Africa is a Country in New York
We came across a fabulara blog while cruising through our usual info superhighways and byways…called Africa is a Country – it’s an “irreverent take on the US and the way it covers Africa in the media”. It’s put together by Sean Jacobs, a South African living in Brooklyn, New York – he says it’s mainly about: Western media references to events and happenings in South Africa. But it is more than that. The topics I care about are my personal obsessions: films, music, art, books, politics, sports. Because of the way the Southern African region is integrated (with South Africa acting like the regional hegemon), the blog will also weigh in how Botswana (it hardly gets any Western coverage), Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Zambia are covered in Western media.’ But even more interesting than that: “At the same the site will also go on occasionally about my experiences as an African immigrant living in New York City (and Ann Arbor) with my wife and daughter.” And bringing it to you fresh from the big apple, Sean has published a great video Blog aka vlog entitled ‘African in Brooklyn’ where he chats to Botswanan ‘DJ Stone’ aka Ketshidile Tiro Matale at the infamous ‘Madiba‘s’ restaurant. They talk about being an African in New York and Tshidi plays some homegrown tracks that have influenced him and that he spins at Madiba’s to rock the house. WATCH IT NOW here… and get...
Represent Review: So you think you can Dance
We’re delighted that some of Represent’s fabulara dancer friends: David Matamela, Thabiso, Megan and Elizma are all getting their go on telly, it’s about time these tireless hard-slogging dancers got a glamourous platform to shake their booties, it’s a nice change from the bread-and-butter corporate work they have to do, although they do it so superbly. So… The Matrix was on TV!! Yes, yours truly and the legendary Agent Katz have been mingling with the visual media people again… See Agent Katz’s photostory of the night as well as lots of close-up backstage pics here, and read all about the live TV event below: Saturday 27 September 2008, The Standardbank Arena – Ellis Park Sports Precinct. Many a follower and busloads of family and friendly supporters turned out in their droves for the live, SABC 1 broadcast of the riveting Teen pop-culture dance competition: So You Think You Can Dance. There’s just something awesome about attending a live event, for starters, while the repertoire of choreographic work is kept at bear-minimum levels, the adrenaline rush in the live environment is forever pumping, ensuring that you miss none of the breath- taking content. This being a family and teens targeted programme, the event coordinator found himself with a mammoth of a task at hand – painstakingly trying to regulate the loud screams and vibrant young energies transcending into the arena (p.s we were trained like Seals in a series of very important drills: when to scream, shout, clap and boo… I wonder if they purposefully ignored training us on how to spot the cue for when to shed a tear at some of the beautiful and emotion-evoking scenes, captivatingly portrayed live on the expansive and well designed stage). Like in other true pop-culture show which has managed to survive the long and treacherous transatlantic journey to land on our ‘color tubes’, a team of villains posing as ‘Duke and his Duchess’ style personalities made-up the expert panel of Judges…Such a snooty bunch this lot!! Professional Choreographer: David Matsamela, Professional Choreographer: Ms Didi Moses, Professional and International Choreographer: Harold van Buuren. AND NOW THE PERFORMING ARTS… Those of us who grew up with square eyes from being glued to the indoor square box would surely confess to loving YO-TV (The former version with the Dodo costumed dude who famously exclaimed: Ma’ Cousins!!!) , for many of us the sole purpose of watching was to feed our secret affection of the super-styling babe: Sade! Well, I can confess that she’s still as fly and confident as ever! Iyoh, Iyoh, Iyoh!!!! The 14 amazingly talented contestants with elastic-like flexibility were grouped in pairs...
Sasha Baron Cohen’s bluesteel
He’s done it again and pushed his cheeky sense of humour where no others would tread. We particularly love his bluesteel facial expression that reminds us of a few snotty fashionfanglers from around the way… Isn’t it incredible that in one simple move he rips open the fashion show concept and exposes it’s gory superficiality. The outfit is outrageous. Check out the story here. Brilliant. British actor Sacha Baron Cohen appears on the catwalk during the Agatha Ruiz De La Prada Spring/Summer 2009 women’s collection during Milan Fashion Week September 26, 2008. Baron Cohen, best known for his eccentric character Borat, burst onto the catwalk at Agatha Ruiz De La Prada’s show in Milan on Friday, bringing it to a halt as security guards stepped...
