Johannesburg Philahrmonic Orchestra

The JPO's last concert for the second season was last night, and it was a trully different concert. The JPO is providing the backing music for the World Cup ceremnoies, and working with Lebo M (who is the producer). So, Lebo M performed an unscheduled song - with the full orchestra backing! The song was originally a tribute to his mom, but he changed it to a tribute to to Siphiwo Ntshebe, an opera singer who died of meningitis recently; and was intimately involved in the performance.

Schubert's unfinished symphony was the first "scheduled" performance piece; but I did not enjoy it much. And I think it was more the performance than the piece in this case :(

But the real attraction was Beethoven's 9^th Symphony, with a full choir (Gauteng Choristers), and soloists from Opera Africa. The orchestrata performance was superb, and at a high tempo - with excellent choral performance. Unfortunately, the soloists were rather poor last night, with the Soprano overwhelming the other members. But the choir and orchestra made up for their lack of performance!

It seems that next season also features similar collaborative efforts - I am looking forward to it.

Bafunny Bafunny

Went to watch super team of South African stand up comedy last night at Carnival City. Comprising of Mark Banks, Barry Hilton, Marc Lottering, Kagiso Lediga, Nik Rabinowitz, Loyiso Gola, John Flismas and Trevor Noah, it was missing only one other top comic in my books - David Kau.

Politically incorrect (to the extreme in the case of John Flismas), most comics focused on a healthy dose of politics (Zuma, Malema and Zille being the prime targets), immigration, crime and off course soccer (with a smattering of rugby and cricket). Personally Nik Rabinowitz and Trevor Noah were the best comics in the show, but each of the comics had their standout moments.

Given a show time of about 3 hours including the interval, the R200 for the tickets was well worth it. However, Carnival City as a venue, is certainly not my favourite. Not only is it far, but the traffic congestion within the parking lot was horrible (took almost an hour to get out).

Super 14 Final

Rugby in Soweto - not as novel as last week, but still an incredible experience. One of our key security suppliers invited a colleague and myself to the final, and it was an incredible experience.

It was not only the setting - but the atmosphere outside the ground was also quite impressive. The locals really took it to heart, and well, tried to make a few bucks also by offering "secure parking"; often with signs in Afrikaans to help, such as the offer of "koue biere vir Blou Bulle".

Orland Stadium is actually very impressive, with excellent view of the field. The "big screens" are rather small, but apart from that, it is an excellent stadium for sport watching; with an incredible atmosphere. And the vuvuzelas, really trumpeted; mostly blown by the rugby supporters themselves; as opposed to being blown by locals. Given this, I think it is highly hypocritical for rugby authorities to ban vuvuzelas from their stadiums!

The game itself, while good rugby, was marred by the Stormers consistently giving away penalties, within kickable distance from the posts. That more than anything else gave the Bulls the victory. And while it can be debated whether the Stormers were denied a try; Bulls did, overall, play a better game.

But the standout memory of the afternoon occurred on the way to the game. About a KM away, while waiting in traffic, one of the guys needed to go to take a leak. So he and his friend jumped out, and went to the toilet at one of the houses on the side. Later, he commented, any other suburb in predominately white communities, this would be unheard off - even if it was in the neighborhood of Loftus or Newlands! And when they came back, a French girl, also jumped in. She was a reporter for a French radio station, and spent some time interviewing us of what we thought of the event and our experiences so far. Just before the stadium, she jumped out, probably to interview more people!

Apple Standardised?

One of the people in the Super 14 party yesterday, commented that one of the nice things she likes about her new Apple iPhone is the "standardised connector". At first pass, this sounded rather wierd - but she explained that both her iPod (about 4 years old), her kids' iPod (more recent), her husband's iPod (very new) and her iPhone (also new) - all used the same connector, and for that matter same charger system. In comparison, her Nokia phones she had used previously all had different chargers; while her husband's Blackberry (he is on his third or fourth one now) has also had different chargers.

In the IT world, we think that standardisation is a globally agreed set of principles - but maybe, just consitency in usage and design within a manufacturer is enough! Maybe, the whole concept of long standardised, interoperability - which is often long winded, compromised and even more often, ineffective, would be rather better served by stadradisation and consistency within the manufaturer?

