local joke, "Jika Banci Jadi Pramugari"

I don't know if any of my fellow indonesians ever read or heard about this, but I found this so freaking hilarious that I couldn't stop thinking to put it here. It's all in indonesian and it's about a joke if a sissy became a stewardess. I don't know how to translate it since it uses a stereotype dialect of local sissies.
Get ready to get tickle,

Jika Banci Jadi Pramugari

".....Ehemmm ehemm..yuhuuuu! !!...atensiong pliss.....Ledis en jentelmen, bekudis tempel semen, sesuai peraturan penerbangan, yang eike mawar kasi liat care pake itu sabuk yang ada di pinggang yey
, baju buat mengapung-apung dan masker oksigen di kala napas sesek. Biar yey nantinya bisa selamet, coba sini diliat dulu cara pasang itu sabuk yang melilit di pinggang yey, cara ngunci biar ga gampang lepas, ngencengin dan ngelepasinnya....
Baju apung ada di bawah kursi yang yey dudukin, jangan dipake kecuali nanti mas kapiten ngajak berenang bareng. Eit jangan lupa, itu barang jangan yey pindah-pindahin ya, apalagi dibawa pulang buat pajangan salon...Yang ketauan sama eike, bakalan ditabok kanan kiri atas bawah depan belakangdeh ih...Cara make'nya itu baju dikalungin di leher yey, ati ati kekencengan tar ga bisa napas, makanya kudu ati ati deh yah. Bbiar bisa ngapung, yey tarik itu pencetan warna merah delima atau yey tiup itu pipanya. Kalo nanti keluar lewat jendela darurat, itu baju apung dikembangin pas di luar aja deh, nanti mampet di jendela karena gak muat...aih...sampe kriting tangan eike narikin pencetannya keras amirr...gimenong siiih niiih...
Eh asala yey semua pada tau ya, ini pesawat ada dua pintu darurat di depan, ada dua di belakang dan ada dua lagi jendela darurat di tengah-tengah...jadi keluarnya jangan pada rebutan ya...
Kalo nanti tiba-tiba napas sesek dan bukan karena sabuk yang di pinggang kekencengan, bukan pula karena salah masang pelampung...masker oksigen bakalan nongol dari atas kepala yey, tarik aje dah terus napas kayak biasa. Kalo ada anak kecil, yey yey yang ude tuwir mesti nolongin anaknya dulu, baru yey pake sendiri.
Kartu gambar biar selamet ada di kantong kursi di depan yey duduk, silahkan dibaca dan dihayati dengan seksama yaaaah. Dan akhir kate ekyeee ucapkan Endang Sukamti Cintya Lamusu termia kasi God blesss yuuu...Yuuk...Mareeeiiiyyy"

I just couldn't stop laughing...oh well, next, the disclaimer:
I found this from one of the mailing lists that I subscribed...thanks for sharing fellas!!!

Jakarta earthquke and I live there

We had another earthquake in Jakarta yesterday. It was the second massive earthquake that hit Jakarta and by far the strongest ever, at magnitude 6 something. The epicentral of the quake is somewhere southwest of Tasikmalaya in West Java, at magnitude 7.5, well if you want to know the exact point, you'll find it at news sites.

Anyways, when the earthquake struck my house was shacking mildly but pretty noticeable (due to quake proof design), the water in our garden fish pond shook violently and threw a fish out of the pond. The most memorable scene during the quake was how the water of my swimming pool shakes. The water in my pool is lower than the edge of the pool and during the quake, the water shook badly until some of the water spilled out. Even sometime after the quake, the water was still shaking.

After the quake and aftershocks over, I quickly inspect my studio and found new cracks are appearing on the wall, thankfully the soundproof materials are holding. I'm not sure wether it's only outer layer crack or the wall that crack. We will have inspection to the studio soon.

It was a thrilling experience, especially because Jakarta is rarely hit by strong earthquake and we all wonder of how the people could take, should the quake changed to disaster, because naturally, as most indonesians are, the jakartans are living neglective culture and the prove of this was, several hours after the quake, the governor ordered a thorough inspection to all tall buildings and bridges. Why they didn't do that from the first place?

Jakarta lies on area that is relatively stable but once a quake hit, it usually a strong one. I'm just thankful that my family decided to build a quake proof house.

Would you buy Toyota Prius tagged US$ 58000?

Yesterday I went to a Toyota authorized dealer to ask about Toyota Prius. I'm so interested to get Prius (to replace my 5 year-old car) because its fuel consumption is so low and I'd like to participate in reducing carbon emission. This year Prius is officially entered indonesian market and will have authorized tech support.

I was keeping my hope that the price won't be higher than US$ 27000, but when I received the latest price list, my hope was shattered. Due to little knowledge of the advantage of hybrid cars and corrupted bureaucracy in Indonesia, the price of Prius in indonesia is a staggering US$ 58500!!!
Of course I knew that the car would have been a complete built up but it's from Thailand for goodness sake! It's still just too ridiculously expensive!

By seeing from this case, I don't think the big cities in indonesia will have their carbon emission , from motor vehicles, will reduce in the future. With no effort to urge people for using low emission vehicles, by lowering the price and giving insentive for electric and/or hybrid vehicles, it's only going to get worse and worse and worse.

Even the sermon at the curch can be naive sometime...

Today is the closing of Bulan Budaya or the right translation would be Culture Month, at the church where I am attending. For one month several cultures from Indonesia were introduced and highlighted as theme on each Sunday. I have no comments about it although there were some minor concerns but on today's sermon there was something that disturbs me badly.

During the preach (the theme was about the unity in differences, the country's motto), the pastor suddenly burst with a question, "Who is proud as Indonesia citizen? And those who's not can raise your hand. I see no one is raising hand, so I ca safely assume that we all are proud."
At that point, I felt challenged and almost spontaneously raising my hand. But it was a sermon, why would I do that? It wouldn't make things better and worse, we could have been locked in a useless talk. Nevertheless, it managed to sickens me.
I felt so much intimidated by today's sermon and it didn't give me peace at all. I went home in annoyance and there's a slight regret of not stating my position. Possibly no one will understand it but at least I can tell the truth.
The truth? Yea!!!
That I'm not proud as Indonesian citizen because I believe indonesia is an entity out of naive thoughts, I'm proud of being the world citizen-proud as indonesian citizen is too narrow minded for me, I'll release my indonesian citizenship when I have the chance, I don't believe that indonesia is my place for my end day because my homeland is earth so it won't matter where I die and I never feel like home with institution called indonesia, trust me on that.

Indonesia is almost synonymous with absurdity

When I read Kompas daily today, I notice a large ad (again by the treachery Telkomsel) about submitting your vote (by sending text) to make an indonesian racer, Rio Haryanto, to become the first indonesian Formula 1 racer. Oh well, to me this is so absurd!
Though I didn't doubt Haryanto's talent and skills but if we're talking about Formula 1, he'll need more than that. I'm a Formula 1 fan for a long long time and I realized that this type is racing, although pleasing to international audience, is so much european. Participation from non-european countries are limited to supplying a racetrack, a team and sponsors, but never really a racer itself.

