When you tire of the chick lit, and you have read all the Harry Potters (twice), and you’re long over His Dark Materials, and you’re also thinking Murakami’s on some other tip right now, then pick up this volume, written by local author Lauren Beukes. And think this: it’s Hillbrow, Joburg. In Zoo City world, when you commit a cardinal sin, your sin appears as an animal that never leaves your side. And Hillbrow is filled with cardinal committers and their animals, hence the name Zoo City. I loved this book. It had that magic feeling that all those novels above have, except it felt very familiar with the South African context. The best part? The author doesn’t go on and on about ‘establishing a uniquely South African voice’. She just tells the story. A wild, magical, twisty story about good people doing bad things to get by.I won’t go into story details – I personally never read reviews that pick apart the plot, because they never manage to do it justice. I will say it involves 9/11 scams, a giant freaking crocodile and a lot of suspense. Just pick up a copy next time you’re at Exclusives, you won’t regret it.
They’ve been a CTG favourite for a few years. Anyway they’ve just released a new single called Champion, which we’ve been playing on our iTunes all morning. Go get the track for yourself here, download it (it’s free) let it ’sink into your repertoire’. And now let’s get back towhat’s really important: Thieve’s drummer. Do you know Phil? He’s the one on the right, covered in hearts. Have no idea how those hearts got there, I just google-imaged this and they were there, swear.
Okay maybe I drew the hearts. BUT DO YOU BLAME ME???? JESUS. LOOK.
Garsh I am kind of ‘losing my shiz’ here. How are you girls coping?
Just keep taking deep breaths. Phil here (yes that is his NAME, THIS ANGEL, THIS WONDER OF MANKIND, his name is PHIL – say it aloud to yourself, over and over…) also plays drums for Die Heuwels (says he’s multi-talented, not afraid to challenge himself) and as if that wasn’t awesome enough, he is also dating a supermodel. Well, basically. I won’t launch an assault on your self-esteem by showing her here ladies, but if you are in Woolies anytime soon go take a pic at the current face of Re: Jeans and you’ll get an idea of what Phil comes home to every night (SOB!!!). Phil has also been known to be an outrageously wonderful boyfriend, please see this sign he made for his girlfriend while picking her up at the airport recently:
We get VERY excited for MCQP every year, and this year is no different – hello – the theme is FLOWER POWER! It is one of the few events i REALLY enjoy going to, because as a straight woman, it’s a fun jol where you don’t have to worry about ‘looking like a slut’ (everyone does), ‘dressing like a slut’ (everyone does it) and ‘behaving like a slut’ (everyone does it).
You gorgeous little flower slutfaces. Just look at you.
This year it falls on 18 December at Green Point Stadium (Phillip are you coming back??? Yes you are you big strapping lad of a zeitgeist) and it boasts the usual ‘pro party vibes’ – think a live band stage, 70 disco dance floor, A GAY ANTHEMS DANCEFLOOR (at first, when I read this, I was afraid, I was petrified, but the idea has grown on me), an X-factor type ‘live stage‘ (I imagine this to be like karaoke on crack). Anyway CTG has a double set of VIP tickets to give to a CTG reader, if you’re keen.
As a VIP ticket holder, you will get full access to all areas, secure parking underneath the stadium, a Mercedes Benz drop off at the red carpet entrance and a exclusive VIP area with its own dance floor, snacks, bars, entertainment and toilets.
Sounds great, right? I personally can’t wait. We’ll be ‘rocking the tie dye’ and ’sporting head bands’ big time for this.
If you would like towin the2 x VIP tickets to MCQP 2010 Flower Poweron 18 December, all you gotta do is leave a comment / mail me (editor@capetowngirl.com) telling me what you liked most about the 60s, whether you were there or not. Was it the free love? The Beatles haircuts? The nudist cults? The fact that the Brazilian wax wasn’t invented yet? Yoko Ono? I could go on, but I’ll leave it to you guys. The winner will be announced a week from now on Monday 13 December.
It’s basically this (above) for ages and ages and ages. And if you follow this route I took on Runkeeper, you’ll do a quick 8kms in just over an hour, and it will feel like you’ve taken a week long holiday. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
If you follow this blog you will know that I don’t just ‘post any f-ing cat video’. I pride myself on being extremely discerning on the cute animal front, bringing you only the best of the best, the cutest of teh cute. I do believe this latest offering is up to the usual standard. Please enjoy.
