I always thought I did….I thought I missed the country itself, but what is South Africa? Is it the Afrikaans spoken in shops? Is it shosoloza sung at the World Cup? Is it the South Eastern blowing in the summer in Cape Town? Or is it the small things..like running barefeet into Kwikspar for a Steri-stumpie!
This friday past saw two thirds of the Anton Vann trio performing a little acoustic gig at Native Tongue in Epsom.
Low lights were: Continue reading
Thought all my fans out there (both of you) would like to hear what a song sounds like just on the acoustic guitar, as its first written, without all the recording bell and whistles. Pretty much all my songs start off on the acoustic, which might seem strange as they often turn into big electric monstrosities without a place for the acoustic in the mix.
So here is “all out” more or less how it started, then for the electric version click on the playlist to the right.
Did I mention all the songs are free to download? That could indicate that they’re crap, or that I want to give them away for free…or both!
You decide 
Instead of studying, I thought I’d record a quick version of a song idea I’m working on…that turned into an impromptu “concert’ with my sullen unforgiving imac as the sole audience member..
Here is the new song idea, to be imagined with a full band and maybe a better looking singer.
Will post the other fruits of my spontaneous labour in due course.
My hands were fine, itchy but with no swelling. I actually forgot about that completely as the night went on.
Which hand is more important in trying to look convincing while playing guitar? This is what I ask myself on the afternoon before our second gig at Native Tongue in Epsom.
The reason for this quite ridiculous question is that I have, for the past week, been suffering from weird and random swelling on parts of my hands,which after last night’s rehearsal turned into an amost paralysis of my right hand and arm. I love being dramatic.
It’s now calmed down somewhat, enough to play the gig at least. Being my right hand, I figure as long as I can shape chords with my good left hand and hold a pick with my bad right, I’ll be ok. That anwers the original question I think!
Anyway. looking forward to it, and for those coming, the odd grimace on my face might not be because I’m really into it, but rather because I’m a wuss and it hurts…that’s so rock and roll..
Found this awesome demonstration of the new Honda ASIMO robot. It can run, balance, kick a ball and climb stairs. I know a few humans who struggle with all of those.
Now don’t be surprised if you’re a little freaked out by this, the lady presenting the demo seems a little nervous herself, and she presumably, must have had a bit more time to get used to R2D2′s clever cousin.
I think the reason we get uncomfortable watching this is that, rightly or wrongly, we’re a little too confident that we would always possess that something that makes us human. Meanwhile science gets ever closer in showing us that being human is perhaps not that special..
On the other hand, you might just watch this and think..pretty cool toy!
I’ll leave you with:
Why did the robot turn into a ghost?
He just couldn’t rust in peace.
Back home at 3am in the morning, it was my first foray into the so far elusive gigging world, made possible only by the legends Paul Merser and Michael Pluess lending me their expertise for a night.
Thought they might regret it! We each lost about a kilogram in weight last night, (in my case quite welcome!) and were squashed onto a stage so small we were quickly becoming more intimately familiar with each other than we perhaps would have liked. That said we had fun, even though my voice was already croaking after sound check. (What is with the insane levels of volume in what is essentially a room the size of our lounge?)
Learned a lot and looking forward to the next one in August!
Check out the band that headlined, Chris is a cool guy and a great guitar player.
Ok, not exactly new..only ‘all out’ is recent, the others done in 2005.
More recent efforts are in the pipeline
So every now and then, for some reason unknown to anyone, I get a bee in my bonnet about getting a band together. Continue reading
