HOW TO DO DANCE OF THOUSAND HANDS

Originally came from Aceh, Indonesia, TARI SAMAN, is a considerably popular dance amongst High School students in Jakarta and other part of Indonesia. Using the speed of hands, fast yet uniformed movements while seating, Saman is an exciting and enjoyable dance which is challenging at the same time. Despite the fact whether the participants start learning by pure intention to conserve traditional arts of Indonesia or to seek popularity (especially for high school students, including me, whose blur intention of learning*giggle*), Tari Saman still has its own charm until now, and hopefully, as long as the time is.

I was too, a Saman dancer. I chose Tari Saman as my CCA (co curricular activity) simply because I had no CCA at that time. But after the course of time, I started to treasure it and found learning traditional dance gave me kind of good feelings, that I also took part in keeping the spirits of my ancestors alive. I don't really like using this term but, dancing Saman is considered no less cool than other dances (if not cooler).


(One of the highlights of the performance is the make-up. I don't really like it because it should be very heavy, but sometimes it could turn out to be very cool, too.)



(Saman costume)

This is one of the performances when I had left the school, SMA Negeri 78, during the graduation of the senior students.



Or if you want to have a clearer view, this is another performance done by the more professional ones, during IAF 2007. I had no idea where the festival was held, but my guess is it took place in Singapore, as Singapore has a festival called IAF too, which is an acronym for Indonesia Arts Festival.



I have not acquainted someone who can teach you the amazing dance, but if you want to know some of the movements you can ask me :p I also can't recommend you any websites where you can have more information about this dance, the government should really put more attention on it. But it's good if you are interested because, believe me, it's cool!

HOW TO HAVE YOUR BIRTHDAY (the Indonesian way)

So this is Jakarta, a city bursting with colours, vibrant and vulnerable at the same time. While crisis immerse all the business and adults activities, WE STILL HAVE FUN! This is how we celebrate the sacred day for oneself, a birthday. With all its quirkiness and insanity, Jakarta will grab your heart with this extraordinarily superb activity!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED :

-eggs
-instant colouring hairspray, neon colours that grab attention preferred
-fresh water from nearest ditch (prefer the heavily contaminated one, with -distinctly pungent smell near your school so there is chance that your friend would recognise the familiar smell and remember it for the rest of her life)
-soysauce, preferrably the viscous and dense and sticky one
-white flour

ONE STEP AT A TIME :
There are actually a few methods to omit this sacred ritual. One of the typical one is called REDHEAD method. (please note that the writer randomly names things)

THE STEPS :


- On the very day of your beloved friend's birthday, pretend that you are getting mad at her. Note that you MUST wholeheartedly play the role and get out your Oscar quality acting talent by not showing unnecessary mistakes.
- After that, prolly in the afternoon or a few hours later ask her to have a talk and bring along your friends, preferrably in a great mass and ask them to find a hiding place. Choose a venue at which is allowed to carry out barbarous act. (In Indonesia, the best places are medium size alley in front of the victim's house or school parking lot, or anywhere as long as there aren't a lot of vehicles passing by)
- This is the peak point where you really should push the victim to regret her non-existing faults, as if she were the most wicked and loathed creature on the Earth. Keep her under pressure, if you can get tears out of her shimmering eyes, DANG! You hit the bonus point.


- When you reach the climax, give a sign to all your participating friends out of their shelter and with a sudden motion, let them all throwing the essentials to the victim's body. If you are not determined which one you should launch first, you may want to try my own sequence : soysauce, ditch water, eggs, then white flour (so the flour can stick altogether). Complete the look with colouring hairspray, but remember to spray it all over her body instead of just the head part. (note : avoid contact with eyes, we don't want an accident here) For a more glimmering look, you can opt for sparkling glitter.

- After the ritual completed, don't forget to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her and ask for an apologise. Say that you just want her to have fun, or treat her a memorably different method to celebrate birthday, or you just wanna try out the Indonesian method promoted by me.

