Songs of My Life (Part 1)

These songs have been parts of my life. Some reall ya had a special menaing. Some always takes back my memories to somewhere in time. Some are just my favourites

1. Goodbye – Air Supply

It was the video I watched (the last part of it) on the hospital TV. That day, August 15^th ,1993, was the last day I ever saw my mother. I never thought, it was a sign of her forever leave. Four days later she passed away. Leaving all she loved and all who'd always be loving her.

2. Save Our Love – Yngwie Malmsteen

The song that introduced me to Yngwie Malmsteen. Ever since that day I'd always be loving his guitar playing.

3. Black Or White – Michael Jackson

I was impressed by the video. It used a technology in the making of the video which I never saw before. It was also the song that introduced me to western music.

4. Without You – Air Supply

A cover version of Harry Nilson song. It was I heard it for the first time from a cassete bought by my aunt. Not the original one actually, but when I finally listened to the original song of Air Supply, I really loved it. Thanks to this both Russels.

5. The Actor – Michael Learns To Rock

It was the track that introduced Michael Learns To Rock to Asia (of course because it was also their first single ever). The funny thing about it was that I didn't know MLTR was a band's name. I thought it was the singer's name. This one is my favourite still. Although I prefer to listen to the remixed version of it (which appeared on the Strange Foreign Beauty).

6. Tears In Heaven – Eric Clapton

A song about his deceased child. I can still feel the sadness around it.

7. Do You Dream of Me – Michael W. Smith

Actually Michael W. Smith is well-known as a Christian Singer. Ya know what I mean? But there were also some secular song of him. This is one of them. A beautiful romantic song from Smith.

8. Lady of Dreams – Kitaro Feat. Jon Anderson

An almost anthemic rock ballads from Kitaro, a Japanese musician and composer. This time he collaborated with Jon Anderson (lead singer of YES). Although it strayed from his musical style, but this was my first favourite of Kitaro's music.

9. Come Undone – Duran Duran

I couldn't believe my ear when I listened to it. I couldn't believe it was a Duran Duran's song, cause it was so different from their previous single, Ordinary World. Anyway, I loved it.

10. Babe – Take That

It wasn't the hit that introduced me to Take That. It was included on their Everything Changes album (which also included the single Pray), but I heard it some times later after their Nobody Else album was released. A beautiful ballad which unusually featured Mark Owen on lead singer (Gary Barlow usually did the lead singing).

11. Strange Foreign Beauty - Michael Learns To Rock

I once had a crush on a girl (sorry, I can't mention her name here). But all I ever did was keepin' it in my heart. Yes, I had a secret love. I guessed the lyrics of the song really depicted what happened between us.

Strange Foreign Beauty/You'll never know what I felt for you/....

12. A Secret Love - Toto

As I have told you, once again is about a secret love. This one was sung by Toto's former keyboardist, Steve Porcaro.

Touch Your Heart

Maybe you'll never know the way I feel

Never even know if it is for real

Maybe I'll never even understand

The way I wanna shake your hands

Maybe you never even see me

Nor even see the person I wanna be

And maybe I can never show

All the things I need you to know

All I can do is only hope and pray

Make a wish every night and day

That I can be your light in the dark

Than you'll let me touch your heart

Maybe I can never get closer to you

Even though I really wanna do

Maybe I can only watch you smile

But it's only for a while

All I wanna do is to be near you

Be your only one and to be true

Cause it hurts when we're apart

Now let me touch your heart

I'll let you know what's on my mind

Your picture keeps roaming time after time

Your voice keeps sounding in my ear

If only you could be near

All I can do is only hope and pray

Make a wish every night and day

That I can be your light in the dark

Than you'll let me touch your heart

And all I wanna do is to be near you

Be your only one that can be true

Cause it hurts when we're apart

Would you just let me touch your heart

Words by Alvin Ace G.

Dedicated to 7.4.9. (hayo sapa..?)

© 2009 New Destination Publishing

2008 : A Musical Reflection

I'ts a 2008 music kaleidoscope on my sight.

1. The monotone and the "rural" band
This year, the Indonesian music seemd to stand still. Many new music bands arise, but I can't almost differ them. Almost all bands have the same musical style.

