the Angkringan

Angkringan (berasal dari bahasa Jawa ' Angkring ' yang berarti duduk santai) adalah sebuah gerobag dorong yang menjual berbagai macam makanan dan minuman yang biasa terdapat di setiap pinggir ruas jalan di Jawa Tengah dan Yogyakarta. Di Sala dikenal sebagai warung hik. Gerobag angkringan biasa ditutupi dengan kain terpal plastik dan bisa memuat sekitar 8 orang pembeli. Beroperasi mulai sore hari, ia mengandalkan penerangan tradisional yaitu senthir, dan juga dibantu oleh terangnya lampu jalan.
Makanan yang dijual meliputi nasi kucing, gorengan, sate usus (ayam), sate telor puyuh, kripik dan lain-lain. Minuman yang dijualpun beraneka macam seperti teh, jeruk, kopi, tape, wedang jahe dan susu. Semua dijual dengan harga yang sangat terjangkau.
Meski harganya murah, namun konsumen warung ini sangat bervariasi. Mulai dari tukang becak, tukang bangunan, pegawai kantor, mahasiswa, seniman, bahkan hingga pejabat dan eksekutif. Antar pembeli dan penjual sering terlihat mengobrol dengan santai dalam suasana penuh kekeluargaan.
Angkringan juga terkenal sebagai tempat yang egaliter karena bervariasinya pembeli yang datang tanpa membeda-bedakan strata sosial atau SARA. Mereka menikmati makanan sambil bebas ngobrol hingga larut malam - meskipun tak saling kenal - tentang berbagai hal atau kadang berdiskusi tentang topik-topik yang serius. Harganya yang murah dan tempatnya yang santai membuat angkringan sangat populer di tengah kota sebagai tempat persinggahan untuk mengusir lapar atau sekedar melepas lelah.
Akrabnya susana dalam angkringan membuat nama angkringan tak hanya merujuk kedalam tempat tetapi ke suasana, beberapa acara menadopsi kata angkringan untuk menggambarkan suasana yang akrab saling berbagi dan menjembatani perbedaan, seperti Angkringan JTF yang diadakanLitbang kmtf dan juga Angkringan Ramadhan yang sering digelar di kampus-kampus menjelang buka puasa.

http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkringan

Buskers at Suropati Park

Busking is a British term used in many areas of the English-speaking world. Buskers are also called street performers or street musicians. The place where a busker performs is called their pitch. People busk for a variety of reasons, for money, for fun, for the attention they get, to socialize or meet people, for the love of their art, or to practise their skills or try out new material in front of an audience.
Some buskers only work part time, while others make a living performing full time on the streets. Some buskers do professional entertainment gigs in addition to working the streets. Some people manage only pocket change from busking, while others can amass substantial incomes. A busker's income depends on many conditions including, the type and quality of the performance, the composition of the audience, the weather, the location and the time of day. Competition from other buskers can also play a role.
Busking can be the bottom rung of the entertainment industry. Some of the most famous groups and superstars started their careers as buskers. Examples include Joan Baez, Roni Benise, The Blue Man Group, Pierce Brosnan, Jimmy Buffett, George Burns, Cirque du Soleil, Eric Clapton, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, Joe Strummer, Stephane Grappelli, Bob Hope, Jewel, Steve Martin, Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Page, Dolly Parton, Penn & Teller, Gerry Rafferty, Carlos Santana, Simon and Garfunkel, Rod Stewart, Stomp, and Robin Williams. Many other buskers have also found fame and fortune.

There are three basic forms of busking. Circle shows are shows that tend to gather a crowd around them. They usually have a distinct beginning and end. Usually these are done in conjunction with street theater, puppeteering, magicians, comedians, acrobats, jugglers and sometimes musicians. Circle shows can be the most lucrative. Some time the crowds attracted can be huge. A good busker will control the crowd so the patrons don't obstruct foot traffic.
Walk by acts are typically with the busker providing a musical or entertaining ambiance. There is no distinct beginning or end and the crowds do not particularly stop to watch. Sometimes an intended walk by act will spontaneously turn into a circle show.
Cafe busking is done mostly in restaurants, pubs, bars and cafes. Musicians and balloon artists can frequently be found using this venue. Making a living on the piano bar principle (i.e. for tips) is an experience practiced by many musicians. Perhaps one of the most famous of these is Billy Joel, who rose to fame from working in piano bars. His hit song "Piano Man" was written about a six month stint he did in 1972 at the "Executive Room" piano bar in Los Angeles.[1]
A bottler is a British term that describes the person with the job of collecting the money. A bottler may also be called the "hat man" or "pitch man". The term bottler came from a device old world performers used for collecting money. It was made from the top half of a glass bottle. It had a leather flap inserted in the bottle neck and a leather pouch attached. It was designed to allow coins in but not allow them to be removed easily without being noticed by the jingling of the coins against the glass. The first use of such contrivances was recorded by the famous Punch and Judy troupe of puppeteers in early Victorian times.[2] Bottling itself can be an art form, and the difference between a good and a bad bottler can be crucial to the amount of money earned on a pitch. A bottler usually gets a cut of the money made on the pitch, although it's not commonly a full share. In olden days it was common for buskers to use a monkey as a bottler. That practice has diminished due to animal control laws, but as tribute to the monkey's service there is a device known as monkey stick which buskers use to get attention. A monkey stick is a long stick with bottle caps or small cymbals attached such that they make an attention getting noise when shaken. It is frequently topped by a small monkey doll or figurine.

