AR: The Academy in Peril

John Cale - The Academy in Peril (1972)

JC, if you don't know and lack the critical faculties to utilize Google, is a classically trained avant garde composer and former bassist for The Velvet Underground. This a post VU solo effort and largely a reference to said classical training*; as such, it's mostly instrumental, quasi-modernist classical compositions with one rather jarring Eno-esque trip into the realm of pop smack in the middle of the record ("Days of Steam"). The instrumentation is fairly varied, with solo piano, trumpet, strings, acoustic guitar, drums and bass, and found sound / spoken word all dotting the record, reaching the maxima of London Symphony in moments and the minima of minimalist solo piano in others. The weird-just-to-be-weird perhaps unsurprisingly rears its head, too, with static television producer instructions running alongside a string quartet on "Legs Larry at Television Center" and whispered, menacing taunts thrust at Henry VIII on "King Harry." Um ... yeah. All said, this is more-or-less a music-as-museum-exhibit work, not meant to sit behind the clinking of cocktail glasses nor to be so much enjoyed as appreciated.

* - It's a great title, but such melodrama probably deserved more in the way of an exhibit of exactly what is threatening the academy. I fully confess that I'm not well-steeped in this domain, so maybe I'm brutally missing something, but I just don't think this album bridges the classical-pop-modernist-experimental gap enough to warrant a title that references the alleged conflict.

I did my usual trick and listened to this one on repeat until it sunk in, ... alas, it's fairly intractable. I almost automatically tune it out the second I stop listening closely (aside from the above-mentioned weird moments and the pop melody), so I'm hard-pressed to recommend it along anything like the usual continuum. Headphones and an anti-MTV-generation level of focus are musts. With that rather colossal caveat, this is good stuff - the tracks notably lack the dissonance of many a mod-clas tune, and even those weird moments aren't particularly grating. It's just a bit difficult to follow the logic - the pop tune is by FAR the thing that stands out most - and while that betrays by naivete more than anything else, it still stands there as an indictment. So while I recommend this as an odd excursion, I don't really recommend it for everyday consumption - I prefer genre-blending forays to full-on leaps into the avant garde, and this one makes me jump a bit too far. Still, worth checking out.

Status: Recommended (solid) ... sort of

Nyet's Fave: "Days of Steam" (lame, I know)

Science fiction predictions...

that came true. There is a lot of debate about whether or not the majority of science fiction predictions come true. Of course, the easy answer is no. Hundreds, even thousands, of science fiction books are published every year. Most sink like silent stones in the vast cultural pond.

The Clarion Content's editor attended a lecture this week at Duke University, by the great science fiction writer, William Gibson. Gibson made this very point, most science fiction predictions do not come true. He further noted that despite being visions of the future, years on, science fiction books are viewed as a commentary on their times. So while he wrote Neuromancer about the year 2025, it will be viewed by history as a book about 1984 which is when it was published.

It was interesting then, only days after this lecture and absorbing this point, to see a list of eleven science fiction predictions that according to Sarah Kessler of Mashable came true.

Check it out here, from the tank to the i-pod, from the cubicle to the escalator. Kessler includes the excerpts from the texts of the original authors to make her point. It is a fun read.

World Beer Festival

Although we are not certain that the editorial staff of the Clarion Content will be able to attend this year, we highly recommend that you make it out to the World Beer Festival, Saturday October 9th. We try to attend every year, and surely at least some of the staff will be there this year. [The editor has the wedding of a dear friend.]

The event has two sessions, one afternoon and one evening. It has gotten a little pricier recently, up from $25 to $35 to $45 over the last six years, but it is still worth every penny. Featuring the beers of over 180 breweries from all over the United States and the globe, it is a rollicking good time. Our advices is as follows. Pick one session or the other, even the strongest livers should not be asked to handle both. Go slow, there is plenty of beer for everyone. Make sure you ask if the beer is high alcohol content, ever since the Pop the Cap initiative succeeded in North Carolina, quite a few of them are, sip gently these beers will rock you. Eat some of the food, there are plenty of delicious options. This year's beer festival will feature the music of Big Daddy Love and Children of the Horn for the afternoon session; Brushfire Stankgrass and Big Something are playing at the evening portion.

Tickets are available at their website here. And at the Carolina Ale House locations in the Raleigh Durham area.

Hottest day ever

No joke. The city of Los Angeles California recorded the hottest temperatures in the history of its record keeping yesterday when the mercury hit 113 degrees. Wow. In late September, no less? Insert global warming joke here?

Read how locals reacted in the Los Angeles Times.

AR: Seven Swans

Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans (2004)

Three things stand out about this great indie-darling folk singer-songwriter's 2004 entry.

One, it's sparer than much of his other work. Whereas Greetings From Michigan employs a bit of a kitchen-sink aesthetic, this is predominantly acoustic guitar / banjo and tenor vocals with occasional help from two back-up singing angels females, some bass, and an organ. The setting is intimate and feels as though it's with a straight-faced coffeehouse companion in the wee hours.

Two, it's no less beautiful for being spare. "Hauntingly gorgeous" repeatedly comes to mind, particularly on the first half of the album where the tightly crafted tunes absolutely drip. That straightforward spare-but-luscious vibe gets dropped at moments for the tense ("Sister"), the dark ("A Good Man is Hard to Find") and the downright apocalyptic ("Seven Swans"). A wide range of emotion is skillfully captured by limited instrumentation here, and the lack of tricks guarding said emotion serve to emphasize brutal sincerity.

Three, it's explicitly Christian, and this is the factor that garners easily the most scrutiny in album reviews. The indie rocker genre, couched as it is in the slack-jawed ironism of e.g. Pavement, is not known for its investment in institutionalized religion or heartfelt declarations of faith/devotion to G/god(s) of any kind*. So when a bona fide star, fresh off the borderline absurd declaration of a project to make an album for each of the fifty-nifty United States - itself a sort of epitome of yeah-right ironism - delivers a side album on religion, the horn-rim bespectacled get uncomfortable. This had all kinds of potential to be self-indulgent and HELLA AWKWARD, an album that alienated the seriously religious ("how dare he!") and the seriously ironic ("how dare he!") alike.

* - With the possible exception, I suppose, of the declaration of love for Jesus Christ on Neutral Milk Hotel's "King of Carrot Flowers, Pts. 2 and 3." This is a bombastic blast that disrupts the song sequence to great effect, and honestly, I've never been able to tell how sincere it is. Whether it is ironic or not, though, it will make your average hipster CRINGE in public. Religious love is too post-ironic to bear, maybe?

Fortunately for all involved, the three standout factors interweave and make this a powerful album for both sides. The spare, confessional nature of the music, along with the pervasive beauty that consequently bears marks of inspiration, nail a particular region of religious music in a way that seemingly only a hyperaware indie musician could. He dodges the pitfalls of preachiness by keeping his accounts to narratives-not-imperatives, and he one-ups more or less every Christian rock band out there* by eschewing platitudes and delivering his devotionals in original verse, thereby dodging anything resembling cheesy. The Christian element is refreshingly subtle, and I say that even though there are narratives about prophets and Abraham and Revelations and Transfiguration. He flat out executes a non-imposing but revealing personal Christian account of his own faith / spiritual love, so even though the elements are so obviously culled from *the* religious tradition, they are not obtrusive for the listener.

* - I should confess that this is based on a very limited knowledge of Christian Rock, and my impressions are largely based on television commercials for Time Life compilations that include masses swaying like idiots to glazed out tunes of "lift me higher" and such. But it does seem to be enough of a shtick that Stevens's utter self-awareness makes that brand of Christian pop rock look utterly insincere and foolish. He's more Kierkegaard than youth group evangelical is what I'm getting at, and there's a fervor to his message that is plainly absent from those acoustic strum-alongs.

Indeed, some of the religious sentiment is so bland as to be vague; the love songs' target is only obvious in context and could have been about a comely lass just as easily. And some of the poetry, outside (again) of the accompanying music, is fairly plain. In other words, while a gorgeous work that gives us a seemingly pure narrative of Sufjan's religious leanings, this album isn't quite a revelation, just devotion put to music. Put exceptionally well, but it's not like the concepts here are explosive. Still, this is a classic strength/weakness - his non-attempt to transcend keeps the disc reined in, simultaneously stopping offense and providing a nice juxtaposition of passion and restraint.

There are some relative missteps. "Abraham" is the most overtly biblical tune but doesn't really grab me, and "Size Too Small" is pretty enough but doesn't crackle. The organ in "He Woke Me Up Again" grates. Most of this occurs toward the back half of the album, making this another front-loaded experience. All of that said, the front is incredible, the middle tune "Sister" an epic work of somehow-intriguing cyclical anticipation, and the closing duo - "Seven Swans" and "The Transfiguration" - put an awesome, traditional sense, stamp on a cohesive disc. ("SS" in particular contains a single stratospheric wail that gives me chills of exactly the kind that were aimed for; the song haunts so well as to be unnerving, and that is beyond a compliment).

The front of this disc is more than enough to warrant its recommendation. The first four songs exhibit expert songcraft, and coming off the heels of GFM, it continues to be hard to believe that there exist humans with this much creativity in their pinkies. Seven Swans is, plainly put, a gorgeous disc that happens to be about Sufjan's relationship with God. Very brave of him to attempt it, impressive of him to have pulled it off, and more impressive still that he did so in a way that does not intrude on the listener's beliefs, just invites him/her to hear some tunes with no pretense of will to convert, just share.

