not so egg-nymore: 05.09

27 Mei 2009
23:28

27/05/2009 08:00 CET
Having a brief chat with someone, whom I used to had a crush on for a very long time, and recently got married.

27/05/2009 10:00 CET
Working in the lab, and the radio played this song.

:P

Do I make my life sounds more dramatic than it actually is? :D

[431] 1 komentar
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26 Mei 2009
22:43

I'm gonna be in a book! Umm... sort of :P

The other day Indra wrote a note on how he adores Rome. I didn't like Rome. Well, it's not fair, actually. Apart from people driving like crazy and the city was a bit dirty and too crowded with tourists, I didn't really enjoy my time in Rome because of reasons that had nothing to do with Rome itself. Indra's note makes me want to go there and give it another chance.

I do remember one thing I like in Rome, though, which ironically also had nothing to do with the city. I was sitting in a sort of my hostel's common room, reading my new Peanuts book and sipping a cup of tea, when this girl started talking to me. She was a Chilean girl who studied in Spain, and spent winter holiday traveling on her own. We ended up with a little chat about this and that. That's the first time I realize that there's more to traveling than just sightseeing.

Anyone who knows me well enough may have figured out that I don't easily talk to someone I don't really know, let alone a complete stranger. However, I manage to have this little chit-chat in almost every hostel I stay. It surprised me, even now. And that is one of the things I like in traveling.

Last weekend in Berlin, I stayed in a mixed dorm with a Mexican exchange student in Spain, with whom I practiced my Spanish for the first time ('Quiero ir a Espana'). She speaks very fast (in either language) and she studies law, which she had to repeat several times before me and the other guys understood what she meant (lo? la? love?). These other guys were two recent-MBA-graduates from Canada who wanted to enjoy life before they stuck with work, and an American who just quit his job because it just helped McDonalds gain more profit despite of made the world a better place. We ended up talking until one in the morning (when the other guys went to a party).

The American guy asked me to give him an advice. What kind of advice, I asked. I don't know, anything. And I said something stupid and he seemed pleased with that, and he wrote it in a small journal. He said he asked the same question to other people he met during his trip. I asked if he wanted to write a book, and he was like, umm, I don't know, maybe.

The next day (umm, like, a couple of hours later, actually), we split on breakfast. We didn't exchange email or anything, so if somewhere in the future you find a book that quotes 'Rani, 30, Bandung, Indonesia', please let me know. It's probably me, I don't know, maybe :D

[430] 4 komentar
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20 Mei 2009
02:35

Angels and Demons (2009)

'See this popular party's symbol? We can see its rudimentary form by marking the edges, and draw lines like this. It will form a hexagram, which consists of two equilateral triangles. This is a very ancient symbol. We know it as...'

'Star of David!' Vittoria gasped.

'Exactly,' Langdon nodded. 'Star of David, the icon of the Jewish.'

Owkey... dialog di atas memang cuma karangan saya. Dan no offense untuk orang-orang yang bersungguh-sungguh mendedikasikan hidupnya untuk meneliti simbol dan tanda. Tapi pahlawan kita bersama, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) dalam film Angels and Demons benar-benar mengingatkan saya pada othak-athik gathuknya para penggemar teori konspirasi. Ooh... lambang Indosat mirip lambang Yahudi. Ooh... lambang Coca-cola sebenarnya dari kalimat "Laa Muhammad, laa Makkah". Ooh... coba lipat uang 20 dolar, akan keluar gambar gedung kembar terbakar.

Dudududu...

Di awal film ini, seorang ilmuwan dibunuh di sebuah lab supercanggih di Swiss. Matanya dicongkel untuk dipakai masuk ke ruangan yang dilengkapi dengan sensor retina. Kalo saya yang menemukan mayatnya, kayaknya saya bakal butuh waktu beberapa hari curhat pada seorang psikiater ganteng untuk menyembuhkan shock. Tapi Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), bio entanglement physicist super seksi di film ini, dalam beberapa jam sudah berada di Vatikan.

Kenapa Vatikan?

Karena barang yang dicuri dari ruangan bersensor retina itu, sebuah tabung berisi antimateri, ternyata disembunyikan di Vatikan.

Again, kenapa Vatikan?

