Category Archives: English

The woman: Are you ready to be the one behind the screen?
Myself: (shocked, but continued slicing the pizza) Hmmm … I don’t know.

How is one supposed to know?

For what we tend to see is the surface, the out-est look (if such a term exists!) of whatever or whoever we wish to see. From the glamour misleading images in glossy magazines to Hollywood trashy flicks that only lunatic minds would bother watching Son of the Mask or Uptown Girls, we only get to see the image-representatives. It’s fun to watch Paris Hilton mulling around, but do we ever get to see her secretary or manager frantically try to launch her projected persona?
Raise hands if you are aware that E.T. would never work well without John Williams‘s score.

Who’s John Williams?

Nevermind.

But I do care about him, so much so that I prevented him winning at this year’s Academy Awards as his works in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a mere light of dust compared to the winner, Jan A.P. Kaczmarek‘s take on Finding Neverland.
I care about Anne V. Coates‘s quick-cut editing style in Out of Sight, for it heightens the slick, cool look Steven Soderbergh wishes to convey.

And you all have read my previous entry ‘On Faithful Characters’. How I admire those roles of supportive characters standing proudly next to their partners, husbands, wives, lovers, and they put their utmost parts of heart and soul to, willingly, stay behind and be a strong pillar who stabilize and balance the relationship they embark.

Do they do it instantly? Don’t they ever wish secretly to steal the spotlight and have the center attention of the world fall on them?

For God sake, I can assure you they do!

Once in a while, when the world seems to hinder from them all the time, when tangible achievement matters most, when the world unfairly shifts to embrace the beauty of outside, the ones staying behind do not react.
Why?

Indeed. Why? Why bother?

Why bother of self-proclaimed achievement if at the end of the day, Winona Ryder still serves Daniel-Day Lewis faithfully in The Age of Innocence? And she does it with smile, a proud smile that goes unrecognizable at times, sinking behind the overflowing praise of her successful husband?

Why bother for Tommy Lee Jones in Coal Miner’s Daughter to show-off himself when you know that it is more relieving to see Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn started to taking the world by storm?

Why bother of one’s own happiness when you are happy to see your girlfriend smiling? Your boyfriend laughing? Your wife’s pride of you?

The woman: One of the biggest achievements in my life is when I got married to him.
Myself: (wandering sight) I see. (looking at her directly, wide smile) I can see that.


– Delifrance, West Mall 21/03/05 –

11 April 2005.

The day was Monday, and as the number creeping up to 26 years of age (which also means creeping down to the grave sooner), the following is 26 ways of surviving your birthday, provided if you were born in 1979.

Read, and let our signatural song of “1979” from Smashing Pumpkins fill in the air!

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1) Clear up the Inbox space of your mobile or cellular phone as you may expect flood of SMS-es, from a mere of “Happy Birthday, Nopal” to a long poem.

2) Get a late-nite/early-morning sleep on the eve of your birthday. No matter how you may wish to make people understand that actually you were born at 1 pm, the concept of “i’m-the-first-one-to-greet-you” has become something to be proud of.

Oh well, come to think of it, by midnight of the same day 26 years ago, my mum might be in hospital and waiting for the operation the next day.

3) Turn on all the chatting softwares your computer has, eventhough you have not used them for quite significant amount of time. People may just knock on your username to say something like “oh, dear! this is your last nite of being 25!”

4) And if you are not comfortable with your age, stick to the age you are most at ease being in.
I’m forever 21, enough said.

5) Arian loves surprises, be it as a doer or a recipient. In this case, I salute Dody for dedicating a precious slot in his popularly populated (goodie gawd!) blog to extend a birthday greeting to me.

Aaawwwww! Thank you, Dod!

Utmost thank will be given if only my picture there is, ahem … well .. urm … Oh God, you just ruin my chance to be a celebrity!

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6) Be patient in dealing with people who are “not good at remembering birthdays” (Eko dear, you’re included!), so chances are you might be prompted with questions you have to swallow painfully like, “It’s tonite, right?”

7) Referring to the point above, remember that when you fall, do it gracefully. When you are caught forgetting one’s birthday, the last thing that you may say is something like,
“Oh, well, I think I have to cross the road now, talk to you later!” (courtesy of a sleeping-but-not-beauty girl).