Status: Recommended

Nyet's Fave: "Sister"

ADDENDUM: I forgot to mention that this was an album review by request for Aaron, my bro, who is quite the SS fan. This album is also one that we got for my mom one Christmas on the strength of GFM (i.e., not knowing anything about this disc or its religious content), so hopefully she'll have a newfound reason to check it out again.

Katy Perry and Elmo

Not sure if you have been following the Katy Perry-Elmo saga, dear readers. The lovely and talented Katy was supposed to have a playdate with the Sesame Street star, furry, red Elmo. However, at the last minute under fire from the patron saints of Political Correctness, Sesame Street decided not to air Katy's pre-taped appearance. She and Elmo sing a version of Perry's hit Hot and Cold together. Apparently, there was too much cleavage for some folks, even though Perry was wearing a flesh-colored body stocking. Both Katy and Elmo have since appeared to talk about the non-event.

Elmo here on Good Morning America.

Katy here on Saturday Night Live.

Gotta like the self-deprecating sense of humor that Perry shows...

Brilliant mash-up

Thanks to the MEP report, which is where we found this terrific mash-up.

Clear Airplanes?!?

You read that correctly, dear readers. Airbus engineers have come up with a design for a passenger plane that could be made completely see-through. In theory it would work like this: in flight, the plane's captain would give a warning and then push a button that would send electrical currents through the plane's futuristic high-tech ceramic skin. The skin would peel back to reveal glass all the way around.

Straight out of science fiction! We think they would need a lot of doctors and defibrillators to deal with the heart attacks. Unfortunately for those who think they could hang, the date for the concept plane to hit the runways is 2050. Read more here.

Trip to Bira #3 : Biaya Akomodasi dan Transportasi

Rasanya sungguh tidak fair tanpa memberi tahu berapa estimasi biaya yang harus dikeluarkan ketika ingin kesana. Karena percayalah pantai Bira masih bisa menjadi andalan tujuan wisata domestik. Dengan keindahan alam yang masih alami, ada banyak petualangan yang dijanjikan disana.

Untuk sampai ke Pantai Bira yang terletak di Kabupaten Bulukumba, tentu saja bisa ditempuh dengan berbagai cara. Anda bisa menggunakan motor ataupun mobil. Untuk anda yang senang dengan touring mungkin jarak 250 km tidak akan menjadi masalah. Tapi yang ingin liburan dengan aman damai sentosa, saya menyarankan anda menggunakan mobil saja untuk kesana.

Tidak mempunyai mobil pribadi? Anda bisa menggunakan mobil angkutan antar kabupaten. Biasanya mobil-mobil ini anda bisa temukan di Terminal Malengkeri. Karena disinilah semua pusat kegiatan berkendaraan ketika anda inginke arah Sungguminasa ke atas. Biaya yang harus anda persiapkan adalah 100 ribu untuk transportasi pergi-pulang. Kalau sampai di Bulukumba kota, biayanya hanya 40 ribu saja sekali jalan, tetapi ini anda harus minta diantar ke kawasan Pantai Bira sekitar 40 kilometer lagi dari Kota Bulukumba.

Pun ketika anda menggunakan jasa mobil rental harganya tidak akan jauh beda. Belum lagi ketika menggunakan mobil sewa anda harus memastikan semakin banyak orang yang harus turut serta urunan, supaya faktor pembagi menjadi semakin besar. Perbedaannya hanyalah ketika anda menggunakan mobil rental, anda bebas menentukan mau pergi kapan saja, mau singgah dimana saja, serta ada beberapa lokasi yang ingin didatangi selain di Bira.

Setelah sampai di Bira, dimana kita harus menginap? Tenang saja. Di sekitar pantai Bira ada berbagai penginapan yang bisa disewa. Tentu saja semuanya dengan kehandalan dan fasilitas masing-masing. Anda ingin ketika membuka jendela langsung bisa melihat laut dan debur ombak, ataukah ingin jalan sedikit untuk mencapai pantai. Anda bisa memilih untuk memakai sebuah kamar saja di penginapan, ataukan sekalian menyewa sebuah rumah. Tentu saja dilihat dari berapa orang yang anda ajak.

Kisaran harga yang standar adalah 150 ribu permalam. Biasanya untuk kamar dibatasi isinya adalah maksimal 4-5 orang. Jadi anda bisa mengestimasi sendiri berapa biaya per orang per malamnya. Ini tidak termasuk biaya makan. Hanya tempat saja.

Sekedar saran untuk memilih tempat, anda bisa mengambil penginapan yang lumayan jauh dari pantai. Yah sekitar 200 – 300 meter lah. Kenapa? Karena suasana sekitar pantai, di jalanan akan sangat ramai. Entah pagi, siang, ataupun malam. Untuk anda yang ingin bersantai atau istirahat sejenak, pasti akan merasa terganggu dengan suara orang berbicara, kendaraan yang lalu lalang, serta suara berisik lainnya. Jadi tidak apa-apa jalan sedikit tapi kenyamanannya terasa total.



Penginapan yang sarankan adalah Sunshine Guest House yang terletak sedikit di atas bukit. Tidak terlalu jauh dari pantai, tetapi jauh dari keriuhan. Sehingga ketika lelah sehabis bermain di pantai, kita bisa beristirahat dengan tenang di malam hari. Akses air bersihnya pun lumayan lancar. Ketika berbicara dengan beberapa tamu (yang semuanya bule) salah satu alasan mengapa mereka menyenangi tempat itu karena suasana teduh dan sepi itu tadi. Pantai masih terlihat dari balkon, dan kita bisa membaca sambil ditemani sepoi-sepoi angin gunung. Mantab!

Terakhir adalah biaya konsumsi. Apakah mahal? Untuk sedikit berhemat anda bisa saja membawa makanan dari Makassar atau daerah lain. Tapi tahan untuk berapa lama? Tidak perlu khawatir dengan masalah makanan. Banyak kios-kios sepanjang jalan menuju pantai yang bisa dinikmati. Tapi itu dia, menu andalan yang bisa dimakan apalagi kalau bukan mie instan + telur.

Ada beberapa bungalow atau penginapan besar yang menyediakan semacam kafe atau restoran didalamnya. Tapi saran saya kalau tidak mau langsung jatuh miskin, jangan coba-coba makan disana. Standar harganya adalah 30 – 35 ribu satu kali makan. Itupun biasanya hanya berupa satu menu saja.



Saran saya, cobalah cari kios Rahman atau kios H&R. Kalau anda ingin menikmati hidangan ikan atau cumi segar beserta sayuran, anda bisa mencoba makanan disini. Harganya juga sedikit mahal, tapi ada beberapa pilihan menu yang masih terjangkau. Kuncinya itu tadi, kalau anda berlibur bersama beberapa orang maka faktor pembaginya akan semakin besar. Anda bisa makan enak (dan banyak) hanya dengan 25 ribu rupiah per orang!

Jadi berapa total estimasi biaya yang harus dikeluarkan?

Kalau sendirian berarti 100 ribu (transportasi) + 150 ribu (penginapan) + 150 ribu (untuk 6 kali makan) dengan total 400 ribu.

Kalau dengan rombongan (misal 4 orang) berarti 100 ribu (transportasi) + 35 ribu (pernginapan) + 75 ribu (untuk 6 kali makan) dengan total 210 ribu.

Jadi silahkan rencanakan dengan matang rencana perjalanan anda, karena Pantai Bira layak untuk dikunjungi. Selamat berlibur!

AR: Yield

Pearl Jam - Yield (1998)

To cut to the chase: context matters. I don't remember exactly when I obtained my copy of Pearl Jam's fifth and arguably last great studio album, Yield, but I know exactly when I got it. Without entering into the unnecessary details, I am given not to fly but am mos def given to foul, dark moods, and Yield hit me at a needlessly upsetting time and saved the day. We're talking feel-bad afternoons assuaged by headphone sessions, couch therapy consisting not of recollections of childhood but simply closed eyes and concentrations on a workingman's rock album. Rock-solace, if you will. So be forewarned that perhaps even more than usual, my take on this album is terrifically biased and probably not worth trusting one bit.

Don't mistake my meaning. The album *is* top to bottom good, nary a hint of a bad moment, varied in a way that grabs interest but remains cohesive, and hits a resonant frequency of earnest rocking optimism. But I'm not really sure that any account of its objective merit could possibly capture what it meant for me at a relatively key time. I am sure I on some level got suckered; for all of Pearl Jam's grasping at gravity, this is really just a sweet-spot pop-rock disc, odd enough to keep the fan-base while straightforward enough to catch FM play. With a fairly damn plain "look up" theme, too - "yield" to the vagaries instead of railing against them, accept what you can't change etc. on some base level. It caught me when I just needed someone to be there for me. Turns out someone was a CD.

In by-this-point formulaic PJ fashion, the disc starts with a breakneck "1234,1234" and the full-speed-ahead punk song "Brain of J." Its descending riff and "Soon the whole world will be different!" chorus kick the disc off in epic fashion. A up-for-air slowed down bridge is followed by another PJ-staple, the pyrotechnics Stone Gossard guitar solo. Classic opener that uses a aural explosion as its close; the empty room drums and clean electric strumming over meandering bassline intro of "Faithful" that follows is a gorgeous segue. The would-be ballad claims "I'm through with / screaming" as it drops into the snarling chorus. "We're faithful / we all believe / we all believe." It's never been clear, given said snarl, how sincere this is, but the guitar-based affirmation that kicks in at 1:53 or thereabouts is transcendent enough to make me buy in. This tune follows a hill-shaped slope, and eventually comes back to a quiet close that is eerily backed by spoken words echoing Vedder's lines. In short, a sick 1-2 combo to open things.

