Sense of Paradox

My Letter to Rolling Stone

2010-01-28T21:55:00.000-08:00

My first mail was successfully published in the latest February 2010 issue of Rolling Stone Indonesia:

February 2010 Issue. Cover picture from here

Click to enlarge

I know, I know. It may be just a piece of nothing. But, it really means something to me because:

1. One of my ambitions in journalism is to write articles for reputable magazines or papers. I’ve tried some ways to give a shot and keep my endeavors but yet I don’t make it. I’ve sent some articles to some printed media, but I realize I’m still lacking for experiences (not to forget, title. I’m just nobody) and I understand that my writings aren’t yet intriguing, enriching and like the standard editor’s notes to reject articles: don’t give illumination and have no enough originality. I admit it. And I got to keep going for any effort I can do. Trying to find bright ideas to elaborate and put down in a piece of paper or a page of ms word document.

2. As I mentioned before, I’m dying to write for famous printed media. I got to start somewhere. After some ‘huge’ strategies that came to failure (to be exact; sending articles to newspapers criticizing serious social phenomena in society which was of course could be easily dumped by the editors as they preferred the same writings from famous persons or experts or well-known writers who could tell it better than I did; contacting editors through facebook and email), I then decided to do a small step, writing a letter or reader’s mail.

3. I was so overwhelmed at the very first moment I found it. I know it’s only a reader’s mail page but hey, it’s Rolling Stone! I know that Rolling Stone won’t let any nonsense letter to be published in its page. They would be very selective to decide which mail that’s appropriate to be shown in the page of Rolling Stone mag. Another reason why I’m so embarrassingly happy is because I’ve been dreaming that someday my writings (any kind) or my name is printed in Rolling Stone.

4. I’ve been wondering how I can do that even if it’s just a reader’s mail. Why? Basically, I’m not really a music person (though, on the contrary, I’m absolutely not zero if you’re asking me about music; I like top 40s but I do have references for indie scene or so-called good music taste of any genre). I somehow imagined being young journalist for Rolling Stone like Cameron Crowe’s depiction in the movie Almost Famous. That’d be cool, too cool. First of all, I got to be true to myself, as I’m not really into music, I have to start humbly from what I am.

After all,
To me, it’s really a nice start to boost my energy and gain my spirit to go after what I want, to give my efforts more than what I’ve done.

This is the content of my mail (of course it’s been cut off in some parts and edited), translated with a lil help from instant Google-translator:

Honestly, as an MTV generation who grew up with hip-hop songs and commercial beats of pop music without being closer to the actual music community, I am not fully able to absorb everything in the RSI (RollingStone Indonesia). One thing that makes me keep reading RSI, because in my opinion RSI has its own identity and values that are characterized in every article.

I do not know if anyone has ever bring it before, but I think the music industry situation now is not the decline of Indonesian musical tastes. This phenomenon can be seen from two sides apart. In my opinion, the creativity and existence of high-quality musicians are now growing and voiced in the international arena though they are less highlighted in public.

The mushy and sloppy malay music phenomenon is due to the emergence of groups of new 'music lovers', those who had suddenly become active music consumers due to phenomena such as Ring Back Tone and musical events that are now more and more broadcasted on television. Are they really true music lovers? I said, no. They are the people who previously did not really listen to music in their daily lives. Based on my own observations, Ring Back Tone is only favored by the sudden 'music lovers' as social identity. For those who really love music, actively or not, would rather thought that Ring Back Tone is unimportant and unnecessary and prefer listening to full-albums.

This is the original version (if you care to read):

Walaupun tidak berlangganan, namun saya hampir tiap bulan membeli Rolling Stone sejak tahun 2006 saat saya kelas 2 SMA, dan terkadang saya juga mencari Rolling Stone edisi lama yang belum saya miliki seperti edisi perdana. Jujur, sebagai generasi yang dibesarkan MTV dengan lagu-lagu hip hop dan dentuman beat-beat pop yang komersil tanpa pernah dekat dengan komunitas musik sebenarnya, saya memang tidak sepenuhnya bisa menyerap semua yang ada di Rolling Stone. Satu hal yang membuat saya terus membaca Rolling Stone, karena menurut saya Rolling Stone obviously memiliki identitas dan nilai-nilai tersendiri yang sangat berkarakter di dalam setiap tulisannya. Saya tidak sekedar ‘membaca musik’ tetapi serasa memiliki satu perspektif lagi yang berbeda.

