I’m very new to ambient music. Not in terms of writing music, but in terms of pure listening. I’ve also been listening to post metal/rock/hardcore music for years, which contains ambient passages, but not pure ambient music. So, I do not claim to know ambient music.

What follows here is what I consider to be ambient in nature. I do however not consider myself an ambient musician.

But whatever. Enjoy.

Atmoseferiksescapes

Attempted distorted ambience

This really needs a name

A silly little song.

Micromanage You

Context: A while ago, my wonderful sister, a freelancer (Ilva, of donendusted.wordpress.com and ilvapie.co.za), and her colleague, needed some help getting their wits together and their work streamlined and their To Dos done etc.

Being rather proud of my sorting-out skills, I volunteered.

The result is this ditty. A helpful, hopeful tune.

Lyrics by me, music by ftcl.

And by “directorial debut”, I mean I directed a 20-minute play called Overtones, written by Alice Gerstenberg in the early 20th century, as part of Irene Dramatic Society‘s (IDS) One Act Play weekend.

I had decided last year to spend 2012 becoming the person I wanted to be. I’m furthering my education, exercising regularly… and getting involved in amateur drama (amdram).

The reason amdram is helping me be who I want to be, is because I used to love drama class as a kid. Sometimes, these days, when watching a play, I’d be struck with a weird sort of longing sadness. The I-want-to-be-up-there kind.

So, I joined the mailing list for the nearest amdram society I could find: IDS.

I got a mail sometime in March, calling for one act play directors (no experience needed).

A while later, there I was, director. Choosing my play, watching auditions, casting my roles. Rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing.

I’m proud of myself for taking the plunge, (normally I’d be the self-fulfilling prophecy type, the oh-I’ll-just-fail-anyway-so-I-won’t-try kind) but I’ve learned a lot about myself these past few months. Like:

I’m too indecisive. I was still trying new things, changing stage direction and umming and ahing just before the final rehearsal. Related to the first point, I learned…

I’m not nearly as organised as I thought I was. There was some basic stuff (costumes, props, music) that I should have been on top of. From the very beginning. But I left it to the last minute. And the final, most important thing I learned about myself is…

I’m really not very assertive. I often found myself telling my cast members to do what makes them feel comfortable. Apologising when I interrupted them to give direction. I wasn’t strict about line-memorisation deadlines. Oh, undoubtedly I’m nice, and I like to think none of my cast members hate me, but I really should have been more of a leader.

It’s just after 11:00. My play starts in eight and a half hours. In about ten and a half hours I’ll know what the adjudicators thought, and whether my play will be representing IDS at the Edenvale festival, EADS, in May.

I’m meeting my cast in five hours for some final rehearsal.

A curious calm has settled. The kind you get when there is nothing left to lose and, really, nothing more to do.

Last night was the first night of the one act plays. Despite the fact that selling tickets was a serious challenge to my very rusty maths skills, I managed, and was so happy to see the hall packed. The plays were great, and I had loads of fun. Whether Overtones goes to EADS or not, I’ve been bitten by the amdram bug. See you at the next auditions!

Anyway, we were quite excited since we’d not seen them live for quite a while, and with their album launch a little over a month away, they were sure to play mostly the new stuff.

Also, friends of ours had driven up (earlier than planned) from the south coast for holiday, just to see them perform.

And what a performance!

CF was recuperating from an operation, so vocal duties were left for Beastie to handle alone. This was done fantastically. This is such a talented group, and the music is so incredible, that this was not a problem.

The three songs were over far too quickly. Or so it seemed. With the gig being +/- 45 minutes long, these are clearly not short songs. The new material, whilst still clearly TODWM, hails a new chapter in their sound. The long wait for the new album seems well worth it, especially after last night’s teaser.

I left more excited than ever!

Mention must be made of the awesome guys that make up TODWM. They claim that they are are always very glad to see their fans (and I’m sure they are) but as a fan, being greeted warmly by all members of the band, and getting to chat before and after the gig, is priceless.

