Movie: Okuribito (Departures)

Winner of the 2009 Oscar for Best Foreign Film, it is a somewhat off beat story idea - a cellist without a job (after his orchestra closes down), goes back to his home town, to prepare the dead for their funeral.

It is a story above all about tradition and formality - you hardly ever see the main character without a suit. It is also a story about the value of jobs that do not have high social standing, but have a very meaningful impact on the lives of people; together with a story about lost families, and the need for forgiveness.

It is certainly a special movie - something most western directors would never be able to film IMO; and is a wonderful record of cultural practices.

Movie: Inglourious Basterds

This is probably Quentin Tarantino's best movie to date - combining all his trademark elements of great writing, cinematography, dialogue and story telling (inevitable about revenge) with exceptional acting performances. The setting of the movie itself is impressive - Jewish commandos that are out for revenge - going to collect 100 scalps of Nazis. And off course bring down the Nazi empire. Revisionist movie telling at its finest!

The standout performance is definitely Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa - the "Jew Hunter". Waltz's performance, and role - as the fluent multi-lingual SS colonel, is impressive and his performance alone makes it worth going to watch the movie.

Not so unfit after all ...

Lion's Head in Cape Town has always been a short hike up, and a good inidcation of fitness for me. A few years ago, I could easily do the trip up in under 45 minutes, without breaking in to much sweat. I decided that before I left Cape Town this afternoon, I should do the hike. I haven't been to the top for at least 2 and a half years, probably last time being just before I left for Germany for my internships.

Fearing a much longer trip, I got a very early start. The weather in CT was truning - and a there was a fairly thick cloud cover over the mountains, although the cloud over Lion's Head cleared well before I reached the top. I was fairly surprised that I managed to get to the top in under 60 minutes, although not as effortlessly as in previous attempts. The sun was still low on the horizon, and the clouds were still swirling around, and as CT awoke, it was a pretty amazing sight from the top!

I wish I had my camera along.

Concert in a cathedral

Last night, the JPO had a special concert accompanying the organ of the Anglican Cathedral in Johannesburg. With the misty weather, it was certainly a somber atmosphere, and I must say, most of the organ pieces were equal to the task.

Church organs are impressive, but I am not sure they can really play joyous music. It was certainly an interesting experience, and great to hear a complex musical instrument in full flow; but maybe not something to repeat.

Cape Town's new Departure Terminal

Went through the recently opened departure terminal on Sunday - and it was a great change from the old terminal. Very spacious, and really well designed. There are still some things to be sorted out - like lounges and access notices to the lounges, but overall a really good job!

One complaint about SA airports in general is the continued use of permanent aisle/queue markers. Instead of using temporary markers they insist on installing metal bars all over the place, which are damn inconvinient when you are the only person in the queue.

And one last point - the 15h10 flight on SAA was the big A340 plane, more or less, full capacity. Considering that the Johannesburg-Cape Town flight is the 6th most popular flight in terms of passengers carried in the world, it is not too surprising I suppose. It is a great plane too - a pity that I can't catch it all the time :D

Music: Big City Bash

I think it was the first time bands have played at the Alexander Theatre in Braamfontein. The Rockford Big City Bash was quite well organised, with lots of parking guards, visible security, clean venue, good bar service and a good set up of stage and sound. 5FM DJ Koula was the MC, except she didn't do much other than look pretty. I think she was on the stage less times than the number of bands! Although, I did miss the first band, so she may have done a song and dance before the first band - but I doubt it.

New Academics
I have heard a lot of the band, but apart from a few snippets, I had not really heard any of their songs. They do have an unique edge - the combination of rap like lyrics backed with rock music. However, I don't think their songs are particularly impressive, and neither was the backing music. It is certainly different - but in my opinion, it does not work.

Death Valley Blues Band
It's almost as if I am becoming a groupie, this being the third time I have seen the band live. The fact is, they are a great party band, playing really good music, and playing it very well. A large percentage of the crowd indicated that they have never seen the band before, and the fact that everyone was dancing to the music is good testament to the quality of their show.

