so far... in south africa

FRIDAY : Jo-burg

landed here on friday morn, surprisingly rested, as i used a bunch of miles in order to fly first class for te 12 hour flight. just relaxed, saw rafique's apt and neighborhood. since we were planning to head out that night, raffy, varooj and their cousin mike - who is living here in jo-burg working as a model - decided to invite some people over to pre-party. not too many folks showed, but many many drinks were had. the party was good -- funny how you travel all the way to the other end of the world to hear the same music. :) we arrived home at 5am - and were off to the airport to head to cape town at 5:30. because as mike says "THAT'S HOW WE ROLL!"

SATURDAY : Cape Town

arrived in cape town at around 9am. headed to Raffy's friend Tsepo's place (actually it's his uncle's place but whatever). a fabulous 3 bedroom where we'd all crash for the weekend. after a brief sit down we headed out to see the sights. photos taken on my N95 : here. more to come from my other camera soon. after touring the fishing village / antique area and getting a great seafood lunch, we went back home for a nap. after a lie down we went back out for a drink at a lounge over-looking the water at sunset. gorgeous. then to a posh hotel -- and finally out for the night. 6 bars/ lounges/ clubs... from all black -- to almost all white (except for us) -- to all "colored" or mixed people. quite a night.

SUNDAY : Cape Town

we woke up quite late, but decided to push through and head to wine country. after doing a tasting, we headed for a wonderful lunch at nice Victorian-style hotel. food aplenty -- they had a full room just for dessert. fantastic. malva pudding is my new find. recipe here. it was raining at this point, so the boys just kicked back had some scotch and cigars attempting to wait out the downpour. no dice. a few hours later we ran to the car to head to airport back to jo-burg. needless to say w all passed out on the flight.

MONDAY/ TUESDAY : Jo-burg

Mon -- i slept all day. mike and i only left to go get a bite to eat and hit up the ATM. varooj headed home, so now it's just the 3 amigos.

Tues -- jet-lag sprouts its ugly head/ compounded on my 14 hours of sleep on Monday. :) . i was up from 3am - 8am. :( but back to sleep until 2pm. gotta love vacation! i headed the mall -- featuring gucci, prada, nike shops.. the works! not what i expected, but the highlight was Nelson Mandela Square adjacent to the mall. pic leads off this entry. raffy and i enjoyed a nice indian dinner after my nearly 3 hour journey through the mall and adjoining sights.

more adventures to come...

***In case you missed the link earlier -- all photos taken to date are here

how the rich do it

yesterday i went up to millbrook, ny to dj a reception for a wedding that took place a few weeks ago. the set up for the party was straight out of one of those MTV shows : my super sweet 16 or whatever. the grounds of their house extended for acres upon acres, with pools and tennis courts, cattle and the like...
the set up for the party was a tent that surrounded their pool, arabic-themed - as the groom is lebanese. the party was back-tie, of course, and featured a belly dancer, hookas and the works. apparently the 120 guests went through 85 bottles of champagne in the first 1 and a half hours. must be nice. i was able to play some cool remixes that my friend Omar's brother made - traditional middle eastern music blended with modern day hiphop and r&b. the party lasted until 3am. i'm sure the champagne played a part in that. :) anyhow, check out some of the photos i snapped prior to the festivities beginning... here.

fingers do the talking

many of you may be aware that the new Kanye West album is coming out soon. It is called Graduation - following his releases College Dropout and Late Registration. The second single is titled Stronger - and samples Daft Punks "harder, better, faster, stronger" -- peep this video from youtube which someone created as an ode to the Daft Punk track. it's very well done. just give it a few seconds to get going...

chill my ride

this is ingenius - and f-in' crazy at the same time.

read the blog entry here::
AIR CONDITIONER CAR

a weekend of music

DUMBO
Originally uploaded by djtakefive.

this past weekend was music-filled and friend-filled, just the way I like it. friday night, I went to the FREEDOM party with my homies, Dex and Mike. If you are in NYC, you must go to this party! every friday my friend Kenny (dj herbert) and Dj Cosi play hours and hours of great music to shake your tookus to. lots of old r&b and classic soul - old school hiphop and some dance classics -- think : Debbie Deb "when i hear music". anyhow, so that was friday night. then on sat Dex and I played volleyball in Central Park -- then we went to Latin music day at Summer Stage... then we treked to Brooklyn to go to an outdoor concert in DUMBO. (down under the manhattan bridge overpass). the headliner for the outdoor show was LL Cool J - and man... can he still rock the party! view some more photos on my Flickr page : here.

bourne - again.

this afternoon my friend Delauno and I went to the see the Bourne Ultimatum. it's the best action movie i have seen in several years -- and i watch ALOT of action movies. there is nothing frivolous, no wildly unbelievable scenes, and minimal dialogue. plus, the movie takes place in some of the best cities in the world. perfect. go see it on the big screen - then buy it on dvd so you can watch the most amazing hand-to-hand combat scene in slow motion on your flat screen. i'm gonna go back and buy the trilogy.

my new favorite procrastination tactic

During a conversation with a group of friends a few weeks ago, i mentioned how you hear the most interesting stuff as you wander the streets of new york. for example - people are so cautious about giving their info over the net -- but walking down the street on their phone, it's like -- "oh - you need my number -- it's 212-555-4397, i live on...". anyhow, there is a site that chronicles the funny, the absurb and the straight up weird stuff people say in NYC. welcome to overheard-in-NY...where even the titles that the writers come up with for the posts are clever. the entry below made me laugh out loud!

Low Expectations Being the Key to Happiness

20-something girl #1: Oooh, I think I see the bus!
20-something girl #2: Yes!
20-something girl #1: Don't get too excited. I'm not sure I see it yet.
20-something girl #2: I won't. I mean, it's just a bus. It's not like it's Santa.

--6th & 8th, Park Slope

22 days to Jo-burg and Raffy

on august 24th, i'll arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa.
i will be there visiting my best friend, Rafique.
can't wait!!!!
any & all suggestions on places-to-see/ things-to-do are welcome.