8) You’ve gotta have a soundtrack of your birthday! And the song might be something that you incidentally stumble into. So don’t deny if it has to be from Manis Manja Group or Meggy Z. Whew …
Luckily, I’ve never encountered such a mishap. This year, mine happens to be I String Along With You from Diana Krall.

9) Of course, play that song over and over again, to make your short sleep into a peaceful sleep, leaving a smile on your face. Regardless the continuous buzz on your cellphone next to you, the birthday sleep should be one sleep you remember most.

10) OK, you are still struggling with your financial condition, you barely make enough saving at the end of the month, so strictly from the beginning you’ve gotta state that : Ngga Ada Traktiran Yaaa …
Thou shalt not fall unto temptation and pleas from other people begging for that.

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11) Twinnie!

12) Having someone to celebrate your birthday with is more than what you can ask for, but having someone whose birthday is the same as yours, that’s a sinful indulgence which by any means is legal to indulge yourself into.

13) Keep that thought, for no matter how the actual day went by, reeling on to the thought helps easing your hectic day.

14) Which could have been avoided easily by: Never Going to Work on Your Birthday! This applies if you do a) job that you dislike, b) inconducive workplace where no one cares about you, c) combination of both.

15) It’s your birthday, you are at work, your work volume is way down, how you should treat yourself? Break all the rules! Login to your YM and MSN way early, and you’d never know how you may end up into!
Usual greetings aside, you may find yourself in a curhat-session with the icon of “Desperate Housewives” and Kartini’s Day-born Kathy, but there can be no more fun than indulging in a bitching session over Zhang Ziyi with that Kartini-follower and half pair of the white-pants couple.

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16) Love the fact that people are trying hard to accomodate your needs, regardless how illogical it may be. I mean, when else you can ask bakal calon artis wannabe not to wear black on your birthday dinner?

17) In addition, going to a crowded mall like Jurong Point to spend some leisure time over light meals is hardly logical, and surely this resulted from the messed up of mind over the thought “it’s your birthday, pamper yourself!“.
So thank you my housemate, my sleeping-but-not-beauty friend and my long lost friend Rika over the companion.

18) You might be facing the reality that today’s not exclusively for you and your beloved one. Apparently, some people came up to me and saying that the day also happened to be their friend/relative/uncle/colleague’s birthday.
So, Twinnie, I guess our April 11-blog will see its daylight very soon.

19) Be insecure: your parents ask you to gain some weight.

20) Old-fashioned birthday card sent via express delivery has to be higlighted here as it took some painstaking effort to present that. Grab the spotlight, Ray Bona!

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21) The garing-est sms:

Met ultah pal! Buset dah lewat 1/4 abad. Hahaha. Untung dah dapet kado kesuksesan nulis di jakarta post. Koran org kaya. Huhu lgs dapet ‘upah’ iMac.

(courtesy of a guy best asked to go out at the last minute before he bombarded you with questions like: “ntar mo kemana?” – “sama siapa?” – “naek apa?” – “pake baju apa?” – “pake sepatu ato sendal?” etc., and closed with “gue ngga ikut deh!”)


22) The fab-est sms:

Happy birthday dear. Mg2 all ur wishes come true, tambah mature, ktemu pacar yg tepat and tambah ganteng kaleee. Hehehehe

(and I responded immediately: Yang dua terakhir udah 101% keturutan kaleeeee!)


23) The underlook sms of this year:

Dear Cinta, hope u feel very, very, very happy on ur bday … because u’re very, very, very loved! =D *pluk cium kamu bareng Bambang* jd jgn bete2 di ktr a nanti. Lembur pas bday udah jd hak paten gue! Huhu…

(courtesy of my Cinta who gave a lovely spoil of my birthday present, so sweettttt!)


