Heineken Symphonic Rocks 2012

Oct 7, 2012 | ,

We spend too much time trying to delineate between things as opposed to finding the points of convergence. A question that is often asked of artists is what genre they consider their music to be in an attempt to both box and contextualise what it is they create. Reference points are great, as long as they aren’t used to divide or create a negative otherness. Being a fan of a diverse array of music, one of the things I enjoy are mashups of different genres because, when done right, one is taking the best from all sides and creating something else. Also, they tend to demonstrate the similarity...

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Re-Branding Brandy

Sep 28, 2012 |

My father was a brandy man for years. As a result, I always associated it with grown-ups. He would sit with his friends deep in debate around politics, Africa, economics, etc, some Ellington, Miles, Basie and the like playing on the record player with a bottle or two of brandy in the mix. When I started drinking, getting some brandy was a novelty. It felt like I was becoming a man. Truth be told, that was years ago and I shifted off the brandy in my 20s and have never really gone back. I have been following, with interest, how brandy brands have been working to change the stereotypes that...

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Take A Holiday With #TsogoSale

Sep 27, 2012 | ,

Sunbreaks Summer Sale We are in the last stretch of 2012. There are 65 days to go till the start of December and the idea of a Summer holiday lingers in the back of the mind - there but not yet fully formed. If you haven’t booked a holiday yet, you may end up fatigued and disappointed, with the increased demand as the year winds down. Tsogo Sun has been running some interesting campaigns and, starting today, there is an opportunity for you to book yourself a well-deserved holiday with the #TsogoSale, saving 25% in the process. The sale lasts until 8pm tomorrow (September 28th) and you can...

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STR.CRD 2012 – Urban Youth Culture

Sep 19, 2012 |

When it comes to hip hop and its influence on culture and lifestyle, the story of how Run DMC got – the first for a rap group - $1million endorsement deal from Adidas which eventually included their own line is legendary. In the book, The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip Hop, Dan Charnas talks of how Lyor Cohen convinced Angelo Anastasio, Adidas US marketing executive, to come see Run DMC perform at Madison Square Garden during their Raising Hell tour. One of their great hits was the homage to the shell-toe, My Adidas (for the young ones reading this) Charnas writes, “The...

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Ekhaya – SA’s Home Away From Home

Aug 29, 2012 | ,

It is not every day that an opportunity such as this arises: the chance to travel to the Paralympics to support the SA Paralympics Team and experience the amazing experience that any major global sporting event is. I’m in London as part of the “supporter wave” invited by Mercedes Benz who are one of the sponsors of the South African team having arrived yesterday morning early. Last week, I attended the farewell function for the team at the Sandton Convention Centre and was struck, once again, by how amazingly resilient we as human beings can be. Athletes achieve sometime unimaginable feats;...

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Taking The Olympics Personally

Aug 29, 2012 | ,

As we live, and learn, and grow, we leave dreams by the wayside, and move onto other aspects of this thing called life. As a child, I was always into one sport or another, both playing and watching. Football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, the various track and field events, etc, I was into them all. I was generally competent or slightly above average at most sports never really showing any type of potential beyond school – until I discovered sprinting. My high school track was 200metres, instead of the traditional 400 metres, of grass and clay with the odd stone here and there. Running the...

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