Nearly half way through...

And so we sit at the end of May with everyone almost surprised at how fast June has come around! Life in London is getting busy as we know it - festivals, SA artists arriving faster than you can update your diary - and the illusion of a longer day which somehow allows us to fit all this in!

Yet, strangley enough - I am a little perplexed by the lack of activity from my friends... Im not saying they're not out there doing things cos I speak to them and I know they are... but more bizarrely... they are not doing as much online!

Yip, Im talking about facebook... for some strange reason, my facebook news feed has decided not to update itself as regularly as before.. it could be a) all my friends have removed themselves en-mass... b) facebook has hit a technical bug and hence is not auto-updating c) some new privacy feature is sweeping the facebookers' conscience... or d) that people are not as active online now in the summer months as they have been before?

Hmm.. well the mystery continues as I actually need to 'visit' my friends pages to see what theyre doing. Ha ha... how crazy is that!

well, fab to say that last night I actually got to see some of those lovely friends for real - and all in one room! Quite a good room it was too - a music venue in fact - one on the other side of London from my usual little wanderings around west and south west London! No doubt it is always gonna be atleast an hour's journey from West to East... but it was indeed a decent journey, complete with my new doorstopper of a book in the much talked about Shantaram! 50 proud pages in (its a flippin 700 page book!) and I have to admit Im hooked... the story is just unfolding with day-to-day pace, but such intricate insight into Bombay, that it shows you the experience as if watching a movie! One can only hope they never try to bastardise this book into a bland movie. Such words could never be swopped for callous colour images!

But back to the music... last night I was in Leytonstone - one of the first spots in London I made the mistake of living in since it was cheap. Going back was actually ok, familiarity faced me at every corner and memories flooded me from five years back!

The venue itself had not been there five years prior... and so it was my first time at Zulus Leytonstone - soon to be renamed as Club Zee... so all the more reason to experience the Eastern cousin of Zulus Fulham before all things change!

An upstairs music spot was perfect for the acoustic sets of Mann Friday lead singer and bass guitarist - Rob and Ryan! Fab to see old faces of friends and hear some great SA music. The main man of the night was Arno Carstens - on stage with the music man, a little one-man concoction of drums, tambourine and guitar. It wasnt too surprising to hear that he was Irish - but it was interesting to discover that he is a main part of Paulo Ntini's band by day (or night, or whenever bands do what they do!)

Mann Friday did some fab acoustic stuff - and sung an old song Id not heard before - called Glimpse. A dear friend, Kelly pointed out one particular line of absolute lushness...

'Did you ever think that lightning just might be the angels taking photographs of lovers at night...'

And this is how the song starts... and a glimpse of what its all about...

'Do you ever catch yourself in a glimpse of understanding and you see yourself... and no one else! Do you ever look at the sunset upside down and see a canyon of flames, fire around? And it all makes sense... and sense makes this all you! You see the blueprints which God layed for you!'

It is always such a treat to see musicians mixing it up and playing unplugged. Arno also did some variations of his usual songs, but sing-a-long favourites were still on the bill. Afterall, it seems that SA audiences mostly come to SA gigs out of a nostalgic longing to hear stuff they've heard before. Too much new... and you risk losing your audience!

After my long journey home - I hopped online - and found an email from Karma (soon to be in London again, watch this space) - and it was a link to a site highlighting a lawsuit launched around the use of one of her songs 'Once' - used as a sample in a rapper's rendition called I feel like dying. The rapper is Lil' Wayne - and you can decide for yourself at www.tmz.com ...scroll down til you spot Karma's pic!

Cool, that should be enough insight for a Friday - and needless to say - check out the gig guide to the right and diarise all those June gigs coming up soon! Plus keep an eye open for the Museletter - the newsletter I write for Living it Live!

And one final thing - check out this week's South African paper for a story on Nibs van Spuy and Guy Buttery - two guitar gurus who are playing tonight at Zulus Fulham!

Rock on lots to do in London!
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