The CLaw Project

2010 in review

patrickbd — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 10:06:07 +0000

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,600 times in 2010. That’s about 9 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 25 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 32 posts. There were 23 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 1mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was February 16th with 168 views. The most popular post that day was Pro (C)law?.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, twitter.com, en.wordpress.com, bigextracash.com, and gone-fishing.co.za.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for linda bukhosini, cape town city ballet, claw project, colin law productions, and the claw project.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Pro (C)law? February 2010
3 comments

MEMBERS December 2009

Weekend Argus article. February 2010
3 comments

ABOUT December 2009

The other side of the (C)Law. January 2010
6 comments

Save Cape Town City Ballet.

patrickbd — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:37:15 +0000

Right people this something very different for this site BUT something very close to my heart so today I am CLAWING for donations to try and help save South Africa’s premier ballet company – Cape Town City Ballet. Every person who makes a donation stands a chance of winning some fabulous prizes and at the same time help save the company.

Unless Cape Town City Ballet receives urgent and significant funding, the company is in very real danger
of being forced to close it’s doors in the near future.

“It is a tragedy and a grave indication of the values of our government. I can’t think of a civilised country in the world without a national ballet/dance company. Go figure…”- Steven

“Apart from the dancers this will impact the ballet school, costumes, designers, musicians, crew – while hundreds of millions are being squandered on crap, by crap and for crap.”- Dave

“Most of the supporting staff of the ballet have families to feed and have indeed dedicated their entire working careers to the company – these as specialised jobs – what must happen to them now? Another generation forced to embrace poverty or crime?

Ballet or Opera does not concern itself with the colour of skins or culture – these are Great Art Forms of expression and reflection of the human condition.”- Alfred

YOU can make a difference!

Right so here is the deal:

By making a donation to help save Cape Town City Ballet, you stand a chance to win some great prizes:

One of 5 sets of double tickets to the Poetry In Motion Gala Event, to be held at Artscape Opera House on Sunday, 9 May 2010 [ More info ... ]
24 Bottles of wine, from the personal collection of Cape Town’s food and wine guru, Michael Oliver,
along with 3 signed copies of his books.
A poster-size photographic print print from Cape Town City Ballet’s photographer, Pat Bromilow-Downing.
The blogger raising the most money stands to win a brand new 16GB Apple iPad! IF that blogger happens to me I will do a lucky draw of all people who quoted my Ref. No PB1 and that iPad could be yours.

To be entered into the draw for these wonderful prizes, simply make your donation and email win@savecapetowncityballet.co.za and supply your name, contact details** and the amount you have
donated. *** plus my REF NO – PB1

Entries close Friday, 30 April 2010 and the draw takes place on Tuesday, 4 May 2010.

** Your details will NOT be sold or given to any third parties.

*** The draw is random and the value of your donation in no way influences your chances of winning.

Cheques should be made out to:

CAPE TOWN CITY BALLET and posted to
PO Box 94
RONDEBOSCH
7701

For direct internet transfers:

Bank: NEDBANK
Account name: CAPE TOWN CITY BALLET
Branch code: 123 209 (If you bank with Standard Bank you might have to add an extra 00)
Account no: 123 200 8842
Reference: Your Name + PB1* (ie. Joe Bloggs PB1)

* If you have been referred to this site by a blogger or website owner participating in our campaign to help save Cape Town City Ballet, please use the reference number they have provided on their site.