Zebra and Giraffe
They exploded on to the scene last year, from seemingly no where. I has not seen them live before, and this was the main motivation to going to the gig. It is even more impressive that they won the MTV Base Best Alternative Rock Band award this year, seemingly after just 18 months or so in existence. I am not sure how to describe their music - it's partly pop-rock (like Coldplay) but with a harder edge than most pop-rock bands. They have a good collection of songs that work well in a live gig, and present a really professional show. In these regards, it is not hard to see why they have been so successful.

Fokofpolisiekaar
I first saw Fokofpolisiekar, early in 2005, when they were known more for their name than the music. In that performance, the band was mostly completely trashed, with lead singer Francois Badenhorst more or less slurring his way through the sets. Given the line-up that day (they were followed by Karen Zoid and the Springbok Nude Girls), it was a great disappointment. The band has definitely matured, and there performance was truly impressive and well worth the extra 20 minutes wait (they arrived late from another gig). Even though they sing completely in Afrikaans (which I know very little of), it was a very enjoyable performance. While earlier it seemed that the band was successful more because of their name and being an Afrikaans punk band, they certainly deserve their success now. They certainly deserved being the headline act.

Music: Rocking the Gardens

I came to know about the concert quite late (Friday night actually), and I am glad I went. Similar in concept to the Kirstenbosch concerts, Rocking the Garden was at the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens at Emmarentia Dam. It was certainly not as scenic as Kirstenbosch, but it did have a very cool family day atmosphere with an absolutely fantastic lineup of bands. They also did not have a restriction on cameras (which is quite rare for concert these days) and thus I took the opportunity to take a lot of photos.

Overall, I think the band timing could have been better. This was effectively a family day out; and thus one would expect the really popular family bands such as Freshlyground to play earlier; before all the kids nod off to sleep and people start leaving. Given the band line-up, I think it may have been better to have a band such as Freshlyground earlier in the day before getting into the more "Adult Rock" bands.

Ashtray Electric


I arrived about 10 minutes into Ashtray Electric's set, and to be honest, they didn't really make an impression. I honestly cannot remember much about their set. Going back on my blog looking for another band, I see that I did actually see them live when they were starting out, and they didn't make an impression back then either :(

Bed on Bricks



I think I first saw Bed on Bricks at Obz Fest, and I have always rated their live performances. They combine good music with great stage performance and are a pleasure to watch. However, I don't think I have heard a single new song since 2005, and although their website claims that they were working on a new album, I don't remember any evidence of that.

Gang of Instrumentals



Gang of Instrumentals are an awesome crossover act - fusing afro-pop/Kwaito sound with Rock backing band. And it really helps that the musicians and the singers are really talented and take the opportunity to show off. Unlike other pop bands, the backing band is not just for support, but are allowed to really showcase their solo playing skills. The lead singer has a really great voice, and they are really a great band to watch live. And this performance was better than their last performance I attended at the Jo'burg Easter Festival.

340 ml


The Mozambican band, based in South Africa has been around for quite a long time, and plays a combination of Jazz, Pop-Rock, Funk, cross-over music - and is actually great as a chill/laid back music. I haven;t really followed them for a long time, and except their last song, none of the songs were familiar to me.

Freshlyground




I haven't really seen Freshlyground too many times since they exploded in the South African public consciousness and became globetrotters. Their music and on stage performances has definitely not deteriorated with all their fame, and the saddest part of the show was actually their rather short set - it was over too quickly! A great mix of old, and some (I think) new songs and overall a great stage performance.

Just Jinjer




I wasn't too sure of what to expect from Just Jinjer - they have after all been out of SA shores for the last few years, and although they have had a number of SA top singles, they haven;t toured since they started their US adventures. They are back in SA (and now back to being based in SA), and they really did a performance showing why they are one of the biggest SA bands, and why they did manage to break out into the International market. It was a mixture of great songs, great music and a great stage performance.

