Machine Messiah

Saturday, April 29^th 2006

After being delayed for a few weeks, finally Tintin_Id gathered for a TV coverage. This time it was for O Channel Jakarta. The coverage itself was made for Jali-Jali show, Wednesday May 3^rd 2006 7 pm-7.30 pm. Reruns will be on Sunday May 7^th 6.30 pm and Monday May 8^th 2.30 pm. The venue itself was in Tornado Coffee Kemang, Jakarta.

I went with my eldest daughter, Ratnadya, and we arrived around 1.15 pm. Kiki and her cameraman from O Channel have arrived. Some Tintin_Id friends were already there as well. They were arranging the merchandises and books, for shooting purposes. We greeted eachother and I handed over to Kiki my merchandises, which were the famous iconic red/ white rocket to the moon, some moon-theme figurines and video cds, some miniature cars, and some books. The café itself was very cozy, artistic and the space was perfect for community gathering and TV shooting like this. Uwi chose the right place, and I was glad I asked him to find the most suitable location for us. As a graphic designer, he should be able to find the perfect place for TV shooting.

Kiki briefed me with the rundown and who will be interviewed. She asked me to explain the history of Tintin_Id, the objectives, activities, what’s interesting about Tintin, why Tintin was important for me, and comparison to Indonesian comics. Then I introduced Ratnadya to my friends, and we ordered some drinks. Unfortunately Tornado Coffee didn’t offer meals, as I was very hungry. Ratnadya took a croissant.

Soon after the shooting started. It was quiet and I answered each questions, actually without preparing any script. I let it flow and Kiki said that all answers were perfect. Just as she had hoped from me. I was glad I made the right answers. Then it was Dina’s turn. We were very excited, since we knew Dina was never anxious to be interviewed in any kind of form. So this was her first time, and we applaused with joy. She was asked about her love in hunting merchandises. As you may, or may not know, currently Dina was the main competitor of Eva in miniature cars. Until last year, Eva was widely known as the most comprehensive collector among us.

Next it was Syaiful and Yona, the famous couple. Syaiful was wearing his trademark Tintin Scotland clothes, with kilt. It was so cool! Wearing the kilt itself was outstanding, not to mention other accessories. It was very close to the clothes Tintin used in The Black Island book cover. They talked about their visit to the museum in Europe. And last it was Eva’s turn, who came with her husband Jurgen. Eva talked about her rare collectible items: Tintin in Tibet (the Tibetan edition, with Tibetan language, only 222 copies), the limited 75^th anniversary Swatch, and many others. I really didn’t know how much Eva spent to get all those things. It must be worth moer than I could imagine.

While Kiki and her cameraman prepared the property, and in between takes, all of us mostly talk about various topics. Joga, Marcel, Eva, Jurgen and me talked about Pink Floyd and rock concerts. Uwi and me having a long chat about Tears For Fears. Both of us even talked seriously about our contribution plan in a foreign magazine and the next comicbook project with Akademi Samali. Hakim and his son just wandering around to see those interesting merchandises. Monik and her daughter also looking around, while her husband was enjoying his coffee. Yoga, Bobby, and the others having their own conversations.

Another interesting scene was when Eva brought along her Tintin merchandises for sale. Soon there was a crowd and the trade market begins. It was fun seeing the transaction, and O Channel didn’t miss the opportunity and recorded them. I asked Syaiful’s help to take a picture of Ratnadya with Tintin and Haddock backdrops created by Uwi. She really enjoyed the event. I was hoping O Channel would interviewed her as the next generation of Tintin fans. Unfortunately they have other things in mind.

After took some pictures of the gang, we went home around 5 pm, while together with Uwi and Dina we went for dinner. That’s another story, guys and gals. Oh btw, roll call for today’s Tintin_Id Gathering was 15 members: Dina, Santi, Theresia, Joga, Uwi, Marcel, Monik, Bobby, Syaiful, Yona, Eva, Hakim, Jurgen, Yoga, and myself. Plus some children, husbands, and wives=).

