Architecture Of Independece : Pain, Ignorance, And Pride

So yesterday, as we speak, the ultimate 17 wasn't just a something that counts, for my country is a history, great history, it's our independence. After 350 years + another 3,5 years of agony, torture, and suffer, it might be great that we've finally received an independence on 17.8.1945, right after the WW2 (hiroshima-nagasaki mega-bomb point). Maybe i'm too young to understand that (or to lazy to get myself a history book), history is important though; to know your real enemy in truth, to know exactly what country you really live in it, to know the grand-daddy of the cardinal-sin scheme, yeah...we must learn all of that.

I'm not gonna go nationalism-crazed right now, because the fact, my country cannot be something that i really joy-to-talk about. And...don't make me start about our politicians/govs agenda here, oh-my! I'm afraid that i'll be jerk around them, as i always says about my country these days as ripped-off-artist-ass-licker country, and i don't want to talk about the ripped-off artist part anyway...err...cheesy...emotional rage, right. But i want to share about something i really know and dealt with in these past years; architecture...in the heart and soul of the city itself, Jakarta.

Right, when all the power nation racing against each other to make themselves super-designed country/city, ours still struggle to keep waste disposes correctly. Our neighbor such; Singapore and Malaysia already stood their feet into urban-design wonders, sustainable city, green-movement and stuffs, and Jakarta as our home-state still far enough to compete those straight-A goodies. I always belief that Indonesia is much more nature/art/cuisine country than urban/modern/tech one, we must be proud for our self that we made our own unique and much real culture. But, as an architect who sees further to another country goals, this is desperate than ever.

As i took the snap-shot from Jakarta main city point it's always interesting, and also ironic. We just love our retro architecture with all straight line and vivid color, i've always want to discover more 'junk-from-the-past' that made this city looks like a mosaic of memories.

THIS IS NOT THAT FREAKKIN TOKYO OK?! Yeah...but we do appreciate small spaces just like those androids did, even better, and i bet Tokyo doesn't have the ever-loved durian stall right on the street, they only praised their own sweet red ichigo on-the-counter, the heck! Strawberries never ever be cute, OKAY??? They're just sour-patch fruit, even you guys try so hard to make the sweet-hybrid one, still SOUR, AND NOT CUTE FOR PETE SAKE, GOSH! And who says that we need good library with comfy couch to read, nah, the ice-tea box can do just well.

 Do we still need a fence as our protector? Oh hell yes, especially when you reside in your most high-crimes neighborhood, fence-free clustered home everyone? No sir. Yes, we have the over-advertised-so-called-cluster-housings, but our society who live under uncertain safety like Jakarta (1998's horror, political-rad) have some of 'trauma' awareness, so that's why fence really matters here, lack issue of trust even with your own neighbor (and family feud). MRT/SUBWAY/TRAM we don't have...okay we have our busway, but it's sucks, believe me, but "bajaj" like the up-shot there was perfect choice if you want a ethnically feels on your transportation, well if you can tolerate the over-buzz-diesel-noise that almost make you deaf, you'll be just fine.

Let the red-white sephia-nized of our flag waving with it's pride. Yes, it's on the fence again, as i thought, architecture can be a awesome defence stuff for our country, metaphorically. Clustered of stocks represented the sound of empty stomach back when the pre-independence time, the dutch/japan regime was a true form of evil, and change the concept of architecture in the country forever. As we have a growing pains, we ignore the world fast movement, 'cause our people still need to fed rather than to 'live'. Chaotic is our urban design, and we don't need the architect-slash-preacher to tell them what to do. Some of those loser will called us as taking-for-granted people, as we love to waste our really wide and big space (suck that Tokyo!), we ripped the trace of land with nonsense everyday, but why not? Even the govs did that, capitalist wHOREshipper, so as architect what we'll do then, keep 'preaching' or just do the viva-la-vida rebellions act? The answer rely on each of us, so there; Happy Independence my beloved country, Indonesia! 

Technicolor Bite-Sized Fantasy

Trivia Starts NOW!

It's sweet.

It's grainy.

It's chewy.

It's colorful (naturally off course).

It's coconutty.

It's palmsugary.

{oh boy can we just legalized the misspell already!}

It's light.

It's comforting.

It's portable.

It's 100% Indonesia.

It's traditional.

It's dessert.

It's vegan.

It's healthy.

It's dairy-free.

It's natural.

It's preservatives-free.

It's cheap.

It's made from scratch.

It's freshly made.

It's tea-friendly.

It's coffee-friendly too.

It's diet-friendly snack.

It's addictive.

It's not play-doh.

It's beautifully packaged

It's shareable.

