you've got the moves

[freckles_and_doubt]

In the Department of Hah! the Fools! the tally of random things stolen by the Common or Garden Sock-Pawed Burglar has risen to include the One Ring replica which was attached to a bookmark a friend gave me. Since the idiot burglars rejected all my jewellery, which is uniformly silver, I can only assume they naively thought a fake gold Tolkien artefact had more resale value. I find this misapprehension strangely endearing.

Further entries in this department: when I logged on to Take2 to change my password, they tried to sell me a copy of Jumper. Tchah.

In sharp contradistinction, the latest issue of Student Life, arising phoenix-like from the flames of its previous incarnation, features a somewhat kick-butt DVD with music videos from about twenty South African bands. By and large these are actually damned nice, good quality, well made, interesting visuals, and enough solid rock/alternative sounds to keep me happy - I can always skip the rap. The video that made me laugh until I choked, however, was by Howard Roarke, an emo-aspected indie rock outfit with a punk-edged lead shouter rather than singer. The whole music video is set in the church hall of what is clearly a small Afrikaans town (actually Paarl, I think). Rural Afrikaans couples line the wall, looking all American Gothic. Their expressions of incredulity, shock and confusion as the band gets going are a joy to behold, as is the spectacle of an entire hall filled with dancers gradually taking the floor to do langarm sokkie to modern rock sounds. Some of them seriously get down and boogie, too. Apparently only the stage-dive at the end was staged, the extras are all sokkie hobbyists, and their responses are genuine. I could go on about clashing cultural discourses and unlikely juxtapositions, but mostly this is just fun.

Watch on YouTube

Last Night I Dreamed: I was being taken out to dinner in an underground fish restaurant by Tony Stark. Access was by a trapdoor in the middle of a forest clearing. The food, cooked by him, was good.

Comments

[schedule5.livejournal.com]

A seriously cool video - especially the expressions on the faces at the beginning :)

[bronchitikat.livejournal.com]

So they won't be lynching the Ents Manager just yet then?

BTW - "langarm sokkie"? For the benefit of us non-Colonials ;)

& there definitely appear to be benefits in having silver jewellery, & not just the initial purchase price!

[bronchitikat.livejournal.com]

Or should that have been 'we non-Colonials'? I only ever did French & Latin grammar, & Sciences

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Watch the video :>. Afrikaans freeform couple dance: there's rather a good technical ballroom dance definition here (http://www.geocities.com/danceinfosa/disadics.html), although this may also qualify as Too Much Information :>. It appears to be a mutation of two-step, with additional jollity and a slightly head-down take-no-prisoners quality. Traditionally done to god-awful Afrikaans music, or oompah.

I am fortunate in a number of ways, financial as well as stylistic, in that I don't like the colour of gold.

Sokkiejol

[first-fallen.livejournal.com]

I rather like a bit of langarm every now and again, it's really fun. Just another wedge in the cultural divide between me and Phleep (along with my love for Vernon Koekemoer).

Re: Sokkiejol

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

OMG, I just googled Vernon Koekemoer. I can't help smiling.

Vernon will Koekemoer you!

[first-fallen.livejournal.com]

Dahling, where have you been?! He's like Chuck for SA. That kiff mullet, that cycling short, what more could you ask for?

But srsly, it's like some sort of mass hysteria. There are Vernon ringtones and screensavers you can download now as well (Phleep looks at me sternly and says "no!" every time the ads come on).

Check out http://ramboguy.co.za/ if you haven't already. I really love the "facts" about him, like "Vernon Koekemoer destroyed the period table of elements because the only element he recognises is the element of surprise". Hee heee.

Re: Vernon will Koekemoer you!

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Dahling, where have you been?!

London. And Aberdeen, and once Cambridge. I'll ask some of the other Saffers here if they've heared of him.

Re: Vernon will Koekemoer you!

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

OMG! My media-critic ploons are seriously grooved. This is a lovely case of Teh Internets randomly making a completely arbitrary person into a celebrity, for no real reason. I mean, Chuck Norris was at least a celebrity to start with. I think it's the name, actually. There's something beautifully inevitable about "Vernon Koekmoer". And the mullet. The mullet is irresistible.

The IOL article (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=139&art_id=vn20080320080119105C679269) seems to think that the man himself is still unknown, the whole thing is about the image (BaudrillardBaudrillardBaudrillard), which seems to be borne out by the fact that the Facebook page appears to have vanished again. Somewhere in South Africa is presumably an anonymous ou who is either very, very afraid of the phenomenon, or is going to be very, very surprised by it.

God, I love the Internet.

Re: Vernon will Koekemoer you!

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Oops, no, page hasn't vanished, I just spelled it incorrectly in the search. Over 7000 members.

Re: Vernon will Koekemoer you!

[first-fallen.livejournal.com]

"Somewhere in South Africa is presumably an anonymous ou who is either very, very afraid of the phenomenon, or is going to be very, very surprised by it."

No, he's totally cashing in on the whole thing. He was in a Vodacom ad recently for which he was paid a cool million. He was also in that Nando's ad, which is where I first saw him.

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

"langarm" = long-arm. A tradional couples dancing style.
"sokkie" = socks. What you often wear on your feet on the wooden floor of a community or church hall.

[bronchitikat.livejournal.com]

Thanks.