"No Way" uses a fuzzed out streamlined guitar riff under a convincing brink of frustration Vedder to create reams of tension. The pleading lyrics of this song ("I just need," "it's so absurd," etc.) reek of desperation, but the real key is the mysterious chorus. "I'll stop trying to make a difference / I'm not trying to make a difference / I'll stop trying to make a difference / No Way" - hard to tell if this is despair or defiance, but the mood of the song is dark and appropriately enigmatic. It's probably clear, but this is the perfect type of "embrace the struggle" track and an exemplar of how this work helped me stare moods down.

The next couple tracks, "Given to Fly" and "Wishlist," are the singles from the album. "GtF" is borderline U2 in its bombast, but Eddie's sincere emoting stays well south of cheesy. It was the first song I heard from the disc*, and it's really in the archetypal Pearl Jam single catalog along with "Betterman" and "Black." Not to reuse a concept, but it's an affirmation tale against a classic rock, pretty guitar pattern and a polyrhythmic tom beat. One could make a reasonable case that it's a post-ironic work; the cynicism of disappointed youth is left behind for epic, accomplish-anything breath. A solid entry that, again, stays within the realm of the legitimate (read: not treacly) for me. "Wishlist" is also very straightforward / simple repetitive poem piece. What it lacks in lyrical originality it makes up in calming presence. There's additionally a good amount of regret that creeps through all the repeated "wishes."

* - I actually heard this on a TV commercial for the album. A real, "order now for $16.95 plus shipping and handling" style TV commercial for a rock album. Behold, the late '90s.

"Pilate" is a back-and-forth acoustic ballad that intersperses dissonant choruses against its silk verses. It allegedly refers to the Pilate scenes from Master & Margarita, a personal favorite novel, so that wins it points. The clash of its choruses rings well with the dissonant-through-and-through "Do the Evolution," a tune that evokes the weirdness of past Pearl Jam experiments like "Bugs." It's frantic and bristling, and also just happens to feature in-tense-city guitar parts at the 1:00 mark and one of the better self-referential song moments out there following the "sing in the choir" line at 2:00. The whole song is a giant, hair-raising crescendo; I still get slightly edgy to it on the 1000th listen.

The next track is a tempo experiment "called" "●." PJ pretty routinely throws left-field experiments on their albums; this is one of the better ones. It's a good break for the album, too, because as great as the first half is, the second half ups the ante quite a bit. "MFC" is straight-ahead rock with a good mix of guitar-poundage, backward effects and PJ-sound splash guitar effects. A favorite line from the disc: "They said that timing was everything / made him want to be everywhere / there's a / lot to be said for nowhere." The song blows by in 2:30, but ups the heart rate just enough for it (the heart rate, natch) to be knocked back down by the near-country ballad "Low Light." I go back and forth on this one - it sticks out from the rest of the album quite a bit, and sometimes I appreciate the break while others I just want the same wall of adrenaline that follows. Regardless, it's another one that finds the good spot of saccharine but not sticky, and even successfully pulls off a 3/4 time signature.

The closing trio makes the disc, really. "In Hiding" revisits the epic territory of "GtF," but this time dresses the struggle and triumph in interlaced guitar lines and perfectly-placed rough-edged riffage. I.e., this is just as o'er-the-top dramatic, but backs it with a quite Quadrophenia-era-Who-symphony. Importantly, whatever sent the narrator into hiding and led him to "swallow his words to keep from lying" is ultimately conquered - "It's funny when things change so much / it's all state of mind."Another line to latch onto. "Push Me Pull Me" follows as a spoken word piece over another chaotic, swirling rocker that uses found sound and feedback to mirror madness. It also contains the standout metaphor - standout in terms of "huh?" - that the narrator is "like an opening band for the Sun," also over a nifty song breakdown that falls right back into the nuttiness afterwards. It's on the shortlist for Nyet's favorite spoken word piece.The album closer*, "All Those Yesterdays," rounds things out with a near straight-ahead, close the bar down ballad. The "You've got time to escape" section is pretty much Beatles psychedelia redux; it's a surprising inclusion and is sort of doubly disorienting ("in a good way") given that the chorus so prominently involves "Yesterday." The general message - "when you gonna wash away / all those yesterdays" - again sits well if, say, yesterday did not go all that well. Great fadeout to a great disc.

* - Technically, there's a hidden track called "Hummus" that's an exercise in a Middle-Eastern genre. It's oddly entertaining given that it sounds like a trad wedding rip-off, complete with tambourines and hand-claps, and it's accelerando close works well. Still, I routinely forget that it's even on the album as I like "ATY" so much. So ... there ya have it.

Again, take it for what it's worth - sorry to be repeatedly vague, but this album is more about its cathartic prowess than its music for me, so your experience is nearly guaranteed to be different. I know some find parts, particularly the singles and the would-be punk tunes, a little too polished, going so far as to call it a relatively boring PJ disc. I disagree profoundly with all caveats that it's stubborn subjective disagreement - if it's not rough enough, turn it up. The description that's accurate is that Yield is largely a retreat from the frank wackiness of Vitalogy and No Code and a return (of sorts) to Ten days, so if you're a fan of the disc that broke them into superstardom, you'll probably dig this one, too. Just to give some kind of relative indication, I find this one less classic-rock-indebted than Ten and altogether more sincere; like I've indicated, it sits in a middle space amongst many pop-rock conventions that does the job well for me. Believe it, folks - Yield is a Nyet-treasured one and makes the trip for me regardless of what it does for you. But don't fret, I'll listen on some coconut headphones.

Status: Desert Island Recommended

Nyet's Fave: "In Hiding"

Trip to Bira #2 : Liburan dan Sahabat

Ada banyak hal yang membuat trip kali ini tidak akan terlupakan. Semuanya seolah-olah bersatu padu untuk menggagalkan niat mulia kami untuk bersenang-senang. Mulai dari hujan, kecelakaan, stress karena pekerjaan, penginapan, semuanya membuat stress. Tapi disitulah tantangannya, ketika kami tidak peduli dengan itu semua serta berhasil tiba di Pantai Bira dengan sejahtera dan sentosa.

Biarkan saya memperkenalkan partner in crime saya di liburan kali ini. Mereka adalah Nanie dan Anbhar, sahabat yang telah berbagi tawa dan berbagi kegilaan dimanapun. Lalu ada Herman, sahabat yang selalu bisa diandalkan kapan pun, walaupun kadang keberadaannya susah dilacak bahkan dengan kompas sekalipun.



Sebenarnya trip ini ingin melibatkan banyak orang, tapi sekali lagi saya menegaskan sama Nanie, bahwa saya ingin bersantai. Ingin melepas penat di kepala. Bukan harus sibuk mengurusi kepentingan banyak orang dan banyak pihak. Belum lagi memastikan semuanya merasa nyaman atau tidak.

Bukannya egois, tapi keadaan yang terburu-buru membuat semuanya pasti berantakan apabila melibatkan banyak pihak. Maka biarlah saya mengajak beberapa orang dulu untuk melihat bagaimana keadaan Bira, dan kemudian merencanakan sebuah trip besar-besaran yang bisa diikuti oleh semua orang.

Tadinya sendirian pun saya bisa menjabani trip ini. Berhubung ada teman yang pernah menampungku. Masalahnya adalah, liburan sendirian? Itu pasti akan sangat membosankan. Karena walaupun saya tahu sang teman akan menemaniku di beberapa waktu, dia juga terbatas gerakannya karena punya pekerjaan. Tidak mungkinlah saya kemudian merepotinya lagi.

Saya teringat pengalaman sewaktu jalan ke Lombok kemarin. Saya pikir akan menikmati pantai Senggigi. Memang beberapa saat saya sangat menikmati debur ombak, sunset, dan kesendirian. Tapi itu semua tidak berlangsung lama. Sama seperti kau memiliki sepotong kue yang enak. Dimakan sendiri jadinya eneg karena kebanyakan, tapi ketika kau berbagi dengan orang lain, walaupun harus bertengkar atau saling berebut, semuanya terasa lebih enak.

Dan memang terbukti ada banyak kegilaan yang kami lakukan bersama. Saya yang pada awalnya hanya berniat untuk mandi-mandi di laut saja, akhirnya menemukan keasyikan snorkeling. Menambah satu alasan kenapa saya sangat menyenangi laut. Terik matahari tidak mengurangi semangat kami untuk saling teriak, saling berburu dan saling tertawa diselingi debur ombak. Melihat Herman yang berusaha pedekate dengan seorang cewek, Anbhar dan Nanie yang terus berduaan, membuat senyum terus tersungging di wajahku.



Kegilaan kami tidak berhenti disitu, tragedi ketupat-penyelamat-nyawa akhirnya terjadi sewaktu di penginapan. Kelar bersih-bersih, kami semua merasa lapar. Beruntunglah masih ada bebeberapa ketupat segede-gede gaban beserta ayam yang dibawakan oleh Kakaknya Nanie. Makanlah kami dengan ketupat itu. Apa istimewanya? Kami tidak memiliki satu pisau pun! Peralatan makan kami hanya sebuah garpu plastik sisa pop mie. Akhirnya kami dengan ala barbar menggigit ketupat tersebut sambil menertawai satu sama lain. Nikmatnya? Tiada tara!

