Pro20 Cricket Season begins!

I'm not much of a long term cricket fan but I remember the days my granddad would steal front row seats in the lounge in order to watch the game unrivaled by us kids. It was actually a great experience as my grandfather was very much into his cricket and he became quite boisterous when things weren't going his team's way.

I used to be enthralled just watching him jump up and down rumbling at the TV screen, but nowadays I'm sometimes caught reenacting those same movements that I found so funny about my granddad:-)

I like fast paced action and that's the reason why Pro20 cricket appeals to me. It's all about the action and chasing big scores which are built up by the 4's and 6's that are pummeled out by the fearless batsmen.

This year promises to be a super series and the excitement starts on 25 march 2008 and carries through for a month until the finals on 25 April 2008. For those of you who are not familiar with Pro20 cricket, it's a new formula of cricket that was founded by Standard Bank South Africa and is all about the action and the concept of 'sportainment'. The Pro20 series is a limited–overs tournament which has added another dimension to domestic cricket in SA and it involves 20 overs per innings where each match lasts approximately three hours.

See the Standard Bank website for more info.

Why Cape Town is wow!

The Cape Town International Jazz Festival takes place from the 28-30 March 2008. It is the most anticipated music festival for the astute jazz lover and has been rated as one of the best music festivals in South Africa.

The Dutch version of the North Sea Jazz Festival-Den Haag is regarded as one of the most prestigious Jazz festivals in the world, and the concept was initiated by jazz promoter, Paul Acket.

Unlike its Dutch counterpart, the Cape Town International Jazz Festival has a unique programming line-up with a 50/50 talent split between Africa and the rest of the world. The musical event allows for "local musicians to take their rightful place alongside International musicians, to the benefit of a very dynamic art form". The A Passion for jazz website says it's no wonder the media has dubbed the Cape Town International Jazz Festival as "Africa's Grandest Gathering", as it is certainly regarded as the most prestigious on the continent.

Cape Town International Jazz Festival is hosted at Cape Town's International Convention Centre (CTICC). Did you know that more & more airlines have recognised the importance of Cape Town as a destination?

Emirates Airline has sought to launch their new non-stop Cape Town to Dubai service at the end of the month and Delta Airlines will commence their direct Cape Town to New York service on 4 June 2008.

Human Rights Day

South Africa is not a war torn country and unlike many other African countries, all South Africans are citizens of an independent state. It is with this in mind that I'd like to reflect on what Human Rights Day means in South Africa.

In a democratic South Africa, it means we all should share in the basic human right to life, first and foremost. It also means or rather symbolizes the right to freedom which was not afforded to non-white people during Apartheid rule of our country.

Now our Bill of Rights which is contained in the Constitution is the cornerstone of democracy in South Africa. The Constitution has provided for the establishment of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) of which the aim is to promote respect for human rights, promote the protection, development and attainment of human rights, and to monitor and assess the observance of human rights in SA. The SAHRC was launched on 21 March 1996, 35 years after the fateful events of 21 March 1960 when demonstrators were gunned down by police. In Apartheid South Africa, this day became known as "Sharpeville Day".

Even though South Africa has loosened its shackles of its past woes, the country is grappled with other difficulties like the current energy shortages, the crime statistics and our shaky political system. But as opposed to deflating a young person's positivity, I remain optimistic under the circumstance because life as we know it, is ever-changing, and South Africa's persistence to change and develop will only allow our country to grow for the better. That is what I choose to celebrate and commemorate on 21 March 2008 on Human Rights Day in SA.

14th MTN SAMAs

I wrote a post on Deshanta's World about the South African Music Awards and think it's worth a read if you're a South African music fan. This year's nominees are a bunch of really talented super starts in their own right and they deserve all the support they get!

Check it out here

SA music releases 2.0

I read about an artist who was going to use new age technology to release his debut album in South Africa. I didn't really believe it until I saw an article on BizCommunity covering the subject.

It's amazing how innovative people can be when they put their minds to it and I guess the artist 'J' is laughing all the way to the bank with a big smile on his face because he was the artist that started a trend.

Nowadays people are not only buying musician's albums on CD, the new trend is to have multimedia with your album launch, for example, when the Parlotones, great South African band, recently released their new album. They had a DVD made of all their days in studio recording their album and also teamed up with Microsoft to present the Xbox 360 Summer Tour where they helped in promoting their new album as well as the Xbox around South Africa in December 2007.

Truly unbelievable what one can really do with music and technology, huh?

SA Artists doing it for themselves

Two major developments in the South African music industry have paved the wave for new and exciting methods of marketing an artist's album. I'm a geek and as part of the movement in SA, I follow the 27Dinner event which happens bi-monthly in JHB and Cape Town. Upon following the feedback from one of the dinners held in CT, I stumbled onto Verity's webpage.

Now this woman is really unique and she's a very talented musician, but instead of selling the rights to her skill to a record label, she has decided to take matters into her own hands..In an effort to make something of her musical abilities, she first started coaxing her friends and family to pay R150 towards your own copy of the future release of Verity's album, thereby contributing to the production of her upcoming album.

This marketing concept quickly spread online via her website and now she currently has 1,600 people all socially involved in the production of her album, which she is in studio producing at the moment. How clever is that?

Ordinary people have managed to be part of her creative process every step of the way and what's more interesting is that Verity can really call herself the 'people's artist' when she does drop her album.

You can check her site out to read more on her journey in the music biz and contribute to her album release if you want.

Bye bye Osiris...hello world!

It's been a while and my time at Osiris seems to be a distant memory now that the end of 2007 is closing in on me. Nevertheless there are new opportunities on the horizon for this blog next year, as I will not let things go to pot.

My friends were gracious enough to create this wonderful space for me and I've been using the latter half of this year to consider what I could use Goodbye Desh for. One of the things that I did try to do this year was explore South Africa and allow myself to experience some of the beautiful places that SA has to offer.

It is with great excitement and glee that I have decided to use my blog to chronicle my future travels and enlightening experiences as a young traveler. I have also been offered the opportunity to blog for a travel company called Travelstart so I'm quite psyched that GD will be entering the mix of things to come.

It's going to be a fun journey and I hope you'll come along for the ride.

See you in 2008!
D