My Own Musical Roots Perspective : Punk Rock

Punk rock merupakan salah satu cabang dari Rock yang berkembang pesat dan menjadi punya banyak sub-genre hingga kini..

Pertama kali punk rock dikenal secara luas itu melalui Band “ The Ramones” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7FdJajqxmU http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ramones sekitar tahun 70-an. Band ini berasal dari amerika serikat dan ciri2nya merupakan blue print karakter punk rock hingga sekarang : Gaya acak2an dan amburadul, lagu yang simple sederhana dan tidak menonjolkan skill2 individu, lirik yang rebel dan anti kemapanan, etc..

Perkembangan dari punk rock menjadi beberapa sub genre : anarcho-punk • art punk • crust punk • garage punk • gothic rock • glam punk • hardcore • horror punk • Nazi punk • Oi! • riot Grrrl • skate punk….dan satu lagi Post Punk..

Yang akan gw bahas lebih lanjut beberapa aja yang memang gw lumayan tau aja..

Post Punk

Muncul di sekitar medio 70-an dan 80-an dan berkembang di daerah inggris raya..post punk terasa lebih gelap tapi mulai berani memasukkan elemen2 tambahan yang berasal dari synthesizer dan sound2 lainnya..salah satu pionirnya yang melegenda adalah Joy Division : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzTw4PYfROU ..band ini berasal dari inggris, lebih tepatnya dari Manchester yang memang merupakan kiblat perkembangan post punk di inggris…bahkan dulu sampe muncul istilah Madchster Scene karena banyaknya musik2 post punk yang berasal dari  kota ini..this is my own preferred music style, now you know where my e-mail id came from huh? J setelah sempet ngilang di taun 90-an dan awal 2000 (tergusur era2 Brit pop dengan Blur dan oasisnya). Sekitar  3-5 tahun belakangan Post punk balik lagi (istilahnya Post Punk Revival) dengan band2 seperti  : Franz Ferdinand  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZGcw9HHOkU

, The Killers, White Lies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7v5f54u2lw&feature=related..  Band2 ini memunculkan post punk yang lebih danceable, dan maka disebut juga sebagai dance punk..

­Skate Punk / Hard Core-Melodic Punk

Karena nuansa musiknya yang agresif, punk rock memang dekat dengan jiwa para skateboarders, dan jadi sering dipake di event2 skate board..sampe jadinya malah muncul sub-genre tersendiri ini..ciri2nya musiknya lebih melodius ,ceria, beat2 2/4, ga neko2, liriknya juga teenager oriented http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9u6rB1RkrI

Beberapa band yang sesuai dengan aliran ini : Bad Religion, Offspring, Blink 182 , SUM 41.. oya, di Indonesia juga dah ada yang model2 skate punk ini, nama bandnya Teenage Death Star asal Bandung : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA-UkThxY1k

Khususnya untuk music EMO yang lagi happening sekarang ini menurut gw adalah masih percabangan dari hard-core Melodic Punk tapi berkombinasi dengan Gothic Punk..Musiknya lebih dekat dengan gaya2 melodic punk  hanya saja approachnya penyanyinya dan liriknya lebih emotional, banyak screaming dan lirik2nya sensitive..Gaya pakaiannya diambil dari Gothic Punk yang didominasi dengan warna2 hitam..band2 yang termasuk ini ya kita udah pernah bahas : My chemical Romance, Dashboard Confessional sampai 2^nd hand serenade.

Sekian dulu untuk hari ini, kapan2 kita sambung lagi…

Tiananmen Square 1989 – Tank Man

Thanks to twitter, i’ve been updated with so many useful information lately and just now TIME magazine tweets about this tiananmen square issue. They gave me this link :  Tiananmen Square – 1989 (Tank Man) which is a photo gallery from that incident in 1989. The photographer him self also gave comment of this photo. He gave quite a tragic actual view of that devastating incident.

