American Idol 7: The First Four Elimination

It's kinda obvious that Amy Davis and Joanne Borgella did not perform good enough. They both went home.

As for the guys, Garret & Colton went home. Sorry for you Colton.

Ramiele.. Please don't cry that much.. It's umm.. weird (not as weird as seeing Sundance Head crying a lot last season though). Same thing goes for those blonde girls which I can't still distinguish from each other yet.

American Idol 7: Top 12 Girls

The girls' having better night compared to the guys.. Although the show let us know that some of them were having influenza. I know the feeling of having to go on stage while you yourself do not find your voice as fine as usual. Not the greatest feeling in the world.

Kristy: Just okay.. Nice voice, but the song's boring.

Joanne: Uh oh.. Flat. Get rid of those weird backing vocals.

Alaina: At first I thought it would be boring. But when the tempo changed, it's more fun. Good vocal. The surprising effect of the song really helped :)

Amanda: Cool start with the scatting, though had pitch problem on the low notes. Strong performance. I like how she handled Simon. She has nice personality.

Amy Davis: Omaigaaa.. Apaan itu. Mengayun2 a la Monita(pas Monitanya lagi ga bagus ya :D). Too many pitch problems.

Brooke : I don't get it. At first she sounded okay, later on ga jelas de..

Alexandrea: She's really cool. Pretty good performance. I like her deep voice, tp nada atasnya agak2 bermasalah. Apa dia salah satu yg flu..? Some parts of her singing reminded me of Cleopatra. I agree with Paula that Alexandrea thought about her performance.

Kady: When she started singing, it's impressive and it's obvious that she could actually sing.. Problem with low notes.. The performance was not really good, but the voice sounded good..

Asia'h: Good vocal.. Good performance.. kinda liven up the show tonight. I want her to get rid of her voice crack though (I don't really know how to call that).

Ramiele: Strong vocal.. She created suitable atmosphere for the song. Love her lips :p

Syesha: Great vocal range.. Her glorious ending was similar to Stephanie Edward's

Carly: Kok agak2 ga masuk ya sama musiknya.. Kliatan ga nyaman. Kinda good vocal. Hmm, ceunah flu jg (ama Bronchitis). Randy berleb deh muji2nya. I agree with Simon, I don't get it.

My favourites are: Ramiele, Syesha, Asia'h, Amanda, Alaina
My okays are: Alexandrea, Kady
My hmms are: Carly, Kristy, Brooke
My hehhs are: Joanne, Amy Davis

Before the start of the top 12 girls show, I liked Ramiele, Syesha, Asia'h, Amanda, Kady and Alexandrea. Hehehe, they did fulfill my expectation to some extent :) (Still waiting for great performance)

Overall, I think they're still somewhat uncomfortable in bringin their performance. Ahh, how I miss the ladies from previous season: Stephanie, Jordin, Melinda, and LaKisha. I miss Haley too :D Let's wait and see.

American Idol 7: Top 12 Guys

Humm, I'm not satisfied by the guys' performances..
Well, I could say I like three of the performances: David Archuleta, Michael John, and Jason Castro. Those performances are enjoyable.
As for David Hernandez and David Cook, they are alright for me. They did okay, kinda like it.

Though I like David Archuleta's performance the most, he surely got vocal problem at some point near the last part. Ahh, and he sort of doubting in hitting the big note for his last word, hahaha.. Very funny. But his voice is really interesting. I don't like the too-much-attention given to him this early.

My list is as follows:
1. David Archuleta
2. Michael John
3. Jason Castro
4. David Hernandez
5. David Cook

For the rest of them, err...
Chikezie, horrible at the start, going okay afterwards and somewhat good at the end. I like his voice.

Robbie Carrico, humm, pretty good. Tapi biaso ajolah.. :D

Colton berry has an interesting voice, but his performance is mediocre.

Danny Noriega.. I don't know. I don't like this guy. But his voice is good. I got a problem with his rythm in the top 12 guys performance. Kinda out of sync with the music for me.

For me, I think Garret and Luke Menard should go home. Or maybe Jason Yeager.

