Sweet Child O' The 60's

SOME THINGS EVEN A DEPRAVED AND DEPRIVED SWAMP MAN can't have...

I know there's so many things out there that everyone takes for granted (like KJ's ascension to premiership before turning forty is one and Ling Gump's ASSertion that yeah, that guy looks and sounds like me BUT -- is the other) because they're not in some gawd-infested swamp . . .

It's about a concert by one of the greatest bands ever to grace the planet. And it's happening right here in Cyberjaya, Bolehsaja and in two other cities in Indonesia this coming March.


Here's your chance to catch 'em, folks.

Unfortunately I have to give this a pass but hoping against hope to catch 'em in Surabaya if I can ciluk from the rig that is, but I doubt that --just as as much as I doubt Ling Gump was just tagging along. And the good Tun just happened to bump into him at the airport?

For us Sweet Child O' The Sixties I'm sure there are takers out there. I know Doc TA, Shah Cakapje and a host of other "Sixties Children" will appreciate the chance.

Go to the promoter's website here:

Leland Sklar apparently is replacing Mike Porcaro because the latter has gone on MC or something. David Paich is away in China preparing the theme song for Beijing '08. David is the vocals and songwriter behind Rosanna, Africa etc and has also won an Emmy in '74 for his work on the Ironside theme.

Here's something I lifted off the net about Lee Sklar:

". . . His very recognizable bass playing style, along with his beard, have been heard on hits by Phil Collins, Billy Cobham, Rod Stewart, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Hall & Oates, Jackson Browne, Tommy Bolin, David Bowie, Ray Charles, BB King, The Doors, Peter Frampton, Aaron Neville, Lyle Lovett, to name just a few."

And then there's Greg Phillinganes on keyboards. Greg's fingerwork can be heard on anything from Stevie Wonder (who discovered him more than three decades back) to Eric Clapton, Christina Aguilera, BabyFace, George Benson, Michael Jackson (played on all the songs on Thriller --even Billy Jean), Bee Gees, Carpenters, Dionne Warwick, Paul Simon, Earl Klugh, Chaka Khan, Anita Baker.....Gawd the list is too long! To me, his greatest feat is playing on all of Stevie Wonder's Songs In The Key of Life (1976) especially that lurrrvely Isn't She Lovely? Hal-la-maaak...

Curious, their website listed only three cities in their South East Asian stops; bypassing Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore even. Now we know those countries got no taste laa...

The rest of their multi-city dates are in Japan and Australia.

Anybody been to Perdana Lakeview East? Is it an open-air venue? And what about the acoustics? Lucky not Stadium Negara, berdegung...

12 - Mar - 2008 Wednesday Surabaya Shangri-la Indonesia
14 - Mar - 2008 Friday Bandung Sabuga Convention Hall Indonesia
15 - Mar - 2008 Saturday Kuala Lumpor Perdana Lakeview East, Cyberjaya

So how? Ada nak gii ker?

If you post a comment and for you Toto fans out there tell me your favorite song. Tough, but mine's "Rosanna" I think. My hair (what's left anyway) stands on end everytime Jeff Porcaro's shuffle beat kicks in at the tune's intro...

N.B. In line with Ling Gump's and other recent sea-change ethical code of conduct in Bolehsaja's blogosphere, the images above were of course lifted sans permission. Whaddya expect?

Arok of Java: A Mat Salo Book Review

Arok of Java: A Book Review

Ananta Pramoedya Toer (Translated by Max Lane)

ISBN: 978-981-05-8045-2

I ADMIT OF MY IGNORANCE. Before coming to Indonesia I had only barely heard of Ananta Pramoedya Toer. He has since left us but his legacy lives on in his many books.

It was not only my loss but hundreds of millions Indonesians too since his works were banned during Suharto’s era, thus consigning his works to obscurity. Ananta had apparently written many more but most of his material were reportedly confiscated and burned.

His famed Buru Tetralogy (This Earth of Mankind, Child of All Nations, Footsteps and House of Glass –all available in Penguin Books) and Arok of Java (originally titled Arok and Dedes) was “written” during his incarceration on Buru Island between 1965 and 1980. Suharto had stationeries banned for his special prisoner and Ananta was forced to “write” the book in his head, telling and refining the story to fellow inmates. It was only after his release that he was finally able to pen his voluminous tome. His masterpieces impressed the Nobel committee enough to consider him a nominee.

To keep things in perspective, Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind) was the first of Buru Tetralogy, and should be read first. Max Lane, the translator for the book was again responsible for Arok of Java, which was only recently completed and published for the first time.

Lane’s earlier translation of Bumi brought instant fame to Ananta. Lane was then a diplomat, an Australian attaché in Jakarta of the early Eighties. Due to the recognition of Ananta’s works, Lane had inadvertently invited the wrath of the Indonesian government. Lane was expelled from Indonesia becoming a persona non-grata right until Suharto's fall. Bumi was subsequently forced off the shelves, becoming one of the great tragedies of modern literature.

