Lifestyle

He pitched. Miles made good on his promise to admit himself for a week-long heroin detox at 8am on Tuesday, and when I called the hospital at 8.30am, to my enormous relief, I was told he was there and “with the doctors”. This may seem like an ordinary thing, like someone promising to arrive for […]

Hell yeah! What’s this global crisis all about? Am I living in a safe, warm cocoon here in Shanghai? The Chook and I mostly live on one income and stick away the other. Yet I read in a recent Time magazine article on the global crisis, titled “The Great Fall”, some scary stuff, or rather […]

I am always fascinated by what one can find taking place in abandoned parts of the city into the early hours of the morning. Last Friday we braved the seedier parts of the city to see Jim Neversink at Belavista in Bertrams. Normally the idea of a gig in a venue with a 360º view […]

The constant barrage of creativity and beauty at the Design Indaba conference, held for three days every February in Cape Town, is exhausting. Halfway through, it’s easy to reach saturation point. “Oh God, not another perfect, glorious idea translated into another perfect, glorious chair/light/table … ” But then flashes of genius burst out, breaking all […]

Miles has learnt to hate Cape Town. Where the rest of us see the beauty, the splendour, the Cape Town of tourists marvelling at its wonders, he sees the depravity of its underbelly. He sees the lice and smells the rancid odour of nights in a sordid Somalian backpackers. Sitting in the passenger seat of […]

Small white dots, each with a single letter from the words “Issey Miyake”, reconfigure themselves on a black background, transforming unmistakably into a model marching down the catwalk. They multiply, alter and seemingly simple changes in position turns them into other figures and forms. The drumbeat of the soundtrack stopped our hearts and the cleverness […]

Reality and humanity strode on to the stage at this year’s Design Indaba, responding perhaps to the wake-up call offered by the global economic crisis. As Canadian designer and change activist Bruce Mau pointed out on day one of this most chichi of conferences, the current crisis shows us that what we are currently doing […]

Conservative Party leader David Cameron’s son, Ivan, an epilepsy and cerebral palsy sufferer, passed away at St Mary’s Hospital in London yesterday. According to the Independent (click on link) there was a sudden illness which occasioned the six-year-old being rushed to hospital where he later died. There are no words that really offer comfort to […]

Neither time nor self-effacing humility is going to diminish Arabi Mocheke’s profound influence on the struggle to use culture as an instrument of transformation and economic self-reliance among artists. Mocheke, who died after a long battle with prostrate cancer, was a cultural visionary and leader known for his passionate love and unrelenting commitment to the […]

Despite the fact that I devoted a large portion of my studies to the creation of fantasy worlds and made-up stories, be it in art, film or theatre, looking at the processes and analysing the results, I am a total junkie when it comes to films and books that are firmly rooted in reality. I […]

… for those who live in Cape Town and are interested in design of every shape and colour. Yip, it’s Design Indaba week — beginning with the conference on Wednesday (Thursday, Friday) and with the expo carrying on all weekend. You might remember I blogged about the expo last year, all I remember is being […]

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’ He chortled in his joy. Good on you, Lewis. Today I begin a new life. I will look upon all things and see the wonder in them. My clothing? I own three pairs of trousers, about eight T-shirts (my teaching job in downtown Shanghai has no dress code) and one […]