I’ve heard about this issue before but never really had the opportunity to know the detail so i google and find many information. Tiananmen Square is a mass destruction chaos, it’s a man slaughtered by machine, human rights versus autocracy and the winner is the one who got most power. Thank God that i lived in this democratic country, or let just say close-to-democratic..hmm, maybe not so close but we are trying..are we?

Dramatic Reality Show Phenomenon

Lately there are new trends that i saw  in our television scene. A show categorized as “Reality Show” (The definition of reality show for me is a show that are made as close as can be to reality but still it is not the real thing) where it  tells a story of someone in such a dramatical way.  It all began with this show called ” Termehek-mehek “. The purpose of the show was to find long-lost brother or friend of someone. But in every episodes in every searching journey there will always be an intrigue.  And sometimes it made me wondering whether this intrigue are for real or fake. Nobody knows.

But then what become more interesting is that recenty there are more shows that following “termehek-mehek” strategy, not copying the exact concept but still selling the “reality show” and “dramatic intrigue of one’s life.  Husband and wifes with internal problems are now exposed to public (fyi, the MC of the show is a soon-to-be divorced man..ironic crap), guilty-feeling person try to ask forgiveness is now exposed to public and even broke-up couple that are considering to reunited are also exposed to public. And this shows are coming from different TV stations, it means that those Media Guys already realized that this kinda shows did attract many viewer and off course they don’t want to be left behind.

What is really going on here?What does it mean if we enjoy this kind of shows? (I have to admit that there is one episode of the husband and wife conflict shows that drag me a lil bit)Does it mean we care fore them?Or we are actually being mean because we use other people bad experience as a way to amuse us. Is it truly that bad if we watch this kind of shows?Should we propose to eliminate this kind of shows?!

Hmm, eliminating is way to dictating. As we live in this democracy country we should appreciate those fellow media guy who is just doing his job. They see this kind of shows as a business opportunity and utilize it. This is not wrong but in my opinion needs an improvement. If this shows is just seen as a way to entertain and amuse the audience how dare they did this. I challange them to create this show  to be inspiring, that in every episodes there has to be a moral story that guide the audience. Pretty simple example is the Desperate House wifes TV series. In every episodes we watch and enjoy intrigues between those characters, some ares seriuous intrigue but some are just daily neighbourhood issues. But the director never forget to give the audience the purpose of the intrigue. It usually spoken in the beginning or the end of the episodes or sometimes in the middle of the story. I hope those media guys can read my blog and try to apply this. Let’s not make our people to be non-productive melodramatic character, it’s all in your hands! We’ll be watching over you!

If reading is boring enough, then i shall start writing

It’s been a couple of months since my last post in this blog. Is it because i’m too busy?Not really..There has been no new project happening in my office so Mr. Engineer here is kinda bored with his days actually. So how come i didn’t have time to write in my blog? simple answer : “I FORGOT!” yeah..i forgot that i have a blog which i can share my views and expressions. I’m spending too many times in reading other people views and expressions through other media. And now since reading is starting to freak-a-boring me out then i shall start writing..fellas, I’M Back!!

kaboom...i'm back...yippie ka yay

Dunkin beat Starbucks!

This morning when i was reading online times magazine my eyes soon captivated by small banner in the right corner of the page. First i thought it was just an ordinary Dunkin Donuts advertisement but then this sentence came out : ” Dunkin Donut beats starbucks in a national taste test “. The aura of the sentence is quite offending and it’s not very often (especially in Indonesia) one brand mentioned other brand in their advertisement. Especially if the purpose is as a statement that their brand is better than others. Usually they don’t mentioned the brand but just the characteristic of the brand, especially the bad characteristics of course. Well, back to the topic, then i said to my self : ” what the heck is a taste test ? is this some kind of jokes? ” well apparently it’s not a joke because national taste test really exist in the States and Dunkin really beats Starbucks and they seems to be very proud of it. I think it’s also an interesting facts for us Indonesian people because most of us definetely usually think that Starbucks coffee is “better” than Dunkin Donuts coffee. The reason probably anything but the taste, could be because starbucks is trendier, more happening, fancy decoration, looks more elite, more expensive (pricey means quality for some people) and last but not least you will have a better style if your walking while holding a medium cup of frappucino in your hand. Dunkin Donuts outlet decorative are actually ok, though they are not special. But if you really looking for a coffee maybe you should think again. So what’s ur choice? tell me!

