SIDELINES / rio helmi

Over the last thirty years, I have managed to make it to Paksebali’s Kuningan trance a few times but to be honest I haven’t gone for about 10 years now since tourists have discovered it in a big way. I thought I would give it a shot (urgh, pun not intended) this year tho but [...]

For decades Balinese have resisted overpasses on the grounds that the Gods (or for that matter Brahmin Pedanda priests) could not go underneath them as it would be unclean. This can make for traffic jams, but there is an upside.
This week during the huge procession down from Besakih temple on the flanks of Gunug Agung [...]

Old friend (and sometime SF MOMA photo curator) Jane Reed has made yet another film about an interesting – though not ‘famous’ – photographer: in seven decades Pirkle Jones covered the whole gamut of SF’s Bay area: scenics to black panthers.

Congrats to Jane! If you want to check out more: WWW.FOTOFINISHFILMS.COM

Just read in Jim Pickerell’s newsletter that a leading advertising photog reports his stock sales for advertising is up as agencies can no longer afford shoots.
Interesting – though you still gotta shell out to do the shoot properly even if it is stock, does this mean more creative freedom? That could be one benefit, even [...]

With all due respect: Perhaps instead of simply blasting through Africa on a VIP tour the pontiff might consider rolling up his sleeves and spending a few months working with people with HIV. There needs to be some reasonable flexibility. Africa is the continent with the fastest growing Catholic population in the world, and the [...]

Those ugly banners by the roadside (see several posts below) hide an even uglier story. All Bali, and perhaps other parts of Indonesia are abuzz in advance of legislative elections. The number of parties is so high that there are scores of candidates for each seat.
What makes the coming attrition so sad is the fact [...]

The Ubud Writers and Readers Festival has played its role in bringing the world to to this once sleepy village which likes to hype itself as THE culture capital (hmmm). But belly button gazing aside it has been an interesting Friday the 13th here. UWRF launched a little event Friday night which had Indonesian artists [...]

Just got back from Jakarta where amongst other things I attended a Tibet Documentary Film Week of Leaving Fear Behind. It is an extraordinary little film shot in the most basic straightforward manner – but does it tell the story.

One thing that did make me think is that sometimes our over romanticising of what Tibet [...]

As an Indonesian citizen who is normally happy being one, I gotta say this has been bit of a humiliating few days. Not only do I have to cough up like $90 for the visa but another $65 for travel insurance (my entire world coverage, medivac etc insurance isn’t good enough for them, had [...]

The flurry of candidates (or more precisely the flurry of cash) that is in evidence for the upcoming legislative elections in April is an omen of things to come. It would be interesting to see how many of these candidates have any qualifications to be the law makers and representatives of Indonesia’s vast [...]