YOU HAVE 70 SHOPPING DAYS TIL XMAS!

Me & my siblings posing with a very scary looking Santa.
I'm the one on the right.

I was checking the stats on my blog this morning, and noticed to my surprise that the most read "post" of mine was the one from December 2010 entitled "HAPPY XMAS". Now why are people so obsessed with a Xmas "post" written almost two years ago, when it actually wasn't a very long post at all. Then I studied the "traffic sources" of the views and discovered that a lot of people are googling "Xmas" and "Xmas Pictures". So I thought why not post something about the festive season? Afterall my local Checkers is already selling festive stuff like fake Xmas trees, tinsel and other decorations. They've even "decked the halls with boughs of holly" so to speak, what with their Xmas decor draped all over the place, and it's still more than 2 months to go. I'm now waiting for SABC to start broadcasting those Andy Williams Xmas Specials, and the other reruns that they have just to save money so that their board members get big fat Christmas bonuses! And that's not all, wait for the milkman and the road sweeper, even the postman, to come knocking on your door asking for a Christmas donation of sorts. I know it's the time for giving but surely the donation should be given to the poor, hungry and homeless? Just asking. Somehow I don't expect to see the fake Santa's in the malls and departmental stores til two weeks before Xmas. Yes kids, the real Santa employs these people to do his dirty work for him, as he cannot be in two or more places at the same time. Father Christmas is real, kids, and he's married to Mary Christmas, his beloved wife of over 100 years. Wow! That's a long time to be married. Enough of these useless facts, I have some early Xmas shopping to do, so until next time. Have a fun filled day!

IT'S ROUND TWO: THE RESULTS OR IS IT?

Evo & Drumkit

After the first round of semi-finalists sang, danced and tumbled their hearts out, we waited to hear their fates the following evening. I was not surprised that the PJ Twins were one of the two acts who made it through to the final. The other finalist to go through were the young dance team of Cameron & Donlynn, who I think deserve to go all the way. But what happened to Tiego, another favourite to go through? Well I hope your favourites in Round 2 from Thursday night don't suffer the same fate tonight. After viewing Thursday's six semi-finalists, it was another mixed bag of talent. There were three acts that stood out for me: T-Squared, Iziqhaza, Evo & Drunkit. But people will probably vote for the cute little girl (Botlahle), and the lady with the dog (Xander & Finn). I have no idea why people vote that way, but they do. I thought Tiego wasgood enough to be in the Top 3 of round one, and what happens? The public give Rabbit & Bones more votes than Tiego. And the college duo showed us nothing new in the semi-final except a bench as Shado so aptly put it. With a few hours to before the results of Thursday's round are announced, the suspense must me killing us the viewer and of course the contestants. They had to wait an extra day, not like the round one contestants who knew their fate the following day! Why oh why has eTV instituted this very odd way of running this contest, is subject matter for another blog post after the Finale next week. So watch this space! With that said it's time to see who tonight makes it through to the Finals. Be sure to tune in to SA's Got Talent on eTV tonight at 6:30pm (check your schedules) and find out who will be the lucky contestants!

NATIONAL BANDANA DAY - 12th OCTOBER, 2012.

Being a cancer survivor myself, I support this worthy cause. Started by The Sunflower Fund , this annual event is meant to give Lukhemia sufferers hope and support. A lot of people out there are diagnosed with the disease and initially need a bone-marrow transplant to survive, and just by supporting National Bandana Day and purchasing yours and wearing it today, you give them hope. Let's take a moment to remember those who were not so lucky to get a life saving transplant, but you can change all that just by purchasing a bandana for R20. Let's hope that South Africans who read this will support The Sunflower Fund.

DID YOUR FAVOURITE GET ENOUGH VOTES?

