Lil Wayne Live at The Dome, Johannesburg

Lil Wayne is probably one of the best performers I have ever seen on stage. His charisma and stage presence keeps you fixated on every single word he says. The way he makes you feel like you're the only one in the room is something not every performer can do. He doesn't just rap songs he really talks to his audience and wants them to get to know him. He makes jokes and he's so funny I'm sure he's the clown of the YMCMB group. Here he is at the beginning of the show introducing himself and performing "A Milli". Just to let you know the audio is TERRIBLE on the videos. I was five rows from the stage but in front of really tall people and me being 1.5m didn't help so excuse the shaky video taking and bad audio. From 1:21
its just noise, you can't actually hear the song but some shots are ok.

Some playful comments that Weezy made about being with a South African women and what kind of child would come out. The guy really knows how to massage the female ego. I wonder if he says this about the women in all the countries he visits?

A suprise visit from Drizzy Drake Rogers. I loved the way he brought him out.Please look at Wayne's face on 0:44, he's like a little kid that just got candy. I went crazy when Drake came out I forgot that I was filming a video so he's a bit elusive but you do seem him.

Some random clips of Drizzy and Weezy were performing. Audio still terrible, some shots are ok though. My battery was low so I could never shoot more than a minute or less and then it died. Hopefully you get a feel of what we experienced. I can't describe the feeling of salivating fans hanging onto to every word he uttered and rapping along in unison to every song. The intenstity that Lil Wayne blasts out when he's performing comes from the passion that you can feel is in his very soul which sweats out from every pore in his body. I'm glad I got to see him live, I hope he comes back again.

Young Nucho at Rosebank Mall

So on Thursday night I'm busy busting tables when my colleague tells me that Lil Wayne just walked past where I work. I couldn't believe it. I had to see it with my very own eyes...

I honestly believed it was him because he had the entourage, the bodyguards and he walked and dressed like Weezy. He even has the body tattoos. I tweeted it and made it my bbm status update only to be told that Lil Wayne is still Cape Town. You know its one thing to look like someone and another to pretend to be that someone. Is this an honest mistake or a deliberate attempt Young Nucho?

Nedbank Golf Challenge

Yesterday I had the pleasure of assisting at the opening party of the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City. The car ride there was so much fun and judging by the high number of Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Range Rovers and Maseratis impatiently overtaking us and whizzing by we knew that this was a really prestigious event. By the time we arrived at the palace gates of Sun City the golf tournament had already started. I'm not a huge fan of golf so I didn't watch the tournament for too long. I found better things to do with my time before the party like taking a refreshing swim at the lovely sea blue pool. After that we had to start preparing for the burlesque themed party. It was a  ravishing affair! We were dressed to the nines with wigs in every colour you could think of, a rainbow of boas woven loosely around the our necks with garters that were perfectly attached to sexy nude or fishnet stockings. We were dressed as sexy sailors, flirtatious french maids, juicy jesters and sensual singers and our costumes were so tight that they made girls with ironing board like bodies look like Beyonce. I wish I hadn't left my camera at home just so you could see how gorgeous everyone looked.

Our job was to get the party going but most of the party goers didn't need our help in having a good time. The party was held under a bright moonlit sky on the beach sand of the Valley of the Waves. The alcohol was flowing free like a tempestuous river and the food was so heavenly I felt like God himself had made it. There were performances by different acts but the one that stood out for me was the a dancing group whose costumes were like the ones that are worn by the dancers in the Black Eyed Peas video "Boom Boom Pow" except that they had laser buttons that outlined their entire bodies and when the music started they shot up laser beams into the navy blue sky so that it looked like there were these celestial beings up in the sky that were dancing in sync to the humanly forms in front of us and in case people thought they weren't being theatrical enough they had fireworks explode into the sky whenever there were crescendos in the music.

It was a riveting experience and one of the highlights of my year.

DRUM's 60th Birthday Celebration

Last night I attended DRUM's 60th birthday celebration at the Emperor's palace. I was soon to find out that there was also going to be a mini awards ceremony incorporated into the event in honour of some of South Africa's icons.