24) The clueless-turned-thoughtful sms of this year:

Jeng jeng, gw udah ngantuk bgt ney, maunya nunggu persis teng-nya tgl 11.. Tp disana udah kan? So, i really wish you a happy birthday! Gw yakin, the existence of your tweenie (spelling! -ed.) would make this bday memorably great. Kamu smoga sukses ya, in love and life. Pasaran bgtkah, bday wishesny? Hehe. But i do sincerely wish you so. Salam bday buat your twinnie jg ya. Met hepi2 di bday keliyan.. Muach!! Ps: slain tiket ke sing/jkt, ada bday wishlist? 🙂

(courtesy of the bride-to-be who amazed me with her ability to type such a long msg! ok Fin, grab that iBook and iPod for me please, along with the return ticket of sing-barcelona-ankara-barcelona-sing! huahahah!)

25) Yeah, I know, you must be curious of THE ONE sms. Remember, tacky corny silly utterances prove to spice up your relationship:

i was born to love you / with every single day of my life / i was born to take care of you / with every single beat of my heart …

(ok deeeehhhh, i’m speechless, hueheheheheh!)

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26)




Thank you.


Lots of love,


Nauval.

I remember,
Once I uttered a prayer
For one wish.

I remember,
The prayer kept being uttered
For one wish that never got fulfilled.

I don’t remember exactly,
How the prayer went.
Was it a chant?

You may not be an angel / ‘Cause angels are so few / But until that day comes along / I’ll string along with you.
I’m looking for an angel / To sing my love song to / And until the day that one comes along / I’ll sing my song to you.

I don’t remember at all,
That I prayed differently.
Maybe.

For God receives billions of prayers every ticking of seconds,
The way I do.
The way I beg.
The way I order.
The Creator of my existence whom I curse
For loopholing one twenty-four stretch.

And whatever happened to the prayer?

For every little fault that you have / See I’ve got three or four / That human little faults you do have / Just make me love you more.

Now I remember,
I prayed for someone to be.
Not for something to happen.

And whatever it is,
How numb I’ve become in the past few days,
My conscience is still at its fullest form.

That this year,
For the first time,
The prayer is fulfilled.

You may not be an angel / But still I’m sure you’ll do / So until the day that one comes along / I’ll string along with you.

happy birthday, twinnie.

(excerpts from Diana Krall‘s “I String Along With You”, taken from her album “When I Look In Your Eyes”)
(thanks to only-Google-knows-what-kind-of-website-this-is for the image, horrendous it may be but apt enough to fit in here)

The drawback of being away from my homeland for quite some time, and infrequent coming-home trip that always proves to be “too-packed-with-hectic-schedule”, has made me somehow losing the track of the latest update in Indonesia’s music scene.

The result is obvious.

Everytime I march into music store hoping to grab some Indonesian album, I could only see myself in amazement, standing before the racks under the heading “INDONESIA” right above me and all I could think of is, “Who is this Gya?” or “Is this the new Slank album?” or “How come Coklat sounds the same after all these years?” or “Goodness! Jikustik still exists!” or “Not another repackaged album, please! What a rip-off!”.

There you go, it was a real gamble when I did my last-minute shopping in Plaza Senayan, a few hours before my flight to Singapore took off, and last-minute consultation to people who are not really tuning into music scene either. Well, how can you rely on their opinions, considering that:
– one of them is a weepie girl whose CD collection in her car consists of nothing but melancholy, broken-hearted songs,
– another one is the lovable guy with comprehensive knowledge in Madonna and Tommy Page,
– and the last one is the bride-to-be who falls head over heels with rock stars a la, erm, Ariel of Peterpan!

I had my day, until I decided to grab and buy the debut album of Maliq and D’essentials.

And never before a debut album of neo-soul genre requires repeated listening in which every turn makes me fall deeper unto its charm.

Not that it has a rough start, though. The first track, aptly titled as ‘Intro’, tries too much to be hip-and-cool by mixing half-baked rap, “Assalamualaikum” greeting and unnecessary introduction of the band itself.
Yet, from the second track onwards which feature their radio-friendly “Sunshine”, we get to know Maliq’s musical strength: rich in harmonious notes, smooth and surprisingly soothing.
The suggestively playful tunes fill in every track that make us feel lost at times for enjoying them way too much, and for a debut album of a new band that sometimes require one hit single that may or may not be overtly commercialized, Maliq manages not to sacrifice their uniqueness to be bubbly.

