Bandung + Lembang
My time with the band has been filled with lots of laughter, fun, and drama (though I'm not involved in it) heheh. I'm enjoying my time. Even though my contract has pretty much ended, I'm still helping them out with a few stuff. We'll see about my future with them, if there is any.
Around a week ago, I went with the band to Bandung and Lembang (still a part of Bandung) to shoot their first music video, "Ingatkah Kamu." Bandung is such a beautiful city and Lembang is even more beautiful! Filled with greenaries!
HIGHLIGHTS
+ lots of greens!
+ chubby & cute cat!
+ lots of picture taking!
+ surviving almost being killed or terribly injured!
+ box-food-meals! XD;
+ beautiful villa and sceneries!
+ gaining new acquaintances and friends!
LOWLIGHTS
- 7-hour-trip instead of 2-hour-trip...
- a bit of drama...
- almost got killed/terribly injured...
- a LOT of waiting...
In details, of course...
DAY 1
What was SUPPOSED to be a maximum-of-2-hour-trip turned out to be a 7-hour trip... =A=;;; Magra and Aldy (vocalist) went ahead with a shuttle-bus, while I went with Diar (bassist), Donny (guitarist & keyboardist), and Donald (drummer). We got out of BSD (where the studio is, the place I've been living in for the past month) at around 2pm. Diar missed the exit to go to the freeway towards Bandung, and instead of turning around, Donny thought it'd be a good idea to keep on going towards Bogor to go through Jakarta's Puncak. Instead, once we get to the area to take the way to Puncak, it was already too late and it was closed. So, we kept on going... ended up actually getting to Bogor, passing it, and getting to Sukabumi, a more village and rural looking area. I fell asleep as we kept on going through Sukabumi. x___X;;;
When I woke up, I saw signs of cities and I thought, "YES! WE'RE IN BANDUNG!" and then I saw a statue with a sign that says, "Welcome to Cianjur." TTATT;;;;; We ended up going around hahah... We finally got into Bandung at around 9pm... and this wasn't even at the destination place yet!
We met up with some of the Bandung crew at this clothing place, called, Yodium. Tired and moody, the band had to choose clothes that they were going to use for the video.
(Diar, waiting outside, while the rest looked through the clothes)
(Magra--how he looked after waiting for 5 hours)
Afterwards, we went to the office of the contact in Bandung, where we met with Mr. Michelin (the executive producer) and his son, for briefing of the concept of the video, etc. After about an hour or two there, we went to a motel and stayed for the night.
DAY 2
Having only 2 hours of sleep the night before, I woke up "bright" and early, and got ready by 5.30am. I thought I was going to go with the boys to the first location of shooting, but since there's no room, I ended up waiting until around 10am for Mr. Michelin and his family to get ready and check out of the motel.
The first location was at this cafe (the name escapes me at the moment). A lot of confusion came from the directing department and the film crew. Too many people shouting "ACTION!" and "CUT!" I met ChaCha, the model and main actress of the video; Yoni and Sundy, the make-up artists and hair stylists; and ChaCha's mother. Really fun bunch heheh. We ended up staying for 5 hours there. Got so bored, and I got a bit of make-over, too hahah.
(posing with the Duck--Donald, that is ;D)
Second location of the day was this shopping district area. We called it, Braga, because there's a big mall nearby called, Braga. Again, such a simple scene, but ended up being so complicated to do XD; This time, the whole band played a part in it.
There was a little bit of a problem with some police officers (unfortunately, the police officers here in Indonesia is incredibly corrupted--a lot more than the U.S. ones). They were trying to find excuses on how the film crew was causing the traffic in the area bla bla bla, when all they wanted was some money for dinner or something. Geh. Fucking pigs. After a little while, the crew convinced them otherwise and "negotiated" (without any money involved, I'd like to think) with them and instead of taking care of the traffic, they ended up watching the process of the video-making.
Diar gained a few fans here, when a few girls from the bar next to the shooting-location asked him for autographs and pictures with him hahah. Too bad that I don't have a lot of pictures taken during this time with my phone, but once Donny burns me a copy of it, I'll try to upload them all.
It was 10-11pm when we moved to the third location. We went to this villa in Lembang. It's in the hills and mountains area. The peak of Bandung, so to speak. Once we got there, we settled our stuff. I stayed with the boys in one room, while the rest stayed with their own friends in other parts. It's a wooden-3-floored-villa. Beautifully kept and maintained, it's quite cozy and spacious--mainly because there weren't a lot of furnitures around. So, it was easy for the film crew to manage the equipments and such.
I was resting in the room with Donald when they were still shooting for ChaCha's solo scene downstairs. He was lying down on the top bed, while I lied on the bottom bed (not really bunk bed, but think of how a stair looks. Each step ascends forward and not directly on top of each other. That's how the bed was in this case). Then out of the blue... he farted on my face. Twice. According to Aldy later on, Donald only does that to people he cares about. Hahahah... Whether he cared for me or not, the slap marks I left on his butt cheeks made sure what I thought of that incident.
DAY 3
We were all supposed to leave by 6am, but of course, nothing ever really does go as planned, and we ended up leaving at around 11am. The location for the next shooting is still within the villa and only a few minutes of driving time. After spending most of my life in a lot of metropolitan cities, it's so nice to finally see a lot of greeneries! I mean, I had no idea how beautiful this place was until day time came. Also, despite how hot Indonesia can be, this place was surprisingly cold! XD; Thus, the jackets!
(Diar and I -- reaching out for the sky!)
(Yoni's on the left with the popsicle and Sundy's on the right)
(I fell in love with this car the moment I saw it...)
(Sundy needed a kiss after having to wake up so early and no breakfast yet T_T)
(Diar needed that massageplusplus after driving so much for the past few days. Yoni gives one of the best massages!)
