music Store, in NewJersey, where Snake worked. From this friendship came the idea of playing together on a band, and from this great idea was born Skid Row. With Skid Row, Rachel has been established as musician and song writer. Along the years, Rachel travelled around the world with the band and wrote amazing songs. Other than write songs and play with the Skid's musicians, Rachel also worked as producer and mixing of another band's cds.

Whatever it is, Skid Row yang udah almarhum itu, ternyata telah bangkit kembali, minus Bach as vocalis. Single pertama mereka Thick is The Skin bisa di download di website-nya. My, my, my...big hugs for you, Mr. Bolan!! You deserve it!! *wink* *wink*


Skid Row The Band


Bolan is the left. *Look at him! Look at him!! *speecless**
See some other pictures of him.

Monday, January 20, 2003

" Time is Back! "


Sorry, sorry, I'm stuck with my words. Got lotsa thing in mind (yea sure, absent for 11 days for posting regular blogs!), but my English mood is on duty somewhere else. It took 2 hours already and I am just starring on my screen, typing, deleting, typing, deleting. Guess I'll finish the rest tomorrow, hoping the mood will be back soon. For some english speaker out there, hell, my sentence will only make you irritated. So, enjoy my English-Indo version this time! ;)

Latest news, I will have a long long journey to Surabaya, Jogja, and Solo, to interview some Maestro in Wayang Kulit (Ki Manteb), Composer (alm. Kusbini-hayoo ada yang tau siapa ini??), Sculpture (Edhy Sunaryo-yang bikin patung, salah satunya yang di Pancoran itu), Painting Artist (Rusli), Jazz Musician (Bubi Chen), and another Maestro in Dance whom I forgot. Diperkirakan sekitar 3 mingguan, berangkat around Januari minggu akhir. Will be three of us berangkat ke sana (Driver, Reporter, and Cameraman), mungkin ke Surabaya dulu atau Solo, baru terakhir ke Jogja. So, Surabaya, Solo, Jogja, here I cooommeee...!!!

Akhirnya beberes lagi di kantor, sibuk-sibuk lagi, setelah dua mingguan sempet rentengan sama anak-anak, rame-2 makan Bakmie Mas Yanto di Cilandak Tengah, makan makanan khas sunda di bawah jembatan Gondangdia yang najis penuhnya-rasanya standar-dan ngga lagi-lagi deh kesana kalo pas jam makan siang, asik-asik foto-2, nonton Buser sampe Kabar-Kabari, kalah-kalahan score Tetris, sampai ada yang nyempetin lari ke Senayan (gue sih ogah!!)...wah pokoknya ngga puguh-puguh banget! Gara-garanya kepastian nama-2 Maestro buat episode tahun ini yang telat di dapet, sedangkan stok buat bulan Januari udah kelar semua. Sempet kebat-kebit juga gara-2 sponsor utama ngga kunjung menandatangani kontrak perpanjangan Maestro karena masih cuti, sedangkan program yang lain masih in progress semua follow up-nya. Jadi senang-2 itu sebenernya nutupin stress-nya kita yang khawatir bakalan ada gonjang-ganjing di kantor. Tapi ternyata tidaaak...hari ini fix udah dapet siapa-siapa aja yang mau diliput. Senangnya...*dancing in the moonlight*.

Eh tapi ngomong-2 jarang juga kita bareng-2 kayak kemarin itu. Gosip, ngebodor, nonton Jelangkung dan AADC (Ada Apa dengan Dian Castro)...wah seru! sempet juga foto di depan mobil patroli Polisi waktu di bakmie Cilandak selagi Pak Pulisi-nya asik-2 makan sop kambing. Biasanya kalo udah back to normal, semua orang sibuk dengan stress-nya sendiri-2, ngejar narasumber yang ribet atau deadline yang mepet, dan jadi jarang ketemu or ngobrol-2. Kadang saking jarangnya kita ber'sosialisasi' antar temen, timbul juga konflik antar personal yang bikin suasana jadi ngga enak. So, seneng aja kemarin dua mingguan berada dalam suasana yang ngga 'normal' gitu. Fun banget, ngga ada yang dipikirin.

Sabtu kemarin nginep di rumah Rani yang celebrated her 28-year-birthday tanggal 18 Jan. Spent the day maen sama keponakan-2 kecilnya yang gemesin (dan ngga ngeselin, itu yang penting), tergiur makan Nasi Kebuli Manggarai yang (ternyata) garing banget rasanya dan ngelupain Sop Buntut dan Tiramisu yang ternyata enak banget dan gue ngga kebagian! Setelah beberes, ngobrol all night long sampe jam 6, ngomongin macem-macem yang terlintas di kepala. Ini orang yang paling klop sama gue, sohib sejak SMP, sama-2 Capricorn dan shio Macan, sama-2 bangor, dan meski keliatan pede, sebenernya kebingungan menghadapi jalan hidupnya masing-2.

