Blogging from Starbucks at an Ibis Hotel in Menteng...
On a Friday at 06:25 PM GMT+7.
It's been almost five years since Instituto Italiano di Cultura stopped their weekly Italian movie screenings. From 2009 to 2019 I never once skipped the screenings. It was every Wednesday first, then probably starting 2012 screenings were held on Friday at 7 PM. So every Friday, even at 5 PM I would already be at either this Starbucks or any of restaurants in Menteng, just near Instituto, sometimes with a laptop in hand.
I remember these two occasions, in 2012 and 2016 respectively. In the former, I brought my laptop to Starbucks Menteng to work on my postgrad thesis (can't recall whether it was a chapter or a post defence revision), then after that I blogged about Lena Meyer-Landrut. In the latter, I brought my laptop to the same venue to work on my first China publication. After each occasion, I headed to Instituto to watch an Italian movie.
Good times.
It's September 29, 2023.
After revising my part in an Indonesia-ROK policy recommendation, here I am blogging. Reminiscing. I'm heading home after this.
Another Nine Muses content! Should I revive this blog or what?
Former Muses Moon Hyuna and Pyo Hyemi are going to release their first (or should I say one-off?) single "Walking" tomorrow, May 10 2020. Since leaving Nine Muses in 2016 (for Hyuna) and 2019 (for Hyemi), Hyuna has released a duet single with another former Muse Euaerin (real name Lee Hyemin) in 2017 as well as guest-starring in the concert of yet another former Muse Ryu Sera in 2018. All these and the up-coming single are conducted by her own agency, Daynite Records. I'm still counting on her to bring a full-fledged Nine Muses reunion (with all 13 former Muses if necessary, not the just the 2013 line-up) hopefully in the near future.
A sneak peak at "Walking"...
Looks like it will be a city pop tune? I'm still in need of a remedy for....
This. Whatever this is. I'm not saying the song's bad, it's just not my cup of tea. Some people wouldn't even categorize this as a proper song and I don't blame them, as it's more suitable as background music of a travel documentary or something like that. By the way, the official video somehow isn't available for linking on Blogger.
Hi folks! Happy new year 2020! Didn't expect me to come back so soon huh!
This entry is gonna talk about one of my favorite cafes, Watt Coffee, and it's gonna be mostly in Indonesian. Why? Simply because I feel like it.
I first noticed Watt in late 2015, one year after its establishment. I actually found Watt through Dough Darlings, a doughnut company that I followed on Instagram. At the time Watt was their stockist. Although Watt was a Dough Darlings stockist for a super brief period of time, I became a fan of the cafe's other offerings, mainly their coffee, pizza and French fries.
Watt is a hidden gem of Central Jakarta, in the literal sense of the word. Its first store was located in Kwitang, in the same row as the first Gunung Agung store that opened in 1953. To get there, you had to go deep into a one-storey office building that also housed a cinema community, Cinema Poetica. Once you walked in, you'd be greeted by a steampunk-themed interior and a roastery room to your left.
Now I know this is unrelated, but I like to hold consulting sessions with my thesis students at cafes when I can't meet them on campus. And over the years, there's been only one student that I ever took to Watt for consulting sessions: Daniel T of batch 2011.
Since September 2018, Watt has occupied a new location that's more spacious, and they've traded their steampunk theme with a rustic one. The new location, which is part of Capitol Park apartment, stays true to Watt's hidden gem nature: it doesn't even have a signboard facing the street and to get there you have to walk deep into the apartment compound. I visited Watt in the new location for the second time yesterday since May 2019 and was surprised to find that they no longer had the Kemang, South Jakarta, store. For a split second I feared that Watt might disappear soon, but 2020 is their sixth year into the culinary business so they've definitely gotten through the typically rough first five years safely.
Regardless, I'll try to visit Watt more often, just like I did their first store. And apart from their offerings, Watt will always have a soft spot in my heart because it was a dear part of December 2015 - so far the best December in my post New Zealand life. Also, it introduced me to Kinfolk magazine, which is a must-have for every wannabe hipster out there.
On November 2, I was safely delivered of a healthy baby boy. We bestow on him a quite long name: an Indonesian first name, an Arabic middle name, a European second middle name (hint: it's Russian) and of course his dad's surname. We gave him that name because we wish for him to get the best of all worlds. For safety reasons we've decided not to post the name here, but his nickname is Kayvan, which in Arabic means "universe." The bundle of joy weighed 3.2 kg and was 50 cm in length upon birth, but as of December 2 he's weighed 4.2 kg and is 53 cm in length.
