Yesterday, I had my first curry experience. My big sister always proud about her trip across South Asia where she ate curry, like every day. So, I’m actually a bit excited to taste how magical the curry is.

GO!Curry opened their first outlet on Cilandak Town Square, and followed by the second one on Pacific Place. The place has a cozy dimmed atmosphere with different table style. The long table with high chair, the bar, and also the normal table for four. The restaurant gives you a 7-Eleven Slurpee style, where you got the power to customize your own curry, ala carte.First you got to choose your curry. There’s brown curry, green curry, red curry, yellow curry, and rogan-josh curry. Every curry has different taste regarding the ingredient or the original place of the curry. Like the brown curry which resembles Japanese curry or rogan-josh curry from India. Since I don’t like spicy food at all, I choose the yellow curry which has more sweetness from the tomato (and cashews maybe), while my sisters got the red spicy curry and the rogan-josh curry—the house special.

After that, you need to choose the spiciness level from mild (the one that I choose :D), medium, hot, very hot, and insanely hot. Then here comes the rice. There are three selections from the long grain rice, cilantro butter rice, to aromatic yellow rice. The three of us agreed to choose the cilantro butter rice though I think the yellow rice has more flavours on it.
The last step is to choose the topping, the most powerful choice. My sister ordered the Australian Oxtail and Lamb Cubes with Herbs, while I choose the Breaded Prawn. The other choices are included tandoor chicken tikka, zesty cheese chicken, breaded fish, mixed vegetables, chicken katsu, and New Zealand green shell mussels. Sadly, the sweetness of the prawn made my yellow curry tasted sweeter. But hey, it still tasted delicious. There’s so much things going on my mouth, I don’t know whether it is the herb or something else, so I just keep eating. The cilantro butter is the perfect choice, it must be the crowd favorite. And the most important thing, the portion is considered big (I warn you, the plate is really big~). So you’ll find yourself pleased enough to leave with big smile and full stomach :P

The restaurant carries the motto “Eat Curry. Be Happy.”, which I love. And some extra thing, they have cute paper lining featured their restaurant icons. You can ask for a pencil color and start colored it :)

My first curry experience turns out great. Though I hate spicy food, I’m surprised that I can still enjoy the curry (while curry is famous for its hot complex taste). And I think, it is such a smart thing to give the customer the power to play with their menu. It’s kinda give you the force to come back and try another mix, until you find the perfect taste that give you that ‘whoa’ factor.

GO!Curry (http://www.go-curry.com)

Cilandak Town Square

1^st Floor C127

//December 18, 2010//

 

December 5, 2010 will be the date that people craved on their head (or maybe heart) as the milestone of 2010. Yes, it is the damn date when Tumblr went down. The site has been down for 24 hours, the longest outage of this company’s history. People cursed. Some made this.

The statement says it all. Tumblr has becomes a crush for more that 11 million people. The popularity has gained Tumblr a die-hard fans and loyal followers. Today, the internet next big thing already has more than 11,039,276 users and more than2,357,992,341 posts (per December 18, 2010).

Behind the curtains, meet the internet prodigy Mr. David Karp (http://davidslog.com). In 2007, while people hyped up with the needs of connecting with other people, Karp backed up a little step. He believes that blogging is still the ultimate weapon to approach people online. Amazed by the tumblelog (according to Wikipedia is a variation on traditional blogging that favors very short, mixed media posts with little or no commentary),Karp then launched Tumblr.

Like any other internet wonder kid, Karp is a drop out. I dare say that Karp is the ultimate representation of internet geek nowadays. At 11, he read HTML for Dummies. At 12, he was homeschooling. At 14, he drops out school. At 21, he started Tumblr. At 22, he awarded Best Young Tech Entrepreneur 2009 by Business Week. Now at 24, he’s still getting started. Then we called it awesome.

Ah so, let’s getting started to know about Tumblr!

Tumblr is a microblogging platform that satisfies your need to go blogging in easiest way people could imagine. The tagline defines the website itself “The Easiest Way to Blog”. Starting from the registration process, you’ll be amazed by how fast the site redirects you to a new perspective of blogging.

As you can see, the only thing they need is the 3 basic forms, your e-mail, password, and the name of your blogs. It is like spelling A, B, C.

Tumblr then introduced you to their Dashboard. They categorized what people basically doing when they blog or they want to share something. Tumblr defines 7 distinct types of post. A text, a photo, a quote, a link, a conversation, an audio, and a video. You can easily choose which type of post you want to blog and considered it done, Tumblr has already made a custom display from each type of the posts. That’s what I called technology.

