SA Rocks

I have been looking at the SA Rocks template that I have completely customised with my limited volume for some time now. I have been extremely happy with the look, feel and funky vibe I get when I look at it. Yet something was not right.

With a suggestion from Mike and Justin and some coding assistance from Justin I think that I have arrived at a great point in the SA Rocks theme. I have inserted a navigation menu just under the header and for those of you with 1024 screen resolutions I have implemented a thinner, smaller header as you can well see.

I think that all of the changes work well and aid in navigating the site. If you think differently let me know and I’ll consider some options! Hope you like.

Regards

Nic (Editor)

Popularity: 3% [?]

Tea and Biltong with the Queen: Earl Grey, Ma’am? *blank stare*

A babble of languages on the street, an airport greeting message on a billboard that’s twelve lines long, a no-place-like-home mis-translation like “Welcome at Witbank Mall” – all signs of a TRULY multicultural society. Ever stopped to ask a stranger something and had to try out three languages before you found one you had in common? “Excuse me” you say. “Jammer?” they say. “Ndithetha nci nci Xhosa” you say. “Heke!” they say.

It’s a common occurrence in the land of eleven official languages. It’s something we complain about sometimes, and if you’re a little more old-fashioned you sigh about how inefficient it is, but it’s every day life in South Africa. And it makes me happy! The days of the Afrikaans-English bi-polar schooling are gone, but we still require scholars to learn a second language for around ten years, and I would imagine that most South Africans are, at least, bilingual.

Remember “Simulcast” – that 80’s method of tuning into the original American sound of a t.v. programme through your radio? With the cynicism of a media graduate, I know that this was an ugly symptom of an oppressive regime. But, I was five, six or seven years old, and I remember snuggling down with the whole family for the EVENT that was watching a programme like Beverly Hills 90210.

Do we have the radio? Is it pre-tuned so my teenage sister doesn’t miss what Kelly and Whatshisface have to say to each other? Where’s the electric lead in case the batteries go dead? There was preparation involved. And through the innocent eyes of youth, it was a family tradition that is probably fairly unique in the world at that time. I even have a friend on the other side of the simulcast divide for whom Alf will always be the little Afrikaans hairy alien!

Nowadays, when I’m skipping through the “sameness” of British television, I long to catch a snatch of something I don’t understand. In the 1700’s Scots and Gaelic were outlawed in Scotland by the ruling English, and even though it was repealed in the same century, the damage was irreparable. Today you can catch about an hour of Gaelic programming per week across five channels. By comparison, South Africa has embraced poly-language broadcasting (particularly in radio). There may be some proportional issues to sort out and a definite need for locally-produced quality content – but if you get home in time for soapie hour, you can have your pick of languages. If you like a show, but you’re not fluent – read the provided subtitles, or stumble along with the bilingual dialogue.

It’s a positive thing that enjoying a subtitled programme is standard. Or better yet – watch the weather in Zulu. The symbols are all the same, so you get the gist of it, but can also appreciate the unashamed enthusiasm the Zulu weatherman brings to his segment, even if you don’t understand a word! And Afrikaans rugby commentary is simply priceless: “O! Dis onder die pale in. Ongelooooflik!!!”

Popularity: 3% [?]

It’s the Wacky Wine Weekend this weekend ( 1-3 June, 2007) and it promises to be a cracker of an event.

Wacky Wine Weekend

There really isn’t any excuse for any wine lover (and indeed non-lover) not to attend this zany weekend of fun and entertainment.

There really does seem to be something for everyone – wine tasting and tours, camping, tractor rides, rugby, live music and plenty of food bits!

I hear that there is a vat full of wine that you can dive into and have a swim – you can even try your hardest to retrieve some gemstones from the bottom of it – tell you what, my leopard print speedo is already packed

See you all there.

Cru Master

Popularity: 5% [?]

Welcome to the very first SA RocksCast (do we like the name?). The SA RocksCast is going to be exposing great people, project, organisations and more that are all trying to do good, if not great things, in their specific areas of interest. I have set up a specific RSS feed (it’s a category feed, Thanks Paul!) for the podcast that people can subscribe to. That will soon appear to the left in the sidebar!

If you know of anything or anyone that should be featured in the SA RocksCast please email me at: podcast@sarocks.co.za. Please let me know if there are any issues or criticisms about the podcast and how I can make it better! Keep in mind this is my very first attempt at a podcast!

The first, or pilot SA RocksCast features Merle from Jozikids. ENJOY!!! All SA Rockscast will be less than 12 minutes in length unless otherwise specified.

Todays podcast is 11 minutes in length and incorporates music from ccmixter, registered under a Creative Commons License, created by teru.

Popularity: 3% [?]