Beberapa sesi curcol pun seringkali terjadi. Tidak mengenal waktu dan tempat. Entah ketika sedang menunggu indomie di kios Rahman, sedang berjalan menuju pelabuhan, ataupun disela-sela kami duduk dipantai. Ada banyak hal baru yang kemudian saya ketahui tentang sahabat-sahabat saya. Tema utama curcol kali ini? Apalagi kalau bukan C.I.N.T.A dengan subjek penderita adalah Herman. Hahaaha!

Entah bagaimana rasanya kalau saya melakukan trip ini sendirian. Mungkin saya juga akan bersenang-senang dengan eji. Tetapi tentu saja bersenang-senang dengan cara lain, dan tidak bisa ditukar dengan keriuhan yang terjadi bersama 3 orang itu. Liburan sendiri? Akan menjadi hal paling terakhir dalam kamus liburan saya!

Dancing with the Stars, epic

The season premier of Dancing with Stars this week was EPIC! Check out some of the highlights here... Bristol Palin and the Situation kept it as real as it is possible for people who came to prominence via faux achievement. Jennifer Grey, the favorite, had an emotional performance.

Wild Kingdom, in the yard

A beautiful butterfly meets a spider, witness, even in suburbia we live amongst the wild. We just notice it less.








This butterfly was at least triple the spider's size. It took the spider five minutes to drag it across the web. Another ten to fifteen minutes to swathe it, and it was gone from the web by morning.

Trip to bira #1: Teori Sistem

Tahukah anda mengenai teori sistem? Kalau hal itu ditanyakan kepada saya mungkin saya langsung akan tegas menjawab tidak. Saya hanya pernah sekilas mendengarnya. Itupun kalau sumber yang saya dengar itu bisa terbukti keakuratannya. Mungkin setelah ini anda akan mencari tahu mengenai teori sistem itu sendiri di paman google, tapi saya akan menjelaskannya hanya sekedar pengetahuan saya.

Sistem itu sendiri merupakan sebuah proses, satu kesatuan yang terdiri dari beberapa bagian, beberapa individu yang memiliki tugas dan perannya masing-masing. Kesemuanya ini bersatu padu membentuk kesatuan yang memiliki tujuan. Entah itu untuk kebaikan maupun keburukan. Tanpa ada satu bagian yang bekerja maksimal, maka keseluruhan sistem akan rusuh, akan chaos, dan akan hancur berantakan.

Tunggu dulu, bukannya judul postingan ini mengenai liburan ke bira? Hubungannya dengan teori sistem? Hahahaha, maaf telah membuat anda semua berpikir serumit ini. Karena inilah yang mendasari dan mengharuskanku mengambil trip alias liburan ke bira.



Ketika saya memutuskan untuk bekerja sebagai abdi negara, tentu saja ada beberapa pengorbanan yang harus saya lakukan. Saya masih mengingat perkataan salah satu bos saya,

“mungkin nanti kamu harus memilih. Untuk menjadi professional. Dalam artian mengesampingkan kehidupan pribadi kamu dan terus bekerja secara maksimal”

Saya pikir prinsip ini ada di semua pekerjaan. Ketika kau harus total dalam melaksanakan pekerjaanmu. Bahkan seorang tukang kunci pun jangan diremehkan perannya dalam satu kantor atau perusahaan. Kalau dia tidak datang dan membuka pintu, bagaimana cara anda bekerja? Dengan mendobrak pintunya setiap hari?

Tidak perlulah saya jelaskan bagaimana kehidupan di kantor pra liburan lebaran kemarin. Bagaimana perasaan anda ketika semua orang sudah menikmati libur, bersiap untuk menyambut lebaran, sedangkan anda masih berkutat dengan pekerjaan di kantor?

Bahkan sampai hari terakhir? Semuanya terjalani bagai mimpi, dan niat untuk menggunakan libur Idul Fitri sebagai sarana untuk beristirahat tidak terlaksana.
Kenapa? Hey! Perlukah bertanya lagi? Ini lebaran! Saatnya untuk memperbaiki hubungan kembali dengan sesama. Saya bukanlah tipe orang yang memiliki banyak waktu untuk berbasa basi. Ya, karena memang dengan semua sepupu rasanya ada link yang hilang.

Maka saat inilah yang bisa digunakan untuk sedikit memperatnya. Sekedar bertanya kabar, sekedar bertukar senyum. Belum lagi deretan teman yang datang dari luar kota, reuni kecil-kecilan sampai besar-besaran yang kesemuanya membutuhkan stamina dan mood yang luar biasa untuk tetap bagus.

Lantas apa yang menjadi masalah sekarang? Kalau mau diibaratkan sebuah elemen pendukung dari sebuah sistem yang besar, maka bisa saya katakana masa pakai saya sudah hampir soak. Sudah hampir habis. Dengan begitu banyak tekanan. Dengan begitu banyak kegiatan. Saya bahkan belum beristirahat sama sekali. Sedangkan ada banyak kegiatan yang akan menghadangku memasuki bulan oktober dan penghujung tahun. Urusan yang saya tahu tidak akan memakan tenaga, pikiran, dan perasaan yang tidak sedikit. Apakah saya mampu menjalani semuanya itu nanti?

Maka dengan niat tulus dan ikhlas saya pun merencanakan sebuah misi pelarian diri yang terencana. Memilih sebuah tempat dimana sejenak saya bisa melupakan semuanya. Melupakan bahwa saya adalah sebuah elemen dari sebuah sistem yang sangat besar. Memberikan hak bagi tubuh dan pikiran saya untuk beristirahat sejenak. Karena ada banyak jalan keras yang akan menghadang.

Tentu saja dalam sistem ini disebut masa idle. Masa overload. Dan itu yang saya hindari sebisa mungkin. Ketika kejenuhan akan menghampiri diriku. Ketika kau masih bisa mengendalikan sebuah sistem maka beruntunglah karena setidaknya kau masih merasa merdeka untuk menentukan nasibmu sendiri.

Kemana kita liburan kali ini? Dengan rencana yang terus berubah, mood yang terus naik turun, bersama 3 rekan dalam berkejahatan, Nanie, Herman, Anbhar, maka limited edition runaway #4 resmi dimulai pada hari jumat. Tujuan : Bira!

As Though It Needed It: Scottsdale Paved

Your 2010 Southwest Region Desert Section Champions:

Dheintime, Ian N, Cole, Josh, Aaron, Jim, Trant, Vince, Tim, Griesy

Ebay, Joe, Studer, Cisco, Nyet, Rob, J-Ro, Ian P, Dixon, Paul

(Unpictured: Will, reasons unknown)

The hometown club team Sprawl played well in 107 to 110 degree heat at Scottsdale Sports Complex and won the oh-so-important seeding-for-regionals tourney. We got a pretty big scare in the finals from Tucson's Monsoon - we trailed 5-2 after some rare offensive (and offensive) gaffes - but managed to hold seed en route to the big tourney win, our third in a row. This is the first time Sprawl has won the section, and while we still clearly have a lot of work to do before we take our cracks at regionals, things are clicking pretty well.

I get routinely heckled for my long-windedness on here, particularly by the Ulty folks, so combine that with the fact that our games outside of the finals were a samey blur ... and you get BULLET reports:

• Aaron invited us over to his parent's place for a pre-tourney team dinner of pasta and garlic bread on Friday. I got there a little early (6-ish) after a long day of coffeehouse reading and felt decidedly out of it, but had a good time hanging with Trant, Aaron, EBay, Dixon, Jim, Griesy, Cisco, Joe, Paul, Studer, J-Ro, and eventually Griesy. Good times and good food - I had to head out early so as to rendezvous with the Spitfire (formerly PHXation) ladies at Red Devil Pizza, where they were having their pasta team dinner, to pick up a shade tent (KEY!) from Kaysi. Did so, then met up with Beck for the carbs-on-top-of-carbs mondo MoJo pre-tourney froyo. Strawberry and Chocolate with fruity pebbles, if you were wondering.
• First game Saturday was at 10:00, so of course I got there ~8 to get everything ready and warmed up for the day. Be-there-cleated-up time was 9, and we actually got going reasonably close to that time - nice! After jog / stretch / plyos / throws, I headed over to the captains' meeting where Tim reviewed "How a Soft Cap Works 101" with the people. Always exciting. Came back to our ritual pre-tourney scrimmage where the D was handing it to the O, a generally good sign.
• Alright, I am quickly discovering that I don't really have time for elongated writeups on these, so I'm going to limit each game to ... two sentences. Can I do it?
• WIN over AZ/NM Masters' Team Le Tigre, 13-5. We got some big breaks early in this one, they were still in their feeling each other out / masters' team waking up phase, and before we knew it we were up big and opening up the subbing. O was pretty clockwork in this one and D did its usual job of frantic coverage combined with iffy decisions on O; too many missed opps by them, really.
• WIN over Tucson's Monsoon, 13-4. We again came out big with some march it down O and a couple of breaks to take a 3-1 lead, but a super-rare Dhein drop led to a break-back and a 3-3 game. We cleaned things up considerably and our D clamped down on their deep game, sending us to a 10-1 run and another relatively easy victory.
• WIN over University of Arizona Sunburn, 13-3. These guys, too, caught us by surprise early - we traded huck goals to start things off, and they did have one 6'4" or so goon and a couple of athletic-type throwers who made us sweat, at least momentarily. But our O really had no trouble* here, and they had enough new players that our D clamped down just a bit and had little trouble running the end of the game to the big win.

