I was just gifted about 30 or 40 world-music/South African cds, and I am stoked. Putumayo runs such a great compilation series, but who knew that Buddha Bar was so weird? I’ve already posted about Freshlyground, but I finally got my hands on some Oliver Mtukudzi. A performer from Zim(babwe), his music is just so incredibly light-hearted. “Chido Chenyu Here” is worth checking out for an idea of his sound, and the guitar is heavily reminding me of Paul Simon’s “I Know What I Know.” Kind of screwy, considering that Paul Simon’s work on Graceland was based on South African music, so I guess it should be vice-versa. Ah well, you have to start exploring music somewhere, right?

Just realized that I have about 13 days left here in Africa, can’t believe my life here is ending so soon. It’s been one helluva semester.

A pretty large group (singer, bassist, guitarist, violinist, synth player, drummer, and horns/flute section) from Cape Town, Freshlyground is crazy good. Their sound is rock, but with a heavy Afro and jazz influence. Think Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings but a little less throwback and more nu-soul.

I had the good fortune of meeting the violinist from the group just last Saturday. A family friend of mine knows an incredible amount of people here. I had tickets to their concert that night, so it was pretty cool to meet her before the show.

Their show, or what I saw of it, was incredible. I didn’t get there until close to the end, which I immediately regretted. I saw two songs and an encore. Lucky for me, the encore was a good 3 or 4 songs long, including one of their biggest hits (“I’d Like”) and the greatest Michael Jackson cover I’ve ever seen. The vocalist’s voice squeals just when she needs it to, and it’s such a full sound that she had no problem taking over MJ’s part. Add in a few horns, some funky drums, and a really tight baseline (and don’t forget a crazy synth solo!) and you’ve got a crazy recipe for a cover.

Oh, and that World Cup song by Shakira? It might be terrible, but the good bits are courtesy of Freshlyground. They weren’t supposed to be in it at all, but the producers wanted something more “African” and the band happened to be in the same NYC studio. Go figure that some of the only South African involvement in the South African World Cup Song was snuck in by accident.

Link: freshlyground.com

Jan van Hunks, a prodigious pipe smoker, lived at the foot of the mountain around 1700. He was forced by his wife to leave the house whenever he smoked his pipe, given the amount he liked to smoke. One day, while smoking his pipe on the slopes of the peak, he met a mysterious stranger. They each bragged of how much they smoked and so they fell into a pipe-smoking contest. They smoked all day, and all night, covering the whole mountain in the tablecloth cloud that has stuck around even today.  Van Hunks finally won the contest, and learned that the stranger he had beaten was, in fact, the Devil.

I’ll be playing at Fiction’s Untamed Youth party this coming tuesday, get excited. 10-11:30pm, lots of disco house, and hopefully a little heavy bass depending on how fast the crowd gets going.

I’ve finished a few mixtapes since last we spoke, and at some point I’ll share them. One is a loungey kind of thing, and the other is some gritty bass/dubstep/afro-rhythm stuff.

Also, I owe you stories, I will be sure to get those up here soon. Sorry, I’ve been a bad blogger recently, but I’ve been busy getting things like this ^ squared away.

^ That one isn’t mine. As I write this, my South African study permit is being processed by the consulate. This is a nerve-wracking experience for a number of reasons: 1) the instructions are heinously unclear, and vary by consulate – not to mention the unclear designation of what constitutes a minor in South Africa, it may or may not be 21 these days; and 2) I’m applying pretty close to the wire because the University of Cape Town mailed my letter to the wrong address twice. It doesn’t help that I had to get a copy of my “criminal background” from the Massachusetts CORI board – no walk-in service and it still costs $25 to process. Highway robbery. Or something. I had to get my application for this record notarized, too.

And will I get this visa on time? Will I even get a visa? I can only cross my fingers that the nice people at Travisa (a ludicrously expensive visa-expaditing service) pull through for me. That’s another thing, by the way – the visa only costs $77 but the actual price is significantly more expensive. Here’s the breakdown:

1. Consulate visa fee: $77
2. Travisa processing fee: $80
3. Doctor co-pay for physical/tuberculosis test: $25
4. Photo paper for application headshot: $10
5. Criminal record processing fee: $25
6. Overnight shipping to Travisa: $22
7. Overnight return shipping from Travisa: $22

Total? A hefty $261. Ouch! I suppose it’s good news that I’m studying with direct enrollment, then – the UCT application may have been a headache but I’m saving over $7,000. Makes that visa fee look like pretty small change.

The best news of all, however, is Vampire Weekend’s new album Contra – still a little baroque leftover from their debut but it’s still a nice departure from the original. Would all of these songs fit in on the first album? Probably, but there’s also something a little different in a really good way. Favorite song so far is probably “White Sky” – I know a few concert rips were floating around last year but it sounds SO good in-studio. It’s all streaming up on vampireweekend.com.

This spring I’ll be studying at the University of Cape Town. When I’m there, I’ll keep a blog of some sort about how amazing it is. If my laptop gets stolen (fingers crossed), I’ll just have to write about that too (though I’m not sure how, I wouldn’t have a laptop).

In the meantime, I’m taking this opportunity to complain about the bureaucracy and logistics of planning my visit. This afternoon I’ve tasked myself with buying a plane ticket. Between attempting to use Frequent Flier miles, trying to keep my flight under 48 hours long, and scheduling the flight around the feasibility of getting World Cup tickets, I’m exhausted just thinking about it. /rant

Underneath all the complaining, I’m incredibly excited. Before choosing South Africa, I knew a little about its history. Nelson Mandela, apartheid, social change, and of course the imperialism/colonialism that kicked it all off. That was reason enough to go – why visit a relatively static nation to study political science? I wanted to see something in the middle of some real change.

When I dug a little deeper, I found even more reasons to go. Cape Town is home to the Cape Malays, the Muslim population located on Signal Hill. The Cape Malays quarter of the hill is Bo-Kaap, and it is gorgeous. How gorgeous? Scroll back up.

Not only is it a beautiful area, it is an incredible chance to learn all about a particular Muslim population. Since taking Prof. Homerin’s “Muhammad & The Quran,” I have been looking for a chance to learn more and be exposed to all of it firsthand.

More of my bubbling excitement in a little while. In the meantime, check out this jackin’ house mix from Spoek, a Johannesburg DJ.