The Year of the Golden Pig

"It is not only the year of the Pig, it is the Year of the Golden Pig. According to Chinese Folklore, this is an event that occurs once in every 600 years and will ensure that a baby born on this year will experience a prosperous and wealthy life.

This legend is so popular, that Korea is expected to have a 10% increase in birth rate this year, which is apparently much needed as its birth rate is extremely low."

And the lady who sold Tal and I our "lucky" new years rings in China Town last weekend say that this is a very auspicious year to have children - so Claud and James - Liam will be a very auspicious child. Pigs are meant to be the most generous and honourable of all the Chinese signs.

And the fire works and dragon lion dances are to scare away any bad luck our evil spirits as you welcome in the New Year even though you might loose a limb or an eye which would be bad luck... And another interesting fact is that the most adult diapers in the world are sold round Chinese New Year, as half a million people travel around the country in packed trains, buses etc to be with their families and apparently will not make in to the loo.

I am a Horse according to Lieu's mum and am therefore supposidly good with money, love to travel and am energetic. Ok, I am off to find a Tiger or a Dog, who I am most compataible with!

Spazzfest

I haven't been working well today, but its not my fault. There is a rock concert outside my bedroom window, seriously. THIS rock concert is happening in the park across from my house today. As though the airport nearby (just like the Castle!!) and the six lane highway weren't enough, witness the concert:











The six lanes outside my window:



So ja, cool, Suicidal Tendencies are playing, but then the calibre of person that it attracts is not the kind of person i would normally choose to mix with socially, and i am being given no choice.






While there are fewer people shagging in the garage than there were when there was a trance party in the park, the cretins that have been slowly crawling into the concert have been a stark reminder of just how difficult the teenage years are. Of course, black skinny jeans are SHRN (so hot right now! omg!), but then apparently so is underdeveloped facial hair and funny coloured kak around your eyes, a la David Bowie on crack:

So anyway, i took a wander over just now, after having lunch at Sababa (best falafel outside Israel!) with Tals who is in Sydney for the weekend to see her mom and brother, and i realised that you could see the whole stage and hear pretty good from a hill above the whole festival (Kerry squeals with delight as she recognises the Sydney syline in the background):




This is the growling monkey stage :

So i will be going to check out Suicidal Tendencies later...

ROCK OUT!!!

Diplodocus and Chinese New Year

Pronounced 'Dip-ploddikus', not Diplo-docus, as the eeedjit announcer last night did repeatedly. Shame said announcer was in fact Spoek Mathambo, so we'll forgive him this time. Sweat_X aka I'm a black Fred Flintstone with a crazy whiteboy beat machine are rather cool after all.

Anyway so ya, I went to the Diplo party at Carfax last night. Now I know many of you don't care. But I don't care that you don't care. So here it is.

Lark are terrible. This is now confirmed as incontrovertible fact. Sweat_X, as mentioned, were kinda funny more than cool, but some potential. The Real Estate Agents continue to improve, and have some new stuff. Altho some other stuff is still super shit. But they now wear Mexican wrestling masks a la Nacho Libre, which is a nice touch no doubt.

This malarkey all went on and on, making us wait til 2am for the man of the moment. Unbelievably, or not I guess - as I am beginning to properly understand Joburger mentality - about half the crowd LEFT as Diplo came on. No matter. He took a long time to get going, with lots of hard, dirty, rumbling electro glitch-pop sort of stuff up front. Basically what I mean is lots of grinding remixes of otherwise recognisable choons. Then he dropped all this stomping dancey stuff, and tore the roof off. My personal highlight was an all cut-up and broken Jump Around by House of Pain (every mlungu's favourite) massaged into Da Funk by Daft Punk, with all these crazy weird zooooweeeeewooooweeee noises over the top. Then some bassy rumble nonsense and into RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE! "And now you do what they told ya!" Yay for RATM's anti-capitalist social commentary...

Anyway much fun was had by me and some other cool people. That was the latest I have been out at a party since I moved here. Yes I am a dork, but yes there is also a serious paucity of decent club activities in Jozi.

Oh ja, I also went to Cyrildene for the Chinese New Year celebrations before shlepping to Newtown. Continuous fireworks. CONTINUOUS. One went through our table at head hight. But I'll leave it to Fran to post some pics and add some more details. Flippin cool tho. Could only buy beer by the 6-pack, in cans. Onetime. Gong xi fatt choi! Means I wish you all prosperity in this new Chinese year, which by the way belongs to the pig. I have all this on good authority.

The Doctor.

Jose

ooo, forgot to tell you that Helen and I saw Jose Gonzalez last night! I know the jozi crew saw him a couple of nights ago... I loved it! Highlight? Possibly him and his support percussionists and vocalists doing Teardrop (Massive Attack). All very exciting. Hoping to get to a once off Sons of Trout gig tonight, but given my current work schedule, not sure I will make it. Will keep you posted tho!
love k

Cupcakes and Bubbles

A combination i highly reccomend for any occasion, but particularly good on Birthdays. Thanks to everyone for all the messages, calls, pressies and love I got the whole of last week. I felt very spoiled and special! The beach was glorious! And I hope everyone that made it had fun.
love
kx

Bday Llundudno 2007

Brendan Wiseglass is MARRIED!