A special web-site for this appeal has been created by The Forge Web Creations in Cape Town. To have a look at the site please CLICK HERE

Response to Linda Bukhosini’s Press Release Regarding the Mayville Workshops

patrickbd — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:00:34 +0000

By: Steven Stead
Executive Director: KickstArt

Ms Bukhosini alleges that I (as an individual) “continuously refuses” to align myself with “reasonable business opportunities that are available to him and other arts practitioners who do business with The Playhouse Company”
Since this is the first time that I have publicly questioned her decisions or judgement, I cannot understand how my ‘recalcitrance’ is “continuous”. Unless she is referring to the opera programme, Bravissimo where she employed me as director and then insisted that I accept the production team that she had selected for me, against standard international theatre practise, leaving me no choice but to resign from the job. Or when I refused to allow her to censor a few topical political references from our family pantomime Aladdin, which she found offensive. Or most recently when she tried to remount my successful production of My Fair Lady without crediting me or consulting me, again in disregard of standard international theatre practise. In all these cases, I agree that reasonable business practise was flouted. But not by me. Could the fact that I am one of the only people in the city who stands up to her have ANYTHING to do with the bullying we continuously face?
The Playhouse does have a mandate from the Department of Arts and Culture to be supporting grass-roots artistic activity in the province. She doesn’t mention this in her press release.
If The Playhouse is “continuously committed to equitable distribution of available resources to address the varying artistic and cultural needs of our society and to maximize on possible income streams”, then why make an already unproductive workshop more redundant by denying access to the paying public?
I am not an individual in this case. I represent a company. My company employs dozens of actors and artisans every year, and serves a public of over 40 000. Her decision to make our work difficult doesn’t just affect me. It affects everyone who enjoys our work.
There are several businesses including a magician’s workshop, a rope factory and a martial arts studio run from the premises. Again, she fails to address this issue in her press release.
The amounts of money we have directly paid the Playhouse for hire and refurbishment Jan 2009-Jan 2010 are: Cinderella R22 0000, Little Shop of Horrors R19 837.50, Winnie the Pooh R19 340.39, Noises Off R33 845, and Peter Pan R20 105. TOTAL: R115 127.89. A remaining R60 000 was spent on workmen in the workshops for their labour, and for materials.
Where her figure of R36 812 comes from is curious.
She doesn’t address the fact that we have received top advice from a risk management consultant regarding indemnity, which is standard national working practise. Doubtless the various businesses currently renting space at Mayville have such documents in order, as does anyone hiring any of the theatres in the complex.
She also doesn’t address the fact that there is no skilled scenic artist or painter at Mayville, and that any production that has had any success, whether it is KickstArt’s, or The Playhouse’s My Fair Lady (2006) or Sound of Music (2007) has not only required Greg King’s expert design and ability to reuse old, unused stock pieces, but his hands on ability to paint backcloth’s and do all set dressing. Her recent production of My Fair Lady largely had to be built in Johannesburg because the workshops were not capable of producing the cloths required.
We believe that Ms Bukhosini’s actions are motivated by professional jealousy and personal spite, and we have nothing to lose in fighting this battle. We will continue to create art and entertain Durban, with or without her support.

Some News on Cape Town City Ballet.

patrickbd — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:18:21 +0000

Ballet – “The Ultimate Sport”

In spite of the doom and gloom about Cape Town City Ballet maybe having to close down in the not too distant future there have been some inspiring and encouraging stories come to light, casting a small ray of hope, that people might get behind the company to help save it.

There has been a very generous offer by Ms. Sue Rutherford, owner and manager of The Forge Web Creations, to sponsor the development of a brand new, modern and interactive web site for Cape Town City Ballet. The site would be integrated with the necessary links to access and update all the social media sites – twitter, flickr, Facebook etc. – of news on a regular and automated basis. It will also allow Cape Town City Ballet to update all current happenings and events on a daily basis if they so wish.

Talking of social media Ms Rutherford and one of her colleagues, Mr. Chris Mills, have launched an awareness campaign in the social media of Twitter and Facebook about the plight Cape Town City Ballet and have so far reached over 10,000 people on Twitter alone. Chris Mills is also recognised as one of the top bloggers in SA with his IMod blog site where he has also started an awareness campaign.– LINK– Through the site a R1000 donation by “Ted”, an ex dancer, has been pledged and a challenge made to all other ex dancers to do the same.

