one small seed issue 22

SA R48.50 / UK £3.99 / US $7.99 / CA $7.99 / AUS $7.50 printed in south africa

South Africa’s Pop Culture Quarterly / ISSUE 22 DJ Chubbi Jozi Street Tour / JHBLive Inner-city Exposé 28s Gang Member Exclusive Interview / Roger Ballen AJ Fosik / Nuria Mora / Clive Rundle / Fanuel Motsepe Deon Maas / Teargas / DJ Euphonik / Black Coffee DJ Kent / Double Adapter / Imogen Heap Selected Creatives Winners

hi, my name is

one small seed rebranded

inform

interact

entertain

issue 22 founder / editor-in-chief

editor

graphic designer

giuseppe russo

sarah jayne fell

ernst lass

copy editor

assistant copy editor

advertising & sales

gustav swart

sarah claire picton

guest jhb content contributor

guest jhb editorial team

thabo mphuthi aka dj chubbi

jhblive (michael balkind, daniel friedman, justin mcgee)

tebogo mohlahlana, nadia oosthuizen, megan king, frans botma

south african distribution

distribution assistant (durban)

international distribution

ezweni magazine distribution

rachel basckin

pineapple media pineapple-media.com

michael littlefield interns

cover photography Alastair & Marie-Claire Mclachlan onesmallseed.net/profile/AlastairMclachlan editorial contributors sarah jayne fell, sarah claire picton, batandwa alperstein, paul white, jon monsoon, annelie rode, genna gardini, daniel friedman, jonathon rodgers, donna hill, tecla ciolfi, headline payoff, iain ewok robinson, michael balkind, thabo mphuthi, shawn greyling, dan chaitowitz, karabo keepile, nadine theron, carien els, ernst lass photographers kope / figgins (jonathan kope & jarred figgins), leuwald botha, justin mcgee, guido schwarz, ross garrett, themba masondo, dave dini, uviwe mangweni, janah hattingh, liam lynch, jonathan andrews, roger ballen, natalia gralewski, luke daniel, yolanda van der mescht, jeremy cowart, chris becker, lwazi hlope, angie batis guest illustrators david & si maclennan, rikus ferreira special thanks jaco lambrechts @ one small seed productions, christine hommel, pietro russo, jimmy strats, howard simms @ hammer live, bruce wright @ mnemonic, rowan larkin, malĂŠna seldin @ jonathan levine gallery, jean scott @ publicist, jon cottam, alexia kondylis, ashlee valdes editorial address: 22 lawley road, woodstock, cape town, 7925, south africa tel: +27 (0) 21 4477 096 / fax: +27 (0) 86 545 0371/ web: onesmallseed.com email: contact@onesmallseed.com advertising sales mike@onesmallseed.com subscription / back issue enquiries sarah@onesmallseed.com onesmallseed.com

The small print: No responsibility can be taken for the quality and accuracy of the reproductions, as this is dependent on the quality of the material supplied. No responsibility can be taken for typographical errors. The publishers reserve the right to refuse and edit material. All prices and specifications are subject to change without notice. The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher. No responsibility will be taken for any decision made by the reader as a result of such opinions. Copyright one small seed South Africa. All rights reserved. Both the name ‘one small seed’ and are copyright protected. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written consent from the publisher. one small seed does not accept responsibility for unsolicited material. This is a quarterly publication. ISSN 977 181 6896 033.

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editor's letter Welcome to our 22nd issue!

As you will notice in this edition, the one small seed brand has been through a serious revamp. We feel it’s important to keep the brand fresh and evolving as we enter our sixth year of publishing. We’ve given the magazine its share of new design and optimised all our online platforms to facilitate clearer and more user-friendly communication.

Inform, Interact and Entertain are the three goals of these websites.

1. Inform: onesmallseed.com is a complete website with articles, blogs, competitions, online back issues and much more. It is updated several times a week for people who want a complete, easy and informative site with articles about South African and international pop culture.

2. Interact: After three successful years, onesmallseed.net will focus even more on the interaction of its creative members. Our 5 000-odd members will be able to upload photos, illustrations and other design work, interact with like-minded people and have the constant prospect of being showcased in Picture This photography magazine, one small seed magazine and other global online channels. A Facebook for creative and design-minded individuals!

3. Entertain: one small seed tv will constantly feature new videos, behind-the-scenes exclusives, mini-documentaries and the latest video clips for you to enjoy. We’ve redesigned this amazing platform to give you maximum pleasure and choice.