..this could be one of those obvious no-brainers – but then again it might just be one of the deepest questions we can ask ourselves (if existential’s your thing)..

but just for today – why are you literally here: why do you live in the city that you do, the continent , the climate, the neighbourhood that you do? What makes a place feel like home.

I was chatting to a guy from Burundi who sought to assure me that “white people like the cold“, or at least extremes of temperature (WTF?! was my initial reaction followed in due course by much uproarious laughter.. then curiousity).

It got me thinking about how we humans move about on our great big home.ball. Why do we cluster where we do? If every modern human, [no matter how different we look 50 000 years on] started walking from the deserts of Southern Africa, why hell didn’t we all stop when we made it to the tropics, kick it back on the beaches, pick low-hanging fruit & make music? Surely that would be sensible?

If there’s one thing that I have learnt from studying the learning patterns & cognitive evolution of our species it’s this:

Humans aren’t machines. (oh yeah max, how profound!) smirk if you will, but governments around the world, incredibly smart people with MBA’s, multinational companies and grade 8 teachers are true believers. No matter how efficient the system, it’s never a guarantee that humans will work efficiently or be perfectly trained. We just aren’t an engineering problem. We are fundamentally counter.intuitive in our behaviour, and though we may honestly believe that we would be happiest lolling in an endless summer, that we truly want peace, that we really really want to live in luxury and ease.. our history says otherwise.

The weird thing about humans is that we ACTIVELY choose challenge. We yearn to grow beyond ourselves, to make a dent in history. It may be part of a greater plan (Orgel’s 2nd Law – “evolution is smarter than you are”). Yet for some peculiar reason, you have chosen to live where you do (even if you feel like you’re irrevocably bound – mortgage, marriage or money – remember there were decision points along the way).

If, today, you find yourself living in a place that irritates you, scares you but occassionally inspires you & makes your heart leap – you’re home. This place has a challenge level appropriate to your spirit.

If you’re one of those people who works best under pressure, and you love the rush when you’ve accomplished something that you thought was impossible; this is doubly true for you. We have the ability to be digital nomads, free to roam our world & ply our trade. Why are you here? What did you come to do here? Is it just to ingest info, to be productive, manage efficiently, reproduce, consume goods to keep the wheels of the economy going. Work.Buy.Display.Repeat ?

When we try to apply the rationality of engineering processes to our lives, somehow the wheels come off. [Admittedly there are some for whom it works - but generally they're not the kind of people you enjoy hanging around with at a braai]. You’re here for a reason, and it’s probably not a rational one, or you too would probably be Shaiking in your boots and packing for Perth.

It’s the one in your heart. Remember why you stay here.

Popularity: 7% [?]

I love going to the 27 Dinners every two months. I really do. It makes me feel good to see so many people come together and appreciate one another’s endeavours.

As some of you might know I have been looking for a charity to attach SA Rocks to. I have had no good suggestions! Come on people give me hand and suggest some charities that would benefit from involvement and donations from SA Rocks. I did receive one good idea from someone at last nights 27 Dinner for the SA Rocks Walk The Talk initiative. Instead of giving the money that I raise from T-shirt sales and donations from the event to a charity I am going to physically go and buy blankets and give them to charity close to where I am based and where people need the warmth.

If you are interested in helping out or your organisation wants to get on board with SA Rocks and buy blankets and come with me and deliver them to the charity then please email me and let me know.

With regard to the SA Rocks T-shirts I am in the process of trying to set up a method of purchase on the site so that anyone can get a shirt online. Let me know if you have any ideas or methods that you think might make my life easier. I have already printed the shirts and just need a system for purchase and delivery.

The Walk The Talk event is still happening and I am still walking it whether I walk it alone or with a whole crowd of SA Rocks supporters. So if you are keen to walk and even if you are not, sign up and come along and get involved.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Thanks to WiredGecko I have discovered Bill. Bill runs a vodcasting website called MyNameIsBill.com. Bill is travelling the world with a satellite modem and posting a daily video about his travels.

Paul at WiredGecko posted the following video from Bill who visited CapeTown. Bill sounds like an America traveler who only had amazing things to say about Cape Town. I am glad that not all foreigners to SA think that crime is the only thing that SA is famous, or infamous for.

Here is another reason that SA Rocks:

Popularity: 8% [?]

Wikipedia has a magnificently insightful and humorous list of South African Slang words. I have selected some of my favourites and the ones I found the most hilarious!

