Bugger this for a game of soldiers...

... I'm off to bed. The joys of online mags: while I can link sentences and quips to galleries (or key pictures within them) it is an absurd amount of PT. Especially when my Mac is up in my study, in my loft, and it is FREEZING! Not like I can dance myself warm...


Story written, but I am waiting for sunlight to upload and link it. Check out the gallery on Speakerbox in the meantime.

Goodnight y'all... Later.

I don't like 24mm lenses...

... no matter how good the optics. Personal choice, probably based on the fact that I never want to meet Mr. Fantastic... more of a Ben Grimm man, myself.

They can lead to some interesting moments though.

Later.

Monday Morning You Look So Fine: Kiss.

Don't even ask. Just go with it.

"U just leave it all up 2 me
I'm gonna show u what it's all about
U don't have 2 be rich 2 be my girl
U don't have 2 be cool 2 rule my world
Ain't no particular sign I'm more compatible with
I just want your extra time and your...
Kiss." - Prince, Kiss.

And seeing how hard it is to find a Prince vid online with the original audio (on Youtube anyway, due to copyright issues) check the link below, and appreciate the tongue in cheek(i)ness (excuse the multi-pun) of the man. Genius.

I think I want to dance now.

Later.

Happy Father's Day...

... or Happy Halloween, considering some of us are crazier fathers (and daughters) than others.

But yeah... the Lynch men all are, now. Desmond begat Liam (begat Brigid) and Keir (begat Cian).




Hope a good day was had by all. We made flapjack, us.

Oh, and a new project commenced, so you will only be seeing "old" work for a while...

Later.

"Unto the breach..."

"For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start.
The game's afoot..." - Henry V

Later.

To all the haters...

Believe it. 'Cos it's true.

Number 72. Number 68. Number 61. Number 54. Number 41. Number 10. Number 3, number 2 and yes... number 1.

Check it.

As you may know, I love this band... hell, I even followed a gig on Twitter.

Later.

Monday Morning You Look So Fine: Morning Glory.

A legend. He partied hard for two days straight, woke up on a sofa near Emmarentia Dam, played a gig with aKING, sweated half to dehydrated death, secured a drip, posed for photos with his band and then hit the stage with Fokofpolisiekar. More of that here on Speakerbox.

"Today's the day that all the world will see...

Another sunny afternoon,
Walking to the sound of my favorite tune.
Tomorrow never knows what it doesn't know too soon...

... Need a little time to wake up
Need a little time to rest your mind
You know you should so I guess you might as well." - Oasis, Morning Glory.

Later.

Monday Morning You Look So Fine: Tiener Aksie Einde.

This is what happy looks like:

This is what not so happy looks like:



(Though come to think of it, perhaps everyone was happy in the end.)

The kid at the top is a teddy bear. A happy one. The kid lower down got pipped in the chaos that followed Francois Van Coke's attempt to headwalk the crowd at the second Vredefest, held at Emmarentia Dam this last Saturday. I don't know if it was Fran or I that nailed him, but that's my handkerchief he's morring-up with, so I tried to make amends. Hope he likes the pic... (insert random 300esque quote about scars here...)

And the lyrics? Oh yeah, for those of you that were there as we mounted the barricades, you'll get this in a lighter tone that what it was probably originally written:

"Tiener angs is 'n hoe muur om teen uit te klim
Net om weer vas te sit in die hakkiesdraad..." - Tiener Aksie Einde, Fokofpolisiekar.

By the way, thanks again to the Oppikoppi crew for everything... and thanks for the kids that kept me airborne as I got shots of Fran in the crowd. Those will be up shortly on Speakerbox.

Later.

I like coffee.

Go visit The Norm. You'll learn something.

Later.

This is how we roll...

... in Manzini. Where my bears at?













And this is where we roll in Manzini... where my line at?

Later.

And just in case you thought it was all in the Cape...

... there were some bands from the Cape that played in Joburg. Um. I guess Pretoria bands don't drink Coke Zero.

Thanks to Foto Na Dans for giving me a lift to a place so I could almost get thrown out of, it and thanks to Dirty Skirts for giving me a pass that kept me from being thrown out until Panic At The Disco's manager arrived with my pass proper.

Later.

I believe.

It's easy enough to be honest here: I am a fan of aKing. Big time. I'd try for a dispassionate review (album, gig or hairstyle), a bit of piss in with the vinegar, but hey... I am someone with an actual background in journalism (not just a blog, a supporting role in my own High Schooled Musical, a piece of wallpaper from a Undiversity and a point-and-shoot) so I've long since gotten over that bullshit pretence. I'm just a fan...

It's been that way since I called in every favour I had at one point to "break" news of Laudo, back when aKing was one song and harmonics, one guy with a hangover and an acoustic and a bench in the garden, someone whose room I used to crash in when he was away playing Romeo in (too) tights... (if Jani's stories are too believed).

Anyway, I have been a fan since, a friendship built with everyone in the band (some old, some new)... even with the bassist, Eddie Van Halen (I know, "Hennie") where the only obstacle to a connection there was that I desperately wanted to play bass for aKing. Like, serious.

Fast forward from that moment (or rewind from this) to the last gig I saw of theirs in Tings & Times, in my hometown... I was having a bad day (week/month/year) and some of the band were awkwardly consoling me because of my impending divorce, and for some reason I didn't even feel the need to take out a camera that night. I just blagged my way to the front, found a space behind a monitor, lit the occasional cigarette for Hunter and then decided to just enjoy the show. And shit, I did, if the bruises on my hands from pounding on said monitor were anything to go by.