With the likes of Winnie Mandela, Thandi Klaasens, PJ Powers, Gcina Mhlophe, Mfundi Mvundla who are legendary in their own right to the younger glamourous generation of celebrities who're inspired by them such as Bonang Matheba, Sonia Booth, Dineo Ranaka, Uyanda Mbuli, Thembi Seete and DJ Sbu to name a few it truly was a star studded event. Celebrities, politicians and media people alike were there to witness spectacular performances by Zahara, Umoja and the remaining members of Boom Shaka. A comedic act with a musical twist by Somizi or rather his alter ego Madame Gigi was the highlight of my evening. I was literally choking with laughter.

The awards that really stood out for me mainly because of its recepients were the Ubuntu award given to Gcina Mhlophe, her husky and honey-dripping voice is so mesmerizing and captivating that even when she is giving something as simple as an acceptance speech you become so enthralled that you don't even remember where you are anymore. The award for Timeless Beauty went to the legendary singer Thandi Klaasens who's lovely sense of humour came out in her acceptance speech, a true diva she was immune to the unspoken time limit that the audience seems to infect in an award recepient when they are giving their thanks. Nonetheless her speech was anything but boring and was thoroughly enjoyable. Winnie Mandela received the award for Drum Icon because of her life's work which contributed greatly to the freedoms we have today. Penny Lebyane was MC for the evening and DJ Sbu closed off the evening with a very entertaining set.

You only have to look at the Drum covers over the past sixty years to see the evolution that the magazine has gone through. From starting out as a magazine run by a racist editor that viewed black people as ignorant and dumb savages to being a magazine that specialised in investigative reporting about issues affecting black people in the township and about the Sophiatown jazz scene, gangsterism and hot sex scandals in the 1950s to the entertainment related focus that it has today Drum has certainly gone through many transformations and has become a staple magazine in the majority of black South African's homes. Its pages have been filled with South Africa's rich,dynamic and tumultous history and it will probably still be around to record South Africa's future in the sixty years.

                                Two most powerful  women in SA politics right now Winnie Mandela(left)                                   and  Public Protector Thuli Madonsela(right) at the Drum 60th birthday celebration.

                                         Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and I

                                                

The Man Who Sang and the Woman who Kept Silent

I went to the Judith Mason solo exhibition in September at the Gallery AOP on 44 Stanley Avenue and this is one of the paintings that really stood out for me mainly because of what it signified. It's called The Man who Sang and the Woman who kept Silent (Triptych), 1998. Collection: Art of the Constitutional Court, South Africa. The art piece was on loan from the Constitutional Court for Judith Mason's show and it is a triptych ( a set of 3 panels or compartments bearing pictures,carvings or the like) that Judith Mason says "was inspired by two stories Mason heard on the radio at the time of the Truth and Reconciliation hearings. They told of the execution of two liberation movement cadres by the security police. One was Herold Sefola, who as Mason relates, "asked permission to sing Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrica before he was shot; the other Phila Ndwande, "who was tortured and kept naked for ten days" and then assassinated in a kneeling position. As Mason recounts, before Ndwande was killed, she "fashioned a pair of panties for herself out of a scrap of blue plastic."" (taken from http://www.judithmason.com/)

Phila Ndwande was a young MK cadre who was arrested by apartheid police and taken to a farm for information extraction about the secret armed wing Umkhonto weSizwe. As stated above she was tortured and kept naked for ten days and so she made herself a pair of panties made from blue plastic bag just to salvage what was left of her dignity. Her body was never found until one of the officers that killed her led the family to the farm after being granted amnesty by the Truth & Reconciliation Commission. What touched me deeply about this story was the fact that the only reason why the officer even remembered her was because of her courage. He said that no matter what they did to her she never told them anything.She never gave them any information or gave up anyone. She died being loyal to the ANC. She gave up her life for the cause of the ANC.


"Ndwande's body was found naked in a shallow grave, with the thin piece of plastic still covering her private parts. Mason was so moved by her tragic story that she made a dress of blue plastic bags on which she inscribed a text:




Sister, a plastic bag may not be the whole armour of God, but you were wrestling with flesh and blood, and against powers, against the rulers of darkness, against spiritual wickedness in sordid places. Your weapons were your silence and a piece of rubbish. Finding that bag and wearing it until you were disinterred is such a frugal, common-sensical, house-wifey thing to do, an ordinary act...At some level you shamed your captors, and they did not compound their abuse by stripping you a second time. Yet they killed you. We only know your story because a sniggering man remembered how brave you were. Memorials to your courage are everywhere; they blow about in the streets and drift on the tide and cling to thorn-bushes. This dress is made from some of them. Hamba kahle. Umkhonto.
Mason's dress with text forms the centerpiece of the triptych, flanked on either side by a painting in which the blue dress hangs suspended. In one of them, a predator, clearly representing "the rulers of darkness", and partially held back by a honeycomb-like grid, is seen with a piece of the dress in its mouth. In the other, the predator is also depicted, this time without the piece of dress in its mouth, and again caught in the honeycomb-like grid. But here the work also includes a mug and braziers aglow with flames. " (Taken from http://www.judithmason.com/)

Personally my heart shot to my throat when I imagined this woman's willpower and tremendous courage it must have taken to not give in when your dignity and humanity is stripped from you and your body is put through more excruciating pain than it can endure. You know we all remember the Mandelas, Sisulus and Tambos of the world but let's not forget the thousands of nameless soldiers who like Phila Ndwandwe gave up their lives so we can be free. It makes me tremble with rage when I think of how their deaths would've been for nothing if we let our country get ruined by corruption and autocratic laws that are thinly disguised as protective ones. And also by a youth that doesn't give a shit about what happens in its country and instead finds the most important thing in their lives is drinking themselves unconscious. Phila Ndwandwe was apparently in her 20's when she died. Do you think you would've been able to do as she did?

Mel Miller's Big Fat Comedy Show

Mel Miller's Big Fat Comedy Show came to the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square for one night only on the 10th of October 2011. Before my Kids Pull the Plug was sold out at the Sydney Opera house in Australia and after last night's performance I can see why. Mel Miller is the official Godfather of South African comedy. At 68yrs old he is as relevant and in tune with the current affairs of South Africa as the younger comedians and I think it's safe to say that he is  probably funnier than some of them. The only way to describe this comedian's set is blunt and brutal honesty. Controversial and edgy he just tells it like it is. I have never gasped and hung my jaw so many times in one hour like I did when I was watching his show. He touched on a variety of subjects from SA's current state of politics to the typical stereotypes of different ethnicities, races and cultures. He makes jokes about EVERYONE and no one is safe from his sharp tongue. Sensitive and politically correct people would probably call him a big fat old bigot but the fact that he was arrested by the police during apartheid for his anti government jokes shows that he will poke fun and critique anyone or anything. He made jokes about himself, his wife, his family and his culture and for me that shows that he is a comedian who is feels that nothing is out of bounds and that any and everything can be made fun of. He has had countless sold out shows in his fruitful 40 year career locally and abroad and has made thousands of people laugh to death and get angry as hell. I hope he does more local shows and I strongly believe that these younger comedians can take a laugh...I mean a leaf out of his book.

Starting Over

Wow it's been a year and almost two months since I last posted! It just shows what space I was in at that time. I could always start something but never carry on with it. A symptom of lack of motivation and procrastination as an unfavourable attribute. I actually forgot that I had this blog until I was signing up for a new one. I was about to start a new one but then I read through my posts (all two of them haha) and realised that in essence they're still in the same vein of what I want to write about.

I've gone through quite a bit this year and learnt a whole lot. I won't bore you with the mundane details but what I'll tell you is that (I know it's cliche) but I've grown as a person. I experienced things that led me to have to take time out from life for a little while and just take a step back and out of myself to find my way forward. It's safe to say I've found my way again and now I see Life as an ocean waiting to be explored with shores waiting to be discovered instead of this huge mass of water itching to drown me. I've found my purpose so even though I haven't killed off all my old habits it's easier now than ever before.

So on that note I'll be breathing fresh air into my blog. I'll be sharing my opinions on movies and plays (yes, I go to the theatre now) that I've watched, music I've listened to, books I've read, art exhibitions (yes I go to these too) that I've had the pleasure of viewing and events that I've found myself at. Hence the name change of my blog to Just An Opinion from Food For Thought. I'll also post random funny things up that I find amusing and entertaining. Of course I'll still write about social issues that are important to me and I'll share my analysis on current affairs but that won't be all I write about. My blog won't just be about stuffy serious issues anymore but will also incorporate my life experiences and my love of all things cultural. My reviews will also be based on mostly local products because I'm a firm believer that "local is lekker" and its up to us South Africans to push our products because if we don't no one else will

I hope you enjoy reading the new content on my blog just as much as I will enjoy writing it:)