Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, Jay Brannan, to be seen engaged in a sexually explicit (and hilarious) gay threesome in Shortbus, was “raised religious”. Brannan is in South Africa as a guest of the Out in Africa gay and lesbian film festival, accompanying another film he stars in, Holding Trevor. He’s probably still answering […]
Media
Posted inBusiness, Media, Tech
Web publishing goes (desk)topless
One of my friend Vinny Lingham‘s* latest projects, a revolutionary, browser-based, wysiwyg website builder, Synthasite, launched into beta this week (November 5). I had the good fortune of being able to play around with the latest incarnation just before its public release and I found it simple to use and quite addictive actually. Although all […]
Posted inMedia
The chicken-hawks of the media wars
The most prominent chicken-hawks of recent times are those — such as United States Vice-President Dick Cheney — who, while pushing for war, also push with great finesse for personal exemption from its risks. Thus Cheney, the two-time warmonger of Iraq (1991 and 2003), famously dodged combat in Vietnam, pleading that he had “other priorities”; […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media, Tech
Blogging Player of the Week: Charl Norman
Meet Charl Norman. At first sight, he doesn’t look dangerous. You might even encounter him at business or social events, exchange business cards and not even think of contacting the authorities. “Hmm, nice logo, you might say,” as I did, and then carry on with the business of the evening. Mistake. Charl Norman is a […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics, Tech
New monopoly card for bloggers: No-Libel, Pass Begin, Collect $200
An important international company in the web space recently discovered one of my blog posts and contacted me to tell me that I jeopardised the potential for future cooperation with it by being critical of it in my posts. I didn’t think I was being critical of the company, but it didn’t think so. This […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
A very blind date
No, luckily not something involving me, but rather a horrible live-on-air incident that happened on a show called Blind Date in the UK in 1997. We all know the format: a guy or girl chooses a partner for a blind date by listening to the responses of three “invisible” hopefuls. In Blind Date, the losers, […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Info Scandal II
It’s a peaceful and sunny Sunday morning, but the morning news is once again troubling. The president’s men are, reportedly, hoping to buy Johnnic Communications, publisher of the Sunday Times. All of it.
Posted inMedia
Brands make their mark on Facebook
Over the last few months we have seen a bunch of brands jumping onto the Facebook bandwagon. Trying to take advantage of the trend and engage the youngsters on Facebook — demographics are becoming more diverse — the most recent to see it backfire was Walmart. My opinion on why Walmart failed, besides all of […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle, Media
Get me a fake Springbok jersey!
Canterbury, the Springbok kit sponsor, is complaining that “counterfeit” goods are damaging its business and could lead to job losses. What hogwash! Canterbury’s argument, a familiar complaint by branded-goods manufacturers, is based on a false assumption: that people would buy the “official” goods if alternatives — the far cheaper “fakes” — were not available. For […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
SA’s press council: Public watchdog or (government) bloodhound?
Government’s constituency is highly irked by recent coverage, said Essop Pahad, Minister in the Presidency, on Thursday. “In the ANC, there are very, very, very strong views about how the media has been dealing with the ANC. There is real anger. The question is whether this will spill over to regulation — the answer is […]
Posted inMedia
Media freedom — on the verge of extinction?
After 1994, many people thought South African media would be free at last, following many years of censorship under apartheid regime. But that did not happen as we thought it would. In 1996, former president Nelson Mandela castigated black journalists for being critical of him and his government. My question is: Were these journalists being […]
Posted inMedia
Facebook: Pokes vs real penetration
We’ve all heard about how Facebook has changed the face of the planet, sucking even the most technophobic business dowdies into its vortex. I’m not going to debate the merits, or otherwise, of Facebook as an investment (ask Microsoft), as an application platform (ask Google), or as a waste of time (ask anyone). What I […]