Sangat Pedas

Category Archives: Videos

Pirate Bay – Away From The Keyboard Documentary [VIDEO]

February 10, 2013 by Remco | 1 Comment

This was for sure the best way I could have spend 80 minutes of my Sunday, watching the documentary about the founders of Pirate Bay called “Pirate Bay – Away From The KeyBoard”. If you’re a geek or even just have the slightest interest in Internet this is a definite MUST WATCH. If you enjoyed “The Social Network” you probably enjoy this documentary way much more.

Best way I can describe it is using the word “Surreal”. No script writer in Hollywood could possibly come up with the scenario and the characters of this story, it would be dismissed as “over-the-top” or “too far fetched”.

The documentary is about “freedom of speech” or “copyright infringement” depending on where you stand. It’s  IT mixed with a little bit of ideology, intrigues, law suites, lots and lots of alcohol and drugs and a datacenter in an atomic bunker (so cool) resulting in the biggest p2p file sharing site in the world.

Opinion wise I’m totally against copyright infringement and the “Freedom of Speech” argument is total bullshit. On the other hand the movie and record industry should smarten up and realize times have changed. Instead of fighting and trolling they should realize the Internet made/makes people consume in different ways. Sticking to an old school approach will lead to more smarter and harder to fight “Pirate Bays” and not solve any issue at all.

But for me this documentary wasn’t so much interesting from the angle of the debate, it was more the story itself and even more the persons behind Pirate Bay. To see how naive highly intelligent people can be. Another example that being smart and being intelligent don’t always go hand in hand.

If you enjoyed this docu like I did, please help out the makers of this docu with a donation.

Sang Pialang (2013) – Movie Review + Trailer

January 16, 2013 by Remco | 2 Comments

SANG PIALANGLiving in Indonesia for more than 4 years until yesterday I actually never watched an Indonesian produced movie in the cinema. So I was happy to land an invitation for the premiere of the movie “Sang Pialang” (The Broker) in which Christian Sugiono, who invited me (thanks again bro!) plays a lead role. Now seeing a friend in action in a cinema movie is already exciting but the theme of the movie gets me even more excited.

The first sales job I landed was actually in a foreign broker firm. The job started with 6 months, 12 hours per day drilling on sales techniques, on the psychology of selling and basically appealing to greed that’s latent in every human being. I was one of the very few in class to make the cut and worked another year as a “broker” and this was definitely one of the craziest periods in my life. For sure my favorite movie so far on this topic is The Boiler Room which is so similar to my period as a “broker” it’s almost scary. I should actually write a post on this later.

So, having being a “broker” myself (I keep using quotes because basically it was a 100% sales job) and with the Boiler Room being one of my favorite movies all-time I was very curious to the Indonesian version of life as a broker. With the Boiler Room as my favorite movie and my own experience in the market the bar is put quite high.
Continue Reading →

Axe Apollo Space Academy Commercial By BBH London

January 14, 2013 by Remco | 0 comments

AXE ApolloIt seems whatever Axe and their agencies are putting out is getting better by the day. To me they’ve found the right mix between offline effectiveness, online virality by applying a more “cultural” approach instead of a “hard-selling” approach. The core off all this is a great strategy and loads of creativity from BBH London (Bartle, Bogle & Hegarty).

Probably one of the view jobs in the world I envy must be being member of a team that creates campaigns like these. Thinking beyond the usual advertising rules conventions and creating something new and original.

Axe & BBH understands that there’s no trick to get something to go viral, it just needs to be interesting, funny and original enough for people to bother.

So hats of to Axe and BBH for making yet another great commercial.

It’s A New Dawn, It’s A New Day… #PanSunriseProject

January 1, 2013 by Remco | 0 comments

With the smell of alcohol and cigarettes still around,
a new sunrise emerges.
The first rays of sunlight, a new day, a new year.
The first rays of sunlight symbolise hope, dreams and new ideas.
Reminding me of the lyrics of an old Nina Simone song:

It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day
It’s a new life
For me
And I’m feeling good

And this old world is a new world
And a bold world for me

Wishing you all a blessed, healthy and happy 2013.
May your wishes come true.

Special thanks to the creative and kind team of Pantarei for doing the #PanSunriseProject and Skye Jakarta for their kind cooperation.

Saying Goodbye To 2012 [sunset 2012 Jakarta Video]

December 31, 2012 by Remco | 0 comments

Time for reflection, an emotional moment, one last look back at 2012 and then move on to 2013. A metafore from my good friends of Pantarei who know how to capture the drama of a moment.

Time to sit back, clear your mind and just let it all out while watching the metaphorical last sunset of 2012 in Jakarta and humming along with Barcelona’s “Please Don’t Go”.

Goodbye 2012, we’ve had our ups and downs but it definitely was a great ride, I will miss you, farewell…..