* - Let me explain "no trouble." J-Ro catches the pull, tosses it to me, I 1) huck it to Dhein for a score or 2) toss it to Griesy who hucks it to Cole for a score. Sometimes we had to throw it four times! Seriously, this was a beyond bizarre tourney for the O-line players, as especially the handlers had several points in a row where we were on the field for no more than twenty seconds and effectively jogged MAYBE fifteen yards in that time. Joe K got mad that we were scoring so fast and not giving the D time to rest; I got practically bored at points and started sprinting down on pulls on D points in which I was not in just to get a semblance of a workout. This is good and bad, as it means our O-lines didn't really get to do a lot of work; we did look good when we were out there, though, admittedly against less-than-stellar competition.

• WIN over Northern Arizona University's El Ponderoso, 13-3. We had two turns in this game, both on the same defensive point. Bit of a laugher - their team had some newbies and played with a female handler some of the time, too - but good to see that we can maintain our focus and put together a near-perfect game when we need to.
• That ended Saturday - Beck came out to the last game of the day after work (to see me play a whopping six points - I played D in that last game just to wake myself up!), and when in Scottsdale ... we headed over to Sweet Republic for some artisan ice cream. Beck got a combo of sweet corn and jalapeño ice creams, and I got the ol' standby real mint chip. Beck *also* got a pint of bacon ice cream to take home. I sampled it in the store, and I am pretty sure we now know what non-kosher manna tastes like. RIDICULOUSLY good.
• Went home, and Beck was sweet enough to get us Thai takeout to salt-supplement my day (I didn't run, true, but standing in the dry oven for eight-ish hours will make you sweat a little bit). Caught the ugly UT game and went to bed quite early, ready to hit the next day - first game at 9, be there at 8.
• WIN over ASU Diablos, 13-3. The Diablos have some stunning athleticism, but with it being early in the season and they not being entirely experienced, we gave them a lot of trouble. We worked on our trap zone and confounded them quite a bit; our O again walked it up and down the field easily.
• BYE ... BOO! The tournament format dictated that we play that 5th pool play game at 9 ... and then sit there for a two hour bye. We also beat ASU pretty quickly, so that was really more like a two and a half hour bye. Ugh. It did give us a chance to take in some Spitfire Ultimate, though, always nice (particularly for our Sparkies with SLFs on the team). Spitfire beat the everliving crap out of a Kaetlynn-less ASU Caliente, winning 15-1 despite turning it over a ton. We augmented the game with an impromptu session of "fire hucks at a one meter by half meter soccer practice goal." A good time was had by all.
• An even better time was had when we heckled Sulli in the ASU quarterfinals game. If you ever want to laugh a bit, get a mass of twenty people to say "WOP-WOP-WOP" every time a particular player takes a step on the Ultimate field. Hilarious.
• ASU *tried* to bail on us for the semis after they beat U of A, but Dhein wasn't having any of it. They correctly repsected their elders and stuck around for
• WIN over ASU Diablos, 13-3. Second verse, same as the first. Good of them to play, even if it meant another beating - again, our O just didn't make mistakes, and our D swarmed them a bit, too. Dhein recommended that I give them a few pointers on here, so I suppose I'll try:

1. Don't throw it to the trapped side so readily. It's what the D wants you to do - so keep it away from the trap by breaking the mark.
2. Offside deeps need to give hammer looks, paticularly in that wind. Our Z was pretty sucked in to one sideline, and guys HAD to be open across field. You need that trapside handler to be a dude who can send it over the top if necessary.
3. Identify matchups. You've got some great athletes out there, but it's also clear that there's a big mix of talent/experience on the team right now. Make more of an effort to isolate say, Track Star in the middle of the field. The corollary to this is that the other players need to know their roles, so if they get it, take a look, but then dump back quickly so the D doesn't have time to set up.
4. High frequency of hucks helps. We started playing almost exclusively under on man D without the deep threat.

• Hope that helps, and again, props to ASU for sticking around. Though whoever said, "I have a test tomorrow" as an excuse? Remind me to tell you of the time I wrote an English paper ON THE SIDELINE at a Mardi Gras tourney. It can be done.
• And finally - ha - WIN over Monsoon, 13-9. Bad start to this one - they received and hucked a score over Joe immediately, we answered, they answered, and then our O got wonky all of a sudden. We weren't unable to move the disc, we just had a couple of miscues where we threw to open space right as the receiver turned around, or Dhein threw one away under no pressure, Griesy dropped one, J-Ro turfed one, Josh stopped his cut on my throw to space... UGH. Five turns near our goal line, all in about a ten minute window, and we were down 4-1 and 5-2 before we knew it. Zikes! But we kept heads level, our D crept us back into it, our O WAY cleaned things up, and we eventually righted the ship 5-5, let them take half 7-6, but ran away with it down the stretch. Close, and probably going to be good for us in the long run as, no offense to Monsoon, but if we have hopes of Natties, then we can't let them hang with us like that.
• So, disaster averted, and next stop, Oxnard. I think Sprawlers are pretty happy but definitely aware that things are about to kick up several Doritos in intensity. We'll see if a lackluster section and a lack of tournaments generally combined with some hard intrasquad scrimmaging will be enough.

On the personal level... I had four turns on the weekend, none of them actually bad throws. Cole faked me out with a jogged straight cut on the first, Ebay faked me out on a cut to open space for the second (not his fault, just a miscommunication), Dhein faked me out on a breakside cut (he turned right as I scoobered it at the back of his head), and Josh came in on a poach cut and inexplicably stopped after five steps (his defender blew by him). Frustrating to be involved in that many miscues, but none of them were really errors per se, just combinations of badness. I'll take the hit on the one to Ebay, but otherwise, I feel fine about the way I handled / threw this weekend.

On the plus side, I hucked quite a bit and hit all of them - backhands/forehands to Dhein, a one-throw-point huck to Dixon, big forehands to Griesy and Josh in the finals. Money. So that part was good and then some. Again, take out that stretch in the finals, and our O was near perfect this weekend; hopefully part of that was because of my anchoring ... though admittedly a lot of it was the sweet cuts of Dhein, Cole and Griesy and the latter's continued amazing puts. Good times.

It's beyond bedtime - there were other highlights (Dhein's "slipped disc," Ebay getting football-popped and his defender claiming he "hit the disc first," Studer's fist-pumps), and I could do the usual player-by-player breakdown, but really, let's all get focused on regionals. We've got less than three weeks to get it completely together four our season goal. Wish us luck.

UPDATE: Action shot, courtesy of Keiththe Joanne/Keith coordinated effort of photography / facebook postage, respectively!

Glee : that’s why I love music so much!

Jika ada yang bertanya genre film apa yang paling sering saya tonton, maka orang-orang terdekatku pasti akan menjawabnya. Mereka yang telah mengerti sepenuhnya, minat, bakat, serta kesenanganku. Deretan smallville, heroes, roswell, supernatural, lost yang akan kalian temui sebagai jawaban. Dari dulu, genre itulah yang bisa saya tongkrongi, dari season pertama sampai season terakhir.



Apa yang terjadi dengan Glee? Apakah ada pengecualian? Sepertinya begitu. Dan sepertinya saya menjadi orang paling terakhir yang menyadari bahwa serial tersebut memiliki nilai plusnya sendiri. Sejak jauh jauh hari kolega saya di CreativeDisc selalu membicarakan serial fenomenal tersebut, tapi saya tetap anteng saja. Alasannya? Malas sama sesuatu yang berbau pop!

Disinilah letak kesalahannya. Hahaha! Akhirnya suatu ketika saya memberanikan diri untuk membeli Dvd bajakannya, sejak itulah saya jatuh cinta pada episode pertamanya. Apakah memang sebuah serial atau cerita bisa dibuat berdasarkan rentetan makna dan interpretasi sebuah lagu? Jawabannya adalah Glee!

Pertama menikmati Glee saya justru mendapatnya dari deretan 2 album soundtracknya. Saya belum bisa ngeh sepenuhnya. Maklum saja, ditelinga saya itu hanyalah remake beberapa lagu yang telah hits. Mixingnya pun saya tidak mengerti kenapa bisa mereka menyanyikan lagu-lagu tersebut. Semuanya karena memang saya tidak pernah menyaksikan serialnya.

Maklum sikap skeptis saya mungkin perwujudan rasa traumatis menyaksikan ketiga installment High School Musical. Padahal Glee berbeda dengan film tersebut. Kekuatan vokal para anggota New Directions berbeda dengan pop-crunch-wannabe yang ditawarkan oleh Zac Efron dan teman-temannya. Setiap scene dan jalinan cerita yang dibuat pun senatural mungkin dan sesuai dengan pemilihan lagu yang tepat.

Satu hal kesimpulan saya setelah marathon serial ini selama seminggu adalah kita (atau saya tepatnya) tidak bisa lepas dari music. Akan interpretasi yang dibuat, semua lagu rasanya mewakili beberapa episode hidupku. Semuanya bertaut satu sama lain dan entah mengapa saya bisa menemukan track-track yang tepat untuk dijadikan soundtrack of the scene. Seperti setiap alur cerita dalam Glee.