Don’t forget! The edited version will be aired on Wednesday May 3^rd 2006 7 pm-7.30 pm. Reruns will be on Sunday May 7^th 6.30 pm and Monday May 8^th 2.30 pm.

Paris, June 18^th 2005

Aahhh….Paris, the city where everybody falls in love…. The atmosphere was definitely perfect for me to fall in love. People here were very lovely, the girls of course. I was alone here, and I was here for the famous Parc des Princes music festival. To see whom? Tears For Fears!!!!

It was a very crowded audience and I was surprised to see soooo many girls in their young age excited to see one of the legendary band of the 80’s Tears For Fears. I was sure that most of them were just born when Tears For Fears reached their peakest career. Yes, perhaps they were here to see other performances. But still I was very surprised to see they were eagerly waiting to see Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith.

Anyway to make the story short, they finally appeared on stage! Roland was holding his guitar and wearing a shirt with batik-like design. Still with long and loosed hair, with a bit wrinkles in his face. Curt was wearing a very casual clothes. Just a tshirt and blue jeans! Oh and he’s holding his bass guitar. To my surprise I saw Nick d’Virgillio, Spock’s Beard drummer and currently lead vocalist, behind the drum set. Wow! This was definitely going to be a very interesting evening! There were also a supporting guitarist and a keyboardist. A also saw many cranes with videocamera, plus many videocameramen. It would be released as a DVD I thought. That would be great, since the last Tears For Fears video live performance was their 1990’s Going To California promoting their album Seeds of Love.

The band started with Secret World from their latest album, Everybody Loves A Happy Ending. Roland took the lead and his vocal was as good as always. Well of course it wasn’t fair to compare with their last performance together in 1990. But still Roland was marvellous! I really like this song, especially it was a live version. The arrangement was a bit different. Perhaps was just the mixing, and fitted for stage performance.

They continued with another track from the album, Call Me Mellow. It was a very Beatles-influenced tune. I really like this song! The vocal choruses were lovely! I could see Nick gave his contribution in the background vocals. The arrangement again was stripped down, but I liked them more than the album versions.

The next song was Sowing The Seeds Of Love! I reaalllly loved this song!!!!!! It was their progressive rock song from their 1989’s Seeds of Love album. Nick’s drumming was giving the song uniqueness. He often gave variations which made the song different. The crowd knew this song and they sang along with the guys! I even saw a couple kissing! Suddenly I remembered my lovely daughter, Ratnadya, who loveeesss this song very much. She can even sing all through the song!

Next Curt took the lead and sang Pale Shelter taken from thei 1983’s The Hurting album. It was very nice to hear again Curt’s voice, and he looked very fresh although with those grey hair. I really enjoyed his singing. Then Roland again took the lead with their single from latest album, Closest Thing To Heaven. Again a Beatles-influenced song.

The band delivered Mad World and their smash hit single from 1985, Everybody Wants To Rule The World. The very inspiring-critique song was very popular among the crowd. They wave their hands and it was with joy! Head Over Heels was the Roland’s next and one of my favourite. And when the evening started to fall, the keyboard intro enter the famous notes of perhaps their most-known song, Shout. I joined the crowd clapping hands and we were joined by thousands of audience all through the back! It was fantastic!!!!

Tears For Fears only appeared for around 45 minutes and I wished they had more songs to perform. But it must wait for another time, which I didn’t know when. In the meantime, this evening’s Tears For Fears performance was absolutely wonderful, enjoyable, fanstastic, and everything you could asked from these guys!

