September 2007

SEPTEMBER 2007

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EDITION:  VUVUZELA, SEPTEMBER 28, 2007

Innovative planet saving solutions

ERICA DREIJER

INVASIVE alien plants can pose a huge threat to a country’s ecosystems, affecting its natural water supply and agriculture. 

Prof Marcus Byrne from the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental sciences will take a look these issues during a discussion he will host at the Roots and Shoots Environmental Exhibition held at Wits from October 2 to 4.

The main theme for this year’s exhibition is Fighting climate change from a South African perspective. 

The exhibition will take a look at how population growth and mobility have changed the world we live in and how these will affect things like water, food security, biodiversity and energy going forward.

Other key speakers from Wits’ School of Animal, Plant and Environmental sciences include Dr Barend Erasmus, Theresa Bird and Prof Mary Scholes.

Most invasive plants spread beyond their natural borders through commerce and human transportation, which, due to a lack of its natural predators across natural borders, has led to it reaching pest proportions.  This, in turn, has had a negative impact on the ecosystem.

The US government alone spends in the region of US$120 billion a year to control weeds in agriculture.

Invasive plants pose a large threat to our water supply, as “seven percent of South Africa’s mean run-off rainfall goes down the throats of alien invasive plants”, said Byrne.

Biological control is one of the solutions available to help control invasive plants from becoming pests. One of the examples he will be showing during his presentation is how a dam contaminated by Red Fern was cleared within a six-month period using insects. 

This initiative forms part of the government’s “Working for Water” campaign, which aims to save natural water supplies as well as serve as a social upliftment programme.

Bird will use excerpts of Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, to discuss the effects of global changes on the climate and look at how we can help save Mother Earth. She hopes to demonstrate that climate change is not a political agenda and to raise awareness of how we can preserve our own species.

Roots and Shoots is a global programme that was started by the Jane Goodall Institute to help youth become involved in and aware of environmental issues. Goodall is world-renowned for her research on wild chimpanzees.

The exhibition starts on Tuesday, October 2 at 9.30am at Senate House Concourse with the Dean of Science, Prof Ramesh Bharuthram, delivering the opening talk. 

Other talks include: Global Climate Change (by Theresa Bird, daily at 10am), Climate Action Now (by Richard Worthington from Earthlife, Thursday at 5.30pm), Invasives and Biocontrol (by Prof Marcus Byrne, Tuesday at 12.15pm) and Environmental Management (by JM Schepes, Wednesday at 12.15pm). 

An Inconvenient Truth will also be shown on Tuesday and Wednesday evening at 5.30pm. 

For more information contact Ishan Singh at rootsandshoots.wits@gmail.com or 072 122 6239.

Friday, September 28, 2007

SUPPLEMENT:  ARTS ALIVE

Preview: 

Jozi embraces the word

ERICA DREIJER

VERSE will speak for the people in a Speak the Mind Poetry session that will be hosted on September 28 and 29.

The theme for this year’s poetry sessions is Harare or Darfur – Eyes on Us.

Some of the best known artists ike Ishle Yi Park, from the United States, Samm Monro from Zimbabwe, and local poets Mzwakhe Mbuli and Pops Mohamed will be performing.  Events will be hosted by Julius “Makweru” Moeletsi from Yfm.

Otherwise, attend the Tradition through Rendition writing and performance workshops and learn more about poetry’s role – both past and in the present – in society.  The Tradition workshops “have been
created to allow artists to share what’s behind their material”, explained organiser, Zweli Twalo.

For Teba Shumba, previously of kwaito band Skeem, these sessions are part of a movement in which “cultural activists [like himself] use art to better the communities they live in and which will help to develop people’s lives.”

The Speak the Mind Poetry Sessions will take place at the Market Main and Laager theatres, at 7.30 pm on September 28 and 29. The entry fee is R30 per person.  For more information contact Langa at 083 317 6232 or langa@lmmentertainment.co.za.

Tradition through Rendition writing and performance workshops will be hosted at the Laager Theatre from 3pm to 6pm on both days.  Entry is free.  For more information contact Teba at 083 758 2136 or teba205@yahoo.com.

Friday, September 28, 2007

SUPPLEMENT:  ARTS ALIVE

Preview: 

Transpose yourself

ERICA DREIJER

The eternal love triangle, which crosses all cultural boundaries, is the basis for an Indian play’s exploration of love – how much is real and how much an illusion – during this years’ Arts Alive festival.

Transpositions is part of the Shared Histories – Celebrating India in South Africa festival that aims to bring Indian art, culture and cuisine to South African audiences.   The festival started on August 23 and will run until October 31.

