Jakarta City Blues

I’m back in Jakarta after a real vacation (meaning a couple of weeks in which one doesn't do any tangible work, but gets to feel uncharacteristically OK about it.) It amazes me how quickly one can adjust to a different environment. Being home and seeing family and friends seemed so natural, that I almost forgot I live in Southeast Asia.

One of the first nights back here I found myself at a jazz club with a few friends. The vocalist/saxophonist was Indra Aziz (a “John Doe-ish”, very Javanese name mixing Hindu and Muslim without any fanfare.) He did a wonderful, melancholic yet upbeat rendition of High and Dry, among many other things.

I’d actually seen a clip he did on Youtube before leaving the States, but I don’t think I truly appreciated it back then. It describes a typical morning in Jakarta: a "city bus", traffic-jams, rain, floods, pollution, veering traffic. It's titled "Jakarta City Blues".

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And here’s PHD Comics on the “What do you do" question (as noted before, I've encountered this question once or twice myself.)