Have a look:

bergie – from berg, mountain, originally referring to vagrants who sheltered in the forests of Table Mountain; now a mainstream word for a particular subculture of vagrants in Cape Town. When used as slang refers to anyone down and out

bioscope, bio – cinema, movie theatre (now dated), originally a defunct international English word it has survived longer in South Africa as a result of the influence of the Afrikaans cognate bioskoop

boerewors – spicy sausage (Afrikaans) farmer-sausage, used as a mainstream word in South African English

bru – male friend (shortening of broer meaning brother, see also bra below)

dinges – thingamabob, a wotzit or a whatchamacallit

dof – stupid

fyndraai – at the brink of orgasm (Afrikaans – at the fine end of the last turn)

gatvol - fed up, had enough. (Afrikaans – hole-full)

goof, goef – swim, dip

hoesit, hoezit, howzit – how’s it going? How are you?

jislaaik! – wow!

kiff, kif, kief – (adjective) cool, neat, great, wonderful (from Arabic, kayf, meaning enjoyment or wellbeing)

windgat – highty-tighty; highty and mighty; snobbish. (Afrikaans: wind hole)

vrot – rotten, putrid

stukkend – (Afrikaans) broken

swak – broke. Original Afrikaans: weak. “I’m swak, ek sê”. Also used to express disgust or derision (depending on tone and context), for example: “It’s swak that I failed the test”

Check out the full Wikipedia list.

Popularity: 6% [?]

I have always said that South Africans are a very outward-looking nation. For better or for worse, we always believe that if it’s from somewhere else, it’s got to be better – whether it’s movies, clothes, music… or restaurants. How else can you explain the popularity of the Hard Rock Cafe, McDonalds or the ill-fated Planet Hollywood?! We are masters at being self- deprecating about all aspects of our country which means that it always comes as a pleasant surprise when our exports make good overseas – and one Cape Town restaurant has been doing just that.

In 2005, Sabi Sabhawal opened Haiku restaurant in Cape Town’s rejuvenated CBD. You may remember his name as the man behind the hugely succesful and acclaimed Bukhara, arguably Cape Town’s top Indian restaurant for the past decade. The idea behind Haiku was to serve Pan-Asian food in tapas-sized portions, and I would imagine they had their work cut out for them convincing the generation who grew up on Spur portions of the wisdom of many little portions… They also follow the rather annoying London trend of bookign two sittings – so you can only dine at 18h30 or 21h00. I didn’t know how many South Africans would fall for that one (here in London we accept it like meek lambs…), but the gamble paid off handsomely and in November 2005 Haiku was voted South Africa’s best new restaurant for the year in the prestigious Eat Out Johnnie Walker awards.

Wasting no time and capitalising on the veritable freeway of human traffic between London and Cape Town these days, Sabhawal recently opened up another Haiku in London, tucked away in an unpromising location just off Oxford Circus. Although I have not been there, I hear that things run identically to the operation back home and that some staff members were brought across from Cape Town to ensure continuity and consistency. Even the decor has been faithfully reproduced. Far from being a jumble of indiscriminately-thrown-together Asian dishes, the menu is separated into distinct dish types: sushi, sashimi, dim sum, grilled dishes, curries and wok-fried dishes. Each category of dish has its own section in the kitchen: a Japanese chef in charge of the sushi and the robata (Japanese grill) dishes, Chinese chefs from Hong Kong in the wok section and preparing dim sum, Indian chefs creating the tandoor dishes, and so on.

But of course, the question is whether, in London’s super competitive restaurant scene, this newcomer from the colonies can cut the mustard. Many of you will be familiar with AA Gill, the Sunday Times’ restaurant critic and one of the most eloquent writers I know. And if you know AA Gill, you will know that the man is not easily impressed and does not suffer fools or foodie fads gladly. Two weeks ago, he reviewed the London branch of Haiku and here are two excerpts from his hugely amusing review:

The menu is everything I hate and despise about modern pick’n’mix international food: a South African restaurant with a bogus Japanese name that offers sushi, dim sum, tempura, tandoori, wok dishes, Korean, Indian, Thai curries, Malay and Singaporean noodles. There are more than 150 dishes on the menu, not including dessert. It’s an Asian variety that doesn’t offer choice so much as claustrophobia.

Oh dear. But wait… what’s this at the end of the review?

What can I say about Haiku? I hated everything about it, except the food, service and dining room, all of which were infuriatingly good.

AND he gives it four stars. Now that rocks.

Haiku
33 CHurch Street
Cape Town
Tel. +27 (0)21 424 7000

Haiku
15 New Burlington Place
London
W1S 2HX
Tel. +44 (0)20 7494 4777

Cooksister!

Popularity: 4% [?]

While looking for tracks, samples and music from Africa for the SA RocksCast coming up I stumbled upon a really great site containing information about anything and everything to do with truly SA Music and surrounding areas. Give music.org.za a try and I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised by their interesting list of artists.

This isn’t just a site focusing on the typical SA Rock scene like many others, there are various genres covered if you are looking for music that is typical of SA!

Great work on a great SA site that proudly supports SA music.

A quick word from the music.org.za mission statement:

To be a most useful reference and educational resource about musicians in South Africa and the neighbouring regions.

Popularity: 3% [?]