It's Complicated

Yes, I'm talking about a relationship.

Between me, and Liverpool.

I'm not a big fan, really. But at least I'm not that so-called fanatic supporter who appears and cheers when the team is winning. I'm also there when they lose--oh instead, I aaaalwaaaayss happen to appear when they're losing. Always. And it's starting to be very annoying to me.

I realized about this misfortune since forever ago

But after last night, I don't think it's just a coincidence.

So yea Liverpool lost against Real Madrid in Champions League team round. 0-3. Sucks as it was aired midnight I had to sleep early and woke up around 1.30 AM. Just similar to the one against Manchester City for EPL's week 2. Same time of broadcast, same number of goals suffered. Liverpool lost both matches, when I wholeheartedly interrupt my precious sleepy time just to watch them.

Mario Balotelli last night, against Madrid. Pic's from here.

Now let's go back to last weekend's EPL matchday. Liverpool against QPR. I watched it halfway. And what's up Liv?! It's QPR and you were like, struggling?! I watched the whole first round and stopped at minute 70 something because I had some stuff to do. It was still 0-0. But then when I got back, the score changed to 2-2 and with the addition of QPR's last own goal on the last minutes, Liverpool won.

I mean, what the hell?!

Why would they score a lot
While I'm away, not watching??

The biggest proof was, of course, their whole performance last season. They were shining, blasted from the bottom and ended up securing their spot for this season's Champions League. Sweet plays, as I heard from other sources.

From other sources

Yes. For last season, I missed the whole year, EVERYTHING, because I was so busy preparing my thesis, getting ready to the US, Vietnam and Philippines, as well as doing my first freelance job. I was totally like, totally occupied. I didn't even remember that I once made a pledge to start liking this British football club called Liverpool.

I was totally disconnected from The Reds,
And they were having the time of their lives.

Can't believe I literally missed their best performance last season. Stupid me. Pic's from here.

I mean, what the hell?!
Am I bringing some, curse?

P.S. : I've been noticing this for so long, but after last night I made myself pretty sure that I'm gonna be very supportive if Liverpool ever wants to kick Glen Johnson out.

Like It or Not, Enjoy

Hi.

I don't think I ever once talked about my city. Jakarta. Well, I guess I'm now in mood to talk about it. Since last weekend, I just felt how convenient this crazy city actually is.

Sunday will always be the un-guessed-able time of the week. You cannot predict what happen in Jakarta during Sunday. Usually it's empty because as the last day of the weekend, people don't feel like going out. But if everybody thinks that oh, I bet roads are empty today so let's get out then boom! Enjoy the sudden traffic jam.

Last weekend, for example, my friend brought me to two places that in general, should be crazy crowded: Tugu Kunstkring Paleis and Balai Kartini. And don't get me wrong - both were, crazy crowded. But Jakarta was so sweet last weekend -and that's why I initiated this post because if it was an ass, don't even expect me to mention Jakarta ever again in this blog- that somehow, we managed to visit both places easily, with a happy heart.

For the first place, we parked the car by the street, in front of somebody's house. This is what I benefit the most from how loose regulations in Jakarta are - also, the first thing I really adore from this city. We can be a slick and cheat the rules. Well actually rules about cars parked randomly went a bit more strict lately but still, loose regulations are loose.

So we went to the building, enjoyed the colonialism-themed bazaar and left with two super beautiful china plates we don't even know what they are bought for. I'd really love to upload the plates but, yaa maybe later.

Next stop was Balai Kartini. From central Jakarta, the venue can be reached either from the main protocol Jl. Jend. Sudirman or via this critical big road Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said in Kuningan. During weekdays, both streets are, well, what can I say, fresh shits from hell's ass. You don't, ever, wanna be stuck there. Ever. That's why during weekend, traumatized people try so hard to avoid these evil streets.

We decided not to take Jl. Jend. Sudirman and drove through Kuningan instead. And guess what. The street was beautifully empty. We were so pleased to realize that the only long line we'd be facing was around the venue, when entering and looking for parking space. But again, guess what. Apparently Balai Kartini knew that the event will be blessed with tons of crowd so they provided this shuttle service that people can take from one building in... Kuningan.

God blessed our Sunday. Second thing I like from the city, is that people here are well-developed. They didn't just make some crappy events, they thought forward about how to make people reach their event easily, practically. Well, maybe because most of the committees were expats which lead me to the third point I like from Jakarta: it's freaking internationalized.

So we parked the car in this very empty parking lot, walked to the lobby and took the shuttle straight to the venue. It was the event of promoting European countries so yes, lots of traditional foods, traditional outfits, traditional music, traditional dance, and yes, again, I watched flamenco! This time, the dancer was a female so I could get the true beauty of enjoying the dance.

