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Monday, March 18, 2013

March 18, 2013 - Antique Adventure

Hello, world.
Sudah lama sekali ya, tak bersua di Blogger.
(hey, and it's my first post in Indonesian haha!)

No more introductions!
This time, I'll be sharing my adventure finding laser discs in Jakarta, and this post will be in Indonesian.


Here goes...


Setelah beberapa bulan ini saya mencoba membeli laser disc dari website mana-mana, tiba-tiba saja terlintas dalam otak saya untuk mengunjungi Jl. Surabaya di Menteng. Kata orang-orang (lebih tepatnya, kata website-website yang ditemukan setelah cari di mbah Google) di sana banyak sekali dijual laser disc dan piringan hitam. Untuk penggemar film-film lama dan piringan hitam, Jl. Surabaya tentunya sudah tidak asing lagi. Saya sempat berpikir jika Jl. Surabaya itu ada di kota Surabaya, tapi ternyata tidak .Jl. Surabaya sendiri berada di Menteng. JAKARTA! Ah, betapa senangnya berada di satu kota dengan pasar tersebut.


Untuk membuktikan rasa penasaran saya, saya mencoba mengunjungi daerah tersebut. Kalau boleh jujur, saya masih bisa dibilang orang awam karena saya sama sekali belum pernah mengunjungi daerah tersebut, padahal saya sering sekali ke Menteng. Atau mungkin saya saja yang tidak pernah memperhatikan Jl. Surabaya sana. Karena itulah saya bersama supir saya pergi mengunjungi Jl. Surabaya, supaya lain kali jika saya pergi sendiri ke sana, saya bisa tahu arah. Walaupun hari ini hari Senin, tetap saja masih ada saja macetnya.



Ngomong-ngomong, apa sih Laser Disc itu?

  • Laser Disc ini bisa dibilang kakek atau buyutnya Compact Disc (CD), diameternya kira-kira 30 cm (orang luar biasa menyebut dengan ukuran inci yaitu 12 inci), ada juga yang 15 cm (6 inci). Dan harganya sangat mahal sekali pada tahun 1990-an dulu. Side A dan Side B ada dalam satu keping dan bisa dibolak-balik.
  • Bedanya dulu dan sekarang adalah sekarang ini sudah jadi pemandangan umum jika Anda melihat banyak DVD, VCD, CD bajakan dijual di mana-mana, di pasar, di mall ataupun di pinggir jalan, dengan harga yang jauh lebih murah. Karena dulu harga laser disc masih sangat mahal, banyak sekali laser disc film yang disewakan pada saat itu. Tidak mungkin kan, orang-orang menenteng benda sebesar laser disc keluar jika untuk meminjam/menyewa film atau mau pergi berkaraoke dengan laser disc di rumah orang lain? Haha.
  • Jadi tidak heran, dulu banyak sekali laser disc yang direkam ke VCD atau DVD sehingga lebih mudah dibawa dan lebih murah pula. Tetapi tetap saja, setelah direkam ke media yang lebih terjangkau, kualitas audio atau videonya menjadi turun.

Back to the topic.

Di siang hari yang sangat amat panas itu, akhirnya saya sampai di Jl. Surabaya. Awalnya saya sempat membayangkan jika tempat ini seperti Chinatown di negara lain. Tetapi kenyataaanya, tempat-tempat yang menjual benda-benda antik hanya sederetan saja. Dan deretan itulah yang dinamakan dengan "Pasar Antik". Di sana banyak dijual piringan hitam, kaset, jam antik, pajangan, dan lain-lain. Yah, tidak seperti yang saya bayangkan, sih, tapi karena sudah jauh-jauh ke sini, coba saja masuki toko-toko yang menjual piringan hitam atau Laser Disc di sini.


