random stories from nowhere & everywhere
“From now on our troubles will be out of sight …
From now on our troubles will be miles away …
Through the years, we all will be together …
If the fates allow …”
We failed to make holiday cards this year, but here is our last minute attempt to combine a timelapsed sketch and an a cappella rendition of our favourite holidays song.
Merry Christmas. Selamat Natal.
Happy New Year. Selamat Tahun Baru.
Happy Holidays.
ottawa, dec 2020
“Bubuy Bulan” (trans. The Roasted Moon)
a traditional song from my hometown, in Sundanese, my mother tongue
Music: spontaneously sung and played on piano by yours truly in the evening of november 12th, 2020
Visual: papercut artwork by Jane Kurnadi
(who spontaneously and amazingly created it after listening to my playing, thanks Jane 
).
I merged them and edited the video so they’re seamlessly blended to make the papercut version of me singing and playing the piano under the moonlight gaze.Enjoy!
—
… let the moon rise on the waters of your heart and I’ll play you a song about …. a roasted moon.
Bubuy Bulan is a somber love song. It tells a story of someone who is falling in love with a person who’s passing by every morning, but too shy/afraid to express it or even to ask that person, and can only imagine about being loved.”Bubuy” (Sundanese) is a cooking technique using fire woods, similar to ’ember roasting’ where you take full the heat of the embers. In this song, “bubuy bulan”—ember roasting of the moon—is poetically used to illustrate the feeling of being slowly burnt/consummated underneath a silent calm surface.
The roasted moon; toasted stars; the grilled sun.
They may sound weird in English, but in this Sundanese song, they are exquisitely accurate–visually, audibly, and emotionally—in expressing an associated feeling.
It started with an impulsive email I sent to three of several graduate students I advised. I wrote:
Hey all of you,
I have a silly and (not-so-crazy) idea. I just found out that the most musical grad students are all related to me. i think the universe tries to tell me something 😉
what do you think of doing a little fun music project for the #InsidiousCGC conference? (we can perform it after my closing talk).
(Un)Surprisingly, all responded enthusiastically! We met once to bounce ideas, wrote lyrics, and then rehearsed 4 times (+ 1 general rehearsal). Voila, we performed the “Insidious Medley” at the Carleton Graduate Caucus Conference!
So, yes, from #BigData to #GraduateLife to #McLuhan to #Foucault to #Feminist theory to #boring Profs … we spared nobody! The best part of doing this performance was to have colleagues and students laughed and, in the end, sung with us and gave us a standing ovation! It was a lot of fun and, sure, yes, we take humour very seriously!