Monday with Chante Daries
"Do I really have to sing Anna?"
"Yes"
"Hitler"
"Banggat"
I knock on Chante's door after 5. We were supposed to meet at 5, but she sent me an sms asking if I can come later cause she wants to have a nap. Usually she has journ at that time, she said, but today she wants to sleep. The rain does that.
When I knock on the door she calls from the inside: "Hold on, I'm putting on pants!"
She opens the door seconds later with her pajama pants on. She looks annoyed. "Do I really have to sing?" "Yes." "Crap."
I mess around with the recorder while she gets ready. I test her levels and then she starts to sing. Seconds later she stops. "That's all." "That's all?" "Yes." "Just sing a little bit more please." She sighs. "Just a bit more." "And please state the name of the song and who wrote it." "Fine."
Wednesday with Jock and Tim
I went to see Jock in his office at the Equity House chambers. He offered me coffee, which I declined, because I'm VERY accident prone, but then he offered me water, and, not wanting to seem rude, I accepted.
Oh no. When he left the room for a brief moment while I was setting up I reached over for the glass of water, and, crap, spilled water all over the recorder. Crap, crap! I didn't want him to see and think I was unprofessional (see he'd been a radio journalist years before and I was quite nervous about interviewing him, I mean, my god, he's JOCK McCONACHIE!) so I frantically began wiping up the spill with my knitted hat. I could hear him coming back and my inner voice was swearing up a storm. Luckily I don't think he saw. Also I forgot a two point plug, so I couldn't plug the recorder into the wall socket, and the battery was empty, but we managed to get through half an hour of good stuff without the recorder dying.
So then the interview went well, except maybe I think you can hear my knees trembling, and I got some great material. He's very passionate about Grahamstown, and his work is geared towards making it a better place for everyone. Very satisfying interview, I felt moved and inspired.
Later in the afternoon I went to interview Tim Huisamen, a lecturer in the Afrikaans and Netherlandic studies department. When I came to his office door the sign said something along the lines of, if the door's closed don't kncck, oh oh, the wooden reply... Anyway we did the interview and again I didn't have a two point plug, but I got new batteries, so yay!
Tim's an extremely interesting man. He's been living in Grahamstown since his 20's, (and he's reaching his 60's) so he had many stories to tell about the Grahamstown of then and now. He has a great voice for radio, I really think he missed his calling as a radio personality, well, maybe when he retires I can suggest a bootleg radio show.
Phew now I'm tired. More later
