Posts Tagged ‘nokia

27
Jun
13

Movie Review: Man Of Steel

By SlickTiger 1 Comment
Categories: Movie Reviews and Sponsored Posts
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ManofSteelNokiaLumia925My good friends at Nokia surprised the hell out of me yesterday by swinging two tickets to the Man Of Steel premier my way so I could get a sneak peek at one of the most talked about movies this year.

Man Of Steel is directed by Zack Snyder (300 and Watchmen), produced by Christopher Nolan (director of the Dark Knight trilogy) and written by David S Goyer (writer of the Dark Knight Trilogy).

Add the insane trailers that have had the internet buzzing over the past few months and the movie looked like it had everything going for it, but did it stack up to the hype?

The answer is an undisputed HELL YES from your Tiger Pal. Man Of Steel is that rare kind of superhero movie that doesn’t fall on it’s own sword by relying solely on the clichés of the genre to hold the film together.

The drama is sincere, the action is so intense your heart feels like it’s going to explode like a grenade in your chest, the dialogue is lean and mean and the acting is some of the best I’ve ever seen in a superhero movie.

 

 

Man Of Steel is essentially a reboot of the Superman franchise that I’ve read was done as the first step in building a Marvel-type shared fictional universe between Superman and other DC characters.

Story-wise I wasn’t expecting too many surprises because we all know the Superman legend. Superman (real name Kal-El) is sent to Earth by his father Jar-El (expertly played by the stoic Russell Crowe) in an effort to somehow preserve their race moments before Krypton goes up in flames.

On Earth Kal-El is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent who raise the boy as their own and name him Clark. Clark endures a difficult childhood, painfully aware from an early age that he is nothing like the people around him.

 

 

Through the love and support Jonathan and Martha show Clark, he learns to control and hide his powers and to blend in as best he can.

All this changes when an ancient alien vessel is discovered in the Arctic and Clark infiltrates the scientific expedition to determine the vessel’s origin. Using a kind of Kryptonian key from the ship Clark travelled to Earth in as a baby, Clark awakens the alien vessel and with it, a hologram of his father Kal-El who tells his son the truth about his origin.

The alien vessel also triggers a distress signal that is intercepted by another survivor of Krypton, the ruthless General Zod. Zod and his cronies descend to Earth and demand that Clark be surrendered within 24 hours which is when things start to turn nasty.

Michael Shannon’s portrayal of Zod is some of the most spine-chillingly terrifying acting I have ever seen. This man is the very embodiment of malevolent fury. His malice burns like an inferno – it’s so intense watching him act that you’re torn between fist-pumping “FUCK YEAH”s and a powerful urge to hide under your seat.

 

 

The best films are the ones that make you like the bad guys and Man Of Steel follows this rule to the letter. Sure, Zod is a megalomaniacal despot hell-bent on the extinction of the entire human race, but it’s only because he wants to bring Krypton back to life and safeguard a future for him and his people.

Is that really such a bad thing? He might be heavy-handed in his methods, but you have to admire a man that dedicated to achieving a task he feels is his birth right to fulfil.

Then there’s ol Supe himself, played by the BUFFEST CHARNA IN THE LAND, Henry Cavill in a role he was born to play. The problem I always have with Superman is that I don’t connect with him as a character because he’s too perfect.

 

 

A character like Wolverine I find a lot more accessible because the guy’s a bit of a mess and is the poster-mutant for the archetypal anti-hero. Superman is different. He always does the right thing, he doesn’t suffer from the same conflict that normal people do and for that reason I always thought of him as being a bit of a douche.

The beauty of Goyer and Snyder’s Superman is his vulnerability. It makes him more human. It makes you instantly like him because what Goyer and Snyder show so convincingly in the film is how tough Superman’s life growing up was.

The real clincher though is Cavill’s performance. Not only is the man ridiculously good-looking and built like a brick shitter, but he can actually act, which I’m pretty sure has never been a pre-requisite in a Superman movie before.

 

 

The emotion Cavill can convey in one look is more than I think any previous Superman has conveyed in their entire acting careers. He draws the audience in close and keeps them there for the entire film. You actually like Cavill’s Superman, you empathise with him, you want him to beat the bad guys – that surprised me more than anything else in the movie. I left the movie actually liking Superman.

