Last Saturday, we went to La Piazza to watch Mery perform with her friends on the Jazz Night. And since that was the first time I went to La Piazza, it’s a not-bad experience at all because the band played so well! And we didn’t get the chance to explore the mall anyway. Rika Ruslan was the guest singer at the event, and she really does can sing! It was really a wonderful performance, so missing JGTC the next day is not such a big deal anyway

Oh, Jerry dropped his car keys there and had to go back the next morning to pick it up at the security’s office… (sigh)…

I went to Hotel Paragon yesterday to watch my sisters’ concert. The concert was actually nice, since for me, it’s been a while, and my sisters played well, too. I didn’t get the chance to watch too many concerts nowadays, except for KOC in March.

Anyway, the thing that I don’t like is the hotel. Hotel Paragon would probably the weirdest hotel in Jakarta ever. If I got the chance to rate it, I’d consider 2 stars. Why? First, the hotel has a crappy parking management. Second, it has the smallest public toilet I have ever seen. Third, it’s so old that the elevator lights are blinking constantly. Fourth, the auditorium sucks, it really does. Not only it’s small and acousticly incapable, it has these big Changhong air conditioners that make some noise periodically (Of course, no wonder, it’s a Changhong, not a National, Panasonic, Toshiba, or anything else better). Even if I got a free pass to spend a night there, I wouldn’t take it.

Oh BTW, I topped-up my fuel last night, and it was the weirdest experience at a Shell gas station. It practically took me more than 15 minutes to fill up half of my tank. My car probably got some air into the tank. I better check it out at Suara Motor this weekend. Anyway, they’re giving out free stickers. Free nice colored stickers that is! Not those crappy second-grade-quality pinggir-jalan stickers.

Soundshine 2006 would be the other concert I watched after the Java Jazz Festival, the difference is, I really paid for the concert. The downside is, while the ticket said that the concert starts at 5PM, it’s nowhere from starting for almost another 2 hours, and standing for hours is really exhausting.

Anyway, the concert starts with White Shoes and the Couples Company as an opening band, they played for almost an hour straight, I think.

The second band performing was Mocca. I really love their arrangements, particularly for “Swing It, Bob!” And Arina (the vocalist) really has a nice English. Compared with that moronic Ahmad Dhani who can’t even speak English correctly, she’s way cool!

The band we’ve been waiting for was obviously Kings of Convenience. Oh my God, they played their music just like in the CD, perfect and crisp acoustic sounds, clean techniques, and they’re really good at what they’re doing. And I really like the acoustic version of “I’d Rather Dance with You”. So I guess waiting for hours for them to play was really worth it in the end.

BTW, pardon the bad photos, I have to take them with my Zire, as they confiscated Nyonyo’s camera.

I was just browsing around the sites hosted at Neuro-Designs, and realized that my friends at Academie of FarSide already have their album for sale on iTunes Music Store! Way to go guys!

Finally! A worth-to-watch concert is coming to Jakarta. Kings of Convenience is going to play at Hotel Nikko on the 18th next month. And I might have to skip Java Jazz over this, because I’m not going to spend that much money in a month to watch two concerts. Besides, Java Jazz will be held annually, but this would most likely be a chance of a lifetime.

Updates! Click here for the venue information.

Click here for the band’s official site.

After the performance last month, we started the ensemble practice again today. And we are not getting the complete line-up. Most of the members are sick, either from flu or chicken pox. So there were only 12 members doing the practice. But… We do have a new member, his name is Abe, and he is also a Remaja Junior member at church (the category of age of 8th and 9th grade students). He’s been asking Kara when will the practice start again. And apparently he came today. People said that he has a good skill on the guitar. If it’s true, then he’s a valuable addition indeed to the line-up.

The ensemble’s first recording session went quite smooth today at Oka’s. We managed to finish three songs from the planned six. Oka’s gonna do the balancing for those three songs this week. Hopefully, we’ll be able to finish the rest of the recording by next week.

The ensemble went to Oka’s place, the SFAE Studio, today to do minor rehearsals for tomorrow’s recording. Getting a lot of members to do a recording session actually gives everyone headaches, hehehehe. Oka has done numerous reroutings on the microphones and monitor in his recording studio today, and hopefully, everything should be going as planned tomorrow, and next week. And even though the studio is used to be cold whenever I go there, today, some parts of it are blazing hot due to the crowd. The AC just can’t keep up with the demand.

I watched my sisters’ concert today at Paragon Hotel. Can you believe that I took the wrong lane and when straight to Cut Meutia instead of Wahid Hasyim? So I have to circle around the HI fountain and went back into Menteng again… Geez, I really hate that multiple, multiple intersection at the mouth of Wahid Hasyim, and after all these years, I kept myself confused everytime I have to go to Paragon. The good thing was the concert has not started yet when I arrived around 10 minutes late. Hooray for Indonesian latency! The luck from being not punctual seems to be on my side today. BTW, the concert today seems like the shortest concert I ever attended… Really… And, Paragon Hotel sucks, bad parking spot, bad room configuration, extremely small public restrooms, and lousy decorations that does not seem to match with anything…

The YPM Graduation Ceremony was today, and we attended 2.5-hour long ceremony from 14.30 to 17.00. Actually they told us to gather at 13.30 for the preps. And yes, today was my freedom from all those lessons! Now I would be able to concentrate more on my work, my college, and of course, LIFE itself! =)

Anyway, Mom took a picture of us, sorry if the picture is kinda bad, since she’s not a pro photographer.

From left to right: Sarkov, Richard, Kara, Me, and Abraham. And why in the world that Richard must blink?!?