Fight Night, My Life on Fire, 40 Day Journey and Groundstar

It has been a while since I was last at Back2Basix (but nothing has really changed). There was a small crowd, mostly friends of the bands it seems. Maybe, I need to find some new venues! A general comment, with regards to the venue - their sound mixing really sucks. Except when there are high profile bands (who probably bring their own sound guy, the mixing is quite bad - with a lot more instrumentals and a lot less vocals. That, or the bands are just covering up their weak vocals :)

Fight Night
A very unremarkable band, with almost non existent stage presence, inaudible lyrics (though that could be due to the mixing) and songs that sounded alike. Nothing to like, and quite disappointing. They do have a Facebook page it seems.

My Life on Fire
Their warmup was already better than Fight Night, but again nothing really amazing. The singer seems to have a lot of potential, but was once again drowned by the mixing. Quite good energy on stage, though nothing really amazing. They band did give away a few T-Shirts, but they really need to learn to throw :) They do seem to have a Facebook page.

40 Day Journey
A 3-piece metal band, they were probably the best musically, with an incredible drummer and a really high energy set. Very entertaining to watch. They do seem to have a Facebook page it seems.

Groundstar
Definitely the most interesting band in the lineup, playing mostly rock (as opposed to metal), featuring a female lead singer and 2 backing male vocalist. This combination has a lot of potential, allowing for a wider range of vocal performance; which was sadly not really utilised too much. The stage performance wasn't that briliant either - but definitely a band with some potential.

Counting Crows, Police Escorts and a lot of expensive storage

I was in Boston for EMC World a very big vendor conference. EMC is largely known for its storage solutions, but there are a number of other products and services, notably VMWare and RSA. My engagement with EMC has largely been around RSA, so it was a good opportunity to learn about the other products and services offered by EMC. The big disappointment in my view was the under representation of RSA and VMWare,with a lot more focus on storage and software products.

It is quite interesting to attend an event of this size. The Counting Crows, were the entertainment for the first night,but they were really disappointing. They had no interest and their engagement with the crowd, understandable given that they have already been paid, and thus have no real stake in the performance. Another day, the shuttle bus from the hotel was given a police escort, easing the way through traffic. Being a Boston based company, EMC obviously has some clout in the city.

It was certainly a good experience, and the side discussions and networking certainly helps!

Newest Toy

My first experience of an Apple Store, was in New York on 14th Street (near Chinatown). It was the day before the US elections in 2004, and the store was revealing their 30" LCD monitors. Since then, I have bought an iPod and a Macbook, in previous trips to the US.

As a retail store, the Apple Store has always facinated me in how much more effecient and engaging the staff are when compared to other retailers. There seems to be a much higher percentage of sales staff to customers, and the sales staff really know about their products.

But what is most interesting, for me, is the whole mobile sales process; and the evloution thereof. When I bought my iPod, (2005 IIRC), the sale took place at a traditional till point, with a traditional receipt. 2 Years later, when I bought my Macbook, the sale took place with a mobile terminal right next to the area where the sale took place (and the salesperson was not too sure on how to take the sale in all cash).

So this long post, is really to gloat about my newest toy - the bottom of the range iPad (no 3G). The mobile terminal has evolved further, featuring an iPhone (or an iPod Touch) with a barcode scanner and a card reader. I had booked my iPad on Sunday, so it was really a collection together with getting an iPad case (the Apple case is better than the other cases I have seen so far) and off course payment. The receipt was emailed to me, so there was absolutely no paperwork.

The iPad is my riskiest tech purchase I think, with no International warranty coverage, and no access to official iPad apps. So, Spirit jailbreak and Cydia it will be. I am also not sure what I really want to do with it (other than surf the web from my bed), but I have been impressed with it as a device so far.

Blame it on the volcano?

My flight from Frankfurt to Boston was delayed by just over an hour. When the announcement was made in the lounge, the flight was apparently delayed "due to the volcano" - although the German version of the announcement made no such references. And seeing that the flight did take place, just over 90 minutes later; with the flight path directly over Iceland, it raises the question - are all delays for the next while going to be blamed on the volcano?

