Tag: review

Road Trip Report 1: Oudtshoorn

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There’s a lot to do in Oudtshoorn. At least for a town of the size of Oudtshoorn (population 95,000), there is.

Having only around 24 hours to spend there, we narrowed our options down to three: The Cango Caves, The Cango Ostrich Farm and The… er… Cango Wildlife Ranch. All three came well recommended by friends and all three now come well recommended by us as well.

The Cango Caves don’t have to work too hard. They’ve got everything in place and they just need to show it to you. Mathilda was our guide and demonstrated the acoustics of the massive Van Zyl’s Hall (named after local farmer Jacobus van Zyl who discovered the caves in July 1780) with a fantastic rendition of Amazing Grace.

The lighting and the informative guide are the finishing touches for the natural beauty of the caves. With small children, we were limited to the Heritage Tour (we did the Adventure Tour last time), but that was certainly enough to enjoy the spectacular sights under the Swartberg mountains.

Back towards town then, and the Cango Ostrich Farm, where we were wowed by witnessing an ostrich chick “mid-hatch” (I’m sure there’s a technical term for this, but I don’t know what it is). Liesl took us around and yes, it was all very touristy: I got to kiss an ostrich (a bit beaky), I got a neck massage from the ostiches (warm, but not relaxing) and the kids got to sit on an ostrich and, in Alex’s case, ride one too. He was so proud of himself, and rightly so. But it was also really educational. Ostrich farming is a HUGE business in SA and it was great for the kids to get such an interactive experience. Here’s Scoop hands on with a half hour old ostrich:

Alex has gone to school today with the ostrich egg he bought at the farm and he can’t wait to share his experiences with his classmates.

Finally, the Cango Wildlife Ranch. Expensive, but well worth it, especially if you’re into your big cats. Or their big cats, anyway. Most of which were asleep for the majority of time we were there.

They have cheetahs (+ 2 cubs), leopards, lions, servals and Bengal tigers in the Big Cat section, plus three types of lemurs, crocodiles, duikers, cape vultures and an amazing snake house. It does cost a bit, but it’s a great (and again, educational) experience and at least part of your entrance fee goes towards their conservation and captive breeding projects for many of the endangered species they have at the park. Included in the price is a guided tour, which lets you see far more than if you were going around alone. Ed was our guide, made us feel very welcome and was able to answer all our questions.

To fit in all of this in one day was a bit of a squeeze, but we made it by being on the first tour (9am) at the caves (booking essential) and being the last ones out of the Wildlife Ranch at closing time, by which time we were all pretty exhausted.

Our departure from Oudtshoorn the following day was delayed by a military parade which we were told was to mark the anniversary of the Infantry School in the town and the 150th anniversary of the inaugural town council meeting.

It was actually a rather understated affair, but the kids loved seeing the band and the big army vehicles and it was a decent send off before we headed South over the Outeniqua Mountains towards the coast. More of that (and more photos) tomorrow, but in the meantime, the first pics can be found on Flickr here.

We stayed at the Turnberry Hotel, which was clean, friendly and well organised and was a great base for our activities. The family room was nicely set up with a separate annex for the kids, which was very helpful. Oh, and before I go, a shout out to Jemima’s Restaurant which provided us with an amazing opening meal to our trip. Best steak I have had in several years and superb service for the kids. Excellent.

Serve To Win – SEEMS LEGIT

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I’m crying. I’m not sure it’s laughter, despair or possibly a gluten allergy since I did drive past a bakery on the way to work this morning.

More poo, because here’s a crappy piece about what (given the excerpt that I’ve just read) seems to be a crappy book.

It’s about eating and tennis. Here are the paragraphs that sit particularly uncomfortably with my rational brain:

Novak Djokovic was in Croatia in the summer of 2010 for a Davis Cup tie and was having a consultation with Dr Igor Cetojevic, a nutritionist and fellow Serb.

Cetojevic told Djokovic to stretch out his right arm while placing his left hand on his stomach. The doctor then pushed down on Djokovic’s right arm and told him to resist the pressure. The strength Djokovic would feel in holding firm, the doctor said, was exactly what he should experience.

Next Cetojevic gave Djokovic a slice of bread. He told the bemused player not to eat it but to hold it against his stomach with his left hand while he again pushed down on his outstretched right arm. To Djokovic’s astonishment, the arm felt appreciably weaker.

It was what Cetojevic had expected. His crude test had been to discover whether Djokovic was sensitive to gluten, a protein found in wheat and other bread grains.

I’ve just popped down to my local bookstore and I held a copy of “Serve To Win” up against my stomach and immediately felt nauseous.

It was what I expected.

My crude test had been to discover whether I was sensitive to complete bullshit.

H/T Jacques

PSB – Electric

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Yes, the new Pet Shop Boys is out and I’ve been meaning to write about it for ages. Not least because I’m very impressed with what they’ve turned out – again.