Hog Hoggidy Hog, Death Valley Blues Band and Rambling Bones

Wow - what a pumped up gig. It has been a long time since I was last in a really packed club, for some great local bands. Back 2 Basix was packed, and except for the obvious lack of good ventilation, it's fairly intimate size made a great gig atmosphere.

When I arrived, a band had just started but I missed their name. One of the other people at the gig said they were "Acoustic Fuzzygish", and some quick Google search got me the name: Rambling Bones. What was really impressive about the band, was their variety of musical styles, and the ability to merge different musical styles into a somewhat rambling ska style - with some really hilarious lyrics. And it does help that all the band members are really talented musicians too! Highlight was definitely "Stevie Wonder vs Slayer" (I think it was Slayer at least), taking lyrics of the heavy metal band, and singing it in the style of Stevie Wonder!

I watched Death Valley Blues Band once a while ago, and was very impressed. Tonight was no exception - and in fact, in my personal opinion; they were even better than Hog Hoggidy Hog! An 8 piece band, they were a tight fit on the stage; but it was a trully rocking performance - and the fact that most people were rocking out despite never having been to one of their gigs before is a really good testament to the quality of their music. I really think this band has what it takes to be one of the foremost bands in the country - great music, great stage precence, great musicians and rounding it all up, brilliant performance.

It has been a long time since I last saw the Hogs play live - probably in early 2007, or more likely in 2006 (I do have a blog post from 2005 ...). They have definitely not lost their touch, and they put up a really impressive 75 minute set, with great energy and getting the entire club moving! There were quite a lot of new songs, but while their sound has changed slightly (matured?), their style hasn't - and it was a great show.

Movie: Dsitrict 9

District 9 is almost what a dream South African movie should be: starring South Africans, written by South Africans, directed by a South African and set in South Africa. That's not to say that it is an entirely South African production - the CGI is largely by WETA (of the Lord of the Rings Fame), music is not entirely South African (although Zola stars quite a bit) and it is produced by Peter Jackson.

And it should be; it has all the fundamental parts right: story, acting and production. A brilliant storyline (although it has lots of apartheid parallels, I think it rings closer to last year's xenophobic attacks than on apartheid) about an alien ship stranded in Johannesburg, and how they are put into slums and kept apart from the "humans". And the movie raises a number of very uncomfortable philosophical questions (which have been raised before in science fiction literature, but not in this manner) regarding the basic concept of human rights and would these extend to other "intelligent" species (or for that matter to non intelligent species.

The acting, many by new actors, is equally impressive with very believable performances. It is a South African movie starring South Africans - not Americans with fake accents. The dialogue and mannerisms are utterly believable making this movie very "authentic".

And lastly, the production values are superb; especially the CGI for the aliens and their technology. The aliens feature one of the best animations I have seen, and the scenes of alien weapons being utilised are spectacular.

I have seen a lot of comments on how well the movie can become a serial - I sincerely hope not. I think District 9 had a story to tell, and it told it well. Like the first Matrix movie, it may not close all the plot lines, but it is actually better that way.

Airlines and Airports

• Silver status on British Airways is hard to get (I got mine through asking nicely to be upgraded) but it really compares to "Gold" status within One World.
• Airport lounges are a great way to get away from the general crowd at airports. Except maybe when dealing with SAA Lounge at OR Tambo, which seems to be overcrowded all the time.
  
• Priority lugage handling is not what it is promised to be ... except at OR Tambo, where my BA priority tag was read as belonging to SAA :)
• SAA is far better than Lufthansa, at least on the long haul between South Africa and Germany.
• Lufthansa however gives more frequent flyer miles than SAA on cheaper economy class tickets
  
• Finnair has an ad on TV (at least in Europe) on how different they are ... it is a lot of hogwash.
• Frankfurt airport is usually a pain; but Terminal E is quite nicel and it is possible to travel between a few terminals without requiring a visit through the (thorough) security checks.
• Berlin's Tegel is probably the worst airport I have been to in Europe when it comes to ease of use and facilities.
• Helsinki's airport is rather uninspiring.
• Finnair's lounge in Helsinki however is very cool with lots of funky seats.
  