The man behind our revitalised magazine layouts is our new designer, Mr Ernst Lass, whom I’ve asked to share his thoughts below regarding our new graphic identity. From my side: enjoy it, and never take independent publishing for granted – whether it’s one small seed or other great publications. Independence generates difference and it’s the difference that keeps the world interesting.

Giuseppe Russo / founder / editor-in-chief I’ve followed one small seed since its inception and so I’ve observed the magazine evolve through its various stages. My joining the team synched with the brand’s elevation to the next level. Inspired by the International Typographic Style that was cultivated in Switzerland in the 1950s, I seek harmony of word and graphics with strong typography and striking imagery. My challenge was to translate my philosophy into one small seed’s language. To unify and strengthen each page, I focussed on strong typography and reduced visual clutter to emphasise the brand’s identity. As an independent magazine, one small seed gave me the freedom to carry out a vision without adhering to set rules or rigid guidelines.

So why the Joburg issue…? Since one small seed is based in Cape Town, you know, just overlooking the mountain…

Well apart from the fact that a Cape Town issue would have been far too obvious and easy a sell, Johannesburg is at its core simply more interesting. It’s the New York of Africa that didn’t quite cut it to making South Africa’s capital. It’s dynamic. It’s contentious. People hate Johannesburg. But many more love it. Go to Jozi and you’ll make more friends in a weekend than you will in Cape Town in a year. The people are friendlier, more vivacious, faster-paced, better dressed. They work harder, party even harder and will network your face off. These are the people who run this country’s show – like it or not, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria… No one wants to live in Joburg and yet everyone seems to end up there. But perhaps that’s its secret ingredient. Bit by bit, Johannesburg is blossoming into a place of visual, cultural and visceral beauty… giving every other South African city a real run for its ZAR. The beauty of the City of Gold is our focus this issue. We look at the people, places and phenomena moulding the city: urban developers, inner-city interventions, artists, musicians, small businesses and more.

Just some of the big names we explore in these pages include Fanuel Motsepe, Deon Maas, Clive Rundle, DJ Euphonik and Roger Ballen. We collaborate on a street tour with DJ Chubbi from YFM, a guest editorial city exposé with JHBLive and a design competition featuring hip-hop artist Ewok Robinson’s poem ‘That’s Joburg’. We learn about where to go, what to buy, read, watch, see… whether in Jozi or exploring it from afar at the comfort of your own Google Chrome browser. Much of the content in this edition will have online counterparts: from the trailers for our film reviews on onesmallseed.tv to the albums of our Selected Creatives winners on onesmallseed.net. Our sites are all in the midst of an upgrade – due for launch when this issue hits shelves – and we will be stepping up in our effort to integrate our online and print content as far as possible. Because that’s just the way the world works.

I hope my vision comes across in this edition and that your rejuvenated experience of one small seed is as rewarding as mine has been so far.

Bringing you the best of global pop culture one small seed at a time, that’s it from me, signing off for this edition. I hope you enjoy the magazine and the wonders that Johannesburg has to offer.

Ernst Lass / graphic designer

Sarah Jayne Fell / editor

contents

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features 32 / Urban Development

Fanuel Motsepe on Jozi President of the South African Institute of Architecture tackles the topic of Jozi’s inner-city regeneration

profiles 68 / Artist Collaboration

‘That’s Joburg’ by Iain Ewok Robinson We ran a competition on onesmallseed.net to illustrate a slam poem by SA hip-hop activist MC Ewok and this is the winning submission

30 / SA hip-hop figurehead

64 / Newtown’s Indie Café

Ancient Afrikaner Wisdom

Dancing with Wolves

Deon Maas debates Johannesburg’s involvement in South African media, music and culture

We chat to Angie Batis about owning a coffee shop in Jozi

66 / Live Music Events

49 / Your Opinion

72 / Exclusive Interview

34 / American Mixed-Media Artist

Joburg is…

Pieces of Joburg

Our one small seed network members tell us what Joburg is to them

Ex-member of the infamous 28s Prison Gang tells us his haunting story… his name is Joburg

AJ Fosik: In the Teeth of Stupefying Odds

50 / Inner-City Exposé

84 / Johannesburg Photographer

40 / Spanish Street Artist

From 206 to 2011: The Changing Face of joburg

Roger Ballen: Fly Me Away

Nuria Mora & The Urban Renaissance

Michael Balkind and JHBLive uncover the people and places behind Joburg’s cultural powerhouse 56 / Joburg street tour

Hey Joburg, What’s Your Story?

