suppersnapshots

suppersnapshots is a collaborative photo diary by me and maarten wesselius. I was inspired to make this project after reading a blog in photojojo, about a collaborative photoblog where two best friends take photos and put their photos from the same date side by side. Some nice examples of this project were done by Nina Barry and Josh Shayne in their blog called the Minty Forest and Rajit and Spatialk at Don’t Wiggle.

Anyway, since maarten and i like to cook together and take photos of our food, we decided to make the photoblog to be more specific: taking photos of the food we have every day.

In this way, it also helps us to see what kind of food we had and look for a more varieties in what we eat. But despite the name of suppersnapshots, the photos will not be only taken during supper time. We will also put photos of our breakfast, lunch, high tea, or even our favourite snacks.

We hope you enjoy this project as much as we do. Eet smakelijk!

the photo loop

This is a photo project I made for the final assignment of cool science course. I decided to carry out the theme of self-reference (one of the course’s subject) since I found it very interesting and it turned out that I myself seemed to do some self reference acts in my photos and even poems.

So the idea was to take photograph of a person in front of you who take a photo of a person in front of him/her and so forth until it makes a loop.

A similar photo series was already done by New York photographer Jay Yao for the artConnexions held by Goethe Institut in 2004.

My first experiment was done by three photographers, taking a photo of each other through the streets of Leiden and inside a room in Molen de Valk.

The second experiment was done by 15 people, all taking photo of the person in front of him or her, and it was done at de burcht, a fortress in the heart of Leiden. The best thing about de burcht was that the fortress has a circular shape that is not too big in size, so by collecting 15 people I could already accomplish my mission

Photos from each people were then pasted into one, and this idea actually came from the photo series done by a good friend of mine Mas Mola Marbun done for Mapping Invisible Cities also by Goethe Institut.

My list of thank you:
Bang Marlon
Brit
Stelios
Mois
Maria
Ebru
Fike
Linda
Carl
Mbak Laily
Mbak Dian
Mas Nino
Daniel
Mas Darwis

de burcht – clockwise

de burcht – counter clockwise

open markt

molen de valk

dour festival — manual plurk

as you may well know, i’m a plurk fan, a miniblog which i think is far better than twitter. well since i couldn’t access internet during the festival, so i made some kind of a diary in the form of plurks

the photos of the original manual plurks can be seen here.

15.07.2009        14.35    oxalis was on my way to liacs when richard called

15.07.2009        14.45    oxalis went to laura’s room in liacs 115 and borrowed her tent. i finally got a tent, yaaayy!

15.07.2009        14.58    oxalis reaches the station. saw richard carrying a lot of stuff

15.07.2009        15.08    oxalis went to the bank – running out of money in my account

15.07.2009        15.18    oxalis has just missed the 15.18 train to den haag HS. richard is still waiting for me at platform 8

15.07.2009        15.34    oxalis and richard took the stoptrein to den haag centraal instead. lieven dropped his jumper at voorschoten platform.

15.07.2009        15.40    oxalis says richard jumped out the train to get lieven’s jumper in voorschoten. Then returned back to the train

15.07.2009        15.48    oxalis and richard reach den haag laan van NOI and meet lieven

15.07.2009        16.02    oxalis says the train is delayed. waiting, waiting.

15.07.2009        16.03    oxalis hopes we can still get the international train from HS at 16.08

15.07.2009        16.15    oxalis says ok, we miss the international train now

15.07.2009        16.23    oxalis says finally the train arrives.

15.07.2009        16.24    oxalis says it only takes three short minutes to HS and we had to wait for 30 minutes. Darn.

15.07.2009        16.27    oxalis reaches HS with richard and lieven. meets lieven’s girlfriend miranda

15.07.2009        16.44    oxalis takes the train to brussels zuid

15.07.2009        19.34    oxalis says we are squeezing ourselves to get on the 19.34 train to st.ghislain. the train is full of festival goers.

15.07.2009        20.20    oxalis reaches st. ghislain station. Now squeezing myself to get on the shuttle bus

15.07.2009        20.53    oxalis and friends reach the bus stop for the camping site. Now we have to walk.

15.07.2009        20.58    oxalis says there’s a leak on one of the beer cans in richard’s plastic bag. now richard is having another beer.

15.07.2009        21.45    oxalis is entering the camping site. The bags were not checked at all!

15.07.2009        22.02    oxalis meets miranda’s friends: dan, lou, sjoerd, and quinn

15.07.2009        22.30    oxalis is building my tent, helped by richard.

15.07.2009        22.45    oxalis says yaaayy, my tent (uhm i mean laura’s tent) is ready!

15.07.2009        23.02    oxalis chats with the other boys, but then i got sleepy (:|

15.07.2009        23.18    oxalis has a stroll with richard, gets some water from the tap, and has a look around the site

15.07.2009        23.30    oxalis is sleeping in petya’s warm sleeping bag.

16.07.2009        09.50    oxalis is burnt inside the tent. the sun is too damn hot!

16.07.2009        10.40    oxalis is sunbathing with some new friends

16.07.2009        13.18    oxalis got bit by the ants for the third time in less than two hours

16.07.2009        15.00    oxalis is at the dour festival – and i can bring my camera!

16.07.2009        15.40    oxalis is enjoying papa dada while eating ‘frites met mayo’

16.07.2009        16.50    oxalis has just finished watching and taking photographs of bony king of nowhere – and they’re really good! *thumbs up* (applause)

16.07.2009        17.00    oxalis terbakar matahari

16.07.2009        17.10    oxalis mengantar seorang teman yang kulitnya terbakar ke tempat pembagian suncream. sekalian ngolesin.

16.07.2009        17.40    oxalis is dehydrating

16.07.2009        17.40    oxalis is buying a milkshake to quench my thirst

16.07.2009        17.50    oxalis is chilling out with richard and lieven between the dance hall and the magic tent

16.07.2009        18.04    oxalis thinks the jim jones revue is not bad, thou it is a bit too loud. but now i’m moving to the dance hall as pascale picard is preparing their (or her?) performance

16.07.2009        18.10    oxalis says some people are playing frisbee inside the dance hall tent

16.07.2009        18.12    oxalis feels sleepy. a friend of mine has even fallen asleep. but probably he just had too much beers.

