SapiMalas is Lost in Literary Feast

Ubud Writers & Readers Festival… here I come! More stories, gossips and tales later.
Cheerio!

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Suri's Wall of Fame

I have to admit something. I'm a huge fan of this petite socialite. I know she hardly talks in full sentences nor known for some outrageous remarks or diva-esque attitude. Yet. But look at her. Just so adorable. I don't care if her papa is a sofa-hopping-scientologist. I can't wait to see her all grows up, become a talented and famous actress and leading women of the world what they should wear in her apparent fashion style. Never mind that I shudder of envy a little bit because I am now in my twenties and never wore a Burberry dress.

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Au Revoir, Paul Newman

I'm heart broken. I just read the marvelous article about Paul Newman few weeks ago in Vanity Fair September Issue and now he passed away. The article couldn't be more timely and just the perfect tribute to celebrate the life of Paul Newman. Do read it here. I daresay it is one of the most beautiful article I ever read because I cried a little when I read about Paul Newman's death on the internet. To think that we won't be able to see the piercingly beautiful blue eyes again...

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Greed Over Geger

A month ago I watched a cute robot saving human race from morbid obesities and redundancy. Three days ago I spent my night watching a movie about how infertility affecting human race in near-future. Yesterday night I spent watching zombies taken over Great Britain. Those entire movies really do make me wondering. Imagine all the movies about future that you have seen and think about what they all have in common.

Yes, they are all bleak prediction of our future. I suspected HBO plotted a special program called “Extinction of the Human Race”. The imagination of wild Hollywood writers has gives us glimpses of our civilization. Either that we are enslaved by apes, technology or alien; or that we might live inside a satellite in a galaxy far, far away; or else replaced by bionics that looked like Jude Law (you won’t hear me complaining).

In the end, those movies do give us hope. A savior, a plant or an antivirus. Nevertheless, human kind must always suffer first. They killed each other, they hide, they runaway, they do anything to avoid being perished. It brings me to the very point of this entry. Reading The Bali Post this week, I realize that we are actually living the future. This is future. Every action, every wicked crime that has been done is based only for one motive: greed. That is the very thing of which history always begin or end.

Please give me one good reason, other than greed, which motivates Badung’s Board of Regency decided to sell 600,000 metre cubics of sand from Geger Beach? The one beautiful beach in Badung which hasn’t been ruined by industry and commercialism. With the sands, our “honored member of the boards” will also rob hundreds of local seaweed farmers from their source of living; destroy the sea ecosystem and create atrocious erosion. As if global warming signs are not clear enough. Feel free to share your thought on how to save Geger Beach.

Greed, in the end, destroys us all.

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Hunting Books in Bali Part I

In Indonesia, book is a luxury. For the price of one new paper-back (either in English or Indonesian) you can feed the whole family of eight with each person getting a portion of nasi goreng and ice tea. Beggars can’t be choosers, and so this sapimalas who consider books as a neccesity (apart from air, coffee and 8 hours sleep) always try to find a way to get her hand on books. The cheaper, the better (call me cheap shit and I couldn’t care less).

In a lot of cases, my book libido don’t get along with my situation. There are always bills to pay and more important needs to be fullfilled (“Eat that books if you are hungry then!” -direct quotation from my mother). I have the buying ability but comes from a family with zero desire to read, my book lust is more or less, uncorroborated.

Local bookseller like Gramedia or Periplus are selling good books but the titles they are selling are hardly intriguing as well as dictated by Oprah or The New York Times Bestseller List. Back in my Jakarta Period, you can always found me wide eyed and drooling all over Aksara or QB Bookstore (which has many interesting titles, unwrapped by plastics and comfy armchairs). I would swipe my card and sacrificed my lunches or Caramel Frappucino Affoggato Style weekly dosage in a heartbeat, with an exchange for a Marquez.

Nevertheless, living in Bali giving me quite an advantage. The next time you are here and visiting beaches around Bali, please pay attention to the tanning tourists (no, not to the chest area) and most likely you’d find them doing one thing: reading. Before they left Bali with most likely over-weight luggage, they’d left their books lying in the room or pool. That is where the exchange bookshop business flourished in Bali.

Meet my favorite bookshop in Kuta: Kerta Bookshop. This small establishment, sandwiched between 24-hours convenient store, ethnic percussion shop and gift shop, has been there since 1975. If you may take a peek to the 50% off section, you’d find history between pages of crumpled old bookswhich perhaps was brought by a hippie back in Flower Power 70's. The books are as varied as the tourists who come to visit Bali. There are summer read (chick-lits and Dan Brown-ish books) but there are also, surprisingly, Cervantes or Tolstoy.

I’ve been a devoted customer for over five years but everytime I come to the bookshop, I was always pleasantly surprised by the treasures I found. Like today, for instance, my recent treasure acquisition:

I don’t think I can find Isabel Allende’s memoir, Ann-Marie MacDonald’s and Sophie Dahl’s new book in the local big bookstore. The prices are sensible, between 45,000 to 150,000 IDR. Bring your already read books and exchange them for a new one. Kerta Bookshop also has a lot of interesting titles in Japanese, Dutch, German, Swedish, Russian, French and travel guide books (left, perhaps by a desperate backpacker). The funny thing is: the books availability depends on tourist season. Just when I came this afternoon, there were many new titles in Russian. Obviously from the “Russian Tourist Boom” in Bali.

I’ve always been fond of supporting local business and this bookshop is really a piece of history. So, stop by and patiently browse the collection. You’d be surprised.

Kerta Bookshop
Jalan Pantai Kuta - Bali
Phone (0361) 758047

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"Library" of SapiMalas

I just open my precious hard-cover first edition Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Guess what I found? Mould! Yellowing pages! Truly a nightmare! Considering the book was not published a century ago, I only have myself to blame. I immediately took out all the book and aired them outside. Forgive me oh my precious.

This is why I truly need my own library. My current “library” is basically my bedroom. The collection was separated into two places. One is in the multi-tasking cabinet (vanity above and book cabinet below). It is where I put my precious hard-covers, art & history books, albums and coffee table books.

The second “cabinet” is well, not a cabinet. More like a window sill. Oh who am I kidding, it is window sill. Definitely not a good place to put books but I don’t really have any choice at the moment. You see, in my family, me and my father are the only one who actually likes to read. He is now deceased and it left only me. I, somehow, doubt that I can trust my treasure to the hand of my mother (who dusted everything with her chicken feathered broom) or my brother (who simply doesn’t care and think that book is so ‘uncool’). It left me with my window sill. Books in my window sill are the temporaries which means I eventually trade them with new books or second-hands.

However, I also found a very good article in kimbooktu about how to take care of your books (and become a book doctor). Very important information for you who likes to buy antique or second-hand books.

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The New Face of Louis Vuitton

After Gisele and Catherine Deneuve comes this two guys. I wonder how much the endorsement fee is.

Taken from a life-size billboard in front of a well-known hairdressing shop.

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