Topics

1

Media / photography blogs/websites

« on: March 09, 2011, 08:18:58 PM »

Hello
I dunno if there are people who are interested in photography or ones who check them out on the regular. I just wanted to share some here and ask that you guys post some cool ones that you think are also worth visiting?


http://www.londonvsparis.blogspot.com/

I would like to do a concept like this in SA or anywhere in Africa really. Like SA vs Moz or something along those lines.

http://zoeclaudia.tumblr.com/
 this one sometimes verges on pron but i like it

http://half.co.za/ really fresh design

2

General Discussion / memela on fifa world cup concert

« on: June 03, 2010, 06:20:14 PM »

Fifa has blatantly ignored music embodying the true ethos ofAfrica
SANDILE MEMELA

THE LINE-UP of artists for the Fifa
Kick-Off Celebration Concert
reveals a weakening of local musicians
in their struggle for inclusion
against the dominance of Africabrewed
fake-American artists.
A casual glance at the list suggests
that a style aspiring to or imitating
what Americans do was the
major selection criterion.
Ironically, the distinctive African
ethos that makes local artists unmistakable
carriers of local musical heritage
and creativity is what seems to
have been blatantly ignored.
Of course, this is a not surprising
development considering that, by
and large, record-producing multinationals
have always valued musicians
who sound more American or
British than local.
And as a result, it is easy to conclude
that artists like Lira, Loyiso
Bala and Tumi Molekane, for
instance, have made it to the line-up
because they flow from this trend.
Without casting aspersions on
their artistic freedom and integrity,
this is not the calibre of artists that
anyone in their right mind would
regard as resonating with an African
musical ethos, the fundamental
spirit or character of our culture.
Presumably, the premise of the
struggle by the Creative Workers
Union of SA to be involved was to add
a dimension that brings an unmistakable
spirit of Africa to the concert.
To grasp the local musicians’ hollow
victory, it’s necessary to take a
closer look at the content and character
of the music of those chosen to
perform. We have to ask ourselves,
“What does their music say about
Africa and who has influenced it?”
It is not clear what processes
were followed or what criteria were
considered to determine which
artists should be included. But an
African musical ethos should have
been an important component.
The fact that artists are so-called
“black” in the global culture does
not necessarily mean that they are
committed to Africa and its culture.
There is no doubt that artists like
Lira, Loyiso and Tumi have cooked
up a storm in their careers but the
issue of the recipe is more important
in determining the complex issue of
who is African and who is not.
Anyone with a critical ear can
argue some artists don’t cut it when
it comes to being so-called African.
One might argue from the late 1970s
until the rise of kwaito in the early
1990s, the definition and success of
African music was premised on how
American or European it sounded.
But what one misses from the
World Cup line-up is the musical
character and the indigenous quality
of artists like Dr Phillip Tabane,
Ihash’ Elimhlophe, Nothembi
Mkwebane, Phuz’ekhemisi, Busi
Mhlongo and Arno Carstens, among
others intrinsic to the cultural history
and heritage of this country.
It was South Africans, for
instance, who not only revolutionised
the British jazz scene in the 1960s, but
provided an alternative jazz voice
outside America for the first time.
The artists that CWUSA fought
for seem to be a radical departure
from this. Instead, these are artists
who seem to have bought into the
power of Coca-Colonisation or globalisation
at the expense of defending
and preserving indigenous culture.
The continent, especially South
Africa, will have nothing to contribute
to global culture as long as
indigenous artists are neither true to
their African soul nor resonate with
their culture. Indigenous music –
just like our transitional society – is
diverse and multi-dimensional.
A group that exemplifies that is
Kwane Experience, who add a dash
of American to a strong dose of
local. They are the kind of South
African musical group that cannot
be put into a box and trotted out to
live up to American or European
aesthetic expectations. Their originality
and creativity express an
African musical ethos, and there’s a
strong case for their inclusion.
Unfortunately, the record industry
still elevates American and
British performers above local creativity
and continues to use them as
the yardstick. But it is the choice of
local artists to decide where their
loyalty and aesthetics lie.
A defining feature of artists who
choose to connect themselves to their
indigenous heritage is that they offer
the world something that speaks to
Africa and elevates its capability.
There will always be those who
pursue self-aggrandisement and
financial success, but the survival of
African music depends on indigenous
artists who are not afraid of
declaring themselves and staying
true to what stirs in their souls.
This is the cultural role and
responsibility of artists. But the
local musicians’ “victory” in adding
more local talent to the line-up leaves
much to be desired when we think of
who is African and who is not.

3

Readers Corner - Books / FLat Earth News by Nick Davies

« on: April 29, 2010, 05:24:14 PM »

If you read a newspaper you need to read this book.

or you can check out the website linked to this book www.flatearthnews.net

The book is basically exposing falsehood in the media and why they happed and how they affect the media in general as well as the people who read them.
\
So from the whole 9/11 to even Y2K (that never existed) to other falsehoods blah blah blah.