Formula 1 from my eyes is a place for those nations who has the "speed" in their vein. It started in europe so it's normal that F1 can also be said as the byproduct of european cultures. From all champions of F1, most of them are european. I'm not trying to be racist, but if we want to be honest, some things are made this way and like it or not, Formula 1 is one of those things.

Take a look to F1 recent history, we saw Alex Yoong (Malaysia) and Narain Karthikeyan (India). Both were proudly hailed as the first F1 racer of their countries that did not have the "speed" culture as the european and afterwards they got kicked out only after a few seasons due to on and off tracks reasons. These countries like Indonesia doesn't have what needed to produce an F1 driver, the tradition.

I think it's fair to dream but thinking about this stuff? Goodness my fellow countrymen, we are going to have our own F1 drivers, but not now. This nation is not ready yet and may never ready in our lifetime. So please don't waste your money to satisfy this absurd dream, at least after Indonesia or whatever will be left in the future have gained the "tradition" and "speed" is in the vein.

Nevertheless, I wish Rio Haryanto good luck and God speed!

Indonesia?

Today is the 64th anniversary of Indonesia independence day and just like many anniversaries before, I don't want to celebrate or taking any participation whatsoever in the celebration activities. That because since I was aware of myself, I never felt like home in the country called Indonesia. In the later part of my life (and currently) I realized that the facts may have been distorted to legitimize the existence of Indonesia.

The founding fathers of the archipelago independence were undoubtedly smart people. They've succeeded in most of their diplomacy missions, they were able to unite their common goal to oust the Dutch that occupied their homelands (note that I say, homelands). It was something that average people will find it hard to accomplish.
But sadly and unfortunately, they were naive. Some thought the occupied territories is automatically becoming one nation as they suffered the same fate. While some thought after independence they could go home to their respective homelands and live as sovereign nations.
Same thing with the blood shed. Some of them are willing to shed their blood for their homelands and some for the unity of the boundaries left by the occupiers.

History tells us that the first, got the upper hand and now we know something called Indonesia. It was, is and always a fatal mistake because you can not assume that since other people suffered the same thing as you, they'll want to have a union or cooperation after the common goal is achieved.
So with this only one thing is enough for me to believe that Indonesia is one fatal mistake.

ps: I also found it absurd that after 64 years of independence, indonesians are still crying "merdeka" (it loosely means, independence) out loud. Merdeka of what???

There are no straight answers, but it makes life interesting

For the last couple of weeks, my Lord has showed me some interesting stuff. Those that were linked directly or indirectly to some things that I dreamed and asked the Lord for. He gave me the chance to see with my own eyes:

1. The phenomenal (though I have no respect to) indonesian singer called mbah Surip. His reign to stardom was unbelievably swift and it only took weeks for him to became a class A artist (demand wise). I met that guy at the Jakarta airport, escorted by his assistant. I didn't know why I had the chance to see him until days later when he died of exhaustion and cardiac arrest. I pray that my career as musician would go to a stardom realm and then there was this one guy. For days I pondered about it but I'm sure that it wasn't a warning but a case for me to learn and prepare should my big-time days come to me.

2. Two Lamborghini at Shell gas station. It was an awesome sight and God knows that it is one of the things at the top of my wish list. Why did He gave me the chance to see them up-close? I know God wanted me to work for my dreams and He snapped me from my secure feeling.

For sometime I didn't know how to react but I decided to focus on the encouragement from the Lord and it made me stronger in facing all the challenges to fulfill my dreams.

Whatever happened in ten days

As some of you may or may not know, last time I went to Surabaya as a expecting-father and now I'm back in Jakarta as a proud father of a baby girl we named Lúthien Tinúviel Kapriandi. Yes yes...of you who didn't know, we owe the great J. R. R. Tolkien for the name. (if you're still asking after this, it's outrages!)
There are so much to tell about her arrival to this world but I felt so hard to tell since it's so beyond words. I could only tell it is amazing. It also deepen my understanding of life and our (my wife & I) relationship with Jesus.

So after we returned home from the hospital, I had another weird experience. It was the fourth day after we got back and I was looking the sky from the terrace. The day was cloudless, so clear without pollution (unlike Jakarta), then suddenly I saw a white form similar to a passenger jet fuselage, approximately 38-40 thousand feet in altitude, but when I tried to recognize the plane I couldn't see any wings or tail fin and the way it moves was so different than an airplane, it just move smoothly like having no air resistance at all. I tried to focus on that thing, thinking I probably wrong but the more I focus, the more I convinced of its shape. Unfortunately I didn't got a chance to take my camera and take pics or record it since it moved fast, although clearly visible.
I asked my wife wether there are any air traffic on the sky of the area and told me only private jets flew that route. OK so maybe I saw a private jet but I'm still unsure since I remember exactly how it moves. So I here I am, still don't know if I had a close encounter of a first kind or another case of misidentify.

Another exciting thing in my ten days earlier is, I had a chance to feel flying the Boeing 737-800 NG-the latest generation of 737-on my way back to Jakarta. It was awesome and I'm so thankful to Jesus for the chance.

Thoughts

It’s now my fourth day in Surabaya, accompanying my wife who is expecting our first child. Nothing really much I had in four days since my wife should stay at home most of the time and I don’t feel like going around the city by myself.

This is the longest duration of me staying in Surabaya and felt so far from the rest of the world. To make things further I still couldn’t connect to the Internet from my cell phone, so I’ll need to use dial up or go to internet café. But I managed to survive.

Today my wife had contractions and we’ll see how it goes.

I also have one concern about hybrid car in indonesia. We all know that hybrid cars are made to help reduce pollution from fossil fuel and sold with affordable price and given incentive from the government, but the indonesia government is so genius. They saw all the technology involved in hybrid car and categorized it into luxury item and thus put the tax so high.
The retail price soar high because of that and not many people are encouraged to help reducing pollution from motor car by buying/using hybrid cars. Way the go indonesia!!!

History and now?

I was reading about World War II at Wikipedia and I found a statistic that surprised me. Turned out that indonesia suffered pretty significant amount of casualties and included in the overall WW II casualties.

This fact has never been told in indonesia education system. So this could also be a factor why indonesians are not having a sense of good civilization, because they ignored the history of what real destruction was.

Just a post

Still haven't got a chance to post any pics, I was busy in my studio lately.

About my band, we met with a keyboard player last week and had a terrific jam session. We are going to have another jam this friday to see how things will work further.
I hope we can finally settle the line up and start hitting stages soon.

Exciting news? Nothing in particular except that if the prediction is right then in 7 days my first child will born. The 7th grandchild for my parents and the 1st for my wife's parents.


What else?

Bomb attack (again)

Another bomb attacks hit Jakarta, that left 9 people dead and several others injured. The bombs brought deaths and horror to Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels. For Marriott, this is its second bom attack. I would ask "whatever happened with Marriott Jakarta?"