Join YFM’s DJ Chubbi along his favourite stops in Jozi’s art, fashion, nightlife and music scenes

We interview this world-renowned artist about his latest collection: Boarding House

Encounter the sabre-toothed wit and devout convictions behind Fosik’s psychedelic deities

The Madrid artist’s murals on Joburg’s streets point to the beauty of this renegade artform 62 / Shisha Nyama Franchise

Boza’s Kishin: Home Bru Head into Diespsloot and find a hidden world of good people, good food and good vibes

Thesis Social Jam Sessions A 21st-century South African creative youth uprising held at Soweto’s Thesis Concept Store

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fashion

music

44 / Haute Couture

78 / SA House

100 / International Gig Review

To Boldy Show…

A Place for House to Call Home

A New York City Rock & Roll Fairytale

Featuring top Jozi DJs Euphonik, Kent and Black Coffee

Dan the Russian Bear Hunter heads into NYC and discovers a Rock & Roll Circus

81 / Urban Streetwear

96 / Urban Rock

102 / UK indie electronica

106 / FILM REVIEWS

A Universal Love Story with a Twist

Black Pimp’n Jesus: Crucified

Top of the Heap

108 / NOW SHOWING 112 / THE LAST WORD

The campaign for Billabong Jeans’ new unisex range of denim

This Joburg band is about race, sex and religion… and good old rock ’n roll

Meet Imogen Heap: singer, songwriter and lover of Mother Earth

90 / Underground chic

97 / Jozi Hip-Hop Trio

Urban Iniquity

Teargas

An underground fashion story featuring sexy urban ladies’ wear by Errol Arendz

Talk to the multiple award-winning rappers about their giant steps for hip-hop

Clive Rundle’s Summer Collection 2010-11 for SA Fashion Week, Johannesburg

departments 9 / EDITOR’S LETTER 14 / IN STORE 20 / BOOK REVIEWS 22 / SUBSCRIPTIONS 23 / SELECTED CREATIVES 103 / MUSIC REVIEWS

98 / Jozi Electro Outfit

Double Adapter: Double the Pressure We interview the Brothers Apter: purveyors of filthy electro since 2010

113 / DIRECTORY

in store

The tourist’s guide to surviving Jozi

Words: Donna Hill

The Joburg Book – A Guide to the City’s History, People & Places Your journey starts here! Nechama Brodie neatly follows the story of Joburg from its humble beginnings to the streets we stalk today. It’s beautifully illustrated with hundreds of historical photographs and reference maps and includes recommended itineraries, contact numbers and web addresses. available at LoveBooks / lovebooks.co.za

Wallpaper* City Guide Johannesburg This city guide looks slick, fits in your pocket and is packed with useful info on Jozi landmarks, hotels, urban life, architecture, shopping… Pretty much everything the discerning traveller needs to know! available at LoveBooks / lovebooks.co.za

Gautrain Gold Card – Launch Edition Don’t even argue: you cannot visit Jozi and not catch a ride on the Gautrain. The train goes from Sandton to OR Tambo International Airport, stopping at Marlboro and Rhodesfield.

More stations will be open from June 2011. One Gautrain card = 100 cred points! available at any Gautrain station gautrain.co.za

Diana F+ Lomography camera It’s vital to convince all those Doubting Thomas types that you came to Jozi – and survived! So in keeping with the surreal vibe in the city, you should use a funky lomo camera. Nothing like a bit of a fisheye view to tweak your perceptions. The Diana F+ comes with an electronic flash, coloured gel flash filters, a hardcover photo book, instruction manual, lens cap and neckstrap. available at The Street / thestreetstore.co.za 14

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Love Jozi tees Nail your colours to the post, wear your heart on your sleeve and indulge in that wonderfully fuzzy feeling of belonging…

Love Jozi’s ranges of t-shirts are must-haves. Some even come with their own maps of the Jozi CBD or even a little facemask. To protect against Jozi fumes and flu, you know… lovejozi.com

J.Fold Bag Need a bag to lug your stuff around? Of course you do. Which is why you should get your hands on this beauty by J.Fold.

Classily understated, and big enough to hold your lomo. available at The Street / thestreetstore.co.za

Dokter and Misses matchstick pendant Jozi-based design studio Dokter and Misses keep coming up with clever ideas… like this burnt-out matchstick pendant.

Wear it for an extra edge or to make a point after a night of debauchery. I burnt down the house and all I got is this lousy used matchstick… dokterandmisses.com

Kakikaki Zakka House ‘Party Animals’ coffee mugs Talking about hectic nights out… In Jozi, you cannot survive without coffee. So get your hands on one of these quirky mugs: supersized for an extra java buzz and super cute too.