The play is based on Tashna Imhasly’s book The Psychology of Love – Wisdom of Indian Mythology and is enacted using puppets and masks, dancers and digital projections.  The music for the performance was composed by Sawan Dutta and directed by Dadi Pudumjee.

It explores transcendental questions of life, loss and purpose and looks at the duality that exists within each person in the realms of illusion and reality.

The story is about Nanda and Shridaman, two friends who are bound together by their dissimilarity. Nanda is an athlete and Shridaman a priest. They both love the beautiful Sita, whom they meet at the temple of Kali, the Goddess of Destruction. Sita marries Shridaman, but longs for what she hasn’t got – Nanda.

When Shridiman discovers the affair he commits suicide by cutting off his own head.  Nanda, feeling guilty and saddened by the loss of his friend, follows his example and does the same.

When Sita discovers their bodies, she switches their heads around by accident. Shridaman awakes with Nanda’s athlete body and Nanda with a priests’ body.  Who is her real husband?  Does the mind rule the body?  Or does the body rule the mind?

Sita asks the goddess for an answer. They discover that only when mind and body are one are we part of the universal order.

Tranpostion will be showing at the Wits Theatre on September 28 at 6pm.  Tickets cost R50 and are available at Computicket.

Friday, September 28, 2007

It changes in a Blink

ERICA DREIJER

Blink – and before you know it, a familiar route appears to be new, because of all the buildings that were erected since you last took that route.

All the changes and the restless energy that are part of life in Johannesburg helped to inspire Wits music lecturer Clare Loveday to compose Blink, which will be performed by two of the world’s best saxophonists in Vienna next week.

For Loveday, this is a great honour, as it is the first time that one of her compositions will be performed internationally, which she describes as “an enormous rite of passage into the international music arena”.

Loveday, Michael Blake (South Africa) and Justinian Tamasuza (Uganda) were the only three composers that were commissioned for a piece that will be performed by Ensemble Reconcil. 

The concert marks the opening of the Arnold Schoenberg symposium and is the pre-opening concert of the International Society of Contemporary Music (Austria) to celebrate its 85th anniversary.

Loveday describes the composition as having “a fast underlying rhythmic pace with loud punctuations to show the contrasts of the city” that is “right in your face” and wrote it specifically with the two saxophonists that will be performing it in mind. 

She is very interested to see how they will respond to her music, as they generally play music that tends to be more structured and “Germanic in nature” versus Blink which is more “frenetic and has a humorous side to it”. 

Loveday fell in love with the saxophone ten years ago, when she was commissioned to write a piece for the piano and saxophone, but believes that her inability to play it has “continued the love affair”.

Loveday strives for “effect” in her compositions, rather than looking for ideas or evoking an emotion, and the versatility of the straight saxophone, which “can be anything you want it to be”, helps her to achieve this. 

It took six months for her to complete writing the piece.

Loveday lectures in Music Theory and Composition at the Wits School of Arts and is has been permanently employed at Wits from 2004.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Bowled out

ERICA DREIJER

WITS’ cricket team lost in their first league match for the season against University of Johannesburg on Sunday.

Confusion reigned when both teams were told upon arrival that they were playing a day game and not a one-day cricket match. UJ won the toss and Croxely Wits batted first.  Wits were bowled out for 168. UJ went ahead and won on their first innings with a total score of 305 all out.

Player-coach Aldo van den Berg told Vuvuzela that the Croxely Wits team “did not apply themselves. It was as if we didn’t have the patience to see the match through.” Even though they were relatively well prepared and came out “tops in all their friendlies”.

The misunderstanding that it was a one-day match complicated play, since both teams thought they had 45 overs.

He also believes that a lack of fitness was a contributing factor in the outcome of the match. 

The top scorer for Wits was Russel Tindale at 62.

Croxely Wits will be playing their next league match against the Old Parktonians at their fields on Sunday at 9.45am.

Friday, September 28, 2007

EDITION:  VUVUZELA, SEPTEMBER 21, 2007

It’s like music to my ears

ERICA DREIJER

MUSIC students at Wits had an opportunity to launch their music careers by performing with the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra in the Great Hall last Sunday.

The event, which forms part of the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra’s (JSO) bi-annual Young Artists’ Concerto Festival, has been used as a platform for the debut of many of South Africa’s established musicians – both vocal and instrumental – since 1948. 

Highlights on Sunday included solo performances by Mary Tennant (violin) and Karen Meyer (piano), both first year BMus students, described by conductor Pienaar Fourie as “masters” in their field. 

