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The Umpteenth Journal Attempt

(Hopefully) daily ramblings from the hazy mind of Hasief Ardiasyah

Saturday, January 15, 2005

Various football and tsunami musings 

Liverpool finally bought Fernando Morientes, just in time for him to play against Manchester United. Too bad they lost by a goal to nil courtesy of that brat Wayne Rooney (whom I shall refer to as such outside of the context of an England match), and also meant that Morientes lost his record of always scoring on his debut. Liverpool couldn't even take advantage of MU going down to 10 men after Wes "Baked Bean Boy" Brown got sent off. Depression, all around.

Around halfway during the match, I felt tremors. After making sure it wasn't just me as I was in a potential dizziness-inducing state (under the influence of flu pills while bending over the side of my chair) and asked Halief if he felt it too, I concluded that yes, we had just had an earthquake. Quite heart-stopping, especially in light of events over the past couple of weeks. Yoga didn't feel it when I SMS'ed, so I went online to check the news on Kompas: there was a 5.5 richter quake just off the coast of Ujung Kulon, 200 kms south west of here. No news as to whether there was any major damage, but I sure hope there wasn't any. And I hope that this is as heavy as all quakes will get in the future.

Anyway, while we're still on the subject of natural disasters, over dinner I remembered when I first heard of the term "tsunami". It was 1987, the family had just moved to Saudi Arabia, and I had an insatiable hunger for trivia. There was this book that had all sorts of facts in it, the title of which I don't recall but might still be here somewhere if I try to dig it out. Anyway, it was sorted out in a Q&A format, and I don't remember the question, but the gist of the answer was that the biggest natural disaster ever was when Mount Krakatoa - located between Java and Sumatra - exploded in August 1883. The eruptions themselves, while wiping out two-thirds of Krakatoa Island, didn't cause as much damage as the ensuing tsunamis, which got as far as the Arabian Peninsula. For a more detailed account, click here.

I remember that when I first learned about Krakatoa, I thought, "Geez, that happened in Indonesia, hope it doesn't happen again any time soon." If you can consider 14 years as "soon", then my wish didn't come true...

posted by Hasief  # 1/15/2005 11:20:00 pm (0) comments

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Tsunami Aid 

Speaking of music-related charity efforts for tsunami relief, it's a global thing, in case you hadn't noticed - most notably in the U.K., where they've just recorded a single ('Grief Never Grows Old') and are going to have a concert on the 22nd. The new version of 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' by Band Aid 20, meant to help end famine in Sudan, already came out late last year, and the quake and tsunami gave it an unfortunate irony, in the sense that it happened just after Christmas, and Sudan's famine - as unfortunate as it is - has become all but dwarved. In a musical sense, it's too bad all the cool acts already did the charity single thing, leaving us with the likes of Cliff Richard and Boy George for the new one. But as they said, all they're concerned with is raising money to help, which is all that matters. Plus you can't predict when tragedy happens, so Band Aid 20's for Sudan shouldn't be forgotten or placed in lesser regard.

As for the big, Live Aid-style charity gig (which, incidentally, was something that was rumoured to be in the works in conjunction with Band Aid 20), the confirmations have just started, and so far they include Eric Clapton, Feeder, Lemar, Snow Patrol, Badly Drawn Boy, Embrace, and Manic Street Preachers. Speaking of the Manics, they had a single called 'Tsunami' which they still play at their shows. It's not really about tsunamis (read the backstory here), but you can't help but wonder if singing "tsunami, tsunami came washing over me" would be entirely appropriate. But they're a smart band, so I'm sure they'll do the right thing, or at least come up with a valid reason to keep playing the song so the less-informed won't slag them for it.



posted by Hasief  # 1/11/2005 02:44:00 am (0) comments

Monday, January 10, 2005

My legs are soooo tired...and my fingers will soon be too 

The past few days have been rather eventful, so here we go:

Thursday, January 6th: Actually this day wasn't eventful at all. Read the job interview book, fell asleep. Made a Ryan Adams compilation CD (more on that later), with a non-chronological tracklisting, which is something I've been doing more lately. More challenging than chronological, plus it gives you freedom over the limitations imposed by chronological. Oh, here I go all High Fidelity again. The tracklisting:

1. So Alive
2. Gonna Make You Love Me
3. My Winding Wheel
4. English Girls Approximately
5. New York, New York
6. To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)
7. When The Stars Go Blue
8. Avalanche
9. Wish You Were Here
10. La Cienega Just Smiled
11. I See Monsters
12. Come Pick Me Up
13. The Shadowlands
14. Harder Now That It's Over
15. Please Do Not Let Me Go
16. Burning Photographs
17. Goodbye, Hollywood Blvd.
18. Wonderwall

As you can see, I broke my "no covers" rule. Plus this isn't my absolute first choice selection of songs. Why? More on that later.