16.07.2009        18.30    oxalis fell asleep for a little while, sitting and hugging my bag. i was thinking of laying myself down, but we were in the middle of people passing by.

16.07.2009        19.06    oxalis suka ga ngerti kalo ada orang yang ngajak anaknya ke festival

16.07.2009        19.30    oxalis says richard is going back to the tent. lieven and miranda are going to get some dinner. i’m going back to the dance hall to get some nap.

16.07.2009        19.40    oxalis is writing my tour diary as people are going out of the dance hall at the end of pascale picard’s performance

16.07.2009        20.41    oxalis thinks MVSC is great. despite indie-rock-electroclash is so 2000, while i’m from the 90’s generation.

16.07.2009        20.52    oxalis was about to take photos of cocoon. but loads of people were standing near the stage. it seemed that the band is one of belgian prides.

16.07.2009        21.25    oxalis says cocoon is playing an acoustic version of “hey ya”.

16.07.2009        22.10    oxalis is luntang lantung bareng richard (eyeroll)

16.07.2009        23.00    oxalis has returned to my tent. i think i’m going to get some sleep (sleeping)

16.07.2009        23.40    oxalis says hey, there are some guys pissing near me tent! (angry)

17.07.2009        00.00    oxalis says hey, it’s raining

17.07.2009        04.00    oxalis is awake in the middle of the night. i hope it stops raining

17.07.2009        06.05    oxalis says it seems that laura’s tent passes the rain test

17.07.2009        10.20    oxalis is finally awake and having a raisin bread for breakfast

17.07.2009        11.09    oxalis was sitting outside with friends when it suddenly rained

17.07.2009        11.48    oxalis condemns people who peed near me tent. now i can smell the urines every time a wind blows

17.07.2009        12.46    oxalis bertanya-tanya kepada @glasgowmegasnake apakah the sedan vault termasuk band post rock

17.07.2009        13.11    oxalis thinks the vocalist of the sedan vault wants to crossbreed the style of liam gallagher and ian brown

17.07.2009        13.18    oxalis thinks the dour festival has a bad sound system. ok, not that bad. it’s just not really good. well what can you expect from a 100euro/4 days (read:cheap) festival anyway?

17.07.2009        14.30    oxalis is back to my tent and has some nap

17.07.2009        16.46    oxalis says after missing the chance of seeing walls of jericho in jakarta last year, i finally see them at dour

17.07.2009        16.48    oxalis thinks the weather in dour today is worse than the horrible dutch weather. panas-hujan-panas-hujan. duh mudah-mudahan ga sakit

17.07.2009        16.53    oxalis says walls of jericho tells the crowd to say “fuck! fuck! fuck!”

17.07.2009        18.10    oxalis thinks au revoir simone is really good! it’s like bringing the spirit of the all-keyboardist-band thingy back!

17.07.2009        18.46    oxalis saw sepultura from some dozens of meters away. But then went back to the magic tent with richard. i guess i’m getting old for sepultura *sigh*

17.07.2009        17.40    oxalis is waiting for next performances, eating fries underneath the tree. richard is having a beer.

17.07.2009        19.01    oxalis is pouring my blue tropical-flavoured-slush into my water bottle

17.07.2009        16.31    oxalis hates tall photographers

17.07.2009        19.21    oxalis thinks photographers should not dance in the media pit

17.07.2009        19.36    oxalis says tokyo ska paradise orchestra plays mary had a little lamb :p

17.07.2009        20.26    oxalis is watching the dillinger escape plan. gitarisnya manjat speaker. vokalisnya manjat lighting. gitaris satunya lompat-lompat

17.07.2009        21.16    oxalis wonders lagi ngetrend ya band pake drummer dua?

17.07.2009        21.30    oxalis wonders temen gw kemana ya? koq ga ada di tempat tadi? apa udah ke stage satunya?

17.07.2009        21.41    oxalis says udah jalan separo jalan ke stage satunya, ternyata temen gw masih di stage yang tadi

17.07.2009        21.50    oxalis is surrounded by french-speaking people as seeing — or listening to — french-speaking babylon circus

17.07.2009        2146     oxalis thinks …and you will know us by the trail of dead will be know by their trail of deaths of ear-bleeding. Their music is just way too loud. literally. or maybe because the sound system sucks.

17.07.2009        22.30    oxalis thinks some people can be a bit boring when they’re sober. Maybe I am too.

17.07.2009        2245     oxalis is waiting for mercury rev at the red frequency stage. it’s bloody cold and windy out here!

18.07.2009        00.02    oxalis says Mercury Rev was STUNNING!

18.07.2009        00.04    oxalis says my senses on fire!

18.07.2009        00.17    oxalis is back at club ciruit marquee. Listening to animal collective

18.07.2009        00.14    oxalis was electrocuted by my own camera. My hands were freezing, so that was why, I guess.

18.07.2009        00.35    oxalis fell asleep in the middle of (also) sleeping crowd, as animal collective was performing

18.07.2009        01.30    oxalis is back inside my tent, trying to sleep

18.07.2009        10.50    oxalis says akhirnya mandi juga

sebelum mandi

sesudah mandi

18.07.2009        10.52    oxalis thinks the shower facilities in this festival is not bad. thou of course there’s no hot water and the water is freezing cold!

18.07.2009        11.04    oxalis hopes my shoes dry soon. I hate wearing wet shoes. FYI, my right shoe got soaked by rainwater as I put it near my tent’s door last night

18.07.2009        11.39    oxalis is listening to mercury rev

18.07.2009        11.47    oxalis says temen gw belum ada yang bangun gini

18.07.2009        14.25    oxalis is queueing to recharge my mobile phone. I hope I can recharge my camera’s battery as well

18.07.2009        14.29    oxalis has just met miranda, dan, and roald. miranda said there’d be no queue at night.. uhm.. (thinking)

18.07.2009        14.40    oxalis says there were lots of people wearing depeche mode t-shirt on pinkpop and tw classic. but here, I guess I’m the only one wearing a pet shop boys t-shirt

18.07.2009        14.45    oxalis is still queueing (:|

18.07.2009        16.05    oxalis is still queueing. yes it’s been 1,5 hours

18.07.2009        16.20    oxalis says thanks to lieven for buying me food tickets

18.07.2009        16.06    oxalis thinks stijn sounds like pet shop boys’ please album mixed with strong new wavey oompa-oompa-oompa blue Monday thingy

18.07.2009        16.39    oxalis is dazily drowned by the music of i like trains

18.07.2009        16.29    oxalis has just finished queueing. phew! two long hours!