Of course, that hit single is reserved for “Terdiam”, which I myself have no objection towards its we-follow-the-market concept, and again, this band has got to have a song that fans can hum along, right?
Which is what Maliq can see its danger from this point: being another washed out R&B/soul band that tries hard to define Indonesian’s likeness towards this music. In another words, I find Maliq’s relaxed attitude comes whenever they sing the songs in English, instead of Indonesian. Whereas “Terdiam” is an exception, yet the remaining tracks in Indonesian, particularly “Hadirmu” and “Tandanya”, are the examples of easily-forgotten tracks thanks to its overtly-used cheesy-love lyrics lost in their soulful music.

There’s no harm done following the step set by Mocca after all, Maliq. After all, what you’ve got here is the superb debut album which may take awhile for Indonesian music market to find, and once they find you, they’ll get hooked.

I do.

(thanks to Disctarra.com for the image)

allow me to have a song to show the tiniest part of the trembling, mumbling, rambling, gambling, and the bling-est of the feeling one could ever experience: an unexpected surprise.

it’s a little bit funny / the feeling inside
i’m not one of those / who can / easily hide
i don’t have much money / but / boy if i did
i’d buy a big house where / we both could live

(why did i decide to wear yellow t-shirt to work? why did i keep humming on the way to that bus stop? why did i feel upbeat, all of a sudden?)

if i were a sculptor / but then again no
or a man / who makes potions / in a travelling show
i know it’s not much / but it’s the best i can do
my gift is my song and / this one’s for you

(why did you keep a length of distance today? why did you respond in a hurry? why did you seem to be out of reach?)

and you can tell everybody / this is your song
it may be quite simple / but now that it’s done
i hope you don’t mind / i hope you don’t mind
that i put down in words
how wonderful life is / while you’re in the world

(why couldn’t i pick the clues implicitly stated by the people whom i admire for their tremendous amount of slickness and thoughtful thoughts?)

i sat on the roof / and i / kicked off the moss
well a few of the verses / they’ve got me quite cross
but the sun’s been quite kind / while i wrote this song,
it’s for people like you / that / keep it turned on

(why couldn’t you spoil a tiny drop of hint throughout the tantrum and preserving your dignity being a champion of surprise?)

so excuse me forgetting / but these things i do
you see i’ve forgotten / if they’re green or they’re blue
anyway / the thing is / what i really mean
yours are the sweetest eyes / i’ve ever seen.

(why are we just being cool about it?)

all in all, i would like to credit these humble people, too humble to some extent for what they have hidden all these time, for making “a-tap-on-my-shoulder” followed by “surprise-you’re-caught-on-camera” session in cathay cineleisure orchard level 5 became one unforgettable moment in life. two lives.

the bearer:
to acay, for keeping the well-kept secret extremely well :),
to rio, for sacrificing your logical senses in guarding the big bang :),
to kenny, for revealing what kind of miracle that does happen :),
to aldi, for dropping a little hint 🙂
to bowo, for being fashion-nista! *ga penting deh! hahaha!*
to anri, for being panic asking for help *ini lebih ga penting lagi! hihihi!*

the witness:
acay, iu, copper, etu, leo, bursyeh

the one:
to twinnie, the answer for above them all, and more.

When two sides of the brain begin to collide,
Or to merge to form a single thought,

There’ll be only less of emotiveness,
And there’ll be more of …

Conscience.

Consideration.

Compromise.

Good God!

have you ever felt being like
nobody with nothing?

i have been.

(Nauval’s prologue:
I guess it’s been quite some time for me not to post or to dedicate one blog-posting for a certain song. There you go, to quench your thirst for another session of mellow-y, melancholy moment, I present a song written by Bob Dylan, and the one that I reel most is the version sung by Garth Brooks which fills the soundtrack of Hope Floats, one of the under-rated films about romance that never seemed to rise in the minds of those self-proclaimed romantic-films junkies.
Simply put, the song’s been hanging inside my mind from this morning, it may or may not be correlated for what’s been felt by, er, my feeling. Yes, the feeling has its own existence and that’s why I pay my respect.)