We thank you for all your well wishes :)
Hi babes! Haven't visited the blog in forever, and I'm happy to tell you that as of this moment of writing I've been happily married for almost a year (anniversary is August 5) and we're also expecting our firstborn. The baby, a boy, is due in November. We have mixed feelings as we gear up towards parenthood, so wish us all the luck in the world!
I'll still post here once in a while, but I'm much more active on Instagram. Add me there for more frequent updates!
Hello!
I know it's been BEYOND forever.
I was actually on Wordpress for a while, then I got frustrated as to how to costumize the layout. Long story short, I got back here. Pretty happy with myself today for bringing my fanlisting codes back on.
A quick update: I'm getting married in less than three weeks. My husband-to-be is a lawyer who's turning 38 in September, and it's gonna be the first (and hopefully last) marriage for both of us. I consider myself lucky to have him, for he supports me in pursuing my career and aspirations.
I just got back from a one-week trip to China, covering Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing. The trip, which started on December 17, was a business one - in fact it was semi diplomatic as I went with Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) China Foreign Policy (of which I'm a member), The Coordinating Minister of Politics, Law and Human Rights, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and The Ministry of Trade.
We had seminars at Fudan University, Nanjing University, China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE) and China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), as well as visiting Yangshan Deepwater Port. In our leisure time, we went to Temple of Heaven and Nanjing Presidential Palace. We would have loved to go to the newly-opened biggest Starbucks in the world and the iconic Oriental Pearl Tower, both are in Shanghai, but our schedule was so tight there was no time to squeeze them in.
As this might be my last entry in 2017, I might as well conclude that even though 2017 wasn't as good as 2015, it's still better than the majority of my post-NZ years thanks to the two overseas trips I had this year. Here's to more overseas adventures in 2018!
Hi guys.
I'm aware that attention has been given to my old blog lately, yes more than eight years after I moved to this current one. To satisfy your curiosity, yes my past writings haunt me. I've lost the password to my Pitas blog and even if I still had it, I wouldn't be able to log in anyway because Pitas is now on read-only mode. I have asked Andrew Smales, founder and owner of Pitas, to delete my blog and to date I have yet to receive a reply.
So there. It's not like I'm proud of my past ramblings and keep them online on purpose. I myself wish to do away with it, but the power to make it disappear is in the hands of Andrew Smales.
Apart from that, I'm alive and kicking. Just got back from Singapore for a long-overdue family reunion.
Alive and well, guys. Still in the same job. Just surviving for now, can't complain.
Remember an entry I posted on November 19 2016 about Moon Hyuna leaving Nine Muses and setting up her own label called Moongom House? I mused in that entry that Hyuna should bring together all the ex-members of Namyu under her agency.
Since her departure, Hyuna has released four singles including the very latest one on August 11 2017 with fellow ex Muse Euaerin (real name Lee Hyemin) called "Doong Doong", under Daynite Records. Now I can't prove that Daynite Records and Moongom House are one and the same, since some sources mention that Daynite Records is partially owned by the 30-year-old, but the fact that she's teaming up with Euaerin now sparks hope that she'll bring along more ex Muses on board. I personally hope it's gonna be Ryu Sera, whose music style post Nine Muses is actually starkly different from Hyuna's.
Celebrating freedom from uniform stage costumes and synchronized choreography...
Exactly 14 years ago in mid-2003, while still blogging on Pitas I received an e-mail from someone claiming to be half Japanese and half Caucasian and live in Australia. He introduced himself as Kevin Harten. He also sent me a picture.
We e-mailed each other for a short while. He said he religiously followed my entries, and even offered sympathy when I went through issues with some fellow Indonesian bloggers. Then suddenly he stopped writing me.
Around August of the same year (he'd already stopped contacting me by that time), I stumbled upon his picture on a website called hapas.com (RIP). His e-mail address used on that site was different from the one he used for our communication, and what was weirder was that he went by the name "Bryce" there. I remember telling him what I found, to which I received no reply.
So yeah, hi Bryce/Kevin Harten! Enjoy this blast from the past!
Just when I was about to give up, you visited me in my dream.
You looked just as I remembered you, but seemed like you'd gained weight.
Just remember that whatever the future holds, you always have a soft spot in my heart.
And here's to the belated 15th anniversary of our friendship, I especially cherish the fact that we spent our late teens together, albeit miles apart.
Hi hi everyone!
Just wanna let you know that I'm still alive and well. Actually planning to move to another host as I've been on Blogger almost eight years. I was on Pitas for six years so eight years on a blog provider is definitely way too long in my book.
So I just watched "Kong: Skull Island" yesterday and for those not in the know I have a penchant for stupid monster movies. I even watched that forgettable Dwayne Johnson and Vanessa Hudgens vehicle...