It's even greater to eat just for yourself.

It's lightly fragrance.

It's not 'saccharine' taste.

It's bite-sized wonder.

It's easy to chow-down.

It's  not french patisserie.

It's not thai-dessert.

It's not even malay.

It's cultural legacy.

It's indonesian, yes, i typed it twice now.

It's my family favorites.

It's deep in my heart.

It's deep in my stomach.

It's essential to me.

IT'S COLORFUL "CENIL"-BLACK/WHITE GLUTINOUS "LUPIS" COMBO

WITH  JAVANESE PALM-SUGAR SAUCE AS COMPLIMENT, AND SHREDDED FRESH

COCONUT AS THE TOPPING

~ PURE GUILT-FREE ENJOYMENT~

Brown Colored Food Spelled Yum-Tastic Part 1

No kidding, every brown food always tastes delicious, unlike the green one (except, matcha flavored stuff!), ironic much, the earthy colour has contradicted meanings against each other. Back then i'm not a veggie person, regards my childhood, i've always in fighting-mood when my parents forced me to eat my veggies. Well, veggies always had a bad reputation for me, you know; bitter, slightly rancid, grassy smelled, and stuffs, no wonder i'll choose to be meaty person; for now, chicken, beef, and fish, yeah...savory one. Brown food isn't always be meaty and deep-fried, there's one thing works like magic, chocolate. There's no way i'll stop eating chocolate, the good-mood-saviour. People who hates chocolate, i think must be suffered enough to enjoy the great tasted, pity, in my humble opinion.   

Growing up, i'm eating veggies just because to enhanced my body to be err...healthy? skinny? beautiful? yeah...for self-image purposes, i'm not going crazy like some of hypocrite lunatics that say anything but fair about eating meat, health-concerned people who preaches to everyone about how bad eating good/comfort things like; junk food (which happens to be my all-time favorite), fatty/sweets things (come on! Everyone needs them to be happy) and soda/alcoholic drinks (it's the advance culinary invention, it's not a sin you hypocrite losers! We have self-control you see, we're not robotics!). Anthony Bourdain, Andrew Zimmern, Adam Richman, and off course my dearest Nigella Lawson, always be my constant heroes (yes, i'm TLC freaks), they're really humanize the meaning of gastronomy, not some kind 'patronized/Mr.perfectionist/utterly bullshit' one (HAHA*fill-the-blank*HAHA), they're really enjoyed/appreciated/created their food for REAL!

For the first part, i want to shared my brown food haven that traced from our culinary legacy, one of them, it's from the TeSaTe restaurant, located in Plaza Senayan, Jakarta. It's a traditional indonesian food for real experiences that usually you've got from our street hawkers but with the chi-chi-but-not-expensive a.k.a snotty environment, not like fussy 'hotelier-ized' one, still keep the real tastes and method. So, let's started now then;

So this is a brown drinks, a traditional indonesian quencher; "Es Kunyit Asem" it's iced drinks consists of; tamarind, turmeric and palm sugar. It's refreshing, and not forget, the compliments that you'll see in the silver spoon, it's pair of "Ting-Ting Jahe", it's a cashew-ginger candy, perfect companion with the sooth-herbal concoction. The pandan leave over there isn't just an accent, you may stirred your drinks before you slurped it for the aromatic effect. This drinks which i called legacy has many potential healing factor; to energized the body, to cured body odour, to cleansed the toxic for menstrual woman, and also to enhanced our appetites, indeed.

Yes, the meal speaks the restaurant's name and speciality itself, "TeSaTe" means a shout from Satay Man hawkering around to sell the stuffs, like "Satay...Tay...Satay!!!", oke...it's not Satay, it's Sate, the meat-on-the-skewer things originally came from Madura, East Java, Indonesia. This version on the shoot up there is "Sate Ayam Ponorogo" the chicken satay (skin, meat, and egg) with the special creamy/chunks cashew-peanut sauce, from Ponorogo, another East Java quarter speciality, also famous with "Reog Ponorogo" art performances. The sate came in iron-n'-charcoal pot to keep it warm, the meat itself stay moist too. I do like the chicken skin sate, yeah, it's fatty-karma, but it's sinfully good, the unforgivable taste noted from the cashew peanut sauce with the hint of "Kecap Manis" (again, our sweet soy sauce legacy). "Kecap Manis" made the sauce even savory without 'sarcastically' sweet. The chili and shallots bits extra acted as 'cuts' that gives you spiced-up in your tongue

TeSaTe restaurant not just like a 'traditional' restaurant in the making, it has modern-chic conceptual interior, before we entered the main room, we'll encounter something like this. The menu was excellent variety and not too expensive (a person's complete meals wil comes around 10-15$) from appetizer to dessert, and comes in english too, the service is pleasant, but do make reservation 'cause it's always packed when in lunch time. So...that's my first brown food experienced, i'll post about it again, soon enough, because brown food never dies, veggies is okay, but savory will wins at all causes, BROWNISSIMO!  

