Concept vs Quality

Recently I've been thinking a lot about the restaurant business, mainly because it's my dream to one day open up my own restaurant.
I've realised that in South Africa specifically our restaurant culture is extremely so, more so than anywhere else I've been.

Firstly I think it's a huge problem that in SA people are willing to buy into concepts rather than quality. Two nights ago I went to Dukes in Greenside. Luckily we had a reservation because usually you'd have to queue for hours sometimes to discover that the kitchen has closed before you get a table. Its uber popular, its super trendy. The concept is gourmet burgers, with the best ingredients, the most outrageous yet delicious combinations. I've been there once before, when Dukes first opened and I was thoroughly disappointed then. Granted I wasnt eating red meat at the time so could only choose from the chicken and vegetarian options so i decided to give them another try. I don;t understand how people rave about the taste and quality of Dukes burgers when my burger was extremely over-cooked and dry, the bun was stale and falling apart, the wedges were undercooked! The only thing I can think of is that people are paying for the concept rather than the quality. I've seen it with lots of other places too! You should not be serving up a concept day after day on monogrammed crockery if you can't deliver on actual taste. I actually prefer my neighbourhood Chinese restaurant with a tiny sushi conveyor belt and a card machine that never works because even if it doesnt look like much the quality of the food is awesome and the service is good.

Which brings me to my next point about service. In south Africa instead of rewarding good service we tip out of guilt. Sure, being a waiter is not the best job in the world, but it is a job and we should be trying our best at any job that we do. We live in a society that's meant to reward hard work yet we look down on waiters and patronise them by tipping even when their work isn't up to scratch. A Greek/Finnish friend of mine was shocked that in SA waiters demand tips even when they forget orders and the kitchen is late with your food. Yet we all feel a sense of extreme guilt if we don't. We say " Ag shame I wonder how he's even getting home so late after his shift" or " Awww man she probably has three kids to feed just give her a good tip". don't get me wrong we should be empathetic and sympathetic but if we're rewarding bad service can we really then complain that service isn't good? And staff should not take it personally either. If you've got a bad tip its not some rich brat with a vendetta against you but rather someone telling you that they werent happy with your service and you need to do better next time.

Two things you've just got to do alone.

I'm the kind of person who shares my personal life with the world, which is the main reason why I even have a blog. Apart from that I'm known as the 'overshare' person, with all my friends. So whenever I have the slightist difficulty in life or have even a single crazy thought in my mind it spews forth from my mouth to anyone, family, friends, neighbours, co-workers, cashiers at Pick and Pay...
But I was thinking that there really are two major events in your life that, while you may want support, you cannot have it and really need to go through it alone.
The first one being your learners or drivers test. When I was in university I still hadn't totally ironed out my theory but I had a premonition that it wouldnt be good to go in a big, noisy group to the testing centre to write our learners. I opted to do it in secret, over the holidays so that none of my friends would know either way, much like a secret nose job. However all my other friends decided to make a day of it. Well the inevitable happened, everyone passed except for one and it was super awkward, super weird and no one could celebrate because they all felt so bad for the one that didnt make it. I chose right because as it turned out I failed my learners twice! My embarrassment was no less than my friends because literally five minutes before I got the  failed result of my first learners test my mom, while trying to console me over the phone said 'Don't worry Varu, any idiot can get their learners'

The other thing that one should never ever, under any circumstances do with a group of friends, no matter how scary it can be, is go for an STD or AIDs test. I can think of multiple ways in which this could go so horribly wrong. For that matter you should probably not even tell your friends that you're going for an STD test because then everyone's on the edge of their seat till the end of the week, when you get your results back. And i personally would much rather avoid awkward phonecalls that start with "So....?". On a side note, a friend of mine recently went to get tested for HPV, which she told us all about. So in this case I was the one making the awkward phonecall to find out if everything was alright. She said that the doctor said that if she had HPV he would call her on Thursday, if he didnt call then she didnt have anything. Surely this should not be standard practice! I mean wouldnt you want a stamped and signed certificate of you not having an STD. I dont believe anything until its on paper. I mean for all the anxiety and not to mention physical discomfort that you have to go through to get tested, I think I would want an STD graduation and get a diploma for having a clean bill of health. A phonecall is just not sufficient.

Coming Soon...but not soon in enough

 There's a number of movies that I'm really excited to see this year. For me the highlight of my year seemed to mainly be fulfilled by Prometheus but I've just realised that there are some really awesome movies coming out later this year.

