Lets start with last Sunday:
The boulder hunting expedition (“aka Things to do while you’re trying not to worry about whether she likes you or not”)
I had Monday off, thus making myself a nice long weekend (Tuesday was Woman’s day). I heard of some boulders in Pretoria so I decided to go look for it, pretty good fun and I managed to find 1 of the 3 reported sites, see some wild life and just plain have a good walk.

PS: I was invited for videos later

Gautrain. It works!! (Monday)
What fun! The whole Gautrain card system was a bit confusing at the start, but all the staff is super helpful and once you’ve figured it out, it’s quite simple (probably like most thing s in life?) We took a trip to Hatfield, had a very trendy meal at a deli and returned to Centurion. The one thing that stood out for me is that the total waiting time there and back was probably less than 5 minutes.

Josie Field Woman’s day show @ Cafe Culture. (Tuesday)
I can’t really say much more than this is a must-see artist. She has such a strong voice and the setup of her singing, playing and Kevin Vincent Leicher completing the sound with a second guitar and some backing vocals is pretty much perfect.

Planet Joy, Shadow Club & Arno Carstens (Saturday):
Awesome!! It’s been a while since I enjoyed all the bands in one night so much. Perfect venue (except perhaps that they might want consider dampening the stage area a bit to help the sound), good service, fun crowd.

Karen Zoid (Sunday):
The whole Park Acoustics vibe and more. She went to some effort to make it fun for the kids which was nice to watch. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around stopping a party at 5pm, but I guess Sunday will always mean Monday, which means work. eeeeeuuuww!

Other random news:
I’ve sold my curtains – don’t need them now and I was made an offer by someone I loaned them to for a while.

No, it’s not to fund some nasty habit.

I’m having mixed success with “Be kind to Emile’s liver month”. A couple of the mornings in the past week was not so much a success as a reminder of why we’re having the BKTELM, but hey, practice makes perfect.

One night while still moving odds & ends out of my old place, I was in no mood to try & prepare food so I went looking for take-aways. I’m sorta tired of pizza, and generally I’m trying to watch what I eat a bit more closely these days, which makes take-away hunting challenging.

Bangkok Wok to the rescue: I picked both a red & green chicken curry with the idea of having something to take to work the following day. Little did I know the size of the portions, it was huge!! I ended up eating curry that night, the following day as well as the following the night. It was simply delicious: a very mild curry, barely a bite. Although the green curry looks a bit like the Hulk bled over your food, it really is very good. The picture I took does it no justice, so I’ll rather not put it up.

Friday night I was cruising around and dropped by The Fishmonger, with the idea of take aways again and then watching some pre-recorded series at home for a change. That was until I saw the menu – I had to sit down for the stuffed kingklip!! The stuffing was onions & tomato, some herbs too (I forgot the rest), with a paprika and garlic sauce. I thought I died and went to heaven. This was without a doubt the best fish I ever had – do yourself a favour and have it when you have the opportunity.

Finally I made myself some food yesterday for bringing to work. For the purpose of something like an in-between meal snack I made brown pasta cooked with some curry, paprika & other red spices – I’m still wondering if it was worth adding the spices while boiling it as it leaves very little taste. Added a generous amount of sun dried tomato pesto with some finely chopped jalapenos, just enough for a little bite, and some tuna also with it’s own sun dried tomato bits – it’s awesome, even if I say so myself. For lunch crumbed fish steaklets with mediterranean vegetables, couscous and again a sun dried tomato sauce. It’s going to be good!

Mmmmmmm, gotta go eat now

PS: I lost 4kg’s in the last month or so. Managing to not overdo it, keeping that Cape trip in mind

Following last weekends rather embarrassing excursion to Klitsgras I put on my brave face and headed out there again, this time having made very sure of the date & time…

Tactical retreat
…and I arrived in style only to find that it’s been pouring down leaving the dirt road in a state resembling chocolate mousse. This in itself presents no problem to the BigBadWolf’s superior vehicle & off-road driving skills, but there are other considerations. I arrived fairly early and within the first 5 minutes 2 cars got stuck in the mud already. As the place fills up that road will inevitably get worse and the cars parking on the grassy areas which currently serves as an escape route will leave you almost certainly getting stuck. I really had no intention of playing in the mud that night.

Plan B…again! Except, in retrospect, if there was ever a case of trading up this was it.

Johannes & the French connection
I’ve been hearing of Hotbox a lot lately and tonight there was some sort of a farewell party (later I learned that they were moving and I believe it was pretty much the last gig where Fokofpolisiekar would ever play). The line up was Blk Jks, Not My Dog and then of course Fokofpolisiekar. It was also the launch of the Fokofpolisiekar biography.