Virtual Goods 2009

This was my 3rd Virtual Goods Workshop, and my first as program chair. Without blowing my own horn too much, I think that although the number of papers in the workshop was not as high as I would have liked it to be, the quality of the papers was amazing.

The highlight for me was the keynote talk by Bill Rosenblatt, on the past, current and future of DRM. Like many in the DRM research community, it is well accepted that the biggest fundamental problem with DRM was not necessarily the technology, but the economics and the marketing that went in. More and more, DRM is being proposed as a means to enforce privacy legislation, one of the original use cases of DRM, that was overlooked in favour of pushing for a very small control set of copyright regulation enforcement. Bill Rosenblatt has been in the field of DRM for a long time, and the presentation was insightful on the many aspects that led to the current outlook on DRM.

Another interesting talk was Mario Kubek and Jürgen Nützel's paper on "Novel Interactive Music Search Techniques", which takes a number of different search techniques including text analysis, melody analysis, frequency analaysis and much more to derive the various genres that correspond to a musical item; and also look for similarities between musical pieces using sources such as Google and Wikipedia. It is certainly an interesting way for powering future media exploration.

Next year's Virtual Goods Workshop will take place in Namur, Belgium.

Nancy

I was in Nancy for the ODRL WG and Virtual Goods 2009 conference (where I was the Program Chair). Getting to Nancy from outside France, without a car is difficult. There is no direct air link, and the only trains are from Paris, Starsbourg or Luxembourg. It took me 4 trains and some running to get there from Frankfurt. Luckily the way out was to share a car with a friend from Fraunhofer traveling to the same city in Germany, so that was easier.

Nancy's old town is stunningly beautiful, and mostly well maintained. Apart from the public buildings mostly shown on the photos, the private buildings are also well maintained and stunning. And at night, under various lighting effects, the city is even more stunning - especially Place Stanislas, seemingly the main square in the old town.

My hotel was orignially a mansion belonging to the "favourite" of a King or Duke of the region in the 1700s. Even though it was under refurbishment, the decor and general atmosphere was absolutely amazing, and fairly cheap too.

But for me the highlight was the food - and especially the food at "La petite Cuillere", a small restaurant near the hotel. The food was amazing and presentation and service was amazing. Now I really understand what good French food is all about.









Oh, frogs dont taste that bad either.

Music: Apocalyptica and Nightwish

The reason I was in Helsinki, was actually to go to the last Nightwish concert on their "Dark Passion Play" tour. This tour was almost 2 years long, with close to 200 shows - and this was actually the only occasion where I had the possibility to attend a concert. Symphonic metal is my current favourite music genre, and Nightwish is, in my opinion, the best exponent of this genre. Getting tickets was in some respects fortuitious - the concert was sold out and I only found one offer for double tickets on eBay (for which I was surprisingly the only bidder). So I had double tickets, btu no one to share with - and there were no takers for the second ticket (although I did not try eBay).

Apocalyptica, the band best known for playing cellos to the music of Metalica, and a recent Eurovision entry, was the support band; playing a combination of covers (opening with Enter Sandman IIRC), classical music (their take of Greig's Hall of the Mountain King is amazing) and some of their own music. Apocalyptica were a great support band, and played a highly enjoyable 1 hour set.

Nightwish played the longest uninterupted set I have ever attended by any musical performance - close to 2 and half hours! They played most of their songs from their last album (Dark Passion Play) as well some of their older songs. What is most interesting in this regard, is the change of lead singers from Tarja (who gave Nightwish a very distinctive, operatic sound) to Anette (whose voice in my opinion is a lot closer to pop music) - and it is the old Nightwish songs where this really becomes aparent. The difference is not necessarily bad - but very diffferent.

The show itself was amazing - great stage show, brilliant lighting, nice set design, a big audience, fire with the usual smoke and a finale of fireworks inside an enclosed stadium! It was a great show and I really enjoyed it. Seats in a concert like this just does not make sense, and next time I hope to get better tickets. The organisation was slick and efficient and overall was a great experience, and definitely worth the effort (and money) expended! The only negative I have is that Nightwish didn't play "Eva", even after a big chant in the stadium ... but the encore was an equally special (but older) song.