SAA Departure Lounge at ORTIA

The new SAA departure lounge at OR Tambo is absolutely stunning, in both layout and facilities (although the food section seems to be lacking a bit). There is a stunnign view of the airfield, and individual areas with TVs, business centre, kids area, etc. It is definitely one of the best lounges I have been to (although, to be honest, I haven't been to many of them).

Company Innovation

I have recently changed my responsibilities, and one of my old responsibilities was in innovation management within my company. Innovation is a tricky subject, and there was a lot of frustration, in getting the right audience to take innovative ideas seriously.

I am travelling again, and my shuttle driver, Steve, and I got on our seemingly favourite topic - the Gautrain. In my opinion, the Guatrain does not necessarily represent a threat to Steve's company - but rather a potential for new and different business models. He agreed, and we started talking about very different ways that the Gautrain could actually help his company instead of hamper the company's services.

That said, a clear fact also emerged - his company did not value input from employees - and in fact, when input was given, the credit was frequently taken up by management instead of the employees. And for that reason alone, Steve would not approach his bosses with any new ideas.

Innovation is a critical success factor for any company, but I think the integrity in how employees are treated is more important to get right first.

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Previous post about conversation with Steve.

Conversation with taxi drivers from Hamburg and Amsterdam.

Gmail Cleverness

I was writing an email in gmail, meaning to send an attachment (which I forgot to actually include). However, I did write "I have attached ...", and GMail picked it up, and asked whether I wanted to attach file to the email. Which obviosuly leads to the question - what combinations of the word attach does GMail understand? Investigation is warranted ...

Juggernaught, The Mean Streets, Half Price and Pestroy

Public holidays are good excuses to have a party, and Back 2 Basix hosted Half Price's album launch last night. Since I hadn't been to a rock gig since Thornfest, I decided to check this out.

Juggernaught looks like a hard core rock band; but they mumbled through a 40 minute set; with some pretty mediocre music accompanying the mumbling. The potential was there - the combination of blues and rock can be really good (like Death Valley Blues Band), but this really requires very strong vocals in both ability and clarity. Neither the vocalist, nor the backing vocalist demontstrated such ability. Maybe they were drunk; who knows - their music was rather uninspiring and, in my opinion, not very good.

The Mean Streets doesn't seem to have a website (well there is a band from Philadelphia with the same name); and while they did not look like hippie rockers, they played a lot better rock music when compared to Juggernaught (they do seem to have a facebook page). The music was not particularly memorable, but they had a good stage presence, and good rapport with the crowd. They claim to be "not afraid to take on Government and authority and proud to admit that they hate both", but their lyrics seemed to be pretty simple and not very confrontational.

Half Price is a punk band based in Cape Town, and I was very impressed with their show. The music was great, very good stage show with some decent lyrics. There is quite a bit of Ska influence, and their songs generally have a good party vibe. They seem to have a lot of supporters in Johannesburg, and the club was packed.

Pestroy was the main motivation for going to the gig, and like Thornfest, a large portion of the crowd had all left by the time they came on stage. Despite the smaller crowd, Pestroy played a great 45 minute set with quite a few older songs; and was a great gig. The fact that they have a fairly big repertoire helps, and many of the songs didn't feature on their original set list.

Bulls vs The Hurricanes

Went to see the Bulls vs The Hurricanes, courtesy of one of the vendors I deal with at work (in their shared box). I had always heard of the great atmosphere in Loftus; and even though it wasn't full house; it was a very supportive crowd. The rugby itself was rather uninspiring for most of the game - with a few flashes of individual brilliance here and there. It wasn't a great game to be honest; and the Bulls struggled a lot with basic errors throughout the game.

What was really interesting was the allowance of letting the crowd onto the field after the game (and ceremonial duties were concluded). Small games of touch rugby started all over the ground, and this is perhaps one of the reasons the Bulls have such a fanatical home support. After about 20 - 30 minutes, the security staff slowly cleared the field; and the stadium slowly emptied.

Second Test: India vs South Africa

Test cricket is apparently dead. Yet, within the last few months we have seen some matches that have been better than any 20-20 or ODI; not only in the manner of scoring runs, but in the tension and skill exhibited. There was the Pakistan-New Zealand match where Bond showed what Test cricket has missed out on and the emergence of Umar Akmal. There was Shewag's 290 odd runs in one day of battin against Sri Lanka, and then there was South Africa vs India, in the recently concluded test match at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, where I am currently.