No White Policy For Our Moment

Let's talk about common thing, about marriage. I have this idea just about witnessing my friends and cousins wed this year, it's amazing how things grows so fast. I think marriage was a one of life cycle schematic for every people, and by choice. Marriage wasn't a standard to determined someones success life. Yeah...it's a personal choice. Personal choice contained many aspects; dependency, family's legacy, and economical surpasses. Especially for a woman, err...i guess. The sucks phenomenon is the woman factor, in our society, woman in early 20's-30's should be married, above that years usually degraded as something low, unimportant, and to be worst, unwanted. 100% myth if you asked me.

Right...i don't wanna buy that crazy old people standard, as every human being have their own way to survive their life. If we are marriage, well, get it right! Never took some marital status as a 'branded-label', big no-no! I saw many unconditional marriage in my family that turns to worst cases scenario, divorce. Marriage should be taken seriously, 'cause we aren't 'in relationship' state of mind anymore. Just the same range, if we're not marriage yet, don't be so desperate about it, chill...relax yourself dude, it's not a first class life stage anyway. Yup...! And more importantly, choose your bride/groom VERY...VERY WISELY. It's good if they're your first love, or someone you really, really love. If we're just blatantly choose our marriage partner as 'labelling' target, and then if something bad happens we will regretful for the rest of our life, you know...just like a monkey trap. The horror, i don't want to imagine it.

I took the jasmine confetti from restaurant in Jakarta (i'll told about it soon...) and i just thinking about wedding bouquet. Yeah...the one that all the single ladies always hunt after the bride throw them into the air. I like the white serene effect, it's suite very well on the wedding dress (traditionally on white), as myself, i always imagine that i'll have a black roses as my hand bouquet, with the black-n'-neon green as wedding dress, oh yeah..., bloody suite isn't it (err...my parents will go mad on that idea). Maybe, that's just my 2-cent idea, but traditional standard sometimes getting bored this days, why not spiced-up a little bit, marriage is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, GO WILD GUYS!

PS: Proper marriage should have a good senses in the ears;



1. Yeah...walk the aisle jingle themed, very melodic, nice pianoesque too.



2. Confession, for private promises, quite meaningful.

3. Yeah...from the groom to the bride cheesy moment.

4. Now...from the bride to the groom 
happily-ever-after moment.

5. After all the commotions you know what
happens next, right? 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

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xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Unforgettable Gift From Extraordinary People Part 1

If there's something that i really liked, and gives me a heart-melted experiences, is no other than a gift from a special person; school/college friends, family friends, relatives, events promotion, and even from some good strangers. And it's not about the material value, it's about how deep the meanings from it. Some people that i knew, value the gift based how luxury/chic/expensive they're, well...that's the basic ego human being i supposed. For me, no matter how the gift looks/value it's all valuable in thoughts.

As a gift from unforgettable people #1 right now, i just want to shared the emotional value. It's from our big family, my Mom-side, considering as one of my Aunts, from East Java. She is a incredible woman, had been a single fighter for now after several bad marriages, and she's never ashamed about that. She's really honest, and knows how to give it up. Some people don't know how to stop, so the mistakes always comes around like crazy wheels, but my Aunt knows, and she's happy now. I hope all the best for her, she's just a one hot/cool Auntie. 

She give a special cake for us, the dutch-colonial-legacy, "Onbyekoek" (well...this is a indonesian-ized name as i don't know the real-dutch name is). Onbyekoek tasted like your typical ginger cake, minus the gingery heat, because instead of ginger, they used "Spekoek", the indonesian ground-spice-mix consists of; cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and cardamom, usually made for making layer cake, and Onbyekoek. It tasted lovely with company of latte or tea. And...don't forget to layered with butter, the tasted will improved.

The Onbyekoek came from "Anugerah" (spelled "Grace"), a traditional-home-made Onbyekoek maker from Malang, East Java. It has retro feeling in the package, and funny enough, it just look like this; LEGACY, LEGACY, LEGACY!





This "Gunungan" (Opening scene on "Wayang Kulit", indonesian shadow puppet) courtesy from here.

