Rocking the Daisies 2009

This year’s annual Rocking the Daisies music festival was held in the Cloof Wine Estate in the small rural town of Darling outside of Cape Town from October 9 – 11. The event presented over 30 bands, 30 DJs, comedy acts amongst fantastic organic food to the bopping, tree-hugging crowds. It is no surprise that this year’s event was the most successful yet, with well over 10 000 people descending to, what some say, South African’s answer to Glastonbury. Across three stages spanned some of the best local bands such as: aKing, Goldfish, Desmond & The Tutus, Freshly Ground, Just Jinger, Prime Circle, 340ml, Bed on Bricks, Chamber Concept and many more up and coming musicians showcasing great musical talent to local music fans. When the speakers left ears ringing, crowds could listen to Afrikaans, unplugged or improvised comedy or chill on hay stacks listening to some Bomvu tribal drummers. Not only were there seven beer tents, bars and general teenage debauchery in the daisy dens…yes, there were sectioned daisy dens… but crowds of all ages were well-catered for. There were pony rides, a kid arena and adjacent lake with lifeguards to keep the little ones happy over the three days. The Kreef Hotel, with hot showers and buffet breakfasts, was suitably situated more than a plastic cup’s throw away from the main stages for those who weren’t prepared to sleep in a plastic box.
In only its fourth year, it is obvious that Rocking the Daisies will continue to showcase some of South Africa’s finest alternative bands to the growing local music enthusiasts. If you didn’t get to frolic in this year’s daisies, be sure to grab some friends, a car and some gum boots to next year’s spring event. But remember; No weapons, No picking of flowers, No litter and No attitude.

The Painters of Battles

Photograph by Halden Krog

To be a journalist is to be empowered. You hold in your hands the tools to a blank canvas – but it is what you choose to paint that defines you. Choice. Each day is a choice, to capture the truth or to manipulate reality to satisfy our own moral conscience.

Too often the individual becomes the product, commercialised, dehumanised and we forget to engage with the real life tragedy. Our humanity is fading as journalism becomes more callous and competitive, wartime photography staining the pages of our media with decapitated bodies.

We too are obliged to the industry to deliver a product, a conscience simply a crippling luxury. Halden Krog, photographer of the infamous Burning Man, questions at what point does one take a picture or choose to lay down their camera - no longer a photojournalist but a human being with a moral obligation to save a life.

We are at war with our own morality, and we are faced with a choice whether to answer the call of our conscience and risk falsifying the truth. A critic of The Painter of Battles by former wartime journalist, Arturo Perez-Reverte, remarked, “Is there a moral obligation on the part of the photographer to not capture certain moments, lest they create a tainted vision that alters reality?”

Capturing the truth is intrinsic to our nature but there is a price that comes with this responsibility. As human beings are torched alive we step back, observe and mechanically disengage ourselves from the humanising character of interference.

The passion is dead.

Why waste the time

Throughout the year it has always been an issue, attending lectures. Attending lectures has probably been an issue since the days of Plato’s Academy. But why wouldn’t one want to attend lectures; they are paid for, they are[somewhat]informative, and they are boring. Yes they are normally very boring. A Prime example, Philosophy ITP term one was packed every lecture (philosophy of religion was the topic), the lecturer was fun exciting, he made it interesting and we learned a lot, the fact that is was first term might have helped a bit too. Either way the lecture room was filled. Let’s look at Politics one, that was generally just boring, the whole way through, given there was the odd good week or two but that was the because the content happened to appeal to the class. In general though everything could be self-studied and all slides were put on R.U connected , so why go? This kind of thinking pretty much applies to all subjects in university. There are a few exceptions, if one does Maths or Chemistry you would have to be insanely intelligent to bunk lectures and still pass. With BA subjects however, you pretty much just need a pulse and a little work ethic to do the work, readings, tutorials and essays required on time. A lot of people aren’t ashamed that they don’t attend lectures, they feel it a waste of time, many other people think the ‘bunkers’ are just being ignorant. Either way you look at it comes down to who you are, can you self study or do you have to have the help of the lectures to get you through the course. I don’t attend many lectures.

Tomorrow Converse will still be popular

In 1917 Marquis M. Converse must have been awfully chuffed when basketball star, Charles H. Taylor, or ‘Chuck’, walked into his shoe store – Converse Rubber Shoe Company – and complained about sore feet. Chuck was given a job as an ambassador for the company, enthusiastically promoting Converse shoes around the United States. He did this until he died in 1969. There’s nothing to get sales up like a star sporting the shoe and Converse’s ‘Red Chuck Taylor’ shoe has become iconic for the brand – the traditional red canvas takkie.

