africa blog: February 2015

FEBRUARY 2015 - COTW season 4 episode 4

GORILLAS & WHALE SHARKS – a preview

Some big stuff on the horizon so I thought I’d give you a preview.

Firstly a review of some loose ends…

ROBBIE BURNS NIGHT

So did my first kilt wearing and read a poem at my first Robert Burns Supper, the famous Scot poet from days of yore... Burns, Robert |bəːnz| (1759–96), Scottish poet, best known for poems such as ‘The Jolly Beggars’ (1786) and ‘Tam o' Shanter’ (1791), and for old Scottish songs which he collected, including ‘Auld Lang Syne’. Burns Night celebrations are held in Scotland and elsewhere on his birthday, 25 January. I drove out to Stanford and it was a large gathering of Scots and wannabe scots like myself. I read that poem Whiskey from the last blog by Matt Chancey and it was a hit I think. Meanwhile matt was at a Robbie burns nite in London. It’s quite a happening these days in the Commonwealth. It was a lot of fun. Doing the poem was a blast!

POWER CUTS & SWIMMING POOLS

The swimming pool demolition effort above my flat in the penthouse has hit a snag. Several lawyers apparently are weighing in stopping all progress as the penthouse owners in joburg were naughty and never told the other building tenants they were going to finish the build-out of the place…including jackhammering out the ole pool. The other twist is lack of electricity to power said jackhammer. You see, south Africa has rolling blackouts and every day your place of work or residence will have no power whatsoever for 2-4 hours. At least there is supposed to be a schedule of all the power cuts online somewhere. So you know when it’s coming and going. In Kenya it just happened and you had no idea for how long. I guess that is some progress. ZA sold off their energy to neighboring countries, so its own folks must shut down their lives and work daily…especially commerce. Oy. It’s a royal pain for all.

But on the upside, it is delaying the deconstruction work above me so my construction zone discount of 50% off my rent should last quite a bit longer, if that’s a good thing. IDK. On the downside, if the jackhammer is going you can’t stay in my flat, or any heavy hammering, it’s just too loud. But then if the power cuts, you can’t stay here for long either if you want to work on a laptop or computer cuz there’s no power. So there’s a bit of some juggling going on. My current living status is: I’m not going anywhere soon, but I don’t see this as a long term throw. It’s temporary, like my residence status. But having just moved in, I can’t be bothered moving again so soon. And even though Strand has no vibe, per se, it is what is and I am where I am. It’ll do. Faults and all. Just like me. I’m am surprised a bit at how much I prefer old rustic homes versus my modern glass and steel highrise. My friend has an old Dutch farm house home with hard wood floors and high ceilings and I love it. but overall, i love western cape and i'm very happy being here. i'm finding my way, meeting neat peeps, and settling in. it feels good. a place i wanna be. i love it. stunning in every direction!

GORILLAZ IN DA MIST

Yes, I’m going to see the gorillas, those magnificent terrible beasts! Leaving for Rwanda end of Feb and meeting ZA friends paula and flippie who are coming down from Juba, south sudan. They have friends in Rwanda who are arranging the trip up to the mountains near Ruhengeri and the Kinigi guest lodge. There’s a steep park fee and you leave early morning and hike 2-3 hours up through serious enough nettles to wear gators and leather gloves, then when you find the hairy chaps, you’re allowed one hour with them, no closer than 10 meters. Close enough I reckon! Then when the hour is up, you tredge down the hill. Game over. Just don’t make eye contact with them. Or else. But how do you NOT make eye contact??? You’re there to stare at them for an hour, aren't you? Guess you hope they don’t look back at you. If there is no blog after this one, at least you know what happened to me. it ended badly to say the least. Eye contact! Death by gorilla. however, Death by Old Folks Home might be worse!

Then after the hills of Rwanda and the gorillas in the mist, we’re off to the Serena hotel on lake kivu at Gisenyi near DRC…Democratic Republic of Congo. And close enough to spend time with my safari buddy Pippa from Nairobi now living in Goma, Congo, working for Tearfund. So that will be awesome. I’ll see Pips for 3 days. And see Congo, another African country to check off the list!

The tricky part is finding a taxi/shuttle/van from Goma back to Kigali in one day to catch my 6pm flight back to joburg, so that will be a tight day. I have to catch that flight. Should be interesting judging by how most third world travel by road goes. But that’s why we lace 'em up folks, for a little adventure! I probably never would have sought out the gorillas on my own, but the chance to tag along with paula & flippie presented itself and it was an instant bucket list item, something you gotta do! And you sort out the logistics later. Just do it. It’s the gorillas for crying out loud! And relatively close...i mean it's in africa and i'm already here!! I fly into joburg (overnight stay) and then fly to Kigali. Then drive to Ruhengeri. 2 nights in the mountains, then off to Gisenyi near Goma. Hopefully sail a hobie cat on the lake kivu. See the pic of the map below. Kinda cool. A proper African adventure. I’m ready for some travel in the bush!

WHALE SHARKS? REALLY?

The whale shark quest is further away. But after the turtle doco I realized I really love the ocean and I’m getting re-certified for my PADI certificate so I can scuba around the globe. First stop will most likely be Sudwana Bay in ZA near Mozambique, then one day the Maldives. A great excuse to have more adventures, meet more people, and get some sun and surf and maybe see my favorites…the giant manta rays and the whale sharks. Not sure it will be this year, but possibly. Last Saturday I did all my PADI pool sessions. This Saturday will be an open ocean dive. Bloody cold water in False Bay, but just git ‘er done! Then next time warmer water!