Bear Steak and Reindeer - Reflections of Helsinki

I remember an ad by Investec, asking "Who goes to Helsinki" ... and while my motivations for visiting Helsinki for a weekend was fairly arbitary, it seems that the majority of visitors to Helsinki are Russians, Latvians, Estonians and a smattering of the older American globe-trotters.



Helsinki is a rather compact city, and to be honest not very exciting. While there are certainly a number of impressive architectural specimens with the highlight being Suomenlinna, an old fort built by the Swedish in mid 1700s to protect the city against the Russians, but which did not seem to stop the Russians in 1808 without much resistance.




There are however quite a few interesting cultural points - that were surprising to me. Firstly, fur, is openly traded in the market - not only in clothing, but also as blankets and scarves (one scarf made of a small fox still had the fox head ornamental as part of the scarf).



There is also the language - Suomi (the language of Finland) is very different to every other European language except for Hungarian, but the Finns are very multilingual and almost all speak Swedish (all signs have at least Suomi and Swedish) and English and many other languages.

And then there is the food, specifically the availability of rather exotic meats as part of the menu. Reindeer meat is available in many menus (and is rather indefferent to mutton in my opinion) - but one restaurant I came across also offered Bear steak - for a princely sum of 50 odd Euros for the plate.

Overall, I think Finland has a lot to offer, but more for hiking and wilderness exploration rather than Helsinki itself. And next time, I should save more to afford Bear steak :)

T5 and the Mountain Sanctuary Park

I sort of had a vague idea where I wanted to go (or thought I wanted to go) - a nature reserve in the Magaliesberg. I ended up taking a scenic back road - the T5, a small dirt road that goes up from the town of Magaliesberg (near Krugersdorp) and over the mountain towards Buffelspoort (near Rustenberg). It was certainly not a road that I would drive after rains, and I was glad I had 4 wheel drive. But the scenery on top of the pass was well worth it.



The lack of rains made much of the park uninteresting - the landscape was largely yellow, and the rivers were mostly dry. That said, there are some awesome rock formations, and I could have spent a lot longer in the various nooks and cranies. The reserve also has camping and cabin facilities, and it was only when you reach the rest camp area, that you realise that this is actually quite a popular place; and there is a reason why the brochure (from the reserve) says you should book.

Model Exhibition at Sci-Bono

I heard an ad snippet on the radio about a model exhbition somewhere in Newtown - models being model trains, cars and aeroplanes. I decided to investigate yesterday, and found the exhibition at Sci-Bono.

Sci-Bono is a facinating science and engineering museum/activity centre with some really impressive hands on displays on all sorts of funky things. Supported by a number of corporate sponsors, displays such as details on how a car works (from BMW) featuring not only cut outs and detailed information but also great exhibitions on fundamental engineering concepts such as pulleys and gears. Other displays include a section on electricty, lasers, magents and radios. It's a hands on exploration centre, and the kids definitely seem to enjoy it. It is also danm cheap - free after 2pm on weekdays, free on weekends and public holidays and a nominal charge of R10 (IIRC) otherwise.

As for the exhibition, the stand out display was the Model Train section by the N-Gauge Guild of South Africa. The landscape modeling was spectacular featuring cliffs, glaciers and even a crashed train in a tunnel - and there was also a great variety of trains on show.

Standard Bank Joy of Jazz

I missed last year's Joy of Jazz for some reason or another, and after a reminder through both inflight magazines of BA and SAA, decided to try and attend at least one "session". I was a bit surprised at the high prices of the tickets, but the festival was well organised with good parking options, lots of signage and cops.

Sterling Electric Quartet (or Sterling EQ for short), was my main motivation to go the Saturday evening session at the historic Market Theatre. Sterling EQ is a band comprising of 4 hot female artists - Carina Bruwer on the electric flute, Eriel Huang and Magdalene Minnaar on electric violins and Ariella Caira on the electric cello.

