Thursday, September 8, 2011

COMPASSION: SOUTH AFRICAN-STYLE (A TALE OF TWO ATTITUDES)



A friend of mine regularly buys food for street children, which she hands out of her car window whenever she's stopped at traffic lights and asked for help.
Yesterday, as she handed a store-bought cheese sandwich to an uncomfortably-young street child, a guy in the next car rolled his window down and hurled abuse at her for her actions. "It's people like you", he lectured, "that encourage these kaffirs".

Needless to say, the guy was white, and the street kid was black.

What do we do with this stuff?
Would we really rather glare menacingly through our windscreens at 'bloody beggars' than actually provide a little respite from the ravages of hunger? Fair enough, there's an argument to be made against giving cash, as we all know how that system has been abused by lazy parents pimping out their kids to get beer money. But food? Come on. Feeding someone is  quite different to enabling their vices.

And how about the race issue? The intolerance? The lack of compassion? The right this guy thought he had to judge the actions of a complete stranger? The sheer arrogance and lack of humanity his attitude betrayed?

Incidentally, her response as she drove off was, "It's people like you that are fucking this country up".


Tuesday, September 6, 2011

A QUIET 2011 SO FAR...

In lieue of a boring mailer, here's some updates on what's been happening with me in the last few months, and a few reasons why I haven't bothered blogging since mid-April:

1. I produced Melanie Lowe's new album I Choose Me in Durban, and we mixed it with Jake Odendaal in Joburg. It took a while, and it's only just started seeing the light of day now, but it's done.

2. I produced Melanie's friend Krystle Temmerman's EP "Closer To The Fire", which came out very quickly after Jake mastered it.

3. I had a great run of solo acoustic shows at this year's Festival of Arts in Grahamstown.

4. I've played a number of rock and solo acoustic shows around the country, including a few with the esteemed Barry van Zyl.

5. I jammed with with Just Jinger in Durban, the unforgettable Alistair Coakley in Joburg and with Ard Matthews at this year's Mr Price Pro.

6. I got to play guitar on Ernie Smith's upcoming album, as well as two songs on Natalie Rungan's newest album "This Is Me". I also played on Canadian Randal Arsenault's record and on ex-Idol Lize Heerman's yet-to-be-released album, both produced by the legendary Brian O'Shea.

7. I recorded three new full-band and 19 new acoustic demo's for my next record.

8. The video for "Maybe (Just Maybe)" was shot in Durban and finally released.

9. "Come Out Fighting" was nominated for a South African Music Award in the Rock Album category.

10. I read a lot of books, taught a lot of politics, stared aghast at TV news, stopped believing in a lot of nonsense, walked on a lot of beaches, watched a lot of Monty Python, started liking a lot of things for the first time, stopped saying sorry, drove a lot of miles, bought a lot of Tom Waits CD's, laughed a lot, marked a lot of test papers, bought a lot of books, sang along to  a lot Goon Show songs with my kids...

All in all, a relatively quiet few months.