Today (6.6.06)
Tuesday, June 6th, 2006I dont usually tells the story of what happens to me during one day, because i usually dont like to ‘report’, i’d rather ‘note’ an event. however today i felt like doing just that. not of particular reason really, beside of course the events, which were quite amusing and important to me. but its not like there arent as important or amusing an event on other days, but today…yeah i just felt like it.
Marco
marco is a good friend of mine back in hard rock fm days. speaking with marco seemed like speaking in a totally different planet, in which the whole population consisted of either gays or transexuals (aka banci), notwithstanding my lack of full understanding of marco’s real ‘orientation’. here is an excerpt of this morning’s short conversation, which started from around 8 pm yesterday.
after a long period of no contact, suddenly the chinese in javanese dressing (or is it the other way around ko?) sms-ed.
M: arabbbbb, kpn balk jakarta?
i was delighted to see the message from the f*cker. actually i was planning to send a message a few days ago, but he outpaced me.
A: marco! gw denger ktnya skr suka sombong ya. katanya suka sok sibuk dan pgnnya ditelpon duluan kl pergi ke acara2. kenapa si ko? lagi ‘dapet’ berkepanjangan ya? =p
M: ha? masa si? kt sapa? emang lagi rada ribet ngurus idol. kamu kpn balik sayang?
6 juni 06 07:27ugh.. sayang!?!.. now, if there is any guy in the world who can call me that, then its got to be only one: marco. thanks for proofing that was you who send the message, co.
i was laughing with fear. he he he he..A: alah idol lagi alesannya.. gw sidang tanggal 12 bsk, trus nunggu diploma abis itu balik deh. yah agustus deh. lagian nonton piala dunia dulu dong. =)
M: duh sok laki banget si alesannyaaaaa
6 juni 06 13:49gw ketawa mampus. this guy is incredibly hilarious. i love you for what you are man.
A: hahahaha tailo. eh marco gw kasitau ya, gw ga dan ga bakal ‘meletek’ seperti yg lo idam2kan itu. dasar marco cina giling =D btw gw br denger lagunya glen yg baru (tega). doyan!
M: ih, melankolis pisan. laki mana yg tega amalo?
6 juni 06 14:00after all those words, he still somehow thinks i’m someone else. btw marco was once a music director =) hehehe, werent you marco? well, he was my replacement for a while until the real official music director came about. so, he has some knowledge over songs. good memories, good taste, easy to teach, however annoying he might be at the time - god, sometimes, i want to shove his mouth with my the box of tissue in my office room or polish his shiny forehead with my armpit. but one of many thing that differentiates me and him is he memorizes song lyrics seriously, especially the ones relevant to his life at the particular time. kahitnalah, glennlah, or any cheesy corny pop tunes could become seriously memorable (and adorable) to him, because of the lyric..
A: tega ama gw?.. anjiing. eh ga mesti deh semua lagu diresepin. lagian lirik tuh belakangan bwt gw. ah udah ah, diskusi amalo ga sehat. tuh liat tuh gempa di yogya, kumpulin dong temen2 bancilo buat nolongin.
M: udah, tapi lagi pada sibuk nyalon..
6 juni 06 14:23the last one blew myself up really..! huahahahahahaahahhaha marco marco, take care ol buddy.. and be straight will ye, or….at least make up your mind on it…!
and so thats what happened in the morning. in the afternoon…
Meaning of Music
in the afternoon, i went to my old favorite place in town. the old and intimidating, labyrinth-filled state library in unter den linden. it was raining when i came, in fact i almost change my mind on going at all, but the image of the nice reading chambers with all those bookshelves just made me happy and full of spirit. so off i went, with a weary umbrella on top of my head, and the hood from my jacket, and the hood from my sweater (yes, triple, not double, protection), through the underground train and through the friedrichstrasse shops and cafes to inside the library.
the library was formerly an old aristocratic building with high ceilings and huge staircases. it has two instantly recognizable wings and multivarious labyrinth-esque positioning of rooms and chambers, albeit totally confusing to novices of the library. for today’s ‘new experiences’ menu, i decided to try the musiksaal - the music reading room, on the top of the left wing facing the unter den linden road. it was a medium-sized room compared to others (nature wissenschaft or sozial) and was a homy containers of manuscripts and lexicons of a staggering amount of music works. a huge first floor shelves is reserved for musical sheets - name any work of any important classical musician and its all there. the second floor shelves are appropriated to biographies, music theories, etc.
at first i decided to read a little bit of my own thesis work, as this was the primary reason of my coming here. however that didnt last long. draining out of subject and interest, other books i brought soon looked very attractive. for the next 1 hour i spent reading the other half pages of my Roger E Backhouse’s History of Economics. pretty soon afterward, i got tired and decided to take a stroll beside the charming shelves. the first floor was not interesting to me as i cant read music notes and not very interested in classicals, however roaming to the second floor turned out to be very exciting.
there, stucked between two thick books in the musiktheorie section, was a small A5 size book entitled Meaning of Music.
the book was written by a professor in the 1930’s. her name (i guess its her) is Carroll C Pratt. She is not only some professor, but a professor emeritus from Princeton’s college of psychology, just exactly the academic field which i thought should handle such topic. the topic was, as i mentioned, the Meaning of Music. its subtitle: A Study in Psychological Aesthetics.
to mention that the book is interesting would be underrating it as far as im concern. the book, perhaps the day, could be an important knot in my life for it answers a question i have long to answer. the questions of: why music creates such a tremendous effect over my mental stature? (i have already discuss this a number of times in the blog), why would i thought that music is a sort of language or a code that can only be deciphered with our soul? (which the book discusses humbly, clearly, and amusingly).
