MK Awards 2012 – My views included

Last night, the nominees for the MK Awards 2012 have been announced.

Your votes will determine the winners, who will be announced on 23 March 2012 at an awesome event held at The State Theatre in Pretoria.

Now, seeing as you are reading my blog, I quite arrogantly assume that you must be interested in my opinion. Either that, or you came here by accident.  In case of the latter, I will keep my opinions short.

Best Video

Jack Parow – Tussen Stasies

Locnville – Stars Above You

Die Heuwels Fantasties ft. Inge Beckman– Modus Operandi

Spoek Mathambo – Control

Winterstasie – Los My

I must admit, I was blown away by Spoek’s video. It’s not at all my style of music, but man, what a brilliant video! However, since I need to like the music as well in order to REALLY like a music video, my vote goes to Jack Parow – Tussen Stasies.
Parow’s collaboration with Die Heuwels Fantasties brings out the best of both worlds. This video makes me feel good, sad, happy, chilled and excited all at the same time.

Best Newcomer

Bittereinder – Ware Verhaal

Shadowclub – Guns n Money

Moses Metro Man – Huigelaar

The Greame Watkins Project – Music Affair

Mr Cat & The Jackal – The Devil Always Wants To Dance

All the songs in this category are impressive. Shadowclub manages to make a on-stage video cool again, Moses Metro Man makes fairy lights strangely manly and Mr Cat &  The Jackal produced a magnificent video. I really, really love Bittereinder’s video and will always be a huge fan. Somehow, The Graeme Watkins Project just edges this one in their favour for me. I like a video where I WANT to watch to see what happens next, yet is well enough produced to remain entertaining even after you know the story.

Best Group

Van Coke Kartel – Ondier Kom

Shadowclub – Good Morning Killer

Zebra & Giraffe – Undo These Lies

Die Heuwels Fantasties – Buitenste Ruim

Bittereinder ft. Tim Beumers – Slechte Mensen

aKING – Catch Alight

Van Coke Kartel is obvious in their awesomeness, and as a group they have grown so much from “the spawn of Fokofpolisiekar” into a powerful musical force to be reckoned with. My vote goes to them. However, special mention needs to go to Heuwels Fantasties and Bittereinder. Both awesome songs, yet in both cases I just feel that they could’ve done a bit more with the videos. Shadowclub impressed me beyond expectation. Trust me, this is a band the South African music scene can bet on to become HUGE! aKing’s video, aside from providing fap-incentive for many teen boys, is very well done, but as a group I think Van Coke overshadows them as well at this stage.

Best International Hit

Mumford & Sons – Little Lion Man

Adele – Rolling In The Deep

LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem

Maroon 5 – Moves Like Jagger

Foo Fighters – Walk

Here I am torn between two bands. I would love to say that Foo Fighters takes the prize, simply because they are, well, Foo Fighters. I do however think that a band that made a bigger impact on the South African music scene in 2011 deserves to walk away with the accolades. So here’s to Mumford and Sons – Little Lion Man. As for the others: Adele – Brilliant but not quite my style. Maroon 5 – Sing more like Jagger and less about him and I might pay attention. LMFAO… Your name says it all.
On the other hand, screw it, give it to Foo Fighters. Their video is better. No, Mumford. No, Foo… Ok, you decide. I honestly can’t. 

Best SFX/ Animation

aKING – Catch Alight

Goldfish – We Come Together

Mr. Cat & The Jackal – Bad Man Comin

Die Heuwels Fantasties ft. Inge Beckman– Modus Operandi

Van Coke Kartel – Ondier Kom

aKing’s video, as mentioned, is faptastic. I do however feel that Mr. Cat & The Jackal should take this one. They managed to make stop-motion cool again. Van Coke is no doubt the best band in this category, but as with the Heuwels Fantasites video here, the videos are awesome, but it did not make me sit back and say “WOW”. Goldfish… um, cute. no we just need some originality.

