Matthew Krouse Down the tube
These nights I don’t feel much pressed to go out, looking for something I can very well experience in my lounge.
With music playing on television through the night, I can read my books, do my drugs, make my love and drink myself to death without interruption, to some of the most current sounds around. Like everything else on earth, though, the content of music videos is divided along lines of race, with those of white musicians being ghoulish, alienated and weird. And with videos of black musicians being sentimental, well tailored and mostly about love.
Last month’s South African Music Day, on March 27, showcased every kind of music, and there was something I’m afraid I overlooked. On April 23 at 10pm, e.tv’s Hitweek showed a much needed overview of South African music now. A pleasure to behold.
Not only did the programme show a full range of locally produced music videos, but it also incorporated local music exclusively into its format, which is divided into four parts: news, interviews, music history and a premiere video of the week.
Typical of the kind of viewer I am, I tend to pick up on things just as they’re about to go off the air. In this department there’s bad news to report. Hitweek will be discontinued from April 27 because, even though the programme shows an abundance of local music videos, it’s not in keeping with the Independent Broadcast Authority’s blueprint of what local content is.
As Hitweek’s astute presenters Michelle Constant and Randall Abrahams bow out, another e.tv programme has developed itself into a format that has been allowed to stay.
Intertainment Africa shows on weekdays from 1.30pm to 2pm, and on weekends at 11am. What started out as a music programme, indistinguishable from others, has now become a zany, general interest feature combining the music station and magazine formats in one show.
Backed up by the Intertainment website, , the programme now boasts daily 10-minute interviews with anyone from politicians to funeral undertakers (expect to see Winnie Madikizela-Mandela on May 14), as well as discussions that range from drug abuse to Viagra and the elections.
Two delectable items on Intertainment Africa that have managed to weather the change in format are the presenters Gayle Bowey and Natalie Becker, who have the kind of repartee one expects of lesbian mermaids on ecstasy.
Bowey and Becker present this programme for two days of the week, sharing the limelight with well- known DJ Shado Twala and another luminary, The Duke, who used to present Palmolive Countdown with Michelle Constant.
Otherwise, the soap opera Isidingo announced this week that they are seeking out trainee directors who have experience in video techniques, with an ability to work with actors on dramatic texts.
Anyone interested should hand deliver a biography and a show reel of approximately three minutes to the SABC on Henley Road in Auckland Park. Packages should be marked for the attention of Endemol Productions. Enquiries can be directed to (011) 714- 6348.