Take me to the water, to be baptised - Nina Simone

These words and their melody, are my soul.

 

... this is an entry in my paper-journal.  I think if I remember correctly I was listening to YFM and they were discussing hiphop, more so South African hiphop.

25th of August 1998.

... because I'm South African, I am not compelled to listen to South African music, this is the same fundemental concept of Apartheid, meaning that because one was black he was told what he should hear, learn, right to freedom of choice.

I should not listen to your music because you are South African or your music is South African, I should listen to it for sole [purpose] of appreciation of it's artistic nature, if it lacks that I will not listen to it.  Music should be and is universal, categorising it as South African or American is defying the purpose of music, music is a whole lot of things beyond nationality = maths.

I am not sure what the maths part of it is about. I can't even begin to phantom what it could mean.

Alas, thats all  

... i love them. In fact I love their music.  I don't love it like I redman's music, I just find myself unable to change the tv channel, I have to watch all their video's and listen through it.

I suppose they are right, sex does sell.  They are sexy, albeit that black chick is questionable.  The Sugababes got me hooke man, hooked into their music, I think it after that movie, Love Actually, when they did a sound track for.

I can't get them out of my head.

Okay, what I am trying to say, isn't it wierd that even the worst group (and/or song), can stick in your mind for long and the worst part is you find yourself singing along, knowing the lyrics and all. Arrrrrrrg!

I remember a few months back, I had to hear that Sk8er girl (Avril) song, 'complicated'.  I could not do anything without hearing it.  I could not program, I could not design, I could not do jack. It was wierd, and when I got the track (downloaded it off course) I was whole again.

Ah, and right now I am hooked on Justin Timberlake's (I find his surname hilarious, sounds a like lake in Alaska) : My love.  I need to hear it every morning before I can get going with work.

I wonder if its just me, y'all have cheesy songs you love but you could, never, as 'you must never' (muvhango) let your friend know.

Viva le Cheese Viva! 

... yeah, y'all niggers don't know how to drink!  The weekend fantastic, as broke as I am, got myself into way too much alcohol, and did not sleep for at least 48 hours.

I was planning to watch the grand prix qualification on saturday morning, which was going to be on air at around 7am in the morning.  I could only start sleeping at around 3am, so I figured let me not sleep.

Which was kewl, coz Ferarri got it'self into pole position, albeit we lost the constructors championship. I don't care much for the drivers championship, though.  So, after the grand prix, I had to prepare for meetings on Saturday at Europa, Rosebank.  I could not squeeze in a bit o' sleep.

I left the house at 11am to go the PAN taxi rank, to catch a cab for Rosebank. I think by far, that was the worst cab I had ever been into in my life.  It was a 'katshibane' (mitsubishi), a very tiny small cab that was designed to fit at most 9 people, but this boy had 'created' another row of seats for another 5 people.  I was cramped, and I was forced to seat upfront because my legs (being tall, dark and .... ) would not fit in the other rows of seats, and when he changed gears, the knob was riding my thigh, painfull thing, I tell ya.  This upset me, because on Thursday, I manage to strike up a conversation with another taxi driver,,, which gave me a new found respect for taxi drivers, some of them, not all.

I kept thinking during the conversation with the taxi driver, imagine if he had a blog, 'conversations with a taxi driver.', that would be kewl, maybe one day it will be a reality, one day, one day.  The taxi driver told me, that the industry is too saturated and too violent for him to want to do it as a life-long career, he is just gaining experience to become a 'professional' driver for delivery companies, trucking companies and maybe a 'driver of diplomats',,, it was an interesting conversation.

Alas, back to my not sleeping and drinking way too much.  After my meetings on Saturday, I met up with a friend of mine that has trying his hand on self-employment for the past 6 months, and he says he might be getting back to getting a job, coz he has failed in pursuing the dream. All I can remember is telling him, 'give me two weeks'.  Ah, my famous last words for that day/night, '... give me two weeks'.  Alas, I will aslo ask you to give two weeks, before I un-veil, what I have been 'working on, for so long'.

So, around 9pm we get a call that there is a party in Illovo, so we drive down there, and get there, by far the best party for the year.  Free booze, let me saying again, free booze, free alcohol, none of that, B.O.B (bring own booze),,, the booze was free, and it was served by the liquidchefs, it was fantastic.

I think I slept on Sunday at 4am, I don't quite remember what time I got home, but I do know from 12pm on Saturday, I drank at least one beer per hour till the time I went to sleep, needless to say, my ability to remember got lost somewhere around 16h00 on Saturday.

Pap en Vleis.

Sunday afternoon, was spent looking for a 'chisa nyama', we drove down to Yeoville, looking for one, parked the car and did a walk about to find some, meat, just meat dam it!  We try tandoor, which was bad idea, because rasta's don't eat meat, right?  The guy at the kitchen says to us, 'we have fis and ships', dam, so we try a bakery to ask if they know where we can find some pap en vleis.  I know you must be wondering why go to a bakery to ask for meat, well, Yeoville is busy as a mutha on Sundays, everybody looks like us, sobering up from a hectic night last night, so a bakery is assumed everybody there is sober, you would want to operate an oven hung-over, me thinks.

Alas, the bakers, give us clues, and they recommend, '22', a club/pub come eterary,,, before we get to 22 we go through one of the other joints first, dingy/dodgy looking places, I nearly sat down at one, it was dark as hell, but they started showing the soccer match where South Africa was playing some team, I don't remember, but it was way too noisy for me to take it, so we left, and we tried 22, but customer services is not high on the list, so we left for norwood, coz just sometime, 88 has a 'braai plate', but they were closed.  We searched in norwood, did not find jack, we decided to go to Milpark, coz ROKA has a 'pap and vlies' on their menu.  We get there, only to find there is some wierd, thing going on there, kareoke or something like that, people shouting, screaming, singing badly is not what I need for my hang-over.

We left for Melville, here we were hoping to find at least an 'african cuisine' type restaurant, well we found one, it sold bunny chow.  This entire 'journey' was inspired by review of a local movie I was reading, called, bunny chow, which promises to be a tight comedy, south africa comedy. I hate the fact that our biggest movies in the country are about the things we want to irradicated, HIV/AIDS(Yesterday) and Crime (Tsotsi), so I am looking forward to this movie.  ... the restaurant that had 'bunny chow', was open but they had locked the door, and they couldn't find the key to let us in, so we left, coz we didn't want to cause a scene.

We ended up at, TranSky, got a killer, 'proudly south african' burger.  We was going to chill at Berlin, but they need to learn how to 'refresh' last night 'atmosphere', it smelt like a party had just happened, which is okay, but hey, it's the following day, clean your shit.  I love the place, don't get me wrong.

Alas, next door to Berlin there is restaurant called The Loft, nothing to it, except, a girl we met in Mozambique, works there, and dam, she is fine, mad fine!  I will be dining there, again, no digity.

Oh, I also, finaly saw that shop everybody talks about, dvdgurus, they are quite tight, there is a section dedicated to Anime/Manga, beautiful.

*edit: did I mention whilst we was chilling at TranSky, we met the MTV Base JHB 'VJ' winner, some boy from the Eastern Cape, kewl dude, actually, very kewl. 

Word.