18.07.2009        16.44    oxalis wonders why people were kissing as they listen to post-rockey i like trains. maybe because the frustration rate here is really low? (thinking)

18.07.2009        16.53    oxalis thinks bringing an empty lunch box can be very handy. Especially if you don’t eat much at once like me.

18.07.2009        17.10    oxalis met richard and lieven somewhere between dance hall and the magic tent. then we met roald and quinn as they were listening to winston mcanuff at the red frequency stage

18.07.2009        17.53    oxalis says chinese man is playing the doors’ “light my fire”!

18.07.2009        17.49    oxalis says a guy put a coca cola mexican hat on my head. he said it was a present (lol)

18.07.2009        18.40    oxalis hates dry public toilets

18.07.2009        18.47    oxalis says to @wongacid: pir.. gw nonton jazzanova.. :p

18.07.2009        18.55    oxalis says a guy came to me and asked for jazzanova photos.

18.07.2009        19.09    oxalis thinks i need earplugs

18.07.2009        19.16    oxalis says lagi enak-enak ngupil, tau-tau vokalisnya jazzanova atraksi gitar, dimainin di belakang kepala. ga sempet motret. keilangan momen deh gw

18.07.2009        19.55    oxalis is queueing again. This time to recharge my camera’s battery

18.07.2009        20.03    oxalis liat orang tampangnya kayak @sapieasoy (lol)

18.07.2009        20.08    oxalis says udah 3 hari upil gw item-item gini

18.07.2009        21.11    oxalis says ok, enough queueing for today *resting my legs*

18.07.2009        21.33    oxalis is nervous

18.07.2009        22.30    oxalis dihajar dua band post rock dalam sehari

18.07.2009        22.32    oxalis met a belgian boy who went to festivals for the last 3 (yes, three) weekends. And he’s going to pukkelpop as well

18.07.2009        22.48    oxalis met richard, dunya, and lieven near club circuit marquee. but it turned out that richard wanted to see something else first before pet shop boys and will go to the last arena sometime around 23.30

18.07.2009        22.52    oxalis is sneaking in through the crowd. now i’m at the front row

18.07.2009        23.04    oxalis is observing the boxes used for pet shop boys’ performance

18.07.2009        23.26    oxalis says a row of boxes fell down

18.07.2009        23.32    oxalis is very nervous. i really am

18.07.2009        23.43    oxalis says my heart starts missing a beat!

18.07.2009        23.51    oxalis thinks pet shop boys will have the same setlist as their Amsterdam concert

18.07.2009        23.52    oxalis thinks “can you forgive her?” and “pandemonium” is a great combination

19.07.2009        00.03    oxalis says chris (lowe) is banging electric drums for “go west”

19.07.2009        00.08    oxalis says why don’t we live together baby?

19.07.2009        00.14    oxalis says neil returned to the stage with his square sunglasses which he wore for the “did you see me coming?” video

19.07.2009        00.22    oxalis thinks neil looks undeniably gorgeous with the suit and bow tie. he looks a bit like frank sinatra now. :p

19.07.2009        00.43    oxalis says neil wears a bowler hat now. and i want his coat!

19.07.2009        00.57    oxalis is standing right in front of chris. and i can’t get a good shot of him. Except when he was dancing a while on “why don’t we live together?”

19.07.2009        01.00    oxalis says pet shop boys only played one song after encore. West end girls.

19.07.2009        00.23    oxalis thinks it’s such a shame that people are more familiar with pet shop boys covering other people’s songs like “go west” and “always on my mind”

19.07.2009        01.04    oxalis says I got some good shots of pet shop boys. Neil – close up. Yaay! (dance)

19.07.2009        01.08    oxalis says all good things must come to an end. So does this concert.

19.07.2009        01.09    oxalis says now all my 5 days of camping and 5 hours travel from Leiden mean nothing after being able to see pet shop boys again

19.07.2009        01.15    oxalis thinks as a photographer/fan, I have reached my peak. My finest moment. I don’t think I can ask for more

19.07.2009        01.20    oxalis met dan, miranda, and lieven at the club circuit marquee. The stage is playing a hiphop dj.

19.07.2009        01.26    oxalis was about to return to me tent when i noticed 2 missed calls from richard. called richard

19.07.2009        01.36    oxalis meets richard and dunya near the magic tent. it’s craze and klever, and they played some 90’s dance anthems.

19.07.2009        01.43    oxalis says now they play smack my bitch up. we’re moving through the crowd

19.07.2009        01.50    oxalis says richard keeps on sneaking through the crowd. i got quite a difficult time following him. dunya is behind me

19.07.2009        01.54    oxalis says richard said he had to go to the middle of the crowd to keep himself warm. he got a bit wet as it was raining during the pet shop boys performance

19.07.2009        02.05    oxalis is walking to the dance hall with richard and dunya

19.07.2009        02.15    oxalis doesn’t feel like dancing. i’m going back to the tent. i’m not into parties anyway

19.07.2009        02.30    oxalis is back in the tent and ready to sleep

19.07.2009        11.48    oxalis is too lazy to get out of bed. uhm.. i mean, sleeping bag

19.07.2009        15.00    oxalis has just missed petula clarck

19.07.2009        15.08    oxalis meets sjoerd and roald at the red frequency stage. dancing to volt selector

19.07.2009        15.16    oxalis says sjoerd said he and roald went to the hill near the camping site. and they had to sneak out of the gate

19.07.2009        15.24    oxalis says roald said his legs got stuch in a black mud thingy. and now his legs are covered with that thick black mud

19.07.2009        15.14    oxalis and sjoerd try to keep roald from going back to amsterdam

19.07.2009        15.42    oxalis says roald said goodbye. He has to return to amsterdam as he has to work tomorrow morning. roald got group hugs from his friends.