When the rain is blowing in your face
And the whole world is on your case
I could offer you a warm embrace
To make you feel my love

When evening shadows and stars appear
And there is no one to dry your tears
I could hold you for a million years
To make you feel my love

I know you haven’t made your mind up yet
But I would never do you wrong
Ive known it from the moment that we met
There’s no doubt in my mind where you belong

I’d go hungry I’d go black and blue
I’d go crawling down the avenue
There ain’t nothing I wouldn’t do
To make you feel my love

The storms are raging on a rolling sea
And on the highway of regret
The winds of change are blowing wild and free
You ain’t see nothin’ like me yet

There ain’t nothin’ that I wouldn’t do
Go to the ends of the earth for you
Make you happy make your dreams come true
To make you feel my love

(Nauval’s epilogue:
I guess we’ve all had those kind of moment when words seem to be stuck on our throats, unable to be blurted out, or frozen inside the brains, resulted in different things coming out from the mouth. The spoken words might not be the intended intention we initially plan out.
Worry not.
Somehow love channels and reaches to its ultimate in unidentifiable manners.)

…

“It’s me.”
Aku tahu.
“Well, you know …”
“It’s there.”
“You got everything …”
“Come in.”
“I guess …”
“Please.”
Tolong cepat pergi!.

“What can I say?”
“Don’t.”
“Not even …”
“This is it.”
“But I want to …”
“What makes you think I want it too?”
Tolong jangan ulangi lagi!

“You should have told me earlier so that I wouldn’t have to wait.”
“But you did.”
“Now you see how hard it is.”
“At least let me be part of it.”
“But you did!”
Tolong diam sekali ini!
Tolong aku supaya melupakanmu!
Tolong aku supaya bisa menamparmu!
Tolong aku supaya mengasihanimu!

“I can’t befriend you, not after this.”
“Not even making me your enemy?”
Kita menghela nafas panjang.
“How could that be?”
“Dismiss me?”
“Completely. Unless you wish to be a disposable one.”
“It’s good while it lasts?”
“It’s more than one deserves. Well, good things finish fast, don’t they?”

Kenapa kita bodoh?
………………

(found: //nauval’s docs, dated: november 15, 2004)

As I was about to board the plane on Thursday, intending to make a surprise visit to my beloved one, I was approached by a fellow passenger, asking if I went to Jakarta for Java Jazz Festival or not.

I was startled.

Apparently, the buzz has traveled further than anyone would think of, and it deservedly received so. This 3-day music festival had such an amazing line-up that would make any music aficionado drowned in jealousy had they missed the festival.
Angie Stone? Check.
Jeff Lorber? Check.
Tania Maria? Check.
Laura Fygi? Check.
James Brown, the Godfather of Soul? Check.
Eric Benet? Check.
George Duke? Check.
Incognito? Check.
Lizz Wright? Check.
Those are just to name a few out of many aspiring thespians, and in fact, hidden treasures being kept for too long and about to discover, again.

And that’s exactly what I have come to realize upon spending one cloudy day of that eventful Sunday at Jakarta Convention Center (JCC): discovery.
My musical wandering began at Plenary Hall to see Elfa’s Children Choir and Elfa’s Jazz & Pop Singers performing. From what had initially been a mere additional of my already-established plan turned out to be a big surprise of the day. The choir did swing the hall down!
Tipped my hat off to Elfa Secioria for maintaining his sharp intuition and magic in creating an ensemble of singers united through harmonious voices, the choir performed well despite the huge venue that would have been drowned their performance. We saw the otherwise obviously, thanks to their relaxed, sweet and demure singings that one might keep wondering, how they could maintain their cuteness as children while belting out the standards? Ask Elfa whose pride on his face is one thing he could not hide in that afternoon.

The follow-up by the adult ones, while still good at their own terms, provide lack of fresh interpretation of pop hits they were singing. Often I could not help seeing them as typical groups performing at cafes or restaurants singing Top-40 Hits. Certainly the last song you want to hear in such a prestigious event like this would be the likes of “This Love” by Maroon 5! Worse, their effort to communicate with audience fell flat when they said in English, “Our next song is a happy song, and I hope you can find some happiness around when you listen to this song.”

They sang “Lately” from Stevie Wonder.

Exactly as somber as the original version is.

Enough of this, my next target is to catch Deodato even for one or two songs. Unfairly placed on a smaller Assembly Hall, the room was still packed with audience who were obviously put under their spell, especially in a surprisingly down-toned finale that seemed to give their whole performance that afternoon an anti-climax ending.

