Feeling fortunate. Home. Healthy.
Update on the Africa recordings coming up soon!
Monday, May 10, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
got through
got through to the program director mentioned below. all is well!
going to debut the single on that radio station ASAP for some hometown support in Nkomazi for the crew!!!
I am working my ass off for those peeps. gladly.
going to debut the single on that radio station ASAP for some hometown support in Nkomazi for the crew!!!
I am working my ass off for those peeps. gladly.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Minutes
time" and how it is used as currency in certain areas of Africa.
Radio Nkomazi
Siboniso Hadebe
Program Manager
Ligwalagwala FM
Your email bounced. If anyone reads this from there, let him know I emailed, and it bounced.
I look forward to talking to you about the record!!!! you will be crucial in helping this thing get some local love and support, so thank you for taking the time to meet with Colani, and listening to the stuff.
I should have something for you very soon to debut!!! Lets have a hit in Nkomazi!
thanks man.
Program Manager
Ligwalagwala FM
Your email bounced. If anyone reads this from there, let him know I emailed, and it bounced.
I look forward to talking to you about the record!!!! you will be crucial in helping this thing get some local love and support, so thank you for taking the time to meet with Colani, and listening to the stuff.
I should have something for you very soon to debut!!! Lets have a hit in Nkomazi!
thanks man.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Continuing
I am continuing to work on the record that was started in nkomazi... It feels really good to open up these tracks when i have a second and hear those voices again.
I hope to see all of those guys and girls soon. I really wound up liking everyone a lot, and we all got along well and worked well together.
I hope to have some final mixes of the tracks that were fully completed at the school hall or in the huts.... soon. I will have a minute to work on this stuff soon.
Glad.
I hope to see all of those guys and girls soon. I really wound up liking everyone a lot, and we all got along well and worked well together.
I hope to have some final mixes of the tracks that were fully completed at the school hall or in the huts.... soon. I will have a minute to work on this stuff soon.
Glad.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
nothing
Nothing could have prepared me for the depth and range of emotions that I felt while I was in Africa.
It would take me days or months to write the words that would be required to describe all of it.
I am working on getting some of the videos posted, so they can speak for themselves. The interviews outside the school, as audio, should be posted soon as well. Please check back, so you can hear some of these amazing people, in their own words, and to get a better sense of why I would walk away from certain days of recording with tears in my eyes, and a new sense of purpose and resolve in my heart... along with the sounds made by amazing artists still swirling in my ears and brain.
you will be hearing some of these sounds soon, on this blog.
Check back.
-Joel
It would take me days or months to write the words that would be required to describe all of it.
I am working on getting some of the videos posted, so they can speak for themselves. The interviews outside the school, as audio, should be posted soon as well. Please check back, so you can hear some of these amazing people, in their own words, and to get a better sense of why I would walk away from certain days of recording with tears in my eyes, and a new sense of purpose and resolve in my heart... along with the sounds made by amazing artists still swirling in my ears and brain.
you will be hearing some of these sounds soon, on this blog.
Check back.
-Joel
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Home and at Avatar
At avatar studios. up in the C room. "Scary monsters" was recorded in this room, as was "lets dance" and "like a virgin".... so many others....
Now that room has recorded the Parkington sisters and it is going to be an amazing record.
It is amazing to be back. 
Friday, April 16, 2010
paradox
The way I have ben describing the nkomazi region is that it is a place filled with paradoxes, like a place where heads and tails are on the same side of the coin, however impossible that sounds here in NYC, it makes perfect sense there in Nkomazi.
The good and the bad coexist there effortlessly, and forces I once would have thought of as "opposing" seem to sit next to each other in the shade on a hot day while people are sold over the border, children die, people sing and smile and work and fight and hug and drive and live all at the same time....
The good and the bad coexist there effortlessly, and forces I once would have thought of as "opposing" seem to sit next to each other in the shade on a hot day while people are sold over the border, children die, people sing and smile and work and fight and hug and drive and live all at the same time....
realization on day 1
This was on day one. I had just met everyone, and they were doing group warmups... I knew this was going to be amazing right then and there, like right when this picture was taken, and it is. The people, the record.. everything about the project: amazing. 
Another LUNCH shot
Another shot of the daily lunch. No "cutlery" or "serviettes", just Pork braai, a loaf of bread, and "pop" [or "pap" pronounced "pop" anyway] which is the grits meets polenta meets corn much cakes served on the brown bag in this picture. It looked like this every day and it was delicious. really. the crew also had grape fanta which seemed to be a real treat because nobody buys soda drinks like that there. 
playback
listening to some of the stuff I had programmed around the vocal takes. Headphones only, so it was one at a time to experience the ruff mix in stereo. 
Main voc
This microphone got really worked. Every single main vocal was recorded with it, and now it lives in langeloop, mpumalanga, nkomazi, South Africa. with such amazing voices, this microphone totally rocked for us. 
the crew at the store
The crew at the store that assembled when we showed up. They were psyched to get their pictures taken. This was in block B or C. Way out of "town" and very, very rural.