Eden Gardens is trully a different atmosphere for test cricket - both to what I have seen and experienced in Durban or Cape Town. While the (current temporary) capacity of 70 000 was never reached on any of the 5 days, there was still a sizable crowd; with each day's crowd probably exceeding 5 day combined crowd numbers at most other grounds, and if nothing else Eden Gardens showed that there is a paying public willing to watch test cricket (and makes a good case for why certain cities should just not get test cricket matches). The atmosphere was electric featuring a few interesting characters - especially the man painted in the Indian flag, carrying a massive flag and blowing a conch shell (used mostly for Hindu prayers) for either showering blessings on a 4, 6 or wicket, or to usher wishes to the bowler or batsmen.

But the noise and the crowd would be meaningless without good cricket - and there was tons of it. Amla and Petersen provided great batting on Day 1. Khan and Harbhajan caused one of the biggest collapses, also on Day 1. Shewag, Tendulkar, Dhoni and Laxman showed their respective skills while Amla stole all the glory and praise for his technique and patience as he almost single handedly saw South Africa home.

I had tickets for all 5 days; but I only went to days 1, 2 and 5 - and I wished I was there for all 5. It was definitely one of the best matches in recent history; and a great showcase for test cricket.

Movie: Mou Gaan Dou (Internal Affairs)

The Departed, was based on this earlier movie; filmed entirely in Hong Kong. While there are certain differences in the storyline, it is easily recognisable. There is a subtle plot change between the Departed and Internal Affairs towards the end; and I think that, not only does Internal Affairs pull it off better, it makes the overall storyline much better than that of The Departed. The movie is engrossing and features superb acting as well as superb cintematography of Hong Kong (especially the city scapes from the rooftops).

Four Seasons

Vanessa Mae playing Vivaldi's four seasons was my first real introduction to western classical music; and it is still one of my favourite pieces. Sunday evening featured a chamber concert with Vivaldi's Four Seasons in the first half, and Piazolla's Four Seasons (inspired buy Vivaldi) in the second half. I am not too sure I like the Piazolla version, although the Bandoneon is an interesting instrument (and was put to really great effect in the very first piece of the evening - Piazolla's Buenos Aires Hora Cero).

Rock me, Amadeus

Inspired by the movie, "Rock Me, Amadeus" focussed on some modern interpretations of classics. The concert featured the Imperial College Symphony Orchestra, whose members seemed a lot younger than the average college student. But musical prodigies are often quite young; so it is not that surprising.

The first part of the concert was completely classical - two Mozart symphonies (5 and 37), and was quite short. The second part started off with Mozart's Violin Concerto no 4, with the solo played by the beautiful Lidia Baich, and it was a stunning performance. The second piece was a classical piece, Massenet's Meditation from Thais, but performed not only by the orchestra but also accompanied by a rock band (drums, guitars) and piano. An awesome performance with brilliant piano playing.

But it was the last piece, that was truly amazing. Vanessa Mae popularised the merger of classical and modern musical pieces; and Lidia Baich did something similar with Saint-Saëns' Rondo capriccioso. She performed the violin solo, accompanied by the orchestra and the band; and it was an amazing performance and a great arrangement; thoroughly deserving a standing ovation.

Thornfest

Thornfest, is a new rock festival, held over the past three days at a farm about 70Km south of Jo'burg. The festival was with camping facilities etc. but I only went on the Saturday; and even then only got there around 5:30.

It was a very well organised festival - lots of space, lot of food and merchandise stands and 3 stages. The only complaint is possibly the lack of rubbish bins; which made the grounds seem like a dumping ground at times. But beyond that, it was well organised, with seemingly no problems.

I think the festival tried to do too much at the same time. I think there were just too many bands and not enough people. I think in future, two big stages may make more sense than three. I am also not sure of the rationalle of smaller bands playing during the headline acts on the main stage. Unlike festivals where the bands cover different genres of music; larger bands would tend to draw most of the audience away from the smaller bands.

Second Guess'd



Apparently, Second Guess'd had got the billing after winning a battle of the bands competition. For a new band; they were quite impressive - with some humorous lyrics and generally good performance.

