SOUNDTRACK: ACTIVE CHILD-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #131 (January 6, 2021).
Active Child has been around a long time, although I was completely unfamiliar with him.
Active Child is the music of Patrick Grossi. … He layers his choral-styled voice on top of melodic harp and piano. Electronic beats propel selections from his latest album, In Another Life, as well as one of his earliest and well-known songs, “Hanging On.”
He opens with “Hanging On.” A drumbeat begins along with his high soaring voice. As the camera fades in, he is playing the harp. As he samples and loops himself, he switches to piano to play the main verse. Then the loop starts and the room fills with music. It’s pretty neat to watch him jump from piano to harp and again for a solo.
From a stunning room overlooking the San Gabriel Mountains in Pasadena, Calif., we hear the ethereal sounds of Active Child. “I chose this space, as this is where I’ve written nearly every piece of music for my active child project. my music and this house / this view are completely intertwined.”
As he’s talking, the drm for “In Another Life” begins. I couldn’t see how he triggered it at all. Over a drum beat and harp, he sings an ethereal melody. When he switches to the piano his voice loops in a nice harmony.
There’s a very slow fade from one scene to the other as he begins “Cruel World.” He starts looping and harmonizing with himself. This is the catchiest of the three mostly from all of the looping.
[READ: January 6, 2021] Days of Our Lockdown Lives
In addition to the Zapiro book of editorial cartoons, we also got a comic strip collection from Stephen Francis and Rico (Schacherl). This was a book in the Madam & Eve comic strip series. There are thirty plus collections and this is the most recent.
Madam & Eve is a daily comic strip syndicated in many South African newspapers. It started in 1992 and went daily in 1993. The premise is based around a middle-class white woman, Gwen Anderson (“Madam”), and her black maid, Eve Sisulu and how they manage in the new South Africa as the Apartheid era drew to a close.
Theirs is a relationship of affectionate squabbling. Perhaps in the spirit of equality, neither character is portrayed as particularly sympathetic. Madam is always coming up with silly ideas in order to fit in more with the new way of life. Eve meanwhile keeps coming up with ways of obtaining extra cash out of Madam and others.
There is also a lot of political humor with strips mentioning topical incidents and also featuring some of the political figures in the news–so the Zapiro book is a nice companion.
This particular book seems to focus a lot on two characters who are not Madam or Eve. This book is heavy on Abigail (“Mother”) Anderson. She is Madam’s mother who first visited in 1994 and was so popular that she became a regular. Mother is known as “Gogo” (an affectionate name for elderly women in South Africa). Gogo complains and drinks gin and tonics. She spends much of her time with Thandi. In a complicated setup that’s probably not worth thinking about too much, Thandi is the little sister of Lizeka who is the Zulu girlfriend of Madam’s son Eric (phew). Lizeka and Eric weren’t even in this book, it was mostly Thandi and Gogo, so the actual relationship is probably not important.
In the spirit of Doonesbury of Bloom County, Gogo makes all kinds of snarky comments to the TV about political goings on. Madam usually yells “MOM!” from offscreen.
I was concerned that I wouldn’t understand the strip at all when the first one started like this
Teacher: Where’s your homework?
Thandi: I was JOLLING at a LEKKER BRRAI, eating BILTONG and BOEREWORS SARMIES, when I got bitten by MOZZIES and MIGGIES. I put on my TAKKIES to get some MUTI from the chemist and AG NEE MAN, some TSOTSI stole my homework.
She goes to the principal and say My English teacher an I have communication issues.
But that was one of the few strips that was full of South African slang.
But I knew I would have to look up some names and words when one strip was:
*laughter in front of the TV*
Are you watching a new sitcom?
[No] Hlaudi testifying at the Zondo Commission.
Woah. I didn’t understand the entire punchline until I looked it up. [Hlaudi Motsoeneng is the leader of African Content Movement (ACM) who served as the acting Chief operating officer of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) from 2011 to 2013. Zondo is the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector including Organs of State.]
There’s jokes about SABC (South Africa’s BBC, I gather) running out of money:
Welcome to a SABC Rugby World Cup special We couldn’t afford to broadcast the actual game today, but we have the next best thing… we’re acting out the entire match with puppets.
Helen Zille (see the Zapiro post) appears here. She started a podcast called “Tea with Helen” which had a total of five episodes.
Strips about the EFF are under the label The Adventures of Floyd & Julius. These are the racist leaders of the party who are also in trouble for money laundering.
Hey Julius what’s your opinion of white people these days?
To be honest I’ve yet to meet a great white i’m impressed with.
Then a shark eats them.
I also learned about Miellies. They are women who sell corn on the streets shouting Miellies!
There are also some totally universal an relatable strips. Gogo is on the computer:
Are you a robot?
No!
Are you sure you’re not a robot!
Yes.
Can you prove you’re not a robot?
(curse) My damn computer’s a robophobe.
In another one, Gogo sticks her head in the fridge asking if the fish from last week is still good. She rears her head back and then we see her in a neckbrace saying “refrigerator bad smell whiplash.”
There’s a few fun ones about cartoon auto correct
-Eve! It’s after five! Time for my Gym and Tongue it.
-Huh?
-I said Thyme for my bin and onyx. Damn this cartoon autocorrect
-I know, it’s totally irrigating. Irritating!
-You can spray that a gun.
Then it gets political: President zuma claims that he is totally indecent. –Innocent.
There’s some Christmas strips:
Black Friday / Bleak Monday (when we see the bills)
Black Friday Special 30% off selected politicians.
Local humor involves police taking bribes. The bribes were referred to as “cold drinks” and so the strip takes it literally, offering police actual beverages on many occasions.
Another political strip has the kids playing Bailout Monopoly
-I already own ESKOM and the SABC I’m totally broke due to corruption and incompetence.
-No problem take whatever you want from the taxpayers.
When the South African team won the rugby world cup there were some strips about it. Who would Gogo root for? She was born in England but lives in South America. She says she doesn’t know who to root for but she winds up waving a South African flag and singing “Shiosho loza.”
A big local thing is the hadeda–the local ibis bird. These are large birds that are very loud. They make occasional appearances in the strips and are humorous pest.
This strip even insults trump.
Little Donnie Trump as The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Donnie yells that a wolf is coming and by the end of the strip he says that he would fight it. It would be a beautiful fight because the wolf is sleepy and low energy loser who probably voted for Hillary.
The second half of the book talks about the lockdown.
Even the hadedes are wearing masks–a very funny visual.
The book offers some lockdown nursery rhymes
Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow and everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go. Including the park where they were immediately arrested for breaking lockdown regulations).
Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard her doggie was hungry and crying. She gave the handle a pull, the cupboard was full. Thank goodness for panic buying (MOM!)
A regular joke is that Gogos drink a gin and tonic every day. Eve starts finding great social distancing methods to bring them to Gogo. Like a drone. At one point, Gogo starts having lengthy a week-long chat with a large gin and tonic.
They also play lockdown Cluedo: Colonel Mustard in the billiard room with the hand sanitiser.
I enjoyed this joke:
What’s for dinner, Eve?
Garlic beans and cabbage casserole.
Whats for dessert?
Social distancing.
In another strip, Madam and Eve are held up by masked men. They just at laugh the men: “That’s a thermometer gun.”
I really enjoyed this book a lot and hope to read more of the strips. You can read many online. There was also a live action TV show made from the strips, which sounds vaguely uncomfortable.
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