Ah ya, David Cook and Michael John's technique in singing rock is kinda the same as Chris Daughtry's(which I like). It's not like other Rock singers I know. Am I right to say that their timbres are kinda similar too? Ah, well..

Prague: The Hostels

Now that we have arrived in Prague (hey, surprisingly the immigration in Prague did not check the travelling documents too strictly. Good for me) we need a place to stay.

We have booked Hostel Centrum II for three days via the internet. The price per day per person was just 7 euro. That's cheap. At first it looked quite okay for the price.. The room's somewhat clean. We had to use shared bathroom but since no one else staying in the same area of our storey, that's fine. It's also very close to Wenceslas Square, only 5 minutes walking..

Later on we found out that this hostel was crappy. We had to pay using local currency (Czech Crown or Koruna) for the room while it was never stated so before. We had to pay 2 euro(right, in euro contrary to the room payment previously) for the breakfast while it was stated in the website that it was free. There was no free internet because it broke down, they said. The receptionist was unfriendly and unhelpful. The bedroom and the toilet was as hot as hell (we knew it's cold outside but couldn't it be just warm inside, not extremely the opposite of outside).

My advice is never stay in that hostel! Though it's cheap, it's not worth your precious holiday time.

After 3 days living in hell, err.. Hostel Centrum II, I and Harold decided to move out. Mai and Bart had left for Delft at the same day for office work and Economics re-exam. Our decision was strongly because the receptionist increased the price of the room to 300 Korunas per person per night (around 12 euro) since we didn't booked it via the internet (what the..).

After walking around a bit around the Old Town Square, Harold and I found Residence Bene. At first we're attracted by the announcement on the glass wall saying room was available starting from 9 euro. Unfortunately their building that had that kinda room was outta town. The receptionist offered to give us the rate of 11 euro per night per person instead of the normal rate of 12 euro. We agreed. It turned out that it's the best decision we made in Prague.

The receptionists were all friendly and very helpful. They received payment in Euro. We could buy metro/bus/train ticket at the reception desk. The location was perfect, it was in the Old Town itself, only 10 minutes walking to get to the Astronomical Clock, 5 minutes to Palladium, 10 minutes to Wenceslas Square. The bedroom was very clean, big, and nice. There's one big bed and one small bed, a cupboard, a fridge, and a TV. The temperature was perfect. The bathroom was a private one, and it's large with bathtub. There were real free-breakfast (and the food's great, far beyond basic paid-breakfast in Hostel Centrum II and real free-internet. Have I mentioned they provided porn channel? hehehe..

Overall, Residence Bene is my recommendation for other travellers.. :D

Residence Bene (http://www.goldencity.cz/)
Praha 1 - Staré Mesto, Dlouhá 48/721 - 110 00 Prague
Email: bene@goldencity.cz



PS: I need to sleep now. I'll write some more later.. :D

Prague: The Problems

No no.. Not the one with me getting too tired after the concert as I feared before.
Also not the one with Harold getting drunk the night before and woke up the next morning, hastily grabbed all things he could find and stuffed it in his bag. Lucky he didn't forget his passport and could come on time to the Delft Central Station.

The problem is MY STATUS!!
*Sayup2 terdengar: "Heyy, There's nothing wrong about being single"*

Err, that's not the case actually,khekhekhe..

The scene:

*Credo at the airport, confidently approaching the immigration counter, giving his passport and verblijfsdocument to the lady behind the glass*
*The lady opened up the passport, checking my identity and the visa. Found out that the visa was already expired. Switched to the verblijf, looked confused and alarmed*

The Lady: "Mr.Sibuea.." *fixing her eyes to my verblijf again*
Credo: "Ya.." *started wondering*
The Lady: "You are ILLEGAL."
Credo: "Excuse me..?" *shockingly screaming inside: WHAATT?!!*
The Lady: "Based on what I see here in your residence permit, you are illegal." *showing me my verblijf with the text: geldig tot 31-08-07*
Credo: "Wait, but that's not possible. I just came last August. I got the verblijf last September. It can't be expired last August." *checking the bloody verblijf in disbelief.*

Shoot, I should've recognized that long ago. I have checked it once I received it but I thought everything was fine (the text's printed in Dutch btw). How am I supposed to suspect that the they've printed it wrongly. I thought they printed 31-08-07 as the date of application (now come to think of it, I was too naive not to suspect it as an expiration date, d'oh. Moron!)

