Sunday Thoughts

Sunday morning thoughts.

Next door’s noisy washing machine has been going at it for several days now. All day, every day. Or so it seems. Two hypotheses here. Either they’re cleaning up a murder scene or they’ve opened a commercial laundry. I’m not actually sure which is worse (from a noisy back garden point of view, I mean).

On the other side, they’re chopping down trees. Big, healthy trees.
“Leafy” and “green” are adjectives often applied to living in a nice area: people pay premium prices for mature trees. And yet…
Next door 50 years of slow, hard work, gone in a couple of hours of noise (only just louder than the laundry).

On the Afrikaans side of my social media there’s a fierce* debate as to whether Neil Young or Steve Hofmeyr would provide the better soundtrack for the drive on the R319 between Bredasdorp and Swellendam. It’s getting quite heated.
I think I’d probably cancel the trip. Not least because whatever you have to listen to on the journey, you end up in Swellendam.

Oh, and obviously, since reading this, I can’t really get it out of my mind…

If I’d done a “Saturday thoughts” or “Friday thoughts” or whatever, this would also be in there. And in all likelihood, when I do my next ” ___day thoughts”, it will still be there.
Of course it will.

Freak Moose Antler Incident are in session for Marc Riley this Wednesday.

* Initially, I mistyped this word and WordPress tried to correct it to “faeces”. Did it perhaps read the musical options which followed? AI is amazing.

“I’ll be Bok”

Or… “He’ll be Bok”? Or… “Bok’ll be back”?

Ag, I just don’t know, but this is one of the weirdest emails I’ve received recently.

I’m sharing this no because I hold any feelings for the man or his music, but merely because… well… this is one of the weirdest emails I’ve received recently.

Why did they send it to me?

The email consisted solely of this image:

This is basically an advert for Afrikaans singer Bok van Blerk, who sprang to the nation’s attention back in 2007 with his rendition of the potentially divisive Afrikaans anthem De La Rey [youtube], described by The Grauniad thus:

Some see its popularity as the beginnings of a reassertion of Afrikaner identity from the ashes of apartheid. Others view it as an attempt to rebrand Afrikaners from oppressors to victims by casting back to their suffering at the hands of the British as an analogy for the perceived injustices of life under black rule. South Africa’s arts minister, Pallo Jordan, has even warned that the song risks being hijacked by extreme right-wingers as a “call to arms”. One rugby ground tried to ban it but backed down in the face of public outrage.

For reference, here’s Koos de la Rey’s wikipedia page

I’m not diving into the politics and nationalist sentiment stirred up by the song. I just got an advert emailed to me, offering Bok’s attendance at my festival, function or fundraising event. Not, it appears, to sing (thank the heavens), but to describe his life(?) since that song:

Van De La Rey Tot Nou

translates as “From De La Rey to Now”.

Could it be that Louis Andreas Pepler (for that are his real name) has just hit 40 (he has) and has decided to re-evaluate and re-invent himself?

I don’t know and I really don’t care.

And even if I’m right, it still doesn’t explain why I was included on the mailing list.

If you want to book Bok (the Steve Hofmeyr Lite of Afrikaans Politics and the Kurt Darren Lite of Afrikaans Music):

Kontak Lindé: linde@mozi.co.za of 082 569 3502.

And if you do, please ask her why she sent me this.

Local is lekker

Road tripping these school holidays? Heading down south? Forgot to pack your music?

Never fear, the Friendly 7/11 in L’Agulhas has you covered.

20130616_153925-1

I don’t pretend to be an expert, but it would appear, at first glance at least, that every single box has been ticked.
The usual suspects are all present and correct: Wessels, Hofmeyr, Dylan, van der Merwe, Darren and die Campbells. What more could you ask for?

They’ve even chucked some Creedence Clearwater Revival in for the overseas vibe. And there’s a sneaky André Rieu if you’re still feeling a bit classy ahead of your seventeenth dubbel Klippies en Coke.

iTunes, watch out. The future of music retail can be found down by the stripy lighthouse.

Dirk is Supercool

Come live in South Africa, they said. The music there is great, they said.

I’m slightly behind the curve on this one: it was shared by watkykjy.com yesterday. Then the video mysteriously disappeared. “Thankfully”, now it’s back. It went again. 🙁 But anyway, I’m more than happy not to be the first person to tell the world about Dirk van der Westhuizen (hear more of his stuff here) (I can’t believe I just wrote that).

UK readers will probably see this as being some kind of joke or parody. Sadly, it’s not, and with Kurt Darren not getting any younger, artists like Dirk represent the new wave of Afrikaans dance music.

Oh joy.

5spesie

We’re going to pop down to Agulhas again this weekend. Not for any reason other than getting some fresh air and some sunshine and avoiding some cyclists. Actually, I made up that last one, but it’s an excellent added benefit.

But it looks like the Agulhas area will also be very busy, because it’s the annual 5spesie fishing competition there this weekend. Last year even the outlying villages in the region were packed enough with large Afrikaners in large double cabs (that car park is usually completely empty). This year looks set to be even bigger, with prizes worth over R150,000 up for grabs.

The event, described on the powerpoint-designed flyer as “Net ‘n lekker Boere Jol” (literally “Just a great Farmer’s Party”) sounds like a celebration of fishing and Afrikaans culture. So that’s braais, brandy and bad music, then?

Yep. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Things kick off at 5pm this evening with a bring and braai, progressing (after a bit of fishing from 5am) to a massive finale tomorrow evening including:

21h00 – 22h00 Happy Brandy hour. Dubbel Mooiuitsig Brandewyn – R5

and

21h00 – 24h00 Musiek en Dans – Eggos Orkes van Bonnievale en Christelle (Gratis vir borge / hengelaars, hul familie en vriende)

A rough translation for those in the UK: “Dubbel” = “Double”; “Brandewyn” = “Brandy”; “R5” = “42p”.

And for use on Sunday morning: “Eina” = “Ouch”.

The Music and Dance with the traditional Afrikaans “Orkes” from Bonnievale (and Christelle) is free for sponsors, fishermen, their families and friends. Which seems like reason enough not to befriend a fisherman this weekend, just in case you get invited along.

Hopefully, the fishermen will be happy to share the beaches with my kids, who will be looking for (literally) smaller fry in the in the rockpools.

See you Monday. (Although by the miracle of modern technology, new posts will appear here on Saturday and Sunday).