As a side note:
it feels FREEZING to me in my 70 degree apartment in brooklyn. Like freezing cold.
Seriously.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
more pictures
More pictures coming soon.
Dealing with getting a new internal drive for my computer. Updating from borrowed computer now.
With WIFI, I should be able to post a clip of one of the ruff mixes soon, hopefully. The voices are so amazing.
The drive to Johannesburg was fine. The flight to Dakar ( senegal) was fine.
Then the flight to NYC was fine. All is well. Starting the drive around here, and then getting on to a 767 headed for senegal and ultimately NYC... if felt like getting on a spaceship after the level of technology I had been immersed in for 10 days.
Its amazing. 10 days feels like nothing in certain ways, and yet I feel an actual bond with ALL of the people that I was working with there... Juddy, Tshepo, Colani, Sizile, Nocker, Bongani, Cosana, Nomvula.... everyone.. Cloe and Skate also.
As I said in the beginning : more pictures coming soon from borrowed laptop...
Dealing with getting a new internal drive for my computer. Updating from borrowed computer now.
With WIFI, I should be able to post a clip of one of the ruff mixes soon, hopefully. The voices are so amazing.
The drive to Johannesburg was fine. The flight to Dakar ( senegal) was fine.
Then the flight to NYC was fine. All is well. Starting the drive around here, and then getting on to a 767 headed for senegal and ultimately NYC... if felt like getting on a spaceship after the level of technology I had been immersed in for 10 days.
Its amazing. 10 days feels like nothing in certain ways, and yet I feel an actual bond with ALL of the people that I was working with there... Juddy, Tshepo, Colani, Sizile, Nocker, Bongani, Cosana, Nomvula.... everyone.. Cloe and Skate also.
As I said in the beginning : more pictures coming soon from borrowed laptop...
Monday, April 12, 2010
Listening party
Tshepo showing off the ruff mixes Cd. I made one for everyone. We had a sick listening party.
I woke up and turned on my laptop and the drive was dead. yes. the internal hard drive had died. 397 degree heat and dust at the school all week took it out. Africa took it out.
SO, I had to transfer everything on my external drives and use the burner on Marika's laptop to make CD's for everyone. Everything worked out. When my drive died, we didnt lose any work, but we lost the ability to DO work, so no more recording, and we leave tomorrow (tuesday).
We had a seriously fun listening party where everyone jumped up and lip sync'd to their tracks, and then after we all went in the pool, though only a couple of us could swim. I did lose an entire document I had been writing about the trip that was on my desktop, but I know the oints that I touched on, but i will re-write it when I get home and get a new drive in my laptop... damn. maybe I will get a solid state drive....
More soon.
We are going to be stopping at some spots tomorrow on the way back to johannesburg....
more soon from HOME.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
The engine from the plane
The plane that Samora Machel went down in. it is on display at the memorial....
random shot out the window on the way to the mozambique border... beautiful place.
Red Sand. Green hills.
Public phone
Public phone at tshepo's tuck shop. The crate is tied to the bars on the ordering window so they can hand the land line out to you if you are paying to use it, and you put it on top of this crate and talk away!
The rules are clear
At the langeloop(name of village), the rules are clear, and besides the age requirements... International.
Inside the tuck shop
Hanging out at Tshepo's... special treatmennt because I am recording him.. so I got to hang out inside for a minute.
Tshepo's tuck shop!!!
Francisco bringing the chips out from Tshepo's tuck shop. We asked for extra Peri Peri sauce, which is basically peppers in oil with paprika... and SOOOOO amazing. like hot sauce with chunks of the peri peri peppers in it.... and the oil is infused with that mixture. made in a big plastic bucket.... with a little vinegar.... so delicious. Tshepo is the guy that sang one of the most amazing vocals i have ever recorded, and this is his day gig. His shop is tiny, and it is still awesome.
The flags and new life
The wreckage held as a monument to Machel.
As i laid on my back among the 35 tuned wind harp type steel tubes, I realized how beautiful a concept it is to give each name, carved into a stone plaque in the middle of the "forest" of steel tubes, a voice.
The inevitability of the wind here, and even the weeping rust stains on the cement all conspire to bring about an air of melancholy that is palpable at this site. 
So many feelings
So many feelings in this place. So much that just happens inside of you when you see the conditions, read the words, hear the stories, hear the voices, smell the smells, and see the sights....
The people are amazing here, but there are so many facets to the story here. It is a complex set of feelings I have been living with for a minute now...
Last supper
All of these pictures are inside the museum. it is in a VERY rural and VERY poor part of the region I am in, and it happens to be one of the most, if not THE most beautiful monument I have ever seen. 
Inside the museum
Inside the Samora Machel museum where wreckage from the plane has been turned into artwork that celebrates the man. The samora machel monument
The pipes are all tuned to different ptches, and sing in the wind.each one represents one of the people on the plane that went down here. we drove aabout 40 minutes to get to this monument. its literally 20 feet from the mozambique border. The plane slid over the border and there are a lot of stories about how SA didnt want Machel to live.... again.. google it. it is too much to get into here.
The most amazing monument
Wreckage from the plane that Samora Machel went down in. Google him. Amazing story. I have a ton more shots from this monument. 
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Sugar cane and the open road
Jeppe's reef. The kids were taking some Sugar cane home... probably like 10 km away.... walking.
Alien autopsy meat
Um, yeah. um, yeah, um yeah. um, yeah. the colors in this picture are accurate, unfortunately for people that eat food, everywhere.
Closed also. The music warehouse.
Music warehouse at Matsamo plaza. I really wanted to buy some "CD,S".... or some 'CD'S"...
Sweet O
This is like the ultimate fantasy for the kids here. The sickest sugary water stuff like Kool aid. SO sad. There are amazing fruits here and amazing fruit drinks, but the kids want this stuff because it looks like a cartoon. more pics of some seriously gnarly food coming up.....
Sliced bread
The bread slicer is is self serve and there were two REALLY young kids using this right before we got to it. Want sliced bread? slice it yourself! This is at the "BOXER" supermarket.
traditional designs
the "traditional designs" shop was also closed. This is 5 minutes from the Swaziland border, in "jeppe's reef" south africa.
Surgery
Deep africa. Deep.Off the paved action. There is a woman that lives near here that we stopped at her compound. She takes in children That have no family anymore due to AIDS/HIV.
Ordering at Caesers Chicken. I got the 1/2 chicken with chips, "hot."
I got the 1/2 chicken with chips, "hot" [Spicy]. It came with a drink: canned pineapple fanta. 
Lunch at Caesars Chicken
Lunch was amazing at Caesars Chicken today. I hadnt been there yet. They make their own peri peri hot sauce and it is absolutely incredible. I forgot to take a picture of the way it was served, because I was so hungry I ripped right into the food right away. I can safely say I was the only person on the entire continent of africa wearing a fresh kills shirt today. 
Crocodile and NO fence
Notice the croc in the grass. now notice there is no fence between the picnic tables and the croc. Francisco thinks it must be trained... 
At the border
We went to the border of swaziland today. This is what you see when you come back into South africa. "welcome in south africa."
Friday, April 9, 2010
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