THE AFTERMATH :


this is how they get rid of shabby hair

I miss the super cooperative guard of our school,Rauf, who will blithely take care of the vigorous ravages :'(



I was still in Jakarta when this photo was taken...

TRIVIAL FACT :


- In Indonesia, or Jakarta in particular, this ritual is popular among high school students who celebrate their 17th birthday. It is common that after this sloppy rite the victim will celebrate her birthday in a cosy place with good food, in "return" for the treats her friends have given.

IMPORTANT NOTE :
- The quantity of the raw materials needed depending on the number of participants.
- You can be as creative as you want by adding your own secret ingredients (maybe decaying eel corpse?) or modifying the method used.
- For you who are more lenient, you can use ready-to-eat cake instead of those materials.
- Get as many as participants as you can to contribute to your project, otherwise the dying victim might curse solely you forever.
- HAVE FUN and GOOD LUCK!






P.S THIS WRITING IS DEDICATED TO ANINDYA DWI WULANDARI, MELITA PUSPITASARI, AND NADIA VELLA WHO WERE HAVING THEIR BIRTHDAYS RECENTLY.(I'm sorry for the very late utterance, wish you have wonderful birthdays there!)

the sweater song

it's been all the way easy for me to get under pressure. I would be tired of the chores I had to do everyday, I would be unforgiving to those faces I had to see everyday, I would torture the way I live.

Eat, sleep, and repeat.

I don't want to listen to the people complaining, the rush of early morning trains. I wish I could be a typical protagonist who possesses huge confidence and freedom to do their own thing. I wish I stood that out, I wish I wasn't afraid of being odd.

I wish I could pull back my shoulders, chest ahead and strong face, stern brain that could turn out the world. But who am I? What am I? I've always ended up on the last line, tearing my eyes apart, shredding some shabby tears,and drowning my head deep, sinking into the stack of pillows and bolsters and blankets, like someone who just saw hollow ghosts and refused to talk to world.

I wish I had a friend, who is just like me here.

ready to swing

okay perhaps now you have noticed more or less I changed my songs on my playlist.(factually, I constantly change them though) Any of you annoyed of the sudden noise the moment you step into my blog? Don't worry folks, just tell me and I wouldn't mind :) Anyway, some of the songs on the playlist are songs from Malaysian artists (though I did put Indonesian's too) I don't know whether you have any idea who they are, but let us acknowledge, Yuna Zarai and Zee Avi :)

Yuna inside her store in London, Iamjetfuel.

Yuna Zarai, an indie musician and a songwriter, has been quite a hit in Malaysia indie scene since appearing with breezy, easy flowing song in Malay "Dan Sebenarnya" (first song on my playlist) Her other song, Rocket, has been aired frequently in both Indonesia and Malaysia. Firstly I must say that I love her music, sounds mostly like Feist and other acoustic and folk-rock artists, which are my favourites too. Secondly, I love her voice. Calm and crystal clear, and a little bit jazzy. And not forgetting her style, which is just clever but not too overwhelming. More about her, just click her myspace

Zee Avi, 23, is another Malaysian talent. Her music is said to be inspired by 1920'3 and 1930's swing and jazz. "With an eclectic pool of influences that range from such eccentrics as Cat Power, Regina Spektor, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Jolie Holland, Daniel Johnston and Chris Garneau, to jazz greats Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, to classics like Velvet Underground and Led Zeppelin, this self-described "rock lover at heart" captures the dark, bittersweet qualities of romance with a crack left open for hope and optimism." She is known for sweet melodies with bitter lyrics, which I enjoyed the most. Listen to my favourite, Bitter Heart, which is featured on my playlist too! More about her at her official website



Enjoying them? I know the tension has increased nowadays between these two neighbouring countries. I'm not taking side, though you sure know I come from one of them, Indonesia. That doesn't mean that I have less love for my country than you do, it's just better to show them by being supportive and lifting the good name of our country by not mocking another country with shallow vain. Some of us are just easily provoked, but I believe there are some people like me, too, in both Indonesia and Malaysia, who are open-minded and rational enough to view the matters objectively from better perspective. Not intending to sound like "teaching" you guys, it's just unwise to let the tension present without proper reasons.So, cease the fire, and ready to swing with the music! Indonesia and Malaysia, both have widely ranging talented music, sometimes it's just you never know, or never want to know. So, are you with me?