19.07.2009        15.48    oxalis is dispatching myself from the rest of the group as i just want to have a little walk around

19.07.2009        13.20    oxalis says isi pensil gw abis

19.07.2009        14.54    oxalis liat polisi lagi bersihin kaki kuda (sepatu kuda)

19.07.2009        15.56    oxalis says to @petya5ya: i saw pet shop boys last night and took photos of them from close range

19.07.2009        16.05    oxalis says the night marchers said they were glad to be back in germany again (lol). i don’t know whether they’re kidding, but if not, then they must be sucks at geography

19.07.2009        16.16    oxalis is mengais-ngais memory di sd card. ok, now I can have 204 more small photos

19.07.2009        16.10    oxalis says drummernya the night marchers rambutnya dikepang dua

19.07.2009        16.24    oxalis thinks that the vocalist of the night marchers is either really drunk or have problems with geography. he kept saying ‘germany’!

19.07.2009        16.36    oxalis says lautan manusia di the last arena

19.07.2009        16.40    oxalis was caught in camera. yikes!
19.07.2009        16.44    oxalis thinks one of the problems in dour is that they have too many stages

19.07.2009        16.47    oxalis says the music plays mercury rev’s “butterfly’s wings” minutes before amazing baby performance

19.07.2009        16.50    oxalis says planks in some stages get a bit messy

19.07.2009        17.20    oxalis says amazing baby was not that.. amazing. They sound much better in myspace

19.07.2009        17.25    oxalis says my phone is dead again. So much for the two hours queue

19.07.2009        17.27    oxalis says ah i haven’t told you about how richard and lieven sneaked dunya in to the camping site a couple of nights ago. dunya left leiden at around nine, so when he reached st. ghislain, there was no more shuttele bus and he had to walk all the way from the station to the festival site for 1.5 hours . when he reached the site, it was already past midnight so he couldn’t get his wristband. moreover, it was raining when he walked from the station. and his ticket got dissolved (the prints). luckily richard had some copies (back up tickets) for dunya. dunya finally could enter the site at around three in the morning.

19.07.2009        18.10    oxalis is ketiduran di the magic tent

19.07.2009        18.27    oxalis is moving to the club circuit marquee. trying to get some sleep (again) :p

19.07.2009        19.01    oxalis is now awake. i have just spent the last 30 minutes sleeping

19.07.2009        19.05    oxalis says vokalisnya rolo tomasi bengek di atas panggung (lol)

19.07.2009        19.12    oxalis says rolo tomasi cuma modal teriak2 doang. I’m off.

19.07.2009        19.25    oxalis is wondering where have the other boys gone. I’m getting bored.

19.07.2009        19.45    oxalis finally found my friends as I walked to les maisons dans la prairie

19.07.2009        19.47    oxalis was lifted by dan, then by lou and pieter. I felt like as if I was crowdsurfing (lol)

19.07.2009        16.38    oxalis thinks this new green cement thingy looks ugly. Really ugly.

19.07.2009        20.04    oxalis is at the red frequency stage. listening to israel vibration

19.07.2009        20.45    oxalis is chatting with dunya and miranda

19.07.2009        21.08    oxalis says dunya finally found 45 empty cups. we went to the eco change to trade 40 cups with a drink ticket. and we got 2 glasses of beer!

19.07.2009        21.41    oxalis is watching a post punk band called the horrors. They’re quite good.

19.07.2009        21.25    oxalis thinks the keyboardist of the horrors is kinda charming. i mean, I like his face – it’s good for photos.

19.07.2009        21.46    oxalis wonders where richard and dunya are

19.07.2009        22.09    oxalis is watching jamie lidell at the last arena

19.07.2009        22.44    oxalis is enjoying caribou at les maisons dans la prairie. they’re really good.

19.07.2009        22.45    oxalis says oh and sometimes the vocalist also plays drums. So is this two-drummers-thingy a trend now? i’ve seen 3 bands at dour already (which have 2 drummers, that is)

19.07.2009        23.28    oxalis thinks a song played by boss hog at this moment has a similar riff with offspring’s “come out and play”.

19.07.2009        23.41    oxalis thinks mantep juga nih drummernya boss hog. cewe bertampang rocker dan bisa nyanyi sambil ngedrum. gile. some girls have all the luck

20.07.2009        00.10    oxalis is aphex twin

20.07.2009        00.20    oxalis says some people are climbing the sound tower to see aphex twin

20.07.2009        00.32    oxalis is lifted by dan to get a good picture of aphex twin. Thanks!!

20.07.2009        00.04    oxalis meets dan, sjoerd, lou, and pieter. Thanks God I met these guys! or else i will be smashed in the middle of the crowd

20.07.2009        01.00    oxalis says the guys left the red arena and heading to the dance hall to see 5 elements of hip hop. i’m staying. i probably can get some more good shots.

20.07.2009        01.42    oxalis says aphex twin is finally finished. i’m going back to my tent

20.07.2009        02.10    oxalis is ngemil mie instan *laper tengah malem*

20.07.2009        03.05    oxalis says Ada yang nyalain firecracker di luar tenda gw. dasar norak! kampungan! (angry)

20.07.2009        08.30    oxalis is baru bangun dan langsung beres-beres

20.07.2009        10.13    oxalis is finished packing. I even disassembled the tent myself! *jabang – jadi gw bangga* (lol)

20.07.2009        10.14    oxalis mau cabs tapi temen gw belum ada yang bangun. padahal mau pamitan.

20.07.2009        10.53    oxalis borrows richard’s mobile to send text messages to myriam and ode

20.07.2009        11.04    oxalis says ode bales sms gw. Katanya naik bus 7270 dari triberg ke furtwangen. ode juga bilang bisa ngecharge hp di kereta

20.07.2009        11.15    oxalis is saying goodbye to friends. richard, pieter, quinn, dan, lou, sjoerd, miranda, and lieven. dunya had already left btw, so i have to take laura’s tent all the way to germany

20.07.2009        11.17    oxalis is leaving the camp site

20.07.2009        11.32    oxalis is queueing for the shuttle bus. a red letter day is playing on my mp3 player. How appropriate :p

20.07.2009        11.44    oxalis is on the bus to st. Ghislain station

20.07.2009        12.00    oxalis is at st. ghislain station, waiting for the train to brussels midi. the train should arrive any minutes now.