Bagaimana suatu lirik bisa membuat dada membuncah, bagaimana suatu lagu bisa membuatmu berdrama dan menikmati setiap episode kehidupan dengan maksimal. Mungkin saja juga hidup saya sudah tidak terlalu penuh drama seperti dulu, tapi saya tetap membutuhkan candu-candu itu untuk melanjutkan hidup.

Ketika Taller, Better, Stronger milik Guy Sebastian pernah begitu menopangku, ketika Irrepleaceable nya Beyonce bisa membuatku menegakkan kepala ketika jatuh karena masalah hati. Atapun ketika saya bisa meneriakkan hasrat stalker ku bersama Muse di Undisclosed Desire. Semuanya terangkum dan memiliki kenangannya tersendiri.

Sekarang track yang menjawara dalam playlist dan hidup saya adalah Unbroken milik Stan Walker, Broken Arrow dari Pixie Lott, Brielle nya Sky Sailing dan satu lagu yang membuatku terbuncah dalah Strip Me yang dibawakan dengan apik oleh Natasha Beddingfield. Apa yang terjadi dengan hidupku? Silahkan baca sendiri, karena seorang teman pernah berkata, hidupku sangat mudah terbaca dengan berbagai playlist yang kubuat.

Seperti Kurt, Rachel, Finn, Puck, Mercedez, Will dalam Glee, ada pemaknaan tersendiri terhadap semua musik dan lagu yang ada di dunia ini. Itulah yang menjadi soundtrack kehidupan, dan saya bisa tegas berkata, “I can’t live my life without music”.

AR: Zenyattà Mondatta

The Police - Zenyattà Mondatta (1980)

Considered by some to be the fifth-place-out-of-five-studio-albums effort (and by others to be "one of the best rocks albums EVAH"), Zenyattà Mondatta finds The Police somewhere amongst their polished punk-ska origins, their New Wave heights and their adult contemporary Sting-BS demise. I.e., they're already rock stars, so the exuberant ragged youth that framed their early album is fairly well gone, but they're not quite the smooth-edged pop machine that would deliver the uberslick Synchronicity. And Sting was nowhere near waxing pansily about fields of sunshine yet. :) The consequence is a heterogeneous album that blends a lot of styles while sticking to the general Police aesthetic of Sting's glossy vocals, splashy, effect-laden but quite clean guitars, and upfront, catchy melodies against an intricate-interplay backdrop of a super-talented drum-bass-guitar trio. (Seriously, as pop-immediate as The Police's song-writing chops were, the mere fact that this alleged punk-ska would-be band was so damn dexterous and inventive with their instruments made them stand out, too). It's a thoroughly intriguing listen thanks to the off-kilter mystique it generates by its genre-variation, and even if it is limited in its delivery of the normal Police hits avalanche, that just makes it a *relative* gem.

Not an avalanche, sure, but that's not to say hits aren't there. The album opener, "Don't Stand So Close to Me," is a cinematic piece that might as well taunt other albums with its economy of lyrics. With a dark mood that starts with a lower-range vocal from Sting over buzzing synths and escalates to his usual falsetto fireworks, this epitome-of-the-New-Wave-pop-sound tune relays the story of an illicit teacher-student near relationship. The song is almost anxiety-provoking - its upbeat chorus clash jarringly with the mood that the verses set, and this content-tone mismatch only adds to the taboo-tension. The tune is quick but extraordinarily memorable, even before you read a little and learn that Sting used to be a schoolteacher. Hmmm...

The other hit* from the album, "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da," tensely rides another excellent guitar pattern as it loosely riffs on the inanity of meaningless speech (particularly of politicians, but also of ... wait for it ... pop songs). If any song is guilty of Beck's most-hated Police-sin - that of endlessly repeated choruses - this is the one. You *could* argue that this is meta-commentary at its finest, the meaningless tune about meaningless tunes, a sort of genius in simplicity ... or you could argue that such a point is pretty trite and just gets annoying after a few listens. I tend to the latter, willing to grant Sting a little koan-capture in his ode to pop-babble.

* - Both of these hits have questionable lyrics that prick my ears every time. "DDDD,DDDD" is the only pop song this side of a Nirvana album to liberally use the word "rape(s)." "DSSCtM" has the all-time awful couplet of "He starts to shake, he starts to cough / Just like the old man in that book by Nabokov." It's a terrible rhyme regardless, but more than that, it's a painfully obvious allusion and cheapens the song quite a bit. Not to mention the inconrguities between "Mr. Stung" and Humbert Humbert - other than the generalized pedophiliac content, it's not clear that these two men really have all that much in common. So the two big swingers on this album have their issues, one thing that holds it back a little for me.

The non-hits accent this album well, though again, noticeably not as well as other Police albums*. The band engages in some you-thought-the-English-Beat-was-hoppy,eh? oneupmansship with the infectious beats (sorry) of both "Canary in a Coalmine" and "Man in a Suitcase." Ska pop YEAH! "Driven to Tears" is a classic Police reverb-drenched suite that boasts a filthy, angular guitar solo, and "Bombs Away" plays with bell tones and sing-songy choruses underneath its overtly political lyrics. "When the World..." is a Eastern-influxed three chord meditation, accomplishing more on the tenth listen than the first, and a cool bit of minimalist songwriting. "Shadows in the Rain," another bit of world music that dances all over a central circular bass riff, is a surprise highlight of the disc, another meditative work that displays the notion that the power of the trio did not lie solely in Sting's popcraft.

* - This may be a bizarre association that applies to only the Nyetverse, but I really feel a lot of these early '80s albums carry the shared mark of showing one or two tracks that are legitimate standouts and several other songs that maintain a special status for those born in approximately 1967. It's not just that, it's a certain sparse production aesthetic that I associate with New Wave that ties them together, but really, a lot of these B-sides benefit greatly from their context. I swear I've heard arguments from that demographic that e.g. "Man in a Suitcase" is genius in how it retells the classic rocker-on-the-road-blues narrative, but methinks this is playing the "rock achieved perfection when I was in middle school" card a little too strongly. I mean, it's a catchy enough ska-bumper, but genius? I don't see it - I think that classic status as a lot more to do with the band and the era that song qua song. I digress...

The rest of the disc is fleshed out with three not-entiurely-melodic, dark instrumentals* (a routine feature of Police albums) that don't entirely measure up to past efforts (even though one did win a Grammy). That one, "Behind My Camel," is particularly strident and disrupts affairs a bit. They're solid, film score-esque entries, but it's clear that the pop machine engaged in some album-filling from time to time. Again, I'm no instrumental-basher, and other Police instrumental entries are fantastic, but these reek of a quick album production time.

* Quasi-instrumental, whatever - "Voices in My Head" contains a chant, sure.

I think the characterization of ZM as a relatively weak Police disc is a fair one and one that carries the automatic caveat that relatively bad Police is pretty interesting, cool stuff by normal standards. It is definitely shwank to hear the band in transition and basically grab-bagging from the world's genre supply (hence "Mondatta") while on tour. I'm not sure that they really "make it their own," but they do channel it well. It's a nice document of the mixed bag that their music could be, both stylistically and qualitiatively, and well worth your investigation. And just to drop a final emphasis, be sure to give those backup songs time - they're not going to grab you by the face like other efforts, and close-listening reveals a lot going on in the seemingly limited three person dynamic.

Status: Recommended (solid)

Nyet's Fave: "Canary in a Coalmine." SKA!

Driving hazard

Ladies, just a warning, but...many men maybe just as shallow as you suspect¹. Or so say British roadway authorities who are expressing concern over the driving hazards posed by a racy new Reebok billboard featuring actress Kelly Brook in her birthday suit. Britain's Institute of Advanced Motorists warns that it is a "deadly distraction" for drivers. Reebok has Brook naked in the sexy 40-foot billboard, lying on her stomach and wearing just a pair of Reebok EasyTone sneakers.

Institute of Advanced Motorists official Peter Rodger told the Daily Mail that studies showed that dozens of road accidents were linked to the famous Eva Herzigova Wonderbra ad. (Pictured above.)

Ahhh, Reebok. Asked for their response, they said that most drivers were "cautious enough" to keep their eyes on the wheel.

¹Men are visually stimulated.

Crowd-Pleasing Bullets

Well, *apparently* album reviews are not certain readers cups of tea. And while some may ignore their readers' beverages of choice and post about the 21st century max-banal*, I am nothing if not a slave to my single-digit** readership. The people want Ulty updates? The people get Ulty updates. Abbreviated, ill-informative bullet-form updates - mildly appropriate given emoticon-titled subject posts - but updates nonetheless. The last few weeks, in (insert Megadeth scream here) BULLETS!!!

* - I kid, I kid. But seriously, you didn't think you could rag on my album reviews on facebook sans repercussion, did ya? :) But really, cute stuff from the Mark. If I'm ever forced to cover him in an Ultimate game, I will just say, "I've got Iheartyou."

** - My DFW impulse to clarify that "single digit" is a description of the quantity of the readership and not their individual mutant and/or shop-class-related finger-and-toe-statuses*** is kicking in. Clarified?

*** - My sensitive-'90s-ponytail-guy-sans-the-ponytail (and probably the sensitivity) impulse to clarify that there is nothing wrong with missing nineteen fingers/toes is kicking in. Morally or essentially wrong, I mean; let's be honest, you're probably going to deal with some functional difficulties in life, not the least of which will be throwing a flick**** and/or typing "Eff you Nyet" into the comments below in a timely fashion.