After some consideration I decided to blog about the the first six contestants on the SA's Got Talent "live" show last night. By time you retire to bed tonight, South African viewers will know which two acts made it into the Grand Finale on the 18th October. That is next week Thursday, and I'm a bit confused as to how many shows we will see until then. I'm assuming that this Thursday will see another six acts perform  for your votes and then next week Tuesday will be the last six, with the results being announced the following evening in each case. But why the big rush to get to the final? Why only 30 minutes to vote? Surely not a lot of people will vote or have the producers not enough of a budget to hold a longer season? I'm really confused as to their thinking. I would have thought they would have had quarter finals as well. So far I've only seen the majority of acts once which to my mind is not enough to vote on them. Some of the acts shouldn't have gone through to the Top 18 at all. Xavier & Finn is one such act. How much more of an act can be done with a very talented dog? I think she's shown all she can. And what about Njobula? Okay he can rap fast, but so what? I wonder how he is going to impress us when it's his turn to get the public to vote for him. We shall have to wait and see! So after last night, which two acts do you think deserve to be in the Grand Finale? My votes go to young Tiego from Atteridgeville, and Donlynn and her dance partner Cameron. Those two acts really impressed me and I think this year it is the "year of dance". The PJ Twins are a close third, but personally even though they are great singers, it's all been done before. Pleae note this is just my opinion, and I may be completely wrong about the two brothers. They may surprise us. As for the other three acts, nothing really to write home about, and I can see why Ian buzzed two of them. We will have to see what happens tonight! Oh that's another thing the results show tonight clashes with one of my favourite programmes on VuzuTV. Oh dear choices, choices, choices!

THE TOP 18 -- SA's GOT TALENT (Season 3)

A lot of people watch the show SA's Got Talent and after last night, some of us can't remember all the names of the Top 18 contestants. So without further ado, here they are in no particular order:

1. Domkop & Clowns
2. Luke Greyling-Nxcele
3. Sammy M
4. Xandre & Finn
5. Rabbit & Bones
6. Tiego Ndhlovu
7. Iziqhaza
8. Adam Ferguson
9. Bothale Boikanyo
10. Donlynn & Cameron
11. Evo & Drumkit
12. Girl Power
13. The Krinsky Brothers
14. Melanie Adams
15. New Edition
16. Njabulo
17. PJ Twins
18. T Squared

I will not be putting the link to this post on the SA's Got Talent Facebook page, as this imformation is already there at the moment. But feel free to share this with your friends on social networks. Next week the "live" shows start on Tuesday 9th October at 7:30pm. That means my blog will be coming out a day earlier. So watch this space!

ONE STEP CLOSER (The Final Auditions)

The Happy Boys

I would like to congratulate the producers of SA's Got Talent  for bringing back this show to our TV screens. With all the strikes and violence going on, every week for the past six weeks we have been able to forget the turmoil and enjoy the talented entertainment that South Africa has to offer. And what a line-up of entertainment has been. The three judges had a difficult task ahead of them selecting the Top 18. All of us may not have agreed with the judges choices, and I'm sure some talented contestants were left out. A lot of people are commenting that there should have been a Top 30 and given a few more of those talented acts a chance to make it through to the final. Are the producers pressed for time? Or is the budget not big enough to cover more rounds of the contest? But more about all that later in another blog post. It's on to the selection of final auditions that were showcased before the big announcement. First up was a young lad, Adam Ferguson, who had the judges eating out of his hands, literally. And that was including Kabelo. Boy are we adults a suckers for young kids with talent! With Adam booking a place in the next round, it was the chance of four young ladies (The Fantastic 4) to show off their dancing skills to the three judges. They proved that you don't have to be slim like Beyonce to be able to dance and shake that booty. They danced as one unit with well choreographed moves, which a lot of dance groups these days don't have. Clips of various acts being buzzed out of the competition were next, some were hillarious and some were just downright embarrassing. Thankfully we weren't put through the pain and suffering they must have given to the judges by hearing too much of them. They at least gave us the viewers something to laugh about. It was back to serious business, when Sammy M took to to the stage. At first I thought to myself, "please don't embarass yourself" as he walked on. But he proved that he could sing and stands a good enough chance to make it to the finals. The Krinksy Brothers, three young acobats, were up next. It was case of "Don't try this at home!" as some parts of their act looked very dangerous. There is so much talent amongst our young people of today. Celeste, a singer with a big, strong voice,impressed the judges with her version of "Big Spender" and got a thumbs up through to the next round. A bit of the Cape Town's Coon Carnival was next, when The Happy Boys performed on stage. Singing the old favourites like "Die Alabama" and other well known Afrikaans traditional songs, they had the entire audience singing along! In my opinion they were the best of the night amd was a bit surprised afterwards to see that they were not in the Top 18. I seem to recall that Kabelo said "No" but don't quote me on that. I do remember seeing Shado and Ian singing along though! Next week it's the start of the "live" shows. So later today I'll post a complete list o the top 18 for your scrutiny. In the meantime here's a pic of one of my favourite acts of the season.

Tiego

AND THE WINNER IS...........

