Drinks at Bakoven

Yip - this is why we live in Cape Town.! We met for drinks on the rocks at Bakoven on Saturday evening, even though it was cloudy there wasn't a breath of wind and was amazingly beautiful.

Sorry Kezzah!

Don't mean to rain on your parade (i know you were going to post something), but seriously, what a load of kak! Can't say i agree with a single award, total populist nonsense! Why don't they just call it the 'Top of the Popscars', or amalgamate it with the Teen Choice Awards?

Why doesn't anyone have STANDARDS anymore? The Oscars is turning into a Miss South Africa - style beauty pageant.

My naam is Daan Dennis, en jou aangename kennis.

OMG OMG SAA again!

After everything, confirming they are the second worst company on earth after Telkom (actually I think they are now the worst), SAA have threatened Parliament with claims that they cannot survive without a massive capital injection. The depth of their problems should provide Carl Niehaus with some comfort. The audacity! The hubris! The *&%I*&)(*&(*^(*&%$&^IRFYUK AAAAAAAAAAH.

Read the story here - it's a helluva thing.

Jesse Duarte is a muppet... and Joost has a seks-video! (haai man nee wat?!)

Jesse Duarte is the worst spin doctor on earth. John Robbie cornered her so easily this morning over this Carl Niehaus story - she got kakked on by a short irritating Irishman while trying to defend someone she apparently doesn't like very much. What a muppet. She basically admitted that the ANC, in failing to make public the fact that it had explicit knowledge of Niehaus's corruption while at GEDA, supports the idea that being corrupt is OK as long as the papers never find out. You'll still find a job in the ANC, even if you are corrupt and the the ANC knows you're corrupt - just don't tell anyone else. She didn't even half deny Robbie assertion to that effect. It was all um, errr, I'm not a lawyer but we believe... aaah. And then she said the ANC is committed to uncovering and exposing corruption within its ranks. Useless.

In much perkier news, apparenly Joost van der Westhauzen (for our British readers) het 'n seks-video gemaak (for our native readers). Heat magazine think's this is the biggest thing ever in the whole world. Their cover story has been "UPDATED X4!". Fokkin uitstekend werk mense!

Randoms

This website is fokken funny; giving advice to those girls that date the now-not-so-rich NYC bankers.

And quite a cool 4AD sampler for free download....
..shit, doesn't want to embed, so here's the link

4AD also just released the Dark Was The Night compilation this week. It can't really live up to the hype, but should be pretty good if you're in a country that can get it. I know Phil's been waiting for the deep meaningful tunes.

SAA is a disgrace

Twice in two months. TWICE IN TWO MONTHS! At the same airport! Same offence! Ok this time the drugs were different. 2kg coke instead of 50kg dope. An SAA crew member phoned 702 this morning saying that this sort of thing has been going on for a while, and not just to London. After the first incident SAA promised, *promised* to improve security checks for SAA crew leaving ORT (apparently SAA does this on its own - ACSA's normal procedures have never been applicable). This guy says precisely nothing has changed, and that he is pulling himself off the London flights to avoid being arrested (they tend to lock up the entire crew over there).



SAA has received taxpayer money every single year since they lost a squidgillion betting against the rand. This year's budget gave them another R1.6 billion. When will SAA return to profitability? I'm not even asking overall - just operating! How hard can it be? Yes fuel is expensive and demand has collapsed, but the reverse was true 5 years ago and they were still making losses then. Africa is the least competitive, most profitably airspace in the world. Risks are fairly high but margins are much higher. They should be creaming it, because as rubbish as they are, only Kenya Airways sort of touches sides with their coverage and service.

SAA's long-standing CEO is some kinda megalomaniac corporate gangster who seemingly had to report to no-one but Crazy Alec Erwin. But he has now been suspended by the SAA Board pending the outcome of an internal investigation into his "gross mismanagement". I forget who the new Minister of Public Enterprises is, but praise be to that person for forcing some accountability of Don Khaya.

The Springboks and Proteas don't fly SAA. Government officials shouldn't, because the Public Finance Management Act requires that the cheapest be used. But some okes have some weird patriotism thing going where they feel they have to fudge their requirements to make the SAA quote the right one for them. They just have to spend more taxpayer money than they need.

I hope the new finance minister stops giving them money. I hope they are allowed to go pop, Lehman-style. We don't need a flag carrier. Especially not if it regularly embarrasses the country like it did yesterday, and last month, and all those other times before.

went to a gig today... this girl is AMAZING... for once i know a muso you all don't.. and trust me.. she's going to be huge.

