Study, study, study, work, study, Bloemfontein (punk as fuck), driving home, study, study, study, study, study, work, players… that’s pretty much been my last couple of weeks. Test week at varsity is over, exams are around the corner, and I seem to have a work ethic. Weird.

#1

Nearly There!

The drive to Bloemfontein on Saturday 3 October was about as exciting as the drive back to Pretoria on Sunday 4 October. Actually the drive back was more fun as we played some good ‘ol games of “I spy with my little eye” and some others I can’t remember off hand. The “festival” that we made the trip for was dusty, filled with punks and was actually everything I had hoped for. Nico and the team from Libery Valance rocked out… quickly, but rocked out none the less. Lungs filled with dust and drizzle, my homie MC was kind enough to “show us around” and took us to the Mystic Boer… hilarity ensued, pizza was eaten and smack was spoken. Good times.

#2

Image taken from here!

The second grand thing that has happened to me has been a sudden new found love of Tom Collins’. Greatest drink ever! I mixed some up at T-Bones braai on Saturday. They were enjoyed, too much and no one took photos for you to see. As a consolation prize, I managed to take this great snap of a nasty bug that was running around that night.

Pretty gross!

I have also taken the liberty of sharing the Tom Collins recipe I got off of Wikipedia:

Tom Collins IBA Official Cocktail

Type: Mixed drink
Primary alcohol by volume: Gin
Served: On the rocks; poured over ice
Standard garnish: orange, cherry, or lime
Standard drinkware: Collins

IBA specified ingredients:

• 2 parts gin
• 1 part freshly squeezed lemon juice
• drizzle of sugar syrup
• chilled carbonated water to taste

Preparation: Mix the gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup in a tall glass with ice, top up with soda water, garnish and serve.

Drink it!

#3

I’ve been eating loads of these awesome noodles. Go buy them, they rock. The Chinese shop where my tofu comes from sells them (Yat Kee Chinese Supermarket, Maroelana Centre, 27 Maroelana Street, Hazelwood). Add a little ginger to the mix as well for maximum awesomeness.

Thats all for now,
Rick Disco, over and out
^5!

I was reading my blog posts on this site today and I have to apologise for writing some really boring drivel that is really boring boring the old man is snoring. So I have ended that. Rad.

I got sick last week, throat infection or something and it was totally badass. I spent a few days in bed being lame and watching series and sleeping and taking photos of my dogs – they were hanging with me in my room.

I captured Abbie in the middle of a yawn… She looks badass here, but is actually really sweet.

I finally read Moxyland (it’s been on my shelf since my birthday in March) and I have to say that Lauren Beukes is one talented author(ess?)… go to Exclusive Books tomorrow and have a look at the book, read the back, want to buy it… and then go home and logon to Kalahari.net and save a lot of money and get it delivered to your house.

I watched some weird movies as well. Surveillance is directed by David Lynch’s daughter Jenny, ’nuff said – It’s violent and awesome. IMDB says it’s about: “An FBI agent tracks a serial killer with the help of three of his would-be victims – all of whom have wildly different stories to tell.”. It got a crap rating there, but I rickommend it. Tonight I watched Public Enemies with Kid Caryn… What an awesome film! It is shot incredibly well, has a great story, is about bank robbers and is based on a true story! WIN! Go watch it! If you don’t like it, your opinion is wrong.

I will be putting up some photo’s from the past few weeks worth of gigs that the dirtyoldDisco have played at sometime soon.

Stay tuned.

Rick Disco, Over and Out!
^5!

I couldn’t make it to Oppikoppi this past long weekend, so making the most of being stuck at home Caryn and I did some cooking! On Friday night she made me delicious home made pizzas with artichokes, rosemary, rosa tomatoes, mushrooms, some fresh chillis and a whole lotta mozzarella! They came out amazingly as I’m sure the photos will show!

After eating too much we went out for a drink with my old friend Charlie… always a good time! Charlie is having an exhibition soon, but I will keep you posted on the details!

The rest of the weekend was filled with more work than I care to normally do, a good solid night of beers with Nico and Steve as well as a lovely lunch at Caryn’s family’s home. Be sure to check out Nico’s punk as f@ck band Liberty Valance out on Facebook… Two new songs up!

On Monday night it was my turn to make something awesome so I put together a few delicious stuffed peppers… this is what I did…

Grab the recipe after the jump!

Mmmmm!

