Lifestyle

Slowly, purposefully, I point my finger upwards at the dripping umbrella above my head while staring at the umbrella seller. She is young; her two black pigtails are tied with simple red cotton and she is trying to sell me an umbrella. It has not quite occurred to her that, although it is raining, I […]

After dinner in summer the subway stations in Shanghai, like Dong Chang Lu, fill up with families and friends who come here to sit and chat, most of them wearing pyjamas. These are the real dandy jarmies, with red and blue stripes; the dads look like walking rock candy sticks. Many grandfathers prefer old green […]

At my funeral my rabbi has been given strict instructions to throw a last carton of Camel Filters and a Zippo lighter into the casket with me just in case, heaven forbid, I wake up six feet under only to find myself without a smoke. Knowing my form I won’t be able to find them […]

It’s very likely that much of the rest of Cape Town has known about the Whatiftheworld / Gallery for ages now. I just discovered it. And what a discovery! Apparently it’s one of the Top 50 Emerging Galleries from Around the World. Check it out at www.whatiftheworld.com It’s a big, old warehouse in the slowly-becoming-hip […]

Americans have developed a unique approach to poor nutrition: they drink coffee with a straw so that they can suck the coffee up through a layer of sugar that is deposited at the bottom of the cup and thus sweeten the coffee without using too much sugar. I realise this may seem a trivial conclusion […]

I’ll start off this discussion about the Australian version of a favourite stereotype of the white rural underclass, the redneck, with this disclaimer: yes, I know it’s politically incorrect. Yes, I know that one should not make fun of people who drive pickup trucks with big engines that contribute to global warming and listen to […]

Did anyone know we’re in the midst of the Year of Creativity 2008? Apparently we are. Don’t believe me? Check out www.yoc2008.com While you’re there, take a browse through their ‘Be the Change’ project, which they describe as “an entertaining and ironic way of expressing our multiple identities through a set of highly original, personalised […]

I am reading an article by Michael Taussig called ‘Redeeming Indigo’ about the indigo colour or perhaps it’s about the colour indigo. This little history of a colour says so much about the world in which we live. As he remarks that “To slip into the blue of your blue jeans is to slip into […]