BELLAMYBUDIMAN

Really? Did I just say that? Yes, I did and I have my reasons. I’m not saying that we are lacking creative people in the country, not at all. I know a handful of creative people that could probably be the savior in our constantly dissipating country and they do fucking good works. But here’s my reason of why most Indonesians are probably stupid enough that a monkey who can count from 1 to 5 can be called as a genius:

While Hollywood is gazillion light years away from our movie industry, depicting off-world life in the epic world of Avatar with breathtaking visual effects, here we are having our “Televisi Pendidikan Nasional” airing a blatant yet sucky copy of James Cameron’s latest creation that looks like a demonic elf on crack with cheap make ups. In fact, I don’t even need to watch the bloody show to be able to mock it to bits.

Educational TV station you say? Because in Indonesia, education dictates that if you can’t make one, just copy it. No, seriously, copyrights, creativity, and brain does not matter. Brains you say? Who needs ‘em? And in fact, I could probably train a group of land turtles to be more creative than these bozos.

Photo credit by Deon.

I don’t know about you, but I despise sinetrons. To me it’s one of the dumbest things that Indonesians have done. In fact, if I was elected to ever lead the country (which is most unlikely, and like I wanted it anyway), sinetron is probably one thing that I will ban from appearing in this God forsaken country.

I just had lunch earlier on a Padang restaurant just at the corner of my neighborhood. The restaurant has a TV set, turned on, and tuned in to SCTV, one of the country’s leading sinetron broadcaster (Hell, in fact, all of them are probably are). And just right there, it’s showing a God awful sinetron called “You’ve Got Ma’il”. Yes, you read it right, “You’ve Got Ma’il”. It turned out to be a cheesy (and obviously alay) love story about a guy named Ma’il (And no, he wasn’t played by Tom Hanks). Can you seriously believe this? They ripped a whole movie title out of no reason, they “creatively” name the character just to fit that ripped off title, and people throughout the country seemed to like it! Now, instead of broadcasting actually good TV shows with quality and a sense of educating the masses a bit, no, they chose to broadcast this dumbfoundingly moronic sinetron.

And this is not all, I’ve heard that there is a children’s sinetron that ripped off Ben 10. So if it’s not ripped off, it’s probably hideous that your IQ could drop down every hour you watch the damned shows.

So given the question “Where would Indonesia be in the next five to ten years?”, I would say “NOWHERE”. I don’t think I’m being pessimistic here. It’s the fact that I’m sure deep down inside, everyone agrees.

Trismedia, the website of Tris Hartanto, a member of WebPM, one of the mailing lists that I joined was recently ripped off by a Chinese company called Modest-Studio. This is a case where most likely, someone used a software that can download a website as a whole, and then claimed it as theirs. This is disgusting, this studio ripped off all of the site’s contents including the portfolio.

But all rippers are stupid, they are bound to make mistakes even for the cleanest rip. Take a look at the studio’s phone number. It’s a Chinese cellular number, and yet the studio is located in Jakarta, Indonesia? And on this page, it even still has Tris’ name written on it, but with a Shenzhen address.

Being modest is probably a good thing, and it’s probably a good name for a start, but this is way out of line. Shame on you, Modest-Studio, you fucking piece of shit! And you call yourself a designer?

Following a Facebook notes post by a friend of mine, I found out that D’Masiv is just one of those idiotic douche bags that probably don’t know shit or two about music, and that they’re about to join in Ahmad Dhani’s plagiaristic band wagon. All they can do is rip things out from foreign bands and crossing their fingers hoping that no one will found out. Well, you see, if you’re the Pulau Nyamuk’s local band that simply does not go outside the island, you could probably escape that. But not here, you jackass.

Here’s the list of their ripped songs:

• Cinta Ini Membunuhku = I Don’t Love You – My Chemical Romance
• Diam Tanpa Kata = Awakening – Switchfoot
• Dan Kamu = Head Over Heels (in This Life) – Switchfoot
• CInta Sampai Disini = Into The Sun – Lifehouse
• Sebelah Mata = The Take Over, The Break’s Over – Fall Out Boy
• Dilemma = Soldier’s Poem – Muse
• Tak Pernah Rela = Is It Any Wonder – Keane
• Lukaku = Drive – Incubus

And here’s some YouTube videos for further proof:

Yes, people can be inspired and make another artwork out of it. But when you copy the whole thing and call it yours, you better join the monkey-balls-sucker group. And on top of that, judging from their defensive comments, fans of D’Masiv (let’s just assume that they are fans) are not any smarter as well. Here are some examples, taken from the YouTube videos above:

wow mirip, tapi bagusan d’masiv..gini nih klo mo niru, harus jadi lebih bagus dari aslinya.. emang bener lagu tuh kuncinya cuma diputer-puter aja.. lagi-lagi ketemu yang sama

masih mendingan d massiv lah,,, daripada lo, bisanya ngritik doank…. pengamat musik bukan lo,, mana karya lo???.. jakong- jakong….,, orang macam kayak lo, kalo di suruh baris ,,, banyak kaleeeee, dari sabang sampe merauke…

eh para tuan2 yg goblog, yang namanya lagu mah pasti ada mirip2 dikit.. dari chord ke chord dari nada ke nada. klo emang dibilang mirip ya iyalah.. switchfoot termasuk band influencenya gitu.

Apparently, they all share the dumbness and the lack of brain cells. This is what I call typical Indonesian commentators, talk first, and then think.

When I drove Arleen home tonight, she showed me a gift she received from BCA. Apparently, it’s an instant gift that the bank gave out for their Batman VISA card applicants. And it’s an iPod Nano! … Well, alright, it’s a fake Nano! And apparently, it’s this one:

The one BCA giving away is the black one, complete with it’s own Batman/DC-branded box, a Batman logo on the front face, and a complete Batman engravings on the chrome backside of the unit. The unit features an on/off slider button in place of the hold button, a very “catchy” interface complete with its own hourglass (Yes, and when an iPod Nano has an hourglass as a part of its interface, it snows in hell), and bundled with the song “Say You Say Me” at the very least. And no, the scroll wheel does not work at all.

Now my question is this: If there’s a DC logo there, and with the fact that this is a part of the Batman VISA promotion, and not to forget that BCA would obviously require a legitimate license to brand the cards and the promotion with Batman or DC, how the hell could these legit brands ended up on a shitty and fake iPod Nano, given away freely by Indonesia’s biggest bank? Could this be one of those merchandising schemes that DC wasn’t taken into discussion with? Hmm…

And oh yeah, there’s another gift option from BCA for this promotion, it’s a portable CD player. Hmm… Fake Discman?