A double lining means your mitts aren’t burnt when you wrap them around your cup-a-joe. Who wants to use disposable mugs anyway? available at Ke Ai: That Random Asian Shop / keai.co.za

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in store

The tourist’s guide to surviving Jozi

J.Fold Genuine Leather Sports wallet Warning: having a wallet this cool might cause you to flash your cash – which we don’t recommend in Johannesburg.

Although you’ll probably impress your would-be muggers if you do wave it around like you just don’t care. available at The Street / thestreetstore.co.za

Bioscope tickets Eventually you’ll get tired of walking the streets and dancing your face off. And that’s when you should visit The Bioscope, the awesome indie cinema in downtown Johannesburg. Check out any of their TV dinner nights, the once-off screenings and the Noodlebox cinema – you’re guaranteed to rub shoulders with some awesome locals if you do. thebioscope.co.za

Tom Tom Go 1000 Live GPS Trust us: for peace of mind and easy navigating in Jozi, you need a GPS. And the latest offering from Tom Tom is nifty.

It comes with HD Traffic, which means it connects to the Tom Tom network via a bundled simcard and uploads traffic information to their server – so you get the most up-to-date traffic info like the location of accidents and metro cops. Well, maybe not metro cops. It also has a super sensitive ‘fluid touch’ screen. incredible.co.za | tomtom.com

Rescue Remedy So you didn’t take our advice to get a Tom Tom and promptly got lost in the CBD. Where a metro cop looked at you funny. It happens. Don’t despair. Eight out of ten Joburgers recommend Rescue Remedy for those days that big-city living just doesn’t seem worth it! Available at all good pharmacies.

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Popobe keyrings Popobe is a craze (from China, where else?) that’s starting to take over some of the more neon-coloured corners of Jozi’s art life. They come in a range of sizes and in endless design variations – you can even buy a blank one and decorate your own if you’re so inclined! They’re perfect as gifts… or to make sure you never lose your keys again. available at Ke Ai / keai.co.za

Love Jozi 1950s postcards Perfect for those ‘wish you were here’ moments… Send a beautiful Love Jozi postcard home to prove that you’re still alive. lovejozi.com

Ultra Gold limited edition Ray-Ban Aviators available from Luxottica / +27 (0) 21 486 6100

Feiyue Fe-Lo sneakers available at A Store, Dokter and Misses, Mooks, The Street and selected outlets nationwide | emile@re-evolve.co.za

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book reviews Reviewers: Carien Els, Sarah Jayne Fell (SF)

TJ

by David Goldblatt Umuzi (2010)

Art Architecture Design (AAD) Vienna

The ever-impressive David Goldblatt has released a work of black and white photographic prominence in conjunction with the equally brilliant novelist Ivan Vladislavic. Vladislavic’s Double Negative and Goldblatt’s TJ are two curiously interwoven works of fiction and photography about the complex and intriguing city of Johannesburg. Goldblatt’s haunting photographs of Johannesburg are curiously beautiful, even attractive, while the subject matter is predominantly melancholy or pensive. Every one of Goldblatt’s photographs is deeply personal and seems to penetrate the subject, leaving the observer slightly uncomfortable yet intrigued.

The images include portraits, buildings, incredibly intimate glances into peoples’ homes and snapshots of township life and inner-city dwellers. Divided into decades, the book is a photographic voyage through half a century of Johannesburg and reveals the residents of this elusive city to be as mysterious as the city itself.

edited by Isabella Klausnitzer teNeues (2010)

AAD Vienna is a pocket-sized art guide to a Vienna that, despite its Baroque heritage, has wholeheartedly embraced contemporary art and architecture. Divided into sections including art, architecture and design, the book features photographs and descriptions of the most important sights in the city. Each section also contains short profiles of some of the most prominent art personalities in the city – useful information for sounding knowledgeable when walking into one of the city’s many galleries! Surprisingly thorough for such a little book, it features architectural sights from the Gothic period to Zaha Hadid housing projects, illustrating the dichotomy between contemporary and ancient Vienna. The design section includes hotels, restaurants and shops that are renowned for their design rather than their service. Not a terribly opinionated little book, but it provides an excellent overview of the city for art and design lovers.

