by
Paul on Sunday, 7 February, 2010
Kevin Sykes, guitarist for Autopilot
As I mentioned in my previous post, we were invited to go along to Mercury Lounge in Cape Town to take photos at Autopilot’s new video launch gig. This particular show must have been one of the most challenging that I’ve shot – the stage was very small, and although the lighting was great for the performance, it was terrible for photos.
Nevertheless, I felt challenged and had plenty of fun trying to come up with angles that would work. I’ve uploaded an album of photos here.
Autopilot was born in 2005 as a 4-man band. While Kevin Sykes (the guitarist in this photo) and Shane Coomber (the other guitarist) seem to be the only original remaining members, the band has seen a shift with the introduction of a female vocalist, currently 22-year-old Brigette Greybe (who according to the drummer, Nicholas, has a great butt 
).
At the time of writing this article, the new video hadn’t yet been uploaded to their website, but if you’d like to hear their sound take a look here for one or two other music videos.
Thanks for a great show, Autopilot!
by
Paul on Saturday, 6 February, 2010
Mercury Lounge
This emblem is positioned above the upper bar at Mercury Lounge in Cape Town. We’ve often driven past Mercury late at night, on our way home, and there have always been people going in and out. I’ve always wondered what it looked like inside, and what the vibe was like – and at last we got to find out when we were invited to go along and see local band Autopilot performing. More about that in my next post, but for now, let me give you a rundown of Mercury Lounge:
There are two sections, one above the other. The lower section has a bar, some seating, and a tiny dance floor. I didn’t spent much time there, but I imagined that they would play beat-driven music – the kind you’d expect to hear at clubs. The upstairs section is way larger. There’s a small stage where the live acts perform, two pool tables, a bar, plenty of standing room, and a very limited number of tables and chairs. The drinks are fairly cheap, especially Miller (I think they have some kind of promotional deal with SAB Miller), but on the negative side, their facilities were terrible. Dirty, falling apart, and generally very unpleasant.
Anyway, it’s an interesting place to check out, so if you’re visiting Cape Town and you plan on hopping from club to club, you may as well make Mercury Lounge (map) one of the places that you stop in at.
Tug boats in the Table Bay harbour
I’ve always been the biggest fan of bumper cars – it’s such a pity that most funfairs don’t allow people over the age of 10 or so to play on them, though. Maybe they’ll let me have a go on these cool bumper boats instead?
The Enseleni (at the back) was built in Durban in 2001 and has a bollard pull of 50 tons, while the Pinotage (just in front of the Enseleni) was built way back in 1980 and has a bollard pull of 43 tons. Bollard pull is basically an indication of how strong a tug is and how much force it can exert on another vessel (although my research tells me that it is a little more complicated than that).
So just remember, if you ever get invited to play bumper boats, make sure you get the boat with the greatest bollard pull.
Marshall Islands flag
Although this vessel is flying the flag of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the chance that it actually originates from there is pretty slim indeed. According to the CIA Factbook, 990 of the 1049 merchant ships registered in the Marshall Islands are foreign-owned, and therefore flying what is termed a flag of convenience. There could be a number of reasons for this – tax avoidance, circumvention of tricky local regulations, or even the avoidance of political boycotts. I was a bit young to notice, but apparently many South African vessels were registered elsewhere during the apartheid years, in order to avoid the unpleasant consequences of international sanctions and boycotts.
Of course, being a girl, I’d probably just pick the flag that best matched my pretty ship’s colour scheme, and get the vessel registered in that country. Which is probably why Paul won’t let me have a sailing ship.