Friday, January 7th: Dad attended an alumni gathering shindig at the Jakarta Convention Centre from morning and asked me to pick him up at around 4. He was done at 5, and about 45 minutes later, I was immersed in the traffic jam from hell. Admittedly, it took some doing on my part, as I have a knack for taking the long way around if the more obvious route is packed. It's all about psychology, you see: even if takes up the same amount of time, at least I don't get stressed out by only being able to travel at one foot per minute. Unfortunately, my search for a quicker route only ended up getting me even more stuck, because there were no quicker routes on that particular Friday evening. Or maybe there were, but my insistence on trying them all made it seem otherwise.

Eventually, I spent around three hours in traffic. I didn't even have time to take a rest, as I had already arranged to meet up with Yoga, Anita and Peds at Warung Apresiasi on Bulungan. I got an SMS a few days before, informing me of a free charity gig for Aceh where my campus friend and neighbour Willie was performing. I thought it was a convenient location, considering our previous meet-ups have been in the general area. I finally got there, we did our little gift-exchange thing (I gave the Ryan Adams CD to Peds – see, things are different when you compile stuff for other people; Yoga gave me a VCD of a Fountains Of Wayne performance on VH1), and we sat down and watched the bands play. Of particular note was Ballads Of The Cliche, mainly due to their female keyboard player, who looked anaemic and lethargic beyond belief. We speculated that: a) she was seriously suicidal, b) she was seriously stoned and/or on hard drugs, which would explain her going backstage (in the middle of a song, no less, never mind in the middle of the set in between song when the singer is waffling about what the next song is about) for some mysterious reason and wiping her nose when she got back (though the nose-wiping part could be coincidental), c) they weren't paying her enough to look vaguely interested.

Afterwards, me, Yoga and Anita went to Citos, just to see how things were at the other charity gig of the night, the one with all the big stars. Plus Halief was there, so I figured he might need a lift. The day before, I had thoughts of going there from the beginning, but I found out about it after I got the SMS for the other gig, and I hate not showing up when I tell someone I'll be there. Anyway, getting there late meant that there was no way I'd pay the Rp 50,000 charge to get in. Not that I had the money, but I digress. Eventually, I didn't have to pay, as I ended up just strolling in. Security is kinda pointless when it's late in the game, they figure anyone who's entering at that late point has already bought a ticket, plus who in their right mind would enter when the show's practically over? Well, that would be me. As soon as the thing was over, we went home to catch the Burnley-Liverpool FA Cup game on TV, but the match was called off due to the pitch being damaged by rain. Ah, well. At least I could get some sleep in preparation for the next day.

Saturday, January 8th: The next day, in which Indonesia played Singapore in the first leg of the Tiger Cup final, which for some reason was played in the respective participants' own countries like the semi-finals, as opposed to the group stages which were played in Vietnam and Malaysia. It makes the point of having hosts for the tournament kind of redundant, but again, I regress.

Anyway, I decided to make good on my intentions of watching the match live at Senayan. After phone calls with several other people who were also interested in watching, I found myself in the position of having to procure tickets for everyone else. After having them transfer their money to my account and withdrawing the funds via ATM, Halief and I got to Senayan before 2 o'clock, where people were already queuing in the streets. Me and Halief promptly got in line, and fortunately we got the orderly queue and became the envy of others who were resorted to a fair bit of shoving. Less pleasant was the prospect of not getting the tickets we wanted (East VIP at Rp 100,000, the second highest price range), which weighed on my mind upon hearing the tellers in the other lines. When it was my turn, I asked if the teller had East VIP tickets. He asked how much, I said ten, he said, "That's too many!" Agh. I had to turn on my charms to persuade him - though in hindsight, I probably could've given half the money to Halief, ordered five and told Halief to do the same - and fortunately the guy coughed up the goods, especially after I showed him the money. Maybe he was too shy to shout, "SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!" and opted to pull that hard-to-get shit.