Reckon you can remix Radiohead?
Imagine it… Radiohead meets Kwaito… Radiohead meets kwasa, Radiohead meets boeremusiek, Radiohead meets Maskandi… Come on, remix their tunes, blow their minds and get rich at the same time. It’s your second chance. Here....
Burn After Reading
They’ve given us delicious viewing pleasure with The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, The Hudsucker Proxy, O Brother where Art Thou, Fargo and… Raising Arizona. This week the multiple Academy-winning Coen Brothers latest fliek Burn After Reading, starring Braddy Pitt and John Malkovich, has US moviegoers in the popcorn queue sms’sing, tweeting and blogging away about it. The film is being released in the UK next month, and, ahh we’re not sure when it will be released in SA but we’re sure soon after. But… you can get ready to decide if you’ll watch it at home or the mall it by watching the Trailer below, reading an interesting review here, here, or listening to one here … and…getting a Tom, Dick or Cari everday people opinion on the movie thanks to Twitter: -… great acting + decent story that fell a bit flat. Coen Brothers can’t produce greatness every time though. -…Can’t decide if I liked “burn after reading” or not. -…Funny, in a dead bodies kind of way… -…Was utterly bored by Cohens attempt at comedy Lady Killers -…I enjoyed Burn After Reading – but I’m a Coen Brothers fan. -…we didn’t get it, why were people laughing at a guy getting brutally beat to death. -…had perhaps the funniest ending of all time -…was hilarious and twisted… -…Good mindless laughs -…is proof that farces belong on the page not on the screen or the stage. -…Granted, not the best thing the Coens have ever done, but maybe the best last 30 seconds of a movie I’ve ever seen. -…probably the weirdest movie I’ve ever seen. -…there was a lot of overacting going on. Some of it worked, some didn’t....
Represent Review: Road to V Launch party
Short, and oh so sweet, that’s the tone that was set at the launch party for the first ever Road to V festival thats taking place in December in South Africa. We’re hoping the heat may still be turned up artist-wise, ‘coz ever since Snoop stood us up at his Joburg concert, we’ve been sulking. He’s cool, but he’s come and gone and we think there’s fresher, edgier artists than Snoop and Maroon 5 for a brand like V. Anyway, let’s see what happens, we’re sure the party will rock either way, as every summer party does. They’re looking for South African bands for the mix – our team Reuben ‘The Matrix’ Malema tells us what you need to do to enter below, as well as what went down at the launch, and photographer Nkateko Siweya shares a photostory of the party with us here : Wednesday night, Melville – Johannesburg. The Brits are here in full force! Well, that’s my view of Sir Richard Branson’s Empire: The Virgin Group. In this case a division of it which resides in leafy Sandton called: Virgin Mobile. This year the Virgin conquest has its eyes firmly set on ZA. A kick-butt and cash flush team made up of Sony Ericsson, Edgars Music Series, MTV and of course, Virgin Mobile will be granting a selected few South African bands (music groups) a chance to share a huge blingin’ stage with Snoop Dogg at the (already UK and USA staged as V Festival) Road to V World Music Concert in Johannesburg on 15th December 2008. The Catch The prospective band/s must upload an MP3 of their well made track on the Virgin mobile website for the scrutiny of the good people at Virgin. Yes, it’s that easy and yes it’s that difficult too, because chances are you may be amongst the selected few and chances are you might not make it at all – but then again if you do not try you may never know, right? So, go right ahead and be a good sport! Take the chance! And what a chance… The biggest prize of all is a guaranteed opportunity to perform at a sequel of the event with some of the world’s greatest musicians in the United Kingdom and the United States of America in 2009. This thrilling opportunity for South African bands to crack the extremely competitive international market was announced by Nicholas Maweni – Head of Corporate Affairs at Virgin Mobile South Africa on the night. A lot of nice to know stuff was also shared, we were blessed with good music from Jozi, KoldProduk, Cassette, Zebra &...
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