More ironic to listen to the music of the "rural" band (the Javanese said, band katrok) whose musical ability is doubtful. Sometimes I just didn't understand what made them become so popular. Don't think I need to say their name.

2. The Resurrected


The international music world was surprised by the reunion of two big boybands which have been disbanded for years, New Kids On The Block, which released an album entitled The Block and Boyzone which released a compilation album entitled Back Again... Mo Matter What. Another boyband, Take That, also released a new album a few months ago.

One of the legendary band, Chicago, finally released a new studio album, Chicago XXXII: Stone of Syssiphus, after not releasing any studio album for so many tears. This album was originally recorded in the mids pf 1990's decade, but due to the rejection of the recording label that time, it had no been released yet.

In Indonesia, there's a good news for everyone who really loves KLa Project. Katon, Lilo, and Adi decided to reunite in 2008. The released an EP entitled KLa Returns.

But the album that's been long waited for is perhaps the new album from Guns N Roses, Chinese Democracy. The album that broke the record as the longest time to make and the most expensive album. It took almost 15 years to finish the album. Wow!!

03. The End
Tragically, in 2008, another legend has to disband, Toto. After touring for a half year of 2008, they decided to disband. The main reason is because there is no David Paich (their co-founder) and none of the Porcaro (who's always been related to Toto) followed their recent tours. So Goodbye Toto.

New Album from Boyzone

After Take That reunited in 2006, here is another reunited boyband. After breaking up for about 8 years, Ronan Keating, Stephen Gately, Shane Lynch, Keith Duffy, and Mikey Graham are back together again in 2008. Yes, they are Boyzone. Boyzone released their new album entitled Back Again... No Matter What, which includes almost all of their hits and 3 new recorded tracks.

What's new? On those tracks you can hear Boyzone in a different musical style. A 60's nuance on Love You Anyway and a little pop dance style on Can't Stop Thinking of You. They still focused mainly on Ronan's lead singing. Only on Better that featured Stephen on lead.

On the rest of the album, you can trip back around the 90's decade with Boyzone's old hits like Love Me For A Reason, Father And Son, Words (their first No. 1 single), Picture Of You (from Bean The Movie), and their last single before breaking up, Every Day I Love You. This album also featured a live version of Ronan Keating's solo single, Life Is A Rollercoaster.

Unfortunately, until the time I wrote this, this album is only released on CD version.

Belajar dari Obama

Tanggal 5 November 2008 menjadi sejarah bagi Amerika Serikat. Barack Hussein Obama, secara telak memenangi pemilihan Presiden negara adikuasa itu. Ia mencetak sejarah menjadi Presiden AS pertama yang berasal dari golongan minoritas kulit hitam.

Yang menarik perhatian saya adalah kenyataan bahwa rival utamanya, John McCain pun langsung memberikan ucapan selamat. Bukan hanya itui, ia juga mengajak para pendukungnya untuk bersama-sama ikut mendukung langkah-langkah Obama selanjutnya.

Hal yang hampir sama yang dilakukan oleh pesaingnya waktu pencalonan Capres di Partai Demokrat, Hillary Clinton. Ketika Clinato kalah, ia kemudian mengajak pendukungnya untuk memilih Obama dalam pemilihan Presiden.

Hal yang tak pernah saya temui di dunia politik Indonesia. Kalau di sini, calon yang kalah bisa dipastikan mengerahkan massa pendukungnya untuk sekedar protes atau berunjuk rasa. Bahkan tak jarang terjadi bentrok antar pendukung calon pemimpin (Bupati, Walikota, atau Gubernur) yang terpilih dengan calon yang kalah. Kalau perlu gugat hasil pemilihan lewat penghadilan. Entah kapan dunia politik kita bisa bersikap dewasa.

Sudah seharusnya para politisi kita belajar siap menang dan sekaligus siap kalah.