Last night, Monday April 24th 2006 at Kinokuniya Bookstore Plaza Senayan Jakarta,  was definitely an entertaining night. At first I have to be honest to be sooooo nervous to be one of the speakers on this Love Me Better/ Dragonslippers book discussion. How couldn’t I? I was scheduled to be on the same stage with the legendary psychiatrist, Niniek L. Karim! Oh man, I never dreamt before to meet one of the famous lecturer/ scientist/ practitioner which I admired for so many years. I was black out when we shook hands. She was so friendly! It was at Starbucks when we talked many things about this Rosalind B. Penfold book with Lulu, Beng Rahadian, Ika Vantiani (moderator), Greti (Gramedia), Iwan Gunawan, among others. Rosalind was a Canadian and stayed for awhile when childhood in Indonesia. She doesn’t want to publish her real identity to public. Niniek said that she might not be fully recovered from trauma and her bitter experience. Wow she gave so many opinion that add my knowledge on this book.

As usual the show started late. While waiting I took the opportunity to chat with another close friend from music community, Hendra Kurniawan. Our chat was about the music magazine Hendra and other friends published. It’s already #02 and I offered myself to be their regular contributor. It’s been a long time since the last time I wrote music articles. Starting issue #03 my writings will join them. I hope you won’t be dissapointed.

07.25 pm the discussion started with oepning speech from Ika Vantiani (PR Outmagz Magazine) and introducing the speakers: Niniek L Kariem (psychiatrist), Lisabona Rahman (writer, researcher) and myself (Komik_Alternatif community) including each background. I was a bit embarrassed when she told the audience that my background was interesting. The name Surjorimba Suroto can be found in many comicbook communities. She also mentioned about my other life in another world, which was progressive rock. This made some people smiled, especially Lisabona’s abrupty comment. Ika delivered in short Love Me Better’s synopsis, especially to the main theme focusing on abuse in relationship.

Ika then asked the speakers to give their comments. It’s a bit uncommon as usually the moderator asked a question or an intriguing issue, to be commented by the speakers. But this time it was different and I became the first victim. So then I gave my opinion (including K_Alt members opinion) about Love Me Better. In short I admired this book that could effectively delivered its message using a visual medium. It was possible the delivery was just as effective as written medium.

Niniek L. Karim commented on my opinion that in some cases visual medium is more effective in delivering its message. For example some education textbooks in Japan were replaced with visual and graphic books. She then sent her opinion, from a psychiatrist perspective. One of her important notes was the possibility that Rosalind (the writer) actually enjoyed being abused both physically and emotionally. It was also possible that the writer was a masochist, that lived by enjoying abusement. Lisabona also add her opinion as a women’s researcher.

Book discussion became more interesting during the Q&A session, which were all women till the end. There were many questions about comicbooks and graphic novels addressed to me. Especially concentrating on the future of Indonesian comics, the difference between comics and graphic novels, can graphic novel be the future of Indonesian comicbook industry, and the basic qualification to be a cartoonist. I tried to answer all questions at best. If I couldn’t answer, then I admitted I didn’t have one. While I was eager answering each question, I almost misspoken and got lost into the world of progressive rock=)

Various questions were addressed to other speakers such as the fact Indonesian women (in culture term) tolerated abuse more than western women, inffectiveness implementation to grass roots of Abuse in Family Act, and many others including a confession of a girl within the audience, saying that she has a problem as the result of family abuse. I was amazed and shocked to hear her story.

As a speaker in this book discussion, I really enjoyed this.Especially whenever Niniek L. Karim delivered her tutorial. Many unique commentaries and her jokes really made the atmosphere alive. It was more like a sitcom. Around 9.00 pm the discussion ended with dorrprizes, which the whole lucky attendants were women.

I hope those who attended felt the same way. It’s nice to know and have a little chat with some people I only knew by reputation before, including the movie artist Cornelia Agatha, who appeared shortly before the show.

I must send my highest gratitude to Lulu and Beng Rahadian for their effort and support in making this with Gramedia Pustaka Utama (publisher) and Kinokuniya Book Store (event). I love you both. Beng, don’t forget to discuss that project we’re going to make together! I’m very excited here!

