Apocalyptic Love – Not much here beyond the interesting album cover

When Slash’s debut solo album came out a couple of years back, it sounded like a lot of fun. And it was! There was not one vocalist but several well-known names including Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy Kilmister, Chris Cornell, Iggy Pop etc. as well as more mainstream ones like Fergie and Adam Levine. How he got them together and played his guitar as the common thread uniting them all was pretty cool. Though some said that there was no coherence, I actually thought the variety of voices on the album made the whole thing interesting to listen to. And it had several solid songs too – memorable ones. This time around he has decided to stick with only one of those vocalists, Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge and the result is not the same. I did enjoy Myles’ contribution on the last album quite a bit, especially the song ‘Back From Cali’. But somehow on ‘Apocalyptic Love’, he sounds kind of indistinguishable from other mediocre vocalists and more like a second rate Axl Rose. On fast-paced tracks like ‘One Last Thrill’, his high pitched yelling is almost unlistenable!

And it is not just the vocals… the tunes are not very memorable at all. There is a typical Guns n’ Roses-like rock groove going on in many songs but there are hardly any stand-out riffs. Save for the somewhat catchy opening title track, many of the songs just don’t go anywhere. There are many instances where the song starts off nicely and sounds promising until the chorus begins. And then it doesn’t deliver much, sort of falls flat. Also, there is nothing exciting or new about the song structures here. It is the standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus-guitar solo-final chorus formula. Sure, there are a few moments here and there that sound interesting and even some that, dare I say, attempt to relive former glories of the Illusion days but it all sounds like stereotypical hard rock.

The crux of the matter is that what made Guns n’ Roses great in their heyday was a combination of all band members coming together with their different styles and blending beautifully to deliver some kicking hard rock. You had Slash providing the effortless bluesy guitar solos. But you also had Axl writing those melodious epics like Estranged, Breakdown and November Rain. And then there was that solid rhythm section of Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan, Steven Adler and later Matt Sorum. Put together they made one hell of a band! Split apart, obviously the music suffers. Right now Slash is doing his thing well but he needs better support than what he has now. It is the same old story with many rock bands, take for example Pink Floyd. It was the combination of Roger Waters’ bitter cynicism and excellent lyrics along with David Gilmour’s precision guitar solos and dreamy vocals that made them so great. After Waters left they were not the same anymore.

So, sadly the bottom line is that ‘Apocalyptic Love’ is just okay for an average rock album in the year 2012. But if you, like me knows what the Gunners were capable of 20 years back, you would rather be reaching for those albums after a few listens to this one. The guitar god with the top hat may be having fun with his rock n’ f’in roll but there seems to be nothing more than a hard rock-by-numbers album here.

Rating: 2 / 5

A visit to Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve

Last weekend one of our good friends was visiting from Delhi and so we decided to give her an authentic South African safari experience. Since I could not afford to take leave, we thought it would be best to cover a close by place. So, Rhino and Lion Park it was. And boy, it turned out to be one of the best safaris we have ever been to! Here are some photos:

First came the generally easy-to-spot zebras.

Then we saw some handsome Gemsbok…

…followed by alert-looking ostriches staring into the horizon.

A little later we headed to the Predator Camp where it was feeding time for the whole pride…

…with eagles circling above.

We were also lucky enough to see a few agile cheetahs.

As we left the predator camp, we caught one of the many varieties of deer in the grass

…followed by some wildebeest

And buffalo

Then finally my favourite, the magnificent rhinos!

We ended the evening at the Wondercave in Kromdraai.

Keane ‘Strangeland’- Delicious melodies though a tad predictable

My favourite British pop songsters are back with a new album and they sound happier than ever! ‘Strangeland’ as it is called is a weird title because there is nothing strange about these tunes. It actually sounds more like a return to the lush melodies of their fantastic debut ‘Hopes And Fears’. That is not to say that this is necessarily a step backwards. Here is why.

