Top down in the city – Picasso in Africa
We almost forgot to tell you about one of the highlights of our year so far… no not the Picasso In Africa event, but the shuttle bus-ride back to the parking lot! Let me fill you in, we were invited to the Picasso in Africa exhibition at the Drill hall in the city… well on the border of Hillbrow. First of all, what an incredible venue… right next to Noord taxi rank, beau…tifully restored, spacious and gorgeous. The Drill hall is surrounded by city dwellers living in their high-rise apartments… it’s alive and buzzing! The event was ok…. a great turn out full of French accents and arty types…we weren’t really sure what we were there for but we drifted around merrily taking it all in and seeing lots of familiar faces. Unfortunately the weakness was the bar which was way too small, understaffed (by very friendly guys! Merci) and badly positioned which meant a 15 – 20 minute wait for a drink… one of those awful experiences where you find yourself jostling and elbowing just to keep your place. But we can forgive that oversight. In terms of the art and the interpretation by various artists of Picasso, while not that original our favourite was definitely Themba and Kris the graffitti artists who created a mural while the event was ongoing… some awesome eye-candy. We also loved the dresses (see pic) from Annah Getanah…. wow… with the city flats as a backdrop her dresses were truly to die for! While live poetry has got a little boring and overdone, the short punchy and emotive poem from Thokozani Mthiyane was great too. We weren’t that impressed with the other live performance which had a crusty and unrehearsed feel to it. Crusty meaning hippy and “trying too hard” to be deep. Yeah man. BUT – as mentioned, the highlight of the night was our trip atop an open double decker bus through the city streeets back to the Market Theatre where we had parked our car. As my friend so succinctly put it: EUPHORIC. Clearly everyone on the top deck may have sipped on a few wines before leaving (that’s if they got to the bar) but as we drove off, a sudden elation, excitement and euphoria took over, with everyone standing up, arms wide, looking up to the city skies and waving at all the people we passed. And wow did they wave back… I remember a surreal moment driving past some homeless people snuggled up in their blankets on a pavement whose eyes lit up as we past and whose hands waved hello. Not that’s what we call...
PAYOLA -know what that means?
Thanks to Gufa Buda* for some interesting food for thought. He raises the question of PAYOLA on SA RADIO – do you know what PAYOLA means? We didn’t until now: Here’s the Wikipedia definition: PAYOLA In the music industry, the illegal practice of record companies paying money for the broadcast of records on music radio is called payola, if the song is presented as being part of the no…rmal day’s broadcast. On influential stations (and particularly on television) payola can become so commonplace that it becomes difficult for artists to get their records/videos played without offering some sort of payment. The term gets its name as a take-off of the names of some early record-playing machines, such as Victrola. Apparently PAYOLA became a popular term in the 50’s when several high-profile DJ’s were accused of PAYOLA in the take-off of Rock n Roll. What GUFA wants to know is two-fold. FIrstly, do you think that PAYOLA exists on South African Radio and secondly if it exists in the genre of HipHop in SA as it does in the US…. mmmhmmm what do you think readers? Click here for an interesting site on PAYOLA in the HipHop industry in the US. GUFA also sent us this article: “Here’s an interesting read from yesterdays The Star newspaper in the tonight section: smacks a little bit of payola (SA style) dont you think? make up your own mind.” March 1, 2006 By Therese Owen – Crisis management seems to be needed at YFM as their three prime- time deejays have announced their resignations within the last month. Fresh’s well-documented move to 5fm was announced a mere two weeks ago while S’bu Leope announced his resignation over the weekend. He has plans to start a production company. The seeming implosion of YFM may be contributed to self-interest and own agendas by the deejays. The popular YFM deejays have bigger interests in the music industry. One only has to look at DJ Fresh, who regularly releases his popular dance CDs, or S’bu Leope, who is kwaito star, Mzekezeke, to see how much mula there is to gain as a deejay on this station. S’bu also owns his own record company, TS Records. Their artists conveniently fit into YFM’s format. For the last 16 months there’s been increasing dissatisfaction among music industry players outside of the YFM cabal. There is much concern over deejays’ alleged abuse of power. The deejays on YFM all came from relative obscurity. However, their increasingly powerful positions laid the door wide open for them to abuse that power. The rot set in with the now deceased Iggy Smallz, who was...
CRICKETERS you guys made our day!