The only one issue I had with the film were the (brace yourself) Christian undertones. I suppose at its core (man with superpowers is sent from above to save mankind) the Superman story has always had Christian parallels, but having Superman chat to a priest in a church before making his mind up to “take a leap of faith” and reveal who he is to mankind had me squirming in my seat.

 

 

Also, he’s 33 years old. The same age as Christ when he was crucified. There are probably more parallels if you scratch around for them, but just those two left me a little cold so I chose to actively block out any others that may or may not have been included because I just feel that there’s a time and place for religious sermons and it’s not in Superman movies, especially ones with Snyder, Goyer and Nolan at the helm.

The bottom line however is that Man Of Steel was everything I’d hoped it would be and more. It’s the kind of movie you can watch with high expectations and still be satisfied by, which is saying a lot in this age of over-hyped blockbusters that are mostly epic disappointments.

Watch this film on the big screen. Splash out and go for the 3D version, I guarantee you it will be worth every cent.

Final Verdict: 9/10

-ST

06
Sep
12

The Tiger Asks Some Hard Questions About The Lumia 900

By SlickTiger 3 Comments
Categories: Phone Reviews
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

interrogationI originally wrote this piece before the Nokia Lumia 920 was announced yesterday, so it feels weird to be writing about this phone when everyone else is shouting about the Lumia 920.

Still though, it will be a while before the Lumia 920 hits shelves so until then the Lumia 900 is still Nokia’s flagship Lumia phone, so from that perspective, this review still has a lot of merit.

We’ve gone through the preliminary reviews on the Nokia Lumia 900, we’ve put it through the first couple of paces and overall the phone has performed well.

But it’s time to take the gloves off and ask some difficult questions about the Lumia 900 because the bottom line is that Nokia has logged more than 3 billion euros in operating losses in the last 18 months and its smartphone market share has dropped to less than 10% from 50% before the iPhone arrived in 2007.

In most consumer’s minds, Nokia doesn’t feature at all when they’re considering what smartphone to buy – iPhone, Android-based phones and, despite the fact that they’re also on the ropes in a huge way, Blackberries are still top of mind for SA consumers.

 

 

Is it time people shifted their perceptions and started considering Nokia’s Windows Phones as a viable alternative to other smartphones in the market?

To answer that question, I asked myself what people want in a smartphone and came up with the following criteria:

  • Aesthetics (does it look sexy?)
  • Speed (does it hang, lag or freeze? What’s the browsing experience like?)
  • Functionality (can it navigate, take video and pics and make me coffee?)
  • Synchronicity (how well does it talk to my other devices?)
  • Apps (does it have sick apps?)
  • Finer details (is typing on the phone a pain in the ass? What’s the battery life like? What are the small things that the phone does right / wrong/)

So, keeping those criteria in mind, here’s how the Lumia 900 performed:

Aesthetics

There’s no denying the Lumia 900 is a damn sexy phone. With its 4.3in AMOLED display, colours are rich, deep and pack a lot of punch.

Its matt polycarbonate body makes the phone scratch proof and thanks to its striking colour variations, it’s the kind of phone that people take notice of when you whip it out.

 

 

I mean with a screen that’s basically 12 x 6 cms, it’s hard not to. But as mentioned before, I think the increased screen size is justified and makes viewing photos and videos on the phone a pleasure.

So on the aesthetics front, the Lumia 900 is a kickass phone, no complaints there.

Speed

Another front I cannot fault the Lumia 900 on is the speed of the device. In nearly a month of using it, the phone has not lagged or frozen once and as I mentioned in my previous post, browsing on this phone is motherflippin’ AWESOME.

To give you an idea, I read a piece on www.cracked.com recently about 5 ridiculous rockstars you would never think are secretly musical geniuses, one of which (much to my surprise) was Prince.

Later in the bar with my buddies, I wanted to share this newfound nugget of highly useful information with them so I tracked down the video below of Prince playing a solo that will melt your face off 1 000 000 times over started playing it for them.