The Lady: "Well, it is indeed strange. Because the expiration date is before the issued date of this verblijf. You need to go with my colleague to another room for them to do a check."

*Credo exited the scene and followed an officer to other room. Mai accompanied me. Duh, masa harus ga jadi berangkat gara2 ini..*

That officer checked on the system in his room while I was waiting with Mai in other room. We spent time eating some of our butter cakes btw, khekhekhe.. That guy came, oh no.. He asked some questions such as when I came to Netherlands, what my intention of coming, if I worked or not, my address, etc. Finally he said, "There is indeed a misprint in your verblijf. You just have to fixed it as soon as you return from Czech Republic."

Dank je wel then Mr. Officer :) I was happy I could still continue the trip.

Actually, there's a problem again at the gate before entering the plane. The lady officer wouldn't let me get into the plane before she got confirmation from her supervisor about my verblijf problem. But that's allright, I got reason already.

(Soundtrack:"I'm flying.. I'm flying.. I'm flying.." *fade out* --Happy Face by Destiny's Child)
(Photo: the sky of Prague. )

Prague: The Beginning

This should have been an entry in my blog since late January or early February, but I was kinda shocked with the new quarter of my study. It started on 4 Febuary, but there's a course which required me to do assignment 0 (zero), a preparation assignment before the start of the course. Kinda consuming my time (It added up to my lazyness to write I guess, I gotta admit it :p).

So.. I went to Prague on 26-31 January with some of my classmates: Mai(Thailand), Harold(Ecuador), Doudou(China), Dirk(Belgium). The same bunch as the ones who I went to Belgium with (Eh, come to think of it, I haven't post anything about the Belgium trip yet :p It was last year, Omaigaaa...). Bart (Dutch. Mai's boyfriend) came along as well.

Doudou came up with the idea, since we have spent so much time working together as a group in many courses of the last quarter (Let me think: Human Resource Management, Financial Planning & Report, High Tech Marketing, and Design of Technological System, pheww that's a lot).

Ohh, I have blabbered out of topic too much again. I should really be aware of that *sigh*

Where were we? Owh, we have booked room in Prague for three days, because we were not sure yet where to go on the last 2 days. We were thinking about going to Cesky Krumlov and Kutna Hora, as they are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but might also just stayed in Prague instead.

I really had to be prepared for the trip in advance, since the flight was early morning after my Integration Moment Assessment and 2nd-day concert with Krashna Musika.

Begadang Jangan Begadang

Begadang.. Yang katanya menguras energi (apalagi klo ngeliat efeknya pada si blengkeng Nessa) sama sekali ga memungkinkan untuk bikin kurus.

Apalagi dengan ngemil senantiasa kayak sekarang *hiks*, xixixixi..

[Today I] Sunny Day

Another series of 'Today I' posts.

Today I shopped in Tanger vleescentrum for the first time. I also went to Xotus to buy some coconut milk for my 'rendang' tomorrow and a pack of Indomie Goreng (yumm!). Got home and put all things in the fridge.

I got downstairs again to do my laundry, only wearing a T-shirt, Bali shorts, and sandals. I decided to go to Albert Heijn in front of my student housing to grab some vegetables. As expected, people's eyes are on me. They were all wearing at least 3 layers of clothes Some elders observed me using the corner of their eyes. A guy clearly checking me from head to toe as we passed by. A girl even looked twice, I guess not believing what she saw. I couldn't help chuckling, khikhikhi.. I met Endang, who lived in the same building with me, and she finally stated what people's thought in words Well, the weather was nice and sunny, it still is as I write this, and the supermarket is just a few meters away.

I will go to the Sport Centrum tonight for a Dumplings Party organized by TU Delft and Chinese Student Association (in celebration of Chinese New Year. Gong Xi Fat Choi!). We'll have a dumplings workshop, dinner, fireworks, and a movie. Can't wait.