20.07.2009        12.16    oxalis is tergila-gila the dark is rising-nya mercury rev

20.07.2009        12.36    oxalis is finally got on the train. and I got a seat as well!

20.07.2009        12.38    oxalis says some people can’t make it on the train. they have to wait for another hour then. poor them.

20.07.2009        13.50    oxalis is at brussels zuid station. waiting for my number. queueing. my number is 3801, and now is still 3753 (eyeroll)

20.07.2009        14.43    oxalis says the ticket to karlsruhe costs me 144 euro, or offenburg 157 euro. what the hell?! i felt like i was ripped off! (angry)

20.07.2009        14.50    oxalis decides not to buy the ticket yet. calls ode and myriam and asks for advice.

20.07.2009        15.01    oxalis says myriam said she usually paid around 50 euro by booking via hispeed.nl

20.07.2009        15.06    oxalis officially cancels the plan to furtwangen today. i have no idea what to do. i’ll just check at home and if i can get a ticket tomorrow morning, then i leave.

20.07.2009        15.25    oxalis bought a ticket back to leiden. ah, home..

20.07.2009        15.42    oxalis is eating indian curry triangles at wok away express. sekalian biar dapet kembalian buat bayar toilet 50¢. *belet pipis*

20.07.2009        15.59    oxalis says dan bahkan WC pun penuh orang bubaran festival

20.07.2009        16.02    oxalis met richard, lieven, and miranda at the station. i have expected this to happen. in fact, i called richard few minutes earlier but i couldn’t reach him

20.07.2009        16.12    oxalis takes the 16.18 train to amsterdam. ah leiden, here i come!

20.07.2009        16.19    oxalis is eating sweet chicken something from the wok a way. not bad, thou it has too much tauges

20.07.2009        16.46    oxalis is watching the cumulus cloud outside the window

20.07.2009        16.48    oxalis thinks kayanya perut gw kaget, biasa cuma makan roti & kentang sekarang makan nasi.

20.07.2009        16.49    oxalis is baru nyadar kalo udah 5 hari ga makan telor. pantesan lemes :p

20.07.2009        17.11    oxalis is sipping a cup of tea.

20.07.2009        19.03    oxalis is back in Leiden

20.07.2009        19.04    oxalis has survived from the Dour Festival!

20.07.2009        19.09    oxalis says my mp3 player is playing pet shop boys’ “home and dry”. how appropriate.

20.07.2009        19.19    oxalis is home and dry

Leiden, Here I Come

Firstly, I just want to say that it was more like a dream come true for me. It never occured in my mind, especially in the last couple of years, that I would have this opportunity.

My confindence level was probably in one of its lowest points before I finally found out about the good news that I got a scholarship, but my “struggle” did not stop there. In fact there was this sort of “long-story” thing that made me finally land on this foreign land. Anyway, here is some (not really) short story about my journey in Leiden. More of other stories will be tagged with “leiden” or “first in leiden”.

**

The plane landed on Schiphol airport at around 6.30 or something, and it was still really, really dark. “So here I am, at last”, I thought. I took my 27 kilos of suitcase, then went outside. There were already some people waiting to pick up their families or loved ones; with flowers, banners, and balloons in their hands. I was supposed to be picked up by Carly, my ISN (International Students Network) mentor. But I looked around but there was no one bringing a paper of my name. I waited for another while, but still saw no one. So I decided to buy a phone card and tried to phone Carly. It failed, I didn’t know why. All of the instructions on the public phone was in Dutch, so I was completely lost. I decided to call home instead, telling my mom and dad that I had already arrived in Amsterdam. Then I waited again, just wandering around the waiting room of the airport.

Oh and anyway, speaking of Amsterdam, I somehow stumbled upon this memory of Coldplay. Amsterdam reminded me of Coldplay. Why? Because I used to have a friend called Angga who apparently also took a music course in Purwatjaraka and he asked me to be the keyboardist of his band. The band is a Coldplay cover band, and they called themselves Amsterdam. So I used to have Angga’s contact number stored in my mobile phone as “Angga-Amsterdam”.

It was about seven, I think, when I saw a tall blonde girl bringing a white paper with my name on it. Yup, it was Carly, my mentor from the ISN. Oh how I was so glad to see her. She then took me to take the train to Leiden. It was one of the strangest train I had ever seen, it looked more like a double decker bus than a train. Less than 30 minutes later, we arrived at Leiden Central Station. It was not even eight and the sky was still so dark like 5 in the morning back home, but the people were already running around trying to catch their trains. We went to the Visitor’s Centre then, but it was still closed, so Carly took me to a nearby cafe for a little drink.

At about nine we went again to the Visitor’s Centre. It was already open by then, so I registered myself there. Then, I asked whether I could put my heavy suitcase there until tomorrow, as I could not go to my housing until tomorrow. She said yes, so I put my suitcase there so I didn’t have to bring it all the way to the hotel. After that, I asked Carly to show me the way to the town hall because I thought I had to make a registration or something. But it turned out that I should make an appointment first so probably I would do that next time. Carly then left as she had a class at 10, so I was all alone in this foreign land. Luckily, Carly already bought me a sim card for my phone and a strippenkart for the bus. So then, I only had to go to the hotel based on the directions Carly had given me. I should take the bus 48 or 39 to Leiderdorp, stopped at Rijnland Ziekenhuis (hospital), then walk for around 7 minutes.

So I went to the bus stop and as I waited for the bus, as usual, I made some brief observations.. I will also soon post about my experience as an “angkot traveler” here in the Netherlands, he-he.

The Beautiful South was right.. Here everyone is blonde and everyone is beautiful. I had just realised that as I never noticed it before. Most of Dutch people are blonde, gorgeous, tall, and not to mention very stylish. Even some girls are wearing mini skirts in this cold winter.

