Barcamp Africa. In California.
September 6, 2008, 12:59 pmJust found out that Google is offering to host Barcamp Africa
At the GooglePlex (?) in California.
You guys are kidding, right?
Right?
You want to hold a conference about tech in Africa for Africans by Africans.
In California.
I still have not seen an official announcement from Google and a site specific search on google.com as of September 6th yields nothing so please please please tell me that someone is being facetious.
—Steve | 4 comments
(posted in the Random, Technology, The world we live in, Life, The Internet, South North, BarCamp, Broken, Huh? category)
musical link: Les Wanyika & Shiko Mawatu
September 5, 2008, 10:28 amJust got my hands on a Les Wanyika track that I had never heard before and had to share.
Thanks Joe.
And an old favorite - Shiko Mawatu shows how its done by playing Rosa on the guitar - thanks Scott Shuster
—Steve | 2 comments
(posted in the Random, Kenya, Arts & Culture, Africa, Music, The world we live in, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 African music, African Music, Artists, Congo, Malage, Les Wanyika category)
… derailment prescience?
August 28, 2008, 11:15 amNot sure if this has been fact checked yet (it is in the Telegraph though) but it seems that my favorite quasi-news site, the Onion, is bang on the money on the fact is stranger than fiction front sometimes.
—Steve | 2 comments
(posted in the The Internet category)
musical link: tunes
August 21, 2008, 10:36 pmJust a mis-mash of some of the stuff that I have been listening to this week.
All of these tunes I have picked up in my travels to various spots on the interwebs so if you have seen one or all before, my apologies.
Enjoy.
This should be Franco but I am not sure who he performs with, can anyone help?
This is a beautiful track and the story is interesting as well in that it echoes the old “Girl, you done gone and left me” country ethos.
—Steve | 12 comments
(posted in the Kenya, Arts & Culture, Africa, Music, Cool, The world we live in, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, pre-1990 African music, African Music, Artists category)
I am looking forward to …
August 14, 2008, 12:13 pm… seeing Kenya’s Jason Dunford take Michael Phelps out in the 100m Butterfly.
—Steve | 7 comments
(posted in the Kenya, Africa, Cool, Life, The Internet, Olympics 2008 category)
Invade New Zealand
August 14, 2008, 12:22 am
—Steve | no comments
(posted in the Random, Humor, The world we live in, Life, The Internet, feed the addiction, My Links, Broken, Not Broken! category)
musical link: Jupiter’s dance.
August 10, 2008, 10:43 pmthanks JKE.
—Steve | no comments
(posted in the Africa, Music, Cool, The world we live in, Life, The Internet, African Music, Congo category)
musical link: Kwaito, my kind of sound.
July 22, 2008, 1:03 amKwaito fire
I have always been a Kwaito man.
Ever since I had my first brush with the sound almost 10 years ago now in Harare. TKZee were just beginning to rule the airwaves and the clubs with a ton of monster hits from their album Halloween. I fell into love affair that I have never been able to wean myself from even now 10 years on.
Two links and three tracks for you:
+ Christopher Porter’s excellent blog, The surburbs are killing us carried a story almost 2 years ago titled “Kwaito, is the sound of young South Africa.” that you absolutely must read.
+ Your second link dropped into my RSS feed about 8 weeks ago from the South African Deep House site deeper.co.za whom I have linked to over and over. It took the form of this link to an interview with Charles Webster, producer and DJ ,extra-ordinary about his initial experience playing his eye-opening first session playing deep house to a Kwaito-loving crowd in South Africa.
Even better is the excellent 50 minute mix by Vinny DaVinci who runs houseafrika.com that you will find right at the end of the article. The pedal really hits the metal at about 20m01s.
And a trio of tracks from the group that started it all for me.
TKZee - Palafala (Midnight lover mix)
and of course, the club classic Dlala Mapanstula
In closing, thank you all for your comments on my last post. I feel a little better knowing that you are all willing to cut me a little slack. And a special thank you to Joe for sharing that it is OK to take a break. I guess that this means I can let you know that everything on heavy rotation right now at Casa Ntwiga is definitely old school deep, Groove Armada’s - Another late night and Gus Gus’s - This is normal (killer! bass! - for those of you who are tempted, go to epitonic.com to pick up the EP of the track Polyesterday from this CD )
One last hit:
+ You cannot, and I mean cannot, beat The Onion for great satire.
Another case in point, fast-food feedbags.
I rest my case.
—Steve | 18 comments
(posted in the Kenya, Arts & Culture, Africa, Music, Cool, Deep House, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, pre-1990 African music, African Music category)
musical link: you sent them in.
July 17, 2008, 1:09 amI hate doing posts that have no context - it makes me feel like I am just throwing stuff on the wall and hoping that some of it sticks. On the other hand, finding the time to research a post and write something meaty is becoming increasingly difficult to do.
So, I find myself battling blogger’s block.
What next?
I certainly do not have enough traction to continue with things they way they are. Let’s face it. 3 weeks between posts is way too long. On the other hand, I could post every day but it would be a couple of tracks and there would absolutely be nothing in the way of context. This is the problem I find myself trying to face.
Lydia and Charles (who went in to work on a Sunday, no less to try and make this track upload happen, thank you so very much) send in a couple of tracks that we have had requests for over the last month or so.
Enjoy.
And drop me a comment and let me know what you think about what I am doing here.
First off, Kenya Blue Stars in the track that made them what they are. That, of course, is Moreno on vocals.
—Steve | 27 comments
(posted in the Kenya, Arts & Culture, Africa, Music, Cool, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, pre-1990 African music, African Music, Artists, Osibisa, Patrick Balisidya and Afro 70 Jazz category)
musical link: Orchestra Kiam & kentanzavinyl.com
June 30, 2008, 12:16 amI am back in business.
Thank you all for being so patient.
First off, the biggest news I have had all year - all from a comment that I fished out of my spam folder not 10 minutes ago.
Tim Clifford has set up a new website with a discography of more than 1200 Kenyan and Tanzanian 45s at kentanzavinyl.com
This is an amazing resource and you can be sure that it will become a favorite haunt of mine going forward for reference or just to find out what I should be looking for.
This is an amazing achievement Tim! Kudos.
Just one quick track super quick before before I call it a day.
This is the title track from Orchestra Kiam’s 1974 release Baya Baya that I was able to pick up this last week. Orchestra Kiam ( Orchestra Kiamuangana Matete ) did not survive the exile of their leader, Verckys Veve from Zaire by Mobutu in the early 70s. By this time though, he had already gone on to start the Editions Veve label - much to the chagrin of Franco who TP OK jazz he was still a member of - that we all love so much so maybe that was a good thing.
Strangely enough, it has proven very difficult to find good material on Orchestra Kiam in spite of the fact that they had more than 14 studio albums. This is probably due to the fact that the some of the members of Orchestra Kiam were simultaneously in other groups at the time.
—Steve | 21 comments
(posted in the Arts & Culture, Africa, Music, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, pre-1990 African music, African Music, Artists, Orchestra Kiam category)
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