there are two places that i like very much to stay as longer as i want to.
the first place is cinema or theater. the second place is a bookstore.

yeah, a bookstore is like a my-own-rendezvouz if i get bored or if there are no good movies on cinema ;p. and i spend like an hour just to enjoy what's new on new-released racks or which books that in a best-seller racks. or just adding some books into my wish-list.

especially a bookstore with a discount promo. hell yeah! i can spend around two hours and a half there and drowned my self into the books and be autism for a moment. haha!


just like what i did on Tuesday May 26th, 2009 in Gramedia Bookstore in Grand Indonesia. there's a 30% discount of ALL ITEMS (exclude electronics) for their grand opening. well, it's my second time to attend a grand opening of that bookstore in my town. on my first time, i lost my consciousness and bought 4 books at once! (which a rare number for me to buy some books). and today, i did the same, bought 4 books at once and planned to go back because there 2 more books that i want to but i didn't bring enough money. huhu!

and i'm so damn HAPPY!
it's have to be celebrate! (well, that's why i'm writing this blog)

yeah! it's a happy day for me! because when i get into a bookstore, i rarely buy some books and rather putting their titles on my "wish-list" just because i never have enough money at the time. or if i have enough money, i need that for another bussiness. so it's like a window shopping for me if i "hang-out" in a bookstore. just see if there are a new titles, what's the best seller on that time, or reading and look sadly to the book of i wanted. pathetic!

but if there a discount, oh hell yeah undoubtly i can spend a lot of money for that. of course, it's because a discount promo is a rare event, isn't? and perhaps the items that has a discount may out of stock.

lately i bought a Periplus Map of Philipine only Rp. 10.000,- from its original price around Rp. 123.000,- it's almost 93% discount! ahahaha!

well i don't know if i a victim of commercialism or promotional events or something like that. what i do know is i really like books and rarely buy them (just because of money, argh!). and i really use the discount promo moment to fulfil my desire.

aaaaanyway, i just bought Lonely Planet Story (oh yeah, it's completing my travelling-book collection), Botchan (as my friend's recommendation, Peter Pan & The Shadow Thieves (to support my thesis, yeah don't ask! i'll explain later!), and The Old Man & The Sea (just because i want to begin to know about Ernest Hemingway). and i bought them for only Rp. 145.000,- from its original total price Rp. 190.000,- . yeah!!

and actually i really really want to buy Lonely Planet of Philipine but after 30% discount, it's still waaay too expensive for me. the original price is Rp. 303.000,- and if i bought it, it will be the-most-expensive-book-i've-ever-bought. well, i really have to think it again.

so that's it, i just want to share my happiness for today, for fulfilling my book wish-list. hm, i think i have to make a new wish-list. anyone want to recommend any books?



PS: the 30% discount promo of ALL ITEMS (exclude electronics) will be held until May 31, 2009 on Gramedia Bookstore in Grand Indonesia.

ah kangennya menulis dalam bahasa Indonesia. sorry for my international friend, i promise on the next post i will write in English again. i'm just too miss already to write in my own language. ok? so see you on the next post!

nah nah nah sudah lama yah gue engga bercerita ringan di blog ini. dari postingan bulan Januari kayaknya yang beraaaaaaaaat mulu. padahal kalau beberapa hari lalu gue iseng buka-buka Elmo's Street, postingannya yang ringan-ringan krupuk gitu jadi asik kan nulis dan bacanya. hihi.

jadi apa yang terjadi, mo?

aku punya earphone baruuuuuu! yihiy!



iya iya setelah punya webcam baru dengan merek ga jelas dan didukung oleh harga termurah se-cempaka mas, gue membekali diri gue dengan earphone baru setelah earphone lama gue rusak bo! ga bisa nunggu lama lagi karena kayaknya ga bisa aja menghabiskan 30-45 menit perjalanan rumah-kampus atau kampus-rumah tanpa didukung oleh sarana musik di telinga gue. hoho.

setelah sekian lama mensurvey, earphone apa sih yang oke dan tentunya harga yang paling pas dengan keadaan dompet melarat gue. pertama, satu keputusan besar yang gue buat adalah dengan memilih earphone bermerek! oh ini merupakan sebuah keputusan besar bagi seorang timo, karena biasanya si anak bodoh ini selalu memilih barang-barang tidak bermerek yang penting MURAH. ahahahaha. udah gitu ga tau diri pula, mau cari yang paling MURAH tapi dengan kualitas yang SEBAGUS mungkin. ahahaha pathetic.