Normally I would express my anger and condemning the calamity, but now I just don't know what to express and tired to follow any news about it.
Nevertheless, I'm extending my sincere condolences to the victims.

I pray and hope God forgive us all.

A thought and an idea (again)

I took quite sometime lately to pay attention and take notice of other people around my home or in public crowd places. The more I tried to understand, the more I felt like I'm an alien who stranded on earth and trying to live alongside humans. It's just so hard to understand humans and in my case, to understand indonesians.

Two of the common (IMHO are the most fatal) indonesians stereotype are:
1. Most of them are ignorantly walking on a thin line between brave and idiot.
2. Most of them are not interested to move into a more civilized & advance society. Modern indonesians are only skin deep.

So I came up with an idea to film and take pictures of the two things above and put them here. I hope this could be one of not so many efforts to waking up indonesians from stupidity.

Right then, camera stand by!

Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen, my opinion.

OK, I've watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen or Transformers 2 on the first day it released in indonesia. It was a perfect day, my wife and I got good seats despite we were kind of late coming to the cinema.
Too bad that perfect day was screwed by the quality of the 2009 most anticipated movie (other than Star Trek that was also a disaster).
So after lots of people told how they hate the TF 2 movie, I think I'll say one or two words too.

I HATE TF 2! It's cheesy and messy in every aspects. There are too many mistakes, loopholes and they didn't give the robots effective roles. It makes me to think that those directors and the writer team were not having deep understanding of the Transformers story.

If the title is Transformers, fine! So the story is about the Transformers race right? But they put too many human interventions & politics in the movie. The role and dialog for the leading roles (that is the robot race!) is so minimal and if I can give a percentage of dialogs in TF 2 it is 70% human-human, 20% robot-human and 10% robot-robot. WHAT IN THE CYBERTRON IS THAT?! Might as well named it Sam Witwicky Adventures rather than Transformers.

Also adding the damage to TF 2 is the appearance of the Autobot twins Mudflap and Skids. Their role is so unimportant and swallow. Apparently Michael Bay didn't learn from the mistake of George Lucas with Jar Jar Binks. I hope as most of the fans are, those two characters are erased and for filling the hole they can put Wheeljack or Sunstreaker.

For the rest of the Autobots, they are so lack of their true character just as in the first movie.

The appearance of the Constructicon is also disappointing. No dialogs and appearance for individual robot. What we see was some construction vehicles suddenly combining into Devastator. I'm sure we all hoped to see a huge Devastator standing straight and charged the desperate Autobots but no. The design of Devastator in TF 2 is so so not up to its 1980s counterpart, instead they made it walking on four limbs just as a gorilla. The worse thing is, they put Devastator just to suck sand and climbing a pyramid and easily defeated by US Navy.

The biggest disappointment is the appearance of Soundwave. It was so out of character and all he was doing for the whole movie is just floating there in space. For the mission he intended to I think it'll be better if they put Laserbeak rather than Ravage.

The writer team are thinking to also put pretenders in the movie (the girl who turned into robot then to girl again until finally dead as robot?) but sadly they got it all WRONG!!! I suggest they take more time to understand what in Cybertron is a pretender shell.

But there was some good scenes like the appearance of Sideswipe in the opening scene, Optimus Prime battling three Decepticons. Yes, that's it. But in overall it is just bad!

It's just too many for me to say and I won't have time to make music if I keep saying about this movie (and J.J. Abrams' Star Trek). So there we have it, my opinion to Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen.

After two months of absence

It's Juli! Time really flies and in two months, there were many things took place on planet earth, especially in my lifetime.
My band new songs for local market is nearing release deadline.
My best friend and I finally going to make my wild idea into serious job.
I lately took flight frequently and it weren't those low-fare flights. Grew tired of railways.
Got a job as additional drummer and it threw me to three cities gig. No comment.
Star Trek the remake released. Some say it got genius story line? Not me! It's hilarious how americans can still selling crap in times of global crisis.
As a protest of the latest Star Trek movie, I decided to drop my ST style title.
Transformers 2 released and it is almost total rubbish. New fans, new fans...what were they thinking about the old time, die-hard fans?
I'm getting new experience as expecting father...still busy looking for the playard
After so many years adapting asian horror, an original american horror movie finally took the stage again.
Michael Jackson died (While I was planning to remake "Smooth Criminal" with my new project band)

What else? After two months without blogging, I'll need sometime to get used to this again.

My music memories pt XX

Not many of my friends or those who knew me, realized that I'm a music fan ever since I heard it for the first time. I love music and especially when they're good and unique.
So I was in my late elementary year and preparing to enter my junior high when 2 Unlimited released their music. Most of my friends thought that I'm a metal and hard rock freak so I didn't think they would believe or sharing the passion if tell them that I like High-NRG genre, especially 2 Unlimited.
Also happened that during my elementary graduation holiday, I took a trip by car with my older brother and my dad. 2 Unlimited tape was one of the tapes that we always play.

This is also one of not so many 90s music that I love.

ps: thanks to EricSchoenmaker for sharing the video.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62772.4

Some people on earth considers today is Earth Day, but I think we should expand this idea to a more general and simpler. I don't know exactly how since I'm not an environmentalist, I just knew it.
Today, my wife and I walked from our church to the street food outlets nearby and we saw some people burning the trash. It caused a terrible smoke, clearly polluting the air and in turn it also increasing carbon in our atmosphere. My God! Those people are burning trash right on Earth Day! This is what I meant of expanding the idea.
The earth is getting warmer and it will heal itself, but the healing process won't be nice for mankind. Some say we almost hit the jackpot, some others believe we've hit the jackpot but not yet to the full capacity and we still have time to make it right. I don't know about you scientists, but I think we've hit the jackpot and we're getting its full impact right now.Why?

I live in Jakarta, Indonesia and there has never been any reports of twister or tornado in Jakarta or surrounding area. But in the last four years, there has been numerous reports of twister cases in Jakarta and adjacent area. The latest one happened yesterday.
The twister hit, collapsing dozens of homes and ripped the roof a gas station (I saw the picture). It was not supposed to happen here but it did!

Just ask yourself, where are we right now?

Wildstix's log, stardate 62744.2

Happy Easter! Jesus is King of kings!

My wife and I went to Easter sermon at my church, Gereja Kristen Indonesia-Pondok Indah and we expected a vibrant Easter but what we got is far far far awaay from Easter theme! Jesus forgive me.

It was so gloomy that we thought we are having Good Friday sermon. The liturgy was awfully constructed and the music arrangement was far off from what supposedly energetic and full of joy of Easter. We couldn't get in tune with the sermon since the beginning and I went out several times, just to calm myself. I was upset and angry by the way the sermon goes since I-again-was expecting Easter sermon. Jesus forgive me.

The sermon was entirely misplace and by far, the worst music arrangement for Easter sermon! I don't know much about liturgy but there's a voice deep inside my heart saying "This is not quite". I tried to stay silent but I couldn't help to cried it out. Jesus forgive me if I'm wrong.