So, males-malesan sampe Minggu siang. Sorenya nyempetin ngopi di Bakoel Koffie Kemang yang baru aja soft opening, bareng Ange yang gabung belakangan. Hmmm...thinking that Bakoel will be our primary place to hang out. Gile! Baru tau kalo kopinya ngga ada duanya!! Starbucks, CoffeeBeans, lewat!! Kopinya ngga ada apa-2nya, manis doang. Inih? Hmmm...nyam nyam...berani jamin!

Oh ya, hari Kamis kemarin sempet ke kantor AJI (Aliansi Jurnalis Independen) di Pejompongan, ada presentasi beasiswa STUNED dari Belanda, yang batas akhir submit application-nya Maret 2003. So, buruan deh tuh yang mau iseng-2 berhadiah. Visit homepage resmi NEC buat liat-liat. Jangan lupa, tanggal 25-26 Januari depan, ada Holland Education Fair di Kartika Chandra Hotel, dan 30-31 Januari di Surabaya (Sheraton Hotel). Chevenning Award-nya British Council juga udah buka deh kayaknya, soalnya batas akhir submit application April 2003, so sekarang waktunya hunting sekolaan, people!! (Duh, banyak yang mesti diberesin nih, translate transkript ke kampus, belajar-belajar-belajar, ambil tes TOEFL, cari kampus yang ada program TV Production/Journalism...Writing-nya piye? :) di keep dulu lah itu buat masa depan)

Eh, eh, pada nonton Maestro dong sekali-kali, terus kasih kritik/komentar apa kek. Masa nama temennya nampang di credit title, ngga ikutan bahagia sih?? :) Ya, pengin aja tau komentar dari anak-anak mude kayak lu pade.

Friday, January 10, 2003

" Small Steps in A Long Journey "


Aaah...it's nice to sit my ass back and let what's been turning upside and down out of my head. Actually, it was like the other seven-days-a-week days, but I've got some particular -most were happy- moment in my single day that I think need to be noted down.

1. Surprisingly, my mermaidslife.com has been included as one of The Best Indonesian Websites 2002, specifically in Personal Website section, conducted by Komputer Aktif, a local computer magazine. Though mine was not the one that was being reviewed, but the small caption written together with the other sites in "Come Over" table, undoubtedly was impressing me so much. I don't know to what criteria I could be chosen, thinking that there's so many incredible websites that I KNOW their capacity are much much better than I am, either in its design, technology, and/or its content. Actually if I could say, it's trully embarrasing me!

In the other hand, I can't turn my excitement down and pretend that I'm not flattered...hell, actually I am! Not just because this is the first achievement that I ever had in my life, especially come from public acknowledgement, but that has given me a higher degree to my naturally lack of self confidence to do whatever I want to do. Finally I could manage to be on the same track without thinking to what result it would be at last. At least, the acknowledgement should be meant to be more responsible to keep up the best work and not to quit too easily when I feel tired or bored, just like the way I usually do.

Let's see what they've reviewed:
Rainhard.net, Dedidude.com, Dipatok-ayam.com, Amadhea.com, Lukaluka.net

The "Come Over" Table:
Amellya.com, Bukrie.com, Doneeh.com, Indoteen.net, Jasonmccane.com, Mermaidslife.com, Sherinaonline.com

Thanks to Aan to share the info!


2. Another surprising story, my producer trust me to choose a certain number of interviews and stockshots that has been taken for Farida Oetoyo episode, A Maestro in Ballet, to become a story. Usually, this kinda job is part of his authority, when the reporters only responsible to the interviewee's business, collect the reportage, write the Time Code for each question (and Cameraman to the stockshots), and deliver it to the producer who then chooses the best shots for some scenes he intends to create.

It came up when we discussed about some program in National Geographic. I asked him why we don't make program like NG does, by exploring the people and culture in Indonesia. In fact we've proven that our program, i.e. Maestro, has been a leader to other documentary program that released afterwards (considering that we need 2 years just to make broadcasting interested to this brand new style, as they more attracted to non-documentary program like Sinetron). So, I think we have different style, reaches high rating in Metro TV and has loyal audience. It's not bad after all. Well, maybe NG has more skill, experience, and technology, but actually we have what they don't have, the soul of Indonesian. So, I have certain confidence that we could make some good program, at least better than local competitors do. Maybe not even close to the great program NG has (I bet!), but at least we have self confidence to start! PD euy...

So, back to business, my producer then asked me to make the rough cut by choosing Farida's best shots to see my style and my taste in journalism. Hell, it's a challenging task to do and a chance to learn many thing here, so I didn't miss the opportunity any longer. At first he said, I need to understand Journalism Terminology, so I won't lose my track, which is 5W-1H; WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHOM, and HOW. As I said before, to make reportage for writing purpose is much easier than reportage for visual. He said, you should HAVE stockshots (visual), then you can create a story, or vice versa, you create the strory, then find the stockshots which represent it. No picture, then you WON'T BE ABLE to create story about anything. So, picture being taken by the cameraman, and the recording media (Digital Video) somehow like your life. You lose it, then you're deadman. Well, maybe I'm too exagerrating, but I'm lucky working in this kinda environment, not too deadly stressful like in TV Broadcasting and not too loosen up also. We still can retake or repeat shot that is considering failed or if we need to get the best shot (but sure, due to the interviewee's time and energy, we must be very careful about this). So I might say everyone is freely to extent their skill if they want and have wide oportunity to grow together.