They even agreed to a group photo with the four of us!

Thanks must also go to unofficial band photographer Bernard Brand for being willing to take the photo will a little point and shoot…

In short, this group of people, along with the other members of The Will to Power, makes this writer very proud to be South African, and makes me very excited for what lies ahead for arts in SA!

The new album launch will happen on 2012-04-21 at Shiva’s Rock. Be sure not to miss it!

Absolute must check site:

www.thewilltopower.net – With links to the sites of the following: Bernard Brand, A Skyline on Fire, The Ozark Witch etc.

Be sure to be a part of this artistic revolution!

The shock on some people’s faces when they get the response of “Oh, maybe never” brings its own diabolical joy, but inciting pearl-clutchery is not the reason we’re child-free. (That’s what the tattoos are for).

The reason we don’t have progeny is simple: we just don’t want them. Anyone can, off the top of their head, give a handful of advantages to not having sprog (saving money being chief among them) but I’m not here to cite that tired old manifesto.

And anyone with kids can dreamily attest to how they just make life better, regardless of the disadvantages.

But there seems to be some odd cognitive dissonance here. The conversation usually goes as follows (abridged):

A: When kids?
B: Kids never.
A: Shock! Dismay! WHY?!
B: Money. Time. Stress. Etc.
A: … Agree.

They always agree with our motivations. Well, almost always. The only vehemently pro-kids person we encountered was a bank consultant. After telling her they are expensive, she said, I shit you not, “God will provide.” The husband and I bit our tongues. Then, she pulled out the “Your parents want grandchildren” card. We countered with “Our parents respect our choices. Also, they’re not going to be the ones losing sleep or paying school fees. So really they don’t get a say.” Mutual ideologies unsuccessfully foisted, we went on our way.

What frustrates me most about being child-free is that it’s treated like some weird exception. We don’t get the question “are you planning to breed?” we get the question of when. Because, of course, any married middle class couple is going to have kids. The husband has gotten all manner of accusations from his colleagues, about how it’s his fault I don’t want kids.

But the fertility rate is declining for a reason: you don’t have to have kids. They are not a measure of success. They probably won’t take care of you when you’re old. They’re not necessary for cheap labour. And, in any case, a disturbingly large amount of pregnancies are unplanned. And I wonder, of the planned pregnancies, how many occur because that’s

Who needs kids when you come home to this?

just what people do?

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against unplanned pregnancies (I was one) and I’m certainly not calling people with children mindless drones. But what percentage of people who have kids truly, deeply, genuinely wanted them initially?

There is the argument that child-free folk are selfish. Well, yes, sort of. But it’s not like it’s an obligation to have kids and those without kids are shirking their duty, or not pulling their resource-consumption weight. If you choose to have a child, yes, you have to be selfless. But how is realising I’m too selfish, then not having a kid as a result, a bad thing?

Truth is, I did once want kids, as did my husband. I was in university, we were both young and we’d discuss the future of our perfect nuclear family. We were too young then, of course.

Now we’re old enough, but we’re still too young

But we humans are social creatures (some of us) and we need companionship. I get intelligent conversation and emotional fulfilment from my husband. And I get cuteness and cuddles from my cat.

Until babies learn to work around my lifestyle, I’ll stay gloriously child-free.

Jake Lonergan (Craig) wakes up in the middle of the desert with no memory and a macguffin on his wrist. Arriving in a town, he encounters Woodrow Dolarhyde (Ford), the man who put a bounty on his head, and Ella (Wilde), a mysterious woman who is very interested in his wrist accessory. Suddenly, the small mining town is struck by alien abductors and a motley crew ventures out to find their kidnapped kin.

It should have been an unstoppable combination – James Bond, Han Solo/Indiana Jones, the director of Iron Man, and Stephen frickin’ Spielberg keeping at all together.

