An incidental internet browsing had brought me and my husband to Bali to spend a weekend last week. Here are several things I learned from the trip:

1. The uptight me can finally do something impulsively without resulting in embarrasement or disaster.
2. Travel light, yes, but never again wear disposable panty during a trip to a heated tropical island. It does not absorb sweat, it makes your skin itches and you end up scratching and tore the fragile panty. It also generates acidic aroma and, alas, ruins your day of wearing micromini skirt you never get the guts to wear in Jakarta.
3. Remember the episodes of Friends about the trip to Barbados where Monica's hair goes frizzy and unruly? No kidding, man. Everytime I went to Bali, my hair was always long enough to be tied in a ponytail. But not at the moment with barely shoulder length. The combination of heat, humidity and direct sun exposure then made me look like a cross between singer Rita Nasution and Medusa.
4. When you expect a so-called honeymoon with a lot of sex, don't stay in the middle of Kuta. You'll end up exhausting from dragging your feet from one store to another, caught in a shopping spree amid the heated sunshine, and feel asleep the moment you hit the bed.
5. No matter how culinary adventurous and health freak you are, don't order Macrobiotic Plate from a cafe specializing in organic food. IT DOES NOT TASTE GOOD. Everything else in the menu is no problem.
6. A lot of pineapple juice releases constipation.
7. After all these years and all the trips to Bali, it still a fun and great place to visit.
8. After five years of living in Jakarta, I still hate the city.

NOTES:
Places I stayed, went and recommend:
- Puri Dewi Sri hotel. El cheapo, only Rp 110,000 includes air conditioned rooms, hot water, breakfast, tv, pick up from and to airport. Check out in www.geocities.com/puridewisri
- Bali Buddha Cafe (the organic food place), and Spa Hati. Check out the place in www.naturalguides.org and click bali favorites.
- Made's Warung or Warung Made. Need I say more?
- Ginger shop in Jl. Basangkasa No. 3A, Seminyak. Lots of great stuff to buy, with reasonable price.

Posted by hera at 4:07 PM | Permalinks | Comments   

It took me an hour, a cup of coffee and a lot of staring blankly at my computer, just to find the right words to describe my feeling last night (clear proofs of overwhelming emotions AND poor vocabularies knowledge :D).

After a long wait, last night, I finally watched the movie my best friend Joko Anwar directed and written: JANJI JONI (search imdb.com or janjijoni.com for details).
A mixture of feelings grabbed me, but it all boiled down to pure exhilaration and joy to see that he made it. His childhood dream to be a filmmaker has come true, his script he kept for years finally realized and the film works just fine.

The script is carefully treated, the pace is almost entirely correct, the editing is good, the soundtrack is raw and, well, cool! The moral of the film's story? Who cares!!! Does Kill Bill have a moral of the story? And unlike the current local movie releases, Janji Joni is unpretentious, witty, fresh and lighthearted. It's not trying to be bigger than it really is.

As the credit title rolled out, I couldn't help myself but cried, although it was a comedy.

I was just thinking about the first time Joko and I met. We didn't like each other at first. I thought he was a typical, arrogant ITB bastard. He thought I was a snobbish rich kid (why does everyone think I'm a rich kid, anyway? I'm not flattered at all).
But we talked about films and we just clicked right away. Man, what a fucking movie freak he is. He could recite dozens of lines, from Hollywood movies or even cheesy local horror flicks. He's insane. But brilliantly insane.

I love you, man. You've done a great job.
And I'm soo looking forward for DI LUAR MUSIM, DEAD TIME (already hinted in Janji Joni)and KETIKA ANDRI DAN HARYO BERDANSA and all of your works to be realized.

And, oh, don't let ANYONE take credits for your works ever again.

Posted by hera at 5:00 PM | Permalinks | Comments   

Last weekend was extremely tiring, and a bit of a torture. With two other colleagues, I had to screen the entries for short film festival held by one of a private tv station.
We've watched 70 films out of the total 200 something in 2 days, and alas, all of them were ABYSMAL.

Those filmmakers wannabe don't even know the concept of a short film. They just think it's a film with short duration, period.
The results are as described by a good friend of mine, short filmmaker Tintin Wulia: "..a great number of feature-length-wanna-be masqueraded as short film. A cut version of a big film. An unconscious imitation of the most popular format in Indonesia: TV soaps. A lengthy, boring version of one idea that could be simple and smart had it been treated the proper way."

People are lulled into the romanticism of making independent movies while knowing nothing about it. And sadly, although foreign films have been inundating the country, they still refer to bad TV soaps (which also occured to one of the most "noted" filmmakers in the country).

At the Indonesian Film Festival (FFI) last year, where I was also member of jury panel for short film category, the entries were much better. At least, over half of them were watchable, although the rest fit to Tintin's description earlier, and around a third of them were really impressive.
However, from what I heard, those filmmakers who submitted their works to FFI, are reluctant to send their films to TV, for some reasons. There used to be a short film festival in another local TV station, but strangely, the station claimed the rights of the films, which drove many filmmakers mad.

