We're losing the plot
Hello! Sending this a bit late as I was figuring a few stuff out, but here we are.
Last Saturday night, when Empire State of Mind started playing at the Senopati bar I was in, I half-jokingly told a friend that maybe this was a sign. The day before, I had miraculously managed to submit my LPDP application after organizers announced a never-been-done-before deadline extension. High on relief (!!!), I found myself singing along sans irony, unfazed, for once, by the grammatical construction of Alicia Keys’ lyrics “concrete jungle where dreams are made of”.
I had learned back in April that I’d been admitted to the NYC-based school that I had applied for. Getting to submit my scholarship application meant I might have a real chance of actually attending.
“Manifesting this for meeee,” I said, cheersing and laughing.
“What uni did you get into?” a friend of a friend asked. I’d made his acquaintance just 30 minutes prior and knew only his name and that he lived somewhere nearby.
“Parsons” I told him.
An eye roll.
“Pfft what are you gonna do, come back to Jakarta and make another [diaspora homecoming F&B passion project]?” he said.
I cackled. I get it. I love a good diaspora homecoming F&B passion project but have wondered myself what it means that the city’s go-to tastemakers are often the least rooted to the place they’re hoping to influence.
He kept going: A loosely-strung TED Talk on the Indonesian diaspora and their expensive degrees. Something about the state of creative work. Asked about my study plans before telling me my school of choice was “mid”. Have I maybe thought of going to Europe instead? It’s better. Cheaper. Do I really want to spend all that money on New York? Come home and do little passion projects?
It was as insufferable as it sounds, but not gonna lie the specificity of his Jaksel cynicism was kind of gratifying. It reminded me of the late Rana, who I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.
I went home that night still tickled by the idea of diaspora homecoming passion projects and how many of them have popped up around town in the post-COVID era. I have no idea where I’ll be three years down the line, heck at this point I’m just glad to maybe get to go. But if I were to find myself back in the city with my expensive degree and under the kind extraordinary circumstances to turn a niche idea into a brick-and-mortar spot in a prime Jaksel neighborhood… I would probably be so annoying about it.
This Week~
The winner of the Performative Male Contest held at Taman Langsat last weekend turned out to be the son of writer Dee Lestari — although that was the least surprising revelation to come out of the event. The real twist is that he is, in fact, a true personification of the Performative Male. Nothing signals we have completely lost the plot quite like financially rewarding a racist for being well-versed in the markers of the female gaze (winners of the contest get to take home Rp300,000).
RM Sinar Gakong seems to be the hot new Jaksel dining spot this week, judging from the amount of times I’ve seen people on my feed post the place. I don’t know if Grand Wijaya was ever really dead but the places that have opened within the compound in the past six months have surely breathed new life into it.
CALLA the label is coming out with padel rackets.
In other padelmaxxing news, this week I learned about Padel Berkebaya.
Three Peaks, a Bali-based gin brand by the people behind Kura Kura Beer and the hard seltzer brand Santai, officially launched in Jakarta last Saturday with a party at Kilo Kitchen. Not sure if it’ll replace East Indies’ Bali Pomelo gin for me any time soon but here’s to having options.
If you’re wondering whether vegetarian nasi padang can be tasty, it can. Tried it at Taman Brightspot last week upon Paulista’s recommendation and it was so, so good. Wish they were close enough to add to my daily meal.
Has anyone actually tried Timeleft? I’ve been on the receiving end of its ads for months now and have always wondered how it works, what the vibe is, etc. Cool to see more spaces created around the idea of dining / wining with strangers as a way of facilitating social connections, like this Indonesian dinner series that limits each session to eight people, or this wine club. I think what differentiates these from other activity-based events is how much smaller and therefore more intimate they feel, and how the activity (dining) is a proxy for the actual activity (socializing), instead of the activity itself being the core event (e.g. Paint and Sip events). Jakarta can be a bitch when it comes to meeting new people. I feel like most friendships in the city are either based on shared history that date back to middle school or shared workplace trauma, both of which aren’t the easiest for a stranger to penetrate. Activity-based social groups can either feel too intensely close-knit or requires some form or level of investment in the activity (sports clubs/art communities). Small dinner gatherings are so underrated, there should be more of it.
Museum Macan’s annual party event Malam di Macan is returning in September.
The Materialists officially has an Indonesia release date: August 20. Better late than never, I guess!