We’re not the biggest sports fans, but when it comes to an International match we become very vocal. Just ask our poor friends who had to listen to us yelling and shouting during the incredible Australia – SA one-day match yesterday…We were so glad to catch this glorious unforgettable sporting moment. If you didn’t catch it, you lost out. So here’s the deal… Australia goes …in to bat and breaks the world record of the highest number of runs scored in a one-day match, getting 434/4 – a frightening number to try and match. Sa’s are all nervous – there’s no chance we could beat that. But not only did we match it, we surpassed it with a beautiful 4 hit by Hershelle Gibbs (after Makhaya Ntini had given us the one we needed) with only one more ball to be bowled – we ended on 438/9, winning the series. What a feeling. Well done guys! Click here for the lowdown from Ken Borland on IOL. Click on Picture to go to IOL for Etienne Rothbart’s pic… – “Choke on that, Aussies! Makhaya Ntini and Herschelle Gibbs celebrate the Proteas’ stunning victory over Australia in the fifth one-day International at the Wanderers. Proteas speechless after record victory Photo: Etienne Rothbart, Pretoria...
On a serious note… HATE SPEECH questions
Thanks to Sabelo in KZN for his thoughts on Hate speech and websites dedicated to it. We were horrified (although not completely suprised) to see these websites set up by bigoted, racist and ignorant people. Our worst kind. Sabelo would like Representers to comment on what they feel about these sites and to discuss the implications on our society of this kind of thinking. We say to Sab…elo – don’t waste too much time or energy on it – the world is full of losers and angry ugly people and if you scratch a bit deeper on the net you’ll find many more disturbing and hateful sites. In the SA context – remember that many people have still not managed to break out of the very thorough brain-washing of the Apartheid era and probably never will.. some have successfully bred the same kind of limited thinking in their kids hence a 15 yr old thinking that way…Only to their children’s disadvantage. You know what we say – Fit in or F**k off. Supremecy of any race or culture has no place in a continent as multi-cultured as Africa. But with that much hate inside oneself, we promise you that they can only be miserable and unhappy people wasting their time. Thanks for your words… We believe in one people and one love with respect for diversity on all levels – love will always overcome hate! Believe in that and live your truth. SABELO: Here are a few web sites that are dedicated to hate, I wonder if you investigate such things and if you think there is a story behind these hate sites. Sadly this is what the youth in Norway(Scandanivia), and other countries read about us hence the stereotype Africans face when they go out. Sadly in some sites you find that “white’ South African youth as young as 15 post hateful contributions and this breaks me really! www.africancrisis.org www.southafricathetruth.netfirms.com www.newnation.com if not co.za these are hate sites targetted at Black people and packaged as the truth. Read and see how much hate and backstabbing we have been putting up with for the past 11 Years. The cost of freedom is too high maybe we went about it the wrong way? NB: THERE ARE MORE THAN 20 SITES I GOT FROM THE STUDENTS IN ONE OF THE HIGH SCHOOLS IN NORWAY AND THEY WANTED TO KNOW IF THESE WERE TRUE....
Laugh a lot at 88
Last year we spent more than one evening at 88 laughing our heads off and we couldn’t recommend a better comedian than John Vlismas to do the same for you… He is the bomb! Good news is that from the end of this month (29 March – can’t believe we’re wishing March away already…) you can catch comedy at 88 Lounge in Norwood – it’s on every LAST WEDNESDAY of the month. Fill it up! Vlismas is o…ne of South Africa’s best known comedians and his previous engagements have included writing and performing for Jerry Springer, Mark Shuttleworth and Saudi Royals. Probably Vlismas’ biggest mission in life is to let the world know that SA comedy is not all Boerewors and Schuster… hence he’s bringing some of his mates along for the show as well. The Comedy night at The 88 Lounge will be hosted John Vlismas and will include performances from the very best up and coming talent. The show on Wednesday 29 March will feature Trevor Gumbi, Alyn Adams, and Riaad Moosa in a two part show. “Comedy is one of the fastest growing live attractions in South Africa at the moment,” remarked Alan Freeman of the 88 Lounge, “And with John on board, we know that we can present top class entertainment at every comedy show we do. It is also very cool for us as a venue to be able to offer our patrons some variety and serious quality in our entertainment line-up.” The Comedy nights will take place on the last Wednesday of every month at The 88 Lounge, with John Vlismas as resident host and a series of special comedic guests gracing the stage. Comedy Night The 88 Lounge 114 William Road, Norwood, corner Grant Ave. (Opposite the Spar parking lot, next to Woolworths.) Doors: 19:00 Cover: R60 for non-members R40 for members (on presentation of 88 Lounge key-ring) Booking is essential as space is limited. Book your seat on (011) 728 8417 Comedy starts...
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