(Diar approves! Heheh)
After a long while of waiting, Diar took me around the area with Opik's motorcycle. I knew he was so tired but he's kind enough to go with me, knowing that I was incredibly bored hahah ;__; A lot of the time, we were going up and each time, I had to get off the bike and walked because I was too heavy XD;;; Even though I lost over 20lbs already, I'm still heavy!
(the scene from the other side of the hill. If you look close enough, you'll see a yellow dot XD that's the yellow car i fell in love with hahah)
(Last shots before we went back to the shooting location again)
Only moments after we took the last two pictures, we went back. The way back was going downhill and because the heavy weight (meaning, me) was at the back, it made the bike go at a faster rate than Diar had intended to. We came to a part where the road sort of parted (though going the same way still) in two ways. One was going up hill and the other downhill, though it met again at the other end. Diar took the one that was going up hill and the bike hit a big rock, which instantly caused the bike to be unstable.
There was a lot of confusion for a few seconds (though it felt like forever) and Diar was using his legs to try to stop the bike (the break wasn't working too well). I tried to help with my legs, too, but it made the bike even more unstable hahah. Even though the hill wasn't steep, if we had fallen to our left side, where there's no road and only the bottom of the hill, we still would've been injured quite badly. Diar made the quick decision and forced to steer to the right and the bike (with us) jumped towards the bottom road. I hit the bottom of my foot hard against the floor and was riding the bike in that incredibly awkward position (got an instant cramp on that area where the thigh meets the hip XD). We were laughing so hard all the way back... though it was mostly out of fear. Everyone was looking at us, thinking we were crazy for laughing and yelling out, "WE'VE SURVIVED! WE'RE OKAY!!!"
After a few moments of calming down, I resumed in my picture-taking! :D
(ChaCha's on the right. On the left is an army personnel that kept watch. This guy, along with another personnel, is a lot more friendly and easier to deal with than the ones in the main city Bandung the day before)
(Though he's so tired, Diar can still put a smile on his face!)
(Asides from the gigantic horse poop, sitting here is the most calming experience I've had in a while...)
(My beautiful students: Diar and Aldy)
Aldy looks so happy there since the music video shooting was almost over! When it did, we went back to the villa to shoot some more scenes. Here, Diar had to change his "friendly looking" appearance and wore a more mean look. So... unlike him hahah.
A few highlights here that's fun to mention:
+ Aldy got slapped at least 10 times for one of the shoots since it's always wrong hahah XD;
+ At one point of another scene, Diar pushed ChaCha so hard that she fell to the floor, when she was supposed to fall back on the sofa lol
After a few hours of retakes, the shooting was FINALLY OVER! We all had a few ways of celebrating it lol.
(Sundy finally put a smile on his face here, but he hid behind the gay-veil! XD)
(Magra took a fighting pose, though seconds later, he tripped... ^^;;)
The rest of us just jammed on the guitar, sang, drank, and took more pictures. At one point, I went outside of the villa and sat on the porch and... I saw one of the CUTEST cats I've ever seen in my life! So round, chubby, white, fluffy, soft, and kitten-faced! Almost like me hahahah~
("Look! Long lost twins!")
I wanted to take it back to Jakarta, but I felt that it was going to suffer because of the heat, probably. It had a thick coat of fur that protected it from the cold of Lembang, but in Jakarta, it'd probably be so lazy even more XD;;;
DAY 4
Last day in Lembang/Bandung. We got up and checked out at a little before 12pm, and went back to Bandung to take care of some business stuff. We ate lunch close to University of Padjajaran, I think. Indonesian food's definitely one of the best food I've ever tasted! They make some of the most tastiest veggy-dish! XD <3 Because of a lot of stops, we ended up coming back to the studio in BSD at around 7pm.
I was sad that the "vacation" (for me) was kind of over, but I hope one day we can all go back to Lembang again and just have more fun! Other than the pictures from Bandung, I took pictures as well in the studio and in the photoshoot in Tebet.
There are more pictures taken inside the studio and in Tebet, but for now, I think it's enough. Just want to let you know that I'm still alive and well! Heheh.
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In Other News:
[+] Last night at around 12.30am, while I was hanging out with my cousin on the balcony of my house, I felt a wave of earthquake. At first, I thought I was getting dizzy since my roommate in the studio has been getting sick lately. But then my cousin felt it, too, and we rushed outside. It only lasted for a little while (1-2 minutes) and it wasn't so strong or anything. It felt like I was swaying lightly in the ocean's wave. According to this, however, the earthquake was around 7.0 magnitude, which started in Indramayu, an area in West Java. I live west of west Java. So several cities--Jakarta, Tangerang, Yogyakarta, Bogor, and Bandung--felt the quake. There's no reported casualties yet, but I hope there won't be any. Supposedly, there's going to be a second quake and that we should be prepared. No casualties, please!
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[+] Other than that, I'm so ashamed to say that during my 1-month of absence (and indefinite time away from the computer), I can only manage to finish one picture for Yume. ;____; It's her Nitta~ Since she mentioned he likes shiney stuff, I thought he might like some diamonds hehe. [[Nitta, the Thieving Dragon]]
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[+] I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I'm sad to say that it's over TTATT! It's good and such, but I still like the 4th-6th books better, honestly XD; A friend sent me this funny summary of the 7th book. WARNING: THE FOLLOWING LINK CONTAINS SPOILERS! So, you better know what you're getting into before you click on it. Last warning! Okay, I warned you~ XD; [[ HP & DH Funny Summary SPOILER]]
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[+] UNDERTOWN is out today! Jake's the illustrator and the art's so awesome! Go get yourself one! X3 <3