Best Rock

Knave – Hollow Chamber

Van Coke Kartel – Vir Almal

Taxi Violence – Head Or Tails

Shadowclub – Guns n Money

Dead Alphabet – Eat You Alive

Play Van Coke’s ‘Vir Almal’ Back to back with aKing’s ‘Catch Alight’ and your 15 year old cousin will strangely go to his room for 3 minutes to be alone. Hoewever, epic tits doth not an awesome video make. If only the first part of the video was as exciting as the last. I honestyl LOVE “Vir almal”, it’s one of my favourite songs at the moment, so I’m almost sad that I couldn’t like the video more. In this, the Best Rock category,  I’ll give it to Knave – Hollow Chamber. These guys are one of the most underrated hard-rock outfits of South Afirca, and deserve to be seen more.  

Best Indie

Ashtray Electric ft. Gazelle – Release

Yesterday’s Pupil – Too Tired To Disco

Dance, You’re On Fire – Boxes Of Tigers

The LA Els – Soulkiller

Wrestlerish – Bodies Of Water

I find it quite difficult to choose between these bands. Partyl due to their diversity, and partly becuse in their own way, each is quite brilliant. In the end, I’ll go for Wrestlerish – Bodies of Water. These guys brought a fresh sound to South African music, and they are not all skinny little boys. Big up for the bigger people!

Best Hipster

(Disclaimer: I have no freaking idea what ‘hipster’ actually is. Mostly because no one does. So I’ll just venture a guess and judge accordingly)

Fulka – Dancing In Our Darkest Days

Holiday Murray – Jirrey

Fire Through The Window – Lonely Hearts

Jack Parow – Byelville

Sedge Warbler – Paranormal Ox Man

I pick Fire Through The Window – Lonely Hearts  simply because I can picture a bunch of hipsters (whoever they might be) going to parties (if that’s not too mainstream) and playing this while they play canasta and talk about obscure movies while scoffing down red velvet cheesecake. (Yes, I have no idea what hipsters actually do, ok?) Oh, and I like the song. 
Parow is Zef, how can he be hip too? Fulka, well, not a huge fan. 

Best Dance

PH Fat – The Big Five

Gazelle ft. Teba – Chic Afrique

Goodluck – Hop On Hop Off

Sedge Warbler – Paranormal Ox Man

Jax Panik – Get Up

To avoid any confusion, I will not rate this, seeing as I honestly do not give a rats ass about this category. Some cute vids though. See  for yourself.

Best Radio Hit

Kovsie FM – aKING / Catch Alight

Puk FM – Moses Metro Man / Huigelaar

Jacaranda FM – Elvis Blue / Lighthouse

MFM – Jax Panik / Dinosaur

Tuks FM – KONGOS / I’m Only Joking

Here my vote goes to KONGOS. Not only due to my love for TuksFM, but honestly because it is an awesome song. Whenever I play it, people party. Whenever I hear it, I want to party. 

Best Live Act

Viewers have the opportunity to nominate any artist/band for the Best Live Act category. To cast a vote, ‘Like’ the MK Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/mktv.co.za and click on the ‘Live’ tab. Voting on Facebook and Mxit for the “Live” category puts viewers in line to win a Hyundai i20.

I really look forward to seeing everyone’s opinions on this. In my opinion, some of the best live local acts I have seen during 2011, was Bittereinder, Van Coke Kartel and the EPIC David Kramer Tribute show at Oppikoppi (although I do not think the latter can be nominated).

What do you think? Are my opinions stupid?
Let me know by commenting on this post, and you stand the chance of winning a beer. Yes, I will buy you a beer. Or you can buy me one, I don’t really care.

I also need to work in a slight disclaimer here:
The opinions expressed here are my own. I do not actually think that my options will even win, because people overall are idiots and will vote for the band they like most, in stead of the band best suited to win the appropriate categrory. Hell ,there are bands that I honestly HOPE  will win, simply because i like them more. I was just too honest to wangle my opinion.

So, what are you waiting for, get voting!
Voting has officially begun, and will end at 12:00 on 1 March, 2012.

You can vote on:

• www.mktv.co.za (via mobi or web and ‘Like’ your favourite)
• www.facebook.com/mktv.co.za
• The MK Bot on Mxit

Nazi’ing: My Passive Protest For Freedom Of Meme

So, planking (and lately owling) have taken the internet by storm. As with anything internet related, it got rather old rather quickly. Personally, for me it was over before it began…

In the face of these memes, two of TuksFM107.2‘s DJ’s did ‘n mock-meme,called Nazi’ing. The main idea is to fake a little Hitler’tache with your one hand by placing two fingers on your upper lip, while using your other hand extended in a classic Nazi salute.