First off, I am a fan. A quick glance at my iPod shows that I have almost 200 tracks of  theirs – and that’s about 1 for every year they’ve been going. But I didn’t like last year’s rather dreary offering, Elysium. This was of concern. But I needn’t have worried: Electric couldn’t be more different. It’s very dancy – something like you would expect of one of their remix albums, rather than straight out of the studio. But, as The Quietus pointed out, they keep things in check:

Instead of using that as the excuse to do something daft and over-ooof the pudding, ‘Bolshy’ continues with its sun-dappled panache. This is Pet Shop Boys at their sexiest, most sun-kissed

I’m often guilty of doing something daft and over-ooofing the pudding, so it’s nice to see that experience has taught them to be able to avoid that.

Experience (and the fact that that they’re producing content under their own label now) has also allowed them to choose exactly what they want to release and the result is a no holds barred, hi-energy dance album which somehow manages to take you straight back to the gay clubs of the early 1990s, while bridging the gap between 80’s electronica and 2013 dubstep.

It’s only 9 tracks long, but even within that there are many of the best things they’ve done in years. It’s all good, but the standout tracks for me are, in no particular order, Love Is A Bourgeois Construct, Thursday, Axis and Vocal. And that’s almost half an album full.

Axis is the first track on the album and Tennant encourages us to “turn it up”. It’s fast, powerful, unapologetic dance and a great intro to what’s to come, with its repeated “Electric Energy”:

Love Is A Bourgeois Construct [youtube audio] drops in at track three and the massed ranks of the male voice choir, last heard in Go West, are back. The backbone is a solid dance version of the theme from Henry Purcell’s 1691 opera King Arthur. Yes, really. There are aggressive violins, muted brass and even a harpsichord. There’s not many groups that could pull that sort of thing off, but this is perfection. Due for release on 2nd September, it should go far, but probably won’t.

Vocal [youtube] is the 2013 version of It’s Alright: simply a celebration of the joy of music:

And everything about tonight feels right and so young
And anything I’d want to say out loud will be sung

It’s in the music
It’s in the song
Everyone I hoped would be around has come along
For the music

It’s in the music
It’s in the song
And the feeling of the warmth around us all is so strong
It’s in the music

It rounds off the album and just as Axis starts it perfectly, Vocal makes you appreciate just how much you’ve enjoyed the past 49 minutes and 12 seconds. There’s no agenda here, just simple jubilance at how music can uplift the human soul.

But my favourite, I think, has to be Thursday [youtube audio] in which we’re encouraged to stay for (a somewhat elongated) weekend:
“Come on. Why not?” purrs Tennant.
The track starts with a glockenspiel motif over a background of synth which could be from any of the late 80’s PSB tracks. And then, the pizzicato strings and 7-chord piano intro into the chorus. And then, just when you think it can’t get any better – UK rapper Example (who was born nearly 2 years after the Pet Shop Boys got together) pops up and does his thing. It’s unexpected, but it fits and it works.

There’s actually very little that I don’t like about this album, very little indeed. And, though it’s amongst some really strong competition (some of which hasn’t even been released yet), this is top of my list for my best album this year right now.

Go buy it.

MU

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The kids are huge fans of Monsters Inc, so today, I took them to see the new prequel, Monsters University:

image

Putting it simply, it was superb. I had been concerned that it wouldn’t live up to the first film, but it really did. The animation was – I don’t know – sharper, better. The characters were well thought out and believable (yes, I know they are monsters). But, as ever with Pixar, it was the attention to detail which made the movie, especially the many clever links to scenes in Monsters Inc.

One word of warning for parents of young children though: as with the original film, there is a short animation piece before the main event. With Monsters Inc, this was the bright, funny, brief For The Birds. For Monsters University, the intro piece is called The Blue Umbrella. No doubt that it demonstrates brilliant animation, but it is dark, lengthy and actual quite distressing in parts. Totally out of place in front of the main feature, and not great for your four year daughter or similar. So be aware.

Otherwise though, 10/10. Brilliant.
Go. Enjoy.

80s Rewind Festival Review

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OK, first things first: it was a great night. And sure, none of the acts on show at Grand West yesterday (and again this evening, incidentally) are cutting edge, but that’s not why anyone was there. So mock all you like. We had a great time reliving days gone by.
You’ll want to do it one day, just like I thought I wouldn’t.
Also, Golden Circle tickets and being right at the front made all the difference. This is the way to do concerts. None of that seated in the sky nonsense.

So, let me take you through it act by act.

First up, Leee John from Imagination. One wonders how many repeated vowels one needs in their forename. Their big hits were in ’81 and ’82 and came from roots of soul, RnB and disco. Thus, looking at the New Wave, Electronic and Pop acts making up the rest of the lineup, he didn’t really fit in here. Still, that didn’t stop him performing with energy and enthusiasm and he was well received. Most importantly, he didn’t take himself too seriously and set the scene for a fun evening. Yeah – nice warm up act, but that’s about all.