On first listen, the album sounds like a complete return to their roots. But after a few listens, it seems like most of the songs here are silent nods to bands and artists that they possibly admire. The most obvious one is ‘Silenced By The Night’ where I think pretty much every portion of it sounds like U2 circa 2004 viz. the tinkling and chiming ‘City Of Blinding Lights’. In fact I can totally picture in my head, Bono and the boys covering this one in concert. There is also ‘You Are Young’ which is a lovely, very U2-ey opener. Then there is the song ‘Black Rain’ which is definitely new territory for Keane where they sound more like Radiohead, to the point where Tom’s voice could be mistaken for Thom’s in some parts. But to me it doesn’t feel like a blatant rip-off, more like an inspired salute to the alternative rock veterans. Another one is ‘Neon River’ which reminds me of The Killers, in a good way. Call it coincidence that they too have in the past had a similarly titled ‘Neon Tiger’, not that the two songs are even remotely the same! The similarities lie mainly in the synth usage and the fact that I can picture Brandon Flowers covering this one. The last one reminding me of other artists is ‘The Starting Line’ which sounds a little bit like Oasis, particularly Noel Gallagher’s material. Nevertheless, it is yet another great track here.

There are also other tracks which sound as brilliant and less obviously inspired. For example: The nostalgia-drenched ‘Sovereign Light Cafe’ which is melodic as heck, fast-paced and absolutely gorgeous. It is surely one of my favourites on this album, a classic sing-along that only Keane do best; ‘Disconnected’ which has Tom conspicuously reaching for his low register and going high again in the extremely catchy and memorable chorus; the totally fun rockers, ‘On The Road’ and ‘Day Will Come’; ‘In Your Own Time’, a nice commentary on the sombre state of affairs in the world today (despite some cheesy lyrics) and finally a dreamy mellow closer called ‘Sea Frog’ which is somewhat reminiscent of the silky smooth closer of 2008’s ‘Perfect Symmetry’. The only song that I do not enjoy as much on here is ‘Watch How You Go’. Otherwise, I really like this album. It has a little bit of everything… bits of ‘Hopes And Fears’ and ‘Under The Iron Sea’ mixed in with the synthesizer sounds of ‘Perfect Symmetry’ along with a few new sounds as well, albeit inspired by other bands. No way is it groundbreaking stuff. It is actually Keane playing it safe in their comfort zone. I still recommend it if you are a lover of melodious, anthemic, feel-good music. Rating: 4 / 5

The struggle of collecting CDs when you’re a nomad

I miss the pastime of collecting CDs… as in albums. I really do. There was a time, from around 2000 to 2008 when I had collected a good number of classic albums, jewel case, insert/liner notes everything in place. The joy of listening to the music and at the same time going through the crisp liner notes is hard to describe, really. It just does not compare with listening to a bunch of files on a computer or mp3 player. I had a whole 4-tier metal CD rack stacked with albums arranged alphabetically by the artist’s last name or band name. Yes I liked to be quite organized with that stuff. It was a fun hobby.

But then things changed. I had to change jobs and not just that, I had to change my whole geographical location. So then I needed to figure out a way to transport all these CDs safely to another country without having to pay an arm and a leg for the total weight. There was no other way than to transfer all CDs and liner notes into 2 huge binders and throw away all the jewel cases. That was not fun. I’m not a big fan of keeping stuff in binders, cos then it is difficult to insert any new CDs into the same alphabetically arranged order… unless you rearrange all following CDs after the new one (which is time-consuming and pretty dumb) or add some new pockets in between which will leave blank spaces here and there. But I had no other choice. Either I get rid of all my CDs or I put them in binders. So binders it was. I had everything copied into iTunes anyway so it was not a huge train-smash, though as I said it just doesn’t feel the same listening from a computer.

Anyway, after that there was a time when I tried to further cut down the collection. I chucked out most of the ‘Greatest Hits’ CDs cos I have all these songs in the computer anyway. And some of them I even had the original albums for. I only kept a few that had interesting liner notes. Eventually I chucked them out as well. Honestly, how often does one look at liner notes when listening to music these days??… although it feels nice to keep ‘em.

About 6 to 8 months back, we were planning to visit home, as in India. So I thought about it and drastically cut down my CD collection to only the best of the best and/or the albums with the best liner notes. The thought process was that – Eventually if and when we decided to move to another place, I’m going to have to carry this weight again! So, further reduction made sense. Once again, everything was in the computer anyway. I actually managed to reduce 2 huge binders into only 1. With a heavy heart I left that other binder at my parents’ place and consoled myself that at least I am not throwing those CDs out.

