Call for Entries: Rockers get on this RADAR
New and emerging bands here is your chance to Advance and Release with a bit of Development and Assistant thanks to Red Bull and SpeakerBox… Represent supports as many initiatives that promote and assist South African music that we can, by telling you all about it. So muso’s, don’t miss all the opportunities we fill you in on! Rock on! You’ve only got three weeks to get amongst this Western Cape Festival: Rocking the Daisies presents Red Bull RADAR*(*Research, Assist, Develop, Advance & Release) What is Red Bull RADAR? South Africa’s sonic terrain is extensive and it is often easy for the many musical soldiers to get lost in the haze of murky bars, dimly-lit nightclubs and out-of-reach garages. Red Bull RADAR seeks to scan SA’s landscape in search of this undiscovered musical talent and once identified offer a platform above the mist of obscurity so that all those bands, musicians and artists have a chance of making their mark on the local music scene. It’s difficult enough for bands and artists to get the right gigs to expose their musical might, let alone actually recording a demo to open the doors of prospective venues, record-labels and fan-bases. Those bands and artists that are selected will get to record and produce a demo in the Red Bull Studio in Cape Town, RADAR’s musical equipment laden head-quarters. The Search Begins: Taking place from 3-5 October, Rocking the Daisies is fast becoming one of the highlights on SA‘s live music calendar. Rocking the Daisies and Red Bull RADAR, in partnership with Speakerbox, are offering four talented emerging bands the opportunity to play on the main-stage at Rocking the Daisies 2008, simply by submitting a basic recording demo! The best of these four bands will win five days in the Red Bull Studio in Cape Town to record themselves a 4-track demo while living it up like rock stars! So here’s a step by step recap of how it works: 1. Send us your band profile, a pic and a demo recording (MP3) to Radar@speakerbox.co.za to upload to the Rocking the Daisies / Red Bull RADAR page on Speakerbox. 2. Create a band profile for your band on the Speakerbox / Blueworld Bands section and include the profile link in your email to Radar@speakerbox.co.za. 3. Beg, bribe or blackmail your friends, family or random people on the street to vote for your track on the Red Bull RADAR page on Speakerbox. 4. The top four bands, as voted for by the community, will compete in a battle of the bands on the main-stage at Rocking the Daisies on Friday, 3 October. 5....
Puppetry of the … what?
If you consider yourself prudish or body-shy, get over your fears by hanging loose at the Puppetry of the Penis in SA this Spring: For over a decade the Cape Town International Comedy Festival has put the Mother City on the world entertainment map with Africa’s largest and funniest comedy festival. This year the Comedy Festival’s Danger Zone will make sure you never look at male genitalia in the same way again, when it presents the global comedy hit Puppetry of the Pen!s. Despite its provocative title, the below-the-belt show is neither rude nor lewd , however it is – by necessity – performed in the nude. The ingenuity, resourcefulness and dexterity of the show’s creators, Simon Morley and David “Friendy” Friend has had audiences gasping with laugher since its extraordinarily successful debut at the 1998 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. With a stretch of the imagination and some other bits, they manipulate their genitals into various “installations”: get an eye-full of the Eiffel Tower, marvel at the slow-emerging molusc and be reasonably repulsed by the hamburger. A camera and a large screen mean that even those at the back of the theatre peeking through their fingers absorb every detail. After being a runaway hit at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and voted “Outright Best Show”, it ended up touring Australia for eight months. The show was then unleashed at the 2000 Edinburgh International Fringe Festival where West End producer David Johnson realized the potential of the sell-out show and the world was no longer safe from the Art of Genital Origami! Since its West End debut in 2001, the show’s popularity and subsequent growing international demand has meant that the duo has been exposing themselves to a wider, global audience. Puppetry of the Pen!s is one of the most successful, confronting and bizarre theatrical experiences of our time with up to 8 companies running at one time. It has been presented in 7 different languages in over 20 countries. South Africans will join the legions of POTP fans that include celebrities Naomi Campbell, Elton John, Bono, The Beckhams and Hugh Grant, whose member has also enjoyed the spotlight for illicit puppetry of its own! This time around the show will be hosted by one of the UK’s hottest female comedians, Ninia Benjamin. Dubbed “The Comedy Assassin” by the British media, Ninia Benjamin is well-known to many South Africans as one of the hilarious 3 Non-Blondes on BBC Prime. POTP will continue their tour of South Africa after performing at the Cape Town Comedy Festival to include showing Johannesburg audience members, theirs. Puppetry of the Penis Tour dates for South...
What’s your Best Kept Secret?
What’s it all about? A little birdy told us it’s got to do with hot nights and pulsing shaking dance moves… Go and tell them your Best Kept Secret here to stay in the loop and stand a chance of winning some VIP treatment… Let’s hope the music will be as good as the funk on the...
Represent’s Loving: Madcon
These Norwegian hiphop heads are rocking the beats all the way from the lands of the northern lights, we reckon this song “Beggin’ ” released less than two weeks ago and already making BIG waves, is going to be HUGE! The one half of Madcon (Mad Conspiracy) is a South African homeboy Tshawe Baqwa born in Germany – he grew up in Oslo… NICE ONE MFO! K for some reason YouTube is not letting us embed this funky video, so please watch it here or on google video here. Sorry! Read about Madcon on Wikipedia here. Joburg’s The Star featured Madcon in 2005 already! Read about it here. You can also watch an interview with them here… or see Madcon‘s MySpace here. For more juice on the Skandinavian hiphop scene check out this blog Northern...
A Soulful event for designers & fashionistas alike
So the question remains, how on earth do we make money from our art? Represent’s resident fashion fundi Vincent Zondo reckons part of the magic formula is a robust PR and marketing plan. He lets us in on a must-attend event (THIS SATURDAY in Jozi) for everyone and their muse working in the fashion and clothing industry, the OldMutual SoulSessions, taking place this weekend in Jozi and then in Durban and PE in the following two weeks. Click here for more info and make sure to pay the very affordable price to get the lowdown on getting your genius out there. Represent! Last year at Fashion Week, in between all things fashionable – I managed to catch Chris Viljoen – ELLE magazine’s Fashion Director to get his view on the shows, designers and collections that we had just seen. The (important) fact I wanted to probe was his opinion on how our local fashion designers faired compared to international designers, particularly on the business side of the trade. Chris represents true international fashion exposure, I mean, thanks to him and ELLE (The bible) we got a glimpse of some of the hot-off-the-ramps trends that graced Paris fashion week, nice! His response highlighted the realities facing South African fashion designers and entrepreneurs alike…how to make a business out of fashion. Now, fashion designers and fashionistas…do Pay attention here: “Our designers have a long way to go when compared to fashion houses like Marc Jacobs, Paul Smith, Gucci or Prada and other independent designers internationally as they operate as mobile brands” said Chris. I concur. I think that the success formula has to include independent designers acquiring a Publicist that goes all out to ensure consistent media exposure, you know, the experienced marketing types with ties strong enough to hook up unique brand opportunities – whether its dressing Halle Berry to the Oscars or Paris Hilton for that hugely publicised VIP event; a continuous efforts is made get the designer’s brands to attain some form of association with that ‘glam space’ of fabulous fashion. Hence I say their approach to fashion and business is far more advanced than ours (which is still in it’s teens?). Also most noticeable about these designers is that they know just how to network, are super business savvy and good at working opportunities that can help them get ahead of the pack. This is FASHION and competition is always cut-throat – the work doesn’t stop when fashion week ends. A step in the right direction – here’s how. Now, as much as we are all aware that we have some catching up to do and the...
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