These bruises tie in with a conversation I had with Laudo last night, again in Tings, as the band concluded the second night of launching their new album in Pretoria, the second night in a row at Tings, the second night to a full house... there are certain songs we are tired of hearing, certain moments of ennui we have left behind, certain directions we feel compelled to take in our art, however "pop", or "cool" or un-inspired it may seem to those with little inspiration of their own (and who, let's face it, will NEVER inspire us...)

There is a sound, a feel we may search for in what we do, and if we find it, there's the key; and often it reaches and awakens something in others. Like everyone who came up to the two of us and gave props that night... it's humbling to see that something you have done that MEANS something to you also means something to others.

So... back to that night back then (it's like a trilogy of Back To The Future up in this motherfucker!) I was belting out the lyrics to I Believe that last time at Tings... because I needed to, and in short, because I DID! I needed to just sing along, the way one feels compelled to with something anthemic, the way one does sometimes, even when one doesn't even know the words...

(A thought on anthems: if you are unimpressed by one, whatever the "country" it belongs to, it is probably because you don't "live" there... and if you are unimpressed by the one of the place you DO live in... maybe you should emigrate.)

Anyway, again into the Delorean, Marty... this time to the CokeZeroFest in April. The Plum had noted in the past in her blog that Laudo seemed distant on stage at times, of late... it was something I had noticed myself, however much I believed in the music. But she also noticed something else, something we spoke of later (as we do), something I was privy to in more detail, perched wherever I was up on that unrelentingly bright stage...

It seems Laudo was growing tired of the same set, a lot of music yearning to come out, the gap between that album and this too big for comfort. But at CokeFest, a fire was lit, it seemed to me... there was an energy and connection I hadn't seen in a while.

These photos are from that day, when Laudo seemed to tie in to the fans again... check the flux capacitor, and forward to last night: the fire was raging.

Those photos should follow soon on Speakerbox... but what I saw was wonderful, and seemed to justify the wait for any fan in attendance... the new songs and the passion for playing them; the love reawakened for the old one. It's been ages since I have seen him (and the whole band) enjoy himself so much at a gig, since I have enjoyed shooting it so much... and all this served as a reminder that this "thing" we feel compelled to do is really about those in the front row (especially when thinking of the fact that WE were once standing there the same) and not for those biting back at the bar, or those writing snotty reviews, thumbing through their dusty music collection after a musical fix, like a teenager awkwardly thumbing after the clitoris.

Fuck them, and thank you... and you know who you are.

Awuleth' Umshini Wami (a private joke, for those who were there last night; possibly even about those who weren't.)

Later.

What happened to the days?

The strangest things pop up while I am busy editing, tuning the screensaver on my main screen to various random locations...

Later.

"Remember where you came from..."

"... sister she told ya on a rainy day."

Editing editing editing, and so much of it personal projects still under wraps. Hmmm. Got a new printer from Canon today... more on that soon.

Waiting... it sucks. But at least I'm not a student anymore...

Speaking of which, got a cockfight this Saturday... can't wait... *groan*

Later.

Sick in bed then, should be sick in bed now...

Fucked off, doing admin, trying to placate the money-grubbing bastards that nest on the battlements of my cellular service (ha!) provider... and then my internet went down. More ciggies, more coffee... wondering what I was doing this time last year.

Funnily enough, nothing! It seems I was sick in bed, bemoaning my lot... until I got a phonecall from my brother-from-another-mother, Andy Lund, and flew down to Cape Town for his CD launch... this on the 7th of June, 2008. I know I was too sick to travel, as I lost my iPod and Nike+ gear on the plane, but Andy plied me with Red Bull, and I was able to shoot at least...

I remember sleeping on the floor later, in a fever...

And here's the thing; rewind back another year, and I was sick as well. I was down in Cape Town to shoot the Red Bull BC One regionals, and also to shoot the first gig of Ashtray Electric (which is up at Speakerbox at the mo', by the way)... this on the 8th June 2007.

I was caught in a double whammy, as I didn't just have the flu, I also crashed at the Pienaar's spot... and he has cats... too many of them (which in my opinion, is one). Thank goodness, again, for the ample supplies of Red Bull... caffeine keeps my motor running, it seems.

Anyway, here's to small mercies: at least I'm not sick this year. Though perhaps I should be... had a hankering for a soft pack, so now it's now black Jamaican coffee and Marlboro Reds as I sit here, upstairs in my freeeeeezing Pretoria loft. And my coffee tastes like Marlboro.

Why, oh why don't Lucky make a soft pack? I know you feel me on this, Nicol and Rudes.

Later.

Monday Morning You Look So Fine: Quite Overstared.

It had to happen sooner or later... the song gets enough rotation in my shuffle, in my car, and as I don't have radio or telly, so it is unlikely to get overplayed... and it's more sentimental than a bunny on a pink bicycle made of gelatin... that's waving.

"The wine tastes sweeter with you..." - Ashtray Electric, Quite Overstared

It can also be well 'ard. I suppose. And I don't drink... but there are those that'll get it. And it's got a backwards guitar solo. Tit.

Check Speakerbox soon for more on the above shot.

Later.