BMTH live in Jakarta 2024

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This time around Ravel gets it right and BMTH (Bring Me The Horizon) are headlining the Nexfest festival in Jakarta which also features Babymetal. In this format there is no seating - which makes for a much more intimate experience - although you do have to arrive really early if you want to pick a spot right up close to the stage.  We arrived about six hours before BMTH were scheduled to start their performance and bought plenty of drinks to stay hydrated in the tropical afternoon heat (mind you, some of those were Iceland vodka mix!) This was a gig I had long been looking forward to - especially after the debacle last year. Not everyone likes BMTH of course. For deathcore fans the band sold out. For metal heads the band is not purist enough. And for the wider mainstream audience, the band is too heavy. You can't please everyone of course but there are few bands in the rock world which can match the sheer emotional velocity of BMTH. To bring metal and even aspects of metalcore t...

Bird flu and cats

When I was a kid I often wondered what bizarre course of events must have led to a once fierce and proud creature ending up as the submissive love bundle that today warms its balls on old grannies’ laps everywhere. The family cat.

So it’s been domesticated you say. Sure. But what does that really mean? After all, by domesticating cats we have completely changed their behavior. And they look nothing like wild cats as well. Some have pedigrees (showcats) and others don’t (alley cats). Quite weird when you think about it. Does this qualify as “evolution” or not? And would it be possible for us to “domesticate” other animals? Like the large wild jungle cats and other animals like crocodiles, for example? Could be a lot of fun though: just imagine having a 130kg lion come over for dinner every evening! Certainly a lot more exciting than putting out a bowl of milk for that silly moggie that’s for sure!

Some cats even have an extra toe. They are called Polydactyl Cats, are no less normal than a cat with five toes on a paw, and even have their own web page.

I don’t have cats as such, but Indonesian strays often congregate outside my house. Occasionally – like every other night - they engage in noisy revelries Caligula style. But apart from that they’ve never really bothered me. At least not till I read this:

Research found H5N1 (bird flu) antibodies in 20 percent of 500 stray cats near poultry markets in four areas in Java, including Jakarta. Another case of infection was found in an area of Sumatra where there had been recent human H5N1 cases or outbreaks of the disease in poultry. The survey said the findings suggested the cats had probably been infected because they ate infected poultry.

Oh my God! I don’t believe it - if it isn’t chickens it’s cats!

So the Jakarta Governor might soon be ordering us to cull cats then as well. But nevermind. Let’s just hope that nothing goes to waste…

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