this academic, quasi-scientific, philosophizing book that took classical music as its object provided for me assuring (and comforting) facts: first, it took music to its rightful position regarding other forms of art just how i thought it should be; second, that the phenomena i felt is not unique, others felt it too; third, the width of the scope of discussion is as large as what i already had in mind, which could be in no other way must transcend into comparison with other forms of art, a discussion about human perception, psychology study, and the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of art itself, etc etc.
in short i love the book. it is by no exception a praise to music as the the form of art itself. and i can’t believe somebody have tried to answer my questions 75 years ago.
ive got so many brilliant quotes from it. unforgetable and overall made the book even more tempting to finish than all other books i have bought. here are some:
"the thesis of this book is that tonal form stands from nothing beyond itself. it does not suggest mood and feeling. it is ‘mood and feeling’. … the qualities of auditory perception are not iconic signs, nor do they by themselves represent or imitate or copy anything…. tonal form represents only itself. the form and content of music are one."
"…music speaks of emotion only by way of tonal patterns which at the level of form are indistinguishable from the patterns of bodily reverberations. music sounds the way emotions feel…"
"..music has none of the vulgar concomitants and common motives of real emotion. the tertiary qualities of music exist in a realm of ideal and abstract sound. they are pure creation. no other human endeavor or accomplishment is in any way comparable. everything else in one way or another reflects or portray ‘things’. Music is no ‘thing’ at all, yet by a simple paradox it comes out of the most inaccessible and inarticulate regions of human experience and reveals in tonal splendor those things which are closest to the heart of man."
"words, pictures, images, statues, objects, landscapes, portraits, still life: these are all mere things, the outer manifestation of an inner ‘Ding an sich’. Music on the other hand, said Schopenhauer, is the ‘Ding an sich’ itself. ‘Music is by no means like the other arts, the copy of Ideas, but the copy of the Will itself, whose objectively the Ideas are. This is why the effect of music is so much more powerful and penetrating than that of the other arts, for they speak only of shadows, but music speaks of the thing itself." Schopenhauer has not been alone in his half-mystic belief that the master knot of human fate can be unraveled in only one way. Solvitur Audiendo."
—’solvitur audiendo’ is a latin phrase meaning: it is solved by listening.. Schopenhauer himself is Arthur Schopenhauer, a 18th century german philosopher who studies metaphysics of music and admired among other, by Wagner and Nietzsche.
now, how bout it? interesting? for me, extremely. quite something for an afternoon break indeed.
The Postcard
after a regular visit to lebensmittel shops, i went back home at around 8 o’clock, only to find that the content of my letterbox was not only pamphlets and pizza take away advertisements as usual. a little postcard was in it. i was happy even before i knew who send it. the girls who came a few weeks ago to berlin send it..that cutesy little program directors..
(btw peppy and sekar are two program directors, sort of managers of "whatever going broadcast" - and that includes music, which makes them formally above me (was). peppy worked for OZ FM Bali and Sekar for Hard Rock FM Jakarta. In the perspective of media professionals, their jobs, and consequently they, are.. pretty important.
before diving into what would be a very delightful letter, let me describe you a little bit about the postcard. the front page was a picture none other than….HALILINTAR DUFAN dong. with a big red inscription of the word INDONESIA at the bottom, and a little subtitle:
Dunia Fantasi, Jakarta - "Fantasy World" in the Ancol Amusement Park is (read very slowly) Jakarta’s.. answer.. to.. Disneyland..
if this is jakarta’s answer, well she sure got a zero point for that…
god.. *shakes my head*
at the back, there were three stamps with a text: Hemat Energi, which apparently cost 2500 perak each. in reminiscent of one’s ol’ hometowrn, one could only smile..
now here is the excerpt, to give you a glimpse of how these girls really are..
Dear Aldy
(they spelled this one wrong - its Aldi, never Aldy)hey kyamu..cowok bertampang anak SMP =P. Kita berdua mau ngucapin makasih buat semua2nya selama kita di Berlin. Makasih udah mau direpotin ama 2 pere yg banyak maunya! Tapi Berlin will never be so perfect without you! Thank u so much!!!
Good luck sidangnya! you gonna rock! Don’t worry!
Hayoo cepat pulang, biar kita ke Dufan rame..rame.. yuppie
Love you
(Signed) Peppy and Sekar(i figured this was Peppy’s handwriting).
hmmmhh anak2 ini…=) thanks to you too guys..wow wait a minute? dufan? after all the cool places in berlin i took you to?!…=D
bet you never realized, that being a guide, when somebody came and you have to take the job, youre actually given the chance to go out of your everyday life for a little bit and hav fun. for me that’s not merely gratifying but indeed a vacation in itself.., so thanks in return guys =>
and so thats how the day ended. i ate my KFC for dinner. write this and go to sleep.
oh right, theres one more little thing. among all the numerous functional objects lying on my desk from day to day on a regular basis, there appear today to be a small addition to these already hectic looking place..: a 5 cm tall brust sculpture of W.A. Mozart, standing proudly among the drinking glass, the mouse, the clock, the tv remote, the printer, the books, the pencil, and others (a fitting composition don’t you think? =p) it apparently came from the role model’s hometown himself, which is Austria. it’s hard, white-colored (miming the granite of real statues), detailed, and well, short. if not for the size, i would really feel i’m in possession of a valuable museum object. peculiarly standing there with no specific functional significance regarding my work at all, i thought to myself what might this particular statue served for purpose? i contemplate and contemplate then i think…it could be only one. To remind myself of who gave it to me. =) so, thanks alot bi..
ps: thesis defense is 5 days away, i couldnt be more anxious.