The latest album from TOTO finally in my hands! It’s the version with one bonus track, The Reeferman. I was so excited to find this CD on a local store and I instantly played it in my car while driving home. Considering they’re not the AOR band we knew in the 80’s, I was fully prepared. Never been absent listening to Toto since their Grammy-award winning Toto IV in 1982, I knew what I was expecting. What excited me most was to read ex members Steve Porcaro and Joseph Williams joined as guest stars!

The formation was still David Paich (keys & vox), Steve Lukather (guitars & vox), Mike Porcaro (bass), Simon Phillips (drums), Bobby Kimball (vox) and new member Greg Phillinganes (keys & vox). Greg was not a new face in this music scene. I remember him being a session musician for many artist. His 1981 album Significant Gains (with I Don’t Want To Be The One as his hit single), was among my favourite back then.

Falling In Between kicked off with their almost-progressive rock title track. I thought this track was overrated as a self-claimed progressive rock. Yes there were odd time signature between lyric paragraphs. Perhaps this was the ‘falling in between’. But still I thought it wasn’t sufficient to be called a progrock tune. I would call the 2^nd track Dying On My Feet more prog than the 1^st. It has so many interesting riffs and the horn arrangement was so cool! James Pankow (of Chicago) made the arrangement.

The 3^rd track Bottom of Your Soul has Joseph Williams & Jason Scheff (of Chicago) as backing vocalists, and they really made this song fun. The last time I heard Joseph in a Toto album was their Toto XX, released with unpublished materials as part of their 20^th anniversary. Joseph and Steve Porcaro even joined the band when they tour promoting the album.

The 4^th track, King of the World was an upbeat tempo dan very rocky. Hooked (5^th track) was very interesting as they made this arrangement as I’ve never heard before. Especially the shouting vocals. Ian Anderson (of Jethrotull) contribtued his solo flute. The 6^th track, Simple Life was a very lovely ballad sung by Steve Lukathter and I haven’t heard they made a ballad like this for quite some time.

Taint Your World started with solo electric guitar, with the style that Van Halen trademark. I really loved this song! They continued with 8^th track, Let It Go, with that groovy Mike Porcaro’s bass playing and Steve Lukather’s melodic guitar. This was one of my favourite. The 9^th song, Spiritual Man, was a tribute to all religius and spiritual persons. It’s a very lovely and calming song.

The last song (on normal release) was No End In Sight, and it was very clever to placed this song as their last. It sounded like their 1987’s Home Of The Brave style. Old funs should love this! The bonus track, The Reeferman, was an instrumental song.

Toto is scheduled to play in Jakarta, May 14^th 2006 and I can’t wait to see them! I only asbent in their 2^nd gig here. I was always there in their 1992 and 2004 show, including their press conference which I got Simon Phillips and David Paich signature on my Toto 25^th Anniversary DVD

Saturday, April 22^nd 2006 together with my wife and kids, we happened to be among the audience of the new BCA Card launching. The theme was Batman, and it was a huge event with a big concert stage. The headliners were Shanty and Wong Pitoe. But I’m not going to talk about them. It was their opening act, Absolute Band.

They were a 7-piece band, with the common formation (keys, bass, guitars & drums) and 3 vocalists (1 male and 2 female). When we arrived I could say they were very good. At least the drums was very creative, the bass was my kind of bass-lines, and unfortunately the sound very poor that we couldn’t hear the keys and guitars. But the outstanding performance was the three vocalists, especially the 2 girls. The sung Indonesian hits such as Aku Adalah Lelaki (by Samson), Sinaran (by Sheila Majid), Cintaku (by Chrisye) and Semua Jadi Satu (by 3 Divas/ Dian Pramana Poetra). Especially on Sinaran and Cintaku, I couldn’t stop but sing along while my daughters (Ratnadya and Kalista) were so anxious they stood in front of the stage. My wife Idah just kept head-dancing.

