Beezy Bailey, Pigalle and Lekgotla among two days of glam in Jozie. (27-Nov-05)
In the summer of 1998 I was assisting artist Beezy Bailey in promoting his exhibition of drift-wood art. I remember the period well. Months previously I had befriended Barbara Bailey, who I met through my friend and her cousin by marriage, Colin Douglas. Barbara was (and still is) an extraordinary woman and we saw much of each other. Connecting with the late Jim Bailey and Beezy was a consequence of our friendship and in a short time I was engaged to promote Beezy’s show, assist Jim with a project and about to move into Bella Montana , the home the Bailey’s owned adjacent to their Higgovale estate.
Although the exact detail of what went wrong is no longer clear to me, I think it revolved around me not getting Jane Raphaely to attend the exhibition and Beezy and I fell out – we exchanged fuck you’s and our association broke including, rather inconveniently, my planned move into Bella Montana. Later that day, furious and soon to be homeless, I looked through the paper for a place to live – while sunning myself at Graaff’s Pool in Sea Point. I remember the day well as I met Cobus with whom I would be partnered for the following five years that afternoon.
When Ian Manley and Catherine Bolton invited me to join them for dinner at Pigalle in Sandton Square last week I was looking forward to a great evening. I was also pleased to receive an invitation to the opening of Beezy Bailey’s exhibition at the Everard Reed Gallery in Rosebank, Jozie. The lights had been out for around 10 minutes, most of us were looking at the paintings with our cellphones as illumination and I sauntered over to greet Gwen Gill – whom I knew when I worked on the Sunday Times. I didn’t realize that Barbara Bailey was there too and when we hugged it felt like only yesterday that we’d seen each other last.
• More • Permalink • Comments [0]
Ad skipping, anger management and an overdue apology. (21-Nov-05)
I've been reading about PVRs for some time now as my client, Stanley Edwards of Platypus Productions has suggested branded content as the solution to the ad skipping that comes with owning a PVR.
The frustrations I felt with Multichoice over the installation of my PVR have far from dissipated, but I must say that my viewing experience is now immeasurably improved. I admit that I haven't read the manual - the truth be told, I hardly ever do and seem to work out how things work eventually, but I haven't yet deciphered how to skip ads. Sure, I can fast forward through them but I could do that anyway with my VCR - and, considering my thumb isn't yet a toggle expert, I tend to fast forward beyond where I wish to be. Yesterday, I actually watched an advertorial for Toyota four times more than I'd have to if I were watching it live. I watched it forwards and then backwards and at two different speeds.
When I arose on my birthday, well before 6am - all bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to spend the day on the couch watching TV, I rehearsed the ignoble tirade I would unleash when DSTV's call centre opened shop at 7am. As was to be expected, if the previous night's debacle had taught me anything, I could get the DSTV signal but couldn't work the PVR.
• More • Permalink • Comments [0]
E16 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 (18-Nov-05)
So I left for dinner at 9.30pm only to get a call from Dinish, one of the installers to say they'd left their bag in my apartment. " F A A A A CK" I scream in the car. Perhaps it was a good thing that the software upgrade happened while we were away - because, lo and behold, it gives an E6 Error and no picture. Back on the phone to DSTV, as I am extremely angry now, I press the wrong number when the auto-attendant answers and land up in "technical support". Jeffrey hangs up on me when he realizes I'm looking for activations. To Mogamat Cadar's credit, he did actually call me back and tried to be as helpful as possible. Anyhoo - it is not 10.05 - too late to go to dinner and still no DSTV picture. I'm beginning to resent Multichoice in a big way. Tomorrow is my birthday - and this was a gift to myself. Fuckers. Email hate-dstv@brianberkman.com if you agree.
• Permalink • Comments [0]
hate-dstv@brianberkman.com (18-Nov-05)
Guys like me will do a lot to make room for DSTV's new PVR decoder. Having an unsigthly decoder on my balcony is one and re-arrnaging a day's appointments to fit in with their installation is another.
It is now 8pm, Friday and Sat-Girl whom I expected at 2.30 only arrived at 6.30. Not a great start. Next I call DSTV Customer Care (Care? What Care?) to have my long awaited PVR activated. So I press the wrong button and not "3" - remember this when you need to do so and after holding on for a LONG time, I tell the guy who finally answers that I'm not calling back and he must help me.
• More • Permalink • Comments [0]
Westlife, Peroni and the future of Marketing (13-Nov-05)
Who would have thought that boy-band Westlife would help me unlock the future of marketing? My mobile phone was top of mind - I had tried, messily, to post a blog via my phone to voice my irritation at the delay in getting the Diana Ross concert underway, but then the lights dimmed and I felt too self-conscious that the light from my phone would disturb others. I needn't have as every other person in the venue was busy with their phone too.
At first I thought myself very smart to a) have a blog, b) have a phone which, in theory anyway, could connect to the net and allow me to post and c) have the savvy to realize that the future of media is being written by teens with pimples and cell phones. However, when I realized that everyone else was doing the same (or appeared to be) my mind turned to gun-down-the-throat journo Hunter Thompson. His Gonzo description of personal journalism should now be considered in the plural, I mused. Ladies and gentlemen of the blogasphere - I give you Gonzi - the current (and I believe the future) wave of media - citizen journalism.
There was a lone candle flitting behind me - brought by some luddite who had either burnt her fingers too often on flaming Bic lighters at concerts or didn't have a phone with her. While everyone else lit up their cell phones when the Westflifer asked us to do so, I was immobilized by the sea of connectivity I saw in front of me. No longer would I have to wait to get home to share my excitement with friends nor, more specifically, turn on the radio or wait for the day's newspaper to experience the event vicariously. We had a taste of it during the 9/11 World Trade Centre attacks when one of the hostages called from a cell phone and, more recently and much more vividly, during an emergency landing of a JetBlue flight at LA Airport, where people on board the flight watched live footage of the landing while others posted Blogs and Podcasts about the experience.
• More • Permalink • Comments [0]
Watch what, when you like. (09-Nov-05)
DSTV announces the arrival of the PDVR - a personal digital recorder that will revolutionize the way I watch TV by allowing me to select what I want to watch, when I want to.
I've been waiting for this announcement for sometime so immediately called Ellie's Electronics to have one delivered. "We've had 15 calls in the last hour", says the man at Ellie's on the phone, "but we're only expecting stock on the 15th." Either Cape Argus writer Andrew October needs a flea in his ear for getting the date wrong, or, more likely in my judgment, Multichoice haven't timed their launch with the delivery of stock. Either way, don't bother calling me on the night of the 15th - I'll be glued to the box finally watching when it suits me. • Permalink • Comments [0]
Try La, La Bum Derriere (06-Nov-05)
Graeme Sonnenberg had been so aggrieved by my review of a meal at La Perla in The Cape Times, that he wrote to me to voice his displeasure. I am now forced to recant. We had a fabulous lunch there.
I was hoping our party would dine at La Colombe but instead the La's got mixed up and we landed at La Perla. I should have guessed that having John French (who I think has a comedy-writing career ahead of him), the acerbically witty Grant Pierrus who even manages to make light of a damaging car accident and Craig Dummett who appears deadpan before dropping his laughing bomb, would not be appropriate company in my delicate state.
I had resolved not to tell them about the procedure - but felt I had to explain why I wouldn't even touch a drop of alcohol, using the antibiotics I was taking as the reason. One thing led to another and while Frans was waiting to take our order, I said I'd had hemorrhoids surgically removed.
• More • Permalink • Comments [0]
|