Setelah semua toko saya masuki, saya pun berhasil mendapatkan 1 keping Karaoke Laser Disc lagu Mandarin dengan harga Rp 50 ribu, dengan kondisi yang masih seperti baru. Bukan berarti benar-benar baru sih. Kondisi laser disc yang saya dapatkan masih 95% baru. Masih ada sedikit baret, tapi masih bisa disetel dengan sangat mulus sekali. Tentunya tidak mudah mendapatkan piringan laser disc dengan kondisi seperti ini. Dan jika dipikir secara logis, tidak mungkin ada yang menjual laser disc yang 100% baru di tahun 2013 ini.




Penampakan laser disc karaoke yang telah saya dapatkan hari ini.

Memang, mendapatkan laser disc (apalagi laser disc karaoke) dengan harga ini bukan hal yang sulit lagi. Pada tahun 1990an dulu, laser disc itu sangat mahal harganya. Kalau yang saya dengar dari orang tua, dulu harganya dijual sekitar 100 ribu per keping. Tak heran, di rumah saya sendiri koleksi laser disc masih sedikit. Jika dipikir-pikir, sepertinya dulu 100 ribu itu jumlah uang yang besar sekali. Saya sendiri belum pernah merasakan membeli laser disc dulu karena saya sendiri masih kecil pada masa itu. Hehehe... Sekarang, bisa apa dengan 100 ribu? Banyak.


Setelah selama setengah jam saya melihat-lihat, kebanyakan toko-toko yang berada di Pasar Antik ini menjual piringan hitam. Piringan hitam memang terbilang populer juga untuk para pemburu benda-benda antik jadi tidak heran banyak sekali piringan hitam dijual di sana. Laser disc tentunya juga ada dijual, tetapi kebanyakan berupa film-film. Bukan laser disc karaoke seperti yang saya ingin cari kali ini. Tetapi tidak apa, saya hanya ingin coba-coba saja sekaligus membuktikan sendiri rasa penasaran saya. Harga laser disc yang dijual pun berkisar antara Rp 30 ribu sampai Rp 100 ribu.


Dan jika dipikir-pikir lagi, untuk menonton 1 film dari teknologi yang berbeda-beda, jika dibandingkan dengan media lain seperti DVD, DVD pun rasanya masih kalah dengan laser disc. Rasanya sulit untuk menonton film yang sangat berkualitas sekali yaitu dari laser disc. Biarpun sekarang sudah ada Blu-Ray, feel-nya tetap beda. Jadi tidak heran lagi jika para kolektor laser disc lebih suka mencari film-film lama dalam bentuk laser disc karena kejelasan gambar dan suaranya.



Okay, here comes the ending of this post. Bukannya saya kuno atau apa, tapi memang begitu kenyataannya. Rasanya saya merasa beruntung masih merawat benda yang seantik ini. Playernya pun masih berjalan dengan lancar, walaupun sudah beberapa kali diservice. Kesimpulannya, semakin antik suatu benda, maka semakin mahal dan semakin dicari untuk orang-orang yang menyukai benda antik. Jadi, jagalah benda tersebut sebaik-baiknya.



Berikut ini artikel tentang Jl. Surabaya (bahasa Inggris):

http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/indonesia/jakarta/jakarta_shopping/info-218-jalan_surabaya_market_the_hunting_spot_for_antiques.php

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Dream Came True

Hola, world. Ni men hao. Long time no see. I was TOO busy with my summer classes and the other stuffs, so I apologize for the outdated posts!

FINALLY!I finally can go to Taiwan for a vacation! That was one of my biggest dream ever. And finally. I am able to buy some karaoke albums that is not on sale internationally, and finally. This is sooo wonderful.


The karaoke albums I bought in Taiwan

Yehliu National Park

Kenting National Park

Several hours before the Hualien typhoon...

Tanshui

Modern Toilet Restaurant Ximending









This is totally my super exciting vacation in my life. Thank You God, for fulfilling my dream. And thank You God, for blessing us and protecting us when we're out of the country.

Once again, thank You, God, for blessing me.

(All Photographs By Tony)

Friday, May 11, 2012

One of my Favorite Karaoke albums

These albums were one of my childhood favorites when I was little. I used to watch these (except for volume 4 and 5) when I was little. The 4th and 5th volume are the LDs that I just bought recently because I really like this series so much, and the pitch in the songs are suitable for me in karaoke.
The name of this English karaoke album is 西洋懷念老歌精華 ( "Top Hit English Old Songs" )

So here it is :)




Volume 1
All videos in this album are shot in Taiwan, France, and mostly Thailand.