Inside Joburg: 101 Things to See and Do

by Nechama Brodie

Sharp Sharp Media & Pan Macmillan (2010)

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Inside Joburg could teach even Joburg locals a thing or two. This is a guide to the city with a difference. Though it includes the stock-standard day trips like the Apartheid Museum, restaurants and shopping hubs, Brodie also places great emphasis on the historical, geological and cultural sights and history of Joburg. Little-known hiking trails, city walks, heritage tours, historic homes and cemeteries are outlined, and the focus is on moving away from the run-of-the-mill Johannesburg activities that we all love to hate (read: shopping in Sandton City). Inside Joburg makes you want to put on your walking shoes and explore your own city… largely because it makes you realise how little you know about it. Brodie examines the architecture of early, classic and modern Joburg. She leads you through township nightlife and to restaurants the locals won’t tell you about. This little gem should be on the shelves of locals and visitors to Johannesburg alike.

Expressions: Book One South Africa

by Jared Aufrichtig self-published (2010)

Perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of this exploration of South African youth culture is the very tangible energy that Jared Aufrichtig has mustered in its creation. The Californian-born, South Africa-based author and photographer has spent a determined six years compiling this 720-page coffee table collection. It includes predominantly his own photography of South Africa’s landscape and its pop culture (with a strong focus on his own passions: street and surf culture and music), and contributions by South African artists like Kronk, TheoryOne, Matt Edwards and Tyler B Murphy.

The resultant work is a voluminous visual journey reminiscent of a traveller’s scrapbook – intriguing in its wealth of detail but running the risk of alienating the reader through lack of sufficient reference or description. Nonetheless, it’s an impressive collation of South African imagery that chronicles the country’s urban youth this side of the new millennium. (SF)

8115: A Prisoner’s Home

by Alf Kumalo and Zukiswa Wanner Penguin Books (2010)

8115 Vilakazi Street, Soweto is a national heritage site and was the home of Nelson Mandela from 1946 until he was imprisoned and after his release until he became president.

The great charm of this book lies in the poignancy with which renowned photographer Alf Kumalo captures the simplest aspects of day-to-day life in the Mandela home. Kumalo offers a glimpse into the life of the former president in a manner that no other photographer has been able to. The ease of the family members in the photographs suggests an intimacy between the Mandelas and Kumalo that is rare between subject and photographer, and also allows for a great sense of authenticity in the images. This book is an invaluable addition to the collection of anyone who has an avid interest in the life of Nelson Mandela or Alf Kumalo’s work.

Johannesburg Transition: Architecture & Society from 1950

by Clive M. Chipkin STE Publishers (2008)

This formidable work is the follow-up to Chipkin's first, highly successful book Johannesburg Style: Architecture and Society 1880s – 1960s. Though definitely not a light read, this book offers a fascinating look at how architecture weaves into aspects of politics and society in the sprawling city of Johannesburg. In this 500-page tome about the development of the city, Chipkin conducts a thorough examination of the people and the forces that have shaped it. Though liberally illustrated, the photographs lack some of the vibrancy that makes Johannesburg what it is.

But Chipkin completely makes up for this with the richness of his text. This work is well researched, well written and deeply informative. It reminds the reader that a city is so much more than just the sum of its parts.

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for one small seed’s Joburg edition

subscribe now and get 50% off go to onesmallseed.com for details

sms PT1 to 39622 to order Picture This Print Edition 01 for just R100 payment & details completed from your phone / free hand-delivery anywhere in South Africa / picturethismagazine.co.za

Welcome to the fourth instalment of our online creative talent search.

Boosted with renewed speckled-sunlight energy, one small seed has launched into 2011 with sparks flying, balls rolling, and the fourth Selected Creatives competition. Selected Creatives 4 highlights one small seed network’s expansion into the international community, bringing new influence and perspectives to the movement. The success of Selected Creatives is now firmly entrenched and, as we have come to expect, this round’s talent has blown off the doors.

Selected Creatives is a manifestation of the one small seed vision.

Marrying the talents uncovered on our online creative networking platform (onesmallseed.net) with the veritable creative showcase that is one small seed magazine, this initiative serves as a tribute to the aspiring and inspired innovators of our pop culture community.

This now-global competition offers the everyday creative the opportunity to have his or her work featured in glossy print –

an increasingly rare communication channel. Featuring art from breathtaking photography, illustration and art to writing and design, Selected Creatives offers a dynamic space for like-minded beings to come together over their own interactive online portfolios.

Now with all formalities out of the way, we are proud to present the winners for Selected Creatives 4! First in the voting poll with her exquisite self-portrait photography is Poland-based Natalia Gralewski.

In tie for second place are Capetonian photographer Luke Daniel and Hong Kong-based photographer Yolanda van der Mescht.