kenapa? karena gue belajar bahwa earphone adalah sesuatu yang menempel di telinga lo dalam jangka waktu yang sama. ya trus? udah pengalaman sih, 2-3 kali gue beli earphone murahan di pinggir jalan atau di jembatan benhil yang harganya ga pernah lewat dari tiga puluh ribu rupiah. kualitas suara sih oke TAPI OH TAPI biasanya enga bertahan lama. yaaaa paling lama cuma 3-4 bulan saja. kenapa? biasanya earphone murah nan gembel tersebut lama kian lama akan semakin rontok. yup, RONTOK! yang karet di pinggiran speaker copot lah, yang kabelnya tiba-tiba kekopek lah, yang speaker juga bisa copot lah. brodol! aduh emank harga ga boong lah yah!

dan dengan pengalaman tersebut, gue pun mengikrarkan diri untuk membeli sebuah earphone yang punya merek dagang yang lumayan oke di mata dunia. dan pilihan gue pun jatuh pada PHILIPS SHE1360 dengan harga hanya lima puluh ribu rupiah! yeah!

yup, seri yang ini memang yang paling murah di spesiesnya. ada sih seri yang bagusan yang "Extra Bass" gitu tapi harganya juga lebih mahal, sekitar delapan puluh lima ribu. ah dengana keadaan dompet yang bener-bener sekarat, ya udah lah yang seri ini aja. mepet juga kebutuhannya. lumayan lah dengan kocek segitu bisa dapet merek dagang PHILIPS yang lumayan kan? ya kan? lumayan kan? bener donk? iya ga? iya aja deh? ya ya? yakin? pasti?

ehem okay. apalagi di boxnya ini bahasa Spanyol. wah mantep punya nih kayanya kan. sapa tau ada fasilitas terjemahan otomatis bahasa Spanyol-Inggris atau Inggris Spanyol kalau gue lagi nonton film Spanyol atau ngobrol sama temen-temen berbahasa Spanyol. ihiy!

pas dipake, yaaaaaa lumayan sih. bisa kedengeran vokal dan instrumennya. trus suarana bisa dikecilin atau digedein lewat volume di mp3 player gue. bisa digonta-ganti pula lagunya. atau pilih folder lagu yang mau dimainin. keren kan??

eh eh yang paling gue suka dengan menggunakan earphone atau headphone tuh, ajaibnya si musik itu serasa berdentang di kepala gue loh! ya ga sih? walaupun kita memasang si earphone atau headphone di kiri dan kanan telinga kita, tapi suaranya serasa muncul di tengah-tengah kepala kita! serasa otak ada speakernya gitu loh! atau serasa dari jidat gitu muncul suara! ahahahaha..

kadang-kadang gue suka amazing dan norak sendiri sih kalau plugged-in gitu, yang mata gue bisa bergerak ke tengah atas untuk mencari-cari asal muasal si suara musik itu, "amazing loh! speakernya ada di kiri kanan telinga, tapi suaranya kaya ada di tengah kepala gini!". haha!

eh gue udah menambahkan widget gue di Persimpangan Elmo ini loooh! liat deh ke kanan, ada SHOUTBOX! yipiy! emank sih templatenya masih standar, tar gue perganteng (kalo percantik kan buat cewe) lagi deh! jadi langsung aja ya kalau lagi males komen di postingan, komen di shoutbox juga boleeeeeeee buat ngejunk gitu. ahahahaha!

sama pollingnya juga diisi dooooooonk! tiap bulan mau gue kasih polling-polling menarik sih. haha!

yah biar postingan ini jadi postingan rehat aja sih sebelum kita mengikuti kelanjutan perjalanan gue seputar Paris dan Eiffel. so siap-siap buat part tiga, udah diketik sih tinggal klik publish aja. hoho!

finally, it's over!
for the time, for this year.

Preparation
so, since around one month and a half ago, me and Johan help our friends to preparing the play of Jesus' crucifixion story that will held on the morning of the Good Friday. we invite young people, do casting on them, and trained them to get the character. and this is our second year for directing.

there's quite big differences between this year's and last year's. of course with the casts; a lot of new people and some old friends that i asked them to help. the other thing is i've made a little arrangement for the script that originally written by Roland Wiryawan when he wrote the script on 2005. because i found out that this year's casts didn't fit for the script. at least we still keep on going.

our every rehearsals, didn't went quite well; lack of cast, bad schedule, some of the properties are missing. but surely we still have some fun and for this one month and a half, we've made another brotherhood and fraternity.

for technical thing, i still use my minimalist and simple concept from last year, especially on the decoration because i use no decoration at all. and i will strengthen the story with lighting effects, nice soundtrack (some of the songs from Taize ;p), and a good make-up effect.