I think out of all the story’s I have heard so far the next is the most amazing and inspiring and shows true commitment by a young lady, of the new generation of ballet lovers, to help save the company.

Mia Neethling, an aspiring ballerina, and obviously someone who has the interests of Cape Town City Ballet at heart, motivated all the children at her school, Camps Bay Primary, to donate to the cause. She got the headmaster’s permission to address the School over the PA and told the whole School about Cape Town City Ballet’s predicament.The cheque received from her was for R1430 and her achievement in raising anything from primary school children is admirable! Mia attends all productions, and makes a point of meeting the dancers after the performance to interact with them.

Well done Mia and lets hope that what you have achieved will inspire many others to do the same.

Curtain Down for Cape Town City Ballet?

patrickbd — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 10:23:35 +0000

From what I can gather it looks as if Cape Town City Ballet is not going to last much past the end of March as they have no money to carry on. What a sad indictment to arts and culture in SA when the oldest running ballet company in SA does not get enough funding to carry on. Really sad.

The problem is that it goes far deeper than Cape Town City Ballet if one looks at the so called Minister of Arts and Culture. All the recent ministers have been pretty terrible but this one is the worst. Ballet and Opera cannot be sustained by just bums on seats so there has to be financial support from government and business and in order for business to support they need tax breaks. How about R1.00 from every sports ticket sold being put into an independent arts trust?

I think the poll running on the Argus web site speaks volumes as to why arts and culture are in such a bad way. The poll has been running for more than 24 hours and only 254 people have bothered to express an opinion. Other polls normally have a couple of thousand votes by now. People are just apathetic or don’t understand how vital arts and culture are to the health of a nation.

So long as it is African culture or tradition all is fine. I just love the argument that Opera and Ballet are too Eurocentric and then point at soccer (football) in SA Have a look at the number of European coaches that work in SA and how many SA players are playing overseas. Where the hell did soccer originate from anyway. Talk about double standards.

Comments from Facebook:

Anton Luitingh

Yes, it’s pretty tragic!

Sue Rutherford

I hear the budget for Zuma’s harem is more than for the entire Ministry of Arts and Culture. Is that true?

Pat Bromilow-Downing

I stand to correction but I think it is R10m to arts and R15m to the wives. Go figure!

Sue Rutherford

That’s an absolute disgrace. Shame on him.

Alfred Rietmann

A sad time for Cape Town

Dave Leverton

Perhaps we should not refer to it as culture but rather tradition – which apparently gets more notice.

Julia Golovniova Pugson

Really ? That is SOOOO sad and they have done so well to keep going for the last few years ! xxx

Dave Leverton

Meanwhile the Lottery lot are sitting on 6 BILLION meant for NGOs and charities. How much interest does that accumulate every month…

Steven Stead

It is a tragedy and a grave indication of the values of our government. I can’t think of a civilised country in the world without a national ballet/dance company. Go figure…

Dave Leverton

Apart from the dancers this will impact the ballet school, costumes, designers, musicians, crew – while hundreds of millions are being squandered on crap, by crap and for crap.

Anne-Marie Clulow

Dave and Pat have such strong points. Interest accumulating on the lotto money and more for the wives than for the arts. Good point about “Eurocentric” soccer too! Still sad about CTCB.

Alfred Rietmann

Most of the supporting staff of the ballet have families to feed and have indeed dedicated their entire working careers to the company- these as specialised jobs – what must happen to them now? Another generation forced to embrace poverty or crime?

Alfred Rietmann

Ballet or Opera does not concern itself with the colour of skins or culture- these are Great Art Forms of expression and reflection of the human condition.

Pat Bromilow-Downing

@Alfred – So true! Maybe nobody wants to see the true reflection of what is happening in South African society at present?

