Jesus Playing Guitar by Avie On Friday the family walked to Kalk Bay from Surfer’s Corner while I drove there and set up to do some busking. I ended up on the pier where the fish are being cut up. In fact, I was standing next to the very corner where people bring buckets of [...]

Busking requires a lot of time on the Internet. Just looking up the words to all those songs that you’ve only ever really known the chorus. My definition of a good busker song is one that doesn’t have too many words. That writes Jack Johnson out of the equation right away although you would think [...]

Although numerous sites on the Internet share the Zulu lyrics of this song, I haven’t found a proper translation. It’s quite a beautiful Christmas song and profoundly Christian. That’s quite funny if you realize that this song became famous in the UK in 1997 for having been used in an advertisement for canned beans. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZN6wEprr7Y [...]

In May 2012, the address for this blog is going to change. If you have subscribed to lingamish.com you should change the subscription to lingamish.ethnolinks.com. You can make that change now by clicking on this link: Subscribe to Lingamish (lingamish.ethnolinks.com/feed/rss/) Sorry for the inconvenience but I’m trying to simplify my bloggy existence.

Most of the songs I recorded for my Christmas CD are parodies of popular songs with a South African twist. So instead of “Have yourself a merry little Christmas” I sang “Have yourself a lekker little Christmas.” The album is called Windy Muizenberg Christmas after the track of that name which is a parody of [...]

Some buskers just have a few songs they sing over and over again. That works because most people that are listening to you are just passing in the street and only hear a portion of one song. The exception is the waiters in the cafes, the street guards and other people that are basically a [...]

I took a week off because I had a lousy cold. The weather was lousy too. High summer in Muizenberg means the weather changes every five minutes except for the wind. There’s always wind! So once I got my voice and energy back I decided I was going to try using an amp on the [...]

One of the questions in the back of my head this year has been “What is the future of the book in Africa?” So this year I engaged in an experiment that has helped me understand what it takes for African authors to get published. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible either. I believe [...]

I dropped by the Upper Crust and asked Elaine if Michael and I could set up in the courtyard and practice playing in open air. She said sure and so an hour later we were strumming away. I borrowed the lead guitar player from the Lefties for a little gig at the Eastlake Shopping Center. [...]

The wind was nuts today. I actually had to tie my guitar case to a tree just so it wouldn’t fly away. Even then it took flight a couple of times. Some cool kids from the Flats liked my music and took pictures and video as well as posed in front of me. Ben joined [...]

So far I’ve been playing “live and unplugged” on the street. The advantage is mobility and simplicity. I just grab my guitar and go. But I keep thinking that I’d like to add some gadgets and that’s where things get complicated. If I add an amp, I need cables and batteries (and backup batteries), and [...]

I haven’t been too interested in making money off busking. In fact it’s possible that because I’m a foreigner that it’s illegal for me to solicit funds on the streets. Well, the cops in Muizenberg have a lot more important things to do than busting me. They pass by quite a bit when I’m singing [...]