**** - See? Ulty content. In the fourth paragraph!

• When we last left our Sprawling heroes, they had won the Open Division of the Colorado Cup, even whilst missing famed superathlete co-captain Dheintime. This apparently went directly to the entire team's collective heads, as the plan - ramp up practices in August in preparation for the start of the Open Series proper in September - fell flat on its collective face. We started having attendance problems almost immediately as the month clicked "8," struggling to get sixteen-to-eighteen people out to the fields. And sixteen-to-eighteen people - particularly when that sixteen-to-eighteen is partially comprised of four-to-five non-Sprawlers - does not make for effective practicing with your top lines. Boo-urns.
• I can hardly talk, as I continue to be a mysteriously malaised, topping out at 75% wreck. Seriously, it's been better, but I'm still fading out here and there, and it got bad enough that I missed a couple of practices in there. Think about it - Nyet, willingly skipping Ulty practices! Not even going! Egads! The good news is that I've pursued all kinds of standard-issue medical explanations, and nothing overtly serious is going on. So put your worries away - cardiologists, pathologists, even surgeons assure me that everything is fine and this is merely some post-viral badness. One of those tests involved an incision and sitting out of all athletic activity for a week-plus - that was awesome - so maybe now you're starting to get an idea of why I haven't been entirely enthused about writing about Ultimate lately.
• Again, just to emphasize, DO NOT WORRY, and DO NOT WRITE me with bizarro speculations. "Nothing is effed here, dude," as Lebowski would say, so other than sympathizing with my suffering suckitude of late, you don't need to expend another thought on the health of Nyet. I'm fine. And raring to go for this weekend, taboot.
• Random side note - my funniest self-joke of the past month? Well, I'm still tracking my diet, which has been extra challenging with the sporadic cessations of exercise. But I'm maintaining my weight and eating well. Huzzah. The joke, though, is that the first self-e-mail chain I used to track things back in January was entitled "Food Diary." After a couple of months, I got tired of scrolling so far down the screen and created "Food Diary II." Then the nutritionist wanted me to track carbs / protein, so I started "Food Diary III." Tracking carbs means keeping track of a bit more info, so it was convenient to keep on elong e-mail and copy-paste frequent foods rather than repeatedly look them up. So this time I let the scrolling go long. And it turns out that e-mail threads in gmail max out at 99 messages; after that, it changes to "Re: Food Diary III." Annoying! So I had to start a new thread. Its title? "Food Diary Zoso." I. Am. Hilarious. Even if you don't get that particular joke, appreciate the meta-joke of having read one of the more mundane paragraphs e'er featured on this blog. Outside, you know, those dreaded album reviews.
• NEhoo, our solution to the attendance problem was to back it down to an optional practice on Mondays and a mandatory one on Wednesdays. This helped somewhat, but the curse of Phoenix-summer continued to afflict, and we continued to have problems. J-Ro even berated the team in an e-mail with the subject, "WTF?" When the excessively chilly and ubercool J-Ro gets feathers a-rufflin', things are problematic.
• We did (at least) continue to SLUG it out on Saturdays, occasionally having some stellar games. So there's been a thread of competition throughout, even if the practice issues have caused a lot of consternation.
• Speaking of consternation, we (in case I haven't mentioned it here yet) are going to be playing the series without stalwart Garret, who has run into way too much work and a new PhD program this fall. We're also going to be missing BP for sectionals (ugh), but it's better that way than having him miss regionals. And Cole has been 100% AWOL - I am relatively certain that I haven't seen him since CO Cup. Now, again, I missed three practices in there, but by all accounts, dude has just been GONE. So, um, that's disconcerting. Hopefully he rolls in this weekend to grab his reserved seat on the Pepsi Max Where-Have-You-Been-Dude? Bench. I mean, I'm one to talk, but I know where I was. Hopefully it's just been scheduling conflicts and not a dedication issue. Either way, communication is preferred.
• Speaking of, sectionals this weekend. Exciting times. We're carrying a roster of 23 and facing off against Monsoon, Le Tigre, El Ponderosa, ASU and U of A. You'll note the conspicuous lack of a Sweet Roll there - they have split between a master's squad and a co-ed team that could give Barrio a run. Pretty sure I mentioned this in the CO Cup writeup, but we never got that last official crack at 'em. Oh, well. Sectionals, fwiw, is conveniently located at the Scottsdale Sports Complex in Sunny Azz, so if you're around, be around! We play pretty much all day both days.
• I am sure all of that sectionals talk has you wondering how things have been going lately. Well, we changed practice fields to Eastern M(es)A in September, and have been making the trek to the east coast on Wednesdays for two hours of intense scrimmaging fun. Last week we played vert stack to give our D a look at the alternative O set, and then had to the D give the O lines nasty poaching sets. With the latter, we let the D play with eight guys - eight on seven! - and we still managed to score a good amount of the time. So hopefully that'll have us ready for the junk defenses our man-O will likely inspire.
• I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that things are intense enough at practice that some people on our D line - lets call them "& the Argonauts" and, um, "Red-headed Electrolyte" - got in an argument over coverage responsibilities that escalated in approximately six seconds into a drag-out, pit-bull-death-grip fight/wrestling match. YOWSERS! Shades of Nyet v. Ariel, 2002! (No, not really; we just yelled a lot. I don't think I'd seen a *physical* fight at a frisbee practice EVER before - you'll very, very occasionally see skirmishes at tourneys, but this was two guys who know each other at each other's throats with intent to harm). The whole thing was uncomfortable - it was broken up quickly and everyone was fine, so no biggie in the end. And the intensity was good to see on some abstract level, I suppose. But still. Eesh.
• So of course after all that quality O and leading-to-fights defensive intensity, we came out Saturday to SLUG and played sloptastic frisbee. Just didn't look good at all, tons of turns, people tired, leading to a lot of "glad sectionals is next weekend" sidebars. Ugh.
• Then fast forward to last night, where things looked a little better, but I - clicking on maybe three of my eight cylinders - managed to have a terrible, terrible practice. Qualify it - I was fine, more or less, for the "O" part of practice (when we were playing 7 against 8 and not allowed to throw it upside-down to simulate, as best we can, windy conditions) , and just had a really bad stretch of throws in the middle of the D section of practice, where we were running a vertical stack O. I probably took it too hard - it was just an exceptionally bad stretch of about ten minutes or so - but wow, can't go through that this weekend. I am sure the 106 degree forecast will help with that tremendously. Ugh, again.
• But all else considered, it was a good, hard, well-attended practice. Hard to know how we'll look this weekend, but for the first time in six weeks or so, we get to play someone other than ourselves, and that's always nice.
• So how are we feeling re: the weekend? Well, on some level, it's immaterial; all the teams who want to can go to regionals. I.e., our finish doesn't *really* matter. But we (obviously) want to win the section for seeding purposes, so we're going to have to crack down and get over the spottiness of late. Hopefully we will manage to play well AND work on our game, as regionals is still sitting as the smack-us-upside-the-head sudden change in intensity. We just don't have the same opportunities as JB and SG to engage serious competition at tourneys yet, so I envision a wake-up call in our future that we may or may not respond too with enough juice. All of that said, we look as good as we ever have of late, the people who are rolling out to practice are flat out bringing it, and there's adequate excitement in the air. O is crispy even without our blond deep threat, and D bothers me at practice, which is pretty much my barometer for goodness. So the weekend should be fun and enlightening. Wish us luck.
• In non-Sprawl Ulty news, my league team "The Way to Wikki Wakka" is 1-1, having staked out big leads which were choked away in both of the first two games. If I didn't mention it, my spring co-captain Lindsey is out for a bit with bad back issues (no!), but the league director made the sweetest - literally, sweetest - okay, you caught me, that would be figurative - of lemonades out of the situation for me and allowed me to captain with Jenga. She's a PHXaion / Spitfire player who is solid AND notorious for shattering all happiness/coolness scales, so despite our precarious play in the first couple of weeks, we're having a great time. Our team is the usual mix of skill/experience/talent - I'll do a full scale writeup at some point - but suffice it for now to say that I'm doing my best to run that team while my energies are really focused on and, more importantly, accustomed-to-the-level-of-play-of, Sprawl. So if I don't seem my usual fired-up-self with ridiculous VOTS game posts and such, it's only as an act of maintaining balance and not getting frustrated with the inevitable Sprawl-to-VOTS drop-off. I'm sure things will return to the usual VOTS-detail-obsessed state once I hang up these club cleats for good.
• In news a further step removed from Ultimate, school is back on. I have a relatively light semester courseload-wise, though I am writing this post at breakneck speed during a half-hour break from reading one of many five hundred page books that are staring me down. I am (allegedly) defending my prospectus at some point this semester, and continue to feel woefully unprepared. At least I don't have to grade undergrad essays this semester and can actually spend some time getting down to the brass tacks of, among other things, post-Darwinian evolutionary ethics. I know you're intrigued.
• As a final removed step, congrats to good friend Reena and her new husband Rob - the Nyetfam, Beck and I headed down to Dallas a couple of weekends back to attend her traditional Hindi wedding and had a fantastic time. We used the opportunity to spend Labor Day weekend in Texas and a good time seeing Aaron & Kristen, Grandpa, Deb, Pat & Ron, and my parents in various contexts, most of which involving delicious food. We *may* have even gotten my family hooked on grilled pineapple! May.

