Punk, indie and metal subcultures are inspiring and exciting, but they can also be very silly! From the hyper-macho obsession with being edgy to the pedants defining true fandom and accusing others of the cardinal sin of being ‘poseurs’, it’s ripe for parody. And that’s exactly what the wonderful satirical website The Hard Times has…
Though I am a man who is loud on the birth of his ways. Publicly redefining each change in my soul, as if I had predicted them, and profited, biblically, even tho their chanting weight, …
Azibuye – The Occupation is the first South African VR documentary to be shown at the Sundance Film Festival. The documentary tells the intimate and captivating story of Masello Motana and Evan Abrahamse, and how they occupy an abandoned mansion in an affluent part of Johannesburg. Their action gives light to the necessary interwoven possibilities…
Kevin Hart stands middle-centre surrounded by a group of dapperly dressed Black men, designer suits and sunglasses watch him attentively as he addresses them gesturing dramatically, a pink glass of champagne dancing in his hand; “uyazi elifeyini…” he begins, things are not as they seem. A glitch in the cyberspace highway perhaps? Not a glitch,…
Genealogies of a particular Black queer existence and expression are etched into the very skin, the very memory, the very breath of Joburg as a city. From the years of its creation as a metropolis built on gold and Black migrant labour; tributaries of queer existence have flowed out onto Johannesburg streets in abundance.This fact…
At the beginning of 2019, WeWork was known for renting out co-working offices. With locations spanning from New York to London and even good old Johannesburg, many investors believed it was poised to become the Uber of pre-planned office spaces. Its CEO, the hippie-ish Adam Neumann was hailed as the latest business visionary, the Steve…
Beneath dazzling stage lights and gorgeous grab, lies a resilience as existence. A form of resistance. A desire for something more. In a short documentary film, ‘Jozi Queens’ chronicles the 2015 edition of Miss Gay Jozi, funded and filmed through a union between civil society organization, GALA, and the nightclub, Simply Blue. It is based…
Mad Max: Fury Road, which starred South African actress Charlize Theron and was filmed in Namibia, was the most critically acclaimed science fiction film of the 2010s. Set in a post-apocalyptic Australia, the Mad Max film depicts a future where water has become such a scarce commodity that marauding gangs will commit any atrocity for…
The Natural Nancy Doll was supposed to help soothe some of the tension that lay lingering after the riots had quieted down. After the Watts Rebellion of 1965, the city of Los Angeles was in critical need of a social rebrand. Decades of racialised inequality and a matchstick incident of police brutality against Marquette Fry…
Being Afrikaans, with both of my parents as dominees (ministers of the Dutch Reformed church), satanic panic formed an integral part of my childhood. My earliest memories of it began in church, and with a DVD called Maak jou huis skoon (clean your house). My cousins and I were the first of my immediate family…
An Attempt at an Opening, humour me a while dear reader; What about the body? What about the body? What about the body? “Well I stopped in at the Body Shop Said to the guy: I want stereo FM installed in my teeth And take this mole off my back And put it on my…
Technocratic buzzwords like urban renewal and gentrification provide a bland gloss for a much more sinister and violent reality. In cities throughout the world, poor and working-class people are finding themselves pushed out of their homes to make way for wealthier new residents. This is often achieved through eviction and police violence. Gentrification also intensifies…