I forgot her name but, she danced gave a crazy elegant show

Wow. I just love how surprising Jakarta is.

One day it could be a pain in my ass, giving me unnecessary plenty of time to waste in the street, pouring my days with extra sunlight, making me wanna curse with all bad words I learned from the day I was born. But one other day, it could be the savoriest thing in my chicken. You know, when you eat fried chicken and there's this one second of your chew that tastes better than the rest of the mealtime, yea, Jakarta can be like that sometimes.

Never once I ever thought, to actually leave this city for any other big cities in Indonesia. Not even Bali. The only choice I set for myself to live in is either Jakarta, or, abroad.

And oh, this reminds me to one striking-right-in-my-heart punchline I heard from a Love Jakarta Campaign video that, shit, I still can't get over with even until now.

It says something like,

Jakarta, my beloved cruel city.

Hm. It lost it's tone when said in English.

Okay so let's try saying it in Bahasa, shall we?

Jakarta, Kota Kejam Kesayangan

Childhood Conspiracy

Childhood is like, something I can’t get over with.

Especially mine. The 90s and early 2000s.

So I was on this discussions with one of my seniors. We were talking about cartoons and characters and stuff, and we ended up mentioning the Sailor Moon.

Okay first of all, before you judge me things, I didn’t watch the whole series. I just happened to know that Sailor Moon has lots of female characters with personalities and superpowers based on planets in the Milky Way. See, those are two things I actually like. Planets, and stories with dozens of characters. That’s why I briefly knew Sailor Moon. Not that deep, okay, just, briefly. And I happened to have a minor crush too. For Sailor Neptune –whose name I didn’t know up till last week.

Now back to the discussion with my senior. Just right when I mentioned Sailor Neptune, a very big secret I never thought I'd heard from my childhood revealed right before my very ears.

My senior told me that Sailor Neptune, along with her so-called mate Sailor Uranus, were lesbians.

Pft, stupid trivia thingy trying to ruin my childhood. I didn’t believe it right away as I categorized that news with other stupid facts my friends and I used to share during our pre-elementary school like “casts of Teletubbies died of losing breath inside the costume” or “the true ending of Doraemon says that Nobita is actually an idiotic child and all his adventures with the cat robot were all just his imaginations”. Just, what an unreliable news.

But still. When I got home, I browsed Google. Just to make myself sure, as I, again, knew so limited about the serial so who knows that it was all just pure rumor but… Well what can I say, the senior was true.

I mean, what the hell!?

How could sensitive issues like that appeared so early in the childhood stage? And in the cartoon which almost all the audiences were girls? Okay most countries cencored their relationship and made it like both Sailors were cousins and stuff, but back in Japan, it was that obvious!

Crazy yes?

I just remembered a little that Haruka Tenoh -ya now I know the name of Sailor Uranus as I kept browsing about her since last week- was a shorthaired blond, paired almost all the time with Michiru Kaioh -and of course I know Sailor Neptune’s name too. But I just didn’t notice that on the regular life, when she’s not a Sailor, Haruka was an extreme tomboy dressing like a macho guy. Well, ya, because I just simply thought that that character was actually a boy and not an alter-ego of Sailor Uranus!

Oh, sorry if I make a big deal out of this.

Really, it’s not that I’m against lesbians no.

In fact, so just you know, I'm excited instead!

I’m more like, you know, curious of what else I did miss during my childhood. Or what else I did see everyday, on a daily basis, but I just took it for granted because I didn’t notice there was anything wrong with it! Now that this came up to the serial I barely watched, I'm dying to know what kinds of tricky scheme those cartoonists did to my favorite shows.

Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus, crap I was tricked all these years...

Shit now I’m more obsessed about my childhood.

More than ever

¿Listo Para...?

These past two weeks, to me,

Had been so, how do I say it, oh!

Artsy.

Why I don't know. Maybe because last week I went to see Stomp. For free -sorry I can't stop bragging about this miracle. Then yesterday, I got to see some other dancing performance. This time it was even bigger. Even more elegant, swag-less and felt more artistic. To make it more dramatic, it was held in Gedung Kesenian Jakarta.

A flamenco from Spain.

If it wasn't that, I might not be interested to come.

Apparently I've been a fan of this dance even before I knew that the performance is called "flamenco". Well I must thank Tom and Jerry's episode "Mucho Mouse" for that. The very first time I was exposed to the adorable clapping hands dance. I can't recall how old I was back then, but I'm pretty sure I was young enough as I used to dance along as a dancing matador with my brother being the bull. Many times.

