Cornucopia of calendars marks new year

Cornucopia of calendars marks new year

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): We are reminded of the new year by the various
calendars that appear in the mail, included as give-aways when
you make a purchase in shops, or are offered for sale in
bookstores.

Last year many publishers adopted the use of compact disc
holders for monthly calendars. The first of this kind seems to
have appeared a few years ago, featuring Annie Leibovitz's
striking photographs. Since then there have been many more titles
featuring artists such as Cezanne, Dali, Klimt and Monet, to name
but a few.

Now you can even get calendars in the 3.5" diskette format.
One that I received featured a series of works by Indonesian
photographers. Indonesians on Indonesia, an exhibition which was
displayed in South Korea in commemoration of Indonesia's 50th
anniversary last year included a small 3.5" diskette calendar as
a charming spin-off product.

This calendar displays a selection of 12 photographic images
from the show, one on each of the 12 pages. Below each photograph
is a row of dates with the Sundays highlighted in bold type. On
the flip side there is a table with seven columns and
approximately five rows, providing a small box for each day of
the month. Unfortunately, the space provided in each box is
merely 12mm by 14mm, barely large enough to write anything in it.

The format of a calendar in the small diskette holder is so
handy that I am sure it would make a great wedding souvenir.

A popular favorite on the market is Former Points of View, a
collection of 12 postcards of Old Indonesia, produced by the
Lontar Foundation. This calendar uses the basic desk calendar
format. The decorative side shows the postcard image, with a full
month calendar above its corresponding caption. The table of
dates is truly functional. Although the space allotted for each
day is still quite small, there is enough room to jot down the
major events or appointments of the day.

The bigger, the more useful a calendar becomes. Therefore,
wall calendars seems to work best. One, which I don't expect to
see on the market, is the calendar of the dormant Indonesian news
magazine, Tempo. This calendar features the work of the
cartoonist Priyanto S., published in the Opini section of the
magazine, making it not only practical, but also interesting.
This section which first appeared towards the end of 1979,
featured the work of Priyanto S. and T. Sutanto. Since 1986,
Priyanto's work dominated Opini.

Typically, Tempo's 1996 Opini was filled with sarcastic
political humor. For the month of October, for example, the
calendar features a cartoon showing five persons, each holding a
different newspapers entitled generically as Koran, Suratkabar,
Harian, Berita and News, all basically meaning newspaper. One of
them looks over another's shoulder and comments, "Funny, the
content seems to be all the same in each one, why is that?"

The distribution of this calendar is clearly an effort to
remind Tempo's sympathizers that the spirit of Tempo lives on.
Although the magazine is still banned, it is ready to awaken any
moment their publication permit is reinstalled.

A few years ago, weekly calendar cards placed in music
cassette boxes appeared on the market. The format cleverly uses
the cassette boxes to display the cards. Flip the plastic cover,
and you get a ready-to-use display holder. The drawback with this
system is that the plastic cassette casing does not protect the
calendar pages from dust.

For the more pragmatic types who have little concern about
appearance, even better is the old Chinese calendar, which
features a tin panel and a block of paper, one page for each of
the 365 days of this year.

Each page features the international date as well as the
Javanese, Chinese, and Arabic dates. Some also include the rows
of dates and days of the month on the bottom of the page. If you
need to write notes, you can fill the entire 12.5 cm by 15.5 cm
space of the page! As for the painting on the tin panel, I think
that it is a question of taste. If you don't like it, you can
always mount the date block on a different panel.

One other calendar which appeared this year was made to be
used not only during 1996 but much further in the future. This
calendar, entitled Remembrance is a birthday and anniversary
reminder which exhibits the artwork by a group of Indonesian
women who paint either as a hobby or professionally. While there
is nothing new about a birthday calendar, the publication of this
calendar makes available a product which has previously been hard
to find in this part of the world.

As the fasting month of Ramadhan draws nearer, I have noticed
that many shops have started to use Islamic themes. The calendar
Writing Traditions of Indonesia features manuscripts in Arabic
from the National Library of Indonesia, mostly the holy Koran.
Another Lontar product, this calendar appropriately caters to an
audience increasingly appreciative of Indonesia's rich cultural
heritage.

Another line of calendars presenting Islamic themes has been
published by Gema Insani Press. These calendars incorporate the
Arabic and international dates in the daily block format. As you
tear away each page an excerpt from the holy Koran or a saying
based on the Islamic teachings is displayed for the day. The
block is appropriately mounted on an attractive panel embellished
with decorative Arabic calligraphy.

Again, while there is nothing new, the availability of this
calendar offers many more choices to a market that is also
becoming more and more diverse in tastes and interests. Can't
wait to see what will be in store for next year!