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
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Don’t name your kid Selamat!!!

I had to call a laborer over at the weekend. I invited him in and asked him his name. “Selamat” he replied. Heck. As if I couldn’t have guessed! Because just about every labourer I’ve ever met in Indonesia has been called “Selamat”!!!!

Obviously a popular name in the kampongs then, but perhaps not the best choice if you want your son to become an investment banker or doctor or something.

Names are very important of course. And research in the States has shown that you won’t even make it to the interview stage if you are named Cody or Destiny and want to get a decent job. Your CV will just be tossed away. But if you’re named Marie-Claire or Sacha? Well, then you’ve got one foot in the door already.

As for Indonesian girl names? Well, whatever you do, don’t name your daughter either “Sita” or “Ina”. Unless you’d be happy for her to be slaving away as a pembantu 15 years down the line of course.

And as for the English sounding names some Indonesians are naming their kids, well some of them are just plain silly:

Merry (yep – Merry Christmas to you too!)
Happy (are you one of Roger Hargreaves’ Mr Men?)
Lucky (Argggg!)
Hotman (hahaha!)
Yessie Vibrator (???)

But if your parents do give you a naff name, there’s a simple solution: just change it of course. As these famous people did:

Malcolm Little
Edson Arantes Do Nascimento
Nguyen Sinh Cung
William Jefferson Blythe
Reginald Kenneth Dwight

Comments

  1. heppisundae1 April 2013 at 13:48

    It's "Slamet" not "Selamat", refers to javanese word "safety"

    ReplyDelete

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