FISIP UI's Gelas Maba 2011

Hello guys! I'm going to rant and rants are never objective (it's a blog anyway, why should it ever be objective?) but first of all, what's up with Blogger's new entry? I feel awkward writing this :/

Anyway.

Last Wednesday was, as the title says, FISIP UI's Gelas Maba 2011. Gelas Maba stands for Gelar Apresiasi Seni Mahasiswa Baru (pls CMIIW) and that pretty much describe the event itself, is it not? No? Then I'll help you.

In Gelas Maba, freshmen from 8 majors in FISIP compete through performance arts that actually can be anything; but this year, every major has different theme of what to perform. The theme was countries. In which Communication was China; Administration was India; International Relation was Middle East; Criminology was Mexico; Politics was South Africa; Anthropology was South Korea; Social Welfare was Hawaii and Sociology was Italy.

Every single one of them are good and brilliant but I'm not going to tell how did it go for every single major except for the best 3 majors' performances. And those are Politics, Criminology and Communication. Oh, and sorry for the lack of photos, I think I'll post them out later, if I'm not too lazy to do so.

(Fyi, every single year since the event started, Comm had always got the 1st place. Not for this year, sorry to say. But nevertheless, let me review how did it go.)




Politics was awesome. It was good. Here's the list of whys (in my opinion):
Their theme was South Africa and they brought up a sort of out-of-the-box theme; The Lion King. And why is that sort of out-of-the-box? The only major that use fable as their main plot was Politics. I did not see that coming at all. The opening was a 'BOOM'. There was a classy so-african-ish music produced by used bottles and that sort of stuff. It was very creative and the music was nice to hear. The story was ordinary, but I have to admit, the narrator was a total win. I practically see the soul of Rafiki in his performance (not exaggerating). He was the main source of laughter and he deserved the Best Artist award. The ending was a climax; the censored kiss was well played and very entertaining, the following dancing flashmob was good. The background real leaf and tree trunks. They even brought SNAKES! A real, living and breathing snakes. I already thought of no chance of winning for Comm when I see those snakes. That snakes was, was, was... I don't have a word for it but I like those snakes. It was very, very Africa.

But every good performance must've had its bad right?

You bet it has. Even though it was true that the fable theme was no ordinary plot (there, at that moment) it was a adaptation of Lion King and it reminds me of Lion King musical so so much. Not that it was a bad thing; adaptation wasn't bad, almost every ballet performance was a classic used over and over again. But it just means that it's not original in plot-wise. And personally, I regret that it was a Lion King, not Lion King 2. (I think it would be much more dramatic if it was the story of Kiara and Kovu's forbidden love and all, y'know. IT WOULD BE MUCH MORE DRAMATIC.) The love story in this performance was half.. uh. Half-cooked? Simba and Nala's scene was not so.. uh, important for me to remember. IMAGINE IF IT WAS KOVU AND KIARA And here's more: the fact that the narrator was so good, in the end, what I remember was the narrator part only; probably because the other scene wasn't so clear (there are too many scenes for a short-timed performance) and that's bad too, because if I have to be honest, I was only captivated by the narrator, mostly. The stabbing-thing and the censored kiss were too, but that's probably all. Another thing I regret from this performance was that, the change of scene was taking too long. It's a waste of time, I'd say. The supposed duration was 10 minutes but it was dragged too long. (It was worth it, I guess.) And another thing. It was good, but I sort of didn't see the performance as a whole; the opening music and the flashmob was not really intact with the story. Like, mm. The performance ends (the music ends) and then you add another performance (the drama) and then after it ends you add another performance (dance). But nevertheless, as I said above, overall it was good and awesome and very entertaining, despite all those things I mentioned.



The next one was Criminology. Criminology was fresh and funny, but I personally don't have very much comment regarding its performance.
It was good! Really! I laughed at a lot of scenes, as the judge says it was like watching a live OVJ. The actors are funny and good at what they're doing. They're all out, I sensed no awkwardness at what they're doing and the audience was happy. It was entertaining in joke sense and... pretty much that. Their forte was gags and jokes. I don't even know if it was in the script or every single one of them are born from improvisations on the stage. Very.. natural. The live mexican music and guitar instrument was good. SO so good. So mexican-ish and I like how they use guitar instrumental to accompany the narrator. And the blackman gag! It was creative and I didn't see that coming, LOL remembering it makes me laugh.

But like Politics, of course it has its bad too. First of all, maybe because I was a fairly visual person, I don't get much of a something visually attractive here, except for the dancers' and Maria's clothes. The plot... what plot? I don't see much of an appeal besides its jokes and gags. And the end was anti-climatic. I'm sorry. The cockroach joke was funny the first time, but to end the performance with the exact joke? ...It's not funny anymore. (for me. Again, for me.) And if I have to be honest, most of them are lame for my taste (I don't get most of the things the crowd laughs about) and there you go. See. I told you I don't have much of a comment.

But as I said, it's not because they're bad; they're good and very very funny and entertaining; they got the 2nd place, remember? But their sort of play was just not my taste (MINE. Not yours, and certainly not the judges').




The last but not least (but it turned out to be least of the three, the judge said, but not for me, absolutely) was Comm.