And then Nik Kershaw. Shorter than you might imagine, Nik was there to play his music and it was really obvious that playing his music was really important to him, as he fiddled with his distortion pedals and drifted off into professional, faultless guitar solos. After opening with Wide Boy, we got all the hits, which, after all, was what we were there for. The Riddle, Don Quixote and, as he described it “the song that changed my life” Wouldn’t It Be Good. And in the middle of all of this, Chesney Hawkes’ 1991 hit I Am The One And Only. As Kershaw plainly stated: “I wrote it, so I’m going to sing it”. And that really got everyone going.
He ended off with I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me and even as he took his tiny frame off stage to you could hear bucket lists being ticked off all around us. Excellent.

My highlight: Martin Fry of ABC was up next. Three letter bands from the 80s: I just love them. Looking like a washed up TV detective, he wandered on in a 80s style blue suit and promptly banged out some great tunes. Complete with frequent Jonny Vaughan style “point and wink” at apparently random members of the crowd, he duly went through his hits, again demonstrating that you don’t lose a great voice, even thirty years after your first hit. All of My Heart was rudely chatted through by the typically rude SA audience, while more up-tempo numbers like Poison Arrow and When Smokey Sings got people moving.
He signed off with The Look Of Love, nothing unusual, just the straightforward Radio Edit. And that was exactly how it should be – people were craving familiarity and they got it. For me, this was the perfect performance, perfectly executed.

     
Photos courtesy of Mrs 6000’s cellphone

So far, so good. But then the slow motion car crash that was Belinda Carlisle. It was disastrous, but you just couldn’t look away. Don’t make me see anymore! I CAN’T TAKE IT!
Ill-fitting clothes (and they have to have been really bad for me to have noticed – I’m not huge on fashion), facelifts so tight that her chin is still in 1989, and poorly-disguised industrial underwear presumably worn in a forlorn effort to take everything in place. Sure, from a distance, I’m sure it looked ok, but up close it was just horrendous. She kicked off with Runaway Horses (scraping into the 80s by just two months), before greeting the audience with “Do you remember the 80s?  Because I don’t.”
I said earlier that the acts don’t take themselves too seriously. Belinda looks like she’s seriously taken everything. She has allegedly been drink and drug free since at least 2007, but if that’s true, then it’s clear that the damage has already been done. Slurred words, missed lyrics, frequent tuneless bellowing. It wasn’t great.
That said, again, the familiarity of continually repeated choruses kept the crowd happy.
And, on the plus side, if you are looking for a walking advertisement for not doing drugs, Belinda Carlisle is it.

But then, there was Tony Hadley.
Tony Hadley was great when he came over with Spandau Ballet in 2010 and the voice, the showmanship, the easy relationship he has with both parties in his role as a channel between the songs and the audience was there again. A different set this time: nothing new to sell, just entertaining us with his amazing talent and his chatty style. We started out with a cover of Feeling Good, before he did True and borrowed Duran Duran’s Rio to move the energy level up again. Through The Barricades and Gold ended the performance.
There’s just something exceptional about his power and stage presence – I noted this back in 2010 as well. Is it that he’s really that good or is it that he carefully engineers his performances to come immediately after something wholly unprofessional (Alphaville that time, Carlisle this)?
OK, let’s be honest – he’s just really, really good at what he does.

It gave Rick Astley a tough act to follow. But bizarrely, the crowd was just so anxious to see him that he could have totally Carlisled and it probably wouldn’t have mattered.
Astley was one of the first “manufactured” pop artists, coming out of the Stock, Aitken and Waterman stable in 1987. If you can look beyond that alleged crime though, he has got a superb voice – even if his hits never really challenged or showcased it. He played to the audience with constant and repetitive jokes about “his effect” on “the ladies”, which grated after the first few times, but – perhaps because of “his effect” on “the ladies” – “the ladies” totally lapped up. He insisted that he and the band (who were absolutely exceptional from start to finish, by the way) got beer delivered to them on stage. He mocked the on-stage camera guy. And in between all of that, he sang his songs and I was reminded that they were rather ordinary songs. As was the performance: nothing exceptional, just standard delivery with apparently minimal effort.
Musically, it was a real disappointment, because that voice could do so much more.
Predictably (but remember that predictability was why we were there last night, so this was a good thing), he finished with Never Going To Give You Up, giving us all a nice feelgood singalong before we headed home.

One note on the venue: Grand West do concerts ever so well. Pre-paid parking, priority lanes out on exiting, Traffic Police organised for the roads outside. It’s really very good and the fact that you don’t notice anything wrong means that they are actually doing things right.

Anyway, if you’re going along to the show tonight or up in Gauteng on the weekend, you’re going to enjoy it. The acts are there to do what you want them to do: sing the hits that you enjoyed back in the 80s. No alarms and no surprises.
Sure, some do it better than others, but the emphasis is on fun and yes, it was fun. Nice work.