Honestly, you need to read this book or check out the heroin story on the website

4

Readers Corner - Books / why Google is not my friend

« on: January 21, 2010, 10:56:47 AM »

this thread is inspired by this piece http://tiny.cc/Gr82c and I know we have a lot of writers and journalists on the site so i thought it relevant to post it here, pls read it when you have time (even if its not in 2010) and the comments especially.

what I want to ask is whether the people on AG who write for a living agree with the piece (a**uming you have read it)

extract from the piece:

"The internet is business-model neutral; it's like the postal service, or the telephone — all it does is put suppliers in touch with consumers. The revolutionary new quality it adds is that it cuts out middlemen — if a supplier can make their existence known to a consumer, there's no need for wholesaler warehouses, distributors, and a pavement-pounding sales force.

Enter Google.

(You knew I was going to say that name sooner or later, didn't you?)

Google's revenue stream is predicated on their success as an advertising company first and foremost. Remember DoubleClick? They're part of Google.

Google's business model is to monetize all internet content by slapping advertising on it and positioning themselves as the most convenient find-everything-at-your-fingertips gateway. The more high-quality content, the better; hence the drive towards free email, digitizing books, syndicating blogs via Google Reader, and so on. If all content is available over the internet via Google, then all content is monetizable. Content producers who expect to be paid by end-users for access to their content are inevitably going to come into conflict with Google, because this restricts the number of end-users who will see the content, and hence contribute to Google's revenue stream.

We all like free content. And we all like to be able to find things conveniently on the web. But I'm increasingly having a problem with the "information wants to be free" viewpoint — because it ain't necessarily so, depending on how you define "information" and "free". Bandwidth is in the process of becoming so cheap it might as well be free, at least by the standards of the 1990s, let alone any earlier decade. Information is another matter, though. Not all information is created equal, and the cost of compiling and producing something new is disproportionately high. I write books for a living, and take roughly 6-12 months per book. If I can't earn a living at it — if you wave a hypothetical magic wand and make all information free, thereby disintegrating the publishing, music, and commercial content industries overnight — I'd probably not stop writing fiction but I'd have to do something else to earn a living, and therefore I'd have less time to write fiction, and consequently you'd have fewer of my stories to download."

5

General Discussion / surnames

« on: January 18, 2010, 11:41:09 AM »

in 2010 and beyond...

if you decide to get married, would you and ur partner consider coming up with a new surname that u both like instead of either his/hers or urs or a double-barrel surname?

6

General Discussion / highlights for 2009

« on: December 17, 2009, 03:53:16 PM »

list urs

1. having my heartbroken was a strange high 
2. seeing knaan perform live twice 
3. moving back to civilization from the bundus

7

Sports Arena / FYI RE: World Cup

« on: November 19, 2009, 09:10:00 AM »

1)      Schools will be closed for almost over 4 weeks during the World Cup - it was apparently legislated last week. What do you do with your kids?
2)      Air tickets to Cape Town (for example) will cost about R8, 000 per seat as some flights have to leave same night after the games due to accommodation problems in PLZ/CPT /DBN/BLOEM.  So the flights will operate 24 hours.  Expect NOISE.  Expect TRAFFIC around airports all hours.
3)      Fresh veggies and fruit will be scarce, if not unavailable, during this time.  For the World Cup in Germany, they had to import them.4)      Traffic will increase by about 30% at the times of the games as fans go to the grounds or FANPARKS (games start at 13.30, 16.00 and 2030 hrs.) and matches are announced for December 4th.  This is obviously the best time to fly - whilst matches are on   !
5)      Road areas around stadiums will be closed off.
6)      It is expected that 550,000 people will be travelling to/from matches and 100,000 per match day… Expect considerable delays on match days.
7)      There will not be parking available at airports - so arrange drop offs.
      4,800 buses will be operational and there will be restrictions on truckers/hauliers, etc. so we need to plan with clients and especially on containers needing haulage.
9)      “Fan Parks” will be a huge attraction (see the list of Fan Parks) and traffic to/from those areas will be extremely congested.  At one Fan Park in Germany 500,000 people pitched up, consuming during the events, 3 million sausages, 1 million litres of beer, etc.  Think of the logistics and TOILETS…!
 

 

8

General Discussion / freerice

« on: November 09, 2009, 09:13:27 AM »

No seriously. Be nice.

So here is what u do, u play a vocab game on the site and for every answer u get right, the UN World Food Program donates 10 grains of rice to help end hunger...

www.freerice.com

and its a great way to improve ur SPELLING 

9

Hip Hop Events / One Africa Festival

« on: October 28, 2009, 03:09:48 PM »

One Africa Festival celebrates a united Africa as the creative powerhouse of the 21st century. The event is a presentation of African Arts and Culture. This year`s celebration features African culture, music, comedy and film in a dynamic and interactive environment.