To all you Seeders out there: Keep surprising us with your artistic excellence on onesmallseed.net to stand in line to feature in next issue’s Selected Creatives. Stay posted for updates on the Network Awards 2010!

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Natalia Gralewski (23) Female / Warsaw, Poland / Photographer onesmallseed.net/profile/Natalia ‘I don't want to have to explain anything; there is no hidden agenda to decipher in my photographs. I'd prefer for people to just feel – lust, pain, longing, whatever.

Instead of concepts, I focus on emotion and simplicity.

I don't consider my photos to be erotic, although most are. I guess my sensuality is such a big part of my identity that it naturally comes through in my photos.

People often ask me if I’ll be ashamed by my nudity when I’m older, but why should anybody be ashamed of their bodies? So to end all the questions: I’ll be naked in front of my camera when I’m 60 too.’

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Luke Daniel (21) Male / Cape Town / Photographer onesmallseed.net/profile/LukeDaniel ‘The opportunity to see my work in a print magazine, particularly a selection of my work that revolves around a predominantly underground music scene… this is what made the one small seed network’s Selected Creatives competition really stand out to me. I would like my photographs to be viewed by as many people as possible and whether the viewer appreciates the photographs or not is out of my control… Just the fact that they’re exposed to my work is encouraging.

I want to photograph everybody and document their situations, from wealth or poverty, ecstasy or tragedy… to everything else in between. Ultimately, I believe that the magic of the camera was made for so much more than still-life photography.’

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Yolanda van der Mescht (33) Female / Hong Kong / Photographer onesmallseed.net/profile/YolandavanderMescht A rock singer and bookseller in her former life, Hong Kong-based Yolanda van der Mescht now spends her time travelling and taking photographs. Growing up in South Africa’s garden province of KwaZulu-Natal, Yolanda is a selftaught photographer who finds inspiration in life as it is lived and experienced. Her dream is to travel the world and document the interconnectedness and individuality of humanity. She has a transcendent talent for street photography, especially in black and white, and is inspired by Robert Frank, Henri Cartier-Bresson and William Klein.

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Coming Soon: The Network Awards!

Selected Creatives is a stepping-stone to the annual one small seed Network Awards, an ambitious competition to recognise those standout creative members of onesmallseed.net for their consistent contributions towards forging the magical reality of imagination. Categories for the

2010 Awards are: Best Photographer, Best Photograph, Best Young Photographer, Best Album, Best Designer, Best Artist/Illustrator and Best Editorial Contributor. There are also 11 photography subcategories. one small seed

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ancient afrikaner wisdom Afrikaans hip-hop figurehead, documentary-making god and former Gallo Music GM and Idols judge Deon Maas has recently published his first novel, Witboy in Africa, and is now working on a number of new proudly South African projects steeped in raw and often-controversial entertainment. Shawn Greyling sits him down to discuss South African media, now and then, and Johannesburg’s role in the grander scheme.

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Photography: Leuwald Botha

With controversy being the order of the day, Deon decided to mix the two things that fuelled his pen throughout the ’80s. ‘The production company’s latest endeavour is a documentary that mixes music and politics, things with a tight connection to my heart.’ The feature-length Punk in Africa is co-produced by Meerkat Media, Bohemian Lion Productions and Peligroso Productions (the latter both from Prague, Czech Republic). The documentary focuses on the last three liberated countries in Africa: South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. ‘The 1980s government did not like dissent,’ Deon remarks. ‘The troops were mobilised and the old-boy network kicked into place. Most songs were banned from airplay by the SABC, venues were shut down and concertgoers were beaten to a pulp… Dit was fokken gevaarlik om na shows toe te gaan.’

He shakes his head and hands me a beer. ‘Socially, the music reconnected people with their roots. It was more than just music; it was a societal change that reflected the time.’ There is a glimpse of anarchism in Deon’s eyes.

(‘Ballad of a Thin Man’ – Bob Dylan) A distant storm is growing: thunder echoes across the Highveld, playing the soundtrack to just another Johannesburg evening. The Linden skyline looks calm. Deon Maas sits across from me on a couch resembling a long-lost throne. He first set foot in Johannesburg at 16. ‘I fell in love with the city. I knew then and there that this is where the action is.’ Now, 34 years after the Groot Trek from Bellville, Deon lives in Linden, northern Johannesburg. Deon smiles wryly: ‘Jozi is like a slut opening her legs – inviting everybody in… The city reminds me a lot of Lagos [Nigeria]; it has such a high level of energy.’