 Here we go! Dim the lights, cue the music! The winner of SA Idols 2012  is Khaya Mthethwa !" Well I  suppose it came as no surprise to #TeamKhaya as he has over 80,000 "Likes" on his Facebook page or was Mnet gunning for their first "black" winner? I use the term loosely as South Africans are not supposed to see colour. Did I think Khaya deserved to win? The answer is yes!  But having to sit through a 90 minute show where some white dude won the wooden mic and didn't even show up to collect his trophy, when clearly the winner should have been the girl from Durban who thought she could sing like Lady Gaga. Now that was hilarious! Bring back her hilarious audition by watching her here on YouTube . But back to last night, there was an awkward moment after the Wooden Mic winner was announced, because apparently some audience members thought that Dave Van Vuuren(Last seasons winner) who performed after the annoucement, was the winner of the wooden mic. How embarrasing for Dave. And what about the supporting guest artists? There are no words to describe Jack Parow's embarrasing singing talent. His performance spoilt my night! Well this blog is not about Wooden mic contenders or past season winners of Idols. It should be more about Khaya Mthethwa and his outstanding talent. This young man will go far as he has the musical talent, sung solos with Joyous Celebration and above all he can really sing. I'm sure there are a lot of questions you would like to ask Khaya. Maybe I can get him to answer those questions right here. I will let you know if it works out or not. Meanwhile below I present to you  my personal favourite who should have won this year's Wooden Mic Award. I rest my case!

CHOICES, CHOICES, CHOICES!

As the current season of IDOLS SA draws to a close and we wait with baited breath to see who will be the new SA Idol for 2012 later this evening. Let's look at the topic of toothpaste brands, afterall an idol should have the whitest teeth when they smile for the cameras after winning the competition. I was sitting watching TV after the Idols show on Sunday night and an advertisement for a "new" toothpaste called Pepsodent. Do we really need another brand on the market? Most brands do the same thing, make your beath smell nice, but they don't make your teeth any whiter than they already are. And the choices you have, about half a dozen different varieties of Colgate and almost twice as many choices for Aquafresh (does it all in one Mum) toothpaste. And the advertisements for all these brands: "9 out of 10 dentists recommend.........", well I have news for them as my dentist must be the 1 out of 10 as he doesn't recommend any particular brand. Although I do recall his "oral hygenist" tried to sell me an electric toothbrush for R150. I refrained as I believe in manual brushing. And these different brands seem to come in different flavours, fresh and minty is the one I like. I remember when we were kids, my Mom used to buy a toothpaste called Signal (the mouthwash in stripes). I wonder what happened to that one? Advertisements are misleading, like the one with an actor dressd as a dentist tells you why he recommends Sensodyne. Mmmm, didn't the Colgate dentist just do the same 30 minutes ago? He's not even a South African actor, he's American. It's like the othe shampoo advertisement wich is obviously dubbed into English from Russian or a similar language. How can you believe them? For me a toothpaste is a toothpaste........ they all do the same job. Maybe after the new SA Idol is crowned tonight, we can ask him or her which brand of toothpaste they use to have that million dollar smile!

THE BATTLE FOR THE FINAL IS ON.....

With less than 15 hours to go before the voting lines on IdolsSA close, it's no longer a battle between Khaya Mthethwa and Melissa Allison but a fight for votes between #TeamKhaya and #TeamMelissa. With both camps campaigning on social networks, it's obvious who I would vote for. Here are some updated statistics: Khaya has 75,511 fans on Facebook and 48,774 followers on Twitter. Melissa has 10,321 fans on Facebook and 9,028 followers on Twitter. Now if each of these so-called fans/followers voted 100 times to me it's obvious who the winner should be, but then I may be wrong. Khaya has been very consistent right up til the end, Melissa on the other hand had a few bad reviews from the judges. Okay so the secret is out, I'm supporting our homeboy......Khaya Mthetwa. At least he didn't say that one of the reasons he wants to win is because he'll get a car. Maybe I heard wrong when Melissa said that. The bottom line to all of this is, that whoever doesn't win will probably still be a popular artiste. Look at past seasons of IdolsSA, non-winners who are making a name out there for themselves are Sindi Nene, Lloyd Cele, Melanie Lowe and the list goes on. And dear readers, please don't throw a tantrum and get full of hate when your favourite loses and then be full of hate for the winner. We don't need that sort of behaviour here in South Africa. It's now all up to you at home.........vote, vote, vote! You have less than 15 hours left! And please note the date at top is American........You have till tonight (Monday, 1st Oct) 10pm to finish voting. May the best contestant win!