Next is Eric Benet.

Hardly qualified as a jazz singer though, Benet suffers from his too-much talk to audience, who were mostly women being wooed by his suave manner. However, that charming performance does not lift up a laid-back atmosphere he unintentionally created through his slow-tempo songs, and without any uplifting moves he showed on the stage, by any means it was hardly any surprise most people chose to stick to their seats to sleep, or simply, walked out to see other more interesting performances. Some came back though, when this dreary show was redeemed when he performed “India”, named after his daughter, in a quiet manner that actually left audience feeling touched.

And how contrast it was to see the next line-up: Angie Stone!

The moment she stood up on the stage wearing a bright pink blouse and skirt, she marched and commandeered the audience to groove along with her for the next 60-minute of what I’d like to call as the most energized and fully recharged performance of the day. Belting and screaming out her soulful songs, she gave a perfect control of her pitch, never gone off-key despite sweaty shakes of her body which just inspired the whole house to rock with her. We just could not get enough of her, but after an hour ends, she knew that she had to pave the stage to the highlight of the festival:

James Brown.

So much so needed to be done to prepare his showcase, at the expense of the delay for about two hours, leaving people queuing outside Plenary Hall for a little almost two hours. Yet, the wait was worth the wait.
Already in his 70s, having recently survived surgeries of his ailing illness, one can only wonder: can he still groove?
The answer I saw was a full-pledged performance that stretched for a little over 2 hours, and while it was apparent that Brown limited his moves to minimum, yet audience was still thrilled to see the way he swung the microphone stand, the way his walks inspired Michael Jackson to create his Moonwalk, and the surprisingly entertaining band who does really excel in bringing up the mood of the whole show. Yet, some scantily-clad dancers perhaps way too much of a show, especially when I saw some kids who might be best at their first grade of junior-high attended this concert with their parents. Nice effort, folks!

There it was, “Living in America” and “I Feel Good” put a different touch of soulful tunes to this long-awaited Jazz Festival, which surely has quenched the thirst of jazz lovers throughout the region. Set aside the delays, the traffic jam, the inadequacy of some crews in handling customers’ queries, I keep looking forward to this event next year.

Alas, going for a supper of nasi uduk in Kota afterwards could not be more fruitful.

Ingredients:

– Yourself
– Your friends
– Your lenient boss
– Your company’s well-established Human Resources (HR) system
– Your object of surprise

Add:

– Your parents’ immediate visit

How:

– In order to make it happen, do not get surprised yourself! In other words, you can’t afford to be overwhelmed with the surprise you create on your own.
– Be sure to get the right friends of your object of surprise. Apparently, calling them at the very last minute while they were confused with the surprise plan itself might, well, cause the hectic schedule.
– Never create any hints that would evoke any suspicious assumptions from your object of surprise. If you can’t pick up the phone because you are on your way to surprise him, get a better excuse rather than saying “Sorry, dear. I was asleep, didn’t hear you call”, while the truth is that you did not get a seat on the bus all the way from Cengkareng to Blok M.

Result:

– Let the pictures speak for themselves.

* goodness! can’t this woman just sit still when her pictures were taken? hehehe …

* … and jembi can only do ‘nyureng’

* the music fest that made my trip a feast

* their so-called candid pose!

* oh oh oh! being surrounded by these two angels who helped my arrival went, er, “smoothly” 😛

Credits:

– Twinnie, being my object of surprise
– Imesh, for having to endure the beautiful world of Blok M Plaza
– Fina, you getting married soon, hiks!
– Rio, or shall I say, Rio Mercury 🙂
– Kenny, being confused with ‘Clive’ and ‘Linney’
– Kathy, being my kirsten DURST
– Jembi, whatever made you wearing the orange shirt that evening
– Esther, finally a nice ayam bakar to indulge myself in!
– Heru, the silent observer
– Helly, for providing such a blast to bash
– John, almost silent words to talk to
– Aldi, more donuts coming in, ok?!
– Agus, do not sell your mobile phone yet!
– Anri, the truth is revealed 🙂
– Giri, after all these empty years in between.

and last but not least,

– Java Jazz Organizing Committee, going home from a concert at 2 am is kinda cool!