Stuffed Green Peppers (feeds two)

• 2 large green peppers
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 medium sized red onion, finely chopped
• some button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 small chillis, finely chopped
• 70ml Jasmine rice
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 20ml white wine
• 20ml cold water
• 100ml hot water
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 10ml rice vinegar
• a few roasted almonds / cashews
• salt and pepper
• grated cheese, for the tops

Place the rice in a bowl and cover with boiling water, cover and leave for at least half an hour.Wash the peppers, slice off the end with the stalk and remove the core and seeds from the peppers. Place these in a deep saucepan with a lid that will still fit with the peppers inside. Heat up a pan with a bit of oil in it, add the mustard seeds and saute the onion in the pan slightly then add the mushrooms and brown. Add the cold water, rice, tomatoes, thyme. Season with salt and pepper, stir and cover. Drop the heat down low and simmer for about 15 mins. The rice should still be firm. I also chopped up the ends of the peppers that i cut off and added them to the mix. Add the wine, stir and spoon into the peppers until full. Add the hot water and olive oil to the deep saucepan, around the peppers and cover. Slowly simmer for about 45 mins. Add the almonds / cashews to the tops, cover with grated cheese and grill.

Served with an avocado, split pea and baby corn salad… delicious!

That’s all for now
^5!

Dang the last week has flown by super fast… so I’m spending today catching up on all those things you miss out on when doing too many things. Nothing beats sitting back in your comfy chair listening to music and reflecting… [listening to IAMX - Kingdom Of Welcome Addiction as I type]

This post includes the Drunken Banshees, Pretoria Botanical Gardens, my new controller, Cool Runnings, Juri, bad movies, dirtyoldDisco, university, work, bluetooth and a wireless antenna.

Read all about it after the jump!
American punk band the Drunken Banshees were in South Africa for a bit of a tour. They stayed with Andrew so we got to hang and be punk as fuck. I went to the show at Shivas on Friday 17 June. Shivas is a little shit hole in Pretoria… it’s dingy, but has rickdiculously cheap booze so was probably the perfect place to watch 10 punk bands and be roudy. No photos made it onto my camera that night so check out the band on myspace for more: www.myspace.com/drunkenbanshees!

T-Bone!

Croquet!

Drew and Nelia Face!

The following day we all went off to the Botanical Gardens to have a little eat loads of snacks and nurse that hangover day for Thembas birthday. The weather was great, nice and sunny… some folks even brought croquet!

On Sunday Juri graced Caryn and I with his presence for a quick beer at good ‘ol Players… good to see the dude again… after that we watched Fanboys. What a lame movie, but I’ll leave you the funniest line – “I’m William Shatner… I can score anything!”. I also ordered my new controller and posted it to my aunt in Canada. My folks are off to visit her next week end so they will bring it back for me just in time for the dirtyoldDisco’s next gig The controller is a Hercules RMX and is one powerful DJ controller! I can’t friggin wait for it to arrive!

My new controller

On Tuesday saw the launch of Pluto Was A Planet’s debut album at Tings an Times. Themba and I finished the evening off with some banging electro as the dirtyoldDisco. The crowd loved it and the gig rocked! Thanks to the band for inviting us… ^5! Check them out here!

The rest of the week saw me at university being unmotivated but at least I managed to build my wireless antennae I’ve been busy with for too long. I also programmed my bluetooth remote and set all that up… tech posts on those projects as soon as I’m happy with the results.

I’m off to a braai in a bit so that’s all for now!

Soon
^5!

The Mountain above us

I managed to have a quick getaway weekend this past one. Caryn and I drove through to Verlorenkloof in Mpumalanga to have a weekend with her folks. Being just what the doctor ordered, it was super relaxed! We did some chillin, some walking and I learnt to fly fish (horay for a new skill!). Verlorenkloof is beautiful, peaceful and serene. If you like that sort of thing, go go go www.verlorenkloof.co.za!

Photos and more after the jump!

Walking Feet!

Caryn Paryn!

The Waterfall at the top!

Fly Fishing!

Casting!

Fly Fishing Fun!

We drove back on Sunday and made it back in P-Town just in time to head off to Cool Runnings to have some birthday drinks with T-Bone. A whopping quater of a century old now, but he got a new car so thats pretty awesome. It was turbo rad to hang with everyone… just too many drinks and not enough sleep made my first day back at varsity suck.

T-Bone Looking Badass!

Good Times

^5!

Friday night Caryn and I headed off to The Woods to grab a live set from Mtkidu. The Woods is a cool venue but damn, why can’t they open up the seating area? When it is so packed, all you do is get bumped around the whole time and it ends up being a bit lame. Apart from that, Mtkidu played a killer set… I love their new material and can’t friggin’ wait for their up and coming album release! Grab some of their tracks free from electrotrash!

Read all about the last few days – recording, Lotus, birthdays – all after the jump!

MtKidu being Kool Kids!

Saturday was a chilled out one… I stepped into the studio with good buddies Liberty Valance to add my voice to some gang vocals they were recording. They are recording a few tracks for a demo, so I will link to the tracks asap for you all to hear! The tracks are sounding epic, punk-hardcore sort of stuff… give them some love (and listen to an older recording) on their Facebook Fanpage here!