It’s my first time there and I hope they move soon as I certainly do not want it to be my last - the place rocked. Blk Jks was ok’ish – strangely quite a few people walked up to me and asked me what I thought – did someone stick a paper on my back stating “Expert on complicated black jazz rock” ???). Will have to check…

Not My Dog was awesome – my first time seeing them live. Very much a SA incarnation of Rage Against The Machine, without leaving me with the impression that they were copy cats. I enjoyed a bit of a mosh session too, but there (as always I guess) were a few class A pricks on the sideline, not brave enough to join in themselves but gladly shoving you around from the side and then pretending to not know who did it. It was just not my scene that night & I retreated to a very nice vantage point at the back.

And an excellent spot it was. I met Johannes who recently moved from the Cape to Pretoria somewhere and we had a nice chat. He had a lady friend there who he says is French, but I could have sworn she spoke with an Irish accent….maybe I’m missing something? I had fun hanging around at the back with them.

Fokofpolisiekar: What can I say? They rocked. It was simply awesome. Your SA rock experience will simply not be complete if you have not seen (or as distant second place, heard) them.

The whole show ended at about 2:30, and what a fitting end to the night:

Whip my dog
On Saturday afternoon / evening it was time for a Wolmer event (“Wolmer Dogfest”: entry fees went to 2 dog charities), these I’ve learned to not miss. The Wolmer shows tend to start slow (sorry Nico, I should have mentioned that) but they always pick up and I always have a blast. The line up included Black Cat Bones, Raoul & Black Fridays, Cortina Whiplash, Not My Dog, Fragmented Children and I forgot the rest.

I was pleasantly surprised by Cortina Whiplash. An all-girl group they certainly sound like they know what they are doing. They lost me a bit in the middle of the set, but the start & especially the last couple of songs will without a doubt have me go see another one of their shows – some really lekker solid rock – well done!

Worth a mention is the girl singing for Fragmented Children. Not my type of music, but beware: do not engage this chick in a shouting match. She has big voice and she’s not afraid to use it. You will lose. Badly. The exorcist sent by the neighbours to rescue you will probably find you in a foetal position covering your ears, whimpering. All in all best to avoid the entire situation

By now everyone that know me probably heard of Black Cat Bones. Best live show in SA, I have no doubt, go see for yourself.

For some reason Not My Dog was just not as good (for me at least) as the previous night. Perhaps it was because I already got my fix for the night during the earlier BCB set, maybe I was just tired, who knows? I slinked away shortly thereafter, I think Nico & Nadine had already done the same. It was already well past 10PM and last night at Hotbox was a rough one already.

And there walked Sue, alone in the dark. Apparently she missed her lift so I gave her a ride home, it’s not a good spot for anyone to be walking alone at night. The next morning I realised she left her glasses in my car and because she used my phone to call her friend the previous night I could get a hold of her again to return it, so back to Zambesi Sunday night.

The randomness of it all somehow seemed a fitting end to the crazy two nights of partying. The things we do for pretty girls… <sigh>

“From the Silverton Swamps in the Far East of Pretoria comes Black Cat Bone. Born from a Muddy Waters lyric and raised amongst the patriot gators of the SA music industry, BCB plays a fused selection of Deep South Rock and Hoodoo Blues”

and from Channel 24 they “crack open a moonshined cocktail of Deep South Rock and Hoodoo Blues for your pleasure.”

Black Cat Bone is Andre ‘King Snake’ Kriel (vocals, electric axe), Kobus ‘da RAT’ de Kock (vocals, acoustic axe, harmonica), Wim.P ‘Capoeira’ van Vuuren (kit, percussion) and Cobiz ‘Bones’ Gerber (bass).

This is a must see act. I think the smallish venue added to the experience – these guys are large as life and pulls everyone into the show.  You can not help as laugh at the constant banter between band members, audience & staff and the sounds are authentic blues. 

An honorable mention for the opening act “Tot stilstand” who played their very first gig. Good stuff, looking forward to seeing you guys around.

They’ve recently signed up a permanent bass player, and on the opening song had someone playing a violin which went down quite well. Andries of Klitsgras drumming circle fame added some percussion and some amazing didgeridoo playing.

I’m no music classification specialist, but I’d classify them as some sort of modern reggae (Just saw they call it “Rockabilly reggae” - quite fitting I me thinks). Very cool. Excellent sound setup, no blaring sounds. Keep an eye open for them, the show is well worth it. Best place to keep track of them is on Facebook. Below a YouTube clip which does not really do them justice, especially with the new line up, but anyway:

This past Thursday night I spent at Tings & Times in Hatfield, my second visit there. The invite I got clearly stated that the bands playing are Gently Scar’d and Walt, in that order, starting at 8PM. Looking forward to returning there and the prospect of their simply delicious food, I made plans to get myself out there.

