Once Upon a Time in Mataram Bioskop

I remember a year ago, right before the first inception of JAFF (Jogja Asian Film Festival), I told an acquaintance of mine who lives and grows up in Jogja, Fajar Nugross, that if I were going for the indies distibution for my film, Bioskop Mataram would be one of my screening sites. I would have done it, because Fajar had done screening all of his films there. The 650 seats capacity would be plenty if the promotion tools are hitting the jackpot.

Tonight, I returned home, after the twelfth night of 'tarwih', resuming my reading of the DKJ grant proposal. I had put on my iPod and set it for Ennio Morricone's Once Upon a Time in America. Only two proposals left to be reviewed, but the sluggishness comes creeping in. I forced myself to review one and have my laptop session in between for catching up the latest email and scores of English Premiere League (Fuck ASTRO TV!!!).

Just regular a bunch of emails, until my eyes hit the subject "Akhirnya, Layar Bioskop itu Tergulung Jaman" sent through mailing list by Fajar Nugross. At the same time, as I didn't shuffle the album, the playlist hit the song no. 5, called Amapola. As I read through Fajar's writing, this music, from the scorer of Cinema Paradiso, sways sentimentally beautiful in the back of my head. Fajar's eloquent personal writing augments the emotion he is trying to convey through his (or perhaps our) loss.

(please have the time to read Fajar's writing above)

Perhaps, that's the journey of the last warrior in this new wild and cruel frontier, the Mohicans of the non-cineplex movie houses. Last year, the presence of this kind of theater would give a hope to filmmaker like myself, Fajar, and others who are still struggling for the existence. But now, the hope is fading away as the half-hearted film industry run by the fraud moguls are the one who has the last laughter. Despite the condition, the skirmishes to the last battle is still being fought.

Just like 'Noodle' let Patsy walking merrily in front of them, against the background of Brooklyn Bridge, with the hopeful future of their friendship depicted in "Once Upon a Time in America", this kind of movie house has also had many hopes fulfilled and shattered. However, many will only be able to share the memory of experiencing the grandeur, watching the the great film in the grand movie houses of the old days. Its love, romance, comedy, action, tears and joy are wrapped into one. Indeed, many nostalgias are now left in those empty seats that soon will belong to the scrapyard. Bon Voyage...

Ramadhan & Facebooking

In the past years, during the Ramadhan, I always spent my time reading until the time for 'sahur' around 4AM. I remember last year were Scott Ritter's Iraq Confidential book and Robert Fisk's The Great War for Civilization (unfinished - 1000+ pages bo'). Two years before was Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana and in 1992, back in San Jose, it was Pramoedya's This Earth of Mankind (the English version - in fact, that was the first time I read his writing). I always found that Ramadhan is the best time to concentrate. Therefore, reading is the thing on the list for Ramadhan (no wonder, reading the Quran has more reward if done during the Ramadhan).

This year is quite different. We've been using the virtual community (VC) for quite sometime like friendster, multiply or myspace. But, as the term, it's so friendster applied, those VCs are running out of style. Once again, it's so friendster. Here comes the facebook. Despite, It's been around for a year or so, I have just embraced this phenomenon recently. What hook me and the rest of the people on is this VC has the ability to be interactive with its numerous applications.

Ranging from frivolous quizzez to profound ones, nitpick applications which are good for hitting on to those apps which are good for killing time, facebooking is the way to take me to 'sahur' time. Despite the 47 proposals for DKJ grant that I have to review, in between proposals, I keep coming back to check what's the recent cool stuff in the facebook or sailing my ship to find more booties and coins in the 'pirates' applications. Not only that, I opened my Maithuna treatment in my word application with the facebook on the web in the background. It's not that I second the writing of my film treatment, but somehow, when stuck with objectives, shots, and set-ups, facebooking assists me to alleviate the tension in overthinking that treatment.


'Pirates' is the applications to kill time that I used most of the time. Contrary to the Ramadhan spirit, in this VC, you are allowed to steal someone else's coins or booties with your cunningness. The list of the thrown-bomb is multiplied every hour. Especially during the night, when most of them are in their slumber to be woken up for 'sahur' or simply just sleeping straight to the dawn, it's my best time to bomb-throwing at them. The result is that I add up my level, hit point (that I will be using to attack another ship), and most important thing is the coins stealing.

So much for the facebooking if not for its numerous narcissistic applications such as brainfall, flixter, photos and etc. This VC has hooked me on day by day, which I don't bother to check on the new Scott Ritter's book that has been out or any other books that I haven't finished. Perhaps, this Ramadhan is the time I don't spend much time reading but more to VCing or soon will be a new verb 'facebooking'.

