Get ready for the MAMA’s – MTV Africa!
Our dedicated scribe of the moment, Reuben ‘The Matrix’ Malema, attended the MTV press announcement of the ‘MAMA awards’, MTV’s pan-African music awards brought to you by MTV and their sponsor ZAIN (a telecommunications company…). He reckons healthy competition is the way forward to uplift and keep on diversifying and enriching our music scene, we have to admit, we agree! See our photostory at our RepresentFlickr set here. Read all about the event below – the official media release follows. Sharpile RTMM! It’s official, MTV Networks Africa is here! And if all the over-the-top hoo-hah of Tuesday night has any truth to it, then the end for the MTN SAMA Awards is definitely not nigh but rather in a very real way so resoundingly here. The setting of MTV’s “take-over-Africa” spectacle was the Japanese themed Tokyo Sky of Fourways, Johannesburg. Ja, the ambiguity was very clear: the guillotine’s blade has gut-gushingly fallen on the video-jockey controlled entertainment industry in this part of Africa! I have to admit though, with all the fine sushi, on the house liquor en masse (Double Remmie Martin and Lemonade…one more please sir!), the glitz and splendour that was blatantly flaunted, the Network has a lot of credibility and plenty to offer Africa’s musicians in sharp contrast to the MTN SAMA Awards that favours the same few artists all the time and only focuses on SA. Let us not forget the controversy-riddled quagmire of the recent MTN SAMAs which did not help the situation either, in fact if anything – this year’s SAMAs managed to quicken the event’s long awaited coup de grace. Competition is often a healthy thing and in this case it’s long overdue. The Media targeted event (Nou Ek Spog!) had the makings of a typical TRL show on MTV Base. The MC was as chirpy as all the free flowing video mouthpieces on the network’s channels. The program direction was lively with a twist of spring. The audience (le paparazzi!) was very receptive, although at one stage a tad disappointed (we’ll come back to this one…). Mr. Alex Okosi, a Nigerian born, American raised, British groomed and now South African Corporate Executive is the driving force behind MTV Africa’s no-holds-barred takeover bid. His passion and inspiring vibrancy is believable enough to prop-up one’s expectations of the fresh wave of reprieve that has at last beached on our shores. An array of Dj’s and musicians were bopping away, including Cleo, KB, boys from Skwatta Kamp and Brickz. One particular artist caught my attention, the 12 year old In-cha who is an ingenious (lest I be tempted to declare her a maestro) violinist....
The Return of the B Girl @ 88 on Friday
Fly flyers all over Jozi this weekend, must be that Spring is springing early this year. The Party People crew are already well recovered from the Oppikopi bash and ready to dish it up to you with even more flavour this Friday night with a full juicy line up of sweet sounds. They tell you as it is: “For those of you who have been living under a rock and have missed all of Bahamadia’s shows, we hope to see you there.” Word! Merely a week after performing to an immensely diverse crowd at Party People Oppikoppi, Northam on the 9th of August, and killing it I might add, the queen Bahamadia, along with her talented Dj, Dj Statik will be getting ready to bring back the real definition of the B Girl to 88 Lounge in Norwood. Sharing the stage with her will be an equally talented South Africa line up by the likes of Party People’s first lady Fifi, Miss GolDigger herself and of course what would a Hip-Hop party be without Dj Kenzhero. Catch all of this at 88 Lounge on the 15th August 2008. Doors open at 8:00pm and the damage to the pocket is R100. 00. Woman’s Month Special:Ladies R80 before 9:30. For more info on our featured artist check out...
Mawe-2 LIVE at House of NsakO
Nice flyer design from the B-side crew. We’re sure the music at House of NsakO in Brixton is going to be just as sweet this Saturday night. Just up the hill from Melville, aim for the tower then hit a right and head for the High Street ;). The B-side Party with Deejay BlaQt presents Mawe-2 ” live “… As he takes us through the soulful jazzy sounds from his debut album – titled a fools hope, So expect an explosive perfomance… with DJ BlaQt taking us through the night with some of that good music….@ House Of NsakO ( 101 High Str., Brixton Jozi town ) & R 40 bucks guarantees you a dope night out.. http//: www.myspace.com/bsideblog http//: www.myspace.com/mawe2 http//: www.mawe2.rooftopmedia.co.za http//: www.myspace.com/djblaqt Download Deejay BlaQt`s Bside mini mix …. http://www.zshare.net/audio/14680764a732b4a4/ Check the tracklisting & artwork on :...
