Femi Kuti is in the country
Maybe we’re still skittish from the Snoop debacle where the brother never showed up – maybe we just like the speed of internet as a medium – anyway we thought we’d share some photo’s to show you that the legend is indeed here. A warmly wrapped Femi Kuti attended a press conference in Parktown today along with Kinobe, one of Uganda’s top artists, Brad from the Bassline and Steven Sack, Joburg city’s director of arts, culture and heritage services. We couldn’t stay for long but heard Femi being drilled about Nigerian politics and the recent elections – his answer was “there was no election in Nigeria..” Damn – wish we could have heard more. Respec’! The man is an incredible musician and we hope that all of us African’s will be in Newtown tomorrow night to celebrate the mother of all continents. It’s going to be interesting 🙂 DRESS WARMLY!!! Represent! ...
It’s all happening in Swaziland
Those of you that know us well know that we’re mad about Swaziland (no bias of course), particularly the mind-blowing venue House on Fire. It’s all happening next weekend with both DJ Fresh (an old school fave of ours) and the Brazilian carnival band Napalma (go to the delicious website to hear their infectious tribal beats). For a weekend away from the Jozi rush but still wanting a bit of a party namethrowing experience up close with the people – how about a trip to the gorgeous mountain kingdom? It’s a neat 3 and a bit drive. Still enough time to plan! House on Fire are able to make accommodation arrangements for you – come on – get that stamp in your passport. We heart Swaziland. Info: It’s Carnival time at House on Fire with the imminent arrival of Brazilian Carnival Percussion group, Napalma, on Sat 2nd of June – Napalma share the stage with 5fm’s Dj Fresh. NAPALMA’s amazing sound incorporates beats and melodies from electronic programming, vocals from exotic East Africa and hypnotic djembe drumming…what a package! Put all this together and you get an incredibly energetic set that defies obvious musical classification…!!!!!!!. Napalma are touring South Africa and Mozambique having performed in major festivals all over the world Doors Open 9PM Tickets @ the Door Hot Fires Hot Meals Hot Atmosphere!!! The band members are: Ivo Maia ( lead singer) born in Mozambique and brings with him Jamaican influences, traditional songs and dialects from East Africa. Paulo Bolzan,aka Carranca (electronic programming) Borrows from drum´n´ bass, house, hip hop, electro, techno, ragga, dub and whatever comes his way. Cid Travaglia e Rafael Jabah ( djembés) Initial founders of Napalma. Their job is to ensure everyone is shaking it. The two drum formula makes for instant success at any carnival. Info Line (+268) 5282110 Accommodation (+268)...
Represent Recommends: CLEO Magazine
Summing it up in a few words for those of us short on time: Try it. If you’re a girlygirl, you’ll love it. If you’re a fashionable girlygirl you’ll like it. If you’re a working girl with a girlygirl sideline you’ll adore it. Watch out Heat, Glamour et al, newly-launched magazine Cleo packs a mean punch. It’s so full it’s almost too full, a little cleaning up and touch of minimalism in the layout could make for easier reading… but what girl can complain about a page-turner that features numerous hot mature men representin’ from chocolate to indie and easy content that appeals to the Jozipolitan in you (that’s you Representers). You can feel that Cleo is birthed in Jozi (as opposed to CT) and it’s full of local faces, opinions and celebs, with a good (nice and low) percentage of international flavour and a slight Aussie undertone here and there. Trendy, juicy and sexy – Cleo has a bit of everything – the digital side was well covered (cool website too) and we were delighted to see some full-page adverts for two new venues (gonna check them out.) We used our VISA card (debit of course ;0 )at our latest favourite shop (again) Big Blue and got the mag for free. *We didn’t know about the launch 🙁 * so we’re not sure what Cleo magazine costs but can guess about R20 something. It’s worth a bash ladies. Let’s see how the team takes a formidable launch edition forward. Bonne Chance mate! ...
