Anthems

In the spirit of a previous post, I've decided to list a few songs that I consider my personal anthems. These might not be the most well known tunes from the particular artist, but they are songs that either introduced me to the bands or always remind me of a period in my life.

Again, in no particular order:

1. Deep Purple - Highway Star. I still remember the first time I heard this song. A family friend borrowed our car and left a Deep Purple's Greatest Hits tape (yeah this was some time ago). When I heard Ritchie Blackmore guitar solo I was just completely floored. This led me to explore the rest of the album and discover Deep Purple. Oh and we never got to return the tape to the owner cos he went back to Houston after his contract's finished. I still have it, heheh.
2. Rush - Anthem. What an appropriate title. I first heard this amazingly powerful rock tune through Yngwie Malmsteen's version in the Inspirations album. At that time I've heard about Rush many times and how Neil Peart is a source of inspiration for 95% of great rock drummers, but I've never actually heard any of their songs. One time I found their Greatest Hits in a double-tape (again, long time ago) compilation. I guess I was very lucky cos these kind of things were almost impossible to find in Indonesia. The album conveniently covers their career throughout the 70's and 80's although the mix is pretty muddy.
   
3. Joe Satriani - Summer Song. I saw the yellowish low budget video of Summer Song in Channel V sometime in '98. That was the first time I saw an instrumental piece on a mainstream station and I was excited as hell. I actually recorded the video to a VHS tape so I could play it over and over. This was the beginning of my obession with Satch that I began collecting all his albums.
   
4. Bryan Adams - Summer of '69. I played this song about a gazillion times with my first half-decent band in high school(Kenia, Andra, Heru, Taufik, AA, where are you people now??). We used to perform the tune so often our friends asked if we actually knew how to play other songs.
   
5. Dream Theater - New Millennium. A band mate (for one gig) recommended me the band and told me "they play these crazy instrumental stuff for 15 minutes" and that got me kinda interested. I bought the Falling To Infinity album and my first impression was "what the hell is this?" Yeah I guess you don't get crazy over prog rock instantly. After repeated listening only then I realized what a bad ass band Dream Theater is.
   
6. Casiopea - Asayake. The immortal Japanese fusion tune.
   
7. Evanescence - Bring Me To Life. Okay so this song was played a million times in Hitz.fm, but this was the the song that brought the glory to Shirley's Temple in Glitz 2003. Ah the good old times.
   
8. Guns N Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine. This is more like everyone's anthem. I never get bored listening Axl singing about the blue eyed girl, and Slash's guitar tone is so freaking awesome.
   
9. Texas - Halo. I watched the video many many times in '97. The music and the Hong Kong themed video were so mesmerizing.
   
10. U2 - Where The Streets Have No Name. 80's U2 rock. 90's U2 suck.
    

Playboy Indonesia you say?

>>This is a post that I wrote a few weeks back but never really had the time (willpower?) to finish it. The issue is a bit stale now, but what the hell...

I haven't posted a social commentary for a while, so since I have nothing to do for the next hour and a half, I thought I'd write about the issue that's been amusing me for a while now: Playboy Indonesia.

I think the whole hooha about the local version of Hef's mag is getting ridiculous. Wannabe moralists and politicians trying to get attention are scrambling to condemn a magazine based on its name. If only those sadcases would look around the corner of Jakarta's streets, actual hardcore porn (as opposed to Playboy's 15 articles and 3 pictures format) is so easy to access. Just sit down at some roadside warung and in 10 minutes some dude with a bag will approach you asking if you'd like to see his "barang". Say yes, and the entire Vivid collection will be showcased in front of you. At Rp 5000 each, it's incredibly cheap. Another good example is Glodok area in Jakarta. I was there last year and I tell you, the place is freaking surreal. I've never imagined a place where a whole pasar is full of people selling porn DVD's. It's just crazy. You walk around and these guys will entice, cajole, or even half-force you to buy their stuff. A bit scary if you're not stern enough (and not really fluent with the local slang).

So back to the hypocrites. Everyone knows that these FPI (Islamic Defender Front) are just a bunch of thugs using the name of the religion to extort money. Every Ramadan they would haunt bars threatening to burn the building to the ground if they don't shut down. But everyone knows if you pay them, they won't disturb you. Sounds pretty similar like the Mafia style protection racket eh?

So the latest news is that they've smashed some windows of the publisher's office building. According to one source, police were there but they didn't do anything. Another negative point for the cops there. How come it's so easy for them to beat the crap out of students protesting but not to arrest a bunch of troublemakers causing damages? What's with that? Are they afraid that FPI will retaliate? Please...

I found out that several enterpreneurial opportunists are trying to sell the first (and might be the only one ever) edition of Playboy Indonesia on eBay. I saw the first one and the bid was already around $90. Not bad at all. Now there's already a bunch of other people trying to sell their copy. I really gotta call up the friends/cousins/acquaintances (now that's difikult to speel) back home and see if they have a copy that can be peddled online. Selling something for $50 with a $5 initial capital already makes a 900% profit you know.