Media Flaws

What’s the duration of a hangover? Is it still called a hangover even after two-weeks? I blame the Jazz Festival! This prestigious annual event, which attracts thousands of jazz lovers and not-so-much-jazz-lovers too, was hosted at the CTICC this year – with a line up that flaunted the likes of Randy Crawford, Jo Sample, Stimela and S’bongile Khumalo – just to name a few out of the 40 featured artists.

Sadly for me, this was a typical business weekend. There I was clutching my Recorder and microphone in the midst of all these fashionistas. My highlights of the night were the one-on-one interviews I managed to score. Randy Crawford, Lira and Hip Hop Pantsula (who killed the audiences and almost caused a stampede) were plain easy going interviews, but I somehow ended up trembling and couldn’t hold my mic straight when it came to Tortured Soul – my all time favourite house/chill lounge performers.

I’ll start by thanking the organizers of this event and the special media privileges they gave an ordinary Joe Soap like me… ok, ok, maybe I was commissioned to be there. Having never been to one of these events I was first struck by the startlingly beauty of the venue and the meticulous organization of everything else. The performances were outstanding. But here’s the killer part: I finished my interviews and little did I know that the media was allocated it’s own lounge – with booze and all. Having unearthed these news I then proceeded to reward myself for a hard weekend’s labour. After knocking back a few – my snitch snuck up and told me the president was entering the VVIP section in 5 minutes. This was a tough call: should I ditch my liquid nice-essities and scurry along with the pack of journalists who were viciously arming themselves with Canons, D80s and 3CCD cameras? or should I just chill and get inebriated (seeing that I’d done my job already)? I gave in and followed the pack.

Alas there was the man himself, waving abundantly at the VVIP and corporate guests - who probably didn’t notice as they were too busy immersed in the sponsored cognacs, whiskies and tasteless buffets. I must say our president looks quite smaller/shorter/less intimidating in real life. Whilst others dashed off with cameras – I decided and knew I would never be allowed an interview with the president at such a gathering – so I side tracked and rubbed shoulders with the like of Pallo Jordan and even did a few unplanned recorded interviews with some corporate/political giants. After these unplanned interviews I noticed something odd in the VVIP section - no one had moved a muscle to witness the live performances outside this section. This meant I had them all to myself and didn’t have to rush. Above all I only needed to see Totured Soul’s performance - which was at 01h00 and the time then was only 21h00. What happened between 21h00 and 01h00 in a section filled with free premium single malts - I cannot write in words but will leave you to shake your head in abhorrance as you try picture it.