It’s the third one.
Continue reading “My favourite verse from The Magnetic Fields’ ‘Queen of the Savages’”
Category: Reviews
Granny panties: a new low
Hairstyle aside, a naked Yo-Landi Vi$$er would surely be a 10, by the standards set in ‘today’s media’, mostly because of her boobs, for which a new word – one step up from ‘perky’ – should be coined.
But when she’s not naked, she’s frequently kitted out like a Ringwraith, wearing solid black contact lenses that stir our primal fears, noshing human hearts and being really, really onbeskof. Continue reading “Granny panties: a new low”
Lark + Taxi Violence + Plastics = BEAST
Review: BEAST, SMOKE SWIG SWEAR (2013)
BEAST is South Africa’s supergroup. They’re our The Traveling Wilburys or The Raconteurs, and they’re just as super. I’ve been wanting to do this review since about 10 minutes after I first heard their album when it was released a few month ago – it’s really, really good.
So, charisma abounds with Inge Beckmann (Lark), Louis Nel and Rian Zietsman (Taxi Violence) and Sasha Righini (The Plastics) on drums. The Taxi Violence guys both play bass, so there’s no ‘regular’ guitar, which for most of us just means we want to describe the music as ‘dark’, but we’re not sure why. Continue reading “Lark + Taxi Violence + Plastics = BEAST”
‘I just want to be treated like an ordinary … legend’
I went to see Rodriguez live in Cape Town the other night, and it was totally worth the R420 I paid. Wait … 420 bucks!? Is that a Big Concerts joke I only just got?
Anyway.
Because of one thing and another, I never got to see any of Rodriguez’s previous concerts in South Africa. After watching the documentary I rued not seeing that first concert in Cape Town, which looked so incredible and heart-warming, although a friend insists the reality was very different to the celluloid; that Rodriguez was so intoxicated he could barely sing, and that the crowd were more confused and disappointed than the enraptured and awed they appeared on screen. Don’t know if that’s true or not.
This time around perhaps the concert was lacking in other ways, after all Rodriguez is 70 now – and quite an ‘old’ 70, when I think of my sprightly 83-year-old grandfather. But it was still one of the best musical experiences I’ve ever had. Just to hear those great lyrics live, and that voice, which really hasn’t lost much since 1970.
Continue reading “‘I just want to be treated like an ordinary … legend’”
Failed flashmobs, gumballs and a Visit from the Goon Squad
Here’s how today’s #GumballSA debacle reminds me of an excellent novel I just read.
Today a scandal broke on Twitter. Again. This time, videos were circulated of people doing odd things at Cresta Shopping Centre in Johannesburg. At first people thought these were failed and embarrassing flash mobs. Then, a couple of hours later, some other people started tweeting links to their blogs with the hashtag #GumballSA … and the ugly truth was revealed.
Continue reading “Failed flashmobs, gumballs and a Visit from the Goon Squad”
If Die Hard had a baby with Robocop …
Dredd is the best movie I’ve seen this year. It’s better than The Dark Knight Rises. It’s even better than The Avengers. It’s the best movie I’ve seen since The Immortals*. It is seriously good.
All one needs is a Protagonist of One’s Own
The Bechdel test, otherwise known as The Rule, determines whether a film, or any piece of popular culture, shows gender bias.
The rules are:
- There are two female characters
- Who talk to each other
- About something other than a man.
Before you scoff, try and think of a movie that passes. It will be tougher than you think.
For example, these all fail (yes I made this amazing gif!):
Continue reading “All one needs is a Protagonist of One’s Own”
What’s the plan?
Shadows and Fog review
Spoiler level: Nothing that can’t be remedied with a blow to the head.
Shadows and Fog is a German expressionist murder-mystery, set in an unnamed Kafkaesque town in the middle of the night.
A serial killer is on the loose, and Woody Allen’s character Kleinman is reluctantly recruited into a group of vigilantes out to catch him. Continue reading “What’s the plan?”
They drew first blood, not me.
Rambo: First Blood review
Spoiler level: First Blood is as old as me; if you haven’t seen it yet, tough.
I love this poster. I love the red mist, and the way they etched out Sylvester Stallone’s giant cake hair and gave it an outer glow. And then, because that would have been too subtle, added two more, progressively madder, Sylvester Stallones in the background. Rambo: First Two Clones.
The best live act in Cape Town
Review: Lark, Gong is Struck (2012)
Lark are one of South Africa’s greatest bands EVER. I really believe they deserve to be world famous; Inge Beckmann is a most awesome frontispiece[1], and their live act is the most powerful thing you’ll see. They released their fifth album, Gong is Struck, in July.
Project Jennifer 