Price
VIP: R250.00
Standard: R125.00
Children under 10 admitted free.

Artists
Hugh Masekela, Freshly Ground, Oliver Mtukudzi from Zimbabwe, Nameless from Kenya, 2Face Idibia and Asa from Nigeria 

10

Politics / Blackwash

« on: September 23, 2009, 11:21:37 AM »

You know how it goes, manene aka Don kalimeshe inspires a google search for Andile Mngxitama's stuff and i find this interesting piece. whats ur take AG?

A more interesting development is in the arena of youth culture. The interesting part of developments in this arena lies not so much in the claims of the consumerism of commercial youth radio stations, which is all pose but no substance, but in counter-culture initiatives such as Blackwash, a blacks-only ­formation that seeks to upgrade BC for the 21st century.

Here Biko is not valorised as an infallible God. Rather, his ideas are questioned and developed to help blacks make sense of why their victory of 1994 has turned into a ma**ive defeat. Key to upgrading BC is linking it to the black diaspora, in particular to Haiti and her agonies of the past 200 years.

Secondly, Blackwash wants to make it clear that BC is inherently anticapitalist and also that capitalism is inherently anti-black. This move returns a radical black socialism to BC and kills the claim that BC is not “cla** conscious”. It also rejects the silly idea that BC must subscribe to the alien notion of “scientific socialism”.

The point is that a correct reading of Biko’s BC shows that it is anti-capitalist.

Two other areas where BC is ­being further elaborated are in the fight against patriarchy and homophobia.

This new thinking includes ­rejecting backward cultural practices such as ulwaluko (circumcision) and ukuthwala (forced ­marriages) and seeks to construct new forms of being informed by BC’s liberatory impulses.

The future remains BC but this great philosophy must be liberated from some of its most ardent supporters – they’ve become relics of the past.

Mngxitama is the publisher of New Frank Talk

the whole piece from http://www.citypress.co.za/Content/Columnists/AndileMngxitama/2362/711e4c55d1684846ba6ac934b1754bec/12-09-2009-02-38/The_BC_evolution

11

Politics / crime colour-blind?

« on: September 17, 2009, 09:22:19 AM »

this is Imran Garda's interesting take on the whole Huntley saga  ...

Crime colour-blind

Some still do not have electricity. When the biting Johannesburg winter chill hits squatter camps – euphemistically called "informal settlements" - like Slovo Park, the shack-dwellers, all black, do not even have blankets.

It is within these squatter camps - and the big townships - that a large percentage of crimes, xenophobic or not, take place in South Africa.

Huntley claims to have been attacked seven times in South Africa, and this is not the place to dispute his claim. He may actually be one of the lucky South Africans whose experience of crime has not hit double figures. But was he attacked because he was white?

As a South African of Indian descent,  I have experienced crime first hand – one of my brothers has been the victim of a "car-jacking", my father and another brother have been robbed at gunpoint, my wife and mother have been mugged and my house burgled by white men according to the eyewitness neighbours.

I have watched my cla**mates and work colleagues, black, white, Indian, Malay and coloured (mixed-race) suffer from the appalling surge of crime in all its most simple and outrageous forms and can attest that crime in South Africa does not see colour.

In justifying its decision to approve his refugee application, Canada's refugee board said Brandon Huntley would "stick out like a sore thumb" if he went back to South Africa.

Mowbray, the part of Cape Town Huntley hails from, is middle cla**, has a golf course and is largely white.

One cannot help wondering if the opposite would prove to be true. A black family moving into Mowbray might just be the ones sticking out like a sore thumb.



the whole piece is very interesting though, check the link 
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/09/200991412438170453.html

12

Humour / Jokes / would u forgive ur parents?

« on: September 14, 2009, 02:34:16 PM »

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww285/neoscribes/tinydick.jpg

13

General Discussion / girl fight

« on: September 09, 2009, 04:55:55 PM »

do guys find it as a compliment or an insult when girls want to fight over them?

14

Hip Hop Events / Papoose @Carfax

« on: September 09, 2009, 10:07:00 AM »

http://www.jhblive.com/live/event_view.jsp;jsessionid=BCCE0C631C3F9F3502CC98381B6D4916?event_id=20919&cat=live%20music&event_label=papoose_@_carfax_battle_of_the_djs

"American rapper Papoose's five-day visit to South Africa is more than a series of performances, but a cultural exchange with local artists performing alongside... join in the final performance in Newtown."

Venue Carfax
Date Friday, 25 September 2009

15

Hip Hop Events / K'naan in Jozi

« on: August 31, 2009, 04:49:01 PM »

One show only, September 5 at Carfax, Newtown. R130 ticket

with Tumi and the Volume, Kenzhero, Zubz and the Music at Last DJs

@ Capt Schti, arent u one of the music at last Dj's? are u playing too on Sat?