The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling, some Vida E, some Entourage and much later some drinks at good ‘ol players. Sundays was also super relaxed, being the first day I have been able to sleep in on for ages… In the evening Caryn and I went to grab some sushi at Lotus Thai… FANTASTIC sushi + some great wine… Good times!

Monday saw a long day at work and then we headed off to Tings to celebrate Warrens birthday… Jackhammer (?) played as well. With those law kids, it’s always a party! Some photos below

On a side note, I added mobile phone support for my blog, so if you are on your phone, don’t be scared to hit up rickdisco.com… It will all render properly and be nice and small for whatever phone you are using!

Thats all for now…

Take it easy
^5!

Woah! Another semester has flown by and once again it wasn’t blogged about much… so let’s catch up…

This issue includes varsity, working, Mabula Game Lodge, HAEZER, Twitter, moving Andrew, DJing and a whole lot more!

Read all about it after the jump!

Varsity was fairly uneventful in terms of cool stuff that I got to build so i won’t even bore you with anything else. I managed to pass all my exams (no re-writes either! ) which totally rocks… I can finally see the end of my degree approaching! As my exams ended I managed to get a job at an electronics firm to do a bit of holiday work… this means no holiday for me but at least it will result in a bit of experience.

Drew and I showing our muscles that would get the job done!

Andrew moved into a new flat… Themba, The Tonner and I moved him in… In a day! We hired “the tonner” (a 3/4 ton trailer that I had to learn to drive in like 5 minutes) and began to load all his stuff up. We also carried this stuff up stairs, I almost burnt his new place down (accident!) and we bashed things that wouldn’t fit through doorways until they did. It was great fun and made me never want to move… ever. Thanks Andrew.

T-bone and I, with the Tonner, in Drews new driveway!

Don’t put boxes on stoves…

If it doesnt fit, get the saw!

Caryn and I managed to get away and join my folks at Mabula Game Lodge for a long weekend at some point, which was real relaxing and hence kicked ass! My sister (Natalie) and George – who I definitely do not see often enough – came along as well.

We saw some impala…

… some Red Hartebees…

… and a gemsbok!

Natalie and George!

Drew, dirtyoldThemba, Caryn Paryn, Nelia Face, T-shirt Terry and I rolled off to go and see Saturday Night Live Superstar Wayne  Brady! Wow! What a rad show! As far as impromptu stand-up comedy goes, this was hilariously enjoyable, if you get the chance, go go go!

The dirtyoldDisco in action!

The Viral Underground party was a great success… Thanks to all of you that came out to support! The next one will only be in August due to some lame venue owners but I’ll keep you posted!

HAEZER live at the Woods!

My current favourite local performer HAEZER was doing his “I’m touring South Africa” rounds and I got to see him twice! The first show was at Tings and was cool although it was a bit weird dancing to this BANGING electro there. My boys T-bone and sAdam joined me for that one! The Woods show killed and we friggin’ raved until the wee hours of the morning. Oh Yeah!

Caryn and I at Tings..

Adam and Jess at Tings!

T-bone at Tings!

HAEZER live at Tings!

The dirtyoldDisco at the Woods!

Caryn and I at the Woods!

I also rejoined the masses on Twitter and I actually use that pretty often… so follow me if you feel like it! Find me at twitter.com/rickdisco. Electrotrash is also on Twitter, so follow the site at twitter.com/electrotrashZA to grab the updates!

I think thats about it for now!

Take it easy
^5!

This year has been flying past me, way too many things to do in such a short time! Electrotrash has been growing from strength to strength with loads more content being added a lot more regularly (we even have a Facebook fanpage now… here ! University has been insanely busy but has also been really interesting so I haven’t minded too much.

Read more about partying on my birthday, The Bloody Beetroots, Indian food and more randomness after the jump!

[back, left to right] Andrew Pandrew, Nelia Face, Rick D
[front] T-Bone
[note: Caryn Paryn took the photo]

My birthday was last week and I was thoroughly spoilt by everyone. I also got to watch The Bloody Beetroots on the day which was a totally amazing experience. They played at the Alexander Theatre in Jo’burg, it rocked (see the event posting here)! Go have a look at their Myspace and listen to some of their music here. Check out photos from the gig on electrotrash here! Thanks to all you folks that rolled through and partied with me!

Caryn and I also found a new restaurant to go and eat at… It is a North Indian Punjabi Restaurant called Tranna situated in Hazeldean Square, corner of Lynnwood and Silverlakes Roads. It’s quite far out of the suburbs of Pretoria but well worth the drive. They have a “website”, but its more a badly scanned in version of their menu… go have a look at it at www.tranna.co.za. The Naan breads are amazing and everything else we have eaten there has been pretty darn awesome!

