Diary of Random Events

Sublime

A fu**in' great band back in the mid 90s. Their music is the perfect mix of reggae, folk, and punk rock and with very explicit social issues lyrics. And f**k they had skills man. I had its self title album when I was in high school. And it was fu**in’ great. Many people and my self consider the album as their best album and also one of the best rock albums ever produce in the 90s.

Well every success story has its dark side. And for the sublime’s it was sad. During the recording of the album, Bradley Nowell (guitarist and vocalist) was at the lowest point of his addiction to the heroin. And in May 25, 1996 Brad Nowell was found dead by his fellow band mate Bud Gaugh at 11:30 AM in a San Fransisco hotel room due to a heroin overdose. He died at 28 leaving behind a band, a wife, a son, and one of the best albums ever recorded.

Click here to listen to 'Santeria' from the self title album Sublime.

and these are the lyrics

i don't practice santeria i aint got no crystal ball. i had a million dollars but i'd, i'd spend it all. if i could find that heina and that sancho that she's found, well i'd pop a cap in sancho and i'd slap her down.

what i really wanna know, my baby, what i really want to say i can't define. well it's love, that i need, oh , but my soul will have to, wait till i get back and find heina of my own. daddy's gonna love one and all.

i feel the break, feel the break, feel the break and i got to live it up, oh , yea huh, well i swear that i. what i really wanna know, baby, what i really want to say i can't define. that love make it go, my soul will have to...

what i really wanna say, my baby, what i really wanna say is i've got mine. and i'll make it, yes, i'm comin' up.

tell sanchito that if he knows what is good for him he best go run and hide. daddy's got a new .45. and i won't think twice to stick that barrel straight down sancho's throat. believe me when i say that i got somethin for his punk ass. what i really wanna know, my baby, what i really wanna say is there's just one, way back, and i'll make it, yea, but my soul will have to wait. yea, yea, yea

Have you ever seen Asians doing rap? I mean like Asians who really live in Asia? Well I’ve seen couple of them, and sorry to say, they’re suck. Well not all of them, some of them are OK, but the others are trying too hard to “copy” the style of American rapper. And yes they’ve done a good job, in term of appearances, you know, Bling Bling kinda style, but in terms of the quality of the musicality, BIG ZERO man.

So I was kinda pessimistic about Asian rappers, because like I said before, they didn’t have their own style of music. Not that I against any of American rappers, of course not, I grew up with hip hop and rap music, and most of them are American. I mean if I want to hear American kinda rap, I would listen to American artists for sure.

Until one day I listened to this song on the radio. The intro was a Malay kinda traditional music, which was kinda weird to me, and then followed by the standard drum loop and bass and scratching and stuff, and followed by couple of guys rapping in English. And I said to my self “who the hell are these guys?!!” the song was really good. I like it since the first I heard the song.

And later on I found out that the title of the song was “Anak Ayam” or literally chick in English (really weird huh for a song title) sang by the Malaysian duo called Too Phat. I was so interested of these guys, and one of the reasons that, the fact that they were coming from Malaysia. I never heard any of Malaysian rap artists before, and once I heard one, it was damn good!!

So I started to search more information about them, and bought their album. The album was good. It has kinda “Asian Flavour”. well not entirely, it also has “American aroma” too, in fact they managed to ask Warren G to took part in one of their songs called “just a lil’ bit” and I really like the song.

I’ll put a little bit of their biography from wikipedia below. You can also go to their website, but when I checked, it was under construction, but this is the address http://www.toophat.com.my/ and yeah you can hear their song “Just a Lil’ Bit featuring Warren G” just click on the title OK?!

Ciao

Too Phat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Too Phat is Malaysian Top Hip-Hop duo that has brought Malaysian Hip-Hop scene to greater heights. The group consist of Joe Flizzow (Johan Ishak) and Malique Ibrahim.

The Duo
Joe and Malique's first recorded collaboration won so many fans that the producers quickly began work on a new and better album Plan B. At last count, Plan B had sold 45,000 copies and garnered a double platinum award. Recording label Positive Tone, a subsidiary of EMI International, saw it fit to produce a re-issue of the album. Called the Plan B Platinum Edition, the CD pack includes a music video CD featuring home video footages and two new songs "Clap to This" and "Last Song". The lyrics of the songs have also been included in the Platinum Edition.

The first time around, they weren't. For good measure, Too Phat has thrown in never before released photographs of the boys. Meanwhile, cellular communications operator Maxis has taken a chance on this very new concept of rapping Malaysian style. The company has linked its prepaid service Hotlink with Too Phat's latest music, "Just a Friend". The video that debuted on ntv7 is contemporary, slick, bold and relevant. It was innovative to have the collaboration of Maxis Hotlink, and cameo appearances of artistes M. Nasir and Fauziah Latiff, track hero Watson Nyambek and singer Ferhad on the music video. Brave because for the first time on Malaysian video and on national television (with scenes shot at locations in Kuala Lumpur) the issue of homosexuality was addressed.

It is bolder than the strong hint of a gay relationship in Spinning Gasing, Malaysia's first English language movie. The audience received the hint of homosexuality in the movie with rip-roaring laughter. How sad. It begs the question what people are actually laughing at; the slapstick antics of the parties in the relationship, or the relationship itself. "Just a Friend" is brave but admirably tactful, smoothly nonchalant, yet entertaining. Kudos to Pegasus Film's Sean Chan, whose directing gave a sensitive portrayal of the two young men's frustration over the complexities of love. No derogatory remarks or insinuations were made on that other relationship. Just hair-tearing disappointment for the supposedly hip Joe and Malique when they discover that they've been had.

