January 27, 2009
“Keajaiban di Pasar Senen Review ”
The Jakarta Post, December, 14 2008
How hard is it to write a book of events and ideas for readers whose ages are 50 years younger than the author? It doesn’t appear to be difficult for veteran director/script writer Misbach Yusa Biran, 75, but perhaps that’s because he never intended to write such a book. An Anthology of essays that were published in various newspapers an magazines back in the 1971, Misbach’s Keajaiban di Pasar Senen is not a true story because some of its characters and events were created and developed by the author.
But somehow it is true, as journalist cum writer Seno Gumira Ajidarma writes in the book introduction, that Keajaiban di Pasar Senen is a social documentary, a rare gem in the country’s literary scene. Set in the 1950s in Pasar Senen, Central Jakarta, which used to be one of Jakarta’s prominent shopping centers and business districts, Keajaiban di Pasar Senen tells how artists – both real and self – styled ones – interact with one another in the gray area between the lower class and the middle class.
The book chronicles how life as an artist in those early years was a tough choice as it was a rough life in a society which in general had poor appreciation for the arts. The irony is that in those years the young nation of Indonesia was led by a charismatic leader, Sukarno, who himself was an art aficionado. Further discussion on that irony would require an entirely different story, however.
Misbach doesn’t present the miserable lives as how they really are. Instead, the miseries of being cash – strapped and jobless (if a job means a role to play or something other than a nine-to-five day), are twisted into humor – oftentimes with an ensuing bitter aftertaste. The story is told through first-person narration of an “I” who introduces himself as one of those working a nine-to-five job with a meager income (but still better off than the artists) and has no knowledge or sense of art at all. He drops by Pasar Senen where the artists socialize to observe and because it is a community where he can quench his thirst for “smart” social and political comments from his “artist friends”.
These comments, however, are the gems that are collected throughout the stories because they genuinely reflect what Misbach thought was happening in his surroundings – its political upheavals and social dynamics. The artists’ eccentricities which are brought to the surface reveal how Misbach sees the world in his heart. Some are truly funny but others are just deplorable – to the point of embarrassing.
But artists’ lives are nevertheless always exciting subjects for laymen – especially in times when galleries are few and stages too expensive for mediocre artist. Everywhere in the world it seems, the more tragic an artist’s life, the more the worshipping fans. And so the miserable lives on artists in the 1950s are preserved. Interestingly, on the internet some bloggers – who must be in their late 20s – have put Keajaiban on very high pedestal. Some say it reminds them of their childhoods and even remember a book of the same title belonging to their fathers, uncles or elder brothers.
A blogger said he was a primary school student when he first read the book in the late 1980s. “I found this among my uncle’s book collection. The book cover didn’t attract me at first. But poring over the book later proved otherwise. It’s hilariously funny,” he blogged. “’What’s so miraculous about Pasar Senen?’ I thought before I finally decided to read it.” And he enjoyed the book. Several other bloggers agreed. One blogger raised the question: ”If he’s a filmmaker why have I never heard of Misbach’s name before? It doesn’t matter, his book gives me a good laugh.”
January 22, 2009
Music To Cure Your Troubles
By Hfp
If you have a problem, I suggest you to turn on your music first. Don’t do something stupid, for example; crash your handphone on the ground, like my friend did or maybe even worst “suicide”. I believe of the fact that there is a song to fit every occasion; be falling in love, falling out of love or totally sick and desperate of love. Listening to music maybe can reduce your problems. Some of them are:
- Benyamin Sueb: “Hujan Gerimis”
When you are losing your love just try to find this. Easy listening song with happy tempo, I guaranteed it will makes you smile again and this song suggest you to find someone else
- Gombloh: “Kugadaikan Cintaku”
Also well known as Gombloh masterpiece, just listen when your love is cheating on you or having someone else maybe this song can describe the thing that should you do
- Sondre Lerche: “Is It Ok If I Call U Mine”
The mellow rhythm and lyrics inside, hear this song when you reminded of your love or maybe you want to your couple to know your truth feeling
“Is it ok if I call you mine?
just for a time
and I will be just fine
if I know that you know that I,
wanting, needing your love…”
- Foo Fighter: “Everlong”
When you are waiting for someone, just follow the lyric and soon this song will makes you feel better than before
“Hello, I've waited here for you, everlong
Tonight, I throw myself into and out of the red, out of her head she sang…”
- Incubus: “I Miss You”
If you miss your love so much, exactly this song can reduce your pain about missing someone
“You do something to me that I can't explain.