The food and service was as good if not better than I remember (the “Once bitten” pita is divine!!), but that’s where my compliments end.

Instead of Gently Scar’d, Walt was first up and started some time after 9PM – an hour later than advertised. By the time Gently Scar’d started playing, it was well past 10, and I left having heard only about 3 of their songs – which was great by the way – I listened to their samples online and the live show was exactly what I had in mind.

I start working at 7am in the mornings, and very seldom put myself through a late night during the week – grinding through work the next day is usually not worth it. I understand that the students probably don’t mind. I also get having a lesser known band playing the same night as a well known band in order to get them some more exposure, but then it should be advertised correctly. I don’t want to be forced to sit through a relatively shitty band before getting to hear the band I paid for. I don’t want to be made to wait an hour later than advertised. Surely having the lesser known band play afterwards actually has more merit – the place will be as full as it’ll get for the night and with the alcohol having flowed the band might get a better review than when playing to a sober half-full student crowd?

Tings is not unique in this approach – I’ve encountered this late-start-band-switch scenario at Cafe Barcelona and a few others.

This all gets me back to the almost extinct phenomenon (at least in my experience here in Pretoria, South Africa) of something working well as it’s supposed to first time around and the frustration of knowing it used to be like that, back in the day.

Service levels going backwards – sure you get the uber politically correct, perfect telephone etiquette  greeting when some call centre calls you or heaven forbid you need to call them, but that’s it. Experiencing stupidity that so thick you can reach out and touch it is almost inevitable. God help you if you need to dial 10111, and the corporates are really not much better - politer yes, better no.

Getting something, anything fixed became a game of spare-part roulette - the “repairman” simply picks the easiest replaceable part and replacing it at the customer’s expense with an attitude of “Let’s see if that works”. No more troubleshooting. Consumerist handyman-ship (that might be a new word?!). Replace all parts until the customer is too broke to continue, so frustrated he rather buys a new product, or in the odd case gets lucky soon enough that everyone “wins”. Well, sort of.

I can just mention Telkom, and everyone will have a story of inefficient service, products and the frutration of not having an alternative. Strictlty speaking we now have an alternative, but it’s not a very good one, and it seems to be the case in many commercial sectors in our country. The supplier, ( in the start of this article the supplier being Tings’ - my supplier of entertainment for the evening ) knows well enough that your choices are limited enough that regardless of how shitty they treat you while taking your money, chances are you’ll be back anyway. Perhaps it’s as simple as just not giving a shit - I guess anything’s possible.

Perhaps I’ve grown old and square, but I don’t think so.
Actually no, that’s impossible, it can’t be, it’s them, they’re out to get me!

That’s it, I’m done. I’m of my soap box - no solutions offered, not today at least. The rant has had it’s run. I suspect time and the law of averages will sort it all out, failing which we’ll have to pin our hopes on 2012. At least with this post I’ve successfully fended of death-by-deskjob-boredom for another day.

Live long and prosper…..

“After being hypnotized by his sister in law, a man begins seeing haunting visions of a girl’s ghost and a mystery begins to unfold around her.”

Kevin Bacon who also played in ”Flatliners” and “Tremors” (both also good movies by the way) plays the lead. Critics widely compare this movie to “Sixth Sense” (remember “I see dead people” ?) starring Bruce Willis released in the same year, but I think they are different, and each very good in it’s own way.

From metacritic.com: 

“Stir of Echoes is much more down and dirty (than “The Sixth Sense”), and the thrills are more visceral.”

“It certainly has a place among the year’s more accomplished productions.”

I think this perhaps best describes the difference between 2 great movies:

” ‘Sixth’ achieves a rare hushed poetry where Stir, for all its strengths, is more earthbound and familiar.”

….but still I prefer Stir of Echoes…..

(“Sixth Sense”)

Excerpts from the NYT review:
“As it toys with nihilism and hurls poisoned darts at religion, medicine and self-help, it adds up to an entertaining collection of vignettes strung together by a sarcastic loudmouth whose heart is breaking under his sophomoric bravado.”

“Playing both the reckless, headstrong younger Ida and the frail but still-demanding older woman who mistakes Victor for everyone but himself when he visits, Ms. Huston gives a compelling portrayal of someone whose mind may be shredded but whose ferocious willpower remains undiminished.”

“Mr. Rockwell makes you see all the layers as well as feel the pain that lies beneath.”

Well worth it – watch out for Choke in the pink cover on the shelf.