Apparently the 3 vocalists noticed that I was very excited whenever they delivered each song. I applaused with cheer everytime they end a song. One of the girls even pointed me, and sent me signs to sing along with them. They were absolutely wonderful, and somehow the keyboard started to be audible. But not the guitars.

Their encore was the three famous songs from the movie Grease: You’re The One That I Want, Greased Lightning, and Summer Nights. The girl said aloud to me while the music intro,”You must know this song, sir!”And I nod to her reply, to confirm I knew what they were going to play these three songs in a row. I sung each lyric of You’re The One That I Want (originally by Olivia Newton John and John Travolta). Greased Lightning (by John Travolta) and Summer Nights (another duet). I couldn’t stop singing! They even gave signs to continue the lyrics! Oh God! Those beautiful memories from the past kept recollecting! When they ended, I really wished they continue to sing all night long.

The movie Grease was very important to me, as it was a part of my childhood. I remember it was 1979 or 1980 when I saw it first hand in my friend’s house. Back then having a colour television and videoplayer were luxurious. Even my family only had a B/W television. The movie Grease was among my all time favourite, and I collected its laserdisc, DVD and soundtrack CD. It’s an absolutely timeless movie, ageless music, and moreover, absolutely wonderful Absolute Band!

Recently I discovered a cdr titled SYMPHONY: TRAPESIUM in one of my cd library. It wasn’t new actually. I forgot I have this masterpiece album on cdr! My very best and closest friend, Luky Kurniawan, made this for me many years ago. It was transferred from tapes, as it never been released on CD. Ever. How could I forget this! I instantly played this cdr, and all those beautiful memories back in 1982 recollected in my brain. Oh how I miss those remarkable days. It was my first year in Canisius College Jr. High. My first days in explorating new music. Back in my younger days, I was more into Beatles and those disco and jazzytunes stuffs. In 1982 I started my voyage to the ocean of rock, new wave, pop, , jazz and new romantic. It was the days when I knew The Police, Rolling Stones, Chicago, Genesis, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Crosby Stills & Nash, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Beach Boys, Duran Duran, Casiopea, among others.

Very different than the new discovery of western music, I was already familiar with Indonesian music. Ranging from Guruh Soekarno Putra, Chrisye, Candra Darusman, Fariz RM, and the list goes on. Name it. They were among my playlist everyday. Special note for Fariz RM, as he always been my favourite musician, composer, singer, and producer. He played almost all instruments: piano, keyboards, drums & percussion, guitar, bass in his solo albums. In 1982 together with some other young talented musicians, he formed the band Symphony. They delivered fresh and memorable music, combining The Police’s new wave style with progressive pop (very Genesis-influenced). Trapesium was their first album and it easily became every boy’s collection. Those days, who wouldn’t crown Trapesium as their most favourite album?

The opening track and single hit Interlokal was among top request in all major radio stations. Their 2^nd track, Sirkus Optik dan Video Game, was a heavily The Police-influenced. In fact, there was a new wave band competition and this particular song was a-must track all contestants should play. The lyric was intriguing, as Symphony critized the society of being proud of corruption and lent assets. Their 3^rd track and my most favourite, Astoria, was a very progressive pop tune. The lyric itself wasn’t that important, as a man entered a cozy classic restaurant only to find a beautiful stranger was watching him. The man approached her and they had one of the best romantic dining.

The 4^th track was another catchy pop-wave song, simply titled ‘An. I once asked Fariz RM the meaning of this title. He simply said that it was the listeners’ freedom to chose, whatever they wanted to called the song. Just listened to the song, and choose your own title finding a word with ‘an’ at the end of the word. The song itself was about a singer noticed a lovely girl, while he was on stage. It took only half a minute and he realized it was an old flame. Back to his home, the singer searched for their old love letters and remembered how he really loved her. Oh it as so …… romantic!