What makes Tumblr more fun is their ability of customization. While others blogging platform, like WordPress and Blogspot offers you beautiful gorgeous layout template that requires some PayPal to customize. Tumblr made it for free. You can choose a layout (they called it ‘Theme‘) and start to customize your blog peacefully, from background color to font size, from the text to the header. If you want to give some more money on board, you can choose some premium theme from Theme Garden and voila, is yours truly.

Many have said that Tumblr is for people who want to keep peace between Facebook and Twitter. Although I don’t want to agree to the statement, it’s becoming true each day. Like Twitter, Tumblr allows you to follow certain people you love. Singer, likeKaty Perry, Hayley Williams and John Legend or starlet like Dianna Agron have made a pact to be loyal with Tumblr. An artist, a web designer, a fashion lover, you’ll find many have attracted to the gold Tumblr has offered. Like Facebook, Tumblr is addictive. The easy-to-use and easy-to-publish ability already helped many illiterate-HTML transformed themselves to techno whiz.

However, Tumblr is still a toddler. It’s still 3 years old now, it’s still growing teeth and learning to walk. Year ago, Tumblr still has cons about their commenting system. Back in the days, Tumblr has only 2 ways to show affections to others (besides ‘Follow’-ed them). The first one is the ‘Like’ button, the red heart shaped button does the same job like giving a ‘thumb’ on Facebook or ‘ijo-ijonya, Gan!’ on Kaskus.

The second one is the most popular used button on Tumblr. Drums roll, here comes the ‘Reblog’ button. Reblog has the same function as Re-Tweet, is a re-ish. A repetition, a doppelganger of a post. But like a doppelganger, they have extra. You can add an icing on a cake, a topping for an ice cream. Some busy people type : “True.”, “I heart it.” below the post. Some were serious, typing some lines of admiration. Both ways works cool enough, since the spirit of microblogging is to blog something in a short lines, or even short words.

But unlike Facebook, Tumblr needs certain steps to comment on your friends’ post.Disqus then came to rescue, you can add a commenting system by installing it on your theme. Now it’s being inconsistent, it’s not being easy anymore. Then, the staff brings out joy. They add the ‘Reply’ button so people can start typing a short comment after someone’s post. Now, they even add the ‘Ask Anything’ section so you can gather feedback from your reader.

Like TypePad, Tumblr is well known by its mobileability. You can start texting or e-mailing your post from any mobile phone. Don’t bother to ask but sure it now available in iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. For an even mobile person, Tumblr can make a record of your voice and make it an audio post by calling to a certain numbers. How awesome…~

For people who have serious urgency to post and keeping the audience attracted, Tumblr has a feature of ‘Queue‘. You can automatically publish your posts on a designated interval. It’s like you let Tumblr freed your posts’ wings and let them loose to fly.

There’s more awesomeness to write by starting a review about Tumblr. Now I already up to 1000 words and still counting. So, I’ll let the website speaks for itself or you can read a 30 reasons why you’ll love Tumblr.

The thing is, we should salute Mr. Karp for his idealistic of a web free advertisement. He believes to make a good website, you don’t need to sell your soul to devil. And if Mr. Karp wants to keep the idea alive, I think it will be best to start monetize Tumblr the way WordPress did.

For me, Tumblr is still my golden child, although I love the way Notepad keeps haunting me for its algorithms of CSS and HTML. But I have to admit that Tumblr made blogging comes back to its true from, the way blogging was meant to be.

 

Footnote:
How time flies. Back in the days, Tumblr still has a Tumblarity feature. It says how active you are on Tumblr, it’s like a measurement of how loyal you are with the site. But now, the Tumblarity was once a history. It’s now only a good memory about having a nice best friend that reminds you how many cans of Cola you’re already drink in one shot.

My favorite Tumblr site nowadays: http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com. Oh it’s so damn hilarious!

//December 17, 2009//

 

Inglourious Basterds
A Little Something You Can’t Take Off

 

Quentin Tarantino adalah sebuah nama ikonik yang terus melekat di hati saya, bersanding sejajar dengan Tim Burton, Sofia Coppola, dan Nia Dinata. Ketika film dengan ejaan ngaco ini muncul, saya memutuskan untuk HARUS menontonnya.

Inglourious Basterds tetap punya ciri khas Tarantino, dilantunkan dengan sebuah chapter untuk setiap babak ceritanya. Tetap dengan scoring yang membuat takjub karena selalu dapat menyampaikan getar maksud scene tersebut. Deretan castnya luar biasa, Brad Pitt bermain watak lagi, Eli Roth terlihat sangar sekaligus memancing tawa. Pujian terbesar tentu saja dialamatkan kepada Christoph Waltz yang memerankan Colonel Hans Landa tanpa celah. Karakter ini tidak akan pernah semenarik itu tanpa cara membaca jeda dialog yang tepat, gerak kepala yang terangkat tinggi, dan senyum kemenangan milik Waltz.