The incident of 2009 Easter sermon at GKI PI has risen up a motivation for me. I feel the calling to share my talent for the next Easter sermon music arrangement and if Jesus willing, to share my knowledge to construct the liturgy. Jesus guide me!

Wildstix's log, stardate 62735.1

Today is the election day in Indonesia and my name is not listed in the voter list. What a joke!

I haven't decided wether I will go or not, but I'm planning to make sure that no one is using my name for cheating.

In the next 72 hours, we will see if this election will be a process for the better or a highway to Indonesia downfall. God help us!

Wildstix's log, stardate 62726.1

I haven't mentioned this yet, but I'm a long time fan of F1 GP. Since the days of the six-wheeled P34 of Tyrrell F1 team until now and being a long time fan of F1 I would be lying if I don't have any favorite teams. Two of the longest team that I really like are McLaren and Williams. The others are Tyrrell, Lotus and Jordan, for their innovations and sadly, they are not exist anymore.
For 2009 season, I think I would like to see more of Brawn Mercedes. They still have much to prove but seeing their spirit and hard work, that reminiscing the F1 Golden Age era, I can think that they will be a great team in F1.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62724

My band rehearsal last thursday went very well, we managed to rehearsed some of the existed songs and found a matching lyric for our new single. Needless to say, the rehearsal was great and so vibrant!
Unfortunately, the studio that day was so cold since we forgotten to adjust the air conditioners to a more moderate temperature after putting it to a lowest temperature for sometime. I didn't realize the effect until the rehearsal was done and that night, I was in agony of "masuk angin" or the earliest symptoms of flu (not yet catching a cold, though).

I started the next day (friday) with a "kerokan" (there's no exact translation for this method of flu treatment), or let's just say, message using coin or tool. At 10 am, I had a recording session for 6 hours! Luckily my wife accompany me during the session so I can fully concentrate on my work while she helped me with my drink and meals.

This month is also the sixth month if my wife's pregnancy. Our unborn baby is getting active, especially when I got near.

Wildstix's log, supplemental

I just have an interesting topic with my elementary school friend about the game we used to play during class brake. It is called Slodor and we realized that after our batch (class of 91) there are no other batch that play this game. In fact, we don't think that there are other kids from other elementary schools that know about it.
Slodor is team work game, it's "all about tactic and speed" (Wahyu Abednego). I'll try to make the model using Lego 3D designer first and I may need to visit my elementary school to get the exact measure of the field where we used to play Slodor.

Wildstix's log, supplemental

I decided to set up another blog at http://wildstix.wordpress.com/

It will get feeds from my blogger site but I would occasionally write there.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62714.4

April fool's people!!!

Also the birthday of my dad-in-law. There's nothing much these past few days, except that I must admit that I really need a miracle now.

I've been trying to understand my Lord's planning in my life, but lately my question grew bigger. OK, so He told me to stay in Indonesia and to keep my faith even if things going from bad to worse, then why (in my limited human perception) He's not giving us excessive income for our daily needs??? I asked and asked, what could we possibly learn from this situation and so far the answer is keep the faith...dear Lord, what an answer.

My music memories pt XIX

I was very young when Culture Club released their single, "Carma Chameleon" and not very long until I watched the single's music video, which made me confused for years to come. But when I became musician myself, I came to fully understand their works and realized that these guys are simply clever artists.
That's the lesson that I got from Culture Club.

ps: many thanks to pathum2222 for sharing this wonderful memory

Wildstix's log, stardate 62704.6

This log is made after we had one full hour of no electricity in our home and my studio. Turned out Earth Hour has another cool effect other than helping our earth and that was tranquility.

We may not realize it that for most of our lifetime, we are being constantly bombarded by low frequency sound and noise, some we got it from our daily electric lamps and equipments. So when the electric goes out for one hour, we also stopped the electricity noise around our home and the effect is a soothing atmosphere. If you missed Earth Hour this year, try to have it next year, you won't regret it.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62703.9

A disaster struck again. On dawn of March 27, 2009, the dam of situ gintung in Ciputat, Banten was broken and the water from the dam, formed a tidal wave and swept the populated area below the dam. The tragedy has left with 77 fatalities and more than 100 still missing, most probably perished too. My condolences for the victims and the affected families.

I read several news about the disaster and I only found stupidity after stupidity of indonesian officials. The disaster itself should've been avoided if only the Public Works Ministry (Departemen Pekerjaan Umum) took heed and reacted swiftly after receiving alarming reports about the dam, one of the reports came from a member of indonesian board of technology research and implementation (BPPT), sometime in 2006!
This is a grim example of how ignorance could lead to fatal consequences and indonesians are, undoubtedly, very good at it.

It seems that the curse on the indonesian government and officials is not lifted yet.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62701.8

I went with my bass player, Pronky, last night, to Prost Beer (I think that was the name) at Kemang for a heck-of-it visit and to watch the home band there, supposedly formed by a renowned singer in cover scene. The place itself (Prost Beer) is a small sized cafe and with evenly small stage. We sat and watched the home band covering mostly hard rock and metal legends.

I found it hilarious to see the people there, some were still wearing office-job suits and some were trying very very hard to give the impression that they are someone of important recognition.
The band? It was even much more hilarious to me as those uncles playing all the stuff that I used to play when I was a teenager. In the other hand I also came to a realization that I don't want to be like them, I personally don't want to be labeled as "old school" in my later days and I determined to make my works in music to go beyond and more!

My music memories pt XVIII

OK, OK, so I know there are other Van Halen songs that maybe much more memorable, but this song is the one that always remind me of this band.
I knew Van Halen when I was quite young and yes, if you're guessing, you're right! My second oldest sister and my big brother are responsible for poisoning me with hard rock! But I love it as there were so many good music back then.

ps: thanks to al676677 for sharing this wonderful video

Wildstix's log, stardate 62694.4

This month is a special one. My best friend Angga and I are featured in the article about studio for march edition of Audio Pro, a leading indonesian professional audio magazine. I've read many editions of Audio Pro and their studio article, I must say, my studio is the most "messy" and simple ever covered by the magazine. But nevertheless, they wrote good article about us and emphasizing that regardless the simplicity, the"man behind the gun" is always the key factor.

I've also filled another pad sounds for the new AOFS single. Hopefully we can find a keyboard player to join the band and fill the rest of the keyboard part.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62691.9

Academie of FarSide continues and for time being without keyboard player, as we have yet to find one.
But there were incidents in my studio area. A few days ago, the hard rain followed by strong winds, ripped apart some of the studio drainpipes. So yesterday, our family's long time "handy-man", was repairing the damages and rearranging the roof tiles along the drainpipes, using two stairs (wooden and stainless steel). The day was bright when he started, but in the afternoon the weather changed drastically and rain started to pour heavily. Our handyman decided to keep working and suddenly there was a loud thunder and the stainless stair slipped away. He managed to grab on the drainpipes and pushed away the stair so it won't fell to the window near by.
Just as he was about to grab on the the wooden stair (erected nearby), the drainpipes failed and he fell and broke the wooden stair, right to the edge of the swimming pool. His right leg got the first impact, while his back was receiving heavy bruises because of the impact with the wooden stair.
Thank God, he was OK. We decided to take him to a traditional massage ("tukang urut" in local terms) to prevent any worsening in his injuries.
But the repairs works are suspended until next week, I'm pretty uneasy by the mess.