Communication was epitome of creative. Very. Very. Creative. Very. And for me, it was captivating. Fascinating. The kind of stage that makes me go WAW because of its creativity and out-of-the-box-ness. Maybe I'm biased, but here this out. (Going t be long because I got a lot of things to say)
The decoration was the best. It got everything you could ask for for the background. You see it as a bar; the background was a bar and it has a brick wall and chinese windows which one of them was opened and you can see a gleam of china town outside the window. And not just that you see it as a bar, you feel it as a bar too. There's a bartender in the back, making drink to a costumer and there are people with their foreign wives drinking and asking waitress' out. But as the atmosphere goes, you know who the focus was. The singing girl. And it played out simultaneously with those scene in the back. Salute! Because making things simultaneously goes like that is not a theatre thing; it's a movie scene. It was very very real and I was captivated by the movement and lively-ness it brought in the stage.

Is it all? NO! The singing girl was talking in REAL Chinese and how'd we know what she meant? Through subtitle of course! The idea itself was good and the execution was better. And then it has this scene where the guy fights with the bad guy. Wait. It's not a bad GUY. It's a GIRL. They fight and it has this power measurer (I don't know what it's called), the kind of thing you'll see above the screen when you're playing a fighting game and both players were doing their best move and you're trying your best to press every single button in the joystick to keep your character from losing. HOW COOL IS THAT? and WHO WOULD THINK OF THAT? And what's more is that you'll see that the players was not there out of the blue, the hero was there all along, watching his girlfriend from afar while drinking in the bar, the mafia thing didn't start out of the blue either. The start until the end was a whole performance. Those people who performed the dance are those guys in the bar before the commotion started, and it was ended beautifully. Everything there was so chinese; culture-wise, the set, the PEOPLE, even. It has the whole package. For a 10 minutes (maybe less) performance, it was very creative, very well-thought, and entertaining. And again, the set was awesome. I see red even after it ends. I have mentioned that I thought that there's no chance of winning for Comm to win after seeing the snakes from Politics' performance, haven't I? After seeing this, that thoughts were eaten by my cannibalistic brain.

But of course, it's not perfect.

There's no life music. Every single music you heard was a tape and well. So much for something 'musical'. The story was original but the plot definitely wasn't. It was an ordinary corny romance plot. But to be fair, I don't think other performances have 'original plot' either. The end was.. not so climax too. It was the climax, but not the kind of climax we expected to see from something that good! If you know what I mean. The expectation from seeing the set and all was not fulfilled, I guess. The story wasn't very much there; but hey, what to expect from a 10 minutes performance?




But yeah, call me biased and all. But please. As much as I know what makes Politics and Criminology won their places, Comm deserves more than 3rd place. What is it that the judges looking for? If the creativity and the idea of culture the country it presents was an important element of the performance score, Comm would've won easily. But maybe it was much more than that. The nonexistent life music was probably a big let down. Or is it not entertaining enough, huh?

I'm no expert, it's not that I've watched thousands of performance arts to have the right to say which one's better than others. But I know what I think was good and better and best and I have the right to say what I thought.

Once again I'd say: for 10 minutes performance, it was awesome. Others didn't even fulfill that requirement. (Not bragging, but still) Time was a very crucial element. To make something so 'whole' in such a short time was something that has to be highly appreciated. Also, the atmosphere it has was not an easy task either. You see, it's easier too coordinate 3 people to act on stage, rather than 14 people to act; every single one has their own role to perform and STILL have the main focus as THE MAIN FOCUS.

AND BESIDES, all of the performers was, like, straight from China or something. Aren't they count for 'Originality' points? (I wish)





And HUFF. There. My rant ends there.


But hey, everything's said and done and that's the result. And every result is the best. Every cloud has silver linings, remember? Call me mean but I kinda.. feel sort-of glad for not winning. If winning this would cause a storm of arrogance inside the heart of Comm 2011 for preparing it by themselves (with a quote mark), then I guess I'm okay with not winning. Besides, Comm has proven that they're the best of what they do best; although we're not winning. (Did I mention 'not winning' too much? It's not a very fair term though, we ARE winning...... the 3rd place)

But even saying so, I still feel bitter (being a sore loser that I am). AGH. That performance deserves more than 3rd place, I tell you! BUT. But. Sigh. Oh well. We can't have everything.


Truth to be told, the happiness radiating from other majors when we were announced as the 3rd place was a form of flattery for me. They think so highly of us they're intimidated and feel so, undeniably happy for our place in 3rd. Hehehehe. Silly me.

Winning isn't special if the modesty's blown out of the window. And losing is noble if it's accompanied with sincerity. The journey counts, and both of them aren't important for those who are champions by nature.


Comm's performance was the best in my eyes, in my heart and in my mind. Out of everything I saw in Wednesday 14th, Comm's performance was what I remember the best. And I'm sure it's not because of my bias-ness. If others were THAT GOOD, of course one will remember despite their preference, right?

Right.



Oh, and just a little trivia! When one of the performers sang Forget You, Commusic was on my mind. When SJ's Mr. Simple and SNSD's The Boys was on tape, my thought flew over Komboys. And when one of dance group performed, I can't help to compare them with Komdance. And here's my conclusion:


Comm has the best performers, definitely.

Hahaha.



Comments and critics are highly appreciated!