Maybe that is the answer. When one’s possessions get too big and unmanageable, one simply leaves the bulk of them at their home base. But what good are your possessions if they are not available with you for you to enjoy them? I know that I am taking this way more seriously than many of you would. But it is just that my music collection means a lot to me. There doesn’t seem to be any simple answer to this one. Either have a big house with lots of possessions and never move anywhere, or keep travelling towards the next opportunity and keep minimum baggage. Sigh!

An unforgettable holiday in Cape Town

It has been a week since my in-laws returned to India after their 3 week stay in SA. We wanted to cover as much as possible during their stay, so I did not want to miss the number one highlight – Cape Town.

I originally planned for a trip over Easter weekend which is always a big one here. But when I had a look at the flight fares, I got the shock of my life! They were about 3 times more expensive than off-peak rates. Add to that, it was going to be a very busy time at work due to the nature of our business. Hence I decided to push the trip by a week. Off-peak season (anytime but Christmas and Easter) is really the best time to go on holiday over here.

We left Joburg on a Thursday afternoon. The brightly coloured low cost airline, Mango landed rather bumpily at Cape Town International Airport from where we had to take a rental car to our B&B. It was a lovely little bed & breakfast run by a French guy and his Indian wife right near the centre of town in the Bo-Kaap district (formerly known as the Malay Quarter). They were really friendly and helpful throughout our stay. They even made a special potato and beans curry for our Indian parents and it turned out to be a hit with the other guests as well. So, the breakfast was fabulous and we got a little peek of what was to come, from their open terrace – Table Mountain in all its glory sitting neatly right next to the town.

While we planned out our 4 days of sightseeing, our hosts advised us that we could take the open-top hop-on/hop-off bus tour for the first 2 days and then perhaps explore the peninsula on our own for the remaining 2 days. It made sense to us and that is what we did. After finishing breakfast, I went online and got the City Sightseeing bus tickets for 2 days. Not only was there a discount for purchasing tickets online, the 2 day tour let us interchange between the red bus which tours only the inner city and the blue bus which tours parts of the peninsula. So without wasting any time, we headed to the nearest bus stop. This was great. We could actually walk the streets here, as opposed to Joburg inner city where I wouldn’t even go by car unless I absolutely have to. First stop on the bus was Table Mountain.

We lined up for the cable way going up the mountain and paid the entrance fees, which to me seemed on the high side.  Anyway I said to myself that this was Cape Town after all and that it was worth it. As we went up we got stunning views, which kept getting better and better the higher we were. I thought that the rotating platform in the round cable car was a nice touch. It gave everyone 360 degree views of Lion’s head, the entire town and the Atlantic Ocean.

On top of the mountain was a wonderfully built-up stone park with lots of hiking trails, wooden bridges and lookout points, a souvenir shop (of course!) and a restaurant. When the sun is out and the sky is clear except for a few fluffy white clouds, this place looks like a dream! One could keep gazing at the subtly varying shades of blue of the ocean as it fades into the sky. After walking around as much as we could and taking tons of photos, we headed back down to get back on the bus.

Next stop was Camps Bay where we had lunch at The Raj restaurant. We had spent a lot of time at Table Mountain and so had worked up a good appetite. The food was delicious but a little pricey, which is understandable. Camps Bay beach had a posh look about it with a variety of fine dining options. I just wish we could have spent more time at the beach walking along the never-ending coastline. But with a 4 day trip, that was not possible. Anyway, then we headed over to Burg street near the centre of town. There was a market place there with several shops and restaurants. The whole place looked very interesting, once again… a far cry from shady downtown Johannesburg! Ended the day at Victoria & Alfred (V&A) Waterfront, which doesn’t offer all that much for sightseeing per se. But it does have a nice harbour with cool looking boats, shops, restaurants and a giant wheel.

The next day we decided to take advantage of the blue bus which tours the peninsula. We had heard about Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens being a must-see and also wanted to do a tour of a vineyard. So, first we headed to Kirstenbosch and then to Groot Constantia wine estate. The botanical garden was quite nice but overall, both my wife and I felt that the Nelspruit one was more interesting with a huge waterfall inside the premises. This one had many cobblestone paths, artsy looking statues and interesting flora. All in all we enjoyed it. When we got to Groot Constantia, it had started raining quite heavily. So as soon as we got off the bus, we hurried into a restaurant and had a lovely Italian lunch along with some home-grown white wine. After the rain subsided, we went on the wine-making tour. They walked us through the whole process, showing us the machines where the grapes are processed, the cellars where the fermentation takes place and finally the wooden barrels where the wine is stored and aged. We even got to do a little wine tasting at the end of the tour. So that was fun.