In Deon’s novel, he chronicles his hunt for adrenalin across the continent, focussing on his experience of Nigeria, where he worked as a writer on the reality game show The Gulder Ultimate Search – Nigeria’s version of Survivor.

In 2003, Deon and a partner started Meerkat Media, the driving force behind SABC2’s double SAFTA Award-winning music show, Jam Sandwich. Meerkat Media helps Deon turn his brilliant ideas into reality: ‘It has created a niche for itself as the go-to media company for productions not quite catered to the 5-to-7 pm audience. The average consumer is hungry for liberal ideas, and Meerkat Media’s aim is to produce authentic South African entertainment… In all honesty, controversy attracts.’

”Jozi is like a slut opening her legs – inviting everybody in...“ The documentary premieres in March 2011 at the South by Southwest film festival in Texas, USA. Punk in Africa also features proudly Joburg bands such as Fuzigish, Swivel Foot and old-school legends National Wake. ‘When we picked the bands to feature in the documentary, we decided to pick those with an authentically African sound,’ says Deon.

Deon’s love for protest music did not die out after the fall of the old regime: known as a big supporter of Afrikaans hip-hop, Deon created a talent search called HipHopKop to expose some of South Africa’s best underground hip-hop acts. Out of 7 000 entrants, 54 artists were polled online for a voting selection. At a live event held at the Suidoosterfees Festival in Cape Town in January 2011, six finalists battled for the top spot and the grand prize of a R100 000 recording contract from Ghetto Ruff, South Africa’s leading hip-hop label.

And how does Deon perceive Johannesburg’s involvement in the grander scheme of South African music and culture? ‘Joburg to me is the heart of Africa: it pumps life into the rest of the body, greasing the limbs for battle. In this city nobody wants to be a failed success story – every creative competes against something or someone to get to the top… If a movement originates somewhere else in the country, it always ends up being perfected here.’

deonmaas.com | meerkatmedia.co.za

‘Because something is happening here But you don't know what it is Do you, Mister Jones?’

Fanuel Motsepe on Jozi

by Annelie Rode

These two words were scrawled across a banner at UCT’s architecture school in the mid-1990s by an outspoken student: Fanuel Motsepe. His actions often dared to defy architecture, an artform that supposedly challenged convention itself. This proclaimed his refusal to settle for mediocrity – not out of arrogance or vapid academic ambition – and his challenge to students to not venture into this profession blindly. He wanted to instil the notion that architecture should not be for architects’ sake, but for those who live and work and play in it. Fast forward a few years and this attitude has made him not only a successful architect with a practice in downtown Jozi but also a professional leader as the current president of the South African Institute of Architects.

We could think of no one better for our Joburg edition to impart his wry and frank insights on Jozi.

Photography: Leuwald Botha

‘Rebuke Architecture!’

‘We can use human beings as a gauge. Cities grow along the timeframe of human development because it is humans that define the city,’ Fanuel begins. Although Johannesburg has been around since 1886, the CBD has been reborn since 1994. Fanuel sees the city as a 17-year-old adolescent that has yet to come of age. The city is still confused about what it needs to be, but Fanuel says that ‘those involved in shaping the city are testing and looking for ways to make it work’. He predicts that when Joburg reaches its thirties, it will know itself and be a world-class African city.

Such an ambition is an ideal to a couple of stalwarts and ludicrous to a sea of detractors. What exactly is a world-class African city? ‘In short: a city that offers the same living standards as other financial capitals of the world but retains a clear African identity. Imagine Hong Kong: world class but with distinct Asian influences. Or Tokyo’s distinct Japanese flavour or New York’s American narrative.’

Fanuel advises naysayers to be cognisant of New York and where it was 30 years ago… and realise that Jozi can and will follow in its footsteps. There is hope – but we need to be brave.

But how do we develop these aspirations in a city reviled as much as it is adored?

According to him, one preserves the African identity of the city ‘by making sure the current inhabitants of Joburg won’t have to become Western to survive. And what I’ve noticed is that thankfully they are not. Soweto and township culture is finding more expression in the inner city. They’re becoming the defining factor for the identity of Johannesburg and can be seen from the streetstyle to urban hubs where people congregate and interact.’

The definition of ‘world class’ is a bit more fraught. Fanuel says, ‘If you see the redevelopment of Newtown, Constitution Hill and Nelson Mandela Bridge as examples of a world-class city then you’ve lost the plot.’ They may be examples of world-class architecture, but they do not elevate the quality of life in the city.