Dirty Skirts for 1 night only in Joburg
Indies (you know who you are) get ready for a Stellar night (Sharpile Dave) – In the wake of the incredible success of their Jozi album launch, the Dirty Skirts (fabulous looking website!) return to The 88 Lounge on Friday 1 June for one night only! The bands debut album, On A Stellar Bender has been turning heads countrywide, and the first single from the album has been receiving extensive airplay on 5FM and campus stations around the country. The net result of all of this activity is that the Skirts return to Johannesburg for a great show at the 88 Lounge. In keeping with the indie profile of the band, they are ably supported by the legendary cellar Door DJ’s, Martin and Marc who will be spinning their trademark collection of indie retro and future classics. The Details: The Dirty Skirts and Cellar Door DJ’s Friday 1 June The 88 Lounge William Road, Norwood 011 728 8417 Cover: R70 for non members R50 for members Doors open...
Digital solution for Zim Crisis: Mukuru.com
Interesting… an sms/cell phone service has been set up by enterprising Zimbabweans and South African’s in London that enables UK based Zimbabweans and South Africans to easily help their cash-strapped friends and family at home. It’s a voucher-based system – cash is paid over in the UK for a specific service like petrol or fuel at a garage, friends and family are sent an sms voucher to redeem the goods. So in other words, you can buy petrol for your family in Southern Africa in pounds and all they have to do is show the voucher at the garage and fill up with petrol. Author CK Prahalad talks about exactly this kind of notion, how creative digital solutions can help the developing world, specifically in reducing poverty. It’s a great concept – well done guys. Let’s not get bogged down but look for solutions instead. See Makuru here. BBC Africa has more here: Text messages from abroad have never been received so eagerly by cash-strapped Zimbabweans. The “beep beep” signals an end to hours spent queuing at petrol stations. “Hey… you have been sent a Mukuru Voucher for 40 litres of Petrol from…” reads the message. A voucher number follows which allows the recipient to swap the pin number for coupons redeemable at certain garages. This is all the handiwork of Mukuru.com – a website set up by Zimbabweans in the UK to help their fellow countrymen in the diaspora pay for petrol, satellite TV or transfer money to their friends and relatives at home. It properly got off the ground last year, and its customers are steadily growing as news of it spreads. [Click here for rest of BBC Africa article]...
The Irresistable Facebook
I should have heeded my first Facebook friend’s warning – stop now before it’s too late. I couldn’t, I was hooked already. Which is really ridiculous considering how often I get tagged, invited, myspaced, linked in etc and manage to resist all of them all these years. “I have my whole own blogazine dudes, why would I need Facebook?” Wrong. Facebook is the new Google. (or old some wisened types would mock.) Over the years there have been loads of social networking sites that I have joined: the school one, to find out where those mates live who were never really your mates, the business one – where you have the chance to network with like-minded business contacts and the only person you hear from works in agriculture in Laos, the travel one – that only let’s you know about a travel special when you cant go, the photo-album sharing one that does work, the video sharing that is awesome etc. But somehow Facebook seems to have the right formula – maybe because it combines all of the different ‘genres’ of social networking into one – so you can find school mates, business mates and mates of mates. I think that the voyeuristic side to Facebook is also appealing – sneaking a look at your friend’s mates and finding your ex-boyfriends photo and name – nothing like being able to check him out and see how well he’s aged 🙂 Then the interface is simple, minimalist, user-friendly and easy to use… We have to recommend it. I know I am gushing and it’s old news, but waiting a long time for something often makes it much more big a deal when it eventually happens 😉 So we’re in. Are you? Get onto Facebook if you aren’t already. Wikipedia tells us: Facebook is a social networking website. It was originally developed for college and university students but has since been made available to anyone with an email address. People can select to join one or more participating networks, such as a high school, place of employment, or geographic region. As of February 2007, the website had the largest number of registered users among college-focused sites with over 25 million members worldwide (also from non-collegiate networks).[1] Facebook is the number one site for photos in the United States, ahead of public sites such as Flickr, with over 6 million photos uploaded daily.[2] It is also the sixth most visited site in the United...
We will be back!