Check this website for more details : www.dunkinbeatstarbucks.com

Comparation of tank filling method based on fluid mechanics point of view

A few months ago, in UNILA mech. engineering forum there was this topic about fluide mechanics posted posted by one of our colleagues, i try to gave my opinion on that topic and now i like to share it with you..semoga berguna…

Ada bak air yang sangat tinggi (seperti gambar), akan diisi air dari sebuah danau, ke bak air yang isinya setinggi 25 m,
cara mengisi ada dua:
1. kiri : air dari danau dengan pompa lalu pipa dari bawah bak air
2. kanan: air dari danau dengan pompa lalu pipa dari atas bak air
ket :gambar bulat = pompa, garis hitam = pipa
Pertanyaannya :
a. Cara yang mana yang lebih baik, dilihat dari energi yang dibutuhkan (listrik untuk pompa dan besarnya pompa)?
b. bak mana yang lebih cepat terisi?

gambarnya di bawah ini:

debit air berbanding lurus dengan diameter pipa dan diameter pipa dianggap sama.

So, here’s my answer :

Kopi Lay- Mall Kelapa Gading 3-3rd floor, Jakarta

Last Saturday i went to MKG3 to catch some movie, but it wasn’t my lucky day coz in the end i failed to got a ticket. Actually the seat were not really full yet, but the remaining available seat  were only at the front row. Too close to the screen and i’m afraid that we won’t feel comfy watching from that distance. So after we got out from the XXI i headed back to the food court area, just strolling around with no direction. I still can’t figure out what to do..And when walking near the “eat and eat food market” area my eyes were attracted by this unique store. .the decoration theme were “old-time/classic/jadul chinese coffee shop”..it’s the type of coffee shop that u will find in public market in china, not fancy or luxurious but it was very unique. and also it seems that in china coffee shop are supposed to be an unity with a groceries store. That’s why here in Kopi Lay we will see numerous products such as powder, toothpaste, soap and other daily needs placed in front of the cashier desk (in this case it’s not for sale just for decoration purpose)

in front of the coffee shop

Their menu specialised in coffee, tea and toast. They have 3 different kind of coffee : black coffee, coffee +milk, and ice coffee. For the tea they have teh tarik and liang tea.Their toast selection (i only remember 2) are toast kaya (srikaya flavoured) and peanut butter toast. They have reasonable price range, where a glass of coffee/ tea cost around Rp.15.000 and toast cost around 10.000. That night i order 1 coffee+milk, 1 teh tarik and a toast kaya.

the glass and plates also "jaduls"

Asu can see in the picture above, everytime u order a coffee/tea u will get a coffee taste biscuit..this biscuit is very sweet and good but personally i think it doesn’t match with the coffee. Coz the coffee it self already really sweet and combining it both will cause “over sweet” (hehe..i don’t know if this is the right term but intiny mah kemanisan atuh…). But the coffee it self taste okay, not very special but still enjoyable. The teh tarik taste better i think, it has the original flavour of teh tarik. The toast kaya was also okay, they use ordinary bread that we can found daily in the traditional market (i was expecting a softer bread, but maybe they pick this type of bread to keep the characteristic of an ordinary chinese coffee shop). The srikaya layer on that bread is too light and too thin i guess. But well it’s actually a personal taste coz when i eat srikaya bread at home i usually use thick and solid layer. I like if the srikaya taste to be very definitive..

Overally it was fun experience eating there, the decoration of the coffee shop gave bigger portion on this feeling (it gives fresh atmosphere and inspiration of a quick photo shoot around the set..hehe)  but the food and drinks were also okay and the price is worth with the taste.

interesting spot for a photo shoot