We did it again. We waited until just a few weeks before to sign up and train for the Midmar Mile. Watch the video for some funny footage of us revealing our swim briefs (Speedos) and losing our friend.
Happy Single Awareness Day
February 12th, 2013
There’s a certain swell of pride that wells up in me as Srizzil’s first video of 2013 goes live. I have somehow managed to work almost nine hour days, sit in traffic for two, go to gym for one and still manage to shoot and edit a video. If I can get this flow right repeatedly you can expect a lot more Srizzil videos this year, but let’s not get too excited too early.
As Valentine’s Day approached I had an idea that would both celebrate love and sympathise with those people that are alone on the most commercialised romantic day of the year. If we could put a happy couple, doing what couples do, with a single person we could create an interesting contrast. But why make the single people look bad? The things couples do can be extremely annoying: overly affectionate behaviour in public, giggling, forgetting their friends are even in the room…
I think we managed to get a nice balance of celebrating love whilst poking fun at the behaviour of those in the thick of it.
When I was envisioning the video I had certain music playing in my mind. I had no idea what it was called, so I hummed it into my SoundHound app and was pleasantly surprised to find it was in the public domain. (This means that with the right recording I could use the music without getting into trouble with YouTube).
As with many of my videos this was a serious collaboration. We had a cast of fifteen people, with four of us taking on cast and crew positions. We shot all the scenes, except one, in a single day in four different locations. So I want to thank those amazing people for all their help, you guys are fantastic, I always have such a good time shooting these videos with you.
Watch some of our outtakes and a deleted scene featuring our very own Granny Robber below:
2012 Reflections
December 31st, 2012
I hurriedly downloaded the new music, plugged in my headphones, locked the bathroom door and pressed play. The music surrounded me as I closed my eyes and breathed. 1, 2, 3, 4…
Launching into 2012 things didn’t look good. I struggled to get back into doing honours again, and in March the company I had had a training contract with for four years pulled the plug when I least expected it.
But then, things started to turn around. I met a friend at an exam and we decided to put a plan together to pass. We started meeting at the university library and studying regularly. I downloaded a gym plan off the Virgin Active website and started following it, I swam the Midmar Mile, and I started focusing better. My marks got better, I found I spent more quality time with friends, and finally in November 2012 I passed honours, and re-signed with Deloitte to do my training.
My focus may have been on passing this year but it certainly didn’t stop life from happening. I did more promotions work over 2012, trying to bring in a bit of cash and enjoying a few unique moments with some new people. I continued to fail at surfing, but persisted none the less. I had awkward dinners with church people and amazing times of laughter and adventure with good friends.
Although finding time to shoot Srizzil videos proved difficult this year Srizzil has done extremely well. We again surpassed the previous year’s views, flying past the 50 000 milestone without a second glance. I started Vlogging on SrizzilExtra in November which was an interesting and entertaining experiment. More vlogs have already been shot for the New Year. SrizzilMusic got a boost from my friend Msizi and his Idols adventures racking up thousands of views.
Although I didn’t upload any of my own music to SrizzilMusic this year, it’s been a year filled with note after note. I lead worship at my youth almost every week for much of the year, and even had a few opportunities to lead at my church. I’ve scrapped up a bit more confidence along the way, and enjoyed experimenting with songs instead of just playing everything like the artist. I got to see one of my favourite worship bands live in my own church, and had the great pleasure of leading people into encounters with God.
A Korean pop star shook the world and gave YouTube it’s first video to clock a Billion views, we cheered for the Olympic competitors as they achieved crazy feats and the world held it’s breath as the much publicized Mayan end of the world came and went. 2012 was a year of positivity, it was my third act, my closing of a difficult chapter in life, and it leads the way into new beginnings and a bright future.
Lost in translation
December 26th, 2012
My good friend Miss Kate Hohls is not just a brilliant actress, she’s the girl from The Awkward Date, but she also writes like a boss. I asked her very nicely to write for Srizzil and behold, here is her first guest post. Enjoy…
The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan will be impossible for them…let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” – The Tower of Babylon.
I bonded with my first friend in Pretoria over a conversation about Afrikaans. Neither of us are first language speakers and we were overwhelmed with this incomprehensible buzz that fills Pretoria’s air. She took Afrikaans as a second language at high school, and she told me about an exam she once wrote. The essay topic was “Stokperdjies”. Bewildered, she wrote a two page essay about her little stick horse. I think I am slightly worse off than her, I haven’t written an Afrikaans essay since I was 13, having taken it at a conversational level in high school. In our matric classes, girls were still translating ‘swimming costume’ into ‘swemkos’.
“So why did you come to Pretoria without learning die Taal? Only the rich people here speak English.”
“But Pretoria is also a part of my country, my shy, rebellious, young, brave, blossoming, hopeful, rough-around-the-edges South Africa. Is there no right or law that suggests I should be able to communicate with these beautiful people? Don’t I belong in Pretoria as much as I belong in Durban? So why do I feel like a foreigner here, looking in through the window of someone else’s home into a muted scene?”
It’s strange that our mother tongues can pick and choose who we will become friends with. Predestination? Yes, well, you could have become the master of your own destiny if you had only listened in class instead of – whatever you were doing with your time.
A black man once insisted on speaking to me in Afrikaans, even after I replied in English. Brother, I do not mean to insult you in any way, I am sure you love using your Afrikaans. It’s very good – much better than mine. But if we are going to talk, face to face, flesh to flesh, human to human, I am afraid there is only one language in which we will find success.
Sometimes I wonder if not knowing Afrikaans for some reason offends people. I don’t have the guts to ask, since the answer I anticipate is ominously gloomy. But one thing I do know is that ignorance can lead to offensively stupid acts:
Exhibit A: I walk into a hairdressing salon for the first time. The lady behind the counter sees me and begins rattling off in Afrikaans. She is speaking so fast and so long that instead of my usual shy “Pardon?” I interrupt her with an obtuse “What??” She stops and stares at me. Coldly, “Sorry, I thought you were someone else.” When I returned meekly the next week for my haircut, she did not have the chance to find our which someone I actually am because she did not say a word to me the entire hour I was there.
How can we belong where we are not understood? How can we co-operate where we do not understand? How will we run this human race as one where confusion takes the lead? Where will we begin South Africa?
For more from Kate, check out her blog here.
Movember 2012
November 29th, 2012
It’s a movement that has captured the hearts of men who wish to show their manly ability to grow a moustache. Movember is a month long event in which the growing of moustaches is meant to bring awareness to the reality of cancers that affect men. In this video, Mandy and I sat down and discussed the awkwardness of having a moustache, the symbolism behind the moustache and then I proceeded to awkwardly describe checking for testicular cancer.
In hind sight, it wasn’t the best idea to have a girl in a video about manly issues, but it is my first guest in a Vlog post, so… yay. I edited out a lot of gruesome detail in the checking process, and some fun random discussion that just didn’t make sense in the flow of the video. In the end, I think it become a silly way to discuss a serious issue, and hopefully that can bring some awareness as much as growing a silly moustache does.