Diane Wilson

This is deja vu I’m afraid. We went through all of this when the performing arts boards were disbanded in 1997.All those meetings with Veronica Paeper, Angelo Gobbatto, Blaise Koch and myself ; fighting and fighting and despairing and trying to get through to A.N.C. members who had really extraordinary values. I must say that Angelo Gobbatto was the miracle worker there. What he has single-handedly accomplished can never be repaid by S.A. Opera lovers.

Alfred Rietmann

Well said Diane!

Mo Pithey

this whole thing is such a terrible indictment of this government and its values. We wont eve mention morals. they don’t have any of those either.

Being Replaced

patrickbd — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:08:36 +0000

Post by : Anne-Marie Clulow

Here is the gist without names. I have been playing a gig replacing someone who was sick. The venue was so happy with me they approached me privately to take over. I refused, saying I would play until the other performer was well enough to play again. Naledi time came around, and I was invited to present. This is a huge, although unpaid event, and the exposure is great. I informed the venue and asked them to contact the agent to find an act for the date I couldn’t be there. With a full weeks notice. They found an act and the act played the gig. the following week I am told by the venue that the agent is pushing for the other act to go in for a contracted month, but they said they’ll choose who they want at their venue. Today, after trying to find out all week what’s happening this weekend, I am informed that the act that replaced me is in this weekend, and I am not needed. On all occasions when I have been personally approached, even without a contract from the agent I have paid commission and said I will still go through the agency. Lovely loyalty huh? She has now booked the other act in.

I am so sick of being screwed over by people. The agent still gets comm, the venue still has an act and I have no work now because everyone else was quite happy to do what suited them.

I guess i should have insisted on a contract, but the last one I got from the agent had a date on where the venue had a benefit concert so I lost out on the money. Wasn’t unhappy to give it to a good cause, but the contract I received was also still not worth the paper it was written on.

Creative Workers Union S.A.

patrickbd — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:15:17 +0000

THIS POST HAS BEEN REMOVED AT THE REQUEST OF THE PERSON WHO SENT ME THE OVERVIEW OF THE CAPE TOWN MEETING. IT APPEARS THAT I WAS IN ERROR TO MAKE IT PUBLIC AND FOR THAT I APOLOGISE.

Equity SA ??

patrickbd — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:27:22 +0000

A Facebook group has been created to try and assess how many people employed in the entertainment industry in South Africa would be interested in joining an Equity UK type union. We believe that we must create an all encompassing union – actors, dancers, musicians, technicians, designers, circus artists, stunt people …….etc – rather than a specific union for each category. The more people we can bring in under one umbrella the more powerful we will become and apart form contracts, working conditions and so on we would, if the numbers are large enough, be able to investigate things like medical plans and pension funds.
This is more a market research exercise than anything else with no operational specifics and details applied. It would be interesting to get suggestions from all as to how you see it could operate. The one thing for sure is that it would take payment of a monthly or annual subscription so we would have to be serious about forming such a union and making sure that the benefits are real. Again the higher the numbers the lower we could keep that subscription.

Some of you will know that there has been some success in recent months in exposing some of the malpractices that are rife in the entertainment industry. We need to stop and prevent these things happening in a more proactive way and having a strong union is the only way to go.

Please click on this link and consider joining.—–>>> Equity SA

Response to BY Theatre owners letter.

patrickbd — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:16:26 +0000

If you want to read what it says then go to the post called “Chris Luke responds to Barnyard article” posted on the 19/02/2010.

Know Your Rights!!

patrickbd — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:46:40 +0000

This was also posted as a comment by Chris Luke.

MPE (My Previous Employer) are reacting to our initiative and making changes: MPE are handing out contracts: They covered themselves nicely for the March run of their South African show in KZN. Everyone in this cast got contracts and only because we encouraged an investigation from their endorsee, which took place in January. MPE got wind of our request on our sites and did something about it in fear of losing that endorsement. None of the performers in that show have had signatures on contracts for the last couple of years and now they have them. I was in that show since 2003 and travelled abroad with it in 2008 and 2009. So, that was an accomplishment.