O Lady, Leave That Silken Thread

Beberapa hari ini mulai terliat tunas2 yang baru tumbuh dari tanah.. Rata2 dengan cepat udah ada kuncup bunga segala.. Waaa, Spring is coming ya..

Sambil nontonin tunas2 itu pas naik sepeda mo ke kampus (blom sempat moto ni), tiba2 teringat lagu O Lady, Leave That Silken Thread (SSATBB) dari Gustav Holst. Di PSM-ITB, aku nyanyi lagu itu pas konser 2002, dengan didirigenin Elson.

Salah satu lagu dari Four Part-songs-nya Holst yang mewakili musim semi. 3 lagu lainnya: Soft & Gently (SSA), The Autumn Is Old (SATB), dan Winter and The Bird(SATB).

Ahh, jadi pengen nyanyi lagu itu :) *tapi udah lupa bo.. cm ingat depannya*


PS: Aku pengen dengar compositionnya Holst yang The Planet Suite de.. Kayaknya keren banget! :D Tapi blom sempat cari-cari..

The Planets Suite Op. 32 (1916)

1. Mars, the Bringer of War
2. Venus, the Bringer of Peace
3. Mercury, the Winged Messenger
4. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity (main theme:"I Vow to Thee, My Country")
5. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age
6. Uranus, the Magician
7. Neptune, the Mystic

The One With The Concerts

The first concert of Krashna Musika was in Maria van Jessekerk, Delft; and the second concert was in Dr. Anton Philipzaal, Den Haag. Guys were asked to wear black suit, white shirt, and a black bowtie or a gray Krashna bowtie. Fortunately I brought my black suits with me from Indonesia. Yoben lent me his extra Krashna bowtie.

The warm up started a bit late from the actual plan of 17.45. After warm up, we had dinner. We had to bring it or buy it from surrounding shops, haha. It's different from our concerts in Indonesia.

In Indonesia, we are used to have committee to prepare the dinners so that everybody will surely have his/her dinner before the concert and keep them in the concert venue. It's hard to gather a bunch of people on time in Indonesia. Well, people can argue that it depends on the person. But as committee for the concert, someone would like to keep them in the same place. It's also done that way in the hope that singers can focus on their performance better (well, hoping is not a sin :D).

Here, I find people should be more responsible for him/herself due to too few people in the committee to take care of that. Ga ada manja2an deh.. Bagus juga, soalnya emang menyebalkan klo harus ngurusin orang2 sok ngartis, hahaha.

This characteristic also happened for choir's blocking. Singers position was not arranged. I had to find a good place for myself (i.e. I could see the conductor without being blocked by a tall Soprano or Tenor before me :p). Well, this was understandable for such a big choir. We had approximately 150 musicians in the concert (one of the committee told me this), with 100 people as singers I think. However for a smaller choir, I prefer the conductor to arrange the position for better sound. Pssst.. Di hari kedua konser, aku sengaja kabur dari posisiku di kanan panggung (pas Gladi Resik) ke posisi tengah (pas konsernya) karena tenor2 di sampingku sering kali lip-sync doang(ato diam aja).. Alhasil suaraku terlalu menonjol sendirian di lokasi itu. Untuk hari pertama, lokasiku sih oke.

For the whole concert itself, I'm quite satisfied. The first session was the orchestra performance. They did well. Although the choir could see the percussion section dropped one of the instrument that made unexpected noise, hahaha.

We performed with the orchestra on the second session. Some friends said the sound was impressive (thanks to the Church interior design and the number of the performers, I think :D). I'm not happy with the last part of Movement 3. The polyphony sounded messy. Actually most of the song couldn't be said tidy being heard from singers position, but it's insignificant for the audience. The dynamic range was not very wide, but it's still alright. The Baritone Soloist was great and I really really loved the voice of the Soprano Soloist :D

We got several minutes of standing ovation at the end of both concerts. I have checked with my Dutch friends whether it's a formal thing to do after a concert in Netherlands :D Well, they said it's not. So, I hope the audience was actually satisfied with our performances :)

PS: I spent 1,5 hours learning how to tie a bowtie from Youtube and some other websites one night before the concert, hehehe.