Anyway, the match was scheduled for 7:45, so next on the agenda was a matter of killing five hours. After surveying the stadium to find out entrance, I parked the car at Hotel Century in anticipation of the killer traffic that we'd be having, come match-time. Then Halief and I walked to Plaza Senayan to meet up with Rija for lunch and browsing. After about an hour there, it dawned on me that there's not really much to do at PS if you're like me, a single guy who's short on funds. My PS itinerary consists of going to Duta Suara, QB Books and Kinokuniya. Maybe hang out at a cafe or see a movie, but only if it's financially-viable, which it wasn't at that time. So most of our PS sojourn consisted of sitting in the food court and waiting. And using my binoculars to check out hot chicks on the far end of the food court.

Then it was 7 o'clock, and we - along with Deeka - made the walk to the stadium. As we drew nearer, the sound of the crowd became increasingly louder, and I have to admit it would have been kinda scary if I didn't know this was a football match. I imagine if I'd been in Aceh a few weeks back when the tsunamis came, I'd probably be in shock or running for my life when I heard the roar. Anyway, we met up with the ticket recipients, which included Jamal and Dipo, plus Yoga and Anita, and got in line, found seats, and waited in anticipation. The atmosphere was just amazing; I spent the half hour before the match just being awestruck at the sight of around 100,000 people chanting. When the teams came on for the kick-off, I felt proud to be Indonesian as we all stood up and sang the national anthem.

Unfortunately, the pride was short-lived. Singapore grabbed a goal in the third minute, and things got worse from there: Indonesia lost teenage prodigy Boas Salossa to injury, Singapore got another goal before half-time, Muhammad Mauly Lessy got himself sent-off - and then there were the morons in the upper tribunes who seemingly thought they could change the course of the match by throwing stuff at the pitch. Of course, their throwing skills were nowhere near Olympic athlete levels, so the debris only ended up hitting those of us in the expensive, yet woefully underprotected seats. I got hit by a rambutan skin on the shoulder, while others were less fortunate - the guy in front of me was hit in the back by a full bottle of water...even though they banned people from bringing bottles inside. Go figure. By the time the third Singapore goal went in, the ugliness quickly escalated, and we decided to get out of there, along with many other disgruntled folk. The upside was that we managed to get out of there while traffic wasn't as bad as it would be when the match finally finished. On the way, it turns out that Indonesia managed to pull one goal back, which makes their uphill struggle in the next leg slightly easier. Let's hope they can pull it together over there. One thing's for sure: I bet people in that stadium won't have to put up with as many morons.

Sunday, January 9th: Was going to stay at home, work, rest (considering all the driving I'd done in the past two days) and watch the live broadcast of the big benefit gig at Ancol (about 100 acts in the space of 12 hours), but after much contemplation, I decided to go with Halief to The Upstairs gig at De Basic on Melawai. The reasons for forgoing professional obligations and health concern? The Upstairs are one of the hottest live acts in town right now; watching proper headlining gigs are more fulfilling than shows with a lot of big names that only play a few songs and then take a hike; De Basic is sort of a new place that's become increasingly popular for these indie gig occasions, which you wouldn't guess by looking from the outside (the ground floor looks like a somewhat classy restaurant, the cramped, claustrophobia-inducing gig space with barely-functional air-conditioning is above it, and the third floor is for DJ events); and at the very least, I could get a gig review entry for djakarta! out of it.

So we went there, got too late to catch Friends Of Mine (of which the lead guitarist, Anom, was my junior high pal and the bassist during my short-lived band stint in high school) but managed to hang out a bit at the restaurant, and went up to the second floor just in time to see some band butcher 'Surfin' U.S.A.' and 'Taxman'. Still, I got a slight kick out of seeing someone perform a Beach Boys song, even moreso due to the crowd singing along. Though I suspect that if someone in the indie scene organises a Beach Boys tribute gig, they'll just stick to the surf and car songs.

Anyway, the gig was...well, it's easier to understand why they're as popular as they are, even though they appear to be unlikely stars. I can't explain here because I'm saving it for the review, but I can say that you should check them out if you can.

Monday, January 10th: On to work. Hanief SMS'ed again about sending my resume to him, but considering he's not paying me to send it immediately, I had other priorities. Ooh, professionalism!

posted by Hasief  # 1/10/2005 11:45:00 pm (0) comments

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