The following day our bus ticket had expired. It was time to use our rental car. We decided to cover Chapman’s Peak, Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope and Boulders ‘penguin’ beach. When we got to Chapman’s Peak, as luck would have it, it started raining heavily. Though the place did look misty and nice with rainy weather, I was somewhat disappointed. I had seen this place before in bright summer weather and this just wasn’t the same. Anyway, we did not stop and simply headed on to Cape Point. As we drove further down the peninsula, the rain stopped and the sky cleared. The sun came out again. I said a little prayer.

Cape Point, with its winding walking path up to the historic lighthouse and views of nothing but ocean beyond, was absolutely magnificent! It is probably my favourite place in the whole peninsula with Table Mountain giving it a serious run for its money.

Then, there is Cape of Good Hope which if I remember my history right, was discovered by Bartolomeu Dias and navigated around by Vasco Da Gama in the 15^th century. There is a sign there which says that it is the most south western point of Africa, so of course we had to pose for photos there. There was also a busload of tourists there who seemed to be hogging the sign and not giving anybody else a chance, which was quite pathetic.

Thrilled about the good weather we had at Cape Point, we started towards Boulders beach to see some penguins. The weather pattern really is unique in this part of the country. It can change in a second and be unpredictable as heck but when it is good it is really good! When we got to Boulders beach I was surprised to see an entrance fee being charged. I mean, who charges an entrance fee to an open beach?? I’m sure they just decided to capitalize on the fact that there were penguins here. Anyway, the place looks pretty enough and there is a long enclosure near the beach with a boardwalk and plenty of penguins. After walking about a bit, staring at the bored-looking penguins and taking some photos, we headed back towards Cape Town through Simon’s Town.

Then it suddenly struck me that we had not really seen Chapman’s Peak due to the bad weather there. The weather was gorgeous right now and there were still a couple of hours before sunset. So I decided to take the long way back through Chapman’s Peak. We made it well on time and were able to catch the gorgeous evening sun slowly sinking into the ocean. It was like a perfect book-ending to an amazing 3 days of sightseeing.

The next day, we only had enough time to see one nearby place before catching out flight. So we had breakfast, checked out of our rooms, thanked the hosts profusely for their warm hospitality and headed for Bloubergstrand or Blouberg Beach. This was located in the northern suburbs in the Table View area and provided an amazing view of the beach with a backdrop of the entire Table Mountain in the horizon. Spent roughly an hour there before leaving for the airport.

Overall, it had been a thoroughly enjoyable trip but considering that it was only 3 and a half days really, we managed to see almost all the must-see attractions.

My Thoughts on Salman Rushdie’s speech at the India Today Conclave

I heard of this speech over the weekend from my parents as they were watching it on local television and I’d been meaning to catch a web link or something. Today being a public holiday here, I decided to check it out. And boy, am I glad I did! I have to say that I find myself agreeing with a lot of what this writer has to say. Here are some quotes that really stuck in my head. My comments follow underneath each quote.

“You do not end unpleasant thinking by banning its expression. What you do is you drive it underground and in some ways you make it more powerful by giving it the excitement of taboo. When stuff is out in the open, that’s when you can demolish it. When stuff is banned and secretly in corners, then it becomes glamorous. The glamour of being forbidden must not be under-estimated.”

This is so true and I have said something along these lines myself several times to friends and family. When you ban something, anything, it automatically becomes more exciting! Just as a simple example, having a couple of beers or a little bit of alcohol with friends in a social situation is common especially in Western culture. By making it taboo and creating the image that alcohol destroys families, you end up with a handful of hardcore bingers. In India I have often noticed that though there are fewer drinkers generally in society (or they are just not visible out in the open), they end up drinking a lot more and more hard drinks too like whisky and rum. Forbidden fruit is always sweeter.

“When I use the word respect, it means that I take people seriously. I engage with them seriously. It doesn’t mean that I agree with everything they say. What is happening now is that the term ‘respect’ is being used as a way of demanding assent. If you disagree with me, then you are disrespecting me! And I will get very angry and may even pick up a violent weapon, because that’s my way when I get disrespected.”

