Bands: BEAST

Like I promised, here is my post on "Beast". Hailing from Cape Town they traveled up north to Johannesburg and Pretoria last weekend to come and surprise us and man; did they ever. They're still relatively new to the music scene as far as I know, comprising of members from, Taxi Violence, The Plastics and Lark. All pretty well known bands in our small country on the Southern tip of Africa. The latter (Lark) is probably the most well known.

I am ashamed to admit that to this day I haven't seen Lark live (yet) and I hope to rectify this as soon as possible.

Back to Saturday's show at Arcade Empire though! I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the "four-nippled rock and roll aberration" called "Beast". My first thought as they walked onto stage and started playing was; "two bassists and no guitar"? This should be interesting. And man, was it!?

From the first song I was pretty damn sure that something special was on the horizon! Inge Beckmann knows a thing or two about being a "frontman" (woman). She can sing! I know this from hearing Lark stuff, but damn does it sound good with some rock and roll in the mix and it doesn't hurt that she's probably one of the hottest woman in music and did I mention she's in a rock and roll band? That's pretty sexy in my opinion.

I haven't seen so much energy during a live show in a while and I dig the drummer's (Sasha Righini) playing a helluva lot, (being a drummer myself). Taxi Violence has always been a rad act to watch and they're guitarist and bassist (edit: drummer and guitarist) or in this case bassist (Louis Nel) and bassist (Ryan Zietsman) rocked the shit out of their guitars.

In my humble opinion? This is the next big thing coming out of South Africa in terms of music, catch it live as soon as you can!

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Bands: Newtown Knife Gang

It's been a while since I've shot any live music. The last show was end of May.

So last weekend I was ready and stoked to go watch (and photograph) the "Bateleur" show in Pretoria, but my plans took a turn a few hours before I would be off to catch their show.

A friend invited (and said he'd pay for) me to join him for the "Beast", "Newtown Knife Gang" and "Man As Machine" show at Arcade Empire. Not one to refuse a free gig (with some potentially good bands) I obliged and was off to meet up with him.

We pretty much missed the "MAM" show and chilled outside whilst waiting for "NKG" to set up and get ready. I've known about the band for a while now and was pretty keen to check them out! I mean; it was after all four of the original members of "16 Stitch" (whom were rad when they were still going). I must admit though, that I am NOT a fan of their first single "Listen". I'd seen the video by chance on the television a few months back and it annoyed me thoroughly. It had way too much pop sensibility for my taste.

That being said, it's a whole different ball game when they're on stage. Does it remind me of 16 Stitch? Yes, but that isn't a bad thing! The guys are still jumping around and full of energy as always. I was super bummed when I heard that 16 Stitch had called it quits and I'm glad that the remaining members started something new after "Andrew" (the previous vocalist) had left to join "Zebra & Giraffe".

Anyway, I am by no means a music reviewer. These are just my opinions. Do yourselves a favor though and go check out "NKG" if they're in a venue near you. I'll be posting some photos and my impressions on "Beast" soon, for now I'll just say; wow!!

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MeganTheBird

A little more than a week ago I did a photo shoot for a friend, of some wall decals she created for (Style Network) a hair salon here in Pretoria.

She's a graphic designer and illustrator and super talented.
You can go check out her work at meganthebird. <----- Click here!
Then you can hire her to do some cool stuff for you and me to take some photos of said cool stuff.

Here are some of the shots.

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A Setback; A Blessing

I feel kind of conflicted at the moment. I started a new job two weeks ago, which I feel blessed about, but (there's always a "but" isn't there?), it's kind of a bump in the road on one hand and on the other it's an opportunity.

Why?

On one hand my photography is gonna suffer a little setback because of this and on the other, it's up to me to prevent that from happening. Thus far I haven't been very good at the latter. Like my music however I won't give up. It might be slow go while my body and mind adjust to this new thing that's happening, but I'll stick it out.

I have things I need and want to do and I intend on starting this weekend, coz my time is running out for this particular thing (which I will tell you about). For now I just have to get to doing it and then I'll get to telling and sharing it.

Until then, here's a shot of a street vendor (flower) guy that's on my way home. He wasn't very happy when he realized I had jumped out the car and ran into the middle of the road to take a photo of him, but that's okay :)

Shot with a rented Nikon 70-20mm F2.8!! What a lens!

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'n-Jas-Wat-Netjies-Pas

If you just read the title and you're thinking; what the hell is that gibberish, here's a rough translation: a Jacket (or coat) that fits nicely.
Go check out the Facebook group here for a little description of this project.

Meet Juan Venter.

I met up with Juan (the guy behind this) last week to take a few photos. I had a much bigger idea behind the photos, but due to the overwhelming response of people interested just within our community I couldn't carry it out as planned, so I decided to just take a few photos as he explained his reasoning behind this idea.

It started out with his mom buying some jackets and coats and fixing them up and selling them for a few bucks, to make a little extra money. He then followed suit, but instead of stopping there he went a little further and thought, why not help someone out?

I was like, man that's pretty rad. He told me he didn't like how for example; people sometimes gives this person on the street their old rags which are barely any better than the ones they are wearing and what did this person giving it think of the one receiving its worth? And I get that! Do we think that's what they deserve?

So out of these questions I suppose came the idea of giving back to those who have nothing. Not with money or scraps of food, but with conversation and a nice warm jacket for those cold winter nights.
The project is only two months old, so it's still in its infancy, but I believe it has the potential to grow into something much bigger if the right people get involved and by doing a little post on this, I hope I am contributing to this in some small way.

So get in touch with Juan through the group or through 3rd place.

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Blesstheirsoles

What a crazy friggen week it's been!
I started a new job on Monday, so that I can better pursue this love of taking pictures. So let the burning myself out begin!

Moving on...
On Wednesday the 30th I went into the city with some folks from our little community church for the #blesstheirsoles project. The aim was to go into the center of Pretoria and distribute shoes and socks to people less fortunate than ourselves. My aim was to listen, observe and take a few portrait shots of these people.

The whole idea behind this isn't to just go up to someone and give them some shoes and off you both go, happy coz you did something "nice" and happy coz someone gave you shoes. No! The point of this was to strike up a conversation with this individual - another human being, with hopes and dreams - and get to know them and a little bit of their story and then giving them some shoes for their weary soles (souls).

It was a great experience. There's something about the big, scary city at night that's quite beautiful. I didn't get nearly as many photos as I wanted to, but here are the ones I did get and are worthwhile to show you folks.

If you'd like to be a part of this or find out a bit more about it, get in touch with 3rd place or Intentional Living.

Thanks for reading