Set in the 13^th century Arok of Java is a novel of “early Indonesia” where Hindu Gods and Goddesses reigned. This was before Islam descended on the archipelago and told of our hero Arok of the Sudra caste, who through scholarship became a Ksatria and finally a Brahmin. Many have likened Arok to Robin Hood but it is only a superficial connection. In that era, descendants of great King Erlangga sat in Kediri and the outlying areas were controlled by appointed ‘Governors’ who had to pay tribute to the King.

The Governor of Tumapel, a vile villainous character was installed and brought back slavery that was earlier abolished by Erlangga. The Governor was of the Sudra caste who worshipped Lord Vishnu. The Brahmins, who are worshippers of Lord Siva, had lost all their influence and were confined to their temples. The subtext was the past two centuries, the Brahmins had become outcasts and no longer relevant. The precocious Arok who mastered Sanskrit at an early age grew to become a warrior; a scholar-bandit and rebel –his destiny to bring the Brahmins back to glory.

Arok had then started a campaign of resistance. He robbed the tribute coaches en route to Kediri amassing the wealth to free the peoples of slavery and suppression. The Governor was perplexed as to the hit and run losses; bringing displeasure to the King. The King was angry at the formers inability to bring order; especially when the Kingdom’s treasury was compromised.

The final straw was when the Governor, a lowly-Sudra himself who by chicanery and deceit became all-powerful, kidnapped the beautiful Dedes, a Brahmani, to make her his consort. His obsession with Dedes was his final undoing and provided the stage for Arok’s entrance.

A blurb from the book’s jacket reads: “As the rebellion spreads, it is Arok himself whom the rulers employ to suppress it . . . Thus emerges one of the epic political conspiracies of Javanese history.”

Arok is an epic saga much in the great traditions of Ramayana and Mahabharata. My only problem was in the book’s editing. There were some errors in spelling that distracted the reader. By contrast, The Buru Tetralogy, published by Penguin, was exquisitely edited. This is but a minor speck in this vast canvas of Anata’s beautiful narration.

A must read; but only after your appetite had been appropriately whetted by the brilliant This Earth of Mankind.

384 pages, excluding Introductions, Acknowledgments and Glossaries.

First published in 2007.

Edited by: Tan Chee Leng

Illustrations by: Mohamad Yusof

Horizon Books, Singapore. www.horizonbooks.com.sg

The Game of Tag

Captain Jafflam had tagged me and my response is long overdue. This one is about three personal episodes and lessons learned from 2007. Here they are in no order of importance:

1. Try to be a good sport when it comes to tagging. Resolution: Try to be a good sport by obliging.
2. Was a dumb-ass asshole for the period ending 31 December, 2007 and the years prior. Resolution: Try to be a lesser asshole and be forgiving of my failings, of which I have tons.
3. Wasn't a central character in Mat Salo's movie called Being There. Resolution: Hope to be around more often. Or at least make the effort.
4. Ha, got plenty I tell ya. The last one is to emulate all my favorite bloggers out there. You only have to look at my Blogroll to see who. I'll start by doing an Elviza. Look out for a book review in my next post folks!
   

Bad things come in threes . . .

A pall has descended over Yani.

Yani is the rig I work on and is owned by Ariffin Pinogoro, who appears as # 9 on the latest Forbes list of “40 Richest Indonesians” with a net worth close to 1 Billion gawd-almighty US dollars. This time around, even Liem Soei Liong of the Salim Group had to contend with 10^th place.

The offshore rigs are named after his sons and daughters. Yani’s other “siblings” include Raissa, Raissis, Maera, Raniworo and with the latest one, a super-premium jack-up called Soehannah –sons and daughters of a true blue US dollar billionaire.

Anyway this isn’t the point of the story. My previous post told of an accident that happened on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas. At that point the denizens of Yani were still optimistic of the New Year’s rig party. Apparently, a down payment of a million rupiahs was already handed to the ‘electone singing group’. I was mistaken. There were to be four women, not just one; an organ player with the other three singing / dancing and were originally scheduled to be smuggled in on New Years Eve.

Sorry to disappoint you but there was no new New Year’s Party. In fact, I slept through twelve midnight while revelers in Malaysia were gathered watching taxpayers money dissipate via fireworks. The party was canceled on the morning of the December 31^st, and this time everybody was in unanimous agreement.

At 3.OO a.m. on that fateful morning (I was asleep and oblivious to the violence that unfolded) an altercation broke out with a roustabout and his leader, whom we call “headman” (mandor in boleh-speak). The roustabout did the unthinkable: he pulled a knife and chased the poor headman before being restrained by fellow roustabouts. The Major (rig liason officer) had to be called in and within fifteen minutes the marine police had come aboard brandishing side-arms and machine guns.

Pak D---, the perp, was the quiet sort. Even after two years being on the Yani we hardly exchanged words. But he was always glad to accept my occasional gifts of Sampoerna Mild kretek cigarettes though. But I never thought him as someone dangerous. Another myth broken; goes to show Mat Salo’s not such a good judge of character after all. . .