 

 

I shit you not, the video played on my phone without buffering for even a second. That’s something not even my fixed line at work can do.

Were you able to play the video above without buffering? (Don’t answer that question if you live outside of SA. You don’t know what it’s like down here. Bandwidth is like crack in a rich, white neighbourhood – scarce and unjustifiably expensive).

So on the speed front it’s also a winner and that’s a huge plus for any phone.

Functionality

Does it navigate? Yes it does using both Nokia Maps (if you just want a quick fix on your position and a simple way to get to your destination) and Nokia Drive (if you want turn-by-turn voice navigation while you’re driving).

Both are also blisteringly fast. I have a Garmin in my car and yes, granted it’s about two years old now and I haven’t updated it recently, but by the time I’ve switched that thing on, found satellites, punched in the address where I’m going, found the place and hit “Go”, my Lumia is already at the finish line where it’s carving up a celebratory spitroast it started cooking five hours ago.

 

 

On the camera side, as I mentioned in my previous post, the Lumia 900 is a little lacking. The pics are almost always blurry unless you hold your breath while taking them and the digital zoom decimates picture quality and zooms. In. Like. This. Instead of zoominginlikethis.

I tried to do a little reading up to find out if there’s a camera app out there that fixes this, but wasn’t able to find anything.

So it’s a huge thumbs up for the awesome navigation on the phone but a bit of a disappointment on the camera / video side of things.

Synchronicity

If you are a PC man, I see no reason why you shouldn’t get this phone. It syncs so easily with a PC (provided you install Zune first) it’s scary and if you activate Office 365 on the phone, you can take your work with you wherever you go.

Excel works like a bomb, as does Word, both of which allow you to create and edit documents like you would on your PC in a comfortable, user-friendly way.

Unlike Windows Mobile, viewing and editing documents on the Lumia 900 won’t frustrate the shit out of you and make you want to throw the phone with all the force you can muster into oncoming traffic.

 

 

If your laptop got stolen / gave up the ghost, you could almost work entirely off this phone and not skip a beat.

If you aren’t a PC man, it wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense to be using a Windows Phone so yeah… why are you reading this?

Apps

Aaaahhh, apps… the one aspect of this phone I don’t really feel comfortable writing about yet.

I haven’t dived very deep in here, right now the only apps I have running on the Lumia 900 are Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook and Twitter run pretty smoothly, but Whatsapp exits unexpectedly sometimes and has been designed in this utterly retarded way that hides the words you’re writing behind the virtual keyboard if your message is too long.

 

 

It will also show you who has just Whatsapped you and the first line of what they’ve typed along the top of the screen as soon as you get e message, but then when you go into Whatsapp to read the message, it takes a second or two to refresh the conversation before the new messages appear.

It looks super-slick though, but for a heavy duty user like me, I’ve found it a little frustrating and cumbersome to use.

I’ll get back to apps on the Lumia 900. For now let’s just say they seem to be ok and leave it at that.

Finer Details

These are the things that can really make or break a phone. You could have the sickest phone known to man, but if you hate typing on it (for example), it’s a total deal-breaker.

Luckily typing on the Lumia 900 is a breeze thanks to the highly responsive touch screen and the fact that it starts predicting the word you’re typing and several variations of it as you’re punching it in that you can just select to save yourself the trouble of typing the whole word out.

I also like the fact that the phone doesn’t work according to a whole set of predefined profiles like previous Nokias did. You want your phone on silent? Hold the “volume down” button until the volume is on zero and bam! The phone’s on silent.

 

 

And that’s really one of the things I love the most about this phone, it’s dead simple ease-of-use. The “back” button (one of three that the phone comes with) works universally whether you’re switching between apps, browsing the internet or looking through pictures.

Navigation is quick, clean and intuitive. There isn’t one person I’ve showed the phone to that isn’t impressed by how right Microsoft have gotten the Windows Phone interface.

It also does social like a dream.

I used the N8 for many years (nearly three in total) and though it took the most amazing pics and videos you’re ever seen on a cell phone and was sturdy enough to survive at least five falls that would have shattered most other phones, the simple task of uploading a photo to Twitter was like trying to split an atom.