MPE have taken down all boards and banners at Cresta with my image on it (the outside board was new and it’s been removed hastily) – this is what I wanted, as I am having a media war with MPE in KZN over rights to images and with regard to false advertising. (Please see the links below). Check your new contracts as to your rights regarding this issue; in fact, all of you should be supplied with a model release form to cover yourselves on this issue. KZN are using my image to advertise the show in March. That is called false advertising. MPE CANNOT USE YOUR IMAGE IN PERPETUITY. I personally do not want my image associated with the brand.

Further: The issue of contracts is not solved:

Firstly, please note: This initiative DOES NOT apply to actors who work for MPE with agents (i.e. for the shows R and G etc.). MPE are forced to supply contracts for those shows because actors work with individual agents. And their agents must have contracts. Musicians and singers however, DO NOT work on this system – they fend for themselves when it comes to contractual issues. So when MPE says: ‘we do supply contracts, here they are’ and show investigators piles of contracts from those shows that is a circumvention of the issue.

Secondly, this is not about pay slips or UIF. All of those MPE can provide and when they get investigated it looks impressive.

Thirdly, this is about contractual rights of performers. This is about (and this is who this initiative is aimed at) all of you at MPE, primarily musicians and singers who have worked for MPE for over two or three consecutive runs i.e. 6 to 8 months and keep getting booked for consecutive runs. They keep you on, and on, and on for years at a time. You think it’s great because (even though you don’t have a contract) you are getting work. 5 years pass and you realize that if MPE had to drop you for the next two runs, you are going to be out of work for 6 months. You are going to lose 6 months salary because trying to get back into the loop (the music industry that that you left 5 years ago) isn’t going to happen in 6 months. So all the assets that you have accrued with your so-called ‘permanent’ salary at MPE can’t be sustained for the next six months.

Permanent employment according to Labour Law is working over 40 hours a month for more than three months. You are working over 70 hours a month and do free rehearsals. In fact, you are permanently at the disposal of MPE. That means you are entitled to permanent employment benefits. i.e paid breaks or holidays (and a whole host of other things)

PLEASE NOTE: If you have worked for MPE for 1 solid year, or 2, 3 , 4 , 5 and in some cases 8 years (and there are many of you) and MPE’s intention is to keep you on for another year in that show, or in another show, and you cannot leave the show and put in a replacement AT ANY TIME OF YOUR CHOOSING – THEN YOU NEED A PERMANENT EMPLOYEE CONTRACT.

Fourthly, if you are doing runs of shows for MPE and they are taking up most of your year, but they are not consecutive runs – YOU ARE ENTITLED TO AN INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR CONTRACT. This means that you are entitled to work with a dep (replacement) by law and you can sustain your career outside of MPE protecting you from needless loss of income when a show run ends. If MPE took this seriously and changed protocol, you could triple your salary (do all the well paying corporates) and still perform for MPE while you work six to eight months of the year for them.

Fifthly, protocol has to be set by MPE with regard to these issues. If it is not, then double standards occur i.e. some people get to put in replacements but others do not. Some people are fined but others are not. (MPE cannot fine anyone for putting in a replacement).

I URGE ALL SINGERS AND MUSICIANS AT MPE TO LOOK AT YOUR NEW CONTRACTS AND REASSESS THEM IN THE ABOVE TERMS. This system could work perfectly, all of you, including MPE could be happy. It’s time MPE did this by the book. You are entitled to assess your contract and you are entitled to a forum for grievances by law. You are also entitled to paid rehearsals. And you are entitled to be insured when you are on stage or in the building for work. If you are dismissed unfairly, or dropped before a run: If you can prove that you have worked for them for that period of time and they can’t show you a contract with your signature on it then yours is a cut and dried case at the CCMA.

The turn in the tide is now people. Do not let MPE take advantage of you. Change has and will come. The better you are informed and educated the better you can protect yourself.

Chris Luke