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.