The Lumia series was built for social. Take a picture –> hit share –> choose medium (ie. Messaging, Google Mail, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp) –> write caption (optional) –> hit upload.

Of course the downside of such a powerful smartphone is that the battery life typically lasts one day (which is actually pretty standard for smartphones these days) on full power and two at a stretch on power saving.

 

 

If I’ve done this right, you should hopefully have a much clearer picture of the Lumia 900 having read this review and are in a better position to decide if you think it’s worth taking a chance on or not.

To put it bluntly, if you use a PC, there is no reason I can think of as to why you shouldn’t have this phone.

Will the Lumia range of Windows Phones save Nokia’s smartphone market share? Yes, I believe they will, but not until people break out of the mindset that Nokia isn’t a serious contender in the smartphone market.

All that needs to happen is for people to actually try out the Lumia range and I can almost guarantee you they will be pleasantly surprised.

-ST

27
Oct
11

Kings Of Leon Melt Faces In Cape Town

By SlickTiger 3 Comments
Categories: Being Slick, Events, Gig Reviews and Good Times
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

26102011430“If it bleeds, it leads,” is generally accepted as the first rule of journalism, which is why I should have been sceptical right from the outset when I heard that Kings Of Leon were cocky, arrogant arseholes who were known to give the middle finger to crowds who don’t hang onto every note the band plays.

Their performance last night in Cape Town was anything but cocky and arrogant, which proves that either the rumours were a load of utter shite, or the band were suitably impressed by their reception last night when they took to the stage and melted our faces off.

I was lucky enough to have been given VIP passes by the kind folks at Nokia, but even better than that was the fact that I also bagged one of 20 VIP parking tickets that were randomly put into the 200 media packs they handed out.

It’s the only way to go, seriously. J-Rab and I drove right INTO THE STADIUM after passing through security checks that were so intense, at one of them they unleashed a sniffer dog on us to make sure we weren’t packing any bombs to blow the place up (luckily I’m saving the bomb for when Maroon 5 come to play so I was safe).

Once inside we hopped in the lift, shot up to the fifth floor and sauntered into the Nokia suite where, like a typical blogger, I immediately started abusing the free drinks and taking pictures of the food.

 

 

We managed to catch the end of Shadowclub’s set which I was really impressed with. It’s a bit sad the stadium was basically empty at that stage because the guys put on a great show and played some killer blues/rock in the Strokes / Wolfmother / Black Rebel Motorcycle Club vein that would have gotten the crowd pretty pumped if there was one.

What quickly became apparent though was that while the Nokia lounge was seriously p1mping, it was pretty far away from the stage, and even with my camera on full zoom, this is what everything looked like:

 

 

A plan would have to be made… but not before another few rounds of drinks / bowls of biltong.

The Black Hotels followed Shadowclub and played a decent set, but sadly we missed quite a big chunk of it thanks to the varied distractions of the VIP lounge (whisky).

Unfortunately when it came to the SA bands, they were given such limited stage time that it felt like they were over before they’d really begun. On the plus side, their sound was surprisingly good and for once it didn’t sound like they were playing through rusty tin cans.

By the time Die Heuwels Fantasties took to the stage, the place was starting to really fill out and energy levels in the crowd were rising fast. Die Heuwels played like seasoned stadium veterans, but it wasn’t until Jack Parow joined them onstage for “Die Vraagstuk” that the crowd really started going batshit crazy.

From there on in, the night belonged to Kings Of Leon and I for one was truly blown away by their performance which, coming from a cynical basterd like myself, is saying a lot.

 

 

I started following KOL when Because Of The Times dropped and within weeks of getting my filthy mitts on that album, picked up Youth And Young Manhood and Aha Shake Heartbreak. 

For me, the material in those three albums is some of the band’s best to date, which was why I fucking loved their set last night.

Sure, they played the four tracks that make up the entire catalogue most South Africans know (ie. “Sex On Fire”, “Use Somebody”, “Radioactive” and “Pyro”), but they also played at least 7 or 8 tracks from Because Of The Times and some classics like “Molly’s Chambers” and “Taper Jeans Girl” from their first two albums.

