Forgive me for not really posting anything thoughtful in the last … several months. I’ve been in a not-so-good shape lately.

Meanwhile, this is — again one of some quick reflections — my posting on dangdut, I wrote it sometime ago. Please find below an original writing of mine. The edited (and cut!) version of it is published in the Jakarta Post on November 10th, 2008.

p.s. Indonesian version of this posting is published in November edition of Madina magazine.
p.s.s. the context of this writing is very Indonesian. sorry for non-Indonesian readers…

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My first dangdut encounter… in Pittsburgh

As Indonesia, of course I know dangdut, a genre of Indonesian popular music. But just like many young and educated Indonesians, I am not a dangdut fan. However, born and raised in Dayeuhkolot, suburban area of Bandung, I caught myself growing up with this music. (more…)

It is an Election eve and I am sitting down at the International Lounge of Los Angeles airport, on my way to the P island, aka B, via Taipei. I just finished my ‘election fun homework’ — which is part of my office’s activity. In my answer sheet I predicted that Obama will win the Election with 353 electoral votes, against McCain with 185. Obama will also get more popular votes, my prediction is he’ll get around 7.5% margin of victory. So, once I come back to the US next week, that country will have a new president, President Obama!

Meanwhile, a friend of mine sent me this link. It’s an interesting map. Of course, it’s easy to predict that the majority of the world is for Obama. But it’s interesting to see the red areas — Cuba, Algeria, Iraq, and Congo! Oh!!

Again… another weekend rambling. I’m in the midst of finishing an article and packing and preparing travel documents and daydreaming…. so ….this is one of those incoherent thoughts. I actually did a little more coherent writing on Dangdut, but I’ll keep it for later.

In my last posting I might sound like bragging, but, really, it wasn’t the point of my writing (therefore you have to read until the end — thought it was long!). In fact, there, I spoke about ‘talent’ at ease because I do think talent isn’t something I can brag about at all.
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I love music. I enjoy listening to and playing it. But, most of times, I play instruments by ears, not by reading music-sheets. I can read notation (for singing, for playing a melody in instruments) but cannot play complex repertoires by sight-reading. I would rather listen to the tune and then play it.

Most of times, I only need to listen to the music once or twice to be able to play it. I can write down the notes by listening to the music. (more…)

On this special day …no word better be spoken, no song better be sung, no music better be composed…. but the word of forgiveness, the song of forgiveness, and the music of forgiveness….

Forgiveness*
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my desk, sketched in tempe, on september 13th, 2008*)

Clutter, clutter
we adore thee
sign of life and liberty
jumbly-muddly topsy turvy (more…)

After a little serious posting on nationalism, this is time for a posting from an empty-headed Mer.

My first week in Tempe almost ends. It’s great to be home again. A house where I live is lovable. During my last big trip, for the first time in such a long time, I missed my house so dearly.

Here are some stories from first (less-than-a) week in Tempe.

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I’m still in DC, waiting for the time to depart to the airport. Sitting down now at Starbuck, I feel like I am a winner. I finally found a way to sit here, enjoying the free Internet connection without being burnt by the sun, without buying anything, not even a single cup of coffee!! Yayyy!! I could sit down somewhere else, at other cafes, but there I have to buy something. Not that I don’t have money, the problem is I had enough breakfast and really cannot drink/eat anything anymore.

It’s antithetical, in a place of the biggest coffee capitalist I could actually manipulate the game. I just have to look confident as if I had bought something, and then sitting there forever!!

Anyway, enough about Starbuck…. today, one day after the Independence Day, I guess it’s just right to post a rant about nationalism. (more…)

There are so many postings I want to share, including some from Utrecht (which became special now! :D), Enschede, Seoul, etc. But the Internet is so impossible from where I am now. I also want to apologize for not being able to blogwalk for such a long time (after the ‘physical break’, I was on the move, and now I am in the no-Internet world..). I’ll visit your blogs as soon as I come back to my ‘normal world’ (as if I have one :p).

For now I just want to share one article I wrote from my bed at my parents’ house.

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It’s 4:30 in the morning and I found myself awake. My body gets confused, it doesn’t know in which timezone it should operate. In my last two months I keep finding myself trapped in a wrong timezone, again and again.

Buzzing sounds of big trucks and inter-city buses come and go. Mingling with the sound of adzan aired on dark skies. I am laying down in a guest bedroom of my parents’ house. I lost an old bedroom where I shared with my little sister for more than 15 years when my parents finally got their house renovated two years ago. Renovation did change much. (more…)

I have many stories from my adventure in the land of midnight sun, but currently I have no energy nor time to write them except this particular one. Cannot help but writing about Московское метро.

Both St Petersburg and Moscow are beautiful. Remarkably beautiful. They are gorgeous! As I mentioned somewhere else, though, these cities, unlike Western European cities, were really designed in inhumane scale aka gigantic scale, a very common style adopted by great (authoritarian) rulers who wanted to make ‘people’ feel small.

Russia really impresses me. The people, food, architecture…. One thing that impress me most is their Metro system. Not only it’s remarkably efficient and well designed, it’s architecture is also impressive, especially the Moscow one.

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