So would I be out of line if I said
I miss you…”
- Jamie Cullum: “Mind Trick”
When you are losing the opportunity to get your babe to be your girl/boyfriend, no doubt it will break your heart, so this is the first aid kid to make you feel better again with it jazzy and happy rhythm
“It’s not just me who feels it
Music plays a mind trick
Watch me forget about missing you…”
- The Cure: “Just Like Heaven”
When you feel your love really meant to you and the best you ever had, this is the right song you must dedicated to. Don’t forget there is also for girl version, sing by the pretty and only Katie Melua
“You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Just like heaven…”
- Weezer: “Across The sea”
When your love is far away from your country and very difficult to meet and you really desperate with this damned thing
“Why are you so far away from me?
I need help and you're way across the sea
I could never touch you…”
- Kaiser Chiefs: “Everyday I love You Less and Less”
When you are boring with your love, come out quickly and sing this song. Let she/he knows that you don’t need her/his love again
“Everyday I love you less and less
It's clear to see that you've become obsessed…”
- The Verve: “The Drugs Don’t Work”
It is a very good song, shows that the drugs can’t cure your problems even you take it in a lot of pills
“Now the drugs don't work
They just make you worse
But I know I'll see your face again…”
January 15, 2009
"August Rush" Review
Twelve years ago, on a moonlit rooftop above
Years passed with neither of them knowing the truth. Now, the infant secretly given away by Lyla's father has grown into an unusually gifted child who hears music all around him and can turn the rustling of wind through a wheat field into a beautiful symphony with himself at its center, the composer and conductor. He holds an unwavering belief that his parents are alive and want him as much as he wants them. Determined to search for them, he makes his way to
There, lost and alone, he is beckoned by the guitar music of a street kid playing for change and follows him back to a makeshift shelter in the abandoned Fillmore East Theater, where dozens of children like him live under the protection of the enigmatic Wizard. He picks up a guitar for the first time and unleashes an impromptu performance in his own unique style. Wizard names him August Rush, introduces him to the soul-stirring power of music and begins to draw out his extraordinary talent. Wizard has big plans for the young prodigy but, for August, his music has a more important purpose. He believes that if his parents can hear his music, they will find him. Unbeknownst to August, they have already begun that journey.
"Apocalypto" Review
By Dana Stevens
Rudy Youngblood in Apocalypto Here is a partial list of the indignities to which the human body is subjected in Mel Gibson's Mayan epic Apocalypto (
The above catalog of harm only begins to hint at the dulling and eventually comic frequency of physical violence in Apocalypto, which progresses as a series of static set pieces that are little more than narrative pretexts for graphically imagined anguish. Here's the story: Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) is a handsome young hunter who lives in a remote jungle village with his young son and pregnant wife (Dalia Hernandez). One fine day, the bewildered remnants of a neighboring tribe straggle in, warning that the village's bucolic way of life is in danger. Sure enough, the next day brings a raid by fierce warriors, who kidnap the tribe's able-bodied men and take them on a long forced march to the city, where they will be painted blue and lined up for human sacrifice. Jaguar Paw manages to hide his family in an abandoned well, but will he manage to get back to them before they starve or, worse, fall into the hands of the sadistic captors?
For a good hour, I tried to pretend that I had never heard of Mel Gibson: the maker of fanatical blockbusters, the spewer of hateful rants. I tried—really tried—to experience Apocalypto as an ethnographic thriller about an ancient culture. But though it may have been researched to within an inch of its life, this film is not, by any reasonable standard, ethnography. It teaches us nothing about Mayan civilization, religion, or cultural innovations. (Calendars? Hieroglyphic writing? Some of the largest pyramids on Earth?) Rather, Gibson's fascination with the Mayans seems to spring entirely from the fact (or fantasy) that they were exotic badasses who knew how to whomp the hell out of one another, old-school. You don't leave Apocalypto thinking of the decline of civilizations or the power of myth or anything much except, wow, that is one sick son of a bitch.
