Peterporn...

The Peterporn saga continues unabated but slowly. There is so little happening in this case, and that which does happen takes so long, that it is a wonder that anyone even cares about it. Yet, it has all the key ingredients for great gossip and as such will serve to satiate the Indonesian appetite for celebrity gossip for sometime to come.

The key is that there has been rumoured to be some 32 tapes of Ariel of Peterpan fame bedding a bevy of women, all of whom are Indonesian celebrities of various fame and stature.

I was reading recently that another tape has surface in Sulawesi of all places. It reportedly shows Ariel (aka Nazril Irham) getting down and dirty with Bunga Citra Lestari (aka BCL). This tape has been conveniently converted to the DVD format and is being sold for between IDR 50,000 and IDR 450,000 on the streets. Now, a quick survey of the internet highlights that the clip is supposedly available for download from Rapidshare and Torrentbit, among others. Unfortunately, these all require registration before a download can be initiated, I am just not that interested in downloading the clip. Besides, if it really does exist then it won't be too long before it pops up in a much easier place for download, like YouTube or on someone's blog.

The latest development, as far as I can tell, is that the police have arrested eight people for allegedly being involved in the uploading of the two confirmed videos to date, Luna Maya and Cut Tari. However, the police, by their own admission are doing it tough in the investigation phase as they have not been able to uncover the 'missing link'. This is specifically how did the videos get to those who allegedly uploaded them to the internet.

The case theory is that someone close to Ariel 'passed' them on. Ariel's ex-wife, Sarah Amalia, has been interviewed by police, but police have not suggested that she is a suspect or in anyway involved in the dissemination of the tapes / videos. The police though have not been able to prove this missing link yet. So, it remains nothing more than a theory.

The police have also explained that their failure to move on the two women allegedly depicted in the tapes is that the police have some conflicting expert opinions to sort through before deciding on a legal basis to proceed. As is the tendency in Indonesia, the police want to ensure that the case is legally solid before proceeding. The idea being that the more solid the case is the less likely there is to be an acquittal. On a side, and completely unrelated note, perhaps the police should have thought about this idea when pursuing the Commissioners of the Corruption Eradication Commission. And, perhaps it is something that the Office of the Attorney General might want to consider in determining to end those shenanigans.

Postscript...
The Jakarta Globe are reporting that the police have "changed positions on the sex tape", no pun intended I am sure, and the eight previously arrested have had their status changed from suspects to witnesses. Sounds like things are not going so well on the investigation front.

Blues Traveler

This is not really an album review. Although the latest Blues Traveler album, North Hollywood Shootout, is a good one. I do not know that it is the best they have done. I am always a little partial to their first self-titled album and Straight on Till Morning, Bridge, and Travelers and Thieves.

This post is more about the difficulty of finding the CDs of some bands here in Indonesia and in Jakarta specifically. The development of technology means that I do not have to buy CDs anymore because I can just download any tunes that I want from the Internet. However, sometimes I just like to buy the CD and have it in my collection.



I was surprised to find the Blues Traveler album the other day. I immediately grabbed it and asked the shop attendant if they had any more Blues Traveler. Her response was the expected one, "Huh, who?" She had never heard of them, but was real helpful and looked. There were none in stock. Then it was to the computer to see what was there, maybe another one of their stores had some of the Blues Traveler.



Unfortunately, they had none. For now, it will be enjoying Forever Owed, What Remains, The Queen of Sarajevo, and Free Willis from my latest Blues Traveler acquistion. I guess it is back to buying Blues Traveler from the Internet.