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401

Tas punggung yang sudah teramat buluk itu—bahkan pin yang menempel pasrah di situ bergambar smiley face Nirvana, so last century— seperti biasa teronggok pasrah di dekat televisi. Andi menjejalkan 113 lembar fotokopian tak berjilid ke dalamnya, satu dari lima set fresh from Public Agency. Ia lalu menghampiri benda keramat penunggu ruang santai: bugos alias buku gosip.

Gi, gue taro di tas lo yah. Please, please, please comment. Gue tunggu.
Andi

* * *

Pojok dekat televisi itu kini terisi sosok buluk yang lain.

"Pay, liat Urgi ga?"

Pay yang lagi sibuk memilih-milih DVD bajakan itu menggeleng. "Udah berapa hari ini ga ketemu gue."

Andi menyambar bugos. Ada coretan cakar ayam yang sepertinya berbunyi "OK bos, call u later" di dekat tulisannya dua hari yang lalu. Andi mengeluarkan dan menyalakan Si Kompang, memasukkan nama pengguna dan kata sandi, membuat kopi, membolak-balik bugos, mengintip koleksi DVD terbaru, mengerjakan tugas gartek, lari 2,4 km, dan main truf 3 ronde, hingga akhirnya ia terhubung dengan dunia maya. Matanya langsung menelisik daftar kontak.

Sepi.

Ctrl+F.

aditaya
cikibung
magpie079
sita_ssl

Ponselnya tiba-tiba berdering.

"Gi?"

Dengungan statis.

Suara benda jatuh.

Lalu hening.

* * *

The Last Copy
Sinopsis: Andi, seorang penulis-novel-wannabe, membuat 5 buah salinan draft novel pertamanya. Ia meminta 5 orang temannya untuk membaca draft tersebut, dan mereka satu per satu menghilang tanpa jejak. Sebuah pesan misterius menyadarkan Andi bahwa siapapun yang berada di balik semua ini mengincar salinan terakhir dan pemegangnya.

Hehe, udah bisa jadi skenario film cult belum?

400

Sebuah pesan mampir di friendster saya, tentang seorang kawan yang berpulang satu bulan yang lalu. Dan sedih itu datang lagi, walaupun saya tidak ingin.

Pesan itu menitipkan sebuah taut. Dan kalau di sini dan sekarang saya membaginya, karena mungkin ini satu-satunya yang bisa saya lakukan buat Irwan. Mudah-mudahan menjadi ilmu yang bermanfaat.

399

Uumm... dibilang ganteng ya ngga juga si. Keren... ya namanya juga rocker. Mana pecandu heroin. Udah berenti si, tapi kok masi disimpen. Trus mau-maunya juga dikerjain sama Sawyer.

Tapi dia baik. Dan manis. Dan baik. Dan lucu.

Huhu...

Iya, gue menangis waktu Charlie mati. Lebay berat ya? :P

Bahan renungan:
1. Kenapa Charlie bukannya buru-buru keluar malah mengunci pintu? Hehe...
2. Emm... tapi salah satu adegan kematian terindah, hehe. Bisa jadi nominasi Kang Jektor ga?
3. Kudu buru-buru ditamatin nih. Jangan sampe tesis mengganggu Lost Lost mengganggu tesis.

398

Nothing's changed but nothing seems the same.
-Touch and Go, Lightning Seeds

Nosotros, los de entonces, ya no somos los mismos.
-Puedo Escribir los Versos más Tristes Esta Noche, Pablo Neruda

...
-..., me and my ego

...I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...
-Walden, Henry David Thoreau

397

A Chinese girl from my AMC group has a tattoo in her arm. We were curious and asked her what the tattoo said, and she said it was the name of her boyfriend. You can imagine how the other girls from the group, all Dutch, reacted to that[1]. One of them said, if it were a Dutch girl, she would have her arm full of tattoes of all her boyfriends. Anyways, the Chinese girl said that the tattoo also meant 'Joy', so at least it's not 'Wino Forever' :D

Seeing that Chinese characters can have so many layers, it is understandable that the Max Planck Institute tried to getaway by using a lame excuse such as "deeper levels of meaning". For you who haven't checked my quicklink, the story is that Max Planck Institute had mistakenly put a brothel ad offering 'adult entertainment' as a cover of its magazine. Of course they issued an apology as soon as they realized the mistake.

Prior to publication, the editorial office had consulted a German sinologist for a translation of the relevant text. The sinologist concluded that the text in question depicted classical Chinese characters in a non-controversial context. To our sincere regret, however, it has now emerged that the text contains deeper levels of meaning, which are not immediately accessible to a non-native speaker.

Stories can be found here and here

It is a laughing matter, of course. But I kind of agree to one of the comment in the blog I linked above, that it is sort of an engrish.com strikes back. And it strikes hard. The way that the magazine chose China as focus but carelessly use Chinese characters merely as decoration, as some readers pointed out, is comparable to Westerners with absurd Chinese tattoo on their bodies.

The other comment lead me to Zhang Chongren, the true Chang Chong-Chen of Tintin series. This way, Hergé was probably comparable to Pearl S. Buck as a Westerner portraying China. Pearl S. Buck was the one who made me fascinated with Chinese culture, followed by Zhang Yimou and Amy Tan[2]. By culture I loosely mean philosophy and art, not some crappy made-in-china gadgets[3].

