Sing ‘it

Incoming from Chrizane, who – as part of the You Magazine team – helped us out with the Rabbits For Nic appeal last year. Chrizane is now with Litnet and they are running a competition with Sanlam and MTV called Sing ‘it.

Sanlam and LitNet have just launched the third Sing ‘it lyric-writing competition, which invites South Africans aged 18 years and older with a passion for songwriting to submit their lyrics in a bid to win R50 000! And on top of that, lyricists will get the opportunity to see their lyrics turned into a song and music video that will be launched exclusively on MTV.

And they’ve got some amazing local artists involved as well: the acclaimed Blackbyrd, acapella specialists The Soil – freshly back from the Edinburgh Fringe, South Africa’s “Prince of Rap” AKA and Potch’s Christian Rockers Staatligkinders.

Here’s the plan: you write some lyrics (entries close 30th September), each band/artist will choose their favourite lyric from the pool of submissions then compose and record a song from it.
Then, the most popular of those songs will win the lyricist R50,000, plus a chance to star in the video.

And why? Litnet editor Etienne van Heerden:

We want to bring out the best in South African writers and that is why we dedicate our time to promoting lyric writing as a legitimate art form.

Anything that assists with pushing people to be creative and promotes literacy is good by me. Chrizane even suggested that I should enter, but I think I should probably stick to science. Safety first, hey?

More details on Sing ‘it via their Facebook page (22,000 likes, ne?) or on singit.co.za.

Tuesday ephemera

Lots of interesting stuff* around today, so rather than lots of little posts, one all-encompassing behemoth containing all you need to know.

BEWARE THE MONKEY MAN! A baboon has been kicked out of his troop near Bredasdorp, according to Cape Agulhas Municipality:

Please note that a male baboon was kicked out of his troop and is roaming the edges of Bredasdorp town. He may enter the residential areas and the public is warned to be careful and not approach or agitate the baboon. The Municipality is working with Cape Nature to resolve the matter.

Which is all well and good (unless he breaks into your place and poos on the kitchen counter again), but if you run the Afrikaans version through Google Translate, you get this:

There is a monkey man roaming the town limits of Bredasdorp and it is feared that he moved into the neighbourhoods. He appears by his pack kicked. The public is warned not to confront the monkey man and stay away from him.

And I think that’s the way that all official CAM press announcements should be made from now on.

BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY! Captain Kirk watches Miley Cyrus’ MTV VMAs performance:

Brilliant! (via @DrRousseau)

BLOODY ELK! A gang of angry drunken elk barred a man from entering his home in suburban Stockholm on Tuesday, leaving the frightened homeowner no choice but to call police for help.

“They can be really dangerous. They become fearless. Instead of backing away when a person approaches, they move toward you. They may even take a run at you.” The incident involved four adult elk and one calf, Näverberg explained, all of whom were intoxicated after having eaten fermented apples that had fallen from the homeowner’s apple tree.

Worth clicking through just for the photo.

LONDON SKYSCRAPER IS SOLAR DEATH RAY! London’s Walkie-Talkie building’s mirrored frontage is focusing the sun’s rays onto the street below and melting cars and bikes. Seriously.

melt

On the plus side, it seems to keep the elks away, and they could makes some cash from it:

Dr James Keaveney of the University of Durham’s Atomic and Molecular Physics department said it appeared to be an inherent flaw in the building: “It’s a concave shape so it’s going to have a focussing [sic] effect on the light that is reflected from it.
There’s a power station in Spain that works on this principle. They have an array of mirrors that focusses [sic] light into a central pillar –?if it’s 60°C you could get solar panels and get some energy out of it.”

UPDATE: Some funny tweets on this here.

FIT FOR A KING! Well, a Prince anyway. A Saudi Prince has bought a 50% stake in The Mighty Red And White Wizzzzzzzaaaaaards:

A member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family, Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, has bought a 50 per cent stake in Sheffield United’s parent company for £1, The Star can reveal.
In return the 47-year-old has agreed to provide “substantial new capital” designed to help the club return to the Premier League “as quickly as possible.”
Plc chairman Kevin McCabe refused to reveal the exact sums of money involved but recently described them as being a potential “game-changer.’

What could possibly go wrong? Premiership Champions by 2016*.

*T&Cs apply

Laura Palmer: Bastille to tour SA

Not had any music on the blog for a while. It’s all been writing and pictures. We need some music.
And here it is.

This one just seemed appropriate, with Bastille SA tour dates in Kirstenbosch in Cape Town and Emmarentia Dam in Joburg just announced for January 2014 and with me being a huge fan of Twin Peaks.
(that latter one being a bit tenuous, I know)

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Tickets: Cape Town | Johannesburg

Look Both Ways

With the sudden end to the appalling weather, we took the opportunity to get down to Tokai Forest and work off some cabin fever.
Beneath the pine trees the ground was fairly dry and firm, but further down there was still pretty of evidence of flooding on the lower lying ground.

Wet and muddy, we found ourselves the end of the unfinished, unused Lismore Avenue road bridge over the M3 and I couldn’t resist clambering up and having a quick look up top.

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Looking North (above) and South (below)

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It wasn’t particularly pleasant up there – lots of broken glass and drug paraphernalia lying around, low walls and plenty of exposed metalwork to trip over.
That said, I will head back up there with a proper camera and get some better shots sometime. And I will find out why there’s an unfinished, unused bridge going over the M3 near Tokai. (Although, Cape Town is known for its unfinished bridges, of course.)

Who Threw Poo?

Was it you?

Probably not, according to the Provincial Government, unless your name appears on the:

dossier of information relating to the individuals responsible for these attacks

And if you’re not from these parts, then “these attacks” refers to the fact that (and here I advised you to switch off the mental image creating part of your brain):

from May until August 2013, the province has been the location of various acts of political violence involving the use of human faeces.

There have been over 100 of these attacks, and they result in regular closures of major roads (usually the N2) – something which affects everyone, least of all Helen Zille.
The dossier is helpfully presented in Microsoft PowerPoint (an appropriately crap means of sharing information), and can be seen online here.

Basically, the Province says that there are are a small number of poopetrators – 11 to be exact – who are instigating the poo protests:

One aspect of this campaign involves faeces attacks in various locations, including regularly blocking a major highway and access to the airport.
This spate of faeces attacks is clearly well-co-ordinated and politically-motivated, forming part of the ANC Youth League’s self-declared and oft-repeated “ungovernability campaign”. Today we are releasing information we have gathered and details of compelling evidence which shows just this.

shIt then goes on to list those who they believe have led these unpleasant attacks as:

  • Sithembele Majova
  • Sibusiso “Mqithi” Zonke
  • Nangamso “Kavin” Tshutha
  • Khaya Kama
  • Bongile Zanazo
  • Bongani Ncombolo
  • Andile Lili
  • Loyiso Nkohla
  • Mario Wanza
  • Sulyman Stellenboom
  • Songezo Mvandaba

And what have the local government done? Well, “as a first and appropriate step” they have informed the poolice service about it:

we have handed this information to the South African Police Service for further investigation. They must also obtain statements from the many eyewitnesses and the suspects themselves, subpoena their cellphone records (since they claim to organise via cellphones) and conduct normal police investigations. What we have is prima facie evidence as the basis for investigation. That is why we have submitted it to the police.

The Police, eh? Good thinking. I’m so glad that’s only taken you 3½ months to work out that this would be a good idea. I imagine that this will now all be completely sorted out by never.

And this marks the first of my posts to get the “elections” tag with reference to 2014.
Oh joy.