Drew brought me back the Justice – A Cross The Universe DVD… WOW! This is definitely rickommended (rickism’s are the new cool!)! I grabbed the official teaser for the DVD off of DailyMotion:

Justice – A Cross The Universe Official Teaser

Well I think that’s all for now…

Take it easy
^5!

Caryn and I decided to head down to the Pretoria Zoo to see what we could see. It’s always awesome to see that the Pretoria Zoo is constantly upgrading the living areas of their animals and that they are always in super great shape. They are currently busy building a new seal / penguin enclosure that looks huge, I’m definitely looking forward to that!

Read about our zoo trip after the jump!

Caryn and I walked the zoo in the unconventional right to left fashion so as to end up with the aquarium instead of start with it. So we began with the vultures and the primates and then moved on to the savanna… Three lions have been moved down the mountain to the Africa exhibit section to make it easier to get a look at them.

After that we crossed our first bridge towards the aviary! I love walking in the huge aviary and getting to see all the strange birds they have in there!

After a tiring walk up the mountain we saw some strange looking white antelope (there wasn’t a tag on the fence to let us know what they were :<) as well as our orginal lion trio! Tony the tiger was up there too! The other tigers were down below in the shade roaring like crazy.

Any ideas?

It’s GRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEAAAT!!!

We then found an old friend…

We found Themba!

Bears are just awesome!

The seals were being cleaned and were jumping around their temporary area like a bunch of crazy folk! We headed through the Australia section and got to see the koala bears… unfortunately none of my photos of them came out nicely. After that was the pygmy hippos and accross our final bridge.

We walked up past the old elephant to the aquariam and reptile park… you always see awesome things there!

Aw!

Komodo!

Some aligators!

Exhausted, over heated and content we headed back home for a much needed swim!

^5!

I haven’t blogged in ages, I just haven’t really had much to say. This has been a pretty interesting year for me so I loaded up the photos I’ve taken and tried to remember all the things that have happened / I’ve done etc… I know I’ve forgotten a lot but here goes anyways…

Stream the thoughts!

Partying much less, studying much more, getting a girlfriend, listening to a lot of bad music that I downloaded off of blogs, selling my car, shaving my moustache, breaking my speakers, watching LOTS of movies, Magaliesberg Canopy Tours, tennis, mountain biking, Infected Mushroom, picnics, dirtyoldDisco, radio deconstruction, threadless, blah blah blah!

Read the full story after the jump!

Caryn and I

So first off… Meet the girlfriend: Caryn. I’ve known Caryn for some time now but we only got to know each other properly around my birthday this year and I’ve never looked back!

Infected Mushroom

Then swiftly moving through everything else… I watched Infected Mushroom (the Israeli trance band) live. Now I’m not a fan of trance but wow, what a show they put on! I would definitely go and watch them again any day! I also shaved my moustache, extreme, i know. Word.

Check that roof rack yo!

My old car finally gave up the ghost so I cut my losses and now drive an Opel Monza… and it has a roof rack! Lame.

Magaliesberg Canopy Tours Certificate!

Caryn and I managed to organise a little holiday away to the Magaliesberg. We did a mad rad extreme canopy tour (there is no canopy? I still don’t get the name)! What fun it was though, I really recommend it to anyone! Check it! I started to play tennis every now and again… I’m not too good at it though but its great! Themba and Neil have also managed to get me out of bed at 4:30am on Saturday mornings to go mountain biking on the Groenkloof Nature Reserve trail… pretty eXtreme!

The dirtyoldDisco

My “partner in grime” as Greg “Destrukto” Tucker puts it, Themba, and I started a music project that moves so slowly but it’s awesome! Entitled “dirtyoldDisco” you should be able to hear it in the not so near future, eventually. It’s one part dirtyoldman (Themba T-Bone) and one part yours truly, Rick Disco… it’s a fantastic combo off hard hitting, banging electro! Grab a preview mix off of my favourite website electrotrash.co.za (giggle) here! The dirtyoldDisco is also doing some exciting things with team Deconstruction… they rock so keep an eye on www.deconstruction.be!

Picnics are Awesome!

For some reason 2008 was a year with more picnics than I’m normally accustomed to… OK it was probably only like four or so times but still, picnics really stood out this year. Sometimes we kicked the soccer/foot ball around and once I even wore a shirt and hid in the background of other people’s photos!

Hiding in the back…

Then there was a lot of random partying, Aandklas one too many times, a few trips to Jo’burg, lot’s of bands at Tings and a lot of good times!

So the end of the year has arrived and to conclude it, I will be making my way down to Cape Town after Christmas to bring in the new year down there.. OH YEAH!

So all in all, it’s been a fairly rickstreme year.
Love you all!
^5!