I also had a sudden rush of frustation when having a talk about the alley to the studio. It's all because, I've thought ways to make it better for sometime and yet I still haven't got any idea. For an artist, it's a frustrating issue.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62680.9

My band rehearsal today went smoothly. We've tried some variations, matching the lyric to the song and reached the agreement of the solo keyboard line that I proposed.
Unfortunately, after trying several time to use the lyric, we couldn't get a perfect emotion of the theme to the song. So I decided to change the theme to something more "sweet to ears". We managed to fix the vocal line and write new lyric for to chorus parts. We may need to work harder for the verses and bridge, since writing lyric in Indonesian is not really our strong point.

Another thing is, I finally gave way for an alternative of finding the remaining personnel we need. We'll start searching for a keyboard player or a synth guitarist, which one we find first, will fill the position. I'm still thinking about the rearranging works that may lay ahead, should we found a synth guitarist, it'll be quite challenging.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62677.8

Early this morning I contacted a keyboard player that was found by my vocalist the other day. I managed to explained what needed and sent three songs of AOFS for him to listen and consider.

The other thing that I didn't really plan to do but I did it anyway was viewing my family tree that I made on www.ancestry.com
Looking at it again, my feeling and desire, to look for my long lost relatives from my grandmother's side, was knocking softly but firm. Unfortunately, I don't have all the resources I need to do it except the internet.

So through this blog, I will share my great great great grandfather's name and picture, so maybe someday, sometime, those who are from common ancestor can find it here and we can be brought together.

My great great great grandfather, JH (Jong Heer) Weilen D van Nispen

Wildstix's log, supplemental

The latest development of my unborn child is very fascinating. In the fifth month of pregnancy, my wife started to feel the kicks and movements. One of it occurred when I told my wife about the timeline of The Lord Of The rings. Just after I explained one major event in Silmarillion, my wife got a strong kick, as if as our baby responded to the story. It's amazing!

Wildstix's log, stardate 62672.7

Today is the start of open campaign for Indonesian election and I'm sure for the next 30 days or so we'll see many many stupid things happening.
Today I also returned to AOFS single prototype and made some more arrangements. some of them were the proposed solo keyboard line and the drums.

No, I still don't have the energy to start looking again for keyboard player and I'm doing very hard to heal my pain that caused by some hypocrite & opportunist keyboardist as doing the search is also opening up my old wounds.
As part of my searching efforts, I've put my message on facebook, as I read on yesterday's Kompas that stated how effective is facebook. But after several messages and months, it's still not giving me what it gave to people noted in the article. Too bad facebook, too bad! Turned out it's just another cyber trash as I suspected.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62669.6

Despite my current situation of having huge confusion of what is actually music, I managed to finish composing Academie of FarSide's new single. It's a popish tune but still obviously within AOFS' characteristic. The song has been rehearsed once and we're looking forward for the next rehearsal, where the lyrics will be tried for the first time.

My quest of finding keyboard player is also not doing very well lately, part of it because I'm tired of looking. It happened that Jesus told me to keep the faith as Abraham did, where he didn't have any reason or cause to believe but he believed anyway. My situation is similar, I see my band is not going anywhere for a time being, no keyboard player and having little fans...I have all the reasons not to believe, but He told me to keep the faith and keep the faith I will.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62655.6

I don't know how to explain my previous days, except to say that I felt the fear. Fear of what, I don't know, was it because my band? Or still having no gigs? Or having obstacle in my effort to improve my band instrumentation? Or I'm just don't know how to deal with my own disappointments about some people?

I was so afraid that for several days all I could say in my prayer was nothing except crying out loud to Jesus.

My music memories pt XVII

Men Without Hats' "Safety Dance" has lately bugged my memory without me able to remember who was it and the title. The only thing that I remember is its staple line in its each verse and there's no search engine on internet that can find song based on the melody you sing.
I also remember that I don't really like the video clip but I was inevitably remember all the scene...thanks to my older sisters.

For several weeks, in my quest to find "Safety Dance", I've found most of the old music that forms my music memories (and influences too) and it was fun, but not what I currently looking. Then I came to my older brother to ask about it and sang the staple line. Turned out he's faster than google to tell me the artist and the song title..walllaaa!!!

ps: thanks to explodingfirst for sharing this wonderful memory

My music memories pt XVI

I remember watching the video clip of Styx's Mr. Roboto when I was 5. Though I couldn't understand what it was, I quickly came to like the song. The tag chorus is printed deep in my memory and then later, the sound aspect of the song. Some of my synth influence can also be traced to this song.
The funny thing about my memory to this song is I was afraid to watch the clip and hid behind my big brother's back until the song finish. But later I realized, it was, IMHO, one of the best music clip ever made.

ps: thanks to HangPC2 for sharing this wonderful memory.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62611

I got this article while browsing facebook. It's from facebook group of Indonesia Progressive Society. I'm not saying this group is misleading or something, but I wish they payed more attention before they put this article as introduction.
I actually have seen and read it before, but I think now I should share my constructive thoughts. I'll translate and give my comments beneath it.

=+=+=+

Group komunitas musik progressive rock di tanah air. Sebagai wadah agar lebih mempererat silaturahmi dalam menjalin hubungan sesama pencinta musik cerdas ini.
The nation's progressive music community group. As a place to strengthen relationship of fellow fans of this particular "smart" music.

"smart" music? This is too subjective and music should not be viewed this way. So other music are not smart? To compose a 3-chord-song will need all the intelligence of the composer and I'm sure not all people are able to do this!

Apa itu Musik Progressive?
What is Progressive Music?

a. Beberapa bagian (atau seluruh) lagu dirangkai dalam satu tema/ konsep
a. Some parts of (or entire) song are arranged into a single theme/concept

b. Badan lagu terdiri dari beberapa bagian. Setiap bagian dapat mengandung melodi, tekanan emosi, tempo, dan atau tema yang tidak saling berhubungan
b. The body of the song comprising several parts. Each part could conceive unrelated melody, emotion (dynamic), tempo and/or theme.

So far so good

c. Tempo lagu yang tidak mengikuti pakem 4/4. Bisa 3/4, 6/8, 4/5 dsb.
c. Song tempo which doesn't follow the 4/4 standard. It may be 3/4, 6/8, 4/5

Hold on here! Tempo is 4/4? Pardon me, but whoever wrote this article is definitely need to learn more. Tempo doesn't equal time signature!
Tempo is beat per minute, tempo 60 means 60 beat in a minute, 120 means 120 beat in a minute and so on. Time signature is to specify how many beats are in each measure (bar) and what note value make one beat. 4/4 means 4 beats of quarter note in one measure. (You can also easily find this definition on wikipedia).