It was a nod to their die-hard fans to remind us that before they exploded into the mainstream with Only By The Night KOL was our band, not 5FM’s, and the music they wrote was the soundtrack to our lives that we heard at random house parties and played on epic road trips.

 

 

I know I sound like a typical music snob saying it, but there’s a very close connection you feel to a band before they get picked up by the mainstream that is never quite the same after their material gets blasted on high rotation on every radio and TV station known to man.

And don’t even get me started on remixes. I’ve heard “Sex On Fire” remixed so many times I start twitching involuntarily whenever I hear that song butchered on another “doef doef” beat.

In a sentence, I loved KOL’s performance last night because it made me remember why I used to love this band and judging from how fucking nuts the crowd went, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the people there last night go out and buy their first three albums.

 

 

Also, Nathan Followill is a fucking SICK drummer. If you’re going to watch them in Joburg, keep an eye on that man, he’s truly amazing to watch live – he pounds the living shit out of his skins, it’s beautiful.

Joburg, prepare yourselves for a concert you won’t soon forget, but take my advice and go out there and get their first three albums because listening to those songs live is nothing short of breath-taking.

Big up to Nokia for hooking a brother up. I love your work guys, after the concert we partied at the VIP lounge until they turned the lights on and then J-Rab asked if she could have the flowers and kind folks at Nokia were like “Sure, go wild.”

 

 

But most importantly – Kings Of Leon, thank you for an amazing show, you made a believer out of this cynical music snob and for the two hours you were onstage, became our band again Winking smile

-ST

21
Feb
11

The Tiger Hits The U2 Concert, Has The Time Of His Life

By SlickTiger Leave a Comment
Categories: Being Slick, Events, Gig Reviews and Good Times
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I wouldn’t call myself the world’s biggest U2 fan, so it’s safe to say I went in there with pretty much zero expectations and had my mind blown in every conceivable way.

 

 

J-Rab and I hit the Cape Town stadium at about 4.30 to beat the (non-existent) traffic and make sure we got into the VIP lounge that Nokia very kindly provided us with tickets for. Problem was the lounge only opened at 6pm so we bought a couple of beers and killed a bit of time wandering around the stadium and checking out THE CLAW.

 

 

THE CLAW has gotten a shiteload of press over the last two weeks and for good reason. It’s possibly the single coolest staging rig I’ve ever seen. It’s colossal and looks like it could get up and start walking like some giant killer spider-robot, blasting the audience with intense death rays at any minute.

We got a lot of pics of it before it was all lit up, much to the dismay of one of the security guards we had a chat with who was like, “You’re not allowed to take pictures.”

“What?” I said, “We’re allowed to take pictures?”

“No,” he replied, “not allowed.”

“Ok,” I said, and took some pictures. He smiled at me, I smiled back. What a rad guy.

Once they opened the VIP lounge, I was so excited I bounded in there and immediately ordered two suitcases (what?! They didn’t have any tequila ok?) and a couple more beers. Nokia really pulled out all the stops – for the next two hours I was like a kid at Christmas, munching all manner of froo-froo finger ding-a-lings, taking goofy pictures with J-Rab and drinking suitcases like there was no tomorrow.

 

 

At 8 they closed the VIP lounge and we headed upstairs to catch some of the Springbok Nude Girls set, which would have been a lot better if the sound was sorted out. As it was, it sounded a little like the guys were playing underwater which is apparently an old trick that’s been used for years in the industry – the headline act gets the killer sound and the supporting guys play through amplifiers made of rusty tin cans.

After the Nudies finished up, J-Rab and I went in search of some more free drinks and were immediately drawn, like moths to a flame, to this mesmerising green light that was glowing at the Heineken VIP bar.

“What do you think that is?” J-Rab asked in awe.

“I dunno…” I replied, “but Jeannie D’s in there so it must be important.”

“Go see if you can get us some free drinks.”

“Roger that.”

I approached the security guy at the entrance with the kind of total confidence only 7 suitcases can give you and proceeded to walk straight past him.

He gripped my arm like a vice.

“Where’s your wristband?”

“Right here brother,” I said, proudly displaying my white Nokia lounge VIP wristband.

“That’s the wrong colour,” he said, sternly.