Some random thoughts i've had lately put together in no particular order to make up a blog post

The Australian bush fires are crazy, and that people died is really awful, but the way the commercial television stations here have hammed the whole thing up into some international catastrophe, you'd think it was more important than a fucking war or something. Really, it makes me want to be sick all over my Wallaby jumper - Luke Watson style. Some Australian troops killed five children in a gunfire exchange with the Taliban this last week, but we'd all rather not talk about that WHEN SOME TRUE BLUE FAIR DUNKUM AUSSIES HAVE SAVED A DEHYDRATED KOALA!! Chill the fuck out, really, the fires suck, but the fact that you're living in a state with a really sound social safety net should ease the pain. Oh, and i don't own a Wallaby jumper - what do you take me for??

I saw The Wrestler last night, and goddamn! its sad, but its also excellent. It makes a big, runny, lamb vindaloo pooh all over Slumdog Millionaire, which i thought was a big pile of arse. That Darren Aronofsky guy is a genius. He made me cry. 

I was also thinking the other day how Asako Kishi is really the only judge on Iron Chef with standards. That snivelling Shinichiro Kurimoto always panders to the Iron Chefs, and Mayuko Takata just giggles and loves anything the chefs put into her mouth (ANYTHING!). 

Anyways, I'm tired and pissed off. Its been a long week. 

Shabbat Shalom.

Does anyone else find this Carl Niehaus story weird?

So the current ANC spokesman, former spokesman for Mandela, ANC stalwart, one of the few good whites from back in the day, etc etc blah, is worse than his big boss Msholozi at managing personal finances.

Thanks to the M&G the whole country now knows the extent of Carl's problems/sins/crimes. Carl claims he will likely lose his job now that these things are in the public domain. He has not denied them (although continues to spin some details), and has tendered his resignation at Luthuli House, even though he claims the ANC has known for three years the full extent of his financial difficulty (read fraud, corruption, bad debt, Brett Kebble, you name it).

If the ANC have known for that long, and would only consider firing him if details became public, why hire him so close to the most important election in the country's history? What are the chances of keeping so many skeletons inside one closet for so long? The story was bound to break at some stage, and appointing him spokesperson would only have increased the media's interest in doing so.

He must have consulted ANC leaders over the M&G's request for an interview, and what to say if one were granted, well before these stories were written. They must have told Carl to do it. [They also presumably must have indicated what would be the consequences of doing it, making all Carl's fuss about his handing in his resignation odd. He must have known before talking to M&G whether or not the ANC was going to kick his ass out.] So it isn't surprising that the tone of his quotes in the M&G articles appear heavily scripted. As were his comments on the two radio interviews he did this morning. Poor me, I'm not so bad I just made mistakes, I didn't know how to say no to my second wife, I thought you had to pay for love to keep it, but rest assured I will fall on my sword in the name of my love for the ANC and South Africa. Because I am such an honourable guy. What kak. He's fallen on his sword or been kicked out of: the Presidency, Delloitte, and the Gauteng Economic Development Agency. If you love the ANC and South Africa so much why are you running around constantly trying to wreck it in the name of big houses and shoes for your wife? Another one who didn't fight the struggle to be poor, it seems.

I really can't think of a logical set of reasons why this might have been something the ANC has planned and arranged, unless someone on the new NEC really fuckin hates Carl. I can't see how this helps the ANC's election bid. Their President still isn't clear of corruption charges; now their chief spokesperson is blubbing on national radio about his own corruption. And the other spokesperson, Jesse I don't need to obey traffic laws at all if I'm Gauteng Safety and Securiy MEC Duarte, apparently hates him. Will be interesting to see what one spokesperson has to say about the other - no doubt later today!

Viva South African politics Viva! It is never ever boring.

Fatboy Slim was the bomb....

... and Sony pushing figures in your face is strangely thrilling!

My Sister-in-Law

Is a writer. She wrote a book about her childhood and early adult years a short while ago, but i wont post that on the blog, because you should buy it rather (click the pic!). I don't feature, in case you're wondering. In fact, I've only met her once.

Anyway, the point of this post is to tell you that you can read her new little story on McSweeney's here. She also wrote a naughty sestina a while back for McSweeney's, and you can read that here. For Free!

All my love,

Greg

Armageddon in Melbourne - come on.. say it quickly...

HOTTEST DAY IN HISTORY...

http://www.theage.com.au/national/city-swelters-records-tumble-in-heat-20090207-80ai.html

I live in town that became an oven today. 46 degrees celcius.. hottest it's ever been in recorded history.......
trees lost their leaves, black smoke billowed over the houses, people stayed indoors and stared out of their windows, which if they looked anything like mine, had foils over them.