And speaking of TURTLES…

The sea turtles of lamu doco may have found a home! An int’l distribution company called Orange Smarty (I know, huh?) is interested. We’re signing contracts and if all goes well we’ll make the MIPTV trade show in april, the largest broadcast content show in the world for the whole year. So time is of the essence. It’s just that after Electric Sky went belly up, I need a clause from Orange Smarty dealing with “going into administration”. But hopefully that will never happen. They take 25% sales commission for world wide market sales and want a 2 year exclusive which then rolls into a auto-renew 3 month basis. It’s a good deal. I’m thrilled, as I was fresh out of global distributor options, and they came courting us. Luckily lorella checked her old slingshot prods email account! We almost lost the chance to be with them and responded some 6 weeks after they reached out to us! But they seem keen and so are we. Fingers crossed all the technical and other parameters are met! Let’s sell this doco! Release the turtles!

HAMC

Other than that, the only other news is the new cape town HAMC – Hollywood acting master class- starts march 7^th for 8 Saturdays at Artscape…the HQ for all high art stuff in cape town! We got an insane space to offer our class and now it looks like they are sponsoring/endorsing us as we are in their building once a week! So it’s a perfect situation! Presently doing a Facebook and media blitz to try and get some press & pub and fill our class of 30! I’m very excited to be teaching again. i may not be able to crack into the directing world here, but the HAMC is my niche, something no one else can really offer. and i love being my own boss and having my own business. so hopefully we can create our own cottage industry with this class and other cinema related courses. I have a young helper, Genaro, who is on it! So that’s been fun to get him going and on board! He’s techno savvy with lots of software ideas and is very bright. He wants to learn production. he's proactive. We’re a good team.

SUMMER

Summer is here and actually feb & march are meant to be the nicest months of the year here in Western Cape. As long as this crazy wind dies down a bit. Although I suppose I am getting used to it. But it’s been hectic wind wise. A large part of it is exactly due to where I live near Gordon’s Bay. On the water. I actually am ready for winter. I love the storms that roll through here. Very dramatic and cozy.

KINDLE UPDATE

I’ve actually started reading again with no TV at my flat, and having watched all my DVDs a hundred times. Didn’t know I was a non-fiction guy! 100%! So far have read recently

American Sniper

Lone Survivor

Unbroken

Flags of Our Father

Mostly war stuff with marines and Seals. WWII is always compelling, maybe because it was the “last good war”. Certainly our last declared war. And when the bad guys were clear cut. (man the Japanese were brutal…I had no diea). Today of course we have ISIS but we’re not allowed to call them bad for some reason. They’re making propaganda films burning a live pilot to death in a cage and I’ve seen it and it’s very well done by the way, like the Nazi films. And they behead innocent journalists and kill thousands of other muslims and Christians but we can’t call them bad or even terrorists. Hmmm. Maybe that explains why American Sniper is resonating with America box office.

I’ll take any Kindle recommends! Send em my way!

ODDS & SODS

Well that’s it for this one. Next stop Rwanda and Congo! That should tide me over til the Maldives! One day I gotta get there! Am going to a screening of American Sniper today at The Waterfront in CBD CPT, aka, DTCT. Excited to finally see that. In the meantime, here’s my take on feb 25^th…

my short Oscar handicap list…

best actor: Eddie Redmayne

best director: Birdman

best film: theory of everything (maybe Clint gets it)

best actress: i suppose Juliane moore, but i love felicity jones from theory of everything.

best score: NOT Interstellar! too much pipe organ!

Okay, now for some pics! thanks for reading my blog!

room with a view...False bay from floor 15

Snob's coffee. always a treat for us snobby types.

open roads in ZA are awesome!

Charlotte Chancey. pretty special to make this blog as i generally hate babies. but she is a peach!

east of Stanford. a killer place in Gaansbaii.

the view from Coffee on the Rocks. stunning.

robbie burns nite with john, jennie, and Ros.

COTW and my first piper friend, lincoln smith!

smells like Scotland...or maybe the Shire.

Me and a lassie...Ros, a true Scot.

nice supper and well attended!

stunning.

meanwhile matt was in london!

every now and then you get a reminder you live in freaking Afrika!

ahhh...happy hour sushi, a la Chaya Venice!

going Hemingway

swimming pool demo above me. it's not nice, as they politely say around here. ya think?

penthouse above. completely unfinished inside! glass & steel. not really my thing.

future classroom for HAMC at Artscape. lovely and lots of natural light for filming scenes.

outside HAMC space. we have our own parking lot as well.

friday nite wood fire pizza at bread shack!

october 2015. maybe see ya there! we made it!

been back on betsy lately. she's a blast! better in cooler weather without the wind!

Taz & grey, from Zim and Malawi, helping me try to get The Baby King animated!

death by chocolate cake!

a beach near Noordhoek, just below cape town. more stunning.

genaro, my protege. smart and funny.

reverse angle of our space. it will be fantastic! even with power cuts, we have all those windows and we shoot
on battery power. plus there's even a giant plasma tv there for playback. perfect!