Yes, all the goodness of your favourite arty mag, now on your smartphone. All you gotta do is type in www.onesmallseed.com/issue(numberofissue). Pretty rad.
I had the honour of being slipped the pilot episode to a reality show set in Cape Town called “Making It”, which tracks I Scream & the Chocolate Stix (that band that sang My Cape Town – remember we posted the video a little while back here), and above is an edited version – you MUST watch it.
The show unpacks each of the four characters in the band – from the chilled, sweetie of a blonde frontman to theutter madman dreadlocked OTHER frontman (I know, it’s already wild) to theseasoned veteran bass playerto the diplomatically likeable guitarist, and I must honestly say that I laughed almost all the way through. And not just because they are funny guys, but because some seriously mad shiz goes down. Like the one guy gets STABBED over bad sound! I know!!!! Anyway, I’m not sure when the full series will hit TV but I have no doubt that it will, and when it does you really need to watch it. Think Entourage, but in South Africa. So minus a lot of the glamour, plus a serious helping of WTF factor.
“It’s not fast cars and kill bitches and stuff” - My favourite quote comes from the bass player, talking about what kind of music they make. Hilarious.
Love love love. We ESPECIALLY love the ’spontaneous rainbows’ that polarised shades make on everything. No – they really do make rainbows on stuff - car windows, the screen of my iPhone… some random guy’s beard (no jokes). MEJ helped me pick them out from here.
You’re spoilt for choice on Friday afternoons in Cape Town but one very very nice thing to do, is to go to the Roundhouse with a group of 6 – 8 friends, book yourself a bench on the Rumbullion Terrace and order yourselves a few pizzas to share and wash it all down with a few Wilderer Pear Collins cocktails. They have other cocktails, but that is the one I like to drink. It’s all part of the Patron Weekend Winddowns – look out for the Patron ladies handing out shots (we were naughty and took a few) as well as the chilled live band, creating a good time on the lawn. SS went for a Pyrat Rum cocktail, which was apparently good too. CTG is not a pizza fan normally but these pizzas have special biscuity bases which I really do like. You can also order a margarita with buffalo mozzarella instead of plain mozzarella, if you want to really give it horns. It’s very pleasant watching the sun go down from the terrace.
I ordered a margy with black forest ham, avo, feta and garlic and SS had the buffalo margy with Black Forest Ham and Avo. I personally prefer the standard margarita because they buffalo one allows for ‘too much tomato relish’, something I’m not the biggest fan of. If you love Cape Town and you love heritage you will love Roundhouse. The Roundhouse reminds me very much of Newlands, except it’s in the Glen in Camps Bay. Click here to read up on all sorts of interesting historical facts about this very very old piece of CT history. And if you want to make a booking (which you absolutely must – it was packed)go here.
I learnt about ’strategy’ in my first year bus sci that I dropped out of to do a bcom that I dropped out of too to do PR. Not having a strategy is like ‘planning to fail’ (which would actually make failure success, so that doesn’t rly make any sense does it? F U cyclical logic). Strategy is everything. And according to the mags you gotta have an anti-aging strategy. You gotta have a beauty maintenance strategy. So we figure you gotta have a tanning strategy. I learnt this from reading Warren Buffet. Not many people learn this from Buffet, but I like to think I can really find that unique special something in a leader that other people miss. Like, I see that Jacob Zuma is a popstar, as well as a president. Anyway… tanning.
My tanning strat (I have fair skin that goes brown):
SPF30 on body every day standard.
In Sun SPF 50 on face every day standard.
Morning to mid-day outdoor beach sessions and runs: oil-free SPF 50.Applied 3 times over 45 minutes BEFORE going into the sun, so it really soaks in.
In the evenings between 4pm – 6.30 pm we’ll dip into the tanning oil. For a chilled 30 minutes or so. But the sun must be balmy and warm edging towards chilly. We do not want any basal skin cell carcinoma developing. We just want a little bit of warm sun.
Generally the plan is to never be in direct sun for more than 2 hours at a time, too.
And that’s it so far. What’s your tanning strategy? Do you have one? Is a ‘tanning strat’ lame to have? Is ’skin cancer cool’? Have also heard that taking fish liver oil helps develop a tan and stop burning. Any truth to that?