Though it never gains forward momentum until the final chase, when the hero races against time to save his family from the rapidly filling well, Apocalypto does have a weird and undeniable power. Watching human bodies narrowly escape a terrible fate—or, as in most cases, undergo it—is inherently compelling. The
I could go on about the beautifully detailed production design, the fresh performances from unknown and often nonprofessional actors, blabbety blah. But praising the movie's craftsmanship seems less urgent than communicating the overwhelming experience of watching it: the clammy, claustrophobic dread of being trapped in a torture chamber. Even the movie's rare moments of humor are pain-based—see the above-mentioned scenes of tapir-ball ingestion and caustic crotch-burning, both visited on the tribe's comic foil, Blunted (Jonathan Brewer). The sadomasochism gets more unintended laughs in other bits, including an arterial head wound that spurts blood at intervals, Monty Python and the Holy Grail-style. Myself, I had to stifle a giggle when the bad guys got out a large leather kit full of torture tools—spears, hatchets, and the like. It looked like something you might purchase at a sex-goods shop in
Apocalypto opens with a quote from Will Durant that seems to make a connection between the decline of Mayan civilization and the ills of the present day: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself." Sounds deep, but what are the parallels Gibson is suggesting between the decadence of the Mayan empire and our own? The film's moral universe is too Manichean and self-contained to suggest any real allegory with current events. I think the movie's real epigraph comes in another scene. As the kidnapped villagers slog along a narrow mountain path, manacled together, the last man in line slips over the cliff edge, nearly dragging his fellow captives with him. Instructed by chief Zero Wolf (Raoul Trujillo) to cut the dangler loose from the pack, the cruelest of the captors, Snake Ink (Rodolfo Palacios), puts him off for a moment: "Let's see what happens." Snake Ink, it seems, is perversely fascinated with the physics of suffering: If the guy falls, how many men will he take with him? What kind of splat will they make when they hit the ground? If he could just scrape together $80 million, Snake Ink might have a movie on his hands.
"Into The Wild" Review
Emile Hirsch in Into the WildSean Penn's Into the Wild (
Jon Krakauer's nonfiction account of the events leading up to the real Chris McCandless' death of starvation in 1992 was a triumph of gumshoe reporting. He followed Chris' tracks from the
But Penn performs one bit of sleight-of-hand on the book that's borderline unforgivable. In an attempt, perhaps, to justify Chris' decision not to communicate with his parents for more than two years (he failed to notify them before he hit the road, and they never saw him alive again), Penn inserts a flashback back story that shows the McCandless' relationship as abusive and violent. In grainy Super 8-style scenes, the parents (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden) drink and push each other around as the young Chris and Carine look on. It's a Lifetime TV rule that this movie should have risen above: Every questionable moral action must be explained by an equal and opposite childhood trauma. In Krakauer's account, McCandless's father, Walt, was something of a remote perfectionist but certainly no wife-beater. As for Billie McCandless, she sewed the sleeping bag in which her son would eventually meet his end (a heartbreaking detail that, had Penn left it in, might have cast his proudly self-sufficient hero in a less idealizing light). If I were a member of the McCandless family, I'd be furious at this insertion, but Penn waited years for the parents' permission—presumably, they allowed him the license to fictionalize as he saw fit.
The real McCandless was a maddeningly opaque figure whose contradictions make the book a great read: both a radical anti-materialist and a fan of Ronald Reagan, an ascetic who shrank from human contact but charmed everyone he met. The movie, aided by Eddie Vedder's earnest keening on the soundtrack, leans more toward the straightforwardly hagiographic. It doesn't hurt that losing 40 pounds while growing long hair and a beard would make any actor look like Christ.
There are some scenes that poke fun at Chris' adolescent self-seriousness: In a bar, he rants to Wayne (Vince Vaughn), the boss of a threshing plant where he's found temporary employment, about the evils of "society" until Vaughn picks up the chant, yelling, "Society! Society!" in a drunken crescendo. Catherine Keener (who's fast becoming the most welcome supporting-actor face this side of Harry Dean Stanton) plays a hippie tramp who takes Chris in for a while and chides him for neglecting his family: "You look like a loved kid." But a long section in which a widowed old man, Ron (Hal Holbrook), befriends the wandering boy made me cringe. By way of proving his spiritual mettle, or sense of adventure, or something, the octogenarian is repeatedly exhorted to scale a steep, rocky hill overlooking the
I guess it's a sign of middle age when you identify with the tottering oldster or the bereaved parent as much as the Thoreau-reading, angry young man. Still, Emile Hirsch brings a gentle, loveable quality to McCandless, and Penn's project has moments of ecstatic beauty. The soaring helicopter shots of snowy expanses may be more indebted to the Imax documentary than the road picture, but Eric Gautier's camera
"Pan's labyrinth" Review
When fantasy meets horror the results are incredible.