D Minus
three days before the Final Rehearsal, i've got a terrible news. one of the cast got ill and have to get rest in a hospital. and this character is one of the important character. got panic because i can't delete this character, it's related to synchronicity to the other characters that related to this character. but, the show must go on!

so desperately, i tried to contact one of my friend who played the same character on last year's play. fortunately, she can help. she asked me to held an additional rehearsal, one day before Final Rehearsal to know the dialogues, blocking, and synchronicity with the other casts. and thankfully she can do her best. she's a great actress! ;p

finally came the Final Rehearsal day that held on one day before the D-Day. and the Final Rehearsal really below my expectation. i don't know why but there's a lot of mistakes that the casts did, their acting didn't get up to the top, their vocals went down, and a lot of techincal problems. and these things really ruined my day and just hope for the better on the D-Day.

It's Not a Show
here comes the D-Day. we gathered around 6 o'clock and began to make-up the casts. i used2006's photo of casts that held a really great make-up effects because >on that time we hire a professional make-up character artists that used to make-up professional theatre group. but from last year and this year, i only asked some of my friends that can do the make-up character and use the photos for the references. and this year's result is way above of my expectations! even much better from last year's. unbelievable! even i can't believe it if these make-up effects is done by not-professional-make-up-character-artist! ahahahaha....

for the technical thing, i asked some of my friends to take care the lighting and sound system. there's only 9 people who helped on these things but gratefully, we done the things within one hour! ahahahaha.

before the play, the priest once again reminds us that what will we perform isn't a show, but rather a guidance. every dialogue, expression, body language, business acting, every little thing we do in the stage is to guide the people to remind, reflect, pray, and build their faith back.


















09.00, it's show time! begins with opening song, prayer, and Jesus start to walk down into the church, guarded by cruel soldier. He got accused, tortured, and condemned to death. He brings his own heavy cross, whipped, spitted. Finally, His hands and feet were nailed to the cross. Her mother cried in pain. And He took his last breath.














me, i've made my own cameo appearence to become Barabas, the criminal who got released. have no dialogue at all, but it needs a great expression and temprament. only seconds appearance but it's a strong character that helps build the story. still can't believe it, the people wants the cruelest criminal ever got released than this innocent Son of Man.














Tears, Tears, Tears
after my appearance, i look around to see the people who sat down in the church, trying to see what they see, feel what they feel. and i found a lot of people, mostly women, hold napkins or tissues in front of their face, with starry eyes. uhm, were they cried?

and i quite shocked to found out that the organist and solist which i asked them to help to fill the >score, watch the play with starry eyes as well. spontaneously, i asked one of them, "wowh, you're crying?" and she replied, "it's sad, mo..." wowh! ;p

yes, one of the the indicators that the Jesus' crucifixion play was success is to see how many people who walk out the church with tears. of course it's not a certain thing that they really reflect on Jesus' miseries, but at least that tears is the tangible thing that they really felt about the story, about on what they watch, see and feel during the play.

after the play is over, i instructed all of the cast wait in the side of the church while all of the people slowly walk out the church, because we wants to take a photo inside the church. unexpectedly, the people who walk out passed us, begins to thanks and congrats us. finally came this old lady to Jesus' cast, and begins to hug put her hands to "Jesus'" face, talking something while she cried. don't know what exactly she said but i think she really see and feel Jesus' presence, on him. it's a deeply touchy moment.

from that moment, me and Johan were realized that, to portray Jesus' character, it's not only depends on physical things (tall, good looking, etc), but also has to have a good personality and charming. and i admitted that this year's Jesus cast is have that 'charm' in a way.

Epilog
overall, i'm really satisfied with this year's play. all of casts do their best, over the top. even above my expectations. all of my worries about vocal, articulation, expression, acting, etc is vanished by their performance. my strategy to emphasize on "little" scenes such as Israeli Women, Meeting with Mother Mary, Veronica, etc works really good. and we helped by a great crews as well. such a good work and great team-work. great sound so we can hear much better, great lighting effects, great make-up, great documentation. amazing!

so, it's a long and tough way journey of this year's play. begins with my laziness to direct this play, but ends with proudness of what the casts has done. begins with a lack of people who played the casts, but ends with a lot of feelings after the play. a lot of obstacles in the way, but paid with full of blessing.

Happy Easter!


Credit to:
Casts
Nando as Jesus
Rere as Mother Mary
Indra as Peter, Simon
Kenrisen as Kayaphas
Patrick as Hanas
Stevanus as Pilatus
Tere as Inciter #1
Bianca as Inciter #2
Angel as Inciter #3
Richard as Inciter #4 who can't made it to the play
Amel as (Additional) Inciter #4
Vincent as Head of Soldier
Shady as Soldier #1
Petrus as Soldier #2
Mario as Soldier #3
Vian as Soldier #4
Yoriza as Veronica
Betty as Israeli Woman #1
Kartika Meliana as Israeli Woman #2

Crew
Agung
Boni
Dimas Cilix
Devina
Fanie
Felix
Ivan
Pius
Toni

Documentation
Aart
Rangga
Valent

Make-Up Artists
Amel
Melly
Rere
Sesi
Yoriza

Musicians
Indri
Marcella
Sisi

Producers
Rm. Ari
Fr. Bayu

me and my friends always share of something interesting that we've found on the internet.
it's just yesterday that one of my friends gave me this YouTube link and i watched it.
once i watched it, i was stunning. it so cool! what a brilliant idea!

so there's a some kind of group that called them self "Improv Everywhere". founded by Charlie Todd in 2001. these people use to create scenes in public. what kind of scenes? a prank.

yes, a prank that make chaos or joy in public. the idea is to give something unusual happening in public to entertain people from their daily routine. the prank is not a bad prank. instead of made people upset, the prank made people feel hilarious. One of the main goals of Improv Everywhere is to add excitement and happiness to otherwise dreary routines.

and the another best part is that they design some kind of prank and involve as many people they need to, to help the scene. these participants is called agents.

so far Improv Everywhere already held around 80 missions. and i wanna give you some higlights of the missions that i think it's brilliant.

so the first highlight is, the mission that called Frozen Grand Central.

lately, i like to use the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet, when i have trouble to listen what people on the line said, or to say something to people on the line via telephone.

the problem is, not all of the alphabet i know about radiotelephony alphabet, such as J, L, Q, S, X, Y, Z. but at least i know how to spell my name.

so i was searching on Google, using keyword: Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta Echo, i found many links that help me. one of those link, there is a link that come from Wikipedia. so i found out that this kind of alphabet know as NATO phoetic alphabet or more formally known as international radiotelephony spelling alphabet.

but before read this article, i thought F was for Fanta, in fact F is for Foxtrot and M was for Mama. in fact, M is for Mike. haha!



so for helping me and all of you, i quote what has wiki said...

Letter	Code word	Pronunciation	IPA from ICAO (see below)
A	Alfa (ICAO, ITU, IMO, FAA) Alpha (ANSI)	AL FAH	ˈælfɑ
B	Bravo	BRAH VOH	ˈbrɑːˈvo
C	Charlie	CHAR LEE or SHAR LEE	ˈtʃɑːli or ˈʃɑːli
D	Delta	DELL TAH	ˈdeltɑ
E	Echo	ECK OH	ˈeko
F	Foxtrot	FOKS TROT	ˈfɔkstrɔt
G	Golf	GOLF	gʌlf
H	Hotel	HO TELL (ICAO) HOH TELL (ITU, IMO, FAA)	hoːˈtel
I	India	IN DEE AH	ˈindiˑɑ
J	Juliett (ICAO, ITU, IMO, FAA) Juliet (ANSI)	JEW LEE ETT	ˈdʒuːliˑˈet
K	Kilo	KEY LOH	ˈkiːlo
L	Lima	LEE MAH	ˈliːmɑ
M	Mike	MIKE	mɑik
N	November	NO VEM BER	noˈvembə
O	Oscar	OSS CAH	ˈɔskɑ
P	Papa	PAH PAH	pəˈpɑ
Q	Quebec	KEH BECK	keˈbek
R	Romeo	ROW ME OH	ˈroːmiˑo
S	Sierra	SEE AIR RAH (ICAO, ITU, IMO) SEE AIR AH (FAA)	siˈerɑ
T	Tango	TANG GO	ˈtængo [sic]
U	Uniform	YOU NEE FORM or OO NEE FORM	ˈjuːnifɔːm or ˈuːnifɔrm [sic]
V	Victor	VIK TAH	ˈviktɑ
W	Whiskey	WISS KEY	ˈwiski
X	X-ray or Xray	ECKS RAY (ICAO, ITU) ECKS RAY (IMO, FAA)	ˈeksˈrei
Y	Yankee	YANG KEY	ˈjænki [sic]
Z	Zulu	ZOO LOO	ˈzuːluː

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet