Sweet Valley High is back

26 Jul 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG, book club, girl stuff, hilarious, 5 Comments

I remember my Sweet Valley High days as if they were yesterday. I was about 10 years old. Prime SVH-hooking age. I’d go to my school library, beg the librarian to let me check out 10 books at once (it took about 30 minutes to read one Sweet Valley volume), she wouldn’t let me. I would offer her my lunch, she would say ‘that’s unethical’, then we’d come to an agreement where I could check out as many Sweet Valley High books as I liked provided I read a ‘real’ book in between. So I would end up with 20 books – 10 Sweet Valley High, and 10 others. Think Suskind, Nietzsche and Dante. Ja, I reeeeeeally had to overcompensate (via fear of ‘becoming stupid’, which is what my mom said would happen if I read SVH at the same time as the wind changed direction). But this, my friends, is how I got an education. Via Sweet Valley High alternate-bribery.

Just read Pride & Prejudice so I could read this. Wish Pride & Prejudice was set in LA and all the characters drove Jeeps and were blonde, too.

Of course, it was a WHOLE OTHER STORY when it came to getting gold stars for my reading chart. My teacher was simply having none of SVH, and she would actually DEDUCT 5 points from my reading chart for every Sweet Valley High book I read. I did work out a system whereby I could double my points for reading a book published before 1950 (think F Scott Fitzgerald, Graham Greene, Jane Freaking Austen …etc). Sheesh. When I look back things seemed awfully complicated for the simple benefit of reading a series of such simple books. Sing with me now…

“Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield were identical blonde twins who lived in a split-level  house…”

Soooooooo bad. Not sure I’ll be reading SVC again. I think ‘life might be too short’. But it was nice to take this little trip down memory lane.

because it’s not enough just to eat them

09 Jun 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG recommends, book club, food, 2 Comments

One must read up on them, too! And possibly bake one’s own. And arm oneself with the kind of knowledge that is necessary these days, considering how many bakeries are jumping on the whole Macaron bandwagon (ahem Spar). Thanks to natalie for alerting me to the existence of ‘I Love Macarons’ by Hisako Ogita. Buy yourself (and me) a copy here.

Speaking of macarons, you could win a whole BUNCH of them from Cassis if you pose with CTG in this competition. Go!

Much anticipated Zoo City launches

27 May 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in BFFs, CTG recommends, Parties, book club, cape town, music, 1 Comments

We’ve been waiting with baited breath for SA literary cool kid Lauren Beukes to launch her follow-up to Moxyland, Zoo City, and on Tuesday it finally happened! The Book Lounge was packed for the event, people were literally squeezing into the venue and passive-aggressively jostling for space alongside the black zoo biscuits and the Witchdoctor popcorn.

Lauren and her very proud Dad

Lauren was interviewed by another local lit hipster Sarah Lotz (who wrote Exhibit A, Pompidou Posse) which was a nice touch to the usual reading proceedings. I can’t wait to get into Zoo City. Will have to turn the pages VERY CAREFULLY so can preserve pristine nature of my signed first edition.

Priceless. If you're wondering about the Kendra/Lerato reference, you clearly have not read Moxyland. And yes, I need to 'finish my fucking book'. Sigh. Thanks Lauren! x

Curious? Zoo City is set in Joburg. It’s about a young girl with a sloth on her back and murder in her past. And if you’re not convinced yet, THE William Gibson had this to say about it:

“Lauren Beukes is very, *very& good… it feels effortless, utterly accomplished”

Ja – can you handle! I’ll be starting it this evening. Read more on the launch here. You can buy the book in all bookstores. If you turn to the back page you’ll see that it also comes with an album and instructions on how to download it. Freaking awesome! Go get it!

Reading: Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert

14 Apr 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in book club, 2 Comments

Have any of you read this? It was thrust unto my arms by my mother, who believes it should be read ‘by any young girl of marrying age‘. It’s written by the chick who wrote Eat, Pray, Love, and it’s totally different in that it is quite researchy about the history of marriage which is, quite frankly, depressing.

So far I have learnt that as soon as society started marrying for love, and not for economic sense, divorces started happening. Which makes sense because if you can want to marry someone, you can want to not be married to them anymore.

She also talks about how tragic divorce is, and how it nearly destroyed her.

Uplifting stuff huh? Haven’t made up my mind yet. Perhaps it will get better. Eat, Pray, Love was at least of happyish disposition. Plus it was about food and an inner journey. Just not convinced that marriage makes as a good a subject matter for a book as pasta and sex. To be continued.

Lovely Lauren Beukes

07 Apr 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in BFFs, book club, cape town, lifestyle, 0 Comments

Being shot by O Mag at Sinn’s this morning. Miss Beukes has a new book coming out on 10 May called Zoo City which is in a similar vein to her first book Moxyland, only set in Joburg. I can’t wait to read it!

Wednesday’s Muse: Terry Richardson

17 Mar 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in book club, fashion, magazines, photography, 1 Comments

Classic Terry

Terry Richardson – an iconic name in designery-fashion circles. I was motivated to look up Terry Richardson properly when local fashion photographer Andrew Brauteseth was shooting me for the Virgin Active campaign and he said “I’m going to shoot you with a bright flash, Terry Richardson-style”, which sounded rather glam until this image jumped out at me on my google image search:

Uh... Richardson himself.

And that’s when I really got properly interested in this photobro. A little further reading lead to this informative review of a book I am now coveting called Terryworld, which gives a fascinating account of this ‘alternative’ photographer’s life. For those of you who don’t know who Richardson is, to quote the book:

“Who took 1970`s porn esthetic and made it fashion chic? Terry Richardson. Who made the trailer park trendy and the tractor hat de rigueur? Richardson again. Who`s equally at home in Vogue, Harper`s Bazaar, Purple and Vice? Our boy Terry. Who uses his fashion money to fund an X-rated website? Yes, Richardson. And who can`t resist getting his clothes off and jumping in front of his own lens? Well, that would be Terry Richardson as well.”

So that puts things in context. A little further reading and things start getting a little weirder…

“…The big recording contract, amazingly, eluded him. At eighteen Terry began shooting heroin. This followed the family’s move from Hollywood to the small, arty town of Ojai, ninety miles north of Los Angeles, in his senior year of high school. “That’s where I really got into drugs,” Terry says. “I was the punk kid from Hollywood and I got everyone into punk rock. We had gangbangs. There was one girl we called Heather Hosely. At fourteen she’d had a baby with a guy who was the leader of a commune. She was a great one…”

Hmm. Sounds a bit like my childhood, except instead of shooting heroine I was patting my dog, and instead of having gangbangs I had slumber parties. Ja, I was crazy like that.

Mmm, provocative.

Mmmmorning after big night out

Mmmm ironic

Mmmmacauley

And then today, I discovered this interview with a model who recounts her experience shooting with Richardson. If you will:

Rasmussen said: “I told him what you do is completely degrading to women. I hope you know you only [bleep] girls because you have a camera, lots of fashion contacts and get your pictures in Vogue.”

Hmmm. Saucy! Who can resist a little controversy? If you’re looking for a unique gift for someone who’s a fashion fanatic, or just something nice to give your dentist to put in his reception room to say thank you for the root canal (snigger), I’d put Terryworld on your list.

For more of this pervy genius, read Terry’s Diary, his blog.