Knave

For me, Knave was the best band of the evening - with the best combination of great music, lyrics, stage presence and performance. I even ended up buying their latest CD. They first came into prominence last year (or year before) with their single "Taunt and Tether", but their other songs are also worth listening to. The promo girls from Jagermeister did use the opportunity to throw out a lot of freebies; but somehow dancing girls do not seem to tie to metal bands - well their type of dancing anyway.

Fuzigish


Fuzigish should have been a main stage attraction - and the Stand Firm stage was not only filled to capacity inside; it had a rather large number of people outside craning to see some of the action inside. I have seen Fuzigish a number of times, so after their first song; I decided to head outside to see the visiting band from the UK.

Seven Year Kismet

They were one of two international acts, and at first look they certainly did not fit the stereotype of a metal band. With Fuzigish drawing the large majority of the crowd; they played to a rather small audience. Dressed in white T-Shirts and shorts; they don't seem to have any visible tattoos or piercings. The vocalist had good stage presence; but to be honest they were nothing remarkable.

Agro


I had not heard of Agro before, but they have an impressive CV. Easily the oldest band on show last night, they had a really impressive stage show and their instrumental pieces were simply amazing.

I met the vocalist (Cliff) and Bass Guitarist (Robbie) and their roadie (whose name I forget) just before their show while waiting for a pizza. The conversation started around my Nightwish t-shirt; but while I simply watched them; they had played in a festival alongside Nightwish and a few other major bands.

They are also very proud of their metal music, with Cliff commenting that there were too many "jocks with long hair" who don't actually appreciate metal music. He was rather verbose about defending metal on stage too, proclaiming that agro "was not core-metal but metal to the core"; and wanting to proclaim metal as a religion (that should give the bible-belt something to talk about).

All said, although their first song was rather crap; their show just got better and better - with some really interesting lyrics and music. Definitely worth going to see again.

Cutting Jade



Cutting Jade has been one of the "big" South African rock bands; but somehow they haven't been as successful as some of their contemporaries. I am not such a big fan of Cutting Jade - they have a few good songs; and a generally good performance; but somehow I never come away really impressed with the band.

Fokofpolisiekar



Fokofpolisiekar was the biggest attraction of the festival, and attracted by far the biggest crowd of the evening. The band certainly lived up to their billing as one of the foremost South African bands; and can be enjoyed even without understanding Afrikaans. Incredible stage presence; great music and great performance. In many respects, they were the headline act of the festival.

Pestroy


Pestroy has long been South Africa's leading metal group; and they were worthy headliners, although the crowd had thinned dramatically after Fokofpolisiekar's show. Similar to Limp Bizkit, Pestry features a rapper/singer as the main vocalist, with a very energetic (almost frantic) show. I have only heard their music on radio; and I was quite impressed with both the performance and the music.

Mozart's Anniversary Concert

Wednesday (27 Jan) was Mozart's birthday, and the Mozart Anniversary Concert was held at Linder Auditorium as part of the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival, the second such festival held in Jo'burg. While the program did feature Mozart's Piano Concerto in D minor K 466 (featuring Florian Uhlig, who is also the festival's artistic director), the majority of the program featured South African based/influenced composers.

The first piece "Fatse la Heso" (My Country), by Michael Moerane,started of slowly before finishing with a very impressive flourish. It is supposedly based on African traditional music - but without the drums that would accompany such music - I am not sure where the relation lies.

The final piece, which was also the longest, was "Song of Four Winds" featuring an orchestra, a soprano and a baritone. The background to the piece is quite interesting; and overall, the music itself was also quite impressive - using a variety of musical instruments to great effect. However, the singers and the song itself was rather ordinary - and in my opinion rather detracted from the music.

The festival carries on until the 9th of Feb, with a concert almost every night. However, the Linder Auditorium was hardly half full - and while there are some very interesting pieces to llok forward to (I am quite keen for at least 3 more concerts), I am not sure if the festival will be a commercial success of anysorts.

Chrome and GMail

I have had lots of problems with Chrome and Gmail in the past, especially when the earlier releases seemed to be buggy for proxies. But this error message takes the top prize! For the record, I was not using a proxy, and am on a direct connection to a Tier 1 ISP.

For those who are not inclined to click on the pic, the error states "It seems there is a problem. Please try using Gmail with a supported browser".