Do they show South African city workers Discovery?

Just watched Discovery HD's "NYC Inside Out."



Wow. NYC's intesnity is something else. Workers there work like there is no tomorrow.

I've once watched workers retarring a New York street. Now NYC streets are often pretty awful - covered in steel plating and cones over sewers. But watching the workers retarring a street is poetry in high gear. They move in en masse. Any parked cars that are not moved are lifted and put on the sidewalk - nothing stops the machine.

New Yorkers also talk the game constantly. The workers shout aggressively as though there is no one more important.

Watching this episode on Discovery, shows just that kind of experience. Water workers excavating at night to join buildings to the grid so as not to knock out the water supply. Layered concrete below the tarmac to protect the piping. And all done at frentic pace and high audio volume. You can quite imagine the shift boss getting an ulcer from the stress.

If only our workers could see this. Man. They've been working on the water in my suburb for 3 months! And Joburg's road quality problems are now the stuff of legend.

Could I live in New York?

I wrote this on the road a few weeks back...

New York is one of my favourite places. I have regrets that I have not lived here over the course of my life thus far.



There is an energy about this place that seems to come from the city itself - like a giant beast with its own life source. The noise is unique: trucks and subways make walls vibrate, the hum of cafes and shops, the rattle and clatter of continuous construction.

I'm lucky to be visiting for the eighth time. I really don't want to leave to go to the West Coast - my first visit there. I've slotted right back into New York - the morning walk for coffee and breakfast, the nighttime entertainment, the museums, the bustle of business.

I've tech-enabled my latest visit to suit the on-the-go life. I'm typing into Microsoft Word on my HTC Touch Diamond using the coolest bluetooth fold-up keyboard, I bought a Canon point and shoot, and the new iPod Nano. I'm geared for a coffee shop note, a sidewalk moment, a subway travel.

I'm off to business meeting with a trading company shortly. Finance is the lifeblood of this city and like 9/11, it seems to have shrugged the credit crisis aside. London felt far more hard-hit as I moved through this past weekend. But the American spirit seems to have acknowledged the challenge and moved on.

The heat here is something else. It's in the high eighties (about 30C) today with typical New York humidity. What an extreme climate. I've been here for -26C in winter and 40C in summer (with over 80% humidity).

Could I live here? Funny. I love this place, the energy, the challenge. It is true - "if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere." But there is something about identifying with the people around you. I identify easily with the British - the South African connection is real. America is a far more insulated world. Sport is different, the rest of the world, continents away. Maybe I need a New York client, enabling me to spend regular time here.

Do you go to rock/pop concerts?

So as these things appear to happen, it is concert booking season. Sometimes nothing worthwhile happens for a while and then a whole lot of concerts appear on the horizon.



The first biggie for me was the Tour of The Universe by Depeche Mode. I'm a Depeche Mode junkie and their Songs of Faith and Devotion concert in Cape Town in 1996 remains the best I have ever been to. So their new album Sounds of The Universe is being released on the 20th April 2009. The first track off the new album is Wrong, the video of which is already live in HD on YouTube. See below.



DM have been going since around 1980 and still have a cult following. They basically invented techno-pop with Vince Clark (later of Yazoo and Eurasia) when he was part of their line-up.

I blogged when they released Exciter and sadly missed that tour - I have the DVD and it is awesome.



South Africa has not been on their tour schedule again and so I decided that I'm going to see them come hell or high water. Hence I am going to Madison Square Garden for their New York concert on the 3rd of August. Tickets go on sale tomorrow and the pre-sales have gone fast. Other big dates like London sold out in no time. I intend to get the best seats possible.

The next big concert is the Coke Zero Fest in Johannesburg on the 10th April. The line up is awesome:

International artists: OASIS,Snow Patrol,Panic at the Disco, Bullet For My Valentine
Local artists: Zebra and Giraffe, The Dirty Skirts, aKing, Cassette, and Foto Na Dans,One Day Remains



I bought tickets yesterday and it is sure to be unbelievable. Either Oasis or Snow Patrol would have done it for me. Having Bullet for My Valentine and Panic at the Disco on the bill is just cream.

After missing the last Coke Fest with Kaiser Chiefs and 30 Seconds to Mars (would have gone just for them), I'm not missing this year.

As these things go, U2 have a new album, No Line On The Horizon, and are touring this year too. I thought of trying to catch them in the US, but the dates between them and DM are not close enough.



However, they are playing Wembley in London on the 14th of August....

Where could you live other than home?

So I've been in Toronto for a week. I like it a lot.

My favourite city outside of South Africa is New York. I've spent a lot of time there and love the buzz. I like the high paced business life and the 24 hour lifestyle. I love the sidewalk culture and that you can stumble downstairs from your Manhattan flat to a pub/shop/restaurant. New York is a difficult place to live though. You need tonnes of money. Rentals are ridiculous unless you hit the jackpot and find a rent controlled apartment. The weather is extreme to the point of being ridiculous. I've been in -26C in winter and 40C with 80% humidity in summer. Your face freezes in the former and you sweat bullets in a suit in the latter. Then there is space - lack of space literally drives New Yorkers mad. And there are plenty of mad New Yorkers. I reckon more per capita than anywhere else. Also, big city people are pretty shallow. It seems they keep things superficial as a defence mechanism. The good thing about this is you can walk into a club and everyone is one the same terms. If it is a pick up joint, you will be successful. In fact girls hit on guys there. But you could meet a million people in New York and not really get to know any of them. If you have money you can live in a nice apartment, walk from your air conditioning to a waiting cab, spend your weekends in the Hamptons, and marry someone from California.

Toronto reminds me of New York a bit. It's a little more genuine, a little less high rise. It has some of the village aspects of Greenwich Village in the downtown area. And people trek to their "cottages" on the lakes for summer weekends. It doesn't seem to get quite as hot in summer, but has horrific winters - to the extent that the city has an entire underground system to avoid the streets. You plug your car in to avoid the engine freezing. On average, the people are a lot thinner than Americans and are definitely more friendly than New Yorkers. The worst thing so far? The bugs! Canada has just got ridiculous amounts of water. The great lakes and the smaller ones are everywhere. With that much fresh water, mozzies are a problem for a start. In the middle of the downtown area you get bitten to pieces at a sidewalk restaurant. And then there are the black flies. Like horse flies they have a painful bite that leaves a massive itchy bite. There is the so called black fly season here.



The CN Tower in Toronto




"Cottages" on Lake Joseph

I love Europe and identify more with British people than any other nationality outside South Africa. But I could never live in Europe. Whether it is the weather or the pace of life, something just does not click. New York and Toronto remain my favourites.