The Weekend
The weekend was a very enjoyable one.
On Friday evening we joined a portion of the Durbs crowd for dinner and followed it up by elbowing through gangs of wretched teens at the Musgrave Ster Kinekor to watch Hot Fuzz. My review will follow sometime in the next few days, but I’ll say now that it’s definitely worth seeing, particularly if you’re a fan of British humour and action-packed American police films, like Bad Boys – Hot Fuzz completely takes the mickey out of the genre. The film’s hilarious high-calibre climax, however, may not be too well received in the USA, following the Virginia Tech shootings.
Anyway, on Saturday Paul spent most of the day cleaning accumulated rubbish out of the cupboards in his room. I used the time to finish the very tedious, ongoing task of transcribing all of last year’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu techniques from my 2006 diary into my BJJ specific notebook. Now at least I’ll be able to find specific moves easily when I want to brush up on the finer technical details.
On Saturday evening we had dinner with Paul’s parents at Dirk’s on Southways and then watched The Magnificent Seven at the University’s Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. Essentially the show is a crowd-pleasing tribute to the seven bands that have had the most impact on white, middle-class, middle-aged South Africa (The Beach Boys, Beatles, Bee Gees, Rolling Stones, Abba, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Queen). Aaron McIlroy is the show’s comic MC, ripping off distinct Durban-specific ‘characters’ like the Bluff surfer bum, Bollywood-obsessed Indian, and Roman Lounge-frequenting gay designer.
The show is certainly lively, and the performances of the Centre Stage band superb, but the choice of songs is oh-so predictable – how many times will we be forced to listen to Staying Alive, I Can’t Get No Satisfaction and Bohemian Rhapsody? With Rock me Amadeus, Roll Over Beethoven, and a zillion other lightweight shows all paying tribute to the same 1960’s-1970’s artists and songs, I really think it’s time for something new… maybe something ‘younger’ to attract an audience born after 1970?
On Sunday, after contending with more drama at Paul’s house (his mother was mugged on the driveway on Thursday, and on Sunday his 85 year old grandfather ripped the paper-thin skin on his arm after falling out of bed), we headed down to the beachfront to take advantage of the sunny weather and perfectly calm, clear water. We hired a kayak and paddled around for a while. We also discovered that yet another of my friends has got married, although at the more sensible age of 25.
We rounded off Sunday evening by watching creepy Event Horizon, which probably remains easiest to describe as The Shining in outer space. Although there have been some glaring detail omissions (related to brutal editing), what is really great about the film is the way that it actually explores and visualises a number of ‘what if’s’ most film makers haven’t had the balls to represent onscreen.
On Friday evening we joined a portion of the Durbs crowd for dinner and followed it up by elbowing through gangs of wretched teens at the Musgrave Ster Kinekor to watch Hot Fuzz. My review will follow sometime in the next few days, but I’ll say now that it’s definitely worth seeing, particularly if you’re a fan of British humour and action-packed American police films, like Bad Boys – Hot Fuzz completely takes the mickey out of the genre. The film’s hilarious high-calibre climax, however, may not be too well received in the USA, following the Virginia Tech shootings.
Anyway, on Saturday Paul spent most of the day cleaning accumulated rubbish out of the cupboards in his room. I used the time to finish the very tedious, ongoing task of transcribing all of last year’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu techniques from my 2006 diary into my BJJ specific notebook. Now at least I’ll be able to find specific moves easily when I want to brush up on the finer technical details.
On Saturday evening we had dinner with Paul’s parents at Dirk’s on Southways and then watched The Magnificent Seven at the University’s Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. Essentially the show is a crowd-pleasing tribute to the seven bands that have had the most impact on white, middle-class, middle-aged South Africa (The Beach Boys, Beatles, Bee Gees, Rolling Stones, Abba, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Queen). Aaron McIlroy is the show’s comic MC, ripping off distinct Durban-specific ‘characters’ like the Bluff surfer bum, Bollywood-obsessed Indian, and Roman Lounge-frequenting gay designer.
The show is certainly lively, and the performances of the Centre Stage band superb, but the choice of songs is oh-so predictable – how many times will we be forced to listen to Staying Alive, I Can’t Get No Satisfaction and Bohemian Rhapsody? With Rock me Amadeus, Roll Over Beethoven, and a zillion other lightweight shows all paying tribute to the same 1960’s-1970’s artists and songs, I really think it’s time for something new… maybe something ‘younger’ to attract an audience born after 1970?
On Sunday, after contending with more drama at Paul’s house (his mother was mugged on the driveway on Thursday, and on Sunday his 85 year old grandfather ripped the paper-thin skin on his arm after falling out of bed), we headed down to the beachfront to take advantage of the sunny weather and perfectly calm, clear water. We hired a kayak and paddled around for a while. We also discovered that yet another of my friends has got married, although at the more sensible age of 25.
We rounded off Sunday evening by watching creepy Event Horizon, which probably remains easiest to describe as The Shining in outer space. Although there have been some glaring detail omissions (related to brutal editing), what is really great about the film is the way that it actually explores and visualises a number of ‘what if’s’ most film makers haven’t had the balls to represent onscreen.
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