I just spotted via a Tweet from @Sisiwami this new documentary coming out about one of my favourite cities in the world. And where I was born. And thank goodness its not made by an outsider.

Here’s the teaser. It’s called Unhinged and it looks interesting.

No related posts.

A while ago Kameraad’s friends – The Wedding DJ’s – gigged in Soweto, and they met the Smarteez, a fashion crew from Soweto. Now the hipster mag from London Dazed & Confused have discovered them. I took an excerpt of the Dazed Video for you.

Related deployments:

1. The Wedding DJ’s ruk Soweto

The PAPA project aims to preserve pics from South Africa’s past. Part of them are currently on show at Die Waterkant gallery in Cape Town. And Visi magazine has a few of them online.

Related deployments:

1. Die Antwoord pics by Katvrou
2. Leave your past behind you

My chommie in New York Nerina, has produced this cool short togther with Seans Jacobs of the Africa is a country blog (could not inbed it sorry) on Lee-Ursus, an Afrikaans NY rapper nogal.

He talks about why he raps in Afrikaans. It remind me on the Jack Parow Video on why he started to rap in Afrikaans. But I could not find that online either I’ll dig around more later.

No related posts.

Jack Parrow has skillz. Still I was surprised when Boing Boing featured him recently. He sings only in Afrikaans. Pretty amazing I have to say. Seems Die Antwoord has switched the overseas onto South African music.

Here the better version IMO of Jack’s new song Dans Dans Dans.

As a side note, Beeld featured an extensive interview with Die Antwoord and their experience of Coachella festival.

Related deployments:

1. Afrikaans is good for swearing – Die Antwoord
2. Die Antwoord is the Answer

I only discovered this great South African band of yesteryear recently thanks to Donald from the Wedding DJ’s. The clip below was recorded at the legendary Kippies.

It was one of the biggest bands South Africa has produced, and I know little about them. What a shame. To think that at a time they were as big as Die Antwoord is – in some ways – today.

A bit from a blurb:

Harari is the legendary Afro-Rock group founded by Om Alec Khaoli, Selby Ntuli and Sipho Hotstix Mabuse, in the late 60’s.

No related posts.

MIA’s video – Born Free – has been banned on Youtube because of nudity and violence.

British MIA – who now shares a producer with Die Antwoord – has come in for criticism in her support for the Tamil Tigers who are (were) fighting for a separate homeland for Tamils in Sri-Lanka. Her father is a well know Tiger.

The Sri-Lankan government has come in for criticism by human rights groups for the bombardment on Tamil positions and the subsequent round-up of Tamils at the end of the last clashes, which may have ended the war.

The USA has listed the Tigers as a terrorist movement.

Beware the video gets quite violent towards the end.

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

Related articles by Zemanta

• M.I.A. Releases Graphic, Explicit ‘Born Free’ Video (NSFW) (huffingtonpost.com)

Related deployments:

1. Die Antwoord in a Cape Town taxi
2. Leave your past behind you

I’m too busy to write much, so instead here’s a house track, a revolutionary house track. Made up of the recent outburst by Julius Malema at Luthuli house at BBC agent journalist Jonah Fisher.

Lekker track….

But this one by The Cartel is even better. More Kwaito than house it features a cool build up…. and featuring the controversial shoot the Boer lyricks.

Related deployments:

1. Malema gets security to remove this ‘thing’ (video)
2. Comrade Malema – does he earn more that 1 and a half million bucks?

Our country is burning but somethings going right.

Die Antwoord performed their first overseas gig at Cochella festival in the USA. And here is an interview with Xeni Jardin. They are making a song with Diplo, the DJ producer ex of M.I.A. called Vuil-geboost. (Kameraad Mhambi loves M.I.A the Sri-Lankan, Tamil, British hip-hop star.)

And the short movie with Neil Blomkamp is on its way.

I’ll write about my recent visit to SA soon.

Related deployments:

1. An interview with Die Antwoord (video)
2. M.I.A. new violent video banned on Youtube

I wrote this post BET. Before ET was killed. The mood in the country has shifted since. But here is my thoughts anyway.

Vodacom Park Rugby Stadium (Aka Free State Stadium) – Cheetahs vs Brumbies, originally uploaded by Just_Ice..

One can’t but be impressed with all the construction evident all over Gauteng and the Free state. It’s a bit chaotic yes, but it’s everywhere.

The World Cup has at last galvanised the lead footed South Africa into action.

The Centurion Gautrian bridge is truly impressive. And judging by how bad the traffic is now, you can see even the motor loving South Africans round these parts taking to it out of sheer desperation.

I’ve been staying at my sister’s in Pretoria East. And here at least a few things are apparent. Pretoria East looks to be very wealthy. It looked like that ten years ago. But it certainly has not gotten poorer. If anything it’s wealthier, and its sprawl is spilling wider.

Now it encompasses Irene, and former Prime Minister Smuts’s modest home, seems to be even more modest in comparison. No sign of the poor white problem in Pretoria East.

On to Bloemfontein, and the countryside is lush and green.

Here too there’s construction work everywhere. And the benefit of being a World Cup Host more self-evident. The stadium is being linked via the canal to the station via a public walkway.

Why it takes a World Cup to goad the city council into building such a basic public space and thoroughfare is beyond me. But at least Bloemfontein has that now.

Next-door is the Sand du Plessis theatre. An impressive building, but the grand institution is nearly bankrupt, it’s equipment gone or broken and its creative output dwindling dramatically.

South Africa’s twin gods of shopping and sport (bar God himself – who is BIG round these parts) are right next-door, and is suffering no such problems. It’s temples; the mall and the stadium are both having a massive facelift.

In Bloem you notice many more poor whites than in Pretoria East. Still Bloemfontein looks relatively affluent.

No service delivery problems then? My little sister says that the municipality is considering farming out its services, electricity, water and garbage collection to a private company. In my three days there, we suffered (only) one day without water.

Apparently one irate Bloemfontein burger dumped his garbage inside the municipal headquarters, the glass encased Bram Fischer building, after it had no been collected.

Everybody expects municipal services to be more expensive after it gets privatised, but hopefully better.

Related deployments:

1. Where the English have football the South Africans have politics
2. Die Blou Bulle in Orlando, Soweto