And the 4/5 thing? I assume this is a typo, but just to make sure, there is no such thing as 4/5 time signature!

d. Menggabungkan lebih dari satu jenis musik (pop, rock, jazz, klasik, etnik, dll)
d. Merging more than one music genre(pop, rock, jazz, classic, ethnic, etc)

Although this is commonly right, we must also keep in mind that all known music genres are created by the industry, so that we would gain correct understanding when we are listening/performing a music.
Oh please, don't ever consider jazz as music genre, it won't fit!

e. Tidak mengenal improvisasi karena improvisasi dibakukan dalam struktur lagu, sehingga pada saat dimainkan ulang komposisi tetap utuh seperti semula
e. Does not recognize improvisations because it is fix written into song structure, so when it re-performed, the composition will stay intact as before.

Excuse me, I strongly object with this criteria! As one form of contemporary music, improvisation is crucial and without it there will be no advancement. I've watched some of the "guilty-as-charged" prog artists live performance and all of them, once again, all of them are making improvisations to their music on stage, even on the written solos!
This point suggest that there is a thing such as written improvisation. If improvisation could be written, then it wouldn't be improvisation, it would be written solo.
I suggest to omit this point as it is totally absurd!

f. Suara manusia tidak sekedar menjadi vokal, melainkan juga berfungsi sebagai alat instrument
f. Human voice functioning as an instrument as well as vocal

I totally agree with it!

g. Durasi rata2 yang melebihi durasi lagu single (diatas 4 menit)
g. Average duration that longer than single song duration (4 minutes)

Another misconception. While the idea is correct, they missed on the concept of single song. Single is commonly released as a "appetizer" for the upcoming album and for promotional purposes, never exceeded 5 minutes duration. So it's a misplaced comparison.
It should be, "Average duration is longer than of generally 4 minutes song"
The fellow who wrote this should learn more about music industry

h. Tema yang umumnya tentang mitos, fiksi ilmiah, lingkungan, keagungan sang pencipta, kritik sosial, dan lain sebagainya selain roman percintaan dan problema hidup sehari-hari
h. The main themes generally about myths, science fiction, nature, creator's awe, social critics and others, apart from love story and real life situation.

I have no objections on that

So there you have it! I hope my thoughts could share a positive efforts in introducing progressive music to wider society.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62606.3

Since my last post, I've had: negotiation to borrow a traditional instrument from my church, auditioning 2 keyboardist candidate for my band, near miss rehearsal schedule, terminating cooperation with one of our bass teachers, looking for his replacement and thoughts of releasing my blacklist of keyboard players.

Turned out:
The bureaucracy in my church is much much more troublesome than of kantor kelurahan (village group office). I submitted my request in Feb 13, six days later they only come up with another approval from yet another commission needed before I can borrow the instrument. What on earth they were doing in six days??? They promised by next week I can start using it. I hope it will be true.

On monday (Feb 16), a guy came to my studio, to be auditioned as AOFS keyboard player. He was seems so sure of himself, but I notice that his thoughts are shallow.
I took him for a jam session and he didn't even know what a B flat is! I told him to learn much more and sent him home right away.
On Thursday (Feb 19), I met with another candidate and this time a girl. I didn't have a chance to jam with her, but judging from her stories she should be a fine keyboard player. She told me she'll come again after next week's rehearsal.

Near miss rehearsal schedule? I just hope my new co-workers could keep up with our agreed schedule...sigh...thank Jesus, the rehearsal wasn't canceled.

Bass teacher? Ah, this is another example of people in Indonesia who thought they are already in advance state of mind. They can not say "NO"! The result was a chaotic schedule and frequently sacrificing others' needs because they think they are being nice and fair to everyone. If you bumped into this kind of people, trust me, it'll be better not to have any business with them.

My music memories pt XV

My introduction to Queen was very early in my life as the whole of my family loves this band. In fact, it's the only post 60s band that could won the heart of my dad, mom, my two big sisters, my big brother and also eventually, me.
This band is so great, that I don't have anymore words to describe their influence in my music life.

Their performance at Live Aid 1985 is my most unforgettable memory about Queen. I remember the whole family sat together when Queen was announced as the next performance and gosh...they are amazing!

Wildstix's log, stardate 62593.4

I was actually planning to take a break from my keyboardist hunt today and just enjoy the day. But my mind just won't stop thinking about the list of names I wrote yesterday, so I returned to hunt and from 15 names I finally got one candidate who agreed to come to our rehearsal for an audition. The hunt itself has elapsed for three days and three nights straight and shows how hard to find a keyboard player in Jakarta.

What about the rest of 14 names? 1 was ok, but he dares to call himself keyboardist without owning a keyboard! That sounds absurd to me and will potentially rendering the band from meeting the dateline for 2009 projects. I like his enthusiasm but I don't have the energy nor the time to foster another raw talent.
There's also another one who haven't replied my message. I'll need to contact him tomorrow.

The other 12 are just typical for my black list of keyboard player. Arrogant, cocky and acting as if as needed badly.

My music memories pt XIV

Again, my big brother played an important role of introducing Stryper. I was in my elementary third or fourth grade when he brought home In God We Trust album and said that there's a new kind of church music. I was totally shocked when listening their music the first time, there were no mellow tunes like standard church music but it was a raw, straightforward, mean metal rock!

Not so long later, I came to like their music and Robert Sweet is one of my first influence in drumming. They also influenced me of how to proportionally use our music talent for the glory of the Lord and as our daily job.

ps: thanks to MarvinMar for sharing this lovely memory

Wildstix log, stardate 62589.3

While most people are celebrating valentine's day, I'm still lingering on my quest to find keyboard player for Academie of FarSide. I managed to collect some names since Thursday but I met with little success with them. So far the only interested candidate is a 19 year-old, who musicality still need to be " scrutinize".

With another three weeks to the first performance of the new line up, I'm beginning to prepare for the worst, that I must perform drumkit, airsynth n keyboard line simultaneously.

Wildstix log, stardate 62582.3

After a nice resting day on sunday, I entered monday with an intense work as my studio was recording a band. It supposed to be a normal job for me but their manager (who earlier told me to record just the vocal) forgot to tell me that the work will involve to record the hole five-piece band! I was unprepared and took me another two hours to set everything again. Fortunately I could keep my head cool and the recording went so smoothly.

On Tuesday I was so occupied by the thing that my band still haven't got the right keyboard player. I made some calls but again they only lead me to the same old s@#t (keyboard players worthy for my blacklist of keyboardist). But that day also has a positive move, I finally met with a person who agreed to be Academie of FarSide's manager and I can tell from our conversations yesterday, he knows what he's doing. I can't wait to see the realization of our cooperation.

My music memories pt XIII

The first time I knew The Police, it was sometime in early 80's, on a quiet night in my family old house when everyone weren't home except for me and my older brother.
I heard him listening to a music that pretty unusual for that time and I quickly joined him in his room. He told me that the music is called "white reggae"...geez, I didn't know what it means but I really enjoyed the music and I ended up listening to the whole "Reggatta de Blanc" album while my big brother just fell asleep.
They are one of my very first influences in approaching music through different angles.

