Alicia Keys lights up Jakarta stage

[Revision of the article published on The Jakarta Post,  Jakarta, Sun, 08/03/2008 http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/08/03/alicia-keys-lights-jakarta-stage.html]

The U.S. neo-R&B singer Alicia Keys does not need fireworks to light up her modestly adorned stage. Instead, she blew Jakartan minds with her music and performance on Thursday evening.

The anticipation was high at the concert, titled the same as her latest album As I Am. However, one could not help but wonder if she was in the mood for playing.

She had launched a last minute complain on the inclusion of an Indonesian tobacco company as the sponsor of her first show in Indonesia, resulting on pulling down of the associated advertising materials. Worse, the first class section of the concert hall of the Jakarta Convention Center was half-empty. By now, she was already half-an-hour late.

What a deJavu

-movie review- 

As the title suggest, this movie is a dejavu of many earlier movies with familiar plot, familiar bomb blasts, and familiar (weak) theory of “folding space” to reach the past. Even some of the scenes in it are repeated; it was for illustrating the repetition, but it was done too plainly. The suspensioning facts created at the beginning, which I thought may be bring some unexpected twist, were just made to support the predictable dejavu.   

Good points are Denzel Washington is as charming as ever, the bomb blast is powerful, and the injuries look very real.

It is a movie to go if there is nothing much left to do or if you like Denzel.   

New China

I started reading about China for my assignment on China-USA relationship. A friend recommended this book. It turned out that the book was not about the relationship, but about China’s road to communism. It’s written interestingly by its journalist-author. It gives an overview of the history just within 113 pages with 12pt font and 1.5 spacing. However, I’m rather skeptical with its balance – it gives the feeling a propaganda – because it shows only the successes of the communist party. I’d recommend this book for anyone who wants to understand China’s early stage nationalism movement but the book must be absorbed with caution.

NEW CHINA Friends or Foe?

Written by Alun Falconer (First published in 1950)