Volume 2
All videos in this album are shot in Taiwan and Japan.

Volume 3
All videos in this album are shot in Singapore.
Volume 4
All videos in this album are shot in Singapore. The cover wrongly listed "shot in Europe".

Volume 5
The videos in this album are shot in Switzerland and mostly Paris, France.


(All photographs by Tony)

MAYbe

Hola, world! I'm back!


I just bought these karaoke albums from Taobao. Yeah, I finally can buy these. These albums, especially the LDs, brings many, many memories... And I never thought that I can buy these. Never. At all. 


LDs are mine. The LD player is repaired. I'm a happy man. Yay! :DDDD
I really enjoyed karaoke-ing with the LDs. At first, I was thinking "maybe" I only can see these items and never buy it. How I wish I can buy all the LDs I want from there.




Back to the post's title. Maybe. What's "maybe"? Maybe is, um, a probability? A tie between yes or no? A word for an answer that we don't know? Well, we ACTUALLY never know what will happen. So just go with the flow, but sometimes we have to pass through the flow. Or your life will be sooo boring by going with the flow. Be different. :D

Well, that's all for today. Sorry for the less posts. Ciao! :P

Friday, March 23, 2012

Photographs

Hola, world!

This post talks about... as you can see. PHOTOGRAPH!

Photograph. Yeah, I do have an interest in photography. Ever since my dad bought me a DSLR camera... I  fell in love with photography. Seriously. I don't want to be only an amateur so I keep on improving my knowledge by DOING it. Of course, people also can learn by doing it, though it is quite hard. So, why not? :) And from those photographs I took with the camera, I keep on learning from the mistakes I did with them.

Here's one of the photos that I took a year ago at Thailand. Even though this is taken from my phone, it still looks good though. Haha.



So yeah, don't really wanna talk much in this post. Bye!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Valuable? Yes, they are !

Hola, world! I'm going to talk about my family's LDs in this post.

My family had a bunch of LDs. My parents bought them when I was still a baby, so I often cracked some of them... hahaha... and I missed those "cracked" LDs now... I regret for cracking those!! haha.

But having LDs in good conditions in these times are much much valuable. Yup, it's 16TH MARCH 2012, and my LDs are still here, though the machine stopped working. I still want to find some more, though. They are super rare now.

Below are several LDs that my parents have. (NOTE: I AM NOT GOING TO SELL THESE. THESE ARE RARE, AND I AM STILL USING THESE FOR KARAOKE.) This is JUST A FEW OF THEM! HAHA. Enjoy !

-All Photographs by Tony-






Monday, March 12, 2012

My ALL TIME idol, Timi Zhuo Yi Ting (卓依婷)

There are a lot of singers / musician that I like. But this singer, had successfully broke my heart and "recruited" me as her fan.



Her name is Zhuo Yi Ting (卓依婷), who is a Taiwanese actress. She was born in October 2, 1981 in Taiwan. But she moved to China and live there until now, even though she often go to Taiwan frequently.

She had released a LOT of albums starting since she was only 5 or 6. Until now, she released about 70 albums, and she just released a pop album last year on 2011, which is titled Zhuo Yi Ting Tong Ming Zhuan Ji (卓依婷同名專輯). She composed the lyrics of FOUR songs in this album. Even though Timi sings mostly covers, this proved that Timi also has original songs and her original songs brings mostly positive reviews.


Below is her newest and famous single in her newest Tong Ming Zhuan Ji album:


I fell in love with her since I was only 6, when my dad bought me 3 Timi albums, which are

"Xiao Yuan Qing Chun Le 校園青春樂",


"Min Ge Xiao Diao 民歌小調",



and "Shao Nv De Xin Qing Gu Shi 少女的心情故事 volume 2"., on VCDs

(NOTE: THESE THREE IMAGES ABOVE ARE THE RECENT DVD RELEASE OF THIS ALBUM.)