This is their first ever performance of their song, Message in a Bottle. The song that introduced me to them.



ps: many thanks to nitch72 for sharing this wonderful video!

Wildstix's log, stardate 62573.9

Remember when I said that I purely hate facebook? Well, today I tried to upload a picture, small sized file and facebook, confidently launched its java script for uploading pictures...sounds cutting edge eh? Cutting edge my a@#! I was only uploading one 92 kb picture and it took the "state-of-the-art" facebook uploader almost 20 minutes to complete the task! Hah, My hate is justified. I'm sure most people are just so blindly following facebook hip without even noticing it basically is the same old s@#t like friendster, no more no less. I feel sorry for those who thinks facebook is the hippest thing in town.

I've settled my unfinished business today, but it took most of my energy. So my wife and I went to one of our favorite places to restore the balance of our bodies and minds. It's a worth one!

Road of the Damned

I hate this road very very much!
It's always dirty and chaotic. Traffic jam, stupid motorists and digging works are the constant sight every day, every week, every month, every year.
There's no single day you can peacefully drive or pass through this road. It's a real living hell!!!
Click on the red line on the map to see its name

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Wildstix's log, supplemental

I just found out that one of my old friends is having serious trouble and that will naturally entangled with my own unsettled business.

Realizing the potential double trouble, my wife and I are working to get us out from any unpleasant possibilities and collateral damages. Also to speed up the process, I will go tomorrow to see our ex-coworker and settle the matter permanently.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62570.1

Yesterday I saw my vocalist having a bad day. I feel sorry for her but also good thing that nothing really bad happened. The planned rehearsal was canceled again and that makes this week without rehearsal at all, I'm getting impatient to accomplish the rebuilding of Academie of FarSide. I noted that our weakest link is as always and again, keyboard player. I don't know what's with that species, native in Jakarta and I guess I don't need to make a blacklist at all since they are all....blacklisted.

Just happened also, I managed to reestablished contact with my old friend, a fine keyboard & piano player. We quickly discussed the possibility for her to join Academie of FarSide. Things aren't that simple and easy as it sounds, but I cited a quote from a renown starship captain to my friend, "Things are impossible until they are not." In my life experience, it's so true!
I'm delighted when she decided to explore my idea and planning to come to Jakarta this year. I can't hardly wait to see if she's the missing piece for Academie of FarSide.
In a meanwhile as we waits for her arrival, I'll maximize the current line up.

This past two days also marked by heavy rain and a the most felt, a drop in temperature. I didn't make a reading yesterday but judging by today's reading (it's 24 degrees at 12 noon), I'm sure yesterday's was one of the lowest ever in Jakarta. We are looking at the direct effect of global warming...

My music memories pt XII

"Sna-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-knees, knees!" That still rings in my ears even until now. Yeah, Guns n Roses, they're not really influencing my music much but they managed to carve their color in my memories (as well to other people). I chose to put their video clip instead of any of their live performances, because the first time I knew GNR was through this video.
IMHPO, the band career was short-lived but it was destined to be a rock n roll legend.

ps: thanks to o0jackass0o for sharing!

Wildstix's log, stardate 62557.7

There was nothing more happening than the rain today. I woke up around 6.30 am and the sky was still dark with rain pouring down heavily. The sun couldn't be seen today because the clouds were so thick and spreads the whole sky.
Turned out that the intense rain was caused by the storm "Ellie" (I think that's the name), raging just up north of Australia and it sends out rain clouds over southern islands of Indonesia.
I haven't heard any troubles caused by intense rain in Jakarta, but one could surely expect flood at most of places.

My music memories pt XI

SLAUGHTER...
I wasn't sure that they are part of my music influence, but they surely gave their color to my music memories. There are lots of opinion about this band, some call them great, some call them silly, well for me, they are an interesting band. I haven't follow their career after the death of their guitarist on a car accident, but I'll try to look around and see how are they doing now.

ps: thanks to slaughterrocks for sharing

Wildstix's log, stardate 62550.6

Happy Sunday!!!

I did it! I conquered my laziness and idealism about the current church that I attend, I kept silent and let God do the rest. I heard Him spoke to me again, the essence of being someone who trust in Him. To give thanks (for me it's even more now), shine God's love & manifest Jesus in daily life not just as knowledge.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62550.9

I had invaluable lessons about my side business today and I'm sure I can do better next time.

I also met up again with my loyal stagehands after so many months and I'm just so happy to hear that they are as willing as before to go the extra miles for Academie of FarSide. I'll indtroduce them with the new member of the band next thursday.

The last significant thing I did today was postponing the Prog Fest that I planned. I felt terrible with this decision but luckily the venue's manager was so cooperative and supported every decision that I make. I don't know him well enough, but I salute him for his flexibility.

With two things at least settle, I can now concentrate on stabilizing Academie of FarSide new line up, the clinic trio and researching materials for new album.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62544.1

Starting from this post I'll be using another method of stardate. The rest of the stardates on previous posting will be changed accordingly.

I wrote a note about another evil thing happening in indonesia prog scene, catch it here

Wildstix's log, stardate 62540.9

Academie of FarSide, this is the band that I formed sometime in 2003 and since then it has been the focus of my works. I worked hard to make this band exist and going, composing music that would push the envelope, taking us in one global effort to advancing music further.

Unfortunately I live in a world where music is regressing rather than progressing. Nowadays, there are almost no more music that bear the trace of advancement wether that of mainstream or independent music industry. That's on a larger scale.

In a smaller scale, which is the music that I do and the place where I stay, it's even worse. In progressive music context, I was hoping we could get some strong supporters among local prog fans. I came up with new concept and approach in prog music, melting every piece of music influence into prog realm in hope it will be a fresh prog music. So then, what did I get?
Total rejection from local prog fans! Most of the older prog fans (let's call them seniors) just dismissed our efforts, saying we're not prog enough. I tried to tell them that we are doing music, not only prog. But I guess their ego wouldn't admit that there's another horizon in approaching prog music.
I thought their opinion won't have specific impact, but I was wrong. Being undermined for years by prog fan seniors, my former band mates started to feel that our efforts are useless and their faith in our music dwindled. They even put a blame on me for everything.
(I knew Academie of FarSide will sink forever if I don't act quickly, I took a painful decision to reform the band with new members)
Meanwhile on the other side there are some copycat prog bands that are (ironically) getting supporters from local prog fans. Even some of the so called senior fans endowed their support and endorsing to those copycats....what is this? A psychological war?

I don't really give a damn to the situation, but I must admit that rebuilding Academie of FarSide without having anyone to convince the new members about the full potential of the band, is like trying to freeze hell.
I have my true friends backing me up and I really thankful God put them there.

Dear Lord, until when You are going to let those copycats rule???

My music memories pt X

YES, I just don't know the right words for this band but I do know that I love them a lot!!!

