Saturday 21st July
The Blog M Weekend Colour Supplement
As any writer will tell you, there are times when you just haven’t got the inspiration, the enthusiasm, or the will to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard. A deadly lethargy takes hold, and you find yourself filling the time with a myriad trivial activities. Well, the Reveller has been blocked for damn nigh a month, and has just this weekend got his get up and go back.
But while words cease to flow, while my muse is AWOL, I’m by no means idle. As an antidote to being stuck in a creative rut I go out and splurge on a nice new camera - a Canon Powershot G7 no less, to replace my trusty old G3. This dinky little digital masterpiece packs amazing firepower in its minute black body, and has more megapixels than you can shake a stick at. But the selling point - the ‘gottahave’ feature that makes it a must for the happy snapper whose stability is, alas, all too often marred by the demon drink - is a fully automatic image stabilizer that compensates for camera shake.
So armed with my little black beauty I venture out for a Saturday night in Top Gun to put the beastie through its paces. Joining my old mate Frank at the bar we prod and poke the new camera, and I bash off a few shots of the bar to check its light-gathering ability. Now the Twilight Zone and the band podium are unlit and murky in the early evening, a harsh test for any camera without a flash. “I don’t use flash because it kills the atmosphere”, I tell Frank - “and this is a particularly good low light camera”. “Surely you mean low life!” he quips back smartly. “Now there’s an angle I bet the boffins at Canon have never thought of,” I reply after a hearty laugh. “Just imagine the ads they could create using that catchline - ‘The Reveller’s low-life camera of choice’.”
So without further ado, here are the pictures:
Eight thirty on a Saturday night - looking towards the band area from the front bar
The pool players arrive
The Twilight Zone begins to fill up
The front bar pool table, seen from the Twilight Zone
The view from the rear bar corner
Wallpaper girls
The band strikes up
Life in the Twilight Zone
Eleven o’clock, and the band takes a rest
Murky meetings
Sweet Young Things chatting away the time
A panorama of the Twilight Zone
Looking down the length of the rear bar
The front bar, seen from the cash desk
Looking southwards down the street at midnight
Looking northwards up the street
My bajay, chugging through Prapanca
The home stretch
As Saturdays down the Blok go at the moment, this one is fairly typical. There isn’t a big crowd, there are very few premier cru Sweet Young Things, and there’s a rather passive feel to the night. But it’s pleasant enough, and a lot of the guys are just enjoying a drink and a chat - there’s not much hunting going on. The band is quite good, and the management very wisely keeps the volume at conversation level.
All in all it’s a good night down the Blok, and a successful photo shoot. The new camera passes the Blok M test with flying colours, and I look forward to taking more piccies over the next few weeks.
Comment by Wes — 4 August 2007 @ 10:38 pm
Comment by John_S — 5 August 2007 @ 9:46 am
I was wondering though… You always take the bajai home. When I take a bajai, I always end up spending more than if I would take a taxi… how do you do this
Comment by Rudi Theunis — 6 August 2007 @ 12:33 pm
No sign of Marmite (maybe too dark for your new camera?). I am now obliged to sport both products here at the bottom of the world. Alas, I have to say Vegemite produces finer results if taken, as it were, (by photograph) from the back (its only quality, although I am waiting for others to emerge).
Many wives will, no doubt, be trolling your website in the hope your new and obliging camera finally discloses the whereabouts of their perpetually absent husbands.
As always, I remain:
Your servant.
Duta Besar
Comment by Duta Besar — 6 August 2007 @ 4:30 pm
Alas, I too spend more on a bajaj than a taxi - as does everybody else in Jakarta, it seems! But I get a friendly ride from a driver who knows me, and who takes me to my gate without the need for any directions.
The ’spot the missing hubby’ phenomenon is a real and present problem - and indeed, during my photo shoot in Top Gun one of the guys walked over to tell me that he and his mates weren’t very happy that I was snapping away in their general direction. I assured him that it was my strict policy not to publish recognizable faces in a picture on my blog.
So if you look closely you’ll see several faces in digital shadow, one face discretely blurred, and in one picture a digital decapitation - the entire head has been cut off. It’s a pity that the best shots of the night can’t be used on the blog.
Comment by Reveller — 6 August 2007 @ 5:13 pm
Comment by John — 7 August 2007 @ 2:40 am
Comment by PAUL MILLER — 7 August 2007 @ 10:18 am
Top Gun was heaving last Wednesday (5th Sep), the quality was not that brilliant, but I took my usual little LBFM from the sixth floor after arranging for her to have 3 days off work. We also went on the following night, the quality was ten times better than the Wednesday, and was wishing that I had been alone. There was one stunning girl that came into the bar at about 20-15 hrs on both nights, really great looker and a body to die for, I think her name was Mimi or Didi or Divi, that’s what she put up on the pool table board. I will try and have her stay with me next time which will be first week of January, does anyone know her????
I had 13 games of pool on the Wed night without a loss, one of those nights. Also about 12 games on Thursday night, but lost 3 of them to some good pool players, they were either Dutch or German guys, but a great bunch of guys, and had some good crack. As I said, the young girl tallent on Thursday was brilliant, and after three nights with my girl from Malaiwi 6th floor, wish that I had been alone. Tried to locate the Reveller, but I don’t think he was in on those two nights, no one was drinking Pernod as far as I could see, anyway next time hey??
Just cannot forget that beautiful girl, and hope to hell she is present when I get back in 3 months time, although as I say, there was no shortage of others, and as far as I can tell, the TopGun was really back to normal, after the reported shortage of customers I have been reading about.
Cannot wait till my next visit.
Comment by Brian — 10 September 2007 @ 6:07 am
Comment by Bob Marshall — 19 September 2007 @ 7:34 am
Greetings all!
I’ve been heavily preoccupied with matters domestic and employment for the past three weeks, which explains but does not excuse my absence from the blog. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
Comment by Reveller — 19 September 2007 @ 4:21 pm
Comment by schmerly — 29 September 2007 @ 1:47 pm
OK, OK, enough already! A massive retrospective covering August and September is under way, and I promise it’ll be posted tomorrow (Sunday 30th).
Comment by Reveller — 29 September 2007 @ 5:58 pm
Comment by Che — 2 October 2007 @ 2:38 pm