Anyway that violent interlude was the final nail in the coffin and put paid to our New Year’s bash for good. Bosses from town had to descend by slow-boat (choppers weren’t running on the 31^st) to do their damage control. With the police and management folks swarming around you can forget about the party. They’re pissed-off already since this has spoiled their New Year’s holiday…

But again this isn’t the point of the story. The point is our colleague Agus Untung was called to the lord, at 3.00 a.m. this morning in the bosom of his family. He was on his days off. He was 38 years old, married with two children, and with no known ailments. He doesn’t even drink coffee or smoke.

Tomorrow, Saturday the 5^th, would have been his crew change day when we were supposed to trade banter again.

But it was not to be, Pak Agus yah?

So now you know why there’s a pall hanging over Yani like a leaden cloud…

Agus Untung 1969 - 2008

© Matsalo Images 2007 - Photo taken in September 2007.

Berita Duka Cita

INNA LILAIHI WAINA ILAHI ROJI'UN

TELAH BERPULANG KE RAHMATULLAH REKAN KERJA TERCINTA BPK. AGUS UNTUNG - ROUSTABOUT CREW-C RIG YANI.

HARI INI PADA TGL, 04 JANUARI JAM 03:00 W.I.T.

DI DAERAH GUNUNG MALANG, BALIKPAPAN

SEMOGA ARWAHNYA DITERIMA ALLAH S.W.T.

DAN SEMOGA KELUARGA YANG DITINGGALKAN DIBERIKAN KEKUATAN & DITABAHKAN INMANNYA.

KAMI KELUARGA BESAR YANI - RIG IKUT BERDUKA CITA YANG MENDALAM,

TTD,

KELUARGA BESAR YANI RIG YANI - 104.

Post-Christmas Funk 2007

FUNK. IT MEANS "cowering with fear" or a "state of fright", or a feeling of dejection. Yes, that's right and I'm feeling dejected right now. No, I know it's the end of the year when we have a big Christmas party on the rig and everybody gets funky. That's not the funk I meant.

Please look at the sign above. I photographed it this morning just after some numbers in there had "changed". For you non-marine or offshore types out there (which is 99.9999 percent of the world's population anyway) the term LTA means hell of a lot. It stands for "lost time accident" and yes, as of today it is only Day 2. Two days ago the number atood at 1658 --meaning FOUR-AND-A-HALF YEARS since the rig had an accident.

Actually that's not true at all because the rig NEVER had an accident until the day before. Why? Because the rig is so new that there hasn't been an accident since it arrived here four-and-a-half years ago spanking brand new from Keppel-FELS shipyard in Singapore.

The day after Christmas I had just started to spud in a new well. It was five in the morning. This particular well had a rather peculiar charachteristic in that it spewed out lots excessive gumbo which required the crew to clean the lower decks often. Fire hoses were employed and one particular guy did not hold the nozzle of the fire hose steady. When the fire pumps kicked in the hose snaked and caused him to lose control . . . the net result being the nozzle firing the high pressure water with mud and debris . . . into his eye. We're not sure how he's doing yet because he was whisked to the medic's room and a chopper evacuated him two hours later. Our resident Liason Officer, a Major with the TNI Navy had to escort him on the chopper and to the hospital since both eyes were heavily bandaged.

He was operated yesterday and the word was his intra-occular functions remained intact. Probably to remove a blood clot or something.

The reason it's such a big deal because safety is a very serious issue with the oil companies and contractors. The safety record is tied into the contract and for the whole of 2008 the rest of the crew will have to pay the price of not getting any "safety bonuses". It's quite a bit and can amount to 10 - 20 percent of their annual income. I even had a cheap Motorola phone and a toolbox to take home last year. All because of a good safety track record.

Then there is the loss of prestige and reputation. Not to mention nosy investigators that will come in in the next few days to lecture us.

But I have a more serious concern. For the upcoming New Year's Party the client had earlier on insisted I "contribute". By this he meant illicit liquor. In previous blogs I mentioned that alcoholic drinks is strictly prohibited from any offshore installations. But this is a French company and they all like their tipple now and again. We'll, not just the French . . .

So I complied by smuggling a bottle of Pernod and Dewars' White Label past the boat security people. I was actually booked on the chopper but no way I can get whisky past aviation security. So I had to detour and take the long way by speedboat where the marine port people are a little more "friendly".

Then another asshole (someone like me) found an "electone singer". In Indonesia it usually meant lady pub singers that know how to work an organ and has a half-way decent voice but a more-than-decent body. She is scheduled to be smuggled to the rig on New Year's Eve.

A girl at the ready. Intoxicating liquids at the ready. Mat Salo's organ --er, camera --at the ready. With investigators coming and possibly doing a little spot-checking. Not too worry, it's well hidden along with other contraband that other service contractors had contributed. There's crates and crates of Anker Bir too . . .

Just let's hope the investigators and safety officers come after the holiday season is over.

Which reminds me . . . Folks, have a Happy New Year and may 2008 be good to you.

© 2007 MatSalo Images