Although I grew up in 80s but I managed to know this band and their music quickly turned me inside out. They are one of the best bands in the world and I will positively say (if anyone ask my native music) Yes is my form of native/traditional music.
If you listened to some of the music I composed, you'll be sure to find Yes influence as one of the dominant colors.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62539.2

I'm sure you all know about the israel-hamas conflict and all the reactions. During the conflict I strongly believe that instead of supporting or condemning the conflicting parties, we should look deeper into the matter. I often heard people (especially from superficial muslim organization in indonesia) always condemning Israel and blindly supporting hamas. Only a handful of them realized-just as I do-the main concern in every fighting, the common people.

Today I read a news about a Palestinian farmer who had his land and buildings forcefully taken by hamas fighter as their so called fortress. After the conflict, he have lost his home and waited for the empty promises of hamas (de facto governing the Gaza strip) that will give him cash to rebuild his home. Other people also share the same situation, they were afraid to reject the using of their homes as weaponry hideouts by Hamas gunmen because they will be accused as supporters of israel and as the consequence, their homes are now no more than ruins as the israel forces targeted their homes as military targets.

I always dreaming of mankind to go to the final frontier further, exploring the distant stars. But with all of the above still happens, I'm not sure we are ready-as human or society-to embrace the bright future.

Wildstix's log, supplemental

I just heard a terrible news, one of my classmates during elementary school died of suicide. He is one of the person that I long to see. Our last meeting was about 7 years ago and we never meet again until his death.

I guess I'll never see him again in this life. Rest in peace my friend.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62531.3

I attended my friend's wedding, one of Academie of FarSide veterans and though I'm happy to see her again, I was quite upset with the crowd. My wife and I decided not to stay longer.

After several days of thinking and improvising my music plan, I realize that I don't have the time and the fund yet for making a prog event. So I'm postponing the show to a further notice.
There are several factors to this:

• a. The new personnel are great but they still need more time to get the music right and tight
• b. Just happen that I shifted the fund to start my side business to make extra income for my family and the band
• c. I'm currently deepening my music knowledge for new materials of the new album
• d. My time and energy are practically all used up for all of the above
• e. If I carry on with the prog show plan, I will need to find someone else, who is trustful and resourceful to handle it. Unfortunately I couldn't find that someone.

It's a hard decision but I'm sure I can materialize the plan soon enough.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62527.5

After yesterday performing for the music clinic on schools, I feel much more relaxed and enjoying my time doing my side business that went pretty well.

I'll be having a rehearsal with my band, a replacement since yesterday was too tiring for me and our bass player couldn't make it too. There's a strong possibility that we're not going to rehearse in full team as the keyboard player pointed out that he can only come on Thursdays. But the bright side is, we are going to try out other repertoire of the band.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62520.6

Today I watched the changing in history as Barack Hussein Obama became the first african-american and the 44th president of the USA. I pray he will bring better times than his predecessor.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62516.8

I started today a bit late. Woke up around 10 am and I just don't felt like doing anything.

I took three leaves of toasted bread and a sachet of 3-in-1 coffee as my breakfast and tried out some of the mic and audio cables I work on yesterday. The mic cable didn't work and still no clear result wether the audio cables are working properly.
There hasn't much activities in the studio too as I'm too, don't feel like being there for a while. The next activities in the studio will be 2 hours from now, a 1 hour guitar class.
My wife and I also managed to make "to-do" list for our financial strategy.

Then I surfed around the internet as I checked emails. Nothing much on the emails and no words from Baltic Prog Fest organizer yet about the possibilities of Academie of FarSide participating on the festival.
So I then turned my attention to check out the updates on recording stuff and I found some interesting new items. I'm planning to get them.

Wildstix's log, supplemental

Last friday, I eagerly (tho a bit scarred too) invested on a new, promising business and today I received positive feedback from some of my future clients. I must say I'm quite excited with it.

Wildstix's log, stardate 62513.3

It has been a rainy week, we hardly can see the sun and floods were happening or threatening several area of jakarta.
For Academie of FarSide routine rehearsal. Because of the prolonged rain since wednesday night, our vocalist couldn't come to our rehearsal due to flood that paralyzed public transportation system in her area. Nevertheless, the rehearsal went well as we rehearsed the "anthem" of the band, Mei Hua's Katsu.

The next day, I rehearsed for the first time with the trio that is prepared for music clinic in several high schools. Although all went pretty smooth for a first time try, I still think and feel we need to work more on the materials. Unfortunately time is not something we have as a privilege. We managed to rehearsed some more on saturday but again I still didn't feel comfortable.

The planned clinic will be held next thursday and our only next rehearsal is a day before that, in wedesday. Oh Lord, we need lots of luck and miracle or that.

My google map update

I have updated my google map, check it out. =)


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My music memories pt IX

"Big in Japan!" these lyric was frequently heard by me when I was little as my older brother used to play cassette on our tape player. At first and then for so many years, I thought the lyric was "Made in Japan!" and only after I got serious into music (circa 97) I found out the who the artist was and the correct lyric.
Their music did not influence my music much but still, it's a great works in music.

ps: thanks to erniebogie for sharing the video

Great band, little exposure

I was talking with my best buddy about music yesterday night and he mentioned about this band. He said it is one of the cutting edge bands out there, but he also informed me a grim possibilities that the band is now may have disbanded.

So, just I woke up I tried to google them and having hard time to find them. Finally I found them on Youtube, a video of their performance at Dodge Street.

I must say that-if they really are disbanded-I'm not very fortunate to have the chance to see them live. It's a good band and inspiring. This kind of band should've receive more exposure and introduced to the rest of the world. -Just got updates. The band is still active and they're now preparing for their second album.-

Here's a little of what we can see about them, "Flutter Effect!" or "Fluttreffect"? -Based from their official myspace and website, it's Fluttrefect.-

disclaimer: video courtesy of regressing2apes

My music memories pt VIII

Though I'm not a big fan of Iron Maiden, but when their frontman Bruce Dickinson released this song I quickly became a fan to the song. I felt that this song is a successful attempt to merge the medieval spirit with the modern contemporary rock.

ps: thanks to lehcim0001 for sharing this wonderful memories

2009, the early part

Wow, we're now in 2009! Quite unbelievable how time flies.

So, 2009, what can I tell about the early times of it? Nothing really much. My wife and I were celebrating new year at home, with our families. January 2009 also marks my wife's pregnancy third month, she's still having hard time with food.

My band, Academie of FarSide has already rehearsed with new keyboard player and still need to see for at least one more rehearsal until we can really decided wether he's the one or not.

Since I also faced with tough challenge to write composition for Academie of FarSide third album, I need to deepen the music knowledge that I ever had before and hence I also started my self-class of Orchestration Study, the hardest part is to keep up with the schedule I set up myself.

I also met up with some new friends from several countries in europe through myspace and facebook. I'm so touched that even so they live far away, they showed sincere appreciation and support to my band and our music. That is not something that we could get in our own place.
My friends, if I have the chance to visit you all, I'll do it!