‘It’s naïve to think a bridge could change a city.’ It might change the visual landscape but it is not a place for people to interact and thereby have a positive effect on the status quo.

City officials put a noose around Newtown’s neck by de-densifying it with the largely unused Mary Fitzgerald square. ‘It has become a zombie that only comes to life when local government switches on its batteries,’ says Fanuel. The spontaneity of informal gathering and street life disappears when authorities impose an unnatural order that sanitises the area. The heart they wanted to create has become a wasteland. The same goes for Constitution Hill: ‘A white elephant that’s become a tourist destination, but means very little for the inhabitants of the city.’ It does not make the city safer or improve anyone’s quality of life by bringing a pulse back to the city centre.

Fanuel concedes that new inner-city developments like Arts on Main have some creative merit, but questions their engagement with the city. He maintains that the key aspect of improving any city is to get people back on the streets. ‘Arts on Main (nicknamed “whites on main” by some) effectively turns its back on the city and creates just another gated environment. Vanilla social engineering like the northern suburbs. Developments like these become parasites. You need to come from the outside in; they suck away the energy of the

street instead of radiating life back in. They become black holes, or white holes, that take away the urban opportunities of the inner city.’

Fanuel urges those with the financial backing to give back to the city by creating streets that allow for dialogue and interaction.

There is also positive growth. One of the aforementioned stalwarts, Gerald Olitzki, decided to stay in the CBD when his peers fled north.

He started buying up derelict buildings. His subsequent upgrades have elevated these former hulks and their surroundings, improving the quality of life. ‘Thanks to him,’ Fanuel says, ‘the city has a lifeline to weather the storms where city officials were themselves experimenting with a post-apartheid city. He gave the city a sense of stability and direction.’ Areas such as Gandhi Square, the pedestrianised walkways of Main Street and the piazza around Fox Street have spread as far as the banking district. People are sitting sipping coffee on the CBD’s sidewalks again. Gerald’s next goal is to bring them back after dark.

Adam Levy is doing the same in Braamfontein. Soon these radiating nodes will meet and give life to the streets in between.

“Be cognisant of New York and where it was... and realise that we can and will follow in its footsteps... but we need to be brave.”

While the city needs more people from the private sector willing to invest, there is still a phobia about the CBD. ‘As a result,’ Fanuel explains, ‘you leave those without money to make something of Joburg.

And naturally the quality will be compromised.’ There is a subtle balance in avoiding gentrifying so extensively that it excludes the needy. The ideal is to build a city that will benefit the community at large. ‘You have to get the minds and hearts of those with money to change. There’s been open-mindedness, but we need openheartedness. Bear in mind that the people with money these days are not the whites but the blacks… who are not willing to invest in the city.’

How are we to overcome this fear of the city? ‘It needs to start at home. We need to break down the walls imprisoning us, so that we develop a culture of visual dialogue… where you can see your neighbour and not only wave occasionally or nod, or even curse, but where whatever love/hate relationship between you… is a relationship.’

Our suburbs’ walls have fortified us into solitude. We don’t know what is happening to our neighbours. Even emergency services are asking for the walls to come down as they often can’t reach people in distress. As a community we pay millions for private security companies – we don’t need to rely on police anymore. Our safety is in our own hands. We should demand that these companies patrol the streets 24 hours a day.

‘Once this culture of claiming your environment is strong enough in the suburbs I can tell you that people will go back to Joburg with a defiance to take on those thugs and say: “To Hell with them!” Be brave and stand up to those that make you a victim in your own environment. Take them on!’ one small seed

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In the Teeth of Stupifying Odds (2010) / wood, paint and nails / 121.9 x 121.9 x 38.1 cm

Close your eyes and picture a wall of hunting trophies made up of the heads of psychedelic deities, caught in the wrath of their last deafening roar. You’re on your way to grasping the fierce mania embodied in AJ Fosik’s sculptural works. With titles like ‘As Good as Any God’, ‘Idol for the Absurd’ and ‘Embracing Stochasticity’, their intensity is clearly pervasive – from conception through to bold realisation. And while the American artist’s work resides unremittingly in the realm of his sabre-toothed wit, the zeal with which it clings to his convictions is nothing less than devout.

Sarah Jayne Fell talks to AJ Fosik about God, acid trips and impending doom, as well as his latest body of work, which fits somewhere roughly in between.

Images: courtesy of Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York | jonathanlevinegallery.com

aj fosiK

Who is AJ Fosik? (And what does AJ stand for?)

AJ Fosik is a benevolent and loving creator