Vatikan saat itu sedang dalam suasana duka cita karena Sri Paus baru saja meninggal dunia. Para kardinal dari seluruh dunia sedang berkumpul untuk memilih Paus baru. Meanwhile, si pencuri tabung antimateri tersebut di atas juga sukses menculik empat orang preferiti, calon kuat pengganti Paus, dan mengancam akan membunuh mereka satu per satu. Karena para pencuri-garis-miring-penculik itu mengaku berasal dari Illuminati, organisasi rahasia yang sejarah masa lalunya merepresentasikan pertentangan antara gereja dan ilmu pengetahuan, maka Robert Langdon sang simbolog terkenal dipanggil dari kolam renang Harvard. Dan tentu saja Vittoria dibutuhkan untuk menjelaskan secara tidak sengaja bahwa antimateri juga dikenal sebagai partikel Tuhan dengan kandungan energi luar biasa besar.

Selanjutnya, Langdon dibantu Vittoria berlari-lari keliling Roma, berusaha menyelamatkan para kardinal sembari memikirkan di manakah si antimateri, yang jika baterai penyangganya habis tengah malam nanti akan menjelma menjadi sebuah bom yang menghancurkan sanggup Roma. Di tengah ketegangan itu, terkadang saya juga jadi ingin ikut berlari... pulang.

Siapapun akan sepakat bahwa mengadaptasi sebuah novel ke film bukan perkara mudah. Terlebih novel macam Angels and Demons yang... hmm... saya lupa sebenarnya seperti apa novel ini. Yang jelas cukup membosankan dan mengandung sejumlah kesesatan nalar (ehm...) ala othak-athik gathuk di atas. Kelemahan ini bukan saja terbawa pada filmnya, tapi mungkin bahkan lebih parah karena mau tidak mau film ini tidak boleh lebih panjang dari 138 menit. 138 menit saja pantat saya sudah gelisah.

Kalau dulu saya setengah bercanda menyarankan agar Woody Allen yang menyutradarai Da Vinci Code, kali ini saya setengah serius berharap Ron Howard digantikan Woody Allen saja. Sejak kepala Swiss Guard berkata sinis 'Oh, the symbologist is here,' sudah nampak petunjuk sangat serius bahwa film ini akan menjadi karikatural. Stellan Skarsgård seperti dicap di jidatnya, 'gue-bakal-bertingkah-nyebelin-dan-mencurigakan-tapi-bukan-gue-lho-penjahatnya'. Salut pada bapak-bapak polisi yang mau melawan perintah atasan ketika Langdon berteriak mengusik hati nurani mereka. Dan tak lupa scoring yang luar biasa cheesy.

Ok, film ini bukannya tak punya kelebihan. Setidaknya film ini bisa meng- capture Roma dengan cantiknya, walaupun peta Roma yang dicoret-coret Langdon suspiciously sangat mirip dengan peta gratisan di youth hostel. But seriously, bayangkan Woody Allen sebagai Langdon (plus sutradara tentu saja). Penelope Cruz sebagai Vittoria (Scarlett Johanssen juga boleh, tapi tentu saja dia harus jadi Victoria yang warga Amerika). Ewan McGregor dan Stellan Skarsgård boleh stay, tapi Nikolaj Lie Kaas harus rela diganti sama that British hunk di Match Point dan Bend It Like Beckham (siapa ya namanya?).

Saya janji bakal nonton deh.

PS:
1. Gambar diambil dari sini dan sini. Bintang diculik dari sinema-indonesia.
2. Ngomong-ngomong, gue gak menjelaskan antimateri itu apa ya? It doesn't matter :D
3. I know, I know, gue sudah cukup banyak mencela film ini di fesbuk. Tapi gue lagi kangen sinema indonesia, dan ini film jelek yang terakhir gue tonton.

[429] 9 komentar
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13 Mei 2009
13:03

Ternyata selama ini motivasi gue kurang tepat ya :D

[428] 1 komentar
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05 Mei 2009
01:45

Ini berita basbang si. So last year, literally. Ceritanya WMG bercerai sama Youtube. Walhasil, banyak video favorit gue menghilang dari peredaran. Atau ada videonya, tapi ga ada lagunya. Garing blas. Yang protes tentu saja banyak. Silakan lakukan pencarian di Youtube dengan kata kunci WMG. Apalagi di Google.

Gue termasuk yang kesel. Untungnya gue lagi suka R.E.M. dan mereka adalah penampil panggung yang dahsyat. Yang ada gue malah jadi kenal lagu-lagu mereka era I.R.S. dan Michael mungkin belum gay. Tapi yaa... tetep aja si senep dan merutuki WMG.

