Indonesian music good old days

Posted on by nova
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Not saying that today sound is not beautiful. But all those meticulous sound editing in the past often blowing my mind. These days computerized sound editing (with all due respect) are mostly light and less serious. Show must go on. We need to keep creating good sound. Cheapest way is to use computer and focus on the content without giving bad education to the listener. Bad education is to sing in complete false notes, messy sound edit, lazy plugins searching, easy to give up attitude which makes a-not-so good sound/music in result.

So now, let me introduce you to Indonesian music good old days. A friend, Hank, patiently collect Indonesian music from the past. He’s a good hunter. Going from town to town, one record store to another, even to old radio station, and make this blog for all of us to stay remember what good music is

http://madrotter.blogspot.com/

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Translating is a non-creative job

Posted on by nova
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Few days ago i had an email from a friend. He was pretty shocked when found out that I made The Culture Wire. He said, “I thought you’d be in more creative field than translating”.

I can understand that maybe some people thought that I would be a translator that can finish ten pages in two hours using Google translate and make a small edit here and there, and make people read it ten times to understand about what it is all about.

So I disagree that translating is not a creative job. Because a good translator especially localizer need a specific knowledge about local culture or the field that they translated. Is a language that I translated. And a language is not as simple as a word. There is always history behind it and culture that surround it.

There is an animation made by RSA Animate based on Steven Pinker’s speech that might explain a little bit about what language is. I agreed that it is a window into a human nature.

Localization for Public digestion

Posted on by nova
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How important is it to localize technology words in Bahasa? According to Ivan Lanin, as an Indonesian, it is important for us to use the correct language, including in tech-side. I’ve been reading Ivan Lanin’s blog and following the development of Bahasa, i found it amazing if someday we can have all of tech words in Bahasa.

It sounds weird in some case, but i kind of agree that we have to start it somehow. That is my personal opinion. Although i found my self still have to go with the advertising and journalistic style, where tech words localization is still too impossible for public digestion.

The question is, when will we be ready for our own language?

VERNISSAGE

Posted on by nova
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A week ago I had a small job translation and noticed there is word from French that uses in English. Of course the impact was, I could not find Indonesian word for it. There are some words I found too, like ‘chauffeur’ that translated as ‘sopir’ in Bahasa, but this one is very rare.

vernissage |ˌvernəˈsä zh |

noun ( pl. same)

a private viewing of paintings before public exhibition.

ORIGIN French, literally ‘varnishing,’ originally referring to the day prior to an exhibition when artists were allowed to retouch and varnish hung work.

To be honest, I’ve never attended private viewing before public exhibition. But I did invited to many exhibitions preparation that never announced as a vernissage by the painter involved in it.

So I translated it as ‘pembukaan’ which is simply an opening party. I think if it’s private then the invitation won’t be as public.. ;-)

 

‘Berry berry gutto’ Moment in Japan

Posted on by nova
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For my best friends in Japan, you all gave me the best memory back on 2009. Never forget your special English also they way you thought I’m a Japanese (that was a weird moment). Really want to go there again someday. Hope that everything will come to balance again after tsunami.

Japan has given me a new cultural experience and here are some memory that I would never forget.

My first ever snow in Sapporo

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Praying on Shrine

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And the best gig ever

I would never forget the way Sano said my performance was “berry berry gutto” (very very good).

My lifestyle was totally change after I had a bike ride in Kyoto. It was really beautiful and made me bought a beautiful bike. Since then, I mostly choose my bike to go everywhere.

Although tsunami swept away some of your beauty, I’m sure it’ll go back to a berry berry gutto country. Ganbatte!

TheCultureWire.Net

Posted on by nova
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After spent few days of promoting The Culture Wire, I had a lot of positive feedback. Many of them were shape of support. One day Lachlan Musicman email me, he said, why not making a website instead of a blog? Huge thanks to him, now The Culture Wire officially change address into TheCultureWire.net

Old blog is now deleted. You can find The Culture Wire updates here. Thank you everyone who keep on supporting me. Now let’s talk more about culture, art and of course language :)

Java is a street, an island, a cup of coffee, a computer language and an attitude

Posted on by nova
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I the west, Java is simply coffee. You will hear people say, “let’s go get some Java”. It means get some coffee. But not all of them who say that understand where and what is Java. In your tourist book, whatever the tittle is, lonely or crowded planet, Java is an island near Bali. In Brooklyn, Java is the name of a street. In your computer and phone cell, Java is a script that every operating system can read (and the logo is a cup of coffee). In Indonesia, there is “gula Jawa” means Java sugar, “kopi Jawa” means Java coffee and “beras Jawa” means Java rice.

But what people rarely understand is that Java also an attitude. Java or Javanese is not all about where you from and what your skin color. To be honest, there is no perfect word to translate Java. All I know being a Javanese is as simple as understand the harmony and the balance of live. Javanese say, “do not pinch if you don’t want to get pinched”. Java is universal. Javanese are universalist. Everyone can be a Javanese and a Javanese can be anyone and able to live anywhere. Java is not a label and it might be as simple as “good”.

If someday I met you, I might say that you are a Javanese and your good coffee is Java coffee :)