By BRUCE DENNILL There’s a man playing a singing bowl and warbling along to the soothing sound it makes outside the bank of elevators that service Rosebank’s The Zone centre. He’s good. He has a couple of albums displayed…
By BRUCE DENNILL Blogger. It’s a term that’s almost spat out, like a condition you might catch if you discuss it for too long. As media platforms go, blogs are often classed somewhere between penis enlargement flyers pasted onto…
By JOHN ELLIS It’s a sign of our ever-deepening cultural poverty that I’d have to explain what I mean by ‘The Goons’. I’m talking, of course, of the one-and-only, groundbreaking, anarchic, pioneering, standard-setting Goon Show. The BBC radio comedy…
By BRUCE DENNILL The below music, literature, film, TV and theatre may not have been created or originally released during 2016, but it was only at some point during this year that I was able to see it, hear…
By JM SHORNEY Until today, in my sheltered writer’s existence, I had not encountered any reference to the group who call themselves Anonymous. The members don Guy Fawkes masks, which I suppose lends an eerie but historic message, as…
By BEN WRIGHT In the late 1970s, my uncle wanted to go to Filbert St. My Grandmother said no. Like the stadiums of many a middling football club at the time, the home of Leicester City could be a rough…
By BRUCE DENNILL The below music, literature, film, TV and theatre may not have been created or originally released during 2015, but it was only at some point during this year that I was able to see it, hear…
By JOHN ELLIS The costume designers of Back To The Future II were asked to imagine, from the viewpoint of 1988, how we’d all be dressing in 2015. As can be expected, they got it hilariously, entertainingly wrong. It’s…
By BEN WRIGHT Over the course of my ten years in the US, I’ve met numerous families who have adopted kids from overseas. While any adoption is ostensibly noble, I’ve always been somewhat troubled by the fact that there…
By GABRIEL CROUSE There is a taste war being waged in South Africa. On one side, a distaste for shame dominates. Let me put it this way: if your grandfather was sympathetic to evil social experiments, please don’t take…
By ALBRECHT BEHMEL When people ask me what I do for a living, I usually lie. I either tell them that I am a writer or I tell them that I am a painter. I rarely say that I am…
By ALBRECHT BEHMEL What really fascinates me as a writer is the question why some stories enter tradition and others don’t. There is plenty of good stuff out there that nobody reads anymore. Material that is totally forgotten but…
By BRUCE DENNILL Before this year’s Naledi Awards, there was a Facebook kerfuffle about the nominations, and during and after the show, there was more of the same sort of chatter – verbally, this time – in the Lyric…
By SIBUSISO MKWANAZI A good story usually takes really long to tell, and this is the case with Nigeria’s film industry, affectionately known as Nollywood. Give Nigerian directors, producers and actors enough time and they will do what they…
By BRUCE DENNILL The below music, literature, film and theatre may not have been created or originally released during 2014, but it was only at some point during this year that I was able to see it, hear it…
By SIBUSISO MKWANZI Every year, numerous literary awards including the Pulitzer, Man Booker and Goethe Prizes are dished out to those who pen riveting tales. These authors recognised evoke emotion, memories and untold feelings about an array of subjects….
By SIBUSISO MKWANAZI The concept of an opening act is one that can be seen as a positive or negative aspect of any show, depending on your perspective. This idea is meant to offer much-needed exposure to up-and-coming performers,…
By SIBUSISO MKWANZI It is imperative that all those involved in the arts and culture industry see the bigger picture. By bigger picture I mean that it takes more than just the front-end of the business – directors, cast members,…
By SIBUSISO MKWANAZI One of the joys of living in Gauteng is the wide array of activities that are on offer for families. And by this, I mean the kids are taken care of – any parent worth their…
By SIBUSISO MKWANAZI I have a sneaking suspicion that artists are missing a beat when it comes to what they can do to rescue our ailing arts, besides highlighting the lack of funding and the government’s inadequate support. This…
By SIBUSISO MKWANAZI Ironically, those tasked with delivering creative content to the rest of the population often find it difficult to describe the level of satisfaction they derive from fulfilling their destiny. But there has to be a reason why they…
By BEN WRIGHT After five decades, U2 need an exit strategy. Black rappers do it better than white rockers. That’s my opinion anyway; though I’m sure fans with more intimate knowledge of musicians have split opinions. I’m talking about…
By BEN WRIGHT Not many love affairs (musical of otherwise) start with a recommendation from your mother. As with many things, Tree63 was different (or Tree as they were known back when kids still played outside and people left…
By SIBUSISO MKWANAZI Those who have been infatuated with their tunes for extended periods of time will let you know that there are fewer live music venues than there were in the good old days. And they would be…
Former City of Joburg official Steven Sack was concerned about what he perceived to be inaccuracies in the story below (italics), which appeared recently in The Times. He has submitted his response for consideration (below the original story). Ninety…
By BEN WRIGHT What is Christian music? How is it different from music made by Christians? Is it different from church music? And why is it usually quite bad? As a worship leader, these are the sorts of questions…
By BRUCE DENNILL Barry Ronge was recently recognised for his work as a writer, critic, columnist and commentator at the Sunday Times Literary Awards. He was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award further honoured by the renaming of the…
By JO-ANNE GARLAND As I sat with eyes glued to the festivities of the World Cup opening ceremony, I struggled to remove the contrasting images of rioting crowds outside the stadium from my mind. The scene bore an uncomfortable resemblance…
By JOHN ELLIS There were a zillion reasons why U2’s 1997 album Pop was considered to be the band’s nadir. Today, three studio albums and a billion dollars later, U2-watchers remain fiercely divided over the glitterball-y, Warholian K-Mart of an…
By BRUCE DENNILL “To be properly committed to the writing process, you need to be sufficiently obsessed with the project” – Damon Galgut The Franschhoek Literary Festival 2014 was held from 16 to 18 May. It was superb experience,…
By BRUCE DENNILL This weekend, I’m a FLFer. It’s pronounced like that word, but it’s not nearly so hard on the knees. The Franschhoek Literary Festival is, as I write, half-way done, and it’s been its usual melange of…
By TAMSYN LUNT Today marks the annual celebration of World Book Day! We can all band together and bask in the glory of the classics. Of crime novels and fantasies. We can think fondly of the distinct smell of…
By CHRISTOPHER LEACH On March 8th, contact was lost with Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200ER en route from Kuala Lampur to Beijing. The absence of facts as to the fate of the flight at first left a vacuum swiftly…
By BRUCE DENNILL Worrying about finance is for accountants. Think about how many situations you’ve observed, onscreen or elsewhere, where an actor asks a director: “What is my motivation for this role?” How many times has that director said:…
By BRUCE DENNILL At the time of writing, the top four teams in the English Premier League – Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool – have goal differences of, respectively, 24, 38, 23 and 25.That is to say, each…