Beberapa bulan yang lalu, gue sempet meminta beberapa orang teman untuk ngeliat editan awal film dokumenter gue. Masalahnya, walopun udah dikecilin, tetep aja ukuran berkasnya makan beberapa ratus mega. Gue kesulitan mengirimkannya atau tepatnya, teman yang gue kirimi kesulitan mengunduhnya. Salah satu dari mereka bilang, "Taro di Youtube aja Ran."

What? Youtube? Hasil darah keringat dan air mata gue cuma untuk ditaro di Youtube?
*hiperbola dan mendramatisir suasana*

Yaa... gue si pingin filmnya ditonton orang banyak. Walopun gue tau ga ada duitnya, tapi seenggaknya ditempatkan di tempat yang layak dulu lah. Ga usah festival deh, ketinggian. Diputer di Kine Klab sambil diskusi, ngopi-ngopi, dan makan ubi aja gue udah seneng kok. Setelah dibawa jalan-jalan, diapresiasi secara layak, baru deh ditaro di Youtube. Tapi itu terakhir, kalo guenya udah puas.

Makanya gue kok rada-rada gimana... gitu baca komentar ini di halaman-nya film Cin(T)a di mukabuku.

Gue yang bukan kru aja rasanya pingin teriak gitu. Kebayang keselnya teman-teman gue yang terlibat langsung di situ. Ini masalah darah keringat dan air mata, gan! Dan masalah balik modal juga, gak munafik dan gak sok ga butuh duit kaya gue. Ini gak hiperbola dan gak mendramatisir suasana. Beneran.

Atau enggak ya?

Hati kecil gue menggugat diri gue sendiri.

Yang masi rajin streaming di surfthechannel. Masi sesekali mengunduh torrent. Dan yang pasti, masi punya setumpuk DVD bajakan yang bahkan belum sempat tertonton, 14 ribu kilometer dari sini. Walopun DVD-DVD bajakan itu berisikan film-film holiwut yang kapitalis laknatullah. Dan walopun ada sutradara yang mendukung pembajakan. Tetep gue bertanya-tanya, gimana perasaan Wong Kar Wai atas kenyataan Days of Being Wild-nya yang dahsyat itu bisa ditonton di Youtube.

~~Dan secara, ada film-film yang buang-buang sumber daya yang bahkan ditonton dalam ukuran 320 x 240 piksel pun masi keliatan jeleknya dan malu-maluin perfilman Indonesia aja.~~

Teteup...

Ini dilema gue yang gak selesai-selesai sejak harga DVD bajakan jatuh jadi lima ribu perak sekeping. Dan mungkin ga akan selesai kecuali sampai film macam Waltz with Bashir bisa diputar bebas di bioskop tanpa diprotes FPI.

*menghela napas*
*ngelanjutin nonton 30 Rock*

[427] 8 komentar
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03 Mei 2009
02:57

Today I enjoyed my first Saturday in Leeuwarden, going to museum, cycling around the city, taking photographs here and there. I was looking for a better angle when this lady passed before me, rushed on her bike with a box of grocery tied to the back seat, a true Dutch style indeed. Then all of a sudden, she shouted at me.

Jesus is met jouw.
Jesus is with you.

Unfortunately, I have to admit that after almost two years in Netherlands, my Dutch hasn't improved much. Therefore I needed some times to figure out what she was actually said. And by the time I did, she was already gone. Anyhow, I was amused.

If she meant Jesus as, umm... Jesus, then I thank her. In Islam, Jesus was a messenger of God, even one of the greatest prophets. If Jesus was with me then I followed the path of a very noble man.

If she meant Jesus as God, then I thank her. I reckon she prayed for me, although we didn't share the same belief.

Of course, she was probably just horrified seeing me in sort of the red light district of the city. Although it was five in the afternoon on a long spring day and all I wanted to do was taking this photograph. It's not even that special, it's just remind me of Tom's Diner. I like R.E.M.'s performance of that song. That's right, R.E.M., the one who sings Losing My Religion.

Anyway, it was such a nice gesture.

Dank u wel, Mevrouw.

Lakum diinukum waliyadiin.
To you be your way, and to me mine.
(Al Quran Surah Al Kafirun 109:6)

[426] 8 komentar
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01 Mei 2009
23:36

My friends network in Facebook. I've been thinking about it sometimes, even having it visualized in my head. But this is actually really cool. You should make it yourself*.

The biggest network on the right side is... hmm... ITB. The smaller and less dense part of the big network (the one at the lower part) is mostly my TL network. The upper part, bigger and denser, is... LFM** :D

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* Got there from here, from none other than Roby Muhammad himself.
** Even Athun is included in this, the curse of being too close with this "organisasi aneh"

[425] 1 komentar
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