“What! I’m the wrong colour?! What the hell is this, the Apartheid Bar?”

“Your WRISTBAND is the wrong colour.”

“What in God’s name are you talking about?”

“It’s white. It’s supposed to be black.”

“So it’s the REVERSE Apartheid Bar? Man, I can’t wait to blog about this unfair discrimination!”

“Please step aside sir, this is for people who were invited to the Heineken bar ONLY.”

“Cool. Whatever. I’m too white for this bar. It’s cool, I understand…”

As I was sulking off to tell J-Rab the bad news, I saw a MAJOR flaw in the security setup. White blocks.

 

 

They were at the perfect height for sitting on and then, when no one was looking, casually swinging your legs over onto the other side and then casually standing up and WAPOW! You were in the Heineken Reverse Apartheid Lounge.

The second both J-Rab and I had executed this security-defying manoeuvre we whipped out the camera and took about 15 pictures of ourselves pulling more goofy faces while we talked to each other in very snooty voices indeed because we were in the HEINEKEN LOUNGE BABY!

 

 

We swanned over to the bar to start klapping some more free drinks and very quickly froze in our tracks. The people here, they all had cards. Heineken cards! And these cards, you had to produce them to get the sauce – no card, no sauce. J-Rab and I hovered at the bar, furiously trying to think up some way to beat the system when who stepped in front of us? Liesl Van Der Westhuizen, that’s who!

Now, I know what you’re thinking, Liesl V, Schmiesl V, who cares. Well, I’m here to tell you that Liesl Van Der Westhuizen is a fucking cool person. The second her and her boyfriend stepped in front of us she turned around to apologise for cutting in front of us to which I calmly replied, “No sweat. We’re not even supposed to be here, we slipped past security to score some free drinks but apparently you need a green card or something…”

“Do you guys want some drinks?” she said, without even skipping a beat, “We’ll get you some!”

And that’s how we ended up drinking in the Heineken bar for free with Liesl V. Until security kicked us out. That was kinda embarrassing. But we met up with Liesl outside again and they got us a SECOND ROUND OF DRINKS!

What a lovely person, seriously. I don’t care what anyone says about her, Liesl is cool in my books. She helped a Tiger out so I’ll have no more Liesl-bashing on this site thank you very much. Um. Not that there ever was any to begin with, but yeah. Just so you know.

 

 

After that U2 took to the stage and THE CLAW came to life in a multitude of colours and images and flashing lights. Unfortunately by this stage J-Rab and I were about twelve sheets to the wind so it’s hard to recall the exact details of the concert, but I can confirm this much – U2 put on an INCREDIBLE show and no, I’m not just saying this because I was there and you weren’t.

About halfway through the set, J-Rab and I somehow managed to get into the outer golden circle to get some pics from the ground just in time for them to play “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “One” which, I’ll be honest, was an emotional moment for me. It’s my favourite U2 song of all time and hearing the guys play it live right there in front of us was intense.

 

 

Not sure if I was cool with all the Nelson Mandela / Desmond Tutu references and imagery that we were bombarded with and the snippets from interviews with both of them, I just think it’s a pretty obvious ploy to get the crowd all gooey with emotion (it worked like a bomb).

But I’ll let it slide because U2 have always been a political band and have actually done a lot of good in this world. Also, in all fairness, I don’t think I’ve ever watched a band play in this country and NOT mention Nelson Mandela or Desmond Tutu in some way so I’ll reserve judgement on this one.

It was a brilliant experience and an amazingly well-executed concert. Big up to Nokia for making it all possible, you guys spoiled us and we really appreciated every second of it, let’s be pals forever.

In closing, here’s a pic of THE CLAW in its full glory after a massive CONE of TV screens extended down towards the stage like it was going to tractor-beam the band into space.

 

 

Good times Winking smile

-ST

16
Feb
11

Nokia Loves The Tiger

By SlickTiger Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , ,

Why is it that of all the bajillion brands out there, Nokia is the only one that has the balls to approach a crazy basterd like me, jump into bed and bang me like a salvation army drum?