Connor Cullinan at Obert Contemporary
We do our best to post cultural, entertainment and artistic events that bring vibrancy and value to your free time. Quality. So believe us when we say, lovers of art, get to the Obert Contemporary in the next two weeks for…..: connor cullinan: carne vale. 14-30 august 2008. obert contemporary is pleased to present ‘carne vale’ by connor cullinan from 14-30 august 2008. michael smith, the managing editor of artthrob, has written the following review of cullinan’s latest exhibition: ‘making a painting is usually less like building up a whole from a series of base units as much as it is about throwing everything you know and everything you’ve seen at a surface: layering, praying, falling apart and then layering some more. connor cullinan’s works quietly challenge this impulse. their evolution seems almost sculptural, in that the final image is achieved exactly through a process of unit-based construction, with lines, diamond shapes, rectangles and elements of pattern. the systematic process the works require for their production engenders a contemplative reading of their aesthetics and ideas. they ask the viewer for time and consideration rather than a gut response. in fact, the trope of ‘system’ underscores all of cullinan’s images: their grids, matrices and repetitions reverberate with a sense of some sort of metaphysical pattern or design. yet frequently the images rendered within these systems pull against them, and in a cautionary tone seem to speculate about how far from this order humanity has strayed. cullinan frequently works from media images, newspaper and magazine pictures. these operate as starting points for his exploration of ideas that fit into his conceptual framework. this is true of all ten of the paintings in the show ‘Carne Vale’. the show’s content addresses this notion of ‘carne vale’, an italian phrase for ‘farewell to flesh’. in contemporary english the phrase has morphed into ‘carnival’, but cullinan’s works refer to its designation as a pre-lenten festival during which indulgence is tolerated in preparation for lent’s asceticism. he works with the idea that the current social climate of excess and self-indulgence is a signal of future limitations on these things, as if humanity is playing out an ancient cycle of feast and famine on a grand scale. his formal approach thus seems entirely appropriate for this conceptual terrain, eschewing as it does painterly excess and surplus gestures. possession is a case in point: the picture of a man with arms raised, crying out, is composed of a series of jagged striations which recall a disturbed bridget riley canvas. yet even in this, the show’s most immediately emotive image, violence is muted by methodical construction. in ‘host’,...
Jazz Lovers get your JOJ tickets… fast!
This years Standard Bank Joy of Jazz looks to be sexying up jazz in SA as a slick array of global jazz favourites are jetted in to perform in the heart of Johannesburg city. Think other great Jazz festivals like Montreaux, North Sea Rotterdam, Montreal and of course New Orleans ongoing jazz extravaganza, they all started somewhere; but their defining features have to be the quality and range of Jazz muso’s in the lineup as well as the tight organisation that goes into running world class music festivals. It looks like JOJ is on it’s way up there, lets hope it becomes an international attraction. But for now, all you local Jozi people that love Jazz, hurry up and buy your tickets, if you don’t know where to start, we’ll tell you what we’re excited about and MUST NOT be missed: Roy Ayers, Joy Denalane, Asa from Nigeria, Simphiwe Dana, Max Wild and Sam Mtukudzi, RJ Benjamin, Ringo Madlingozi, Abigail Khubeka and then we’d probably really dig hanging out with the ‘developmental and emerging bands’ to spot hot new talent, like the Central Johannesburg College, George Tabor School of Music, Music Academy of Gauteng and The Tshwane University of Technology’s School of Music and bands from the Puisano Roving Jazz programme. Anyways, whatever you do, GO GO GO. The international language of jazz will see the stages of downtown Jozi go global when the annual Standard Bank Joy of Jazz runs in Newtown from August 28 to 30. Some of the world’s top jazz artists will be providing a musical mélange of sound at this not-to-be-missed jazz-travaganza. With its truly international line-up, the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz will incorporate all jazz styles – from Afro jazz and fusion to Latin rhythms, bebop and straight-ahead. Artists from America, Japan, Norway, Spain, Israel, Germany and Holland will be joined by top performers from South Africa and Nigeria. Giants of the jazz world include Japan’s Keiko Matsui who recorded her last album Moyo in South Africa; the Original Superstars of Jazz Fusion featuring Roy Ayers, Tom Browne, Wayne Henderson and Lonnie Liston Smith; American saxophonist Joshua Redman; guitarist Doc Powell from the US; Israel’s Avi Lebovich and the Israeli Jazz Orchestra; Spain’s Sedajazz; Holland’s Denise Jannah; Germany’s Joy Denelane and Norway’s Tord Gustavsen. Performers from the African continent include South Africa’s Abigail Kubheka, Pat Matshikiza, Mark Fransman, the 2008 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for jazz, Simphiwe Dana and Yvonne Chaka Chaka as well as Asa from Nigeria. The Mbira Stage will showcase the opening night bill on Thursday, August 28, with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO) paying tribute to...
Six Young Designers Battle it out
Fashion Weeks are supposed to be the breeding ground for the new wave of designers coming through the ranks, as well as the platform where we, the adoring public, get to see young designers mature and move on up through snotty after parties to fame and glory. That’s why it’s great to see initiatives like the ELLE New Talent Awards that actively seek out the hottest young creatives in fashion and give them the support they need to get seen. Six finalists were chosen from a pool of 50, as ELLE magazine in partnership with top fashion value retailer, Mr Price, narrowed the search for this year’s hottest new fashion talent during the ELLE New Talent Awards 2008 first phase of judging. Marize Malan, Robyn de Klerk, Tanya Demby, Anisa Ami Mpungwe, Stephan Marin and Khumo Mashimane made the cut and will showcase their designs at the 2008 Sanlam South African Fashion Week (SAFW) ELLE New Talent show on 27 August 2008. The final judging takes place on the 26th August. The six finalists will also get an opportunity to exhibit their work during the SAFW which ends on 30 August. The competition, open to recently qualified designers, exposed some very good talent according to one of the judges, trend analyst, Dion Chang. The designers had to create a women’s wear collection of eight garments for Summer 2008/9 under the theme New Romance. “It was pleasing to see fresh ideas and the different interpretations of romance,” Chang said The ELLE New Talent Awards 2008 will for the first time this year give the winner an opportunity to be exposed to the full retail cycle through a mentorship programme with Mr Price. “There was a lot of exciting, innovative and creative work coming through and we have no doubt that there is great new design potential in this country,” said Joanne Coelho, Trend Manager for Mr Price, who also judged the awards. The competition has in past years brought to the fore talented local up-and-coming young design talent in the South Africa fashion industry. Previous winners of ELLE New Talent include: David Tlale, Frances Andrews (Library label) and last year’s winner Tiaan...
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