Somewhere in between 1917 and 2009 the shoe become widely popular amongst the alternative crowd. Your Nirvana-grunge-rock-out uniform is incomplete without All Stars. While such artistic individuals pride themselves on their ‘alternative’ appearance, deviating from ‘jock’ brands, it appears that some Converse-lovers are guilty of simply conforming to another sub-culture. In some instances (generally a huddle of grade ten ‘emos’ standing outside Doors Night Club, wondering whose fake ID will do the job) I equate the flock of Converse pairs with the ‘jock’ mandatory Lacoste.

Granted, the shoe is comfortable. Granted, the shoe’s look is a classic. Not granted, the shoe’s a substitute for limited music knowledge and ticket to Indie-rock moshing.

Despite the popularity of the ‘Chuck Taylor’ model, Converse has re-vamped, coming out with a few striking styles, such as ‘The Weapon’ and later, ‘The Loaded Weapon’. It’s sad that these show little resemblance to the time-less original, but fortunately Converse still manufactures ‘Chuck Taylor’ and is likely to do so for a while.

Promises get you prizes?!

Noble Peace Prize Based on Promises?

Reactions across America on Friday ranged from outrage to shock to enthusiasm. While some are glad that Obama was recognized for his initiatives, others feel that Obama's efforts towards peace have not yielded results. This year there was a record number of 205 nominations for one of the world’s most coveted prizes. There is an idea, one that is undeniable, that Obama does not deserve the prize. He hasn’t done anything yet.

His two major achievements are being named as America’s first black president and being the first American president to chair the UN general assembly. When you compare that to another Noble prize winner it’s obvious that he has done also nothing. Nelson Mandela spent 26 years in jail for the liberation of South Africa and was released to start democracy and be the first freely elected president in the most racist country in the world. Obama promised to try and work on nuclear non-proliferation.

The Committee that selects the winner said “Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future” But that’s the problem a lot of people have with the selection of Obama, he has provided hope, with no results. It’s like giving some their high school certificate at the start of first year because they show the potential to go through and finish school with top marks.

Obama for the win!

The Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to award Barack Obama with the Nobel Peace Prize was met with mixed feelings. The Taliban, reports the BBC, weren’t too impressed:

“We have seen no change in his strategy for peace. He has done nothing for peace in Afghanistan. He has not taken a single step for peace in Afghanistan or to make this country stable.”

BBC’s recognition of the Taliban’s opinion allows readers to realise that this militant group’s views are aligned with the likes of Mrs Maguire – the Nobel Peace Prize winner of 1976. Maguire, a peace campaigner, commented that, “President Obama has yet to prove that he will move seriously on the Middle East, that he will end the war in Afghanistan and many other issues.”

Obama, too, was surprised when woken up on Friday morning and was informed about his win. In true diplomatic fashion, he said he doesn’t deserve the award “in company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honoured by this prize”. It’s appropriate that Obama’s surprise is reported – it’s hardly his fault he won, he doesn’t deserve to be demonised about it.

And so the question stands; why did he get the Nobel Peace Prize? The Noble Committee’s ‘Announcement’ waxed lyrical about Obama’s policies, saying, “Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position” and “thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting”. The committee is obliged to defend their decision, but unfortunately, we’re not informed as to why other candidates, such as Morgan Tsvangirai, didn’t make the grade. It reeks of political suck up.

Alfred Nobel, the initiator of the Nobel Peace Prize Awards, was ironically the inventor of dynamite. So perhaps a bittersweet reception is in the nature of the prize.

Martian Mayhem in Moscow - The Galactic Gaffe

By Natalia Carvalho

Photograph taken from the http://www.dailymail.com/

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

a relatively peaceful civilisation, recently plagued by the dark side, searches for a new beginning - on Earth.

Or so it seems.

As Muscovites look to the skies, the arrival of an unusual and suspect object has UFO enthusiasts scrabbling for their homemade extraterrestrial communicators. Could this really be a strange cosmic convergence of two opposing civilisations? As onlookers remain fixated on the intruding force, perhaps those creepy yet bizarrely cute green Martians, in their petite crash helmets, are at this very moment strategizing over world domination.

Who knows, behind H.G Wells’ speculation of alien invasion, there might really be a rather intriguing tripod Mothership burrowed deep beneath your house. Paranoid? Maybe. But let’s not get too excited. As much as we might be tempted to write those condescending welcome speeches, the reality is we won’t be shaking any green hands, assuming they have those, anytime soon.

Meteorologists conclude the simple explanation for the saucer-like halo hovering above Moscow city is purely an optical illusion created by intrusive artic air. So instead of gamma ray weaponry or suspicions over Russian weather modification technology, the soviet district should be expecting light to heavy showers and maybe a few false extraterrestrial alarms.

Whether environmentalists clamber down from their trees to protest industrial emission or the smog effect, I am quite content to say that world peace is secure for now. Alas, our green Martian friends must continue their journey to the motherland, their strategizing over world domination circumvented by a somewhat anti-climax of cloud formation.