This time, however, the TV station who hired me does not claim the right. But still, the filmmakers don't want to submit their films. Apparently, TV is less prestigious than a film festival, so by sending their works to TV, they will lose their face, or mocked as selling out.
It's a bit of a headscratching for me. I mean, they'll have a wide exposure for their works and get paid too, which is great. And it's part of educating the audience, which is their responsibility too.

As for the TV station, it shouldn't have jumped into holding a film festival right away. It should've started with making workshops, teaching people the basic technic of filmmaking etc. Then the result of the workshops can be aired.
Not intended to bite the hands that feed me:), but the people in the TV station, sorry to say, don't really know what they're doing. They have little idea about the local "indie" film scene, how poor it is.

In the mean time, I just have to do what I'm asked to do: Watching and picking 48 entries to be aired on TV. So far, we haven't found even one. We're REALLY worried.

Posted by hera at 3:47 PM | Permalinks | Comments   

Why it's so difficult to love your family members.
Why we get so upset with the people we love
and why our emotions often get the best of us -- Six Feet Under

A typical family visit: Daddy would sit on the corner, reading the paper.
Sister sits in another corner, reading as well, while Mom would tidy things up.
The question is, why bother? Let's just meet once in a while, reducing the
friction, and keeping the stuff that aimed for the backburners to stay there.

Instead, redundant sentimentality overshadows logics or simple niceties.
Ugh, the horror of my wedding day flashed before my very eyes. Again, the sickening sentimentality permeated the air, with an addition of unprecedented and predictable wickedness, it ended up making me nauseous.

And you people are asking me to have kids immediately? Please..

Posted by hera at 2:38 PM | Permalinks | Comments   

I never thought this time would happen. My editor had warned me though, when I first joined the paper. He said people won't get rich working as journalist.
But back then, salary was not my consideration at all. What I knew was that I love writing, and that picking chemical engineering in college was a mistake (although I didn't regret it), and I was accepted in a quite respected place (which will look good on my cv). If the salary was only a couple of hundreds away from the minimum wage, so what? I'm no anak gaul who spends a lot in dugem or clothes either.

Now, however, it starts to become a big problem. Here I am, working my ass off for five years, but what do I get? Only a few electronic devices, no savings and still living in a rundown rumah susun.
Now that I'm married, I wanna live in a decent place, I wanna have a house. But damn, it's so goddamn expensive! My husband is a journalist too, and as much as I love him (mmuah), he doesn't earn much either, working at that bloodsucking media mogul who placed his children/relatives in the office.

So, we're looking for other job now. The first offer for me came from a society magazine, although I was initially applied at its sister magazine, a travel mag. But thinking of writing about the Paris Hilton-esque and the likes or rich ladies with bouffant hair make me nauseous so I dropped it.
The second offer was from an international news agency, which would have been a good leap in term of money and career. But then its central office decided that the bureau here didn't need more journalist. Sigh.

There are some other possibilities, but that means I have to make a career shift. It's a bit tough cause I really love being a journalist and I haven't done anything yet. I mean, the Pulitzer, hello? :) There's still an urge to write groundbreaking stories, The Insider-like piece, perhaps.

I'm still luckier than many other journalists whose salaries are barely Rp 1 million (less than US$100), which prompted them to take the 'envelope'. Sad, isn't it?
And recently I had this talk with a friend who said the pretty same thing with my editor, that people working in the mass media don't make money, even in the UK. That's why the media are recruiting rich kids, or only rich kids are willing to work in the media.
It's just sad.
I mean, what we're doing is also an intellectual work, which also requires tough physical stance. But appreciation is zero. We even started giving byline for every article only around two years ago. Before that, only our initials appeared on the paper. Byline was only for 'in depth' articles or feature piece.
No other paper here even bother to give bylines.

So, back with me. If I can't find a job in other media, I'm thinking of getting any related job as long as it pays well. I'm gonna save up for a year or two, then I'm going back as freelance journalist.

But for now, I'm still stuck here. Vacancy, anyone?

Posted by hera at 7:05 PM | Permalinks | Comments   

Being non religious/agnostic means I should also respect people who strongly clench to their religions, right? Especially when I used to be one of them.
But there's something with those people, well not all of them, but they are sure many, that I just can't stand and makes me grimace everytime I encounter their likes.

It's the holier-than-thou attitude, the us vs them way of thinking, their narrowmindedness.. or pretty small stuff but really got my nerves, like, the urge to always pepper their talk with holy words, like, "Subhanallah", "Masya Allah" (I swear to Go...I'm gonna beat them one of these days:)), or, you know, naming their kids with undecipherable-tough to pronounce-and later on will get the kids in trouble at airports Arabic names (enter Dhaffa,Syafira,Qudsy,Namirablablabla)!!

Another thing is the tendency to always "defend" their religions, as well as God (being almighty, don't you think he/she/it can defend himself?). It's always like, "there's nothing wrong with the teachings", "it's a dogma so why don't you just swallow it?", or "the distortion in teachings? patriarchal? ooh that's just the enemies saying to tarnish our image".

It's always symbol over substance.
Come on, people. Religion is history. And history is written by winners.
So, save your breath and just relax.

Posted by hera at 11:45 AM | Permalinks | Comments