Zoom 2
This is how we set up one of the Zoom H4n recorders each day:
Duct taped to a school chair in 4 channel mode with 2 SDC mics and the built in mics rolling ALL day at 16/44.1. it worked really well with a 16gb SD card we had 12 hours of recording time at that resolution. 
remote control cars
These kids were playing with these amazing cars that a guy makes in the village. They are made out of coat hanger wire type metal.. like welding rod. they have cans cut for wheels, and a piece of the metal comes up to the kids hand and they can steer with it. thats the "remote control" part. They had set up a course to drive the cars through here. I got one of the cars, and its coming in may with someone who is coming back to the states...
Homemade Peri peri
Tshepo brought me a baby wipes container with his amazing Peri Peri sauce in it. I ate a bunch of it at the village where we were staying, but there was no way of getting that back in the country.... such a bummer.
Next time I am going to DHL myself a barrel of the stuff......
Braai
Some nice breads, and some salad (which was really rare), along with the Braai. oh, and my "appletiser" which is like martinelli's sparkling cider. 
Getting online
This is how I was updating the blog in Africa. a Vodafone USB 3G stick. There was like one specific place I had to sit to get reception with it. 
Air Time (minutes)
This concept has still been making my mind explode: "air time", which is what the locals call "minutes" for the cell phones there. Air time is used as CURRENCY there, very much so. The same way we use a debit card instead of cash, people use cell phone minutes to get things as varied as lunch, a blow job, drugs, or any number of things like gasoline or whatever.
When my laptop drive died, I lost about 7 pages of interviews and notes on the subject, collected over the course of my time in the Nkomazi region. Some of the key facts: for a very minimal amount of cell phone minutes, which with Vodafone/Vodacom having a monopoly on things in southern africa, you can get almost anything. 7 to 10 Rand worth of minutes would probably get you a blow job. 7 rand is ONE dollar. One. Dollar.
Air time is easily gifted between phones there, as there is a specific way to give your friends, or anyone with a phone number, more minutes from your phone. Thats how it works. There is no such thing as a monthly plan, and when I told someone that I simply had unlimited minutes for a plan that included 4 phones, he just looked at me like I said I had 10 million dollars in every pocket in every pair of pants I have ever owned.
Air time moves across borders effortlessly, is not specific to your phone, only your SIM card and even that can be retrieved by having a voucher, or basically a receipt of the transaction in cash that shows you purchased X amount of minutes. With no stable bank system and the liability of having cash on hand, this starts to all make sense. Much like carrying a credit card/ check card rather than cash.
I will be pursuing this concept much more, but I just wanted to quickly post about it today. it is really amazing to me,no matter how much I "get it" it just feels SO random and slightly future-primitive-meets-mad-max or any other crazy vision of a bleak future type thing.... paying with "air time" for drugs... its like a bad sci - fi movie sentiment that is actually happening and very normal to people in South Africa.
When my laptop drive died, I lost about 7 pages of interviews and notes on the subject, collected over the course of my time in the Nkomazi region. Some of the key facts: for a very minimal amount of cell phone minutes, which with Vodafone/Vodacom having a monopoly on things in southern africa, you can get almost anything. 7 to 10 Rand worth of minutes would probably get you a blow job. 7 rand is ONE dollar. One. Dollar.
Air time is easily gifted between phones there, as there is a specific way to give your friends, or anyone with a phone number, more minutes from your phone. Thats how it works. There is no such thing as a monthly plan, and when I told someone that I simply had unlimited minutes for a plan that included 4 phones, he just looked at me like I said I had 10 million dollars in every pocket in every pair of pants I have ever owned.
Air time moves across borders effortlessly, is not specific to your phone, only your SIM card and even that can be retrieved by having a voucher, or basically a receipt of the transaction in cash that shows you purchased X amount of minutes. With no stable bank system and the liability of having cash on hand, this starts to all make sense. Much like carrying a credit card/ check card rather than cash.
I will be pursuing this concept much more, but I just wanted to quickly post about it today. it is really amazing to me,no matter how much I "get it" it just feels SO random and slightly future-primitive-meets-mad-max or any other crazy vision of a bleak future type thing.... paying with "air time" for drugs... its like a bad sci - fi movie sentiment that is actually happening and very normal to people in South Africa.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Rental car listen
Some of the most fun moments were during the impromptu listening parties of ruff mixes in the rental car... all 7 of the ccrew would pile in the car and we would crank it up. The rental car was the best reference we had at any given time. I was making the ruff mixes in francisco's headphones that I dont really know or iPod earbuds, which i know okay but they are , um, not my optimum scenario for monitoring during a mix. 
pictures of pipes
At the Samora Machel memorial at the mozambique border. Taking pictures and listening to the amazing sound of this "wind organ."
The best chips (fries)
The best Chips I ever had were made with this machine behind Tshepo's tuck shop.
He also makes his own PeriPeri sauce... I am craving that sauce right now!!! tshepo, if you read this, for real I will pay to DHL some to me!!!
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