I need three days to understand picture's workflow by paying attention more to the producer and editor's work. It's quite difficult to me, not just to decide which one is the best shot, but the important, how to make this unstructured shots become a whole story that would describe the Maestro's life only in 19 minutes, without missing any single moment in their life. Every second is significant and need high concentration not to missing the detail that certainly would give bad result to the whole work. However, it's what so-called Creative Work. There WON'T be any Right/Wrong statement to the final result, but more to Bad/Good, and Satisfied/Disappointed opinion. It's merely a TASTE problem.

My producer's finished the rough cut I've made the other day, and sent it to the other party to fill its Music Illustration Yesterday. Frankly, I don't really satisfied with my work, but I'm happy to learn some new thing. This episode will be running on Jan 19th, Sunday 10.05 pm, while tomorrow will be Arifien C. Noer, A Maestro in Film Directing. And the Editing Room still waiting for Iwan Tirta, A Maestro in Batik, and Amrush Yahya, A Maestro in Sculpture being worked.

Still got something else in my mind, but I need to take some rest now.

Friday, January 03, 2003

" NEED A- TYPE BLOOD TRANFUSION - ASAP!! "


My friend's wife badly needs blood transfusion. She's dying for Hepatitis B (we're afraid she got heart cancer). The blood type is quite difficult to find in Indonesia as she's Poland. The blood type is A- (A Minus) .

Please let me know where to find it, or call directly to Teddy, Mobile phone: +628158852501 / +628128131175. She's in Husada Hospital for treatment. Any information to non-medical/medical curement is welcome. Thanks a lot!

Wednesday, January 01, 2003

" A Freedom to Come "


Just watched City of Angels. Never thought that it's not a bad movie after all, though still, it's just a cliche and typical movie like other Holywood's love story. In the other hand, I don't see any progression of Meg Ryan's acting, as she plays innocent and somehow really boring acting almost in her movies (just like Cameron Diaz). So, the typical acting of Ryan, has really turn me off to see the movie, though there's Nicholas Cage playing with her.

I didn't see the whole story from the beginning, just when Cage was about to change his 'identity' from an Angel to a man. But some thing drew my attention, triggered by the limited scenes I've followed.

First, the visualisation, the detail and unusual angles (especially the scene of raindrops when Cage was at the grave...so damn beautiful!), and the location where the picture's being taken, was perfect to me. Though I don't really like the absurd love story idea, I let myself 'dive' each character to feel what if it does really happen in a real world.

Second, when Ryan's died and Cage couldn't take the decision God's made, I'm thinking, what if there's really an Angel who intend to be human instead? How would he feel and react to the change happens to his body, soul, and mind? Does he feel sorry when he could feel hurt, pain or misery when he lost one he loves (no argue for the love, passion, and happiness feeling that he might like), and all the natural thing that he never felt before? What creature he'd think more lucky, being an Angel or human instead? (The other thought crossed my mind - maybe that's why Angels created without a feeling like human, because he must be complain (like human certainly does!) and feel regret to the creation idea, rather than devote his destined life to The Creator.

Third, when I saw one screen where Ryan drove her bicycle in the highway with her hands freely touch the sky, close her eyes, and breath the air, it seems that I can feel her freedom. Such a feeling that I'm dying to have. A feeling about not to worry you'd die hit by the car, sinked in a deep ocean, or fall over when you're in the height. A freedom to feel freedom. Without pain, misery, or other weakness we naturally have.

To find how the real freedom would be like, supposedly when we're no longer live in this planet. When the time is up for us to breath freedom at this world, then move to another freedom called eternity. I myself so damn anxious to wait for the moment to come, when there's no pain, no limit, no worry to anything that constantly happen in this tiny world. I sometimes ask God to let me be a bird 'someday', so I could fly over the mountains without worry to fall over, or be a fish to dive deep oceans without worry there'd be some predators waiting for me, or to be whatever I want to be. Maybe later in heaven, when the time is come, when there's no word for limitation.

Fourth, when Ryan feels 'someone' is coming, was about to pick her up and bring her to heaven, I'm thinking, what it'd feel like, when the time is come. When your time is up and about to leave everything you have in the world. I don't know what kind of person I'd be at the time is coming, but right now I think, I must be anxious to know how the Angel would look like for the first time, greeting and smile at him, passing over to the other world and then wait in queue to have a chance to meet Him. I can't wait to bring the love, all love I have, and take responsibility to any mistakes I've done before. Whatever it is, I'm ready to take it.

Ok, bla, bla, bla, whatever, don't listen to me, I'm mumbling again.

Quite scary, huh? Well, blame the City of Angels' script writers then! ;)