Then four years ago. World Cup 2010. I bet you won't ever forget how phenomenal song "Wavin Flag" was. Crazy remarkable and I must say, along with "Waka Waka", World Cup 2010's theme songs were all better than -it's so hard to say this- 2014 Pitbull's "We Are One". It was adapted into many other languages including Arabian, French, Indonesian -pft, Grecian, many many more and of course, Spanish. Sung by David Bisbal, he did a very little flamenco claps for the clip. Very little, but really inspirational. I still even see the clip until today.

So would I miss the show?

Of course not!

Just me trying to imitate what I just watched

I enjoyed every single bit of the dancer's movement. Every single bit. I enjoyed the tunes, the drum beats, the oh-so Espanol guitar plays, man! Who would've thought I could actually see the real flamenco performed by the professional dancer!

And it was, that, damn, inspirational. Not that I want to start practicing flamenco lol no -although yea, I really find the clapping part of the dance extremely fancy and arrogant in a good way damn I want to try doing that everyday. It was inspirational because, it makes me wanna know more about Spain. I adore the language. In fact, I'm learning it right now. And I wanna adore more about it.

Well it's not only that.

It was also inspirational because,

It makes me wanna do something off my habit.

Watching shows like that, is really not my thing. This also became the major reason why I missed the real Broadway shows along my stay in New York. Well yea, because I didn't have that much interest. Yet.

But after Stomp, and especially after Flamenco, I just realized that I actually have a thing in this. Well I'm pretty sure I won't fall for every single kind of shows but, at least now I know I can stand sitting in front of a stage, shutting up for one or two hours and enjoying a show.

"One of my friends, a New Zealander, went along to GKJ. Once she got into the inside building she was practically amazed by the interior. Then she said something that lingered really good in me. This is so un-Jakarta.

What she meant was the building. But what I interpreted,

Was the habit of me watching a live show like that."

It's so not me, really.

Yet I enjoyed both shows.

Maybe I'm ready.

USA: Complete

Remember last year?

No? Ah, c’mon, it’s October, and I bet you won’t ever forget what happened October last year. Okay at this exact date, I was vacuum for a while. But two weeks after, I was like all mellow, couldn’t move on and stuff. Get it now? Yea.

America.

Shit man. Forget last year when I was just arrived. Even today, I still can’t get over it. Well I’m not going to talk about how I miss US. Yet. Because today last year, I was still there. Starting the MUN conference -oh my God I even remembered the details. Not yet whining about going home. So I’m not gonna start bragging about how I can’t move on, before October 13th, the day I arrived home last year. Save the date, you might not wanna visit this blog on that day.

So why am I bringing this up now?

There’s something from my visit to the US last year, that I felt so much regret about. It was The Broadway show. I was there on the street like, many times, but not even once I planned to see at least one of the famous shows. Well I can’t all blame myself for that, because I was pretty strict on my budget anyway so... Yea.

A year went by, but

Regret still lingers on me.

However, faith finds its way.

Stomp came to Jakarta. One of the Broadway's best deal came to my hometown. I've been exposed to the publications for so long but seeing the price, I felt like maybe I need to wait until I could fly back to NY and just see it there. If that ever happens again. But just before I returned home from the office last night, a friend told me that he's got a free ticket to see the show. Was I happy? No, I was hysterical.

I left the office, rushed to the bus, cursed the universe for that big unnecessary traffic occurred along the way -seriously, usually it wasn't that heavy, ran to catch the bus which apparently moved so fvckin slow. But after all I could manage to catch the show, although I was just seconds away from missing the opening doors.

Then I sat on the best spot for two hours, extremely entertained by the show. Eight crazy performers using cans, buckets, trolleys, it wasn't just their magnificent skills that I adored, it was also the comedy! I couldn't believe my eyes on some level of their performance, but giving the thought that they came from the Broadway, okay, no wonder they could do that.

It was restricted to use camera and recorders inside. So I got the pic from here.

Crazy show.

Crazy timing.

Crazy coincidence.

I mean, what are the odds?!

One of the Broadway’s best deal came to my hometown, performing on the dates I was visiting the US last year, I got the free ticket and it was… The Platinum Class!? It was worth 1.3 milion rupiah, so just you know. Not to mention the fact that I came late but still on time, the gate was still open, it closed right after I stepped in, and the show started just a minute after I sat my ass on the perfect seat I was like only 10 meters from the stage!?

It was the best gift I could ever ask

To cure my longing for America.

And it came just right on time,

Right when I needed it.

God loved me.

Oh and Uncle Sam did too