It’s silly, it’s fun and it didn’t hurt anyone. Thus, an average wanabe meme.

Then, the proverbial excrement hit the airconditioner. Some humour-deprived, over-sensitive habitual bitchers, decided they want to make up for being bullied at school (or having daddy issues, or a small penis etc). A few complaints against the station came in, and in the end they had to remove the blog-post featuring the two DJ’s Nazi’ing. For a full report (and the ridiculous comments made by these bitchers, read the Channel24 article here. The irony of this article, is that the reporter not only got the date on which the incident happened wrong, but also the DJ’s involved. Rob Forbes was away on holiday, and Retief van der Liefde was filling in for him with PJ van Rooyen. So much for accurate reporting, hey?

Anyway, this whole thing inspired me to take a few pictures of my own. I just want to thank abovementioned bitchers for inspiring me to do so, for without you I would’ve thought the same of Nazi’ing as I do of Planking… lame.
Now, Nazi’ing actually means something. It means standing up for our constitutional right to freedom of expression, and our inherent right to having a sense of humour. But more importantly, it’s one big fat screw you to the Bitchers of The World.

Lastly, just a congratulatory high5 to Loutjie van der Merwe, TuksFM‘s Station Head, for the way in which he handled the matter. With a man like him in charge, the future of Rock Radio in South Africa is looking good!

And now, ladies and gents, are some of the pictures:

New Beginnings

Go to Google. Search for “new beginnings“. Check out the images.

For some reason, and I am not entirely sure why, “new beginnings” automatically conjures up images of water, plants, psychedelic rainbows,  hands and some obscure rock. I would personally have thought that there would have been more references to birth, roads and maybe some sci-fi monkey on Mars. But hey, who am I to argue with The Google? (NOBODY argues with Google . . . and lives)

So here I am, thinking about new beginnings (and inter alia rainbows, plants, hands and a rock).

The Mystical Resolution Rainbow

Rainbows are beautiful. They just happen, or with some clever hosepipe work you can make them. You can, however, never touch them. If you try, you are just the wet kid with the hosepipe running around in the yard.  Standing at the beginning of 2011, many people try to do just that: Create ‘New Beginnings” for themselves. These rainbow resolutions are, in my not so humble opinion, a waste of time. Creating a resolution simply because the date has changed, will bring you nowhere nearer to a new beginning than that wet kid with the hosepipe to the rainbow.

 

Plants - Nice, green, and temporary

Surely plants offer us a much more accurate basis for a metaphor when it comes to New Beginnings. Just mentioning plants conjures up images of growth, life and work. As you can imagine, these are three great ingredients to create a new beginning with. Your imagination is not wrong, yet it is misleading. You see, plants still offer you a few get-out-of-jail-free cards. If you go away on holiday, you can get a neighbour’s kid to look after your pet petunia. If said kid stuffs it up (it’s always the kid, never you) you can just plant another one. This might sound like a good thing, but it is not. You see, if you have this easy-out option, a backdoor if you will, you will subconsciously always take it. No, a plant cannot be a new beginning. It is merely a nice green thing.

By process of elimination, I am left with hands and rock. Which one do you think embodies new beginnings? I say hands.

A Handy Metaphor

You see, unless by some or other medical miracle or horrendous accident, odds are you have two hands – most probably the same two you have had since birth. A new beginning is not a destruction of the previous attempt, it is the adaption of what is already there. If your hands are dirty, you don’t chop them off and buy new ones. You wash them (or at least wipe them on the inside of your pockets like a good bachelor at a braai). Hands speak of hard work, but when the hard work is done, you still have your hands (hopefully). You have to look after your hands, but your hands will look after you as well. In essence, my hands represent to me the fact that any change and growth I want accomplish, is up to me. The process is part of the reward, and the reward is part of the motivation for the next step. So as far as new beginning-metaphors go, hands tend to come in handy.

Life is a series of new beginnings. Embrace the change needed to give you that new beginnings, and then work hard to make it a reality!

Oh, and the rock? Well kids – Stop listening to crap. Rather listen to ROCK!