Considering the mind-blowingness implied with that team, it was disappointing.

But considering Wild Wild West and Jonah Hex, it was amazing. It’s a scifi Western actually worth watching.

It’s mostly an action film, of course, with humans scrapping with one another before even getting involved with aliens. The focus on action and ass-kicking made the emotional aspects seem awkwardly tacked on.

The out-of-the-blue emotion could, of course, be harking back to the spaghetti westerns of old that didn’t have the same emotional arcs like those we’ve become accustomed to, with more being implied than overtly expressed.

At times it felt like a PG13 Deadwood (with aliens), and I blame that on the presence of Keith Carradine. But even though it lacked the cussing and sex of the HBO show, it didn’t feel like a silly, childish ideal of the wild west. It was still dirty and lawless.

Despite the gratuitous pouting, the actors are fun to watch. And a gruff-voiced Ford was well cast.

It’s not as good as other blockbusters released recently, like Captain America, Super 8 and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but if you’ve seen all those already, this one is worth a watch.

After Cal Weaver’s (Carell) wife Emily (Moore) leaves him, he seeks Jacob’s (Gosling) help to become better at attracting women. While transforming Cal, Jacob, the perpetual playboy, finds himself falling for quirky Hannah (Stone).

As far as romcoms go, I enjoyed this one. Maybe I’m biased because I like all the actors, but I had fun. It’s not as saccharine and goofy as many romantic comedies, and it shows love in three stages of the average person’s life: the adolescent first love, the young adult first real love, and the middle aged complacent love.

It is, essentially, three love stories intertwined with one another, creating the kind of coincidence storm that is only ever found in movies like this. Without fate’s fickle fingers, many a romcom would be out of luck.
All the actors play roles typical to them. Except Gosling, who has been playing pensive indie characters lately, so it’s odd (but refreshing) to see him dial up the charm and show off his abs.

Steve Carrell plays his usual schlub, adding humour where he can. The throwaway dialogue and banter is, like most comedies these days, the source of most of the film’s humour.

Emma Stone plays her usual delightful self, the awkward but adorable girl-next-door, and Julianne Moore plays a frustrated wife. None of the characters have an extraordinary amount of depth, but hey. What were you expecting?

Marisa Tomei and Kevin Bacon are great in their roles, too big to be a cameo, too small to do them justice. One surprisingly great performance was Josh Groban (okay, that was small enough to be a cameo), as a cheerful and oblivious boyfriend.

If you enjoy romantic comedies, but are sick of the kind where the male and female leads are back-to-back on the poster, check this one out.

Scientist Will Rodman (Franco) is looking for a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, to help his ailing father Charles (Lithgow). After trouble at the lab, he encounters a baby chimpanzee whose mother received the drug in trials and the mind-improving chemicals have been transferred to him, Caesar (Serkis). With help from zoo vet Caroline (Pinto), the scientist takes care of the chimp. Until trouble strikes.

The film starts off as a heart-warming tale of a man and the cutest damn CGI chimpanzee ever. Well, the chimp is really more like a child; there are many moments that remind a viewer of kids-and-animals movies from the 90s. With less cheese, of course.

Later, when trouble happens as a result of People Who Don’t Understand, the movie shifts to an action/drama.

I picked up a few references to the original – such as the Statue of Liberty and the line “get your stinking hands off me you damn dirty ape” – and there are bound to be lots I didn’t notice.

While watching the film, good as it was, all I could think of was: If this is a prequel, then this movie charts the beginning of the end of mankind. So, really, there would be no happy ending, regardless of how the movie itself actually finishes. For that reason, the film itself didn’t feel dark enough, given the future occurrences.

The acting was good, overall. James Franco and John Lithgow are always delightful to watch, the latter being the more compelling of the two in this. Freida Pinto, while stunningly beautiful, is not being used to her full potential. Her character is two-dimensional; she’s playing a role no more complex than the perfect woman there to support her man, and look worried now and then.