Actually wait. I think that last sentence might have just answered itself…

 

 

Still though, it really says a lot about a brand when they aren’t afraid to associate themselves with someone who doesn’t follow the 2OceansVibe formula to becoming a successful blogger, ie. towtheline towtheline towtheline ADVERTISE towtheline towtheline ADVERTISE towtheline ADVERTISE ADVERTISE!

That’s what blogs do. That’s the South African (and in many cases international) way of blogging. You build a brand by writing deliberately controversial tabloid-style posts about scandalous topics (that aren’t really that scandalous), you post funny YouTube videos of people getting kicked in the nuts, you put boobs on the site, you pretend to be this smarmy asshole until you are one, and brands fall over themselves to associate themselves with you.

 

 

But not Nokia. They never incentivised me, they never made me feel like I was selling my soul to Satan, none of that bullshit. They just read the site, liked my style and started showering me with free shit.

On Friday I’m checking out U2 thanks to Nokia. J-Rab and I are heading through to what people who caught them in Joburg are saying is one of the best concerts SA has seen in a long time and it’s all thanks to Nokia.

You guys rock. Nearly a year and a half of blogging and you’re the only brand that has proven yourselves to be different from the rest because you have the stones to associate yourselves with a guy who is stupid enough, or crazy enough, to blog honestly about what he thinks and feels.

So yeah, this post serves no purpose other than to punt Nokia, but I’ll gladly do that because while I don’t believe in selling out, I do believe in paying respect where it’s due.

-ST

10
Oct
10

Rocking The Daisies – A Photo Journey

By SlickTiger Leave a Comment
Categories: Gig Reviews and Good Times
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

“Sarah?”

“Yes, hi…?”

“Hi, we’ve just arrived so um, where can I pick up my ticket?”

“Come meet us at the Nokia tent, we’ve managed to get you media accreditation, so you just need to head over to the tent and we’ll meet you there.”

“Ok, cool. But, um, how do I get in?”

“What…?”

“I mean, do they have my name at the gate or something?”

“No, your ticket was –“

“In the mail Olga sent me? Yeah, I printed it out but left it on my desk, total fuck-up.”

“Ohh… kaaayy…”

“Can we make some kind of plan?”

And BAM, there we were, 20 minutes later with Sarah slipping me a media band and me walking through the glass-Nazi security check-point and straight into Rocking The Daisies at around 12 midday on the sunniest Saturday you ever did see.

 

 

Thank you Nokia, seriously. You guys are the shit – bailing me out when I forgot to take my ticket with, fuck yeah. You guys made my festival possible.

As for the festival itself, fahk, where do I start? I was seriously impressed.

From the outset, I could see we were dealing with a different kind of festival, one where they take care of the details. It was everything from guys with wheelbarrows helping you lug your shit around, to the heavy emphasis on environmental friendliness and recycling and even something as simple as the exclusive loos (we never used any, but I’m sure they were a huge relief to people who didn’t want to face the possibility of opening a porta-loo door and finding… AN ANACONDA!).

We set up our tent in an area that soon became overrun with shirtless charnas, about 6 or 7  in total, who had the most hilarious collection of crusty old tents J-Rab and I had ever seen. They were actually pretty funny fuckers, but J-Rab and I didn’t really hang around much after we’d set up camp, it was like a sauna in our tent, the kind of day where the horizon shimmers and all you want to do is find a giant body of water and float in it with a bottle of cold beer.

We hopped from one island of shade to the next, people-watching and sipping on the waterbottle full of ice-cold vodka and lime we snuck into the main arena.

 

 

We caught a few New Holland tracks which I remember thinking sounded pretty cool, but we didn’t stay for long enough for me to give them a decent write-up. We were more focussed on beer at this stage, that and tracking down the Captain Morgan people who were filling up our now-empty “water-bottle” with free premixed Captain and coke.

I remember swimming in the dam.

 

 

I remember J-Rab and me heading back to our campsite, dragging our mattress out the tent and under the shade-cloth the charnas had set up, staring at a blue, blue sky. Giant love affair…

 

 

We drank a lot of beer just lying there and ended up napping in the sun before heading back to the mainstage later that evening to catch Boo! who played a killer set.

