Some Nina Simone for you

Nina Simone- I wish I knew how it would feel to be free

Mail & Guardian Johannesburg Literary Festival 2011

 
Next weekend, I plan on going to the Mail & Guardian Johannesburg Literary Festival at the Market Theatre in Newtown. The festival runs from  2-4 September and hosts a variety of panel discussions which discuss Jo'burg as "both an African city and a world city" against a literary backdrop.

Here's the programme if you are interested. There's some really rad speakers on the panels. I'm eyeing   sessions 4, 5 and 7.

September 2
Keynote address -- The Johannesburg moment
Time: 6.30pm for 7pm
Venue: Main Theatre
Professor Karl von Holdt -- The Johannesburg Moment

September 3
Session 1 -- Not in black and white
Time: 9.30am to 11 am
Venue: Main Theatre
Chair: Darryl Accone
Panel: Fiona Forde
Antjie Krog
Sandile Memela
Andile Mngxitama

Session 2 -- Jo'burg: Renewing, restoring, reviewing
Time:11.30am to 1 pm
Venue: Kippies
Chair: Steven Sack
Panel: Gerald Garner
Noor Nieftagodien
Achille Mbembe
Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon

Session 3 -- Memories of the city
Time: 11.30am to 1pm
Venue: Laager Theatre
Chair: Jon Hyslop
Panel: Leslie Bank
Denis Hirson
Ufrieda Ho
Mbulelo Mzamane
Chris van Wyk

Session 4 -- Poetry
Time: 1.30om to 2.15pm
Venue: Kippies
Ingrid de Kock and Denis Hirson

Session 5 -- Workers of the world unite: Labour, the ANC and history
Time: 2.30pm to 4pm
Venue: Kippies
Chair: Nic Dawes
Panel: Kally Forrest
Susan Booysen
Moeletsi Mbeki

Session 6 -- Science fiction and fantasy in the city
Time: 2.30pm to 4pm
Venue: Laager Theatre
Chair: Gwen Ansell
Panel: Lauren Beukes
Louis Greenberg
Tom Learmont
Sarah Lotz

Session 7 -- Aspects of the South African novel
Time: 4.30pm to 6pm
Venue: Laager Theatre
Chair: Craig MacKenzie
Jane Rosenthal
Leon de Kock
Karabo Kgoleng

September 4
Session 8 -- Memory is the Weapon
Time: 9.30am to 11am
Venue: Main Theatre
Chair: Nic Dawes
Panel: Hugh Lewin
Ronnie Kasrils

Session 9 -- New writing from the city
Time: 11.45am to 1pm
Venue: Laager Theatre
Chair: Maureen Isaacson
Panel: Cynthia Jele
Jassy Mackenzie
Henrietta Rose-Innes 

These are some of the speakers that will be on the various panel discussions. Image of Antjie Krog (left) taken by Karina Turok. Found via this website. Image of Lauren Beukes (top right) taken by Victor Dlamini. Found via this website. Image of Moeletsi Mbeki (bottom right) taken by Jane Mingay. Found via this website.

If you want more information about the festival, or would like to book your seat, visit the Mail & Guardian's website. 

PS. I'm sorry that I have neglected you, poor poor blog. Varsity has been keeping me very busy indeed. I will try to pay more attention to you, I promise.

Yum yum yum

Don't worry holiday, I haven't forgotten you!

The story of my little adventure is slowly coming to an end. So sad. Everyday life can really be mundane sometimes. I like the thrill of exploration and the joy of encountering something new. Can't I go travelling again? Pretty please? 

The Arch of Hadrian
The Arch was built to celebrate the arrival of the Roman Emperor Hadrian and to honour him for all he had contributed to Athens.

Temple of Olympian Zeus
The temple was dedicated to Zeus, king of the gods.

Temple of Olympian Zeus with the Acropolis in the background. 

The Zappeion which is currently used as a conference and exhibition hall. 

Annie Liebovitz is too cool

The incredibly talented photographer, Annie Liebovitz, was hired by the Walt Disney Company to shoot these photos for Disney Parks "Year of a Million Dreams" campaign. Liebovitz started with the project in 2007 and has been releasing the pictures regularly ever since. It's pretty difficult to choose a favourite, right? I used to love all these old Disney cartoons. I'm lying. In fact, I still do. 