We foiled our windows to keep the heat out as much we could. My housemates and I ventured out, despite warnings not to leave our houses by our State premier, to go and get vidoes and iced coffees - a girl has her addictions..;-) not going to stop for some weirdass hottest day in history nonsense, now is it?!

So we sat in our darkened house under fans with iced ginger water, spray bottles and took turns with cold showers.
All of us felt nauseos at some point in the day and reminded each other to just keep on sipping from those water bottles.

And then I had to go to a theatre and perform. Thank #$%#$% we have air conditioning at La Mama.
After the "don't leave for anything, don't go on public tranport, don't just don't" messages today in the media, I was suprised to see we still had an audience rock up. I think they were pleasantly suprised to walk into a balmy 25 degrees, which felt quite cool after the day we had.

What is going on in the world that we have these weird ass fire raging crazy days down here in down under whilst up there in the land of the north there are blizzards going on?

Can anyone tell me if this has something to do with the tilt of the earth? The ozone hole? The global warming effect? Someone..must know something..?! Come on.........

Hey Tals..

Hot enough for you???

or not...?!

ok, so I was trying to put the link in for infecting the city festival... no love.

check out

http://www.infectingthecity.com/

check it out....

Eclipse

I understand Jozi was a little cloudy making it difficult to see the magic this morning. So here is my only vaguely decent picture taken through an xray of Dan's foot :) apologies for the quality.

Apparently the next one is in 2016 :)

HAPPY BIRTDHAY PAUL

Sorry we couldn't celebrate yesterday properly with you and all the crew in jozi but hope the picnic was great!

Recipe for a perfect Sunday

Ingredients:

1 x sunshine

6 x friends (add more or less to taste)

1 x beautiful mountain

1 x mexican cafe with:

2 x jugs of margheritas

1 x mixed platter including chilli poppers

Method:

Take sunshine, mountain and friends and combine slowly in a walk

Once well-mixed add mexican cafe ingredients slowly and let marinade

I dunno about you guys, but i miss Reagan...

From the TTL blog...

Someone call Pitchfork

I took a break from eating this afternoon and recorded two two new tracks that i made on my Korg DS-10 synth emulator. The first is a slow techno number that will be burning up dance floors over in Deutschland. Record labels listening to this - holla at me!




The second I named after my lunch, and I'm sure you'll agree its easily as good as anything those pretenders Auge and de Rosnay have ever done. File under 'Bad outro'.

Eyton Rd - the performance

Hi peeps...

I'm bringin my show to Cape Town.. book soon!!!!

xxx

Phil turns 'too young to love hollandaise sauce' today!

It's Phil McCavity/McKrekin, Philimon, 2-beer Phil, Phil-me-up-Phily's birthday today. He's turning 29 i believe. Thats pretty young for someone who sent me an email today boasting that last night he made hollandaise sauce and it was 'not too lemony, not too thick. i'm fucking amazing'. Will somebody PLEASE take Phil out drinking tonight so that he doesnt try poaching eggs, or making meringue.

Oh ja, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY Philimon. Buy yourself a beer from me (invoice me, i'll have my secretary sort you out).

Sasquatch

Werd. Dunno about the title, just had that word in my head today.

So as Kerry said, we went to 'First Night' which is the first night of the Sydney Festival where the organisers put on a whole load of free concerts over multiple stages all over the city. Last year i caught the end of Chromeo, and a very shitty performance by Spank Rock (though to be fair, their sound sucked). Anyways, this year, they had some pretty big acts, including Mr Scruff, A-Trak, and Grace Jones (so like, shes a diva, but her music sucks!). Still burping up dumplings and eggplant, Kerry, Ros and I ran up to Hyde Park to catch Santogold, who ROCKED THE PARTY. She also didnt lose her cool when people threw glo-sticks at her and her dancers (apparently thats how Australians show appreciation for free concerts). She was super stoked to be playing the gig it seemed (or is a great actor) and slammed through almost her whole album (and some of the stuff she did with Diplo) in about half an hour. We had to push through throngs of pilled-up boguns to get close to the stage (and stand in some recently ejected vomit) but it was totally worth it. She was great. Pics by KP.

Anyways, after that we headed over to the 'mature young adults and oldies who still smoke weed' stage where the Dap Kings were playing some steaming funk and were about to bring on Sharon Jones. Now, when i say Sharon Jones is ugly, it doesn't mean she isn't sexy. As it happens she actually isn't sexy, but she sure thinks she is, and that makes her really entertaining to watch. She also has a beautiful and powerful voice and loads of stage presence, so she totally rocked that stage for about an hour. She ever brought some douche onto the stage (she was going to sing to him) but he jumped on stage, did a collar pop, and started strutting around like he owned the place... so she booted him off the stage for disrespecting her and her band!! The crowd applauded LOUDLY. Sharon 1 Douchebag 0.