Oh and yes, speaking of winter, Carly said that I arrived when the weather was a bit warmer, so I felt grateful for that. As actually, few weeks before my arrival, the temperature dropped to minus 10-15 degrees and everyone could even iceskating on the rivers. Fortunately I am not interested in iceskating or freezing myself in a harsh winter.

I arrived at the hotel then, after walking for about 10 minutes. The Divine Comedy were playing from my mp3 player, and I enjoyed every minute of Alfie, Something for the Weekend, and Charmed Life. The hotel was quite nice. Simple, small, and I think it has the right price. Well it was actually the cheapest hotel I could find here near Leiden. I turned on the TV and there was MTV! Haha, so it was nice to see some of the latest music videos after some while

I took a shower, then prepared myself for a little walk. I looked at the map I got from the Visitor’s Centre, and planned to go to my faculty. At around two or something, I left the hotel.

me, few minutes after arriving at the hotel

documents and maps

beck on mtv

And there I was, in my leafless trees heaven.

As most of you probably know, I have this really odd interest in leafless trees. So, arriving in the middle of winter surrounded by leafless trees as far as the eyes could see, it really was heaven. I put my pics of leafless trees I found in Leiden here soon.

this post is also in my multiply site
see more of my leiden blog here

merry christmas!

just a short note to wish you
MERRY CHRISTMAS
& HAPPY NEW YEAR!

credit>> photo concept by oxalis, photo by soewarjono

a pet shop boys dream with summer in berlin

For me, it really was like a dream came true.

No, not a dream, but two!

One – is for me reuniting with my keyboard (so-called Koby) on stage, after two years of absence.

and

Two – for playing PET SHOP BOYS!!

All my life as a Pet Shop Boys fan, I never thought that one day I could be playing their songs, as I always having difficulty in: 1. Finding partner(s) to play their songs. 2. Finding someone who allows me to play Pet Shop Boys songs.

Yet last night, I finally played their songs on stage!

Yup, I played keyboards as an additional for my friend’s band Summer in Berlin, performing as Pet Shop Boys for the L.A. Lights “Stars” at Margo City, Depok.

Summer in Berlin is a duo of Lily (programming, synth,effect,visual,sequencer,noise), and Ian (sounds,sampler,voc), playing the music of they so-called electropop fusiongaze. Last night they were helped by Jaya on sampler/mixer, Peppy on backing vocals, and me on keyboards.

We actually only rehearsed once, at Arlet studio which we were terribly disappointed with. The sound system was so awful that we lost our moods. And that was already Thursday, a day before the performance. So we decided to have a final rehearsal (well you may call it dress rehearsal, but it was very informal), at Lily’s place, while everybody else were having their Friday prayers. Well, if there was one thing that we didn’t have, it would be the time.

Ian informed me around two weeks before the show, on Thursday afternoon if I’m not mistaken. Yet on that night, I had to go to take Sore pictures at PPHUI, then on Friday I went to Bandung to legalize my academic documents. And Saturday was a “Radio Dept. night” where thousands of youngsters from Jakarta and Bandung packed the Eldorado to watch the Swedish trio.

Then, work,work, work at the office. We finally met for the first time for briefing on Sunday, just last week. Just practicing some songs that we had learnt, and there were still a long way to go.

[o] ian and lily during soundcheck

But nevertheless, last night’s performance was satisfying. Despite I got terribly panic about 15 minutes before going on stage as Mellon Yellow played a superb cover of The Cure, and I clumsily pushed the wrong button while changing the sound bank of my keyboard during “Always on My Mind”, last night’s performance was unforgettable.

[w] summer in berlin

[w] summer in berlin

Thanks heaps for Summer in Berlin for asking me to be a part of this performance, my family (yup! This is the first time ever my family see me perform with a band, so thank you Dad, Mom, and Sis), my friends from the office (Tika, Nia, Dodoho, Larry), and the ‘bold and cunning community’ BCC!

[n] summer in berlin with additionals

=THE SETLIST=
God Willing from Fundamental, 2006
Absolutely Fabulous from Very/Further Listening, 2001, and several other albums
Always On My Mind from Actually, 1986
Home and Dry from Release, 2002
It’s A Sin from Actually, 1987
Something Special from Closer to Heaven (musical), 2001
Go West from Very, 1994

[oxalis. 10/05/2008]

photo credits:
[o] oxalis
[w] widodo
[n] nia
[m] mba ichay

more photos can be seen on my multiply site

introducing.. zizu

Zizu is the name of my red-eared terrapin whom I own since the year 1998. She’s not my first terrapin pet thou, as I once had a female terrapin called Rory in 1997 – then she died a year later, and a male one called Darren – who disappeared only three months after I bought him.

Back to my terrapins, I bought two – one was a highly active female, and that is Zizu, and the other one was a slightly more calm male one, whom I named Xander.

I was so devastated when I lost my second terrapin Darren, and about a month later, I bought a pair of terrapins in Barito Market – sad thou, as the vendors of the market had just been evicted about a week ago.

Back to my terrapins, I bought two – one was a highly active female, and that is Zizu, and the other one was a slightly more calm male one, whom I named Xander.

zizu and xander, 1999

I had a very odd way of naming my pets. Rory was named after a former Tottenham Hotspur footballer Rory Allen, and Darren was from Darren Anderton. I was obsessed with football at that time, and despite that I support Manchester United, I thought that their footballers’ names were rather “too common”. Actually, I wanted to name my first terrapin “Ian” from Ian Broudie – as I used to adore him, and I still do, but I have a cousin name Ian and it would not be good if one day he went to my place and asked me the name of my terrapin.

Xander, however, was not named from a footballer. In fact, I forgot where I got that name. I think it was from a Buffy character. The Buffy and the Vampire Slayer TV series. Ha-ha. Then Zizu was from Zidane’s nickname “Zizou”, to mark the victory of France at the 1998 World Cup (thou I actually support for England!)

When I bought Xander and Zizu they were like only three-centimeter-long. Zizu was always the ‘hyperactive’ one. So when I let them roam my house (not to be put inside a bucket or the pond), Zizu was always disappeared somewhere, either between a pile of newspapers or found climbing the living room curtain.

