When we were little, my brother had a turntable in a brightly colored “juke box” that lit up and flashed. All the kids came to hear his records. If only he had known he could become a child DJ!
Lynsey Chutel has a story about one in South Africa.
“At first it seems like a fluke – a two-year-old playing with the knobs and buttons of a sophisticated music system. Yet the pint size boy is in control of the beat of the bass-heavy house music. He is South Africa’s youngest disc jokey, DJ AJ. …
“Orarilwe Hlongwane is still learning to put together words but the toddler is already able to select and play music from a laptop and has become a viral phenomenon on South Africa’s social media. …
“His mother, Refiloe Marumo, credits his father’s decision to buy an iPad for his unborn son. Glen Hlongwane planned to download educational apps.”
Manolo, head of audio at SoundCloud, explained to a few of us in the office last week how SoundCloud works.
The way I understand it, SoundCloud is sort of like a YouTube for audio except that you may have to pay. A lot of musicians use it. It’s good for social-networking purposes because it’s fast. You don’t need to download a separate player to hear the audio. It starts playing automatically, as you can see below.
Manolo said something about “two weeks free,” but I’m not sure I understand that part yet. The clip below, from a South African nonprofit is one track that seems to be free at any time. There are other tracks from magazines like the Economist, which I assume the owners want you to use and won’t charge.
But if you want to upload your music, bird calls, or soundbites, I guess that’s where you have only two free weeks.
If anyone understands this better, please let me know. I want to experiment.
Hear kids at the Children’s Radio Foundation in South Africa wish a happy 94th Birthday to Nelson Mandela.
Living on Earth, a radio show based in Somerville, Massachusetts, and distributed by Public Radio International, recently did a story on East Africa and the worst drought in 60 years. Bobby Bascomb interviewed musicians who decided to do something about it, letting their voices be heard in the way they know best.
They call themselves the Caravan of Hope, says Bascomb. “More than 25 bands from 11 different African nations are traveling across the continent to raise awareness about climate change … as international climate talks begin in Durban, South Africa.”
Singer Angella Katatumba of Uganda explains, “We use our voices to get people fired up and educate people about climate change in Africa. Uganda usually has an amazing climate. It’s usually warm and just perfect. These days, when it’s hot it’s way too hot. When it’s cold it’s way too cold. When it’s wet, it’s storming. We’re seeing things like landslides, which we’ve never had before.” So she’s taking her concern on the road. Read more here.
Perhaps you saw this CNN story about a sports-loving boy from Soweto and his transformation into ballet dancer. “Andile Ndlovu is one of South Africa’s most prominent young ballet dancers, an international performer and award winner both at home and overseas. But for Ndlovu to be accepted into the rarefied world of classical dance — which in South Africa is traditionally seen as an elitist and a predominantly white preserve — the boy from the rough Soweto townships says he had to overcome outdated stereotypes.
” ‘I used to be picked upon for the way I walk and the way I act or carry myself,’ he says of his time at school, where he became disparagingly known as ‘the dude who did ballet.’ …
“In late 2008, [his] perseverance was rewarded as he was offered a place at The Washington Ballet, one of the most prestigious dance companies in the United States. That year he shot to fame in a production of Don Quixote by the South Africa Ballet Theater. Now 23, Ndlovu has gone on to win awards at the Boston and Cape Town International Ballet competitions, as well as securing prominent roles in numerous ballet productions across the world. This success, he hopes, will eventually enable him to change conventionally held views not only of black dancers but male ballet dancers in general.
” ‘What I wanted was to change people’s minds in South Africa about black ballet dancers. I wanted to change that view, because everybody used to put it in a category for the elite people or, you know, it’s only for a certain racial group,’ he says.”
In this YouTube video, he describes how his sister was the one who gave him a push into the life he has now fully embraced. Speaking of her makes him smile.
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