People just do not know opinion from fact I think. When you say something, you are only stating your opinion. It is not cold hard fact. Know the difference. Understand that different people, societies have different opinions and may very well differ drastically from yours! If you disagree with them, just ignore them and go on with your life. As long as the other party’s opinion does not bring harm to you or your loved ones, what does it matter? Just let it be.

“In any open society, people constantly say things that other people don’t like. It’s completely normal that that should happen. And in any confident free society, you just shrug it off and then you proceed. There’s no way of creating a free society in which nobody ever says things that other people don’t like. If offendedness (sic) is the point at which you have to limit thought, then nothing can be said.”

 “Behind these ideas of offendedness (sic) and respect is always the threat of violence. Always the threat is that if you do that which disrespects or offends me, I will be violent towards you. And so the real subject is not religion, it is violence and how do we face up to the threat of violence. And that’s something that we need to think about.”

“The question is not the disagreement. The question is the violent implementation of the disagreement and the threat of it which prevents dissenting voices from speaking. That’s what’s going on and people here are asleep I think to what’s going on and you need to wake up.”

The trouble is that everyone wants to be the moral, ethical and cultural police. How can one person know what is right for the next person??? Who is he or she to decide? If somebody is not religious or does not follow your religion, let them live their lives the way they want to. They are not stopping you from practicing your religion. They are not bringing harm to you. What can violence solve? Nothing! Just look at history. It is the same thing with gay people and conservative fundamentalists. I think that people in general are just not wired to keep their noses in their own business.

Another thing he said was very interesting:

“There was an article I read in this week’s Hindu newspaper talking about how many of the earliest, oldest texts of Hinduism do not contain the idea of the existence of god. And contemporaries of the Buddha, quoted also in this article, would say that there is no other world than this one, and would deny the idea of a divine sphere. So again in the oldest parts of Indian culture, there is an atheistic tradition in which the ideas of blasphemy and heresy have no meaning, because there is no divinity to blaspheme or be heretic against. This again, this is our culture. This is not an imported culture. It is not alien to the Indian tradition. This is THE Indian tradition. And those who say it is not, they are the ones who deform that tradition.”

Wow! I did not know this. I mean, speaking for myself, I’m not an atheist or anything. But I am not overly religious either. I do find it peaceful to meditate, say a few prayers and go to the temple once in a while and be thankful for everything I got. I am spiritual. But I do not get the ritualistic side of religion and things that ‘one must do’ because they have been passed on through generations and generations. Why can’t we question practices that do not make sense to us? This same God gave us brains too, didn’t he/she?

“It seems as if almost every day now, somewhere there is a piece on bullying by Muslims or Hindus of groups that they believe in some way offends them and voices are being silenced. Publishers are more frightened to publish. Galleries are more frightened to display certain kinds of art. Certain kinds of films are not being made which would have been made 15 or 20 years ago. The chilling effect of violence is very real and it is growing in this country. And I have to say that this is where the other part of the story which involves all of us comes in which is a public apathy towards this. We approve of the great technological, industrial, economic growth of our country. But we don’t seem to value our cultural artifacts in the same way, even though the greatest thing we know about Indian history is the incredible richness of the Indian artistic and cultural tradition.”

This is such a good point. There is a lot of hypocrisy. There is a lot of public apathy towards fundamentalist bullying of art and expression. The whole idea that ‘I know what is right for you and I will control what you watch/view/read’ is absolutely ridiculous! You do not create a multi-cultural and tolerant society with this kind of thinking. And people don’t seem to care. Unless it affects them personally, people don’t care. They are too caught up in their own daily routine and busy lives. And there is hypocrisy too. How can we be proud of our arts and culture when the same thing is continuously being threatened by the so-called moral police?

So anyway, all in all I have to say that I really enjoyed Rushdie’s speech and found myself agreeing with a lot of what he said. If only we had more intelligent people like this in the public eye and maybe even in the government… pigs will surely fly then.