If you're in Singapore this weekend - holla at me!

Of bloggers and other animals

Near Montague
Dec 08/Jan 09
City slickers go to the farm....















.. and found at the local junk store....

First Night

January is Sydney Festival Month and as any good student with no money should, we headed off to First Night - the free one :) Stages in the parks and people all over the city enjoying the free music and performances. Greg is going to do it more justice with all the pics soon I am sure but I just wanted to get a little word in (naturally, never one to let it slide eh kez?). So I am going to do the pre show with a significant nod to the best chinese food I have ever eaten - I usually avoid the chinese offerings in Sydney but with Greg at the helm (been sailing too much so scuse the related jargon) we were treated to amazing "fragrant eggplant" that both Ros (a family friend) and I are looking forward to for a lunch snack left over.

The end of the holiday is rapidly approaching and I am suffering from severe back to school jitters and mild panic, mostly during dreamtime :) But it has been such a good break and so lovely to catch up with Tal, Claud and Greggles! Gonna miss you all again.
The pics are a jumble of the trip to see the girls and first night revelry

My resolutions... sorta

Mine are a bit vague this year.

1 Sorta maybe start thinking about learning zulu.
2 Keep my job (or maybe not... ja, I dunno)
3 move house. Buy stuff for house. Try not to freak out that I own furniture.
4 complete my recording set up (Been on the list for 5 years now)
5 Sort the band out and play a gig (even if we have to use a drum machine)
6 Sort out my finances and start to save (unless of course i find something really cool to do with the money, like a rad holiday or sumfink.)
7 Get Phil to admit that he really loves the new Kings of Leon. ( I heard it blaring out your car when you were driving off last night)

Resolutions

• Keep it simple

(and in the spirit of keeping it simple)

• Get a job
• (to fund) Lake of Stars
• Get a worm farm
• Get fit again
• Continue the Cape Town love affair
• Get a dress for the big wedding (:D)

Made me lag

I dig cats. And music. This pic came from http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002522.html, which has yet another cover of Paper Planes. That must be why the kitties are upset. The the one in the middle is obviously visualising Maya's face in the camera lens. Reeeoawr.

My resolutions are:

• Never again to trust a software vendor's promises, even if said vendor is not Microsoft.
• Be nicer to people. Smile more.
  
• Be less nice to opposing counsel. Scowl more. Or play dumb.
  
• Make more fun of the Sandton gym uber-douche (I'm going to gym a lot at the moment).
• Make banks compete (this might appear on next year's list).
• Start a new hobby (whiskey collecting is right up there, furniture gathering a close second).
• Save more money (for the honeymoon).
  
• Read more novels (Paul shot man The White Tiger is radical).
  
• Play better squash.
• Play more squash.
• Eat more vegetables.
• Worship at the church of Erol Alkan (his latest podcast, The A-Z of Erol Alkan, is also radical).
• Go to the Wanderers test to see us thrash the Arsestraaayians.
• Buy new shoes.
  

New Years Resolutions

So in the spirit of Greg's last post my resolutions are....

• Earn more money ie get a job - cash is king
• Find a new flat - living at home at 30 is just not cool....
• Wear more sexy underwear according to Phil and Cosmo
• Run more
• More yoga
• Knit more
• Go to lake of stars not only for the music but for the wedding of the year
• Make matching crochetted yulmalkas for the happy couple

Ha ha ha! Heres to 2009!

Happy New Year to you all x

New Years Resolutions

• Braai more

• Blog more
• Fish more
• Read Pitchfork less (haters get me down)
• Find a new flat
• Make more mixtapes
• Go to Lake of Stars
  
• Run a race
• Make some music
  
• Make detailed plans for Vietnamese noodle soup restaurant in Cape Town - coming winter 2012!
• Finally tie the knot with Philimon
• Take more photos like this:

Top 8 of 08

Happy New Years Baby (counting crows)... So this is the New Year (death cab)... and those are the only two New Years lyrics I can think of today and neither song is particulary optimistic :) I do have a good feeling about 2009 and am looking for more Happy New Year lyrics if you got em.

