Category: Life

The mark of a true DJ…

Kitty’s party was on Saturday night. It was inside the Simons Town Naval Base. Two things struck me here.

1. Why do we spend so much any money on naval vessels for South Africa and then let people like me say “I’m here for the party” and drive right in… and I mean *in*! On our way out we got lost and ended up staring at huge friggen submarines just sitting there while we drove past. These things are big. Not USA nuclear submarine big, but still big enough to put a little frog in your throat as you run through what you’re going to say when stopped by 10 men with semi automatic assault rifles asking why the hell you are driving around “secure” parts of the naval base in your unofficial looking Polo.

2. You get two types of DJs in the world. Those whose names you recognise and those that have custom wooden boxes to carry the 400 cd’s they take to every gig. As a tribute to these legends of the underworld I present my top 10 ways to spot an underworld DJ.

1. Has home-made wooden boxes to carry the 400 CDs he carefully selected for this gig.

breathless.jpg2. Not only does he have the Kenny G Breathless CD, but he chooses to display it proudly as if it was some limited edition Vinyl of the Beatles before they were cool.

3. He will arrange all his gear out on the biggest table he can find and will have brought all manner of unnecessary equipment (FM Tuner etc) to the party… Because everyone knows, second to having a shit-ton of CDs with you, the next most impressive thing a DJ can do is have lots and lots of gear.

4. The speakers will be home made. The amplifier might be too but I couldn’t bring myself to look. There might also be an impressive array of home made or cash converters purchased “lights”.

5. He also has the latest Timberland.

6. Instead of playing a well know Tina Turner track, he will chose to bust out the one obscure Tina track that you have never heard, despite that road trip to Durban when you were 7 when your mom went through that Tina Turner phase.

7. He will play rave music… Not stuff that old people label as “rave music”, but actual, real deal rave music that the ex-ravers in the room recognize and start breaking out in a cold sweat over.

8. He will play Mambo Number 5 and the old lady in the wheelchair will wave her hands in the air like she just doesn’t give a fuck any more care.

9. He will have a helper, usually a younger relative who looks like he gets beaten up at school. This kid will be wearing his sunday best with his shirt tucked in. He will usually be found frantically searching through the 400 CDs looking for the Coolio – Gangstas Paradise CD… Despite the fact that this CD predates his birth. This is also known as child abuse. There is a small part of this child’s mind that is being infected with the idea that this is cool… that this is how he could make his millions and get the chicks. Child A-B-U-S-E.

10. Despite the shockingly random choice of music the people will be too drunk to notice and be shaking their whatnots on the dance floor.

Kitty it was totally rad seeing you and I can’t wait to spend more time with you before you go home.

j.

Things that make me smile…

Ever have one of those weeks when you just can’t stop smiling because the world is just being so damn inspirational?

Ok, so here’s my list of things I am currently happy about:

minicards.jpg1. My Moo Cards arrived: You have no idea how friggen happy I am with them. Moo is an inspirational company and yes, I would even consider living in London to be able to work there and learn from the Moo’inistas. Since everyone wanted to know, they cost $19.99 (R145) for 100 cards. Next time you see me ask for a moo card. I’ve even made my first Moo friend.

2. Civil Twilight made my day: So a couple of days ago I got a message on facebook to say that there was a CD waiting for me in Hout Bay… Apparently I was on the “list” of complementary CDs… getting a free CD is much more of a big deal when there are probably only a few in the country at the moment. Thanks boys. Much Appreciated! The album is awesome, my only fear is that I might wear out the CD. Check out their other video.

Civil Twilight Press Pics3. Mix two of my favourite things…: If I was into American football I could have called this one “mix three of my favourite things” because one of Civil Twilight’s songs, ‘Human’ will be featured on this Sunday’s special Superbowl episode of ‘House’ guest starring Academy Award winning actress Mira Sorvino. House is one of my favourites… so is Civil Twilight. Mira is ok. 😉

4. An awesome GeekDinner: The 6th GeekDinner took place in the cosy Sloppy Sams. I was MC for the evening and really enjoyed it. About 70 of us crammed into the tiny little restaurant and had an absolute blast. Thanks to everyone who helped out.

5. Friends: I guess it goes without saying that friends are important, but recently I’ve been finding my friends to be more than just important, they’ve been critical. Sometimes your friends can give you the kick in the bum you need to get your ducks in a row… Other times they just need to be there to make you laugh. Some friends are their to guide you, others to chide you and still others just to make you feel good about yourself. Tonight I’m going to see kitty! My long lost kitty from London!… Super stoked.

6. Synchronicity: A while back I was looking for a maid/domestic worker/housekeeper whatever you want to call them. I asked around the apartment building I live in and someone suggested an awesome woman called Nokulunga who’s been my angel for the past few months. I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is to come home to a clean apartment every friday. Anyways, the reason I’m mentioning this is because she’s looking for somewhere to work on mondays. She comes highly recommended.

7. Last but not least: As some of you may know, I’ve been seeing someone recently. Anything I say here will be dripping with cheese and I’d rather not put you all through that. Maybe I’ll just say yay!

What did you learn in the last 10 years…

Watching a documentary on education this morning it struck me that I’ve been out of school for 10 years; I matriculated in ’98. Considering that I spent 10 years in “big school” I began to ask myself an interesting question.

Have I learnt more or less in the past 10 years since leaving school than in the 10 years I spent in school.

I guess the answer depends on what your definition of knowledge is. I’m trying to think of things I learnt in school. It’s a pathetic list. Jan Van Riebek in 1652, Dutch British Settlers 1820. Tightly packed molecules make a solid. Obviously there’s more, but it’s all anecdotal, incomplete or just plain incorrect.