Foreign accents and (Mis)pronunciations

I have often noticed that people (especially in the news media but not exclusively) cannot pronounce foreign names correctly if their life depended on it! And sometimes it seems like they do it on purpose. I could be wrong here. But consider this. Do you really think that former US President Bush, or his then VP Dick Cheney did not know that the correct pronunciation is ‘Iraakh’, not ‘Eye-rack’? One may say that this is a trivial matter but I do not think that it is. If you do not bother to learn the correct way of pronouncing somebody’s name, what good are you at public relations? And is that all the importance you give to another culture? This matters a lot if one is in the spotlight or public eye all the time.

Like newsreaders, for instance… I just cannot stand it when those BBC newsreaders pronounce Anna Hazare like Anna Kournikova. I mean, c’mon now! Seriously? Anna Hazare is an Indian male activist… that’s right, MALE! His first name is pronounced like ‘un’ (as in unbelievable) + ‘na’. Why would a Gandhian figure have a female-sounding Western name? And don’t get me started on Gandhi! Or Ghandi or Gandi.. ugh! How hard is it to pronounce and spell correctly? And these are not even long names. By the way, I like how Obama correctly pronounces words like Iraq and Pakistan. He knows that it makes a difference, no matter how small, in foreign relations. And it is not just Westerners mispronouncing Eastern names. It is sometimes the other way round too. But western news media such as BBC and CNN simply have more exposure on TV and consequently are under greater public scrutiny.

The other thing that drives me up the wall is seeing, for example, people using an obviously fake and extra-heavy British accent to report for a channel like the BBC. I wonder if they are required to do this in order to keep their job… Can somebody confirm this? If that is the case, I think it is beyond ridiculous! Some newsreaders of course do seem like they are Easterners who were born and brought up in Britain. In such cases, I can at least sort of understand. But how does a reporter regularly covering for the BBC from Mumbai develop a thick British accent living in India? It is funny as heck but mostly just cringe worthy. One must not be required to change one’s cultural habits so drastically in order to do the job.

Anyway, this is something that has always bothered me and I debated in my mind whether to post this or not. But I do not mean any disrespect to anybody. I just find it funny that some people go out of their way to pronounce foreign names correctly and others just don’t seem to give a damn.

My Whitney Houston memories

When I saw the news on the internet this morning, I just could not believe it. Whitney Houston found dead in an LA hotel room, at age 48. I was not very aware of her on-going drug addiction but this sudden news still came as a shock. Whitney was one of the first few artists that I really liked growing up.

I remember back in 1986 when she got nominated for the Grammy Awards for hits from her debut album the previous year. My dad used to enjoy listening to quite a bit of her music. So he went and got a cassette of hers. We were living in Delhi at the time in Safdarjung Enclave and this collection of hits looked very much like it was arranged in Delhi itself along with the cover art and everything. 😉 It had hit songs from both her first and second albums, more so from the first; stuff like ‘Saving All My Love For You’, ‘The Greatest Love Of All’, ‘You Give Good Love’, ‘How Will I Know’, ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ etc.

Every year we used to happily look forward to the Grammys, especially cos satellite television had not yet made it to India and this was the only outlet to ‘western music’ that we had back then. I still maintain that in those days the Grammys were of much better quality than today. There used to be another programme called Pre-Grammys on the local channel Doordarshan which showed music videos for nominated songs, roughly one week before the award show. Since Whitney had only recently hit the big time and covered the pop/adult contemporary genre very well, the Grammy academy would lap her stuff up like a kid in a candy store. So anyway, my dad would buy cassettes of Grammy nominated songs every year. And I remember the ones from 1986 and 1987 having a number of Whitney hits.

Later, in the 90’s we got MTV and I discovered rock music :p. So, slowly my attention started shifting from the likes of Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston and more towards Guns n’ Roses, Pearl Jam etc. But the Bodyguard soundtrack became such a huge smash that it was hard not to be swept by songs like the Dolly Parton cover ‘I Will Always Love You’, ‘I’m Every Woman’, ‘I Have Nothing’, ‘Run To You’ and so on. Then she did ‘Waiting To Exhale’ and another song with Mariah Carey from ‘The Prince Of Egypt’. Shortly afterwards, my interest started waning.

From around 1999 or so, I pretty much completely lost track of what she was up to. I think she was past her peak and losing popularity rapidly. From then on, I would only hear about Whitney in the news for all the wrong reasons such as relationship trouble with ex-hubby Bobby Brown or some other random airing of dirty laundry in the public eye. But I really had no idea that her drug problem had become so serious. I suppose I kind of assumed that many celebrities do drugs and didn’t think too much about it. As of this moment when I publish this post we still do not know exactly how she died. But anyway, it is a damn shame to lose one of the greatest voices of pop music and somebody who shaped a good part of my childhood musical palette.