It was odd to see Tom Felton in a non-Harry Potter role, but he plays a bully in this too, so the scowl is ever-present.

The effects are… so impressive. In my opinion, it’s one of the more convincing uses of CGI. Serkis and the movie’s effects team would be the star of this one.

The story felt rather implausible in parts. I can suspend disbelief to accommodate a super intelligent ape that understands complex human concepts. I cannot believe this ape communicating effectively with less intelligent primates.

I’m also struggling to pinpoint the exact message here. Is it a cautionary tale against playing God? Or is it against animal testing? Is it telling us to treat animals as equals? Perhaps it cautions against discarding ethics for greed?

All in all, it’s a good blockbuster. There are a few funny moments, but it tries not to be too funny, or too emotional. Despite the content, it manages to not be sappy.

Right.

So the idea is to write about music. To showcase bands that mean a lot to me, and should mean a lot to other people…

Therein lies a bit of a conundrum. I’m a snob. I tend to like bands that aren’t well known. Often, I like them because they’re not well known.

Fans of bands like that are fans because of the output, not the image. Because the music is so great, not because everyone else thinks it’s cool to like them.

Therefore, I plan to showcase bands every week that people should care for, because they’re great. And yes, this will solely be my opinion. And no, I’m sure you will not always agree…

So, first up:

The Ocean Doesn’t Want Me
From: Pretoria, South Africa
Genre: post-whatever/ambient/metal/noise
Members: CF Haasbroek (Guitars, Vocals), Riaan “Beastie” de Klerk (Bass, Vocals), Robin McDonald (Drums, Effects)
Why: This is the first band I felt like following around from gig to gig. I felt like I needed to attend their shows.
Discography: What I Hope To Live For – 2009

I first saw this band in 2008 at then-popular student hangout in Hatfield, Pretoria (Maloney’s). We got dragged along, as FireWithin is good friends with one if the bands playing that night. (on the bill: TODWM, Knave, Urban Vitamin)

From the outset, it was clear TODWM is not your typical South African band. For one, they don’t follow the typical Nu Metal/Grunge template so popular with local bands. For another, it was clear they played because they had to. They were playing for themselves and the music. Not for money.

The band describes their sound as postwhatever/ambient/rock/metal. Fairly apt. Though the band clearly draws on influence form the leading lights of the post metal scene, like Neurosis, Cult of Luna and ISIS.

Live, the band clearly gives it their all. With the whole band getting caught up in the music, one experiences the magic of the music created together with the band.

However, since the sound is so dense, with so much going on, from the vocals and guitars to bass and drums as well as effects and loops, a lot of the intricacies of the music gets lost when listened to in a live setting. Part of the magic of music like this is the nuance that seems to expose itself after repeated listens. The album, therefore, is as important as seeing them live. This is music that begs to be listened to late at night on headphones.

They are not the most prolific of bands. In fact, 2010 saw them playing live only a handful of times. This is, however, a band whose members work full time.

They have recently started the recording of their sophomore set, the songs of which they showcased with gigs between March and July this year. If these gigs are anything to go by, the album promises to deliver. PattiLain and I were lucky enough to catch up with them after one of these gigs at The Factory in Centurion, to chat about the new album – http://www.pulpmag.co.za/?p=2923

For those not lucky enough to experience them live, you can check out their music here:
http://www.myspace.com/theoceandoesntwantme

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Ocean+Doesn%27t+Want+Me

Also worth checking is The Will to Power, a collective of artists, including TODWM and their collaborators.

It is with great excitement I look forward to their latest effort.

X-Men First Class

Thor

Sucker Punch

True Grit

127 Hours

The King’s Speech

Black Swan

The Next Three Days

Easy A

The Tourist

Tron: Legacy

Due Date

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Scott Pilgrim vs the World

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Red

Unstoppable

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