Since that day when my dad bought me those 3 albums, I really can't stop listening to her music and put other musics aside. Her music is sooooo good and addicting, though she mostly sang covers of other people's songs. I don't care if my friends said that I'm too old-fashioned. I still love her music, from time to time.

And back then in 2000s, I was one of the stupid people who believed that Timi passed away. It seriously made me really really sad, why is my favorite singer of all time passed away? Seriously. Who in the world made such a news? That is so not funny. She is STILL releasing albums and performing!!!!! She is just taking a 2 years break because she is tired. Who said she is dead?

And because of a magical thing named YouTube, I discovered about her on 2007 that she actually is NOT dead and still releasing albums. I am up-to-date about her now. I even start collecting Timi albums again on my own. I am totally grateful with what I have, though I am still jealous seeing other people's Timi collections, and I DEFINITELY need to catch up. I am proud to be her fan. I wish I can meet her someday in one of her concerts.

卓依婷姐姐,我愛你!我永遠支持你!

NOTE: ALL PICTURES AND VIDEOS DISPLAYED IN THIS POST BELONGS TO THE PROPER OWNER. I DO NOT OWN THESE PICTURES. SPECIAL THANKS TO EVERYBODY WHO UPLOADED THE PICTURES AND VIDEOS ON THE INTERNET.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Four: Goodbye, LDs

Hola, world. Long time no see!

In this rare day (you can consider today is rare since there is no 29th February next year hahaha)...

My LD (laserdisc) machine is OFFICIALLY broken. Congratulations. I am totally IN SHOCK right now!!!!! :'( And it cannot be repaired again... NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :'(

And yeah, time goes by so fast. It has been almost 20 years my family own and buy laserdiscs, and now the machine has to break. Gosh. However it brings back memories. A LOT. I really don't want it to break, though. >< I guess I have to transfer my family's laserdiscs to VCDs... though we have A LOT of laserdiscs. Once again, I have to say... Good-bye, my laserdisc machine which accompany me for more than 19 years...

Monday, February 6, 2012

Three

Hola world!

Many people feel that Monday is very, very boring, but......

This Monday, I'M FREE!!!!!! Even though it's only for a while, but I'm FREE! Though finals hasn't finish yet, I don't care. Time to relax! See ya later, finals! We'll meet again on Saturday!

Okay... It's February 6th now, and Chinese New Year ends today, which is the 15th day of the Dragon Year... Time files by really, really fast. So, no more Chinese New Year Musics playing again around the house? Oh, of course no! Chinese New Year won't end for me. I can still play the musics on my own. :P

Since another finals is on Saturday, that means... 5 days holiday? Seriously a boredom. Being a college student seems like, having too many holidays in a week. Perfect. And 3 days in a row going to the same mall after class? That's insane.

Okay, got to go. I'll write more later. See you and good night! Happy 15th day of CNY!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Two

Another day has passed. And so is one SUPER horrible exam. PHEW! I am so relieved.
But this isn't over yet. 4 more exams is waiting. FOUR! Have you heard a statement that says "studied on the night before the exam, and forgot all of them in the exam day"? Yeah, that's me. That is SO me. -__-

Okay. stop this thing. I don't want to say a word about this right now. My mood dropped because of this crazy thing called "exam"... Time for refreshing my mind for a while. Hmm. Listening to classical music and a novel may help. Cooling for a bit.

That's all for today. Have a great day ahead! Good night!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

One

Hola world! This is my first post. EVER. Time to start bloggin' from now on!

Okay, I'm totally fresh and brand new in this blog world... Don't know what to say in this post. No idea at all. Start with something usual then. This is the 10th day of Lunar New Year a.k.a the first day of February, and yeah, I'm not in the CNY mood anymore. Because there are no more red envelopes (a.k.a hong bao, or money for sure... haha.) coming up. And I'm struggling with finals now... Gosh. Time goes by really, really fast...

Okay. What a random opening... haha. Have a great day guys!