Saya antusias setiap kali Rolling Stone menerbitkan edisi seperti 150 lagu terbaik sepanjang masa versi lokal, sebagai bukti keseriusan bahwa Rolling Stone Indonesia tidak sekadar menjadi ‘penerjemah’ dari Rolling Stone Amerika seperti saat awal-awal terbitnya majalah ini di Indonesia. Memang tidak harus selalu dengan cara seperti itu, namun edisi itu menjadi penting karena dua hal. Selain alasan keseriusan di atas, bagi saya edisi itu menjadi pengingat kita semua akan musik-musik lokal yang bagus terutama setelah industri musik kita mengalami ‘kemunduran’ dengan munculnya band-band mendayu yang hampir seragam.
Saya tidak tahu apakah sudah pernah ada yang mengemukakannya sebelumnya, tetapi menurut saya keadaan industri musik sekarang ini bukanlah kemunduran selera musik Indonesia. Fenomena ini bisa dilihat dari dua sisi yang terpisah. Menurut saya, justru kreativitas dan eksistensi musisi yang berkulitas kini makin berkembang dan bersuara di kancah internasional walaupu kurang disorot publik seperti Sore, White Shoes & Couples Company, Superman is Dead, Sandhy Sondoro, Dira Sugandhi, Tika and the Dissidents, dan lain-lain.

Fenomena musik mendayu yang marak belakangan ini adalah akibat munculnya golongan ‘pecinta musik’ baru, yaitu mereka yang tiba-tiba menjadi konsumen musik aktif akibat adanya fenomena seperti Ring Back Tone dan acara musik yang kini makin banyak disiarkan di televisi. Apakah mereka ini adalah benar-benar pecinta musik sejati? Saya katakan tidak. Mereka adalah orang-orang yang sebelumnya tidak benar-benar mendengarkan musik dalam keseharian mereka. Menurut pengamatan saya sendiri, RingBack Tone itu hanya digemari oleh para ’pecinta musik’ dadakan itu sebagai identitas ’gaul’. Bagi mereka yang benar-benar mencintai musik, secara aktif atau tidak, lebih menganggap RingBackTone sebagai hal tidak penting dan tidak perlu dan memilih mendengarkan full-album.

Lalu kenapa lagu melayu yang mendayu? Karena musik itulah yang lebih mudah diterima ’pecinta musik’ dadakan yang jumlahnya sangat besar itu, yang tentunya adalah orang-orang melayu. Selain itu kalau kita amati lagi, banyak dari mereka yang berasal dari daerah pedesaan dan menengah ke bawah yang sebelumnya hanya menggemari lagu-lagu dangdut. Musik melayu yang masih menyisakan nada mendayu ala dangdut itulah yang membuat mereka dapat menerima ’pop’ dan kini meninggalkan dangdut sebagai respon terhadap tren yang ada sekaligus upaya mereka ’menaikkan status sosial’. Inilah yang membuat seakan-akan selera musik Indonesia mengalami kemunduran padahal sebernarnya tidak. Karena di sisi lain, masih banyak juga pendengar yang makin sadar musik dan seakan tidak terlihat akibat ekspos televisi yang berlebihan terhadap musik mendayu dan jumlah penggemar acara musik dadakan yang jumlahnya jauh lebih banyak.. Fenomena keseragaman ini justru bagi saya terlihat seperti trigger bagi para musisi lokal independen yang memiliki kreativitas tinggi untuk lebih nyaring bersuara seperti yang dilakukan Efek Rumah Kaca dalam lagu-lagunya.

Bagi saya sendiri sebagai orang awam, saya tetap optimistis dengan kreativitas dan musikalitas musisi Indonesia walaupun kurang disorot masyarakat luas di tengah industri musik yang sedang resesi. Saya yakin, sebagai sebuah tren, para pecinta musik dadakan itu juga nantinya mengalami pendewasaan sendiri dalam apresiasi musik (atau tidak?). Viva musik Indonesia!

A bit offensive in some points indeed. So sorry. I don't really mean it.
Got your own opinion on what I stated in my mail?