Tarantino kembali menggoreskan luka di pikiran para penontonnya, membuat kita semua berdecak kagum, bertepuk tangan, berteriak dan tertawa bersama film ini. Ia menghina para Nazi dengan menggambarkannya secara komikal. Lihat saja bagaimana Hitler berteriak histeris mendengar para pasukannya tengah diteror oleh pasukan misterius bernama The Basterds, ataupun Joseph Goebbels orang nomor dua Nazi yang gila dengan pujian. Tarantino kembali mengubah darah dan tembakan menjadi indah, dan kata-kata kasar menjadi pujian.

Satu-satunya hal yang membingungkan sayadari Inglourious Basterds adalah, saya merasa justru tidak ada tokoh sentral di film ini. Semuanya berakhir sejajar. Aneh memang, karena The Bride (Uma Thurman, Kill Bill) telah menjadi karakter terhebat sepanjang masa, saya berharap mendapatkan peran itu dari Capt Aldo Raine (diperankan brilian oleh Brad Pitt). Tapi mungkin, justru Shosanna (Melanie Laurent) yang mendapatkan kehormatan untuk berada di panggung utama. Saya tidak menangkap kenapa judulnya dipersembahkan untuk The Basterds kalau pada akhirnya mereka tidak mendapat peran terbesar tersebut.

Apapun itu, saya mungkin akan menunggu kelanjutan film ini (kalau Tarantino kembali membuatnya). Karena seperti Capt. Aldo Raine bilang, this film will give you something you can’t take off. As for me, it is the traumatic sensation that keeps banging your head as the scenes go from the opening to the credits. Another outstanding beautiful film, another standing applause.

Trivia: Kalau Anda memperhatikan bagian credit title di akhir film, Anda akan menemukan bahwa urutan nama cast yang biasanya ditaruh di awal credit title justru ditaruh di akhir credit setelah nama para crew film ini. Quentin Tarantino telah memberikan penghargaan yang luar biasa besar untuk para filmmakernya.

 

//December 05, 2009//

Billy Elliot
Ia Tidak Berkalimat, Ia Hanya Menari

Billy Elliot adalah sebuah film yang tidak bertutur, ia hanya menari. Saya pertama kali menonton film ini di TV waktu SMA, sekarang, saya menontonnya lagi. Satu hal yang sama, saya tetap menangis. Billy Elliot adalah sebuah tangkisan, di mana mimpi bukan halangan, bukan definisi status sosial. Mimpi adalah sebuah perwujudan semangat, yang bahkan kita tak tahu bentuknya. Hanya ada api yang terbakar di dalam badan kita. Itulah jawaban Billy ketika ia ditanya apa rasanya ketika ia menari balet. Ia menjawab tidak tahu, tapi kemudian ia menarikan sebuah lantunan jawaban yang mutlak. Yang dirasakan oleh para orang-orang yang dimabuk mimpi.

Billy tumbuh layaknya anak kecil 11 tahun biasanya. Tertarik pada banyak hal, mencoba hal-hal baru, emosinya tidak stabil, suka memberontak, tapi ia merasakan semangat. Semangat yang entah kenapa membawanya terbang, yang bergenerasi seperti listrik, menghantarnya ke seluruh sendi, dan membuatnya terus mencipta. Billy Elliot memperlihatkan sebuah sisi keluarga yang menggelitik, di mana ketika kata-kata kasar adalah tanda sayang, dan mimpi salah satu dari mereka adalah mimpi seluruh anggota keluarganya.

Billy Elliot tidak berkalimat, ia hanya menari. Adegan-adegan di film ini dibangun dengan tarian dan ritme. Saya suka sekali adegan Billy mengekspresikan kebenciannya dengan tarian, dan ketika ia mengatakan ia suka menari kepada ayahnya lewat tarian. Ia tidak berbicara, tapi kita tahu seluruh emosinya lewat gerakan-gerakannya. Dialognya luar biasa, dan saya hanya bisa bertepuk tangan untuk bagian yang satu ini. Dialognya pendek-pendek, kadang dimatikan dan diisi lagu, lalu dilanjutkan dengan tarian. Saya tak habis pikir, ini luar biasa!

Ketika menonton awal film ini, mungkin kita tidak mengerti kenapa warna kuning dipakai untuk menggambarkan Billy. Padahal di sepanjang film, warna itu tidak dipakai sama sekali. Lalu, di akhir film, saya mengerti, Billy Elliot adalah interpretasi sempurna dari warna kuning. Kuning adalah warna matahari, melambangkan kebahagiaan, energi, dan keceriaan. Billy adalah matahari, ia menerangi para pemimpi untuk terus bermimpi.

Recommended Consensus: Billy Elliot is insanely beautiful. Highly recommended for people who adored Akira Kurosawa and praised Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist.