Day 8

Thank you Jorge, John, Linda, Niko, Luke, Marilyn, and Greg (our chat yesterday yielded the “Holding out for a Hero” cover), for your song requests.

They are all here and more for your 2nd weekend of South Africa’s lockdown enjoyment.

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY again to Scotty in Somerset West, for yesterday. I had the wrong song for you, so Alphaville’s “Sounds like a melody” is in here for you today.
Also having a birthday today is Linda (de Klerk) Barry of the 89 Lowveld High School group!

The occasional random sound you will hear is whatsapp notifications coming through and being recorded in the audio stream of my desktop computer….

Guys, this playlist thing needs a name.
What suggestions come to mind?
Pop yours into the comments box, or whatsapp it to me.

:HERE IS THE AUDIO STREAM:

IF THE AUDIO STREAM DOES NOT START PLAYING AUTOMATICALLY,
HIT THE PLAY BUTTON ABOVE

The detailed track listing for this playlist can be found HERE…

Time to get serious quick…

I have nothing to say on fake news
have nothing to say about the origin of the virus.
‘ll let a past school friend living in London who got it as a result of contact with her boss who was tested positive, tell us about it as instead:

“I have had it. And I can tell you it is nothing like I have had before. My skin prickled like sun burn, my chest was so tight and dry ( no mucous ) I felt I was having a permanent asthma attack. My temperature burned from the outside in – skin on my chest and back burned , and when you touched it it was hot. My body ached like I had been in a major car accident.“

This is not to be taken lightly. It came and went in waves over the 7 days of self-isolation she experienced. She is still not sure that it is completely done with her, and though she feels better, she still feels unbelievably tired. Now, as a human being with a conscience, her greatest fear is of making other people ill, because you can kill just about anyone with it.
Understand this nicely.

I know that there are people in suits who make unconscionable decisions behind closed doors. I’m not naive.
I give an 80% weighting to my own suspicion that Trump’s grandstanding and bullying tactics resulted in this from China.
I don’t know how. I can’t prove anything. That’s just my hunch.
I can cherrypick from a hundred different sources to help backup my hunch, but that still doesn’t make it fact. The thing is to be adult enough to admit to yourself that you’re harbouring a hunch – a bias – a suspicion, and then take control of yourself and not let yourself be carried away by it.
Whether I think aliens planted it in us in a laboratory in North Korea, or whether I think a radioactive seagull from Fukushima shat it out on someone’s burger in Florida, or whether I think boeremusiek played backwards is responsible, does not matter.
There is a thing out there that can kill me and no one is immune.
No one of us is guaranteed we will pull through.
This thing is real.

We don’t know where it is.
We don’t know precisely what it does.
We don’t know if we have it (unless a direct, positively tested case can be traced).
We don’t know who else around us has it.
We don’t know what it will do to us if/(when) it gets to us.
We don’t know whether it will be mild or fatal if/(when) we do get it.
We don’t know how long we have to wait for a vaccine.
It’s crazy but it’s how it is.

It’s also an inevitability we have been dodging for a nice long run already.

Nature was bound to discover a way to get a decent shot at the virus (us) that’s been taking over planet earth since we discovered the power of expanding steam.
The fact that we’ve enjoyed such a long, unbroken spell of not being f*cked up by nature is because we made a whole bunch of technical (medical) advances pretty much altogether, at the same time, buying us a long spell of living pandemic free, which our great-grandparents and their parents did not know, I promise you that.

It’s crazy but it’s also how it always was…
Think about that a while…

And here’s the stream…

• We’re indoors nursing dwindling stockpiles of food and,
• (more importantly) alcohol,
• Our currency is hitting record lows, at almost half the value it was in the 2008 crash, (THERE’S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME FOR EXPORTS)
• We have unknown foes (innocent people now called “super-carriers” in the sensation-loving media),
• with unknown weapons all around us outside of our homes.

Seems to me it’s time to party like it’s 1929.

And this is the TRACK LISTING for the DAY 8 PLAYLIST:

…Just read the bold words of the next paragraph and skip everything else if you’re already tired of reading…

Today we have 3 cover versions (and maybe more – you never know with remixes…), Jacob Zuma makes an appearance, and we have a mix of 80’s to present-day music, in a wide variety of genres, with more of a Friyay-night feel.

If not, read on…

(…I’ll probably not be making playlists this weekend.
I have a full time work-from-home job.
I make music for a hobby, so this playlist thing is something I am doing on the side, to entertain myself primarily, but which I’m also happy to share, and hopefully uplift and encourage you too.
This weekend however I want to do some proper unpacking and moving in of things into my new house, so the next playlist will be out on Monday some time…)

But before then, let’s do some wine-drinking, and more of this:

Anberlin -Dèbut [intro background]
The Cure – Lullaby [‘cos what the world needs right now is Spiderman and Ironman working together in nanoscale, sorting some covid shit out!]
RPWL – Perfect Day [Ha! Fooled you there, thinking that was Depeche Mode. Nope. This an enjoyable German progressive rock band to explore the catalogue of]
Lonely Robot – Construct/Obstruct [Lonely Robot is just one of the many genius musical projects of guitarist/singer/songwriter John Mitchell]
Arctic Monkeys – Arrabella [‘cos it’s a Fri-yay!!!!!!!]
Lisa Mitchell – The Boys [wash, rinse, repeat…]
MGMT – Kids

The Rudimentals – Bubbling [Gio (drummer), Doc and some more of the guys from the Rudimentals, own a music studio in Cape Town called Soundcast Studios, and they were kind enough to give me a break as a serious photographer when I first arrived in Cape Town. I’ve loved their upbeat vibe ever since and have been a staunch supporter of the studio as a result. None of us know what the viability of that great creative space is right now…]

…and back to regular programming..

Primus – The Scheme [Les Claypool is the man. When it comes to throwing down the baddest bass, there is no one badder than he. He has a takes-some-getting-used-to voice, and a sing-song, folkish, storytelling style. A lot of his stuff sounds like it’s on repeat. It is. It’s made to be moved to, and it is always stretching what is possible, and funky as f…. Love this dude]
Spiralling – The concept of the Quantum-Mechanical Bodymind has Sparked a Great Idea [Tom Brislin is a next-level keyboard player. Spirals are my favourite shapes. There’s a thing you didn’t know…]

Now we get to make fun of everyone’s favourite bad guy who’s probably loving this opportunity to use op or stash his ill-gotten cash.
Hello Mr Jacob Zuma. We have not forgotten…

The Adventures – Your Greatest Shade of Blue [Thanks Niko Koster for this request]
Spritualized – Run [Thanks Luke Comins for this request]
Guns n Roses – Sweet Child o Mine
Queen – We are the Champions (Live, European Tour 1979) [This album was instrumental in kickstarting my musical obsession. An uncle who had been overseas in the very early 80’s came back from the UK with this double album and visited us as a family in ’83 in White River…and played it for me. And completely changed my life.
Seeing how profoundly this eleven year old responded to the album, he spotted something and gifted it to me. I would have to say this is where my love for Progressive Rock had its genesis. “Genesis” geddit? Oh never mind…]
The Police – Don’t stand so Close to Me [Another Luke Comins suggestion, appropriate for the times]

Alphaville – Sounds like a Melody [Here’s the birthday boy request for Scotty, turning 15 yester-yay!!]

David Bowie – Space Oddity [Luke Comins brought this song up in chat yesterday]
Melanie C – High Heels [Thanks Jorge for this song request!]
Divinyls – I Touch Myself [Thanks John McIntyre for this request]
Lauv & Troye Sivan – I’m so Tired [Thanks Jorge for this request]

Nothing but Thieves – Holding out for a Hero [Cover of the Bonnie Tyler song we all know and love. Conor Mason is an incredible singer.]
Seether – Stoke the Fire [‘cos SAFFERS rule ‘s all I’m sayin’]
MM9 – Let it Take Over [One of Oz’s forefront hard-rock outfits. There’s a lot of GOOD rock music in the OZ music circuit.]
Marillion – Quartz [One of my perenial favourites, Marillion who you should expect to hear a lot of]

Step – Vampire Weekend [we sincerely hope not]
Mumford & Sons – If I say
Grizfolk – Bounty on my head
The National – You had your Soul with You
OneRepublic – I lived
American Authors – Love
Natty Bong – Sweet Dreams

The Ashton Shuffle – Tear it Down
Natalia Kills – Mirrors
Aviici – Wake me up [Thanks for the request, John Mcintyre]
Aviici – Fade into Darkness
Kelis – Milkshake
Ylvis – What does the Fox say [so shoot me I love this song.
Funny enough I know exactly what the Fox says. I lived on the Charles Fox Wine Estate for 2 years. The Fox says drink more bubbly…]

PSY – Gangnam Style [annnnd shoot me for this one too…]

Diplo – Revolution
LMFAO – Sexy and I know it [gun out. bang. there you feel all better. now dance]

Blue Foundation – Eyes on Fire
Dirty Loops – Crash and Burn Delight
Lana Del Ray – Young and Beautiful
Marc Broussard – Lonely night in Georgia
U2 – With or Without you [Thank you Linda Wattrus for this request]
Colbie Caillat – I do
Villagers – Dawning on me
Imaginary Future – Wonderful World
Nathan East – Moodswing

And that’s it folks…