“They played their hearts out.  Wits can be proud of the students they produce here,” Fourie said. 

The concert also consisted of performances of arias and songs, by Mozart, Handel, Lloyd-Webber and Schumann.

“It’s a great joy to become a part of these students’ lives when they first start out and then see where they end up 20 years later. Deon van der Walt performed on this stage,” Fourie said.  Van der Walt was one of the world’s leading tenors, and performed in all the world’s major opera houses and in many international music festivals, but tragically died in 2005.

Tennant has been playing violin for over 10 years. It started as “a decision to play the violin as part of group classes at school and not to become famous”. 

She delivered an outstanding solo, performing the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major, and was drawn back three times by applauding audiences.

For her, it is important to “put all you have into the stage. You are happy when you know that you are getting to the end, so it is best that you make [the finale] big.”

Fourie loves working with youth. “I really enjoy working with young, fresh talent. They still deliver music very emotionally, and I enjoy seeing their passion,” he said.

Fourie has been the conductor for the JSO for 31 years. He is also involved with many of the youth orchestras across Gauteng and is co-founder of Youth Symphony Africa, an association overseeing 17 youth symphony groups from the Western Cape and Gauteng.

The Johannesburg Symphony Society was founded in 1934. Under the chairmanship of Dr Crinsoz de Cottens, the society set out to establish a symphony orchestra to serve the community of Johannesburg. The Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra was only registered in 1945 as a company. 

Friday, September 21, 2007

Boat Race a rough ride for Wits

ERICA DREIJER

THE Wits University Boat Club (WUBC) ladies’ crews outshone the men’s crews in the annual Mutual and Federal University Boat Race held on the Kowie in Port Alfred last week.

The ladies’ A8+ came second to Rhodes University, in the closest Wits-Rhodes ladies A final race in recent years.  The ladies’ B8+ also came second to Rhodes, while the men’s A8+ placed fifth overall and the men’s B8+ sixth. 

The event is divided into two races: a heads race-time trial on Thursday followed by finals on Saturday.

Each crew’s time is recorded in the heads race and used to rank and place them into finals.  The finals are based on the Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race, with two crews racing each other for final standings. The men’s crews race over 6km and the women over 4km.

On both days, opposing winds and tides over the Kowie created rough conditions, making rowing difficult.  On the day of the heads race, enormous waves crashed into the boat in sections, especially in the notorious Bay of Biscay adding up to an extra 100kg dead-weight to the boat.

After a very tightly contested men’s A head race, separated by only 33 seconds between first and fifth place, the men’s A8+ crew were placed against the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in the C final. They dominated the race from the start, beating UKZN by four boat lengths.

The ladies A8+ came second to Rhodes by 24 seconds in the heads race. In the A final, Wits managed to get a healthy lead early on, but could not hold off Rhodes who crossed the finish line first.

While it’s the coxswain’s job to encourage the crew and steer the fastest possible course, the rowers push themselves to their physical extremes.

Training for the race takes serious amounts of dedication and time management skills. Wits’ rowing WUBC’s president, Murray Taylor, estimates that the men’s A crew did about 30 minutes of practice for every one of the 600-odd strokes taken during the race. Training began in April with two sessions training during the week. Morning training consists of 90 minutes in the gym or on rowing machines and afternoon sessions involve rowing or more gym training.  In addition, the men’s A crew would travel to the Vaal River on Saturdays and Sundays, starting training at 8am and rowing over 20km a session.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Wits cricket on a winning streak

ERICA DREIJER

WITS students won against the Old Boys in the annual Walter Milton Memorial match  hosted at Wits on September 9.

At this year’s event, Old Boys that played included Richard Snell, Adam Bacher and David Terbrugge. Matches were officiated by Cyril Mitchley and Barry Lambson that provided an international air to the event.

Two of Wits’ teams played on the day and in the main match, the Wits students won by 25 runs.

Top scorers for Wits were Andrew Kirkland (79) and Russel Tindale (72) while Richard Snell (77) and Jon Buxton-Forman scored 71 for the Old Boys.

The event was also attended by the Registrar, Dr Derek Swemmer, who welcomed all VIPs and guests during tea time.

After the event, everyone recounted the day’s events over a drink and talked about the “old days”.

Wits’s first team also played a friendly warm-up match against Wanderers this last weekend. Wanderers scored 185/6 in their allotted 45 overs. Wits scored 186 for seven in the 42nd over to win by three wickets.  Top scorer was the new player-coach that recently joined Wits, Aldo van den Berg, who scored 36.

Friday, September 21, 2007