OK, Top 8 - anyone wanna play? Categories are negotiable

Breakfast: The Frog at Empire Cafe
Film Performance: Heath as the Joker (we all know my heath favouritism and to be fair I have seen maybe two films this year so he didn't have a lot of competition)
Album: Kings of Leon, Only by the Night
TV Series: State of Play (mini series, but I think it still counts?)
Place: Beaverlac
Drink: G&T (old school, but classic :))
Book: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (ok, so I have read it before, but its rediscovery was just as good)
Relief Moment: Ringing the Bell and handing in the dissertation

Happy 09 kids!

kx

Kak funny

These two South African productions made me lag baie fokkin hard. Jislaaikit.

Seduction101 - the lesser of the two, because it isn't in Afrikaans, but still good.



En......

Poena is Koning! KAK funny.

Croquet Anyone???

Thought these pic's were quite amusing. The concentration. The competitiveness. The planning and organisation. And of course the Whites....

So rad

This might be the coolest thing ever made for a Nintendo handheld (with the exception of Tetris and Mario, of course)... witness the Korg DS-10. It was being officially launched in Tokyo the day after i left (they had a launch party with like a whole orchestra of dudes playing these things into a huge soundsystem) but luckily its now available in Aus. This is so awesome it inspires me to use words like 'ill', and 'fuckin' dope'. Standby for my fist composition.

Check it :

Iraqi journalist throws shoe at Bush and calls him a dog

And this shows that he still needs a shoe to the head.

Gregs Top Music List for 2008

Please excuse the layour issues, i started this on a pc, and my mac is buggering it up to spite me.

Top Five Albums of the Year (in no particular order):

• Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours


• TV on the Radio - Dear Science


• Santogold - Santogold


• Portishead - Third (I know its just more of the same, but i reckon its still pretty good)
• Bloc Party - Intimacy
  

Album that made me (for a fleeting moment) not hate hip hop for the uncreative, self-contratulatory wank-fest that it has become :

• Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain (I know, its old, but it still sounds fresh)

Albums that got me all excited with the first few listens, but then aged like a Hypercolor t-shirt (badly) :

• The Kills - Midnight Boom


• Yeasayer - All hour cymbals
  


• MGMT - Oracle Spectacular (apparently this was releasd last year actually)
  

Albums that dont deserve to have ever been distributed this year, perhaps ever (even on CD, and i hate CD's!)

• The Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing or whatever stupid hipster name they gave it
• Any song ever ruined by Mark Ronson (have you heard that guy speak? Ugh!)
  

Albums that i havent heard enough of to love yet, but will love in due course :

• Hercules and Love Affair
  

Full 'best of' list coming soon...

My music lists

Okay, it has to be done, so I'll start.....

Here are the 20 tracks I've listened to the most in the past 12 months per Last.FM

1 Alaska In Winter – The Homeless and the Hummingbirds 16
2 Bon Iver – Skinny Love 14
3 Bon Iver – The Wolves (Act I and II) 13
4 Bon Iver – Blindsided 12
4 Tobacco – Dirt (featuring Aesop Rock) 12
6 Bon Iver – Team 11
6 Bon Iver – Lump Sum 11
6 Bon Iver – Creature Fear 11
6 Bat For Lashes – I'm on Fire 11
6 Tokyo Police Club – Tessellate (Remix By Tom Campesinos!) 11
11 Bon Iver – For Emma 10
11 Bon Iver – Flume 10
11 Yeasayer – 2080 10
14 Thurston Moore – Honest James 9
14 M. Ward – Post-War 9
14 Okkervil River – Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe 9
14 M. Ward – Chinese Translation 9
14 The Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #2 9
14 LCD Soundsystem – North American Scum 9
20 Dr. Dog – The Ark

And albums:

1 Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago 100
2 Tobacco – Fucked Up Friends 74
3 Eagles of Death Metal – Peace Love Death Metal 70
4 Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones 66
5 Tinariwen – Aman Iman: Water Is Life 65
6 TV on the Radio – Dear Science 63
7 Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga 54
7 The Raconteurs – Consolers Of The Lonely 54
9 Yeasayer – All Hour Cymbals 53
10 The Dø – A Mouthful 51

But that's not quite an accurate reflection, as they don't show what I've been listeneing to on CD. My favorites this year:

1. Nick Cave - Dig Lazarus Dig!!
2. Bon Iver - From Emma, for ever ago
3. Tobacco - Fucked up friends
4. The Kills - Midnight Boom
5. TVOTR - Dear Science
6. Stax Records - 50th Anniversary Compilation
7. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
8. Mojo's New sound of blues and soul (just a cheap freebie with a mag, but damn it's good)
9. Calexico - Carried to Dust
10. Joan as a policewoman - Honor my wishes

These are 2007 records which I only discovered this year and have been sufficiently overplaying:
Thurston Moore - Trees outside the acadamy
Bill Callahan - Woke on a whaleheart
Tinarawen - Aman Iman