Hope that scratches the itch. Sectionals writeup due next week, though hopefully it will be a relatively boring weekend. We shall, as always, see.

AR: 100% Fun

Matthew Sweet - 100% Fun (1995)*

* - For all my pretense of mysterious personality, intellectual complexity and interest in challenging music ... I sure do own a lot of power pop. Sigh...

It's not like Matthew Sweet invented the pop juxtaposition of the sad and the saccharine; happy verses and choruses have been twisted by morose bridges at least since Lennon/McCartney claimed they could work it out. But Sweet sits squarely in this pop tradition and embodies the contrast well within the wire-horned frames of the '90s arch-ironic hipster, delivering tight three minute guitar vessels that sound oh-so-upbeat while discussing broken relationships and self-loathing. The hyper-ironic stance really captures it - angry post-punk fuzz guitars cut the jangle pop with a rough edge that makes those Sweet melodies oddly sinister, and rock-star worship-me guitar solos blow away the introverted singer-songwriter personality that must have crafted these sensitive tunes. It's a shimmery, engaging exercise in aural-emotional dissonance that heavily influenced indie rock in the years to come. The M.O. is far from subtle - the phrase "100% fun" comes from a line in Kurt Cobain's suicide note, for cripe's sake - but Sweet pulled it off with serious aplomb and tight songcraft. The result is a thoroughly enjoyable album that stands up as more than a document reporting where Weezer, The Shins, Elliott Smith, etc., got at least some of their inspiration.

100% Fun is sans doubt a seminal alt-rock album from Matthew Sweet's relatively short-lived heyday, but that doesn't necessarily make it a flawless work. Just to keep the irony contrast motif running - and to deliver a line usually reserved for job interviews - this album's biggest strength is its weakness. Namely that the front half is so strong as to render the album top-heavy and a trip downhill. This entails the positive, natch - "Sick of Myself" is a friggin' alt-rock masterpiece, a beast of an album-opener that click-click-click-clicks into being and delivers straight-up Truth as it details the experience of a lovee causing the lover to self-deprecate. Seriously, I know I am given to hyperbole, but this is a masterful tune that gets me every time - I generally don't even hear lyrics, but these slay me:

Verse 1:

You don't know

How you move me

Deconstruct me

And consume me

I'm all used up

I'm out of luck

I am starstruck

Chorus:

There's something in your eyes

That is keeping hope alive

'Cause I'm sick of myself when I look at you

Something is beautiful and true

In a world that's ugly and a lie

It's hard to even want to try

I'm beginning to think

Baby you don't know

Verse 2:

I'll take or leave

The hope to breathe

The choice to leave you

I'll throw away

A chance at greatness

Just to make this

Dream come into play

I don't know if I'm wide awake

(Chorus repeat)

[Badass Guitar Outro]

(Chorus repeat)

[Badass Guitar Outro, Now With False Ending Excellence]

An all-time best, and one of the few honest love songs out there. The rest of Side A is no slouch, either - "Not When I Need It" (dios mio check that Elliott Smith outro), "We're the Same," and "Giving It Back" are all gems in a similar vein, and "Lost My Mind" branches out with a dose of swirling psychedelia that breaks pattern but intrigues all the same. Side B, as noted, simply can't keep up - it's pleasant enough, but the drop-off is noticeable and renders the overall experience disappointing. Consistency throughout is one of my requirements, so while an EP of the first four tracks would have left me singing praises, 100% Fun invariably leaves me with a sour taste. (The album closer, "Smog Moon," has garnered its share of praise, but it treads too much in Oasis-esque bombast territory for my tastes and may play a large part in said sour taste). So while I'll fully agree that this is an emphatically good entry by Sweet and emblematic of the power pop genre, the album has always fallen short for me - I have the same experience with it today as I had the day I got it, which for unknown reasons I remember was Christmas 1995.

So check 100% Fun - it's tighter than Sweet's other work, so if you like your pop scraggly, go that way, but it's polished scruffy-sappy aesthetic hits some of the heights that he was after. It paved the way for alt/indie acts to follow, and even if Sweet never really hit that elusive homer, he did lay down some great work here.

Status: Recommended (solid)

Nyet's Fave: "Sick of Myself"

Keluarga dan 101 masalahnya.

Semalam saya bertemu dan berbincang dengan seorang teman. Teman yang dari dulu masih terus berhubungan untuk hal-hal remeh dan tidak penting. Teman yang sepertinya akan berubah statusnya menjadi sahabat. Teman yang telah mempercayakan satu rahasia tergelapnya ke tanganku.

“apa yang terjadi dengan keluargamu Qko? Kenapa kamu masih bisa melewati semua hal itu dan masih bisa tersenyum? Sedangkan saya, rasanya ingin lari dari semua ini.”

Itu yang bisa saya tangkap dari nada suaranya yang semakin sendu. Helaan napas yang berkali-kali terdengar membuatku bisa mengerti bagaimana posisinya. Bahkan tawa yang terdengar pun menjadi getir. Segelas Avocado Coffe tidak bisa menghilangkan gundahnya. Apa yang terjadi dengan keluarganya?



Tahukah kau kawan bahwa setiap keluarga memiliki kehidupan dan masalahnya masing-masing? Tahukah kau bahwa keluarga atau rumah merupakan elemen paling dasar yang membentukmu untuk berperangai? Tahukah kamu bahwa tidak semua rumah memiliki setiap senyum bahagia? Semuanya memiliki konflik sendiri-sendiri.

Sayapun hanya bisa terus mendengarkan setiap perkataannya. Setiap episode drama yang terjadi dirumahnya. Sesekali saya menimpali di momen yang tepat, sekedar memastikan bahwa saya mengikuti alur pembicaraannya. Bahwa saya mengerti perasaannya. Bahwa saya pernah berada di posisi itu. Ibu yang mau berpisah dengan bapak? Itu hanyalah salah satu episode dalam drama keluargaku dan saya telah melaluinya.

Mungkin Tuhan sangat menyayangi keluargaku. Sehingga dia berungkali memberi kami perhatian yang berlebih. Begitu banyak drama yang terjadi. Air mata yang telah tumpah. Ketika diumpamakan seperti vas bunga, mungkin bentuknya sudah tidak seperti dulu lagi. Pincang sana sini. Lecek sana sini. Tapi kami berhasil menempel setiap keping yang pecah itu. Berhasil menjadi lebih kuat di setiap peristiwa. Lari dari rumah? Saya sudah melakukan itu 7 tahun yang lalu. Tapi saya selalu bisa kembali. Selalu ada kekuatan dan kenyamanan ketika saya berada di rumah.

Kenyataannya itulah ritme yang terjadi dalam keluargaku. Ketika dalam setahun tidak ada drama yang terjadi, maka ada sesuatu yang tidak beres. Aneh memang, tapi kalau itu memang yang harus terjadi? Kau mungkin tidak akan pernah melihat kami sekeluarga hangout bareng, sekedar pergi membeli furniture rumah atapun baju lebaran. Tapi itu sudah menjadi sebuah pola, sebuah keterbiasaan. Mungkin berbeda dengan yang terjadi di rumah orang lain, tapi itulah yang terjadi dirumahku.

“Apa yang harus saya lakukan Qko? Tidak mungkin saya membiarkan masalah ini berlarut-larut”

Setelah puas menumpahkan semua keluh kesahnya dia mulai meminta pendapat. Memikirkan berbagai alternatif jalan keluar. Saya pun hanya bisa berkata, hanya satu jawaban untuk permasalahan keluarga. Kau harus frontal menghadapinya. Dan kau harus siap dengan semua konsekuensinya. Bersiaplah untuk kemungkinan terburuk.

Mungkin sepertinya akan sulit dilakukan. Apakah kau akan tega berbicara sejajar dengan orang yang telah melahirkanmu? Mengajari mereka tentang sebuah kesalahan? Yah, saya telah melakukannya. Dan itu wajar-wajar saja. Sulit memang, daripada menanggung sakit yang terus bertahan selama menahun? Yang pelan-pelan menghasilkan isak tangis tengah malam, yang membuatmu merasa rumah laksana perwujudan sebuah neraka. Lebih baik satu kali konfrontasi, sakit memang. Tapi semua masalah selesai dan tidak ada yang tersimpan.

Satu persatu lampu penerangan halaman mal tersebut dimatikan. Posisi kami telah berganti dari kedai kopi karena kedai tersebut sudah akan tutup. Kini kami hanya duduk berdua di teras mall tersebut. Menunggu temanku untuk memantapkan langkah dan menjadikan saya sebagai batu pijakannya lagi. Majulah teman, mungkin kamu yang harus berkorban untuk episode ini. Mungkin kamu yang harus berjuang untuk masalah ini. Semua ada jalan keluarnya. Kamu masih ingin melihat keluarga kamu berada dalam satu rumah kan?

Pelan-pelan kami beranjak ke tempat parkir. Dia telah menentukan sikap. Bagaimana dia harus menghadapi hari-harinya. “Jangan pernah lari dari masalah. Karena kau akan berdewasa dengannya”. Setidaknya itu satu pesan terakhir saya. Sekeluar dari tempat parkir kami pun berpisah jalan. Dia pulang kerumahnya, dan saya pulang ke rumahku. Berjuanglah teman!

*saya mendengarkan Frankie J – Daddy’s Little Girl, Gevin DeGraw – Follow Through dan Kevin Rossdale – Love Remains The Same ketika menulis postingan ini.