I think the most important thing I’ve learnt since I left school is the joy of learning… That inate part of every human being’s soul that yearns for knowledge… that sponge that your school spent 10 years abusing with limited facts, half truths and parrot fashion learning.

I think I spent the better part of 3 years after I left school learning how awesome learning is again. Getting back that feeling of awesomeness that you had when you learnt a new word at 7 years old. The feeling of completeness that you got when you finished your first “big book”.

Perhaps I learnt everything I needed to know in those first 2 years… A to Z and how they make words. Everything else was so badly taught that I’ve spent the following ten years patching all the holes and erasing all the untruths.

I know one thing for sure: I’m going to teach my kids the stuff they’ll never learn in school, starting with the joy of learning. That, and they’ll have a huge map of the world stuck up on their bedroom wall from the day they are born until the day they leave my house. This planet is a incomprehensibly huge place and the biggest mistake you can make in life is to get too caught up in the insular little envelope that is your school and the 100 or so people who have an influence in your life.

j.

Douglas Adams talking about The Internet 9 years ago…

Reading this reminds me how flipping awesome Douglas Adams was and how incredibly tragic it is that he’s not here with us any more, guiding us like a storytelling shaman, through this crazy mixed up world we call home.

This piece first appeared in the News Review section of The Sunday Times on August 29th 1999.

A couple of years or so ago I was a guest on Start The Week, and I was authoritatively informed by a very distinguished journalist that the whole Internet thing was just a silly fad like ham radio in the fifties, and that if I thought any different I was really a bit naïve. It is a very British trait – natural, perhaps, for a country which has lost an empire and found Mr Blobby – to be so suspicious of change.

But the change is real. I don’t think anybody would argue now that the Internet isn’t becoming a major factor in our lives. However, it’s very new to us. Newsreaders still feel it is worth a special and rather worrying mention if, for instance, a crime was planned by people ‘over the Internet.’ They don’t bother to mention when criminals use the telephone or the M4, or discuss their dastardly plans ‘over a cup of tea,’ though each of these was new and controversial in their day.

Then there’s the peculiar way in which certain BBC presenters and journalists (yes, Humphrys Snr., I’m looking at you) pronounce internet addresses. It goes ‘www DOT … bbc DOT… co DOT… uk SLASH… today SLASH…’ etc., and carries the implication that they have no idea what any of this new-fangled stuff is about, but that you lot out there will probably know what it means.

I suppose earlier generations had to sit through all this huffing and puffing with the invention of television, the phone, cinema, radio, the car, the bicycle, printing, the wheel and so on, but you would think we would learn the way these things work, which is this:

Read the rest of this article here

Civil Twilight releases Human as a free download (or you can pay)

human.jpgMany many years ago I used to organise gigs for a few kids from Hout Bay… (Ok, I was a kid at the time too, but it makes this story sound more awesome)

Anyway, a few years ago they went to Los Angeles and recorded an album. The album (which is awesome) has been out for a while now but they’ve finally decided to do the right thing and release it as a free download or a $5 download or a $10 CD. You can download it for free or buy it here.

This shouldn’t surprise you unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months. Radiohead launched their new album as a potentially free download a few months ago (Well, you could pay whatever you felt was fair)… critics said nobody would buy something they could get for free and the eventual sales numbers would reflect it. Well, the sales numbers reflected it… just not the way the critics had expected. Number 1 in the US and the UK.

Tom Yorke even said they’d made more money from the digital (paid for) downloads of In Rainbows than all their other digital downloads to date. To understand what that means you need to know how many albums Radiohead has and how many million songs they’ve probably sold on places like iTunes… The difference is that unlike previous albums where the proceeds were divided up between Apple (iTunes), various record labels, publishers and distributors, oh, and that band called Radiohead — this time it was all theirs.

The bottom line here is really the question:

What’s worth more: Having a million people listening to your music or money in the bank?

Luckily if you’re Radiohead you already have both… Let’s see if Civil Twilight can do a bit of both.

Oh, they have an awesome video here

Long weekend

Mo FireEggs Haust Ed… Long weekend. Totally Awesome though.

  • Drinks with Tania and Co
  • Sushi (and Beer) with Jonathan H. and Graham.
  • Drinks with Kira, TRACY PAYNE, Helene and Ex G2Aers.
  • Free beer, food and fire dancing at a winefarm in Franshoek.
  • Breakfast at Arnolds.
  • Canal Walk for too many hours.
  • Braai at Lourens’.
  • Interspersed with lots of Flight Of the Concorde “Rhymenocerous”

Totally Ossum.

Check out the pics. 

Frugal Fennel

GeekDinner Time.

Ok, so if you’ve never been to a GeekDinner, why not make 2008 the year when you start going. It’s hugely fun and can possibly maybe be a little bit educational… Did I mention that at the last GeekDinner we discussed what to do if the Queen of England happens to start flirting with you on Facebook?

31 January 2008, Sloppy Sams, 51a Somerset Road, Greenpoint. 19:00ish

It’s open to everyone, all ages, all genders and all levels of technical innefficiency.

As usual, sign up on the wiki.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar

Below is the opening chapter from the Cathedral and the Bazaar, an excellent book written by Eric S. Raymond in 1996. It attempts to explain how it is that thousands of people from all over the world can work on something as incredibly complex as an operating system kernel and end up with an excellent result. I read it many years ago and ran across it again today. Rereading the opening chapter encouraged me to read the entire book again. Note to those non-technical people reading this: CatB is not a technical book and is an incredibly interesting read for anyone interested in human psychology.

Linux is subversive. Who would have thought even five years ago (1991) that a world-class operating system could coalesce as if by magic out of part-time hacking by several thousand developers scattered all over the planet, connected only by the tenuous strands of the Internet?
Continue reading “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” →