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. 

me and the crew again

At the listening party. The whole crew. 

Francisco and Braai

Francisco and the African BBQ, or "Braai."

Crocodile river

As you enter Kruger park. Over the Crocodile river.

High Accident zone

These signs were like every 10km. 

Language ATM

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.

Map

Google map of the region

Notice that Swaziland and Mozambique are less than 20mi away in either direction.





View Larger Map

beauty

Kruger park. Super beautiful scenarios around every corner. 

Rhino buns

Driving around Kruger park, saw some Rhino bunz.

Driving on road

Me and Tshepo

Me and Tshepo at the school in Block B or C.

School again

houses

Some houses out in block B or C...

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. 

Tshepo and Bongani when we were recording "Brother, my Brother" one of the really beautiful acapella songs. this was reinforcing the bass vocal track with a double. 

School

Just a view at the school where we did most of our recording.

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!!!

elegance

Tuck shop view

Got game

I got myself some game. Yeah.

Side note...

As a side note:
it feels FREEZING to me in my 70 degree apartment in brooklyn. Like freezing cold.
Seriously.

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...

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.

The engine from the plane

The plane that Samora Machel went down in. it is on display at the memorial....

Cash register and machete

Francisco and friend

Listening to stuff.

Bongani CHILLIN so hard.

Hilariously chillin in Colani's car.

random shot out the window on the way to the mozambique border... beautiful place.

Red Sand. Green hills.

Bongani ,Francisco, and Tshepo

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.

langeloop lounge

The detail shot is coming next....this "club" is next door to Tshepo's tuck shop.

Stoneys Ginger

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.

at the site

This is huge and was hard to photograph, but you can get the idea. amazing.

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.  

Laying among the sounds

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...

More about the crash....

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. 

Samora Machel quote

A panel and some flowers