Not Escobar. He was shot by the Colombian National Police at the tail-end of 1993. Rather, American comedian Pablo Francisco. He seemed pretty tired and weary after a long day of press engagements, of which we were the last. But we managed to squeeze some in some good options in the fifteen minutes we had. Also, he managed to get in some quality quiet time on the porter trolley.

Check Pablo do the preview guy below. Pretty damn excellent.

Check out more images from the shoot here.

Got to spend some time with the guys from Ashtray Electric in my garage a few weeks back. Rudi and I had been chatting for a while about a possible collaboration, so the launch of the new album was a good excuse to mess around a bit.

The art direction of the album is quite abstract and has quite an – for the lack of a more articulate catch-all – ‘anonymous’ feel to it. The shoot allowed us to explore a more impressionistic canvass. How fucking cool and pretentious does that sound!? Anyway, we settled on a few key images which should appease most of the press-hounds.

Just for good measure there’s a psychedelic freak-out which they can stick up inside the toilets at gigs. It should have the kids reconsidering their choice of hallucinogenics.

Here’s why I think this video may officially be the bees knees: -

1. The hockey-player looks like porn-legend Ron Jeremy and he plays tennis with a soccer ball.
2. The swimmer looks like Wayne Ferreira who hijacked Ninja’s Speedo.
3. I’m pretty sure at 0:57 that’s a Nissan 1400 bakkie nearly running the band over.
4. The lead-singer has a non-ironic moustache.
5. The keyboard player has glowing red eyes.
6. Smoke, fire, machetes & axes… it’s like an IFP rally in there.
7. It all descends into madness last saw in that classic scene between the news teams in Anchorman.
8. Fencing mask off, gum-guard out female athletes kissing.

To be perfectly honest, the only reason I can find not to like this band is that they’re from Australia, but so is Olivia Newton-John, Tame Impala, The Avalanches and Nick Cave originally, and they’re all pretty awesome.

My favorite singers of last year were über pop-chanteuse Robyn and Kristian Matsson aka The Tallest Man on Earth. The latter’s amazing songwriting prowess and Dylan-channeling vocals were always gonna hit the spot for me. The former reduced me to a dirty ol’ geezer with her air-punching dance moves and general quirky Swedishness. Here’s a link to the video if you’ve had your head buried in the sand for the last year.

Anyway, there’s a new kid on the block. Her name is Lykke Li and I’ve had her sophomore album Wounded Rhymes on heavy rotation for the last week or two. It’s a great pop album and she has enough of that quirky/sassy Swedishness to ensure it resonates well beyond its borders of origin. Watch the superb video for “Get Some” below.

Fourteen years ago World Circuit boss Nick Gold had the rather splendid idea of arranging a collaboration between some Malian and Cuban musicians. The studio sessions were booked in Havana, but due to the Malian musicians’ passports being stuck in a state of postal limbo, the planned collaboration never took place. Enter Ry Cooder to round up some not half-bad veterans of the Cuban music scene and record an obscure little album called Buena Vista Social Club. The rest his history of course. The album sold about a gazillion copies and led to a veritable army of Oprah-watching wine lovers reclining in their faux-Barcelona chairs discussing the merits of world music. The fact that the CD was probably bookended by Kenny G and the Gypsy Kings in their high-gloss tower CD stands perhaps cheapens the fairytale mythology of the project somewhat but hey, it makes for a fabulous story nonetheless.

Yesterday finally saw the release of the sessions planned fourteen years ago. Afrocubism features the all-star roster one would expect including Eliades Ochoa, Bassekou Kouyate, Super Rail Band guitarist Djelimady Tounkara and kora master Toumani Diabaté. I probably don’t need to elaborate on the project too much since, in the ideal world, your Kenny G-loving friends will be telling you all about it over canapés at your next dinner party… hey, a man can dream.

GQ magazine features a selection of my close-up portraits in its October 2010 issue. You can even win a camera if you can identify all seventeen of the people featured. I suspect it’s not a Leica M9 Titanium. I’m also pretty sure it doesn’t feature the Noctilux-M 50mm F/0.95. If it was I’d be generating enough pseudo-personae to guarantee permanent residency at the local multiple personality disorder support group. If you can relate to my pain re. the Leica you might be interested in this. I want it so bad it’s aching in my nether-regions…

Watched a new documentary film by Joshua Sternlicht called Fool In a Bubble at the Obz Cafe last night. It’s a wonderful film on all-round legendary SA musician Syd Kitchen.

I’m kinda ashamed to say that I’ve never seen Syd live but have heard loads about him. If I had more time I would wax lyrical at length, sufficed to say that my mind was suitably blown. Absolutely incredible, simple as that.

The real reason for this post is to flag that Syd is touring Cape Town this week with Dutch troubadour Lucky Fonz III. On this side of town they’re playing The Mercury, Purple Turtle and The Speedway Cafe. I suspect you don’t want to miss out on this.

Click here to see details on the tour.

Over the last week or so I’ve had the distinct privilege of making portraits of some of the most inspiring men in South Africa. The assignment has been for the Men’s Health Best Men 2010 awards and event which takes place this week. I guess ol’ Jack said it best. These guys really really make me wanna be a better man. I won’t reveal too much on the who/where at this stage but will be doing individual posts over the next week or so.

Read more about the event and nominees here.