Anyhoo.
"Kong: Skull Island" won a favorable review from Time magazine, and nah I'm not going to talk about how the latest Kong installment pays tribute to its 1933 predecessor by reprising a couple of iconic scenes such as the fight scene between Kong and a giant lizard during which Kong rips apart the lizard's mouth. Instead, I'm gonna talk about a certain character which, albeit visible, leaves audience wondering if this character serves any purpose whatsoever.
It's the only Asian character in the movie, simple called Miss San, played by Chinese actress Jing Tian.
So San is part of the expedition led by Monarch and the US army because of her expertise in marine biology. Throughout the movie, San is mostly silent. She probably only has a total of four lines, and when she says them you can't miss a slight accent...which makes you wonder about her background: she can't be American, nor can she be Chinese...The movie is set in 1973, the peak of Cultural Revolution so no Chinese could get out of the mainland. Or maybe the character is Taiwanese? If so, how the hell does she get into the expedition? At least the only Brit in the movie, James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston), has a background.
So I can officially argue that San is there to serve the current buzzword that is diversity amidst cries of white-washing that befall major, much-anticipated projects such as "Ghost in the Shell." Also, remember how everyone thought the 2016 Academy Awards was racist? Couple that with Donald Trump's presidential win, America needs to do all it can to make itself look cool again. She serves no other purpose.
At least this special feature gives an illusion that San matters at all.
Earlier last month, Star Empire announced that Nine Muses member Moon Hyuna had officially left the group, making her the third member to depart this year following Park Minha and Euaerin (real name Lee Hyemin.) Hyuna was one of the group's main vocalists alongside Pyo Hyemi, Lee Keumjo and Park Kyungri.
Hyuna's departure only added fuel to the already on-going rumours that the girl group was disbanding, now that there are only five members left, four of whom are in a sub-unit called Nine Muses A which released an mini album titled "Muses Diary" back in August.
It's been three months since the release of "Muses Diary" and no one really knows the fate of Son Sungah, the only remaining member not included in the sub-unit. Hearsay has it that Sungah's contract will expire next year and she has already decided not to renew it. If it's true, disbandment is very likely inevitable, after six years of seven mini albums, one full album, a concert and a sub-unit album.
In a turn of events, just this week Hyuna announced the launch of her entertainment company, Moongom House, and that the company will release Hyuna's photobook (titled "Sweet Remedy") and a mini album of self-composed songs. Mines everywhere rejoiced over the news, mostly hoping that Hyuna will recruit the former muses especially Ryu Sera, who's started to gain wide recognition as an indie artist (although in my humble opinion it's unlikely that Sera would want to do that, and neither would Minha who's debuted as an actress under J-Wide Company) In other words, fans are hoping that the golden line-up of Nine Muses will reunite under Moongom House, even if they don't get to use the name "Nine Muses."
While entertaining these hopes, one is reminded that even with such an underrated girl group that's never won a single award there's a chance they would be able to pull a Shinhwa. For those uninitiated, Shinhwa is the epitome of K-pop longevity, debuting under SM Entertainment in 1998 and since 2011 has released albums and appearances under their very own company named after themselves.
In Malang, East Java, at the moment for a cousin's wedding. Blogging from my room's balcony which overlooks the swimming pool.
I had a transit in Surabaya, the province's capital city, just yesterday. It was the first time I was in Surabaya in 23 years.
Funny exactly a year ago I was in Frankfurt for a transit to and from Gdansk...
This post is dedicated those K-pop starlets who left the spotlight even before their 15 minutes of fame were up. There are so many to choose from, and so I've decided to divide this dedication into several posts and each post will feature four former upcoming K-pop stars. Please note that I'm not going to list any groups that actually left a lasting impression although they disbanded soon after debut (such as The Ark) and whose former members are still pretty much under the spotlight with various visibility (such as the girls of Kiss&Cry.)
1. Jaeyoon of Chocolat
Yes, yet another entry on Chocolat, but this time it focuses on their criminally overlooked main singer Jaeyoon (real name Lee Eunjung.) The world got introduced to Jaeyoon through Chocolat's 2011 debut single "Syndrome." By the time Chocolat released their second single "One More Day" in February 2012, Jaeyoon was no longer in the group. Chocolat's label Paramount issued a statement that Jaeyoon would not be able to join the promotion of the group's second single due to some grave illness that the company refused to specify (it was then rumored to be either swine flu, colon cancer or injuries from a car crash.) One year passed and Jaeyoon was still nowhere in sight amidst Chocolat's promotional activities for their third single "Black Tinkerbell." In late 2013, while still not issuing a statement on Jaeyoon's whereabouts, Paramount debuted new member Lori Thomas before Chocolat completely vanished into oblivion. It turned out that Jaeyoon wasn't sick, as in 2015 someone revealed on Chocolat's official cafe daum pictures of a far more mature Jaeyoon singing at a jazz club. So apparently, uri Jaeyoon is alive and well, pursuing a career as a jazz singer which was more dignified than having to take a backseat to the group's bevy of mix-raced members (Tia Cuevas, Melanie Aurora Lee and Juliane Alfieri) who were the main selling point (Chocolat was marketed as Korea's "first multiracial girl group" after all.)
