Humans

It was so good to be held. If only our relationship could be distilled into simple, wordless gestures of comfort. Why had humans ever learned to talk?

The Drip Painter

 Jackson Pollock (1912 - 1956) The Deep (La Profondeur) 1953

What if Pollock had reversed the challenge? 

What if instead of making art without thinking, he said, 

'You know what? I can't paint anything, unless I know exactly why I'm doing it.' 

What would have happened? 

He never would have made a single mark. 

The challenge is not to act automatically. 

It's to find an action that is not automatic. 

From painting, 

                    to breathing,

                               to talking, 

                    to fucking.  

To falling in love.

Wild Charms

To the doting girls by your side
Riding roughshod on your starless nights 
To he who played concertos foul and black
Upon my heartstrings and never looked back 
What became of those wild charms? 
The deep fry of the tide? 
The tug of the stars? 
How it stirs me, how it stirs me now:
to think my fire burnt them out

Gary Clark Jr.: His Golden Grinder

If anybody claims music nowadays has sold its soul and such, you might want to show them some of Gary Clark Jr. It’s been a while since I stumbled onto good music these days which gives me a certain something, of which roughness somehow could inflame the dancing youth and also brings light alleviation like an old blues. There is energy of an apparent raw talent scorching on fire as Clark performs “Bright Lights” on his EP entitled the same one in 2011. Despite his first major label LP, “Blak and Blu” (2012), didn’t scored any hit single, Clark’s music had made Eric Clapton want to play again, even Buddy Guy thinks he might save the blues, so as mentioned by the Rolling Stone. Through his latest album “The Story of Sonny Boy Slim” (2015), one of his tracks, “Grinder”, which portrays survival struggle of a hard-working man, he transcends some gritty blues-based rock through his heavy grinder. And still on the same album, he lets his tender falsetto croon in “Our Love” sends you back to 1960s classic rock feeling, the kind of gentle music you could listen to while having an afternoon coffee sip or the one which could simply lull you to bed. Influenced by blues, jazz, soul country, as well as hip hop, Clark’s music is like an offspring of past and present; those of soulful smooth vocal of Marvin Gaye, fuzzy guitar chops of Jimi Hendrix, and earthier timbre of John Mayer. Indeed, when he said, “You can look forward to some loud guitar, some sweet guitar. Some things that I’m into”, he just precisely sums up the stark naked truth about his music.

Take a listen to his performance of “Grinder” and “Our Love”. Perhaps then you’ll feel what I feel about this talented soul, Gary Clark Jr.

Her (A Movie Review)

Good Day, Earth. How have you been? It’s been a while since the last time I post in anything, after the Creative Writing class and stuff. Now here I am, brushing up my dusty corner of this self-expressing space *sigh* all over again.

Today I just watched ‘Her’, a 2013 mind-provoking love story directed by Spike Jonze. All of a sudden I think I could use some succinct review of this movie starring Joaquin Phoenix as the lead character. So here it goes..

On a first glance, I had a notion that ‘Her’ is going to be like some documentary-ish romance of a deeply-fall-in-love man who's incapable of moving on from a female, i.e. her ex (crush or lover). And turned out that prejudice is just close enough—except that the subject here is barely a living soul.

Initiated with an acknowledgement of the mankind period under the reign of technology, the film introduced Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix), a man who practically lives his daily life with it. Theodore, whose job is to write others’ letters, is one of those who grabbed the latest fascinating artificial intelligent operating system. What makes this OS beg to differ is the feature of an intuitive entity which doesn't only listens and response to you, but it also knows you. It gives you sensation of communicating with an actual person, either male or female which has a mutual understanding with you.

By such cultivation on technology, it wouldn’t be impossible then that social interaction between human could get outperformed by an OS, especially to those with an anti-social disposition. That is exactly just about what happened to Theodore, who kept on seeking for a rebound—all of which were aided by technology around—after he got separated from his ex-wife, Catherine. From virtual games to blind-dates, Theodore winded up falling for his disembodied female OS, Samantha.

On his relationship with Samantha, though, the vexation of how real their feelings are often gets at Theodore. Despite the fact that he realized the oddity of such a relationship, he started to think that the feeling and everything about it was real. This led him to fight for her, until one day, he caught up the bitter moment in a conversation with Samantha. He learned the fact that besides talking to him, Samantha also talked to thousands of different people all at once. As if it was not bad enough, it got worsened as he figured out that she was yet to fall in love with numerous of them simultaneously.