As they got bigger and bigger, they were ‘released’ to the pond in front of the house. Unfortunately, the pond was not only their house, but also the house of many colourful fishes my mother owned. Very unfortunate were the fishes. I didn’t realize that terrapins could be such a wild carnivores. In less than a week, dozens of nice, fat, goldfishes were gone – eaten by Xander and Zizu. Zizu was a wilder one, as I once saw it with my own eyes when she tore apart the belly of a nice white fish. Naughty terrapin!

xander and zizu, 2001

Ever since that incident, my parents never bought any colourful fishes anymore. Only black ones. It seemed that the terrapins’ sights are not very sensitive to dark colours.

It broke my heart to pieces one day, when I came back from my internship in 2002 and found that Xander was gone. My family said that he climbed the pond and ranaway – as they in one or two occasions did – but I believe that he was stolen. Damn you, terrapin thief!

In 2003, my dad made a special pond for Zizu at the backyard (not really backyard, it was more of like a back part of the so-called “sideyard”). And that was great, because: 1. It keeps Zizu inside the house, as there is no way out from the sideyard to the ‘outside world’, and 2. My mom can keep beautiful, colourful fishes at the terrace pond.

Zizu lived there ever since, and no fish were harmed. Well, almost. She lived there with several of catfishes, but, when we forgot to feed her, she creatively found a food of her own – the catfish. So if we ran out of her food in two or three days, we would soon smell something bad from the pond. The colour of the pond’s water would soon turn to greenish, and when we cleaned the pond, we would find, the head of the dead catfish.

zizu, 2004

Zizu is a big girl now. Her size now is like twelve times bigger than when I bought her in 1998. Around 40 centimeters long and 25 centimeters wide. She is fat, as you can see all her fat near her hind-legs and tail. I always wanted to match her up with a male terrapin of his age, but until now I still can’t find it. So if you have a male terrapin around her age, please contact me! hehe

zizu 2007

my feet compared to zizu

anyway, more photos of zizu can be found here

the diary of an angkot traveler

Ini adalah hasil dari brainstorming (halah, bahasanya!) sama Nia beberapa waktu lalu. Berhubung kita berdua sama-sama naik kendaraan umum alias public transport (gw naik bus & angkot, Nia naik kereta) setiap harinya, terbersitlah sebuah ide brilian untuk menulis hal-hal yang kita temui selama di public transport itu tadi. Karena menurut gw pribadi, selama di angkot itu banyak hal-hal menarik yang bisa diceritain, bahkan gw ama Nia tiap harinya ngobrolin pengalaman kita sehari-hari selama naik angkot/kereta.

Nia udah bikin tulisan pertamanya di [sini], jadi gw akan mulai juga, tapi di blog multiply gw berikutnya… hehehe…

Mudah-mudahan proyek menulis yang satu ini lancar, atau kalau bisa juga bisa membuat kita bersemangat untuk meneruskan proyek tulisan jangka panjang yang mulai agak-agak terlantar :p

link ke angkot traveler blog

BYSTANDERS 04//DEC 07 is now available

Maaf bila bystanders kali ini hadir terlambat. Banyak masalah yang menghambat kami. Terutama satu masalah klasik: waktu.

Semuanya sempat terhenti saat bulan suci Ramadhan tiba. Tapi bagi yang terlena dengan kesantaian dan kedamaian, harus segera bersiap-siap dengan kesibukan yang bertumpuk di depan mata.

Untungnya kami belajar dari pengalaman. Kami tidak lagi memaksakan terbit di satu tanggal tertentu, apabila memang belum siap terbit. Dan walaupun telat dua minggu dari jadwal yang telah ditetapkan, mudah-mudahan isi dari zine kami belum basi dan masih bisa dibaca dengan enak. (apalagi sambil makan gorengan… huehuehue…)
Dengan kualitas print dan fotokopi yang lebih baik, secara keseluruhan kami puas dengan hasil produksi kami kali ini. Semoga kami tetap akan dapat mempertahankan kualitas zine kami baik dari segi tulisan ataupun hasil cetak.

Dalam edisi ini ada empat band yang kami angkat. Ada Ballads of the Cliche, lalu ada juga Zeke and the Popo dan Sungsang Lebam Telak yang fenomenal itu. Ada juga review dan interview dengan band asal Florida bernama Autumn’s Grey Solace.
kemudian tentu saja ada gig review dan cd review seperti biasanya.

Ah ya, bagi Anda yang bandnya ingin kita review, silahkan mengirimkan CD ke kami, beserta informasi singkat mengenai band Anda. Kami akan dengan senang hati mereviewnya untuk edisi mendatang.

Seperti biasa bystanders akan bisa dibeli dengan harga dua ribu lima ratus rupiah saja di toko kesayangan kami, Hey Folks! (Jakarta) dan segera bisa dibeli juga di Monik (Bandung), thanks to our dear friend dynna. Atau bila Anda penggemar gig ibukota, segera hampiri salah satu dari reporter Bystanders untuk membeli zine kami.

Terima kasih.
oxalis//410ps: kami sedang membuat survey akhir tahun untuk edisi perdana kami di tahun 2008. Kami harap Anda mau meluangkan sedikit waktu untuk mengisinya. Terima kasih sekali lagi

sekilas tentang F MINOR, ST

Menjadi bagian sebuah band simple-swing-jazz yang berawal dari nol adalah bagaikan sebuah eksperimen penuh resiko. Ya, bisa dibilang skill saya bermain keyboard untuk musik jazz adalah nol. Saya memang belajar beberapa lagu yang pernah dipopulerkan oleh Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, dan Nat King Cole sewaktu saya kursus, tapi saya kursus keyboard, bukan piano. Dan kursus saya lebih ke single keyboard, yah minus one gitu lah. Jadi sebetulnya saya mengalami kesulitan yang cukup besar saat saya harus mengulik sejumlah lagu-lagu swing jazz yang banyak sound pianonya.

Dan berikut adalah sejarah singkat F MINOR, ST… Saat itu ‘Mo (Rama Emerald) dan Ir (Irawan Satria) yang baru ‘pindah kos’ ke studio UKM Band mendapatkan sebuah ide untuk membuat sebuah band proyekan yang membawakan lagu-lagu swing jazz. Kebetulan Ir memang piawai bermain gitar klasik dan ‘Mo, yang terkenal di seantero kampus sebagai vokalis hardcore, memiliki vocal yang cukup ‘berat’ bak Louis Armstrong. Kemudian merekapun merekrut Kiko, seorang basis berbakat dari band yang selalu berganti-ganti nama (saat itu bandnya bernama Anak Metal Gondrong Pergi ke Disco). Dan saya, yang memang sering nongkrong di kantin kampus dan studio UKM Band, ditawari untuk mengisi sound-sound strings dan brass dengan keyboard saya. Setelah itu mereka mengajak Daru, yang dulunya sering bermain untuk band-nya yang membawakan lagu-lagu Top 40 dan sering menjadi drummer cabutan di berbagai band kampus, mengisi posisi kosong di bagian drum.

Tidak lama kemudian kami tampil perdana dalam acara ngamen itu. Membawakan tiga lagu, “Beyond The Sea”, “Mr. Bojangles” (keduanya versi Robbie Williams), dan “It’s A Wonderful World” milik Louis Armstrong. Waktu itu sekitar bulan September 2005.

Di bulan yang sama, ada seorang teman yang memberikan informasi mengenai sebuah acara (festival gitu kalo ga salah), dan membuka audisi untuk band yang ingin tampil di acara tersebut. Karena perlu nama untuk mendaftarkan diri, kami akhirnya sepakat menamai band kami dengan nama Mathias Muchus, ST. Akhiran ST itu singkatan dari Sarjana Teknik, gelar yang kami semua ingin dapatkan di kampus tersebut, haha. Oiya, Kiko dan bandnya yang satu lagi, dinamai Richie Ricardo, ST, juga mengikuti audisi tersebut.

Sekitar sebulan berlalu dan kami mendapat pengumuman bahwa Mathias Muchus dan Richie Ricardo lulus audisi. Begitu pula dengan Disco in Disguise (waktu itu saya belum bergabung dengan mereka). Sebetulnya acara audisi itu adalah cikal bakal kelahiran Disco in Disguise, hehe. Tapi sayang, akhirnya acara tersebut gagal diselenggarakan entah kenapa.

Mathias Muchus pun mulai iseng-iseng berhadian mengikuti sejumlah audisi, terutama untuk acara pensi SMA. Tapi sayang, di tengah perjalanan, Kiko memutuskan untuk meninggalkan Mathias Muchus dan lebih berkonsentrasi ke Richie Ricardo. Sempat kebingungan karena sulitnya mencari pengganti yang dapat memainkan pattern-pattern bass swing-jazz yang cukup sulit, akhirnya kami menemukan seorang pemain bass (yang kala itu juga menjadi salah satu penghuni tetap studio), yang bernama Faruli, atau lebih akrabnya dipanggil Pacul.

Selain itu, penghuni studio yang lain, Irfan Iswadhi atau yang sering dipanggil Anjaz – atau saya lebih sering memanggilnya dengan sebutan ‘mbah’ – juga bersedia menjadi manager kami. Yah memang kami dari jurusan dan angkatan yang berbeda-beda jadi jadwal kuliahnya juga beda. Kecuali saya dan ‘Mo yang sudah memasuki tahun terakhir kuliah dan bisa meluangkan waktu dengan bebasnya.

Kami mulai mengisi waktu-waktu luang kami dengan ngulik dan latihan sejumlah lagu-lagu dari Robbie Williams (yang dari album “Swing When You’re Winning”, tentunya), Frank Sinatra, dan Louis Armstrong.

Suatu hari, saat kami ingin mengikuti audisi di sebuah pensi, kami memutuskan untuk mengganti nama kami. Yah, karena kebetulan kami sedikit merasa tidak enak juga, kalau-kalau band kami dituntut oleh yang punya nama, hehe. Setelah mengutak-atik inisial dari panggilan kami masing-masing, akhirnya kami memutuskan untuk memberi nama F MINOR, ST. Ya, masih dengan ‘gelar’ ST itu, haha.

Singkatan dari F MINOR itu sendiri adalah sebagai berikut:
F = Faruli
M = Mo
I = Irawan
N = aNjaz – heuheuheu yang ini sedikit maksa, tapi memang anjaz suka dipanggil njaz koq!
O = Oxal
R = Rhoe – panggilan dari Daru

Dan karena kami serius sekali dengan proyekan musik kami itu, kami pun jadi ‘niat’. Kami selalu mengenakan kemeja, dasi, dan jas tiap kali kami tampil. Dan bahkan dulu saya pakai rok! Cuma tetep aja sih pake sepatunya converse, hehehe…

Hampir setiap minggu kami berjuang dari satu audisi ke berikutnya. Sebagian besar kami berhasil lolos, tapi ada juga yang tidak. Yah, namanya juga iseng-iseng berhadiah.

Setelah satu tahun berlalu, akhirnya saya harus berpisah juga dengan band ini. Saya lulus kuliah dan harus kembali ke Jakarta – hiks! Mereka sempat terus berjalan, dengan keyboardis baru dan bahkan menambah pianis juga. Tapi sepertinya keadaan makin sulit. Karena semuanya mulai sibuk dengan kuliahnya masing-masing, dan para ‘junior’ – Ir, Pacul, dan Daru – juga mulai dikejar deadline untuk segera lulus kuliah. Apalagi ‘Mo! – heuhuheue… peace ya ‘Mo!

Dan saat ‘Mo diwisuda bulan lalu, akhirnya kami berkesempatan untuk bereuni juga. Membawakan lima lagu, “Beyond The Sea”, “Mack The Knife”, “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head”, “LOVE”, dan “My Way”, mereka tampil dengan baik sekali. Ya, mereka, kecuali saya! hahahaha… Saya tidak bisa membawa keyboard kesayangan saya, dan tampil ‘akustik’ dengan pianika, hehe. Maaf ya teman-teman saya telah bermain mengecewakan.. huhuhuuu… But I admit that I had one of the greatest time of the year that day! Yiiipppeee!!!