It's a bit difficult to really rate Stirling EQ. Their classical works are only slightly different to Vanessa Mae and bands like Bond, and that is mainly through the use of the electric flute. And while Vanessae Mae makes use of a live backing band (at least in all the live recordings I have seen), Stirling EQ makes use of a pre-recorded, pre-mixed drum and bass mix - limiting the flexibility of their music playback. But at the same time their interpretation of non-classical musical pieces such as Nkalakatha (their producer also worked with Mandoza) and Mbube as well as their original pieces such as Nova and Bach's Kitten at Play show what they can really do (and do it very well). None the less, it was a great show and very enjoyable (and I even bought their CD).

Arlee Leonard was a more traditional singer and poet helped with a back up pianist (who also did a brilliant beatboxing routine for an entire song) and for a short while by a saxophonist and trumpeteer Brian Thusi. Her songs were some times racy (the second song was titled "Self Pleasure"), some times humourous and mostly thought provoking.

It seems most of the audience was there for the last act, Phil Perry, and although it was not really my genre of music; it is easy to see why. Phil Perry has an amazing vocal range, and he uses it to amazing effect. As the MC put it, Stirling EQ was for the guys, and Phil Perry was for the ladies - and he had seemingly every lady in the audence swooning to his love songs.

What I really like about Jazz is its variety, and on that last night was amazing. It could have been worthwhile going to some other stages in the future - as it seems that there was some rocking shows elsewhere in the festival.

Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens

Although I had heard of the gardens, I did not know much about it. It is probably most famous for its nesting Black Eagles at the Witpoortjie Falls, close to the source of the Crocodile river. I found out through my hiing book that there is a nice hike inside the park - and it is actually quite a facinating area.




The hike itself is basically uphill and downhill on the one side of the gardens - and covers a lot of ancient geological history - not only of the area but the world at large. The area (which includes all of Johannesburg and most of Tshwane) is one of the oldest geologically speaking - with rocks dating back to almost the formation of the earth. Thus markers along the trail give some facinating insight into the formation of the world as we know it - and together with a display later in the main gardens itself - a history of how gold, platinum and other precious minerals came to be in such abundance in this area of South Africa.



Although it is almost Spring, the landscape was largely very yellow. I suppose it is the general nature of the African savannah - but at least there was some colourful areas in the main gardens.



What is also nice is to have a protected place of nature and greenery in the middle of ever increasing development in Gauteng. Although there will be always pressure given the lack of any buffer zone (this lucky guy has a house right against the boundary of the park) - it is better than nothing; and given the power of Walter Sisulu's name, I doubt the park will be buldozed in the name of development. I just wish there were more of these areas in Gauteng.

Tswaing Meteorite Crater

Not too far from Pretoria, I heard about the Tswaing Crater (SAInfo, Wikipedia) via a book on hiking trails in South Africa. In an effort to get more physically active (Gauteng is just not condusive to doing things outside in my opinion), I am trying to see how many different day hiking places I can get through - especially in Gauteng.

The crater site is facinating - massively large, quite untouched, and quite empty. The site can definitely do with a lot more marketing (more signs from the N1 would help), but the quietness within 100KM of Jo'burg-Tshwane megapolis is refreshing. And even with the dull winter colours, it is a facinating landscape.



The hike itself is fairly easy - not too much up and down; although the route down to the crater is fairly steep. It is 7.2 km in length, and nothing too taxing. I hope I can continue and find other places as interesting.

West Coast National Park

It is flower season again, and together with my sister and her friends (many of them involved in the restaurant walkout), we went to the West Coast National Park, a short drive from Cape Town.

It did take a longer time to get there - particularly because I drove for a bit longer than I intended to on the N7 and thus overshot. The scenery along the N7 was spectacular though, and we did drive through an interesting small town (whereupon its closeness in resemblance to Zeerust was debated thoroughly in the car).

West Coast National Park is beautiful and provides a stunning combination of sea side sand dunes, the fybos vegetation and the Langebaan lagoon.