Well, I will go back for DKJ grant proposal review as well as concentrate on the treatment of my Maithuna project. On the other hand, my corsair boat safe in the harbor with 0 coins (for any greedy bomb thrower, you're welcome to attack), it is waiting to sail again tomorrow night. Any poke will treated justly as well.
So long......

One of My Imaginary Competition(s)...

It's not a turn down, but a slight postponement until Monday. I supposed to meet a friend of mine as a potential investor for my Maithuna project right after the Friday prayer. Then, instead of taking a Friday prayer in vicinity of his office, I went to the one near my house. For sure, it's gonna be a walking underneath the mid-day sun.

During the Ramadhan, it's one of the method of calorie burning since I won't be doing cardio during the day and usually after the iftar (breaking the fast) one has to have a will to go up for a cardio at night. But most of all, the strolling to one's neighborhood mosque is opening up the possibility to bump into your neighbor. In fact, today, still in a bit disappointment from the delayed meeting, I bumped into an old friend of mine. I won't say his name, but let's called him Mr. M.

I've known Mr. M since childhood. As the only son in the family with several female siblings, he is a bit expected in the family. Especially with the good look that he has, back in the 80's many girls had have a crush on him. Then, he boasted that he spent most of his time receiving a call from his admirer. Every Saturday Night, he is the one who went missing for spending time with one of the girls. Mr. M also has a gift of making something artistically. He was a good painter, still is. But, when I say artistically, back then, it should be a complete package. Most of all, it was someone who is good in making a great model miniature kit. We loved to built a model kit. I had my collection ranging from military stuffs to modern commercial vehicles. Mr. M had collection of commercial vehicles (sedan & trucks) that he scrapped and transformed into a stylist car with the protruding wheel and an inside roll bar in it. I built the model as instructed, while he built it more with his imagination. It was his gift. He was so good with his this skill so to me it mutated into a vanity. Eventually, I built up a competition within me against all of his skills and attributes.

His opening line to me today was that he still has my VW Beetle model kit that he rebuilt into a different car despite the look of the Beetle is still there. Wow, even I myself have long forgotten about the model kit let alone the specific model.

After several years, with limited conversation between each other, the strolling to the mosque has opened me with the news of him. I found out in the middle of the conversation that he has the same back problem as mine. And this back problem has refrained him to continue his job as a driver in one of the biggest taxi company in town. What surprises me is not that he has the same back problem like I'm having, a possible dire competition, but the fact that he is working as a taxi driver. Once again, not that I view the occupation negatively, but I have practically grown up with Mr. M, and being a driver was perhaps, then, not his option. He was the slick of the week type of person who refrained from riding a cheap transportation when visiting any girl's.

In retrospect, I took a look at the built up or imaginary competition that I had against him and the trivialities surrounding it. What a pernicious of me to create that situation. I caught up between a self-laugh and cry altogether. He is so harmless. In my strolling, I put myself in the position where Mr. M won't see any competition built up between him and his passenger. He is simply driving the client where to go. It's an irony that back then he was driving himself to any girl's or admirer's house he wanted. He was the one who decided what this model kit would look like after he glued and painted together. Now, he waits for an order to the location which several times he doesn't know where it is.

I dug more into the conversation regarding the back problem. I was sustaining myself in mentioning any chiropractic treatment. It's not that I don't want to help someone with the problem like mine, but the chiropractic treatment is not really a cheap solution. My simple solution, I considered it cheap solution, is to take a pain killer when the pain attacks. This time, he repeats my solution over and over again as to memorize it in his medication workflow. I also remind him to take a rest while he roams around in his taxi. Too much sitting down will make the back problem worse. I ask him to drive to the side and stand up and have a good stretch while resting in between duty. That's the least I can ask him to do.

So much for the stroll as we arrive at the mosque, lastly he informed me that he spent several weeks at Suralaya Islamic Compound. There, I'm a bit curious for anyone who was once a nonchalant for religion but all of a sudden start attending the pesantren (Islamic Compound). Satiating my curiosity, I ask him what is he doing there. A simple answer of learning Islam more in depth is what I got. I value him for that...a once expected man in the family, a juvenile casanova, a gifted artist is now learning something more for his life. As the qomat calls us to stand up and pray, Mr. M added more to my question. His answer is that in Suralaya is also the place to look for the woman. I bet he is still is....:)