Putri Sigma was the 5^th track and it was another intriguing song. The song was about a man who fell in love with a hooker, and wanted her to be his wife. He asked her but she felt unworthy for him. The man told her to forget the past and let’s start life anew.

The 6^th track, Sisi B Lagu Pertama, sounded like a real-life jam session within Symphony. It told us how they wrote this particular song. The 8^th track was an instrumental progressive pop rock titled simply 1/32, with many Genesis influence here and there. The other remaining three tracks were also good, although in my opinion, they were not as good as the others.

When I said to some other friends I have Trapesium on cd, they were very eager to make copies. I was very happy to share. The quality wasn’t bad, considering its original was from tapes. I also asked Uwi Mathovani another close friend, whose profession was a graphic designer, to help me redesign the original cassette cover into a CD cover.

And shortly after, my cd player never stops playing the album Trapesium

Friday, April 14^th 2006, was another artist’s profile on RRI 105 FM Rock The Night: Progressive Rock. This time I played the works of the legendary guitarist and composer Steve Hackett. For the whole 2 hours we played Hackett exclusively. The reason I chose him because not many fans knew his solo works, especially after his departure from the legendary progressive rock band Genesis in 1977. It’s fun when audience called and sending emails and sms to the show about Steve Hackett. They were excited to know that Hackett’s works were absoultely great, even after he left Genesis. It was also proved that Genesis lost their classical approach right after they lost Hackett.

The setlist we played that night were:

1. Camino Royale

2. Mechanical Bride

3. Darktown

4. Los Endos (Genesis Revisited version)

5. Please Don’t Touch

6. Spectral Morning (request)

7. Walking Away From Rainbows

8. Horizons

9. Cinema Paradiso

10. Jacuzzi (request)

11. Star of Sirius (request)

12. Silk Road

see you again on RRI Programa 2, 105 FM every Friday 2^nd week!

Recently I discovered Moustapha Akkad, the famous Syrian movie director, was among the hotel-bomb victim Nov 11, 2005 in Amman, Jordan. I don’t know if you’re familiar with his works (Lion of the Desert, among others), but for me Akkad was a hero. His 1977 movie, The Message, IMHO is the best Islamic movie ever. The Message was about The Prophet Mohammed’s life and journey in delivering and guiding Arabian in the Islam religion, 7^th century. The movie was so perfect and I’ve never seen a collosal-Islamic theme as good as The Message.

I quoted a part of Akkad’s interview about The Message,” I did the film because it is a personal thing for me. Besides its production values as a film, it has its story, its intrigue, its drama. Beside all this I think there was something personal, being Muslim myself who lived in the west I felt that it was my obligation my duty to tell the truth about Islam. It is a religion that has a 700 million following, yet it’s so little known about it which surprised me. I thought I should tell the story that will bring this bridge, this gap to the west”

I remember in 1978 (or 1979) I watched this movie in the theaters. I was a kid back then, but I still remember the scenes. I went with my cousins to see the Arabian version. FYI, there were two versions (with different actors and different languages) of The Message, in Arabic and in English. The English version has Anthony Quinn, playing the role Hamzah (The Prophet’s warrior uncle). My parents and sister went to see this English version. In my opinion, as far as I can remember, the Arabian actor (don’t know his name) was more charismatic than Anthony Quinn.

In early 2000 when I finally bought a DVD player, The Message was among the first 4 DVD titles I bought from Amazon. They were Gene Kelly’s Singin’ In The Rain, Styx’ Return To Paradise, and Yes’ Best Musikladen (the latter two were music concerts). Unfortunately only the English version was avail on DVD, although the several Arabian scenes were included as bonus features. But I was very happy to get this, as I never found the laserdisc or VHS versions in the past.

Thank you Moustapha Akkad, for the gift you made for us. For the world. You delivered a movie so the world would understand Islam better. For a Moslem like me, the movie made us love the Prophet more. I hope Allah will give you the best place in Heaven. Amin