SCHOOL DROLLS

For cmd project, and sorry I've got no time to resize and organize these mess.

Secondly, the poll now has been closed! Thank you for participating :B So...Pixie Lott wins by a slight one vote. I'm quite disappointed as my preference is the other girl, Little Boots. She's way too talented...plays music and clear voice at the same time. I love her style too! But it's quite amusing though, to see that Pixie Lott is more popular. She just held a performance on MTV World Stage in Malaysia. Anyone of you watched her? Ok but not so entertaining for me.. I only know one single of hers though. This single, Mama Do, has quite merry beat and sing-a-long and dance-a-long-able. But still, I love Little Boots. More.

Thirdly, Twitter is overrated, Facebook is crowded, Myspace is dull, Deviantart is boring, and Blogger is retarded



Trivial image of the day : Facebook before it has got too crowded :giggle:

odds out

It's good when you miss someone, but it's weird when you don't know what and who you're missing.

basic space

this is a post made on midnight, 2:47 o' clock when I started. By the way, I rarely sleep late. Seriously. But tonight I couldn't sleep a wink at all and decided to sneak into my own bedroom. I don't know what I really want to talk about, but I do contemplating so many times these times. What do you think? Ah, and if you want to know what I've been thinking about, this is it : future. If you could travel through space and time, would you like to go? Skipping bad moments, rewinding those good times, and fast-forwarding sad clips in life. So you can live to the full. Is that true? I don't know, I might not want to know at all, actually, some people believe that you can do better if you can live your life once again. But this is the most cliche answer, said by all the beauty pageant candidates and big names in music industries : "all the things happening in my life, whether good or bad, they are part of the learning process and leading to the life I am living now. So I'm not gonna change a thing," complete with a toothy wide smile and bubbly enthusiasm. I, too, may will say the same thing if I have a name to protect. But since I am a nobody-not yet, I can say whatever I want, can't I?

If I could live my live once again, I would
embrace every moments to the fuller limit, enjoy everyone's company, without having to worry about tomorrow. And I won't wanna go back at all.

Because now, I miss trivial moments I used to think I wouldn't care a hoot at all.

It's not that I want to live in the past, it's just that I am really graceful that I had such a past. No adjective needed, because they all are dry when I start using them to define those times. I'm not gonna say "I don't need to go back at all, I love my life now." No matter how good my life is now, or my life would be, I'll really love it if I have the chance to travel through space and time.

Let's move to the other thing.

Lately, I feel like writing music, melody. I know you might be laughing at me. I've never been able to play guitar, and I seem to have no talent at music at all. If you were gonna tell me those things, you need not. I know that. But words are never enough to elaborate the space and time I am in, and it feels really really terrible when I can't get what's inside out. So I know, I have to learn.

Recently, I've been missing something. But I don't know what or who it is. Any ideas?

(Indeed I miss my daddy, I haven't met him for a month. Anyway, I saw more people are missing his/her daddies. I know your pain, folks.)

FRINGE

remember again that yesterday I told you I miss having fringe? I've got it back now! Hehehe it was jut a plain madness when I was staring at the mirror. I sighed and complained how boring it is to see the same face all over again (giggle) and indeed it was since I'd never done any change for months. Cool, eh?for I am one of the easiest people to get bored, especially with what they have. Alright, that's all for now. See ya :)

,and it means I'm missing all those time.

You know what? I miss having a fringe.

Cast your view!

Little Boots


Pixie Lott

Both are fresh, energetic, talented, and have become a talk of the town recently. But which one is your personal pick? (Take a look at the poll on the sidebar, please.) Of course, I have my own favourite but I'll save it and let you guys judge first :)