It is easy to forget the power of fairy tales. In today's society the genre is more or less strictly confined to stories directed at children. That is a tremendous shame, because if Pan's Labyrinth is a testament to what is possible when fairy tales are taken into the realm of the adult world, the results can be profound, beautiful, and awe-inspiring. The film, which screened at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, is all three of these things, and many more
Art gothic fantasy, part political statement, Guillermo del Toro's masterwork is clearly a labor of love, marrying his interest in the Spanish Civil War with his fascination with fantasy and horror. Del Toro should be very proud of himself; instead of taking this film to a studio, which would have desensitized (and thus gutted) the film, he set out on his own, filming the movie in Spanish and shooting it out of
Pan's Labyrinth tells the story of young Ofelia (played by eleven-year-old Ivana Baquero), a child who is forced to move, along with her pregnant mother, into a massive old millhouse cottage which is nestled deep within a dense forest. This building also happens to house the militaristic Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez), Ofelia's "father." From the outset it is clear that war is in the air, but none of this concerns Ofelia. She is fascinated with books and the amazing stories that fill them. No sooner has she arrived at the barracks/cottage than she encounters a "fairy" – a stick-like insect that is part dragonfly, part praying mantis, and is as fascinating as it is menacing.
Ofelia's insectoid friend soon reveals that it has shape-changing abilities and takes the shape of a svelte fairy, leading Ofelia on a moon-lit chase deep into the heart of the mysterious garden labyrinth found behind the cottage. Ofelia comes across a sunken grotto in the center of the maze. Within the hole, the little girl encounters Pan (played by longtime monster-man, Doug Jones), a mysterious and magical character who informs her that she is actually the princess of the underworld.
"Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad Synopsis
Heart of Darkness begins on the deck of the Nellie, a British ship anchored on the coast of the
As a young man, Marlow desires to visit Africa and pilot a steamboat on the
At the Company’s Outer Station in the
Marlow then meets the Company’s Manager, who told him more about Kurtz. According to the Manager, Kurtz is supposedly ill, and the Manager feigns great concern over Kurtz’s health—although Marlow later suspects that the Manager wrecked his steamboat on purpose to keep supplies from getting to Kurtz. Marlow also meets the Brickmaker, a man whose position seems unnecessary, because he doesn’t have all the materials for making bricks. After three weeks, a band of traders called The Eldorado Exploring Expedition—led by the Manager’s uncle—arrives.
One night, as Marlow is lying on the deck of his salvaged steamboat, he overhears the Manager and his uncle talk about Kurtz. Marlow concludes that the Manager fears that Kurtz is trying to steal his job. His uncle, however, told him to have faith in the power of the jungle to “do away” with Kurtz.
Marlow’s boat is finally repaired, and he leaves the Central Station (accompanied by the Manager, some agents, and a crew of cannibals) to bring relief to Kurtz. Approximately fifty miles below Kurtz’s Inner Station, they find a hut of reeds, a woodpile and an English book titled An Inquiry into some Points of Seamanship.
As it crept toward Kurtz, Marlow’s steamboat is attacked by a shower of arrows. The Whites fire rifles into the jungle while Marlow tries to navigate the boat. A native helmsman is killed by a large spear and thrown overboard. Assuming that the same natives who are attacking them have already attacked the Inner Station, Marlow feels disappointed now that he will never get the chance to speak to Kurtz.
Marlow reaches the Inner Station and notices Kurtz’s building through his telescope—there is no fence, but a series of posts ornamented with “balls” that Marlow later learns were natives’ heads. A Russian trader and disciple of Kurtz, called “The Harlequin” by Marlow, approaches the steamboat and tells Marlow that Kurtz is still alive. Marlow learns that the hut they previously saw is the Harlequin’s. The Harlequin speaks enthusiastically of Kurtz’s wisdom, saying, “This man has enlarged my mind.”
Marlow learns from him that the steamboat was attacked because the natives did not want Kurtz to be taken away. Suddenly, Marlow sees a group of native men coming toward him, carrying Kurtz on a stretcher; Kurtz is taken inside a hut, where Marlow approaches him and gives him some letters. Marlow notices that Kurtz is frail, sick, and bald. After leaving the hut, Marlow sees a “wild and gorgeous” native woman approach the steamer; the Harlequin hints to Marlow that the woman is Kurtz’s mistress. Marlow then hears Kurtz chiding the Manager from behind a curtain: “Save me!—save the ivory, you mean.” The Harlequin, fearing what might happen when Kurtz is taken on board the steamboat, asks Marlow for some tobacco and rifle cartridges; he then leaves in a canoe.
At midnight that same night, Marlow awakens to the sound of a big drum. He inspects Kurtz’s cabin, only to discover that he is not there. Marlow runs outside and finds a trail running through the grass—and realizes that Kurtz is escaping by crawling away on all fours. When he comes upon Kurtz, Kurtz warns him to run, but Marlow helped Kurtz to his feet and carried him back to the cabin.
