Wednesday, February 24, 2010

How Paul Krugman found politics

Interesting article in the New Yorker. For economics geeks and others...

Monday, February 08, 2010

Buying art in Jakarta

With a few hours to spare in a day full of meetings we wanted efficient shopping and we wanted art!What better way to remember the countries you travel to, really? You can get a nice piece for your home, a conversation piece, and a memory for your trip - 3 in 1! Surely beats a lot of the regular souvenir knick-knacks.


So, art and efficiency - we decided to go to the Ancol art market (Pasar Seni Ancol). They have a little bit of everything, though mostly paintings. All price classes are represented and you need to haggle! I am horrible at that but fortunately I had a very competent colleague with me and she got our paintings down to 1/3 of the original price! Pretty good.

Here is one of the pieces I bought - and the artist, Nasimin. A fun guy, go visit him and check out his art if you make it to Ancol!



Ancol Art Market can be found in Kompleks Taman Impian Jaya Ancol, Jl. R. E. Martadinata, North Jakarta. Ask your driver to take you to Ancol, and then Pasar Seni Ancol.

Dangerous karaoke....


Photo: www.nytimes.com

Now I have a better excuse than "I REALLY can't sing" when I get nagged about doing my turn at the karaoke mike... I always thought there would be a danger in me getting killed while singing - turns out I wouldn't be the only one. Yes, sad but true, but the karaoke machine is the cause of violence and killings here in the Philippines.

Read about it here.