Chris Chameleon’s vocals were clear as a bell, and, dressed like the Wicked Witch of the West, he rocked out onstage with a mike headset while banging out the basslines to songs like “Lucky” and “Champion” and getting the crowd jumping and rocking out.

Ampie was his usual, clownish self, thanking everyone like a kid in a highschool who’s buddies have all showed up to the garage gig he’s hooked up because his parents are away.

Him and Chameleon still have the same, infectious chemistry they always did, but Ampie did seem to be struggling to hold some notes on the trumpet and looked a little flustered sometimes. They’re not the 20-something punks they were when they first started, but they did an impressive job of rocking out like they were.

 

 

As for the Nudies, it was an interesting set.

They played all the Nude Girls’ classics like “Blue Eyes”, “Giant Love Affair”, “What Would You Say?” and the ever-popular grunge / alternative rock anthem “Bubblegum On My Boots” and for the most part, they almost sounded like the ground-breaking, energetic and charismatic SA rock band they were back in the late nineties.

Theo rocked out like a metal stalwart. He looks meaner than I remember him, meatier, like a man who’s seen and done a lot because, well, he is.

Arno looks like an only slightly aged carbon copy of his younger self. He looks like he’s taken pretty good care of himself, must be the Top Billing-type lifestyle he’s been living for the last 8-odd years.

As for his vocals, they were hit and miss. The man’s got a great scream, he always has, and when he unleashes it the earth itself shakes and it’s still as spine-shivering now as it ever was.

But it sounded like he missed more than a couple of queues and at times was missing notes completely, but I think people forget, especially South African audiences, is when you pay to see a band play live, you pay to watch their mistakes as much as you pay to hear the moments when everything comes together, the band explodes with energy and the crowd absorbs that explosion, amplifies it and feeds it straight back.

 

 

MASSIVE FAIL for bringing Jeannie D onstage while the band sung “Jeanie” though, that was a gag-inducing moment if I ever saw one.

The dfnniest part was right at the end when they invited ‘Sailor Jim” to join them onstage.

“Sailor Jim” wore a sailing hat and some kind of brown coat (if I remember correctly…?) and was a podgey, happy-looking kind of chap.

“Who’s that?” I remember J-Rab asking.

“Why, I have no idea… but judging by the hat, I’d say this is Sailor Jim.”

It was only ten minutes later, when he took his hat off, that I realised it was Ard from Just Jinja.

If I could have done anything different, it would have been to stay for Taxi Violence after the Nudies, but in truth my skull felt like it was going to split open at that stage, and we had no painkillers.

We passed out listening to the drunken revelry of the campers around us and their hilarious stories about running into barbed wire fences and finding strangers passed out in their tents.

There’s a lesson here kids, if you’re rocking a music festival, take a LOCK.

The next day this apocalyptic wind was blowing the walls of our tent in and out like a sails. We poked our heads out to see hordes of people packing up their tents while the sky got blacker and blacker and the wind blew all their trash around.

 

 

We stayed to check out Checked Zebra who were really good. Imagine Chili Peppers meets Boo! meets a punk / ska band (maybe like Sublime) and you get Checked Zebra.

 

 

We would have rocked out to their whole set, but the wind was blowing so hard it felt like we were in a cyclone, so we eventually headed back to camp, packed up and headed home.

 

 

The best part of any festival is the first shower you have back at home and the afternoon nap that inevitably follows.

You drift off to sleep, thankful for the little things in life like clean linen and a comfortable bed, and don’t surface until you’ve nailed at least a solid 2 hours, warm and safe while the clouds gather and rain down on the roof above you and the wind whips tree branches and kicks up clouds of swirling dust devils outside.

Rocking The Daisies was an amazing festival. A special mention goes to the guys handling the AV for the main stage gigs on the Saturday night. The camera work and visuals were professionally executed and looked pretty fucking amazing.

 

 

Next year I’ll definitely try get their on the Friday though, it all went by too damn fast.

You gotta do the whole hog if you want to truly experience a festival, next time I’m taking the leave and doing shit right, going with a huge group of friends, packing a LOT of tequila and possibly even hanging out with the bands.

Sky’s the limit I tell ya 😉

-ST