The next day, Marlow, his crew, and Kurtz leave the Inner Station. As they move farther away from the Inner Station, Kurtz’s health deteriorates; at one point, the steamboat breaks down and Kurtz gives Marlow a packet of letters and a photograph for safe-keeping, fearing that the Manager will take them. Marlow complies.
One night after the breakdown, Marlow approaches Kurtz, who is lying in the pilothouse on his stretcher “waiting for death.” After trying to reassure Kurtz that he is not going to die, Marlow hears Kurtz whisper his final words: “The horror! The horror!” The next day, Kurtz is buried offshore in a muddy hole.
After returning to Europe, Marlow again visits
Marlow’s final duty to Kurtz is to visit his Intended and deliver Kurtz’s letters (and her portrait) to her. When he meets her, at her house, she is dressed in mourning and still greatly upset by Kurtz’s death. Marlow lets slip that he was with Kurtz when he died, and the Intended asks him to repeat Kurtz’s last words Marlow lies to her and says, “The last word he pronounced was—your name.” The Intended states that she “knew” Kurtz would have said such a thing, and Marlow leaves, disgusted by his lie yet unable to prevent himself from telling it.
The anonymous narrator on board the Nellie then resumes his narrative. The Director of Companies makes an innocuous remark about the tide, and the narrator looks out at the overcast sky and the
"Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathon Swift Synopsis
Gulliver’s Travels is an adventure story (in reality, a misadventure story) involving several voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, a ship’s surgeon, who, because of a series of mishaps en route to recognized ports, ends up, instead, on several unknown islands living with people and animals of unusual sizes, behaviors, and philosophies, but who, after each adventure, is somehow able to return to his home in England where he recovers from these unusual experiences and then sets out again on a new voyage.
Book I: When the ship Gulliver is traveling on is destroyed in a storm, Gulliver ends up on the
Book II: As he travels as a ship’s surgeon, Gulliver and a small crew are sent to find water on an island. Instead they encounter a land of giants. As the crew flees, Gulliver is left behind and captured. Gulliver’s captor, a farmer, takes him to the farmer’s home where Gulliver is treated kindly, but, of course, curiously. The farmer assigns his daughter, Glumdalclitch, to be Gulliver’s keeper, and she cares for Gulliver with great compassion. The farmer takes Gulliver on tour across the countryside, displaying him to onlookers. Eventually, the farmer sells Gulliver to the Queen. At court, Gulliver meets the King, and the two spend many sessions discussing the customs and behaviors of Gulliver’s country. In many cases, the King is shocked and chagrined by the selfishness and pettiness that he hears Gulliver describe. Gulliver, on the other hand, defends
One day, on the beach, as Gulliver looks longingly at the sea from his box (portable room), he is snatched up by an eagle and eventually dropped into the sea. A passing ship spots the floating chest and rescues Gulliver, eventually returning him to
Book III: Gulliver is on a ship bound for the
Book IV: While Gulliver is captain of a merchant ship bound for
Despite his favored treatment in the grey steed’s home, the kingdom’s Assembly determines that Gulliver is a Yahoo and must either live with the uncivilized Yahoos or return to his own world. With great sadness, Gulliver takes his leave of the Houyhnhnms. He builds a canoe and sails to a nearby island where he is eventually found hiding by a crew from a Portuguese ship. The ship’s captain returns Gulliver to
"The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck Synopsis
In
When they arrive at what was once the Joad farm, Tom and Casy find it abandoned. Muley
The family is preparing for their journey to
The family stops that first evening next to a migrant couple whose car has broken down. The
In
Granma’s health continues to deteriorate, and as the truck starts its nighttime trek across the desert, Ma knows that Granma will not survive. Knowing that they cannot afford to stop, Ma lies in the back of the truck with Granma. Midway across the desert, Granma dies. By dawn, the Joads have climbed out of the desert and stop the truck to gaze down upon the beautiful
The Joads stop at the first camp they come to, a dirty Hooverville of tents and makeshift shelters. The men are talking to Floyd Knowles, a young man in the camp, when a businessman accompanied by a cop offers them work. When Floyd asks for a wage offer in writing, he is accused of being a “red,” and the cop attempts to arrest him. Tom trips the cop, and Casy kicks him. When the cop regains consciousness, Casy gives himself up to the law in order to divert attention away from Tom. The Joads immediately leave to avoid any further trouble.
The Joads travel south to a government-run camp in Weedpatch. Here, the community governs itself, electing committees to deal with clean-up, discipline, and entertainment. The Joads are comfortable but, after a month, are still unable to find any work and realize they must move on.
They are offered work picking peaches in