Jaeyoon is the blonde chick with almost no camera time at all.
2. Sarah Wolfgang of Tahiti
Sarah Wolfgang, of Caucasian American and Korean descent, was slated to debut with the girl group Tahiti in 2012 under the stage name of Hanhee. She left the group just before the group's debut, later citing severe stress as the reason in a 2014 interview with Reddit. Later that same year, Wolfgang opened The Dog Cafe in Los Angeles and as of now The Dog Cafe has gained a vast publicity simply for being the first cafe in LA that lets patrons play with all kinds of dogs while enjoying their cuppa and encourages them to adopt the dogs.
That's Wolfgang promoting The Dog Cafe
3. Sarah Eckhoff of April Kiss
Sarah Eckhoff, who is half Thai and half German, debuted as the maknae of April Kiss in 2011. Perhaps because of the fact that Eckhoff is of Thai descent, the girl group was marketed as the female 2PM, in line with 2PM's Thai-Chinese member Nickkhun Horvejkul. Extra spotlight was also put on Eckhoff for being exceptionally talented in languages (fluent in Thai, German, English and quickly learning Korean) and hard-working (according to this September 2011 article on All K-pop, she didn't show that she was homesick.) That marketing ploy actually secured the girls some publicity and their debut single "Hello Bus" gained so much hype. Soon April Kiss was performing at major music events such as Music Bank, but just as the public interest was quickly piqued by their debut, they lost interest just as quickly and so the group disbanded...even before they could release a proper music video for "Hello Bus"! These days, Eckhoff still remains in Thailand, having graduated from Assumption University, Bangkok, in 2015 as a Business Administration major. It's not clear whether or not she has any activity in the show business.
Eckhoff is the one in a checkered colorful sack dress and sporting a bob.
4. Myung Sarang of Baby VOX Re.V
If you've been a K-pop for at least as long as I have (since 2001), you may very well still remember the first generation idols, those who debuted in the second half of the 1990's and reached peak fame in the early 2000's. Amongst such idols was Baby VOX. Baby VOX disbanded in 2006 and a year later a resurrected version of the group, simply named Baby VOX Re.V (standing for "Renaissance Voices") debuted. Baby VOX Re.V consisted of all new members which included then 16-year-old Myung Sarang, who is half Korean and half German. Myung appeared in Baby VOX Re.V's video for their debut single "Shee", which was later banned for being too sexual (and so far my research has shown nothing about sexualization of a minor in that case.) Just like Chocolat's Jaeyoon, Myung left before the group released their second single "I Believe" in 2008, with their label DR Music citing that she had to move to Singapore to follow her parents. Myung has recently revealed her current whereabouts on a social media site under her real name, but that and other details will be undisclosed to protect her privacy. In sum, the multilingual beauty (fluent in Korean, German, French and English) is now pursuing a corporate career in Germany after gaining a Master's degree in The UK.
Now I'm not crazy about this rookie girl group, but I guess they're worth noticing.
See the scene where all the girls are sitting and smiling at the camera? What does that remind you of? A similar scene in Girls' Generation's "Gee" video which was out back in 2009! Or maybe that's the intended effect?
Debuting just last June, Gugudan was formed after two of the nine members appeared on Mnet's "Produce 101", a survival show where 101 female trainees from various labels are pitted against each other. The girls share a management company with Vixx, who is already famous for its dark concepts, and that being said it's no surprise that Gugudan seems to follow that route. Except of course being a girl group with mostly teenage members Gugudan won't have dark concepts...I can see them becoming a mix of Girls' Generation and Orange Caramel. Girls Generation for the amount of members they have and Orange Caramel for the playful concepts inspired by famous fairy tales.
I can also see member Kim Sejeong, who already gained massive popularity in "Produce 101" (appearance starts at 0:42), as the next Im Yoona!
Happy birthday, Andreas Hermanu!
You never reply my e-mails, hence this public shout-out.