XFCE, WINDOW MANAGER RINGAN UNTUK KOMPUTER ANDA

Desktop XFCE dengan nuansa Vista

Saat ini, bisa dikatakan ada dua window manager paling populer di Linux yaitu KDE dan GNOME. Distro-distro Linux terbaru yang memaketkan KDE atau GNOME bisa dipastikan memerlukan resource hardware komputer yang lumayan besar. Masalahnya adalah bagaimana jika kita hanya memliki komputer dengan spek minim seperti milik saya? Mau pakai distro versi lama, rasanya kok software yang disertakan sangat ketinggalan jaman dan tampilannya sangat tidak menarik hati.

Eits!! Jangan kuatir. Di dunia Linux begitu banyak pilihan. Anda tetap bisa menikmati keindahan desktop Linux plus software yang cukup up to date dengan komputer sekelas Pentium III dan RAM sebesar 128/256 MB. Caranya?? Gunakan distro terbaru yang menggunakan window manager XFCE.

Mengapa XFCE?

Ada banyak window manager yang cukup ringan di Linux, antara lain IceWM, Enlightenment, Fluxbox dll. Tapi mengapa saya sarankan menggunakan XFCE? Alasannya XFCE memiliki beberapa keunggulan yang saya sukai, yaitu:

1. Cukup irit memori. Waktu untuk login ke desktop hanya beberapa detik saja, demikian juga waktu untuk membuka aplikasi macam OpenOffice di atas XFCE lebih cepat bila dibandingkan dengan di atas KDE ataupun GNOME.

2. Menyertakan aplikasi file manager sendiri secara default yaitu Thunar File Manager. Umumnya window manager ringan lain tidak memiliki aplikasi file manager sendiri.

3. Tampilan cukup indah karena dibangun dengan pustaka GTK, pustaka yang sama untuk membangun desktop GNOME. Karena itu jangan heran bila sepintas tampilan XFCE mirip GNOME.

4. Cukup mudah dikonfigurasi dan tersedia applet desktop yang cukup banyak.

5. Kita dapat memanfaatkan sebagian themes tampilan maupun icons dari GNOME untuk memperindah desktop XFCE.

6. Kalau pada Windows XP anda biasa memanfaatkan fasilitas Send To untuk meng-copy file ke USB Flash Disk, di versi XFCE 4.4, anda akan menemukan fasilitas serupa.

Distro dengan desktop XFCE

Untuk mempermudah penggunaan, gunakan saja distro yang secara default menggunakan XFCE sebagai window manager-nya, antara lain:

1. Zenwalk

2. Vector Linux

3. SAM Linux

4. Linux Mint XFCE Edition

5. Mandriva One XFCE Edition

6. Xubuntu

Selain distro-distro di atas, distro lain seperti openSUSE dan Debian juga menyertakan XFCE dalam DVD installer maupun repositori-nya. Di lain waktu tulisan ini akan saya lanjutkan dengan langkah-langkah konfigurasi desktop XFCE

Pembela atau Preman?

Beberapa hari ini berita mengenai tindakan anarkis dari sebuah ormas (yang ngakunya) bernafaskan Islam. Sayangnya, tindakan mereka justru menurut saya, jauh dari ajaran agama. Bukan hanya sekali ini mereka berulah. Seolah-olah atas nama agama, mereka bertindak keras, merusak, bahkan melukai seseorang.

Yah, ormas yang mengaku sebagai pembela Islam. Namun apa yang mereka lakukan justru menodai Umat Islam lainnya. Seolah-olah merekalah yang berhak menentukan mana yang benar dan mana yang salah. Seolah tak peduli di Indonesia ada hukum yang berlaku. Coba pikir, apakah dibenarkan kita merusak sesuatu yang bukan milik kita? Apakah dibenarkan kita melukai orang lain hanya karena berbeda pendapat?

Sayang memang, saya justru tak pernah melihat lasakr yang satu itu berdemo menentang perilaku korup pejabat. Tak pernah mereka bedemo menentang kenaikan harga BBM (padahal ini sangat menyusahkan rakyat, kok mereka ga mau ikut mikir). Tak pernah pula mereka berdemo saat para anggota DPR menghambur-hamburkan fasilitas negara (yang artinya juga menyakiti umat Islam).

Sayang memang, tindakan mereka saat protes lebih mneyerupai tindakan preman daripada tindakan pembela. Apakah mereka tak berpikir hal tersebut justru merusak pandangan masyarakat tentang umat Islam???