Beyonce- Alice from Alice in Wonderland
Oliver Platt- The Mad Hatter
Lyle Lovett- March Hare

Drew Barrymore- Belle 

Marc Anthony- Alladin
Jennifer Lopez- Jasmine

Julie Andrews- The Blue Fairy
Abigail Breslin- Fira

Whoopi Goldberg- The Genie

Penelope Cruz and Jeff Bridges- Beauty and The Beast

Scarlet Johanssen- Cinderella

Queen Latifah- Ursula from The Little Mermaid

Mikhail Baryshnikov- Peter Pan
Giselle Bundchen- Wendy
Tina Fey- Tinkerbell
 

Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens- Sleeping Beauty

Rachel Weisz- Snow White

Jessica Biel- Pocahontas 

David Beckham- Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty

Julianne Moore- Ariel from The Little Mermaid

Olivia Wilde- The Evil Queen from Snow White
Alec Baldwin- The Mirror

 Pictures from here. 

Tick Tock

Yikes, but I've been busy this week. Hence, the lack of blog posts. So sad. To entertain your eyes in the meantime, here's a picture I took of Christi while we were walking around Athens. Happy weekend, everyone! 

Yo Bing, P-Town and I want you to come home already!

This is a photo of my friend Steven and I back when I used to have bushy hair and he used to have no hair. Ha. Golly, it really was a long time ago now that I think of it. Steven studies at UCT so I don't get to see him very much. Thank you for the message tonight though friend, I appreciate it and miss you so flippin' much it's ridiculous!!!

I like pictures

Van Coke Kartel
 Skop, Skiet en Donner Album Launch
Tings 'n Times
28 June 2010

Another pair of shoes?

Have I ever told you that I am in fact a mind reader? Well, I am. After seeing this blog post, you are thinking many things:

1) This girl has an illness known as a Shoe Fetish. Has she sought help?
2) Didn't she get a new pair of shoes last weekend?
3) At this rate, how long do you think it will take before she becomes bankrupt?

Ok, yes, I got a new pair of shoes. Some will call it a fetish but it's actually quite common among the female species. So no, I don't need help. Yet. And plus, they were only R350 from Woolworths. Not too bad. So bankruptcy is not likely in the imminent future.

iMPAC = Genius

This weekend I did something a little different. I went to iMPAC (I previously blogged about it here), an extraordinary film festival which explores the moving image within the African continent. Oh my hat, it was amazing! I am convinced that there is nothing like it in the world. The opening night, which was on Thursday (a students weekend always starts on Thursday), showcased some short films by students who study at Open Window. They are thought-provoking, aesthetically beautiful fine art films, most definitely not your average film that you would see at a cinema. They go far far beyond that. On Saturday evening, I saw the Egyptian film, The Night of Counting the Years. It had a dreamlike quality to it which was just lovely. I love the fact that the festival gives the public a chance to see films like this, ones that we probably wouldn't be exposed to otherwise. After that, I saw a silent film made in 1927 called Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. What made the experience extra special was that Jacob Israel and A Skyline on Fire wrote an original score which they performed live during the film. Considering the film, the type of music they played was completely unexpected but I think that's where the beauty of it was. I am so grateful that I got to experience something like this. To all you sillys who didn't go to iMPAC, you missed out. Shame. I'll remind you about it next time, because to miss out on it two years in a row would be a sin. 

Athens: Acropolis

The day that we decided to trek up to the Acropolis, it happened to be 42 degree weather. It was also the day that some clever person decided that it would be a good idea to let 12 000 people into the Acropolis. Problem? Why, yes. We had to stand in loooooong queues that would come to a complete standstill. And once you got to a certain point, you couldn't go down without avoiding the queue. Not that I would have wanted to go down though. Waiting in the heat was worth it. The view of Athens from the top of the Acropolis was something else. People aren't all that fond of Athens, but I liked it quite a bit. It's like antiquity and the contemporary met one day and decided that they would be very good friends. I would even go as far as to say that I could live in Athens. I also have to mention the New Acropolis Museum. It's a magnificent cultural dream, a truly state of the art museum. I really wish that we could have such amazing museums in South Africa. Our lack thereof made me a little bit sad. I guess the problem in such a heterogeneous society is that it's hard to decide who's culture to exhibit without stepping on someone's toes. I refuse to believe that there isn't some way around the problem though. 

The Theatre of Dionysus. It was here that the works of great ancient dramatists like Sophocles and Euripides were performed for the first time. 

The so-called 'tribune' of Phaedrus from the skene (stage) of the Theatre of Dionysus. It was added in the third centuary AD and has relief depicitions of scenes from the life of Dionysus. 

The Parthenon. 

View of Athens from the Acropolis. 

View of the Temple of Olympian Zeus from the Acropolis.

That huge rocky thingy is where Saint Paul spoke to the people of Athens in 51 AD.

Lace. Prints. Flowers.

Erdem's 2011 Spring/Summer Collection 

Images from this post as well as the previous on DKNY are from here.