Do Gauteng motorists not even care anymore?

What is up with drivers on SA roads? Driving sense seems to be getting worse and worse by the day. I remember when I came here in 2009; it did not seem as bad as it is now. Of course the damn taxis were always terrible, constantly showing blatant disregard for any kind of law of the road. But nowadays it seems like nobody really gives a shit anymore.

I see people changing lanes without indicators, driving too fast on the road and tailgating other drivers, jumping their turn at a stop sign and numerous other offences. I regularly see people only indicating when they have to turn left or right somewhere and not while changing lanes. In which school did these people learn to drive??? I wonder. When it is a 120 kmph zone, most people are flying past at 150 or 160. When it is an 80 zone, people automatically seem to assume 100 and upwards. I even sometimes see people doing what appears to be close to 120 in a 60 kmph zone. That’s double the speed limit! What is the hurry? Where is everyone rushing off to? If one dug deeper, it would probably be a combination of poor time management and complete disregard for the rules.

And the police don’t seem to do anything to physically watch and catch speeding motorists. They would rather set up cameras and radar guns in 80 kmph zones to catch some poor unfortunate soul doing 85 and collect a fat fine from him or her. It is not really helping, because people who speed generally know where the cameras are and take their chances everywhere that they aren’t. The South African Police needs to wake up and start catching the real offenders. For instance, I have never once seen or heard of anybody being pulled up for changing lanes without indicating. Isn’t that an offence?? Doesn’t it deserve some form of punishment or fine? Don’t get me wrong. I’m not some goody two-shoes here out to get everyone else. But honestly, how hard is it to just follow the rules, indicate when needed, keep a safe following distance, be courteous to the fellow drivers, wear seat belts and so on? And speaking of safety belts, I personally know people who avoid wearing seat belts until either the car alarm bugs the heck out of them or the co-passenger (such as me) says something. Why?? What are you trying to prove? Who are you trying to impress?? Just wear the damn seat belt! It should come as a natural instinctive motion, shouldn’t it?… like brushing one’s teeth. But sadly it doesn’t. No wonder that the road accident death toll over the festive season in December went close to 1500.

A few weeks back I was on the road with my wife somewhere north of Pretoria and this punk-looking guy with a mohawk in a bright yellow convertible cut in front of me very closely from behind. So I immediately honked. Imagine our surprise to see the guy go totally ballistic, flipping us off with his middle finger and even slowing down as if to suggest stopping by the side of the road to have a one on one. People really need to learn to respect fellow drivers on the roads. I hope the whole ‘Lead SA’ initiative has some kind of effect on this growing problem.

Work commute album of the day: Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream

Featuring seamless transitions from hard rock to psychedelic dream pop and shoegaze to progressive, I really think this was the Pumpkins at their absolute creative peak. 1991’s ‘Gish’ was not quite there yet (although good in it’s own right) and 1995’s ‘Mellon Collie…’ felt too vast, containing good songs interspersed with fillers. This album though, is just perfect from start to finish. It is such a pleasure to listen to every now and then, even now in 2012. Jimmy Chamberlin’s drumming is nothing short of stellar in songs such as Cherub Rock, Quiet, Geek USA and Silverfuck. Maybe the drugs helped. lol. Maybe not. Though I’m not particularly a fan of the lyrics here or Billy Corgan’s voice, everything comes together beautifully to create that fantastic wall of noise. And I just love those moments like during the last couple of minutes of the song Hummer when the guitars quiet down to reveal the most exquisitely gorgeous acoustic solo. That is the kind of stuff that I seriously missed on their comeback-of-sorts album ‘Zeitgeist’. What the heck happened to all the shoegaze inspirations??? Speaking of which, I wouldn’t mind exploring that genre a little more. All I know about it is MBV’s Loveless which frankly I could not get into for the life of me! (Please don’t hate me.) And I believe ‘She’s So High’ by Blur was also shoegaze-inspired. I love that track. Anyway, Siamese Dream… great album and possibly one of my all-time favourites ever. Perfect for a boring, slow work commute. 🙂