These last few weeks, there is an ongoing debate in Resource, WUR's weekly magazine, about the use of Chinese flag in an article about human right. I don't follow the discussion but from what I read, some said it's insulting and the other said it's freedom of press. What made me interested was this one comment from a Chinese student about cultural difference. For Chinese, flag is a national symbol, something to be honored and placed in dignity. Which may not be the case for the Westerners.

I cannot say my point exactly. Just have this one question bugging me. Haven't we moved anywhere since Hergé made the Blue Lotus, where Tintin and Chang sitting by the river, exchanging stories about the stereotypes they each had?
___________________

[1] Really, milkmaid is a misleading picture of a dutch girl. Julia Stiles in 10 Things I Hate About You might give a better idea.

[2]I don't know if it's comparable or not. My mom was a huge fan of Shogun series (the one adapted from James Clavell's novel), so I bought her the DVDs. But around that time, she also watched Akira Kurosawa's Ran. After that, Shogun was not so fascinating anymore. And Tom Cruise's the Last Samurai was laughable at best.

[3]And surprisingly, no, my image wasn't ruined by a stupid Chinese guy who almost ruin my academic record.

396

Kadang-kadang suka pusing ngobrol sama tetangga meja sebelah kalo dia nanya-nanya tentang Indonesia. Maksudnya tentang kondisi politik dan sosial, tentang peranan wanita, dan semacamnya (ya, ya, pembicaraan kami memang berat seperti itu, hihi). Masalah gue adalah, satu, gue gak yakin dia kebayang betapa luas dan heterogennya Indonesia. Dan kedua, selain gue juga tidak selalu punya data yang valid, gue sendiri juga bukan contoh yang representatif.

Sebagai contoh, ketika dia nanya tentang posisi perempuan, lah gue kan pinginnya bilang, ya lo liat gue aja dong. Gue tidak dipaksa kawin muda -ehm!- dan bisa sekolah ke luar negeri. Masalahnya gue tidak bisa menafikan bahwa di pelosok mana Indonesia ada anak kecil yang harus putus sekolah hanya gara-gara dia perempuan. Tapi secara umum, gue berusaha bilang bahwa Indonesia gak jelek-jelek amatlah.

Tapi baca ini, gue jadi gak yakin juga. Ada yang setuju sama gue bahwa 10 juta manusia yang tidak bisa membaca itu BANYAK?

395

On Yellow Ledbetter (from Wikipedia):

The song's name is derived from the actual name of an old friend of Vedder from Chicago, named Tim Ledbetter.^[2] The lyrics of "Yellow Ledbetter" have proven undecipherable when heard live and even on the early recorded version, as Vedder mumbles through much of the song with only certain parts being heard prominently, such as the famous line at the end of each verse "I said, I don’t know whether I was the boxer or the bag," with these parts of the song heard on almost every live rendition of the song. There are many unofficial lyrics on various websites.

Although many fans have made their own interpretations of the song, a common theory has been that the song is about someone receiving a letter and finding his or her brother had died overseas in war,^[6] cited from the lyrics in the Live at the Garden version "I don't know whether my brother will be coming home in a box or a bag").^[7] On the official bootleg release of 5/3/03 - State College, Pennsylvania, Vedder sings "I'd like to wish this war away, and I tried but it just, just don't happen, don't happen that way/And my brother...they sent him off to fight for the flag, I just, I don't hope he comes home in a box or a bag", and "And I know that he's just following his path, as long, as long as it's not a box or a bag."^[8] On the official bootleg release of 7/11/03 - Mansfield, Massachusetts, Vedder sings in the first verse "I think of him when I go to bed, and he's coming home in a box or a bag."^[9]

Regarding the song, Vedder said in an online chat that it was written around the time of the Gulf War, and added that "it's an anti-patriotic song, actually."^[10] On August 7, 2008, at a solo performance in Newark, New Jersey at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Vedder took a question from the audience requesting that he explain the meaning of "Yellow Ledbetter". At first, Vedder joked, saying, "Wait...you mean there's lyrics?" He went on to talk about how the song took as its subject a friend of his from Seattle whose brother served in the first Gulf War. His friend received a "yellow letter" in the mail informing him that his brother had died in the war. Vedder and his friend then went for a walk. On this walk, the friend, whom Vedder described as "alternative-looking," happened by a house with an American flag flying, and people on the porch. He stopped and gestured to the flag, as if to salute it, however the people on the porch glared at him disapprovingly due to his appearance.^[11]

-actually, I'm exhausted at this moment I don't even bother to edit this text or do anything to it. just find it interesting, that's all

394

Fear not my good woman. Lord Smoked Meats and Fishes has arrived!

Ow ohkay, it's not Freakazoid, it's Lord Bravery. But it's freakin' funny! I LOVE Freakazoid! Last time I saw the show on TV was about ten years ago (it's probably the only animation back then that air on 10 PM), it soon disappeared from Indonesian public TV. I once saw him in one of (pirated) VCD merchants in Salman's friday market (as the VCD, not the merchant), but I couldn't find him again the week after.

But of course, in the end, there's always youtube :D

Anyway, I stumbled into a Freakazoid for President group in facebook. I hope he'd reject the V.P. choice. Wouldn't it be cool if he runs for president in Indonesia instead? I will definitely vote for him :D

Hey, what is this place? Palm Trees. HULA GIRLS! Pineapples. HULA GIRLS! Surfboards. HULA GIRLS! HULA GIRLS! HULA GIRLS! Of course, it all adds up! I've somehow landed in Norway!

*picture was taken from wikipedia