30 Rock Cast

2010-01-23T21:34:00.000-08:00

30 Rock. Wickedly funny. Like this pict too.

First of All, Total Randomness

2010-01-21T00:16:00.000-08:00

The idea of making up new blog of mine is kinda silly. Since this is, maybe the fourth blog of mine, I have to make it on purpose (which I don't determine what kind of purpose it's gonna be, yet). Anyway, it happened because all of a sudden I was in mood to vomit what's on my mind. And I think open up new pages in blogspot is a 'brilliant' idea--perhaps it's the only thing I can do now. On the other hand, it's a way to get rid of my boredom during mid-semester holidays for a while. So here's my total randomness on everything I carried thru on the last few weeks spending my time at home with laziness.

On College
Last semester was fine. Quite hectic in the end, but it's normal. My GPA's stable, which is of course better than declining. By the way, I gotta really really be prepared for upcoming semester. I kinda got a feeling that the next semester will be much harder. The reasons are obvious. The online academic registration went really hard. I didn't just click the subjects and save 'em, I also had to wait afterwards because there's one big problem; clash on schedule that led to the other problems; the credits and subjects that I could take so I needed to get consultation with my academic advisor.

Here they are, my classes for upcoming semester; intermediate accounting, management accounting, public sector accounting, business communication, macroeconomics, taxation and management information system.

Finally, it's done. And thank God, it's done as I planned. Yet, it's just the beginning. The subjects I'm gonna study for the next six months are 'heavyweight'. They can take my entire energy, consentration and seriousness. Sigh. Yeah, it's the consequence. Sooner or later I gotta face it. What I'm thinking now is how to put that positive suggestion in my mind as it's told in Rhonda Byrne's piece of shit (The Secret's Law of Attraction). So at least I still can smile and talking good things to people while I'm struggling with assignments and other jobs instead of swearing much. Amen.

On Writing
This holidays, I plan to write anything as much as possible. Turns out, this blog post maybe the only writing I seriously made. Oh, crap. I was interested in joining scriptwriting competition for an Islamic Movie (not really my cup of tea) Days event in my campus. The script was not finished. I was stuck in the middle and it just hit the deadline. Oh, crap, again. I can continue working on it if I want tho.

By the way, I want to share a lil bit of nothing;
You know, Charlie Kaufman used to be the only screenwriter I really admire for his unmatched uniqueness and brilliance and genius that he put in his writing for 'Being John Malkovich', 'Adaptation', 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' and the latest 'Synecdoche New York'. Now, not anymore. He's not the only one. There's another screenwriter that takes my attention; Tina Fey. I've known her few years ago, but didn't notice much for what she's been doing. Later I knew that she was truly amazing. One thing I really like from her is the way she explores herself in a hilarious yet funny way without much narcissism. She was a mean nerd, everybody knows that. And she's still mean and offensive as her nature and she can make everybody love her. Suck it, those people who don't. She's damn hot for what she is.

Charlie Kaufman and Tina Fey

On Golden Globes and Oscars
Some of you who accidentally read this may think that I'm a piece of shit by taking care so much on this kind of shows. But hell to the yeah, I do care, because this is my interest and escapism.

Okay, my personal favorite to win Oscars for Best Picture and Directing is Hurt Locker and Inglorious Basterds. But I can admit if Avatar will clean sweep the trophies. Since it has groundbreaking achievement in visual effects which I don't think it should top the other aspects a film must have; such as the story line and plot. For this one, I'd like to say Up in the Air is the best.

I have no idea for acting category since I haven't watched the Blind Side and Crazy Heart which brought Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges up to the winner's podium in HFPA's Golden Globes and BFCA's Critics Choice. One thing for sure, distinguished performance in supporting role category for Mo'nique (Precious) and Cristoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds) should be awarded Oscars. I can't imagine if they're defeated by the other nominees.

On Politics
Ladies and gentlemen, this is now the dirtiest era in Indonesian politics that has become a public circus where you can see how funny our politicians can be. Above all, it depends on your own faith. My banal instinct says that I have to believe in integrity of those intellectuals (Sri Mulyani Indrawati) and fighters (anti-corruption commision AKA KPK). This is when missunderstanding of different perspectives (the Century case, between government, economists, and politicians) is being abused. This is where the criminal politicians or corruptors and righteous government agents go through a battle. The later should win. Or else, the truth prevails. Whatever that is.

This is where I gotta stop. So thank you for reading this. Totally random.