1. Most importantly is 'Life of Pi'. This novel is my absolute most favourite novel of all time. It was original and beautifully written. So when I heard that they were making a film version I was very sceptical. However after watching the trailer and also knowing that its in the very capable hands of Ang Lee I'm very excited. My one gripe with the trailer is that the trailer does look very fantasy based and it seems like a family movie and while i do think that it still could be considered a family movie  know that if the film stays true to the story the end is going to be devestating. The themes of survival in desperate situation could be too advanced for youger viewers contrary to the look and feel of the trailer and the fact that it was filmed in 3D.

2. The Bourne Legacy is one of the most highly anticipated action movies of the year. Mainly because people want to size up Jeremy Renner in comparison to Matt Damon. I think he's going top be really good bearing in mind that this is a Bourne movie but not part of the Damon Bourne franchise. It also has Edward Norton as the villain, a role he was born to play in my opinion.

3. On the subject of action Im also really keen to see Total Recall. This remake sees Colin Farrell replacing Arnold Schwarzenegger. Im mostly just interested to see why Total Recall needed a remake especially one with Kate Beckinsale in it (can you say redundant?)

4. The Great and Powerful Oz looks visually impressive and I hope it does well at the box office just so that Sam Raimi can give the studios a figurative 'up yours' after the Amazing Spiderman. James Franco will be uber cool, as always, as the wizard and I think its a really cool idea, after all these years to film the actual first Oz novel as opposed to the more famous second installment with Dorothy and the yellow brick road. I also like that Raimi has stuck to the black and white in Kansas style transforming to vibrant colour in Oz that was seen in the first film.

Girl Crazy

I admit it I absolutely love Girls! I understand how that might appear to be salacious but I mean the tv show.
I started watching the show by chance a few weeks ago and now I'm absolutely hooked. It's one of those things I love watching but at the same time am just indecently jealous that I didnt write myself.
Lena Dunham is an awesome role model not only is she an award-nominated director and actress but also creator, writer and executive producer of the show.
The series is set in New York and follows a group of four friends as they deal with life, relationships and becoming adults. If the premise sounds fluffy, you have to bear in mind that this show is unashemedly the anti-Sex and the City. I always wondered in Sex and the City how they seemed to have a thousand million dollars to buy Manolos and dozens of cosmos and salads every day, Girls actually deals with the cold hard reality of being broke and needing to pay rent. Didnt you ever wonder how the girls of Sex and the City could have hundreds of encounters of casual sex yet hardly ever worry about the dangers of STDs and pregnancy scares or on the flip side having to deal with emotionally distant men, the second episode of Girls deals with both HPV and abortion as well as the ongoing trials of Hannah with the undoubtedly worst douche-bag of all time, Adam.

Anyway I'm just absolutely loving the sharp writing and edgy subject matter in Girls and I really think its the best series out there right now.

Shame

Last week my sister and I decided that we literally could not go on living if we didnt watch 'Shame'.
We are huge Michael Fassbender fans for obvious reasons and also the fact that he's an amazing actor.
There'.s been a huge hype around the film, for Fassbender's performance, the subject matter of sex addiction and ofcourse Fassbender's supposedly ingratuitious and ironically shameless full frontal nudity.

My feeling is simply that South african audiences are not ready for something like this. In a country where most mental illnesses are not even recognised its very difficult to pass off sex addiction as a proper problem. In some parts of the film i was totally convinced that I was watching porn if not for the blaring classical music and Fassbender's forlorn glances while having a threesome i would have been thoroughly confused as to what I was watching.
My sister thought up a very apt description for the film: it is a haunting tale of Michael Fassbender's penis.
The opening scenes of the film are so focused on Fassbender's member that at one point the camera was literally on cock level while Fassbenders head was cut out of the top of the frame.

I didnt hate the film. In fact i thought Fassbender's performance was brilliant. he was like a complex and pensive Patrick Bateman without any of the malice but maybe even double the charm.
The relationship between Fassbender's character and his sister is explored with a subtilty that makes it more interesting. And the idea of sex addiction as a debilitating illness is explored well for the first half of the film but becomes slightly lost towards the end. The fact that there is one scene in which gay sex is implied in the midst of scene upon scene of explicit hetero sexual sex is indicative of the society we live in. Be only controversial enough as to not offend the delicate sensibilities of a pseudo-liberal cinema audience.
In my opinion, this film was sitting on the fence and thats what spoilt it and turned it into nothing more than porn in the guise of an oscar nominated film. hey all they needed was a 'penis-cam' and the film would have been complete.

