After a slow start to his writing and directing career, M. Night Shyamalan burst on to the Hollywood scene with his mind-bending blockbuster, The Sixth Sense. The cleverly written thriller shocked and wowed audiences around the world, resulting in veritable cult status and an enviable ranking of #128 on IMDb‘s list of the Top 250 [...]
I’ll be updating live from the CSA Awards in Sandton. Just arrived and the venue looks great, I’m seated with Vincent Hofmann, Shaun Custers and no doubt one or two other cricket geeks. Ok so my hopes of being able to live blog the event were dashed by a lack of space on the table. [...]
I recently upgraded from a much-loved Audi A4 1.8T to my all-time dream car, a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG. It’s not that I didn’t like the Audi, on the contrary on many levels it’s an easier, more comfortable car than the C63 – it has more headroom on the driver’s side, a softer ride and in [...]
The Mother City’s very rad blogging community has rallied around the Cape Town City Ballet in it’s moment of dire need. Sue Rutherford and friends have put together a website and campaign to encourage people like you and I to give a little bit towards saving the arts in Cape Town. We are appealing to [...]
Yes, you heard me right. I am a racist. And I venture to suggest that you might be too, if you’re honest with yourself about it. Recent events in South Africa have, to borrow Jenny Crwys-Williams of Talk Radio 702′s phrase, “lanced a boil” filled with putrid racist muck, and the contents are spilling out [...]
I wonder if this is a South African thing, or just a South African boomer thing that is rubbing off on younger generations, but I just DON’T get why we all think we have to rush to the garage to fill up with fuel at the first sign of a petrol price increase. I mean, [...]
Last week Thursday I heard that my good friend and mentor, Barry Marshall, had drowned while paddle-skiing in the sea in his hometown of Port Elizabeth. I received the news en route to Dullstroom for a lonely weekend retreat sans Macbook, so had a lot of time to think about things before writing about how [...]
Yep, I know – plenty of noise and hype and buzz around District 9 already. I’m not hopping on the bandwagon though – I am genuinely excited about what this movie means for Johannesburg, South Africa and South African cinema (which I’m sure you’ll agree could use a kick up the butt). My 9 reasons [...]
This afternoon, away with a few friends ‘freebording‘ just outside Krugersdorp, I witnessed one of the most bizarre, frightening, freakish things no doubt I’ll ever see in my entire life. I watched a single prop (updated: Piper Cherokee) plane crash head-on into a bakkie (or pick-up for US readers). I watched it happen from about [...]
For an out-and-out music fan and musician I have attended precious few live performances. Sadly. This is partly because the artists I love most seldom venture out here and secondly, life has generally gotten in the way when the best opportunities have presented themselves. Not this year though! Having missed the last few My Coke [...]
A World Wildlife Fund initiative, Earth Hour aims to get ordinary people like you and I to take a stance against climate change by signing up on the site and switching off your lights on 28 March 2009 for 60 minutes. The lads at AtPlay.biz have done an incredible job building a social media presence, [...]
I’ve never cared much for politics. This is largely because I felt intimidated by it. When I don’t feel knowledgeable about a subject I simply steer clear of it to avoid looking lke an idiot. I could never understand politics because it never made sense to me. I think I understand now that I had [...]
A couple of weeks back I received an email from Rui Esteves, a co-founder of Vida e Caffe, of which I am enormous fan. After the enormous success of Vida Rui has not rested on his laurels, instead choosing to reinvent the beer industry with the same passion and conviction he and his business partners [...]
Man, I just love these self-righteous, introspective, “I-think-I’m-important-enough-for-you-to-read-such-crud” blog memes. I’ve been tagged before mind you, and if it weren’t for the fact that it’s the incomparable Ethan Zuckerman tagging me this time around (just a mention on his blog results in a lightning bolt of traffic) I’d ignore the whole shebang. Still, I wouldn’t [...]
God bless Sheena Gates‘ little cotton socks. Not only does she regail us with unending wit and drama on Twitter but, and to quote her own words, in a week that is normally quite ‘emo’ for many of us returning to the grindstone, she has brought a little ray of sunshine to the circle-jerking, ego-flated [...]
This time inspired by Erik Hersman, but not necessarily a meme, my weapons of choice: 15″ MacBook Pro 16 Gb iPhone Gorilla-head stress ball (too cool) Steaming hot cup of coffee Car key (I spend most of my life on the road) Canon EOS 450D D-SLR (not pictured) Garmin Nuvi GPS (not pictured) What are [...]
Erik has tagged me as part of the “Why I Blog About Africa” meme. It’s proved a tough one to answer. I blog about Africa primarily because I was born here, I guess. I sometimes feel guilty calling myself African because in many ways South Africa is to Africa as America is to the rest [...]
This morning, at 07h08, Kate Ashleigh Stopforth joined our family. The moment I walked into the ward at sparrow’s fart this morning the memories began to flood back. Ethan was born in the same hospital, same surgery, almost four years ago. It’s amazing how quickly you forget the sites, smells and sounds – and the [...]
Four years doesn’t feel like a long time. But my goodness, a lot can happen in four years. 3 years and 10 months ago my son Ethan was born. It was a big day. I know that’s a cliched thing to say – but there’s just something earth-shatteringly amazing about experiencing the birth of one’s [...]