Location can be the key. An act that might make money at one place and time may not work at all in another setting. Popular busking spots tend to be public places with large volumes of pedestrian traffic, high visibility, low background noise and as few elements of interference as possible. Good locations may include tourist spots, popular parks, entertainment districts including lots of restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs and theaters, subways and bus stops, outside the entrances to large concerts and sporting events, almost any plaza or town square as well as zócalos in Latin America and piazzas, and in other regions. Other places include shopping malls, strip malls, and outside of supermarkets and flea markets, although permission is usually required from management for these.
In her documentary movie and book, Underground Harmonies: Music and Politics in the Subways of New York (Anthropology of Contemporary Issues), Susie J. Tanenbaum talks about the old adage "Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast". Her sociological studies showed that in areas where buskers regularly perform, crime rates tended to go down. She also discovered that those with higher education tended to appreciate and support buskers more than those of lesser learning. Some cities are encouraging buskers because they can be a tonic to the stresses of shopping and commuting, and can be an influence which is entertaining and beneficial for all.[3] Some cities give preference to "approved" buskers in certain areas and even publish schedules of performances although in the USA they have to be careful that such things are not exclusionary, judgemental or discretionary.[4]
In the United States there has been a rebirth of this art form as the new millennium has started. Buskers are found at many locations: in New Orleans all over the place, in New York around Central Park and the subway systems, in San Francisco at Fisherman's Wharf area, Market Street, Union Square and the Cable Car turnarounds and BART stations, in Washington DC around the transit centers, in Los Angeles around Venice Beach, the Santa Monica Third Street Promenade, and the Hollywood area, in Chicago on Maxwell Street and many other locations throughout the US.
Busking is still quite common in Scotland, Ireland, and England with musicians and other street performers of varying talent levels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busking

Birds Story

Few pictures of birds taken at Taman Suropati, Jakarta and narrative from a novel written by Daphne Du Maurier in 1952, cited from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birds_(story)

Farmhand and war veteran Nat Hocken notices an unusual number of birds behaving strangely along the Peninsula where his family lives, but attributes it to the coming winter. That night, he hears tapping at his bedroom window. When he opens it, he is assaulted by a frightened bird. Some time passes, and the tapping resumes. As Nat opens the window again, a number of birds strike him and disappear. He then hears screams from his children's room and rushes to them, only to find a swarm of small birds flying around the room. Nat fights them off with a blanket until dawn, when they fly away, leaving about fifty dead on the floor. He reassures his wife that the birds were restless because of the sudden change in weather.
The next day Nat tells his fellow workers about the night's events, but they give it little importance. As he goes to the beach to dispose of the dead birds' carcasses, he notices what appear to be dark clouds over the sea. These 'clouds' are actually tens of thousands of seagulls waiting for the tide to rise.
When Nat gets home, he and his family hear over the radio that birds are attacking all over Britain, presumably because of the approaching winter. Nat decides to board the windows and block up the chimney. Later, he goes to pick up his daughter, Jill, from the school bus stop. His boss, Trigg, arrives in a car and offers to give Jill a lift home, cheerfully claiming that he and some others are unfazed by the announcements and plan on going out and shooting the birds. He invites Nat to come along, but Nat rejects Trigg's offer and continues home. Just before he reaches home, the gulls descend, attacking him with their beaks. Nat reaches the cottage with minor injuries.
Soon massive swarms of birds are diving for the house. A national emergency is declared on the radio, and people are told not to leave their homes. The birds continue to crash mindlessly against the cottage. During dinner, the family hears what sounds like gunfire from planes overhead, followed by the sound of the planes crashing.
The birds' attack dies down, and Nat calculates that they will only attack at high tide. The next day, when the tide recedes, Nat goes out to get supplies from the neighbors. There are piles of dead birds around the houses, but the ones that are still alive simply watch him from a distance. Nat goes to the farm where he is employed and finds the farmer and his wife dead. Later on, he also sees the postman's body by the road and realizes that there are no signs of life from any of his neighbors' homes.
Nat returns home with the supplies, and in a few hours, the birds resume their attack. The story ends as Nat smokes his last cigarette while the birds continue their siege.

Raining Hometown, Salatiga

These are some pictures I took with my old rangefinder, Ricoh 500GX. Back in town on a rainy days is what I have been expected since I hold this small and light camera.

I love rain, I love water and I love watching water flows. Does it make anything for you if I say that I was born in January, which mean I am an aquarius boy.. well not quite expecting that much...

It just for fun, nothing more and I hope you don't expect much from this...

I will surely back home during this rainy season and take some more pictures...

Salatiga, hometown

It's been a while since I did not post anything down here. I don't even quite sure if there are people reading and take a look at this blog.
Well, not much to say, but I do hope I can countinuosly active in here.

Here are some pictures I took in my hometown, Salatiga, Central Java Province of Indonesia. It's not big town, as I would not call it as a city, but the venue, how people lives, the food and everything... damn! make me miss it.

It is such a very cold little town with not more than 100.000 population, lies down of Merbabu Mountain, this town is pretty lovely.

These pictures can't represent the whole town but at least, I was dreaming one day, take a walk under the rain and take some snapshoots.

It has changed much, but this is where i was born and growth.

Salatiga...