Through the film ‘Her’, Jonze likely lets us, indirectly, perceive the social condition of people these days. He thoroughly portrayed the way human started to deduce their social connection with their kind due to the technology advances. Within ‘Her’, we were dragged to the lonely modern world where apparently, not only to facilitate human life, technology is also in charge of human escapism from reality. In this case, the captivating plot has the ability to engage our perspectives and emotions to both Theodore and Samantha. Even the sweet soundtrack, The Moon Song by Karen O also conforms to the melancholy ambient; nicely wrap the whole mood into a single harmony. Ultimately, I’m glad to say that I actually love ‘Her’.

Loempia Boom

“This is a real good spot. Let’s take a seat here, guys,” said a friend, Ai, as she drew out a chair from one of a table. I was just going to reply ‘why’ until my head turned southward, then I knew what she was talking about. Out of the rows of buildings and uproar of the city, the yellowish green paddy field was stretched before us, framed with the green trees on the left side and the bright blue sky above.

Located on Jalan Selokan Mataram, Pogung Dalangan, in Yogyakarta, this restaurant presents a different point of view to see the city. The weather was prone to hot as we stepped on the second floor of “Loempia Boom” restaurant. It led us then, to pick a shady spot in the furthest corner, from which seen the red, yellow, and green lampions hung under the edge of the roof. Just like us, numerous of the other visitors are mostly teenagers to the middle-aged people, who seemingly enjoyed the tranquil ambience of the place.

Aside from the good vibes it spread out, the name “Loempia Boom” itself straightly hints to the specialty of this modest restaurant: lumpia. The lumpia served there is not just the ordinary one; ‘boom’ sounds pretty much like something extra, which is the size. Normally, a lumpia—also known as spring roll in English—is in a size of a man’s palm, with bamboo sprout as the filling. But this one is unlikely into normality. It has a jumbo size. Twice as big. Around 20 cm in length, probably 3 cm in width. Comes out with various fillings, as of chicken, beef, sausage, meatballs, seafood, or even chicken gizzard, loempia boom simply breaks the conventional lumpia. This golden brown dish features as a side dish, along with rice, plus the extra raw vegetable and sambal (grinded chili)—which completing each other.

Arranged on a plate of besek—a typically Javanese traditional plate made of weaved-bamboo—the shrimp-filled lumpia emits a yum aroma, inviting us to chomp it promptly as it is set on the table. Once the slice of it landed on my tongue, gently I ground its warm crispness. Just nearly at the same time, the diced carrot and sauteéd eggs touched my palate smoothly, pleasantly tender. And even that it was needed an extra attempt to make my gustatory sensitive in finding the shrimps, yet when I did, the savory of it tasted delicious. As if the whole of lumpia were dancing a melancholic waltz in my mouth.

Another friend, Tiyan, admitted that as chewing a slice of chicken-stuffed lumpia, she could hear the scrunch of her dish’s surface within her head. Once she came to munch the fillings of carrot and bean sprout, she grasped their tenderness that melt together. The mixture of naturally sweet carrots, bean sprout and scrambled eggs are all in balance with the well-seasoned chicken. It goes even more challenging when she dabbed her lumpia with the red-hot sambal, of which casting grains of sweat upon her philtrum. In accordance to what Tiyan said about her dish, Ai portrayed the sensation she gets for her lumpia as alike. The only difference lies in the filling she chose, the pungent tasted chicken gizzard that kicked her tongue in a morsel.

Also in her lumpia hunting, Nia preferred to order boombastic lumpia and oseng jamur boom. Tagged with the most complete fillings, she was allured by the image presentation of bombastic lumpia. The most dominant taste when her teeth crushed it was the carrot with its sweet smoothness and the chopped of well-spiced chicken. Combined with the chewy meatballs, sausage, and slices of beef, this lumpia is such a pleasure to eat. Whereas, the presentation of oseng jamur boom was delightfully colored: white of the mushrooms, garnished with red and green comes from the chili. Each slice of the mushroom was set in a bite size, and it was fresh on account of being undercooked.

But then to have a meal without drinking would be so unfair to the throat, so we ordered several distinguish beverages, one of which was ice tape with milk. Tape is a Javanese traditional food made of fermented yeast, that basically can be enjoyed by itself. For me, though, to take a sip a glass of stirred tape with milk was just a little piece of heaven. The combination of sour and sweetness comes from the green tape and its rice-like texture just felt complete with splash of creamy cold milk.

If a glass of ice tape with milk rather comes as semi-traditional, a number of Western beverages also served in this restaurant. With its slim long glass, the chocolate colored vanilla latte indeed tasted like the fresh, real melting chocolate bar. Covered with the soapy white float, the upper layer of this chocolate drink tastes sweet as well as mildly salty. For those whose tongues are a big fan of sweetness, vanilla latte would be a great accompaniment anytime.

As an alternative for those who wants to get relieved from thirst in a hot weathered day, a healthy choice offered in the menu is a glass of strawberry float. The composition is simple, with a red colored substance hints to its juicy freshness. If the flavor brought by the smooth strawberry juice is typically sour, a scope of vanilla ice cream upon it softens the taste, leaving a refreshing mixture throughout the throat.

Another beverage offered in this restaurant is indeed as fresh as its name, “the rainbow”. Splashed colors of deep red, green, and bright blue is apparently such a joy to watch. As a soda-based drink, the rainbow has an ability to calm down your body by the drops of mint extract. Served with ice, this cold syrupy drink is not only pleasing to sight, it glides down the throat like a dew in early morning.

Ultimately, with such enjoyable dishes, atmosphere, and less than Rp 10,000 for each food and drink, it is more than just a lumpia. It is “boom”.

Kim Yee Seul

Kim Yee Seul, a Korean girl with her acrylic paintings, has been dreaming of being an artist since she was 4. Tagging her pieces as chic, cool, gorgeous, and cute, she has taken both male and female models, unique cars, or yacht as her objects. Yee Seul usually paints anything as she wish, along with splashes of her imagination. Influenced by Vincent Van Gogh as a kid, one of her works portrays a long-haired girl in crimson jacket and blue jeans, side to side with her favorite artist’s radiant ‘sunflower’. She strokes her canvas with bold contour, shades of smooth gradations, and vibrant palette, as an insight of the bliss she seeks in the art of painting.

Click here to see more of Kim Yee Seul works

Couple of Hours with Mbak Sonya

“My childhood was…happy. It’s all I can say,” asserted the young lady in grey who sat in front of the class, her smile shone up the room since the first step she walked in.

Long-haired, charming, fashionable. The lady introduced herself as Olivia Sonya Aresta, a graceful name goes well with her way of speaking. I wouldn’t have realized at first if she hadn’t told us by herself. She is the extraordinary one.

All eyes on her, each ears opened to listen as she brought in her story. Not a single time she made us dying too serious over her story; she's got a knack to crack everyone’s laughter in the class. Mbak Sonya, everybody calls her so, began to flashback her journey as a super glad little lad lived in Klaten. While she played around with boys, she had always gotten beaten, or at least always dirty, she said. That is why she would rather get along with girls, who played clean, with their beautiful dolls and the cook-wannabe games. Concisely, she did show her instinct of femininity since she was a boy.

As she grown up, she decided herself not to be a man, but a beautiful woman instead. “I wish I was born as a girl, you know,” she said as adjusting her seat position. By her high school days, sometimes she loved to wear any gown or skirt outside the town, but it turned out that she encountered her schoolmates who later mocked her of being ‘girly’.

However, that feeling of chagrin isn’t visible any longer in her. Mbak Sonya has gotten way more confident with who she is now. A proud and beautiful waria—Indonesian term for “ladyboy”—is what she is. In spite of her Mom’s disapproval of her identity, even as she hasn’t communicate for over than 3 years with her parents up to this present day, she still feels determined of being a woman.

Of washing her thought of her family who still don’t want to accept her, Mbak Sonya then busied herself with a great deal of social activities. During her period as a volunteer in PKBI (Perkumpulan Keluarga Berencana Indonesia), Mbak Sonya gave elucidation to the society regarding HIV/AIDS and how to ward it off. As one of LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer), Mbak Sonya who has taken a part in her people struggle to have the society approval, has given her all to be heard, to be accepted as they are. Being a volunteer in a local village during post earthquake of Mount Merapi, an ambassador of KPID (Komisi Penyiaran Indonesia Daerah), and a series of the other humanity deeds, she has proven it all. That waria doesn’t worth as an object to mock. They are a subject who could actually do something to society, the one that the average people might have no guts or will to do.

Ultimately, Mbak Sonya’s appearance in the Creative Writing class last Monday closed with Mbak Abmi’s words. “It doesn’t matter what you are; whether you’re a man, or a woman. What matter is, how to be useful for everyone around you”.  

I knew it since she walked in with that smile upon her face. She is extraordinary. Not her appearance, no. But because she is the man.