Whether or not you're married, whether you decide to have a barbecue again or go overseas to celebrate, I hope you're surrounded by love on your special day and may your last birthday before officially entering middle age-dom be memorable!
This one entry is dedicated to Simon Bacon and Eva Gledhill, two world-renowned British researchers with a penchant for vampires, monsters and all things gothic. I met Simon and Eva at the third "Celebrity: Exploring Critical Issues" at Mansfield College, Oxford, UK, in July 2014.
Below are a selection of K-pop videos from 2000-2015 that have a dark theme. In the videos, the dark theme is used in a myriad of ways, from a mere cliche (as in Taeyang's "I'll Be There"), a symbol of lost innocence (in Park Jiyoon's "Adult Ceremony") to a take on Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde."
So without further ado...
"Adult Ceremony" by Park Jiyoon (2000)
At the time of the song's release, Jiyoon was only 18 years old (international age.) I have already mentioned in a previous entry that while in most parts of the world she was considered legal at 18, in South Korea she was still pretty much a minor, as the age of consent there was 20 (international age) and it wasn't until 2013 that age of consent was lowered to 19. This should come as no surprise as Jiyoon was under JYP at that time, which is (in)famous for sexualizing minors in a variety of dark themes, which would be seen many years later in Suzy Bae (real name Bae Sooji) of Miss A.
"I'll Be There" by Taeyang (2010)
This mega hit by Big Bang's Taeyang (real name Dong Youngbae) is also available in Japanese and English, but his English pronunciation isn't that clear in the song and I'm not a fan of K-pop songs in Japanese, hence this original Korean version. Find Taeyang's tribute to that iconic scene from "Nosferatu" at 02:01.
"Pray" by Sunny Hill (2011)
A main fixture on the lists of K-pop videos to watch for Halloween, "Pray" was released when Sunny Hill was a co-ed group (it remains the only co-ed group in K-pop history) in 2011. In 2014, Sunny Hill's only male member Kim Janghyun left the group after completing compulsory military service to focus as a producer for the group.
"Touch" by Miss A (2012)
The opening scene still kinda gives me nightmares, more than four years on. Oh, and by the way the album version has a rap break by one of the group's Chinese members, Meng Jia.
"Hyde" by Vixx (2013)
Vixx stands out from the rest of K-pop boy groups for its consistency in the exploration of dark themes. If blood and gore are more your cup of tea, check out "Voodoo." For more loose adaptations of famous gothic literary pieces by the six-piece band, take a look at "Error", which is their take on "Frankenstein."
"V" by Lee Junghyun (2013)
Directed by Park Chanwook, dubbed the Korean Tim Burton, "V" by Lee Junghyun reminds me of "House", a 1977 Japanese slapstick horror movie. I totally dig the vampire brides, and my favourite scene is one starting at 03:38.
"Bad" by Infinite (2015)
What makes this one special is that "Bad" was actually released during summer time, a time when K-pop is bombarded by videos around the theme of beach and pool and skin-revealing outfits (hahah here's looking at you Sistar)! I love how the "Bad" video plays with the mirror theme as much as I love Sunny Hill plays around with the crucifixes in their "Pray" video.
Fellow K-poppers, am I missing anything? Which one do you like best?
Back from a two-month long unannounced hiatus everyone! Oh and annyeong haseyo to my Korean visitors. I got more visitors from South Korea than ever while I was away.
Been busy teaching short semester (which would be called summer school overseas but Indonesia is a tropical country) and tending to my thesis students - all but one got panicky around a week before the final draft deadline. Talk about typical.
Now on to what I wanna talk about.
I know it's super duper late but I've been crazy about this single lately.
I have almost as many followers on Instagram as she does...which is not a big number. "Clutch Bag", which was out in September 2014, is her last single so far, and as not all solo artists in the K-pop realm are as lucky as IU (real name Lee Jieun) or Eric Nam, there's not a wonder that Hi.Ni is so little known despite debuting in 2012. On top of that, there's very little information about her on the internet. Her birth date is still unknown, and a source mentions that her real name is Won Yuri. If the latter is true, there's not a wonder in the world why she goes under a special stage name (the same source says that "Hi.Ni", which is Vietnamese for "baby", was given by her dad when he was working in Vietnam) because otherwise she'd be mistaken for Kwon Yuri of Girls' Generation.
People who have listened to "Clutch Bag" complain about the rap part a lot, and at first I did find it annoying. But overtime I just got used to it - it didn't grow on me, I just got used to it. And I started listening to the song just as I started to collect clutch bags. Hi.Ni is so talented, she definitely deserves lots more love. For more Hi.Ni, check out her earlier single "Legend of Tears."
