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Last year, my friend Msizi and I were walking along the beach discussing the influx of overweight people around us. We were joking around about discriminating against them and not allowing them on the beach, and that’s when the name popped out, ‘Fat Free Beaches.’ When I got home it got me thinking. We’re so obsessed with being thin, or fit. In the past, it was considered beautiful to be overweight. Thanks to increased health awareness we know its better not to be, but society has taken it too far with young guys and girls now obsessed with being fit or thin. Guys are taking all sorts of weird and wonderful substances to build muscles whilst girls aren’t eating in the hope of keeping off the pounds. At the same time being fat is still bad for you, but we as people can’t seem to find balance.
Comedy is one of the greatest ways to tackle issues from all sides, to show people just how ridiculous we are without preaching to them. Instead it highlights issues by making people laugh. That is exactly the purpose of this video. The video throws in political references and balances things out with Jock free beaches for maximum discrimination.
Byron Langley is a friend of mine from youth who got a kick start to his acting career in Spud: The Movie. We had been talking about doing a Srizzil video since December last year, in fact I had written the Fat Free Beaches Script with him in mind, but it took us five months to finally get together and film it.
Byron brought his high school friend Willem Nieman, a comedy legend of Glenwood High’s stage, to add some spice to the video. Throw in some help from dynamite Mandy Rothquel and Msizi Hadebe and you have a winning team. Msizi took the honours of the voice over and, I’m sure you’ll agree, did a fantastic job getting overexcited about such a horrible product.
Special thanks to Gary Friedman and Susan Foster for allowing us to use their dog Max. It’s a beautiful thing that complete strangers can be so willing to help out. You can see Max chasing Willem (Jeff 2) in the background of one of the shots. Max is official Fat Free Beaches security.
I’ll be the first to admit that my singing videos on YouTube leave much to be desired. I still seem to get nervous singing in front of the camera. I think I’ve finally grown enough confidence to believe I can in fact sing, but the nerves are still a big issue. Let’s not even discuss in front of people by myself.
So I’ve decided to do something a bit more fun to help me grow more. Today I’m launching the Singing in the Bathroom Series or SBS for short. It’s where, you guessed it, I take my camera into the bathroom and sing some fun songs and act crazy. As lyrics that aren’t mine tend to linger in some difficult to reach place in my brain I’ve started with something I couldn’t mess up. When the saints. Let me know what you think.
Captain Jack is back! In this fouth instalment of the Pirates franchise he’s off to find the fountain of youth, using and abusing people as he goes. It’s business as usual for our favourite pirate. With Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom’s story wrapped it’s opened up space for a horde of new characters including the infamous Blackbeard (Ian McShane) and a new love interest for Jack in Angelica (Penélope Cruz).
The story kicks starts in London with a mad chase through the city as Jack pulls off another great escape, only to be saved at the last second by his father (Keith Richards) and sent on his way to discover the fountain. Although the movie has an exciting new destination, it feels like something is lacking, like we’ve seen much of it before.
The greatest sequence comes from the most original part of the story, the mermaids. In this sequence we finally see a spark of that pirate’s magic that seems to have been lacking all along. The magic of exploring the unknown, the mythical is finally ignited. Although Jack’s relationship with Angelica brings in the humour and fun he had with Knightley, a true love story is nowhere to be found. That is, until the fresh faced Christian begins to fall in love with one of the mermaids.
The fourth instalment also brings in Hollywood’s money spinner, 3D, which yet again adds nothing to the excitement of the film and renders the often dark movie scenes almost completely black. Do yourself a favour and watch this one on a normal movie screen.
Hans Zimmer, Disney’s call to music man, works his magic again to wake us up in the usual fight after fight. For those Pirates fanatics, there’s a reward for sitting through the credits that may just ignite your excitement for yet another round. The question is, do we want one?
In the end, you feel satisfied to see Depp’s brilliant character up to mischief again. It feels as if there has been a step up from Pirates 3 levels, but it’s just not a big enough step to make this as great as the first time around. If a fifth movie does go ahead, they need to find a way of bringing the surprise factor back instead of just throwing in more fight scenes.
Over the last few years, 3D has exploded into movie houses, onto TV screens, computers and even portable gaming devices. I remember being invited by Ster-Kinekor to see one of the first 3D offerings to come into South Africa. It was a National Geographic movie, they some how always seem to have their science films out on the new technology first, and I was completely blown away. This wasn’t that junk that we were used to from the Spy Kids movies, this was crystal clear.
Over time, and through repeated use, the novelty of 3D has begun to wear off. The flaws in what many call a Hollywood money making scheme are coming through. Don’t get me wrong, when sitting down just days ago to watch a currently embargoed film I still got excited when the Ster-Kinekor logo exploded in my face. It’s when you sit through a film for two hours that it begins to get taxing.
The biggest complaint around the world appears to be the darkness of the movies. An employee even chatted to us after the latest film preview about the different ways they were trying to make the film brighter after audience complaints. The fact of the matter is, the dark glasses make the film darker. Until the studios find a way of adjusting the picture for 3D or making the projection even brighter, this will be a problem. But this one is solvable in the short term.
The second is the glasses. They’re uncomfortable. For people who don’t regularly wear glasses, it simply deflates the entertainment bubble that 3D was made to inflate. Added to this is a wide spread complaint over being tired and eye pain during and after seeing the movie. Our eyes are constantly trying to balance an imperfect system and they’re not happy about it.
The next step would be to move the technology beyond the glasses, which is what Nintendo has tried to do with its 3DS. But even that has had complaints from strained eyes.
When I watch a movie I’m there to be entertained by a story. Do I really need to see it in 3D? It’s not making the story any more immersive because I’m now being distracted by funky glasses and an increasing headache. This is exactly why the attempted move to bring 3D into the home space has failed to launch in the way the manufacturers had hoped. When we’re chilling at home we want to be comfortable, and wearing goofy glasses and straining our eyes is not comfort.
What remains to be seen is whether this 3D fiasco will burn out, which seems unlikely with all the extra cash being made on it, or will the technology be perfected and brought to a place where it truly is the difference between black and white, and colour.
My dad, being an avid bike lover and Harley owner, was up with the sparrows to join the Harley Davidson, Durban Chapter on a ride down to Margate for Africa Bike Week. Although my parents had been multiple times I’ve never been to the event and joined my mom in following the bikes down the coast in the car.
The atmosphere is electric, with thousands of bikes and people taking over the sleepy town. The unmistakeable sound of Harleys fills the air, as people ogle bike customisations and cameras are everywhere.
I, of course, was armed with my camera, and took a few pictures of the event, the beach, and some cool bikes.
Review
Africa Bike Week 2011