At the video launch, Joe and Malique's stomping enthusiasm elicited guffaws from the audience. Having broken new ground by dealing with a controversial issue, Too Phat must now prepare for the feedback. Fans and industry watchers appreciate their audacity. Even critics may want to consider the refined manner in which Too Phat has presented a facet of life. If their brave approach is accepted, Too Phat will ride the crest of popularity to untold heights.

Would You Rather Own Google or Indonesia?

Just for information, I’m an Indonesian. And I will post something more about my home country later on.
So do you think the title above a little bit intriguing? Well so did I when I first read the article. It’s a title of an article written by William Pesek Jr., a columnist for Bloomberg News.
Well I leave you guys with the article, and write me a comment with your pick or your opinion about the article.

Ciao

Would You Rather Own Google or Indonesia?: William Pesek Jr.

Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Faced with poverty, surging oil prices and terrorist threats, many of Indonesia's 235 million people probably never noticed the milestone. Ditto for global investors, who care more about such things.

In April, Google Inc. surpassed Indonesia's entire stock market in value.

Think about it. A seven-year-old company that produces no physical products is now more valuable than the equity of Southeast Asia's biggest economy. Indonesia is an archipelago of some 18,000 islands holding natural resources --including oil -- that make the world's richest nations salivate. Google is, well, an Internet search tool.

It raises an intriguing question, and one Mark Matthews, a Singapore-based director at Merrill Lynch & Co., posed this week in a sales note to clients: Which would you rather own: 100 percent of the Indonesian equities market or Google?

A bit existential perhaps, but a question that focuses the mind and gets at a bigger point. Matthews' take on it? Indonesia is the clear winner.

``Indonesia is a hairy asset to be sure,'' he wrote. ``It has African levels of corruption, thousands of islands spread out over three time zones, Islamic extremists. But judging by the market's ability to withstand the most recent mini-crisis and Bali bombs, this is in the price. So there is upside if they can eventually get it right. And it is something real.''
Today's Cotton Gin?

Matthews can't help but wonder if Google will go the way of inventor Eli Whitney. ``The cotton gin changed America,'' Matthews wrote. ``It revitalized the South and boosted the British textile industry, and had a thousand other effects. And this earned the inventor, Eli Whitney, almost nothing.''

What's all this got to do with Google? ``That's sort of where Google is today,'' Matthews wrote. ``Google has a small lead over a pack of competitors, all eager to fight for one of the few remaining high-margin zones left in tech-land. Does Google management know that the supply of advertising space on the Internet is unlimited?

Google's market cap is $92 billion and last year it had $3.2 billion in sales. Indonesia's stock market is valued at $72 billion and its gross domestic product is $258 billion. PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, the nation's biggest telephone operator, alone had sales of 33.9 trillion rupiah ($3.3 billion) in 2004. In other words, one company that's just 14 percent of the Jakarta Composite Index had more sales than Google.

Indonesia's Pros and Cons
Matthews' basic conclusion is this: Folks who buy Indonesia at current prices may do better than those who buy Google.

In 1998, for example, Microsoft Corp.'s market cap was bigger than South Korea's. Now Microsoft's is $272 billion and Korea's is $530 billion. ``If I could take a 7-year view on them, I would long Indonesia and short Google,'' Matthews says.

Aficionados of the information age may fear Matthews is spending too much time in the tropical sun. The stock of the most- used Web search engine rose 62 percent this year alone. Clearly, people are making some serious money off Google. And how many companies have seen their name become a verb?

Google comparisons aside, Matthews raises some interesting points about the state of the world's fourth most-populous nation.

The aftermath of the deadly Oct. 1 bombings in Bali hasn't been what their perpetrators might have expected. If the hope of the suicide bombers who killed themselves and 19 other people was to shake confidence in Indonesia's economy, they failed miserably.

Bonds Tell the Story
That Indonesia's stocks are still up nearly 10 percent this year is one sign. A more important one is that Indonesia drew excess demand last week for its biggest overseas debt sale, and that it plans to sell more 30-year bonds in 2006.

If investors viewed Indonesia as a basket case -- which many did following the 2002 Bali bombings and the 2003 attack on the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta -- would they really have placed $4.25 billion of orders for the $1.5 billion of 10- and 30-year debt it sold? That demand prompted the government to increase the sale by 20 percent.

While the yields Jakarta is paying are higher than those offered in April, they were at the bottom of the range marketed to fund managers. The demand reflects confidence President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is making progress toward reducing Indonesia's budget deficit, protecting currency reserves and attacking corruption.

Subsidy Gamble
Risks indeed abound in Indonesia, an economy whose only real consistency is its ability to confound investors. The place has crushing poverty, terrorist threats and chronic inefficiencies. And those are just the concerns investors focus. Any Asia-wide outbreak of bird flu, for example, could hit Indonesia hard.

Yudhoyono says he's tackling the problems that cost Indonesia the foreign direct investment it needs. Earlier this month, he almost tripled kerosene prices and more than doubled diesel tariffs to cap fuel subsidies and reduce the budget deficit.

While a tricky maneuver for any leader, that's a particularly perilous one in Indonesia. In 1998, the removal of subsidies fueled violent protests that toppled President Suharto. Yet Standard & Poor's on Oct. 3 said Yudhoyono's move was ``encouraging'' and will spur investor confidence.

It's a reminder that in any Google versus Indonesia debate, Asia's No. 7 economy may not be as bad a bet as you think.

To contact the writer of this column:
William Pesek Jr. in Tokyo at wpesek@bloomberg.net