The Tarot Card Reading and other stories on the path to find the perfect spliff.

This morning my two of my friends, my sister and I began a road trip with the main intention being to seek out the Rasta shop at the dam. Last weekend my friend was offered chronic without even trying to look like a stoner so this week we decided to make use of the Rasta man's obvious profiling.

We pulled in ,starving, at the flea-market alongside the dam. After walking around looking for a place to eat, deciding against the first cafe we saw because my sister was offended by the sight of two middle aged men eating plain Eisbein without any sides at 10 in the morning, deemed it deliverance country! Which is how we ended up eating chicken curry and roti with lime milkshakes for breakfast. We were already feeling a bit muggy from the random food and full and happy when we crossed the road to the Rasta man's store.

The Rasta shop is a little cement closet full of stoner paraphenelia like Bob Marley rizlers and peace sign weed crushers. Next to the shop is a dusty, off-white sign that reads 'Spinash- 0823789123'- We laughingly decided that 'Spinash' is probably some kind of code for a bankie. If someone calls asking for 'Spinach' the voice on the other end will probably say "Eish sorry! you got the wrong number! Bye!" but if you call asking for the "Spin-Ash" there going to say " Ah I got what you need"
The Rasta man is a pretty cool guy, he seems to have really good energy and so does his cat Tyga!
Rasta man found Tyga! on the street and now the kitten happily tumbles over Rasta beanies and bracelets and basks in the sun outside the shop. The actual buying process was pretty slow since Rasta man wasnt exactly adept at doling out change but the the weed that he stashes in his red tartan design Thermos flask is  amazing.

We'd pretty  much accomplished what we came for so were headed out. We just decided on a drink before we hit the road but just then I happened to chance upon a Tarot card reading advertisement and sought out the store. I've always wanted to do a Tarot card reading and admittedly while I was sceptical I was also kind of scared of what she was going to tell me.
She wasnt really scary though, she was a slightly masculine looking, old Yugoslavian woman with purple hair. Something about her was very healing though, I felt really calm in her presence and I honestly believe some people just have a calming element about them.
I was suprised she immedietly guessed what was bothering me just from looking at me but I know that's often a cheap trick.
She asked me to shuffle the cards and as I was shuffling to concentrate on what my worries were but to just think about them and not say them out loud.
When I cut the cards in half and she laid them out and immedietly started addressing those concerns which I found weird.  Some of the things she said were comforting, some a bit worrying, some things she said made complete sense to me.My theory is that some people are hyper perceptive and that she can pick up on things that are in your sub-concious that are the main things that you need to be advised or consoled about. The correlation between the pictures on the cards and the things she says are spooky. Maybe its all just superstition, maybe its crazy, maybe I'm gullible but I walked out feeling peaceful. I dont know what it is maybe someone telling you things you already knew is comforting. You should be able to motivate yourself, and tell yourself that everything's going to be ok but when someone else tells says it to you, its somehow so much better and so much more profound and maybe thats the point of all these clairvoyancy promises but the things she said, said  more to me than anyone who was trying to get through to me ever could.

The Avengers

I've been waiting for The Avengers movie to come out since I watched the first Iron Man. Obviously I can't claim to be as hyped up as those who were waiting since their first comic book or since birth but that's a pretty long time to wait.
Maybe I ruined things for myself by watching the trailer 10 times or dreaming up my perfect scenario. As the video store guy told me "With films like these its best not to have expectations" But then again he was tearing up watching the credits of Thor while I was speaking to him.

It wasnt totally bad, there were really good moments, funny cracks, lots of action. However the explosions came to a point of being gratuitous, the special effects tended to bombard me and in some parts looked like they were from a video game. There were definitely some good private jokes and intertextuality thrown in there but I fear much of the movie was referencing The Big Bang Theory rather than any Marvel concoction. For sure, Loki's personality was modelled on a particularly irate and British Sheldon Cooper and as a bad guy he just really sucked.

Joss Whedon is the leader of the nerd herd at the moment and many will forever and always sing his praises but putting a film like The Avengers, with so much potential, in his hands is surely a travesty.