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"Happy ending doesn't always started smoothly, so please enjoy your

up and down in your life, it's only a game for us to play with."

xoxo

IRS INITSUGA

Ghost Can't Steal As It'll Be Kept Forever

I'm not ashamed to admitted that i love gathering stuff, small/detailed/memorial stuff. It's freakin' hilarious how a small things can created a huge meanings, or even stories. Yet, i'm also think that if a small stuff can produced bigger story, how about big stuff? Errr...humongous??? Well i'll kept that later...

Verb: Conditioning, is a architecture boogazine, and becomes my love, my inspiration, my eternal excuses for showing hatred for the other boring/commercialized architecture books. Well why? For me architecture books must be liked manga, full of images, little bit of words, OR, full of un-grammatized-cult words, few images. I hate when architecture books translated as rhetorical theories, or definition, i wanted more phenomenon, more tragedy, more angst. Verb: Conditioning described a phenomenon towards identity in architecture, for examples; Las Vegas, it's a tacky, identity-crisis wonderland, if i see them in my mere mortal vision, but as architecture, Las Vegas is recreating fantasy, rediscovered dreams. The other project in this boogazine that i loved you can read further in my earlier post, here. There's many interesting projects that compounded in one tiny book, and i'll posted about it, promises...promises.

The post-ice-cream-cap of mine came from Ben&Jerry's, it's a cult institution that created a social trends, and the coolest one. I love how they do to their website, swanky! Fun, yeah just like my favorite architecture boogazine, must be fun, must be blow my mind. I love the vanilla one, they used real vanilla bean, you can spotted through the tiny black speckled. And salute to them to used fair trade vanilla, one of them came from my country Indonesia. The real weird things about that, there's no outlet found in my country (well there's some of hiding in the midst of the city, but...come on!), the vanilla one i've got on my Singapore's trip, they've a lot of outlets there (even on the Siloso beach, Sentosa), how envious. 

The other stuffs left; Olde Mickey Mouse pocket watch and 4711 mini cologne. The pocket watch i've got from my Dad business trip back when i'm on first grade (circa 1993), and the most well-kept treasures of mine, still as new. I love how Mickey's hands become hour/min arrow. Gift from our parents in the childhood spelled legacy for me, unforgotable. The 4711 mini cologne, is another legacy, it's my late grandfather favorites, my Dad gives me on his Europe trip last year with my Mom (minus me, haha!), it's came from the original Koln, Germany, yeah...mine was a real genuine indeed. I love the smell, it's a first cologne ever made in history of perfume making (err...Koln=Cologne), it's fresh, aquatic fresh, with a hint of citrus, and densed alcohol, just like a after-shower smell, FRESH!

Err...when i took the shoot of my stuffs,

i don't realized it would be royally-klsx-gold all around,

as i hate the bourgeois-jerk things. Meh, i'll stick with the ghetto then, SHAZAMMM!  

Living Up The Materialism Of Our Life

Let's make a scenery combo: (posse + cloths + architecture) X legacy. I'm not gonna type 'equal' here, 'cause i'm still not confident about my 'looks', my bad after all. Speaking about legacy, it's important to said that i really appreciated my tradition. I'm not try to sounds so idealistic here, i don't have sort of prudish traits whatsoever. Idealism can be seems a little bit stupid-looking for me, at least when i saw in other people. If goods has to be lost, so be it, but if they're still exist until now, i'll be defend it. So enough my babbling now, started the posse already!

> Posse: Well...smirked, awkwardly, can't decide yet.

>> Cloths (main stage): The legacy note, the Batik dress that i wore as top/cardi (still, undecided yet). It's not ordinary typical indonesian 'Batik', it's a mixed-breed of "Batik Jumputan" originally from Central Java, the uniqueness of this bred is the tie-dye-pinch-n'-stain type WITH the other type, "Songket Palembang" which appeared on the fabric's textures. Those indigenous heirloom, comes from Palembang, South Sumatra, it's a "Ikat" / the indonesian speciality of woven technique. And the mixing result, gives an excellent idea for just so-called-fashion, yeah...some accomplishment in my opinion.

>> Cloths (the least): Giordano Ladies tube (my Mom's), GUESS? black skinny-fitted (err...not so), ANANAS khaki wedges, octagonal-woody bangle and Singapore Botanic Gardens green-efforts souvenir bag, YAY!  

>>> Architecture: The house (unknown) that located near my family reunion's house, somewhere in Jakarta. The detailing; material, element, space, they're creating sort of palette experiences. And the colour speaks for itself, it's not a futuristic-modern-metal-concrete-clad (boring...!), it's more a legacy, something that came around years, and it still immortalized.

POSSE (HUMAN) + CLOTHS (FASHION) + ARCHITECTURE

=

LIVING

AT LAST...DONE MY 'EQUAL' NOW, PHEEW.