Yo yo yo. Brendan Wiseglass married Lauren Arunson on 18 February 2007, at Suikerbossie in Hout Bay, Cape Town, South Africa. There were lots of yidds. And much Aramaic, hebrew, and yiddish was said.

The Rabbi thought it improper for yoks to hold poles for the chupah, but I did still get one of the special peach-coloured kippah's, and was invited to join the gaggle at the front instead of sitting with the plebs. I also, on the Saturday before the wedding, went to shul for the first time. It was pretty cool. I had to wear a sarong thing over my shoulders, and get up and sit down with all the praying jews a lot.

The wedding Rabbi (not the shul Rabbi; he was some big-bearded chap from Israel) conducted an insightful, educational sermon, and some guy from the UK sang a lot in between. All in all, the ceremony, its setting, the gorgeous weather, and the classy wedding singer contributed to a pretty cool occasion. I know Brendan enjoyed it, because he ate too much. Some things will never change...

They're now in Mauritius on honeymoon. I'm sure we all wish them the best of the best for the future!

Brendan and Lauren's wedding

Newsflash!

In what can only be described as the biggest thing to happen to a Westerford Drama Alumnus since, Zingi got a part in Hard Copy, Talya Chalef, (yes, that Talya!) has been nominated for a Green Room award (very prestigious drama award in Melbourne) for her work directing her second to most recent play! BOOM BOOM! Eckard would be proud!




Having seen most of Talyas productions (sitting in the back row with my broken SA flag) i can say without a hint of bias, that it is long overdue, and well deserved. We are all VERY proud of our Tals! And we can all say we knew her when...

This entry was the work of both Alex in Melbourne (with the news) and Greg in Sydney (with the internet connection).

SAPA

Attention please!

Those of you who are in the Afrika at the moment (that means you too Dr. Alban! Holla!) should check out Diplo this week... Seriously, i cannot stress enough how jealous i would be if you saw him play. Hes a good dj technically, but he's into all sorts of crazy music, from outback hip-hop to baile funk, and the parties should be crackers. Download the latest podcast from his Mad Decent record label for a taste (you can search for the podcast in iTunes)... or check out his website : http://www.formdiplo.com/

Not sure where or when hes playing but i think hes playing Jozi on the weekend and Kaapstad during the week.

Wessyde.

Grek

and a few more of my favourite things...

a blue sky laneway moment

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEZZAH!!!!

MAZAL TOV!! Have a totally decadent rock star day... like these chaps:

Have a fantastic day... the Australian chapter of the joumaseblog family misses you!

it says all...

VD

Happy VD everyone!

Try not to contract a VD today!

Guess what???

It didnt work.

Now we have the westerford picture all over our website, and some lame oak leaves or some kak. Anyway, when i get bored again i'll try to fix it, but please still offer some ideas for headers, because the site looks a bit rubbish at the moment.

Shabbat Shalom,

Greg

Trying some things

Yo,

I'm trying to make the blog look better by adding a header, but this is easier said than done, as i dont want to open up a photobucket account. So anyway, bear with me...

And you'll notice (if it works) that i have stolen the westerford website header (FUCK YOU CLARKE!) which is totally lame, but will remain until i can find something better, or someone offers something better. Phil, snoek pictures will be considered.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation,

The Management

Happy Fryday Crazy Kids!

Well you know me and Fri-with-a-y, so thought I would wish you all a happy Friday and a rocking weekend! Off to make myself my afternoon cuppa tea and recommend that you all do the same - life is better with a cup of Earl Grey. Baaai!

Thailand, thesis, thailand, thesis

Shalom!

I am procrastinating again. I have to try to finish my literature review today and it is making me feel ill just thinking about it. The good news is that i will be going to Thailand with Al for three weeks on the way back from Arsestralia which i am quite excited about. All the cheap flights between Aus and SA go via Asia, so for an extra $75 i can stop over in the land of banana massages with happy endings and spend a few weeks chillin' like a villain, and trying to forget all about my studies etc.

Then, on the 5th of May i make a long overdue return to the land of my birth. I have notified Tony Yengeni, and he says he will have the weekend off to party. Excellent!

Not much news udderwise. Spent the weekend chillin' with the Al and Tals in Melbourne which was a much needed break. I found out that Ram (Talyas housemate) has a sister who once dated Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs! Pwoooooooooop! Crazy! There is my six degrees from Karen O right there! A little picture to jog your memory...

Food Safari Update:

That chick is still telling the world my secrets (last week she told the world about my favourite Thai restaurant) but i am beginning to care less about it as i begin to care more about how my vocabulary has been stunted by years of only reading restaurant reviews. Descriptions of food and catalytic burners seldom overlap.

Peace out!

Greg

i'm off to duke!

Hi all

As you all are probably aware, this week I was awarded a sholarship to do my LLM at Duke. Hard to believe that as of August this year, I will be in the deep south, studying in North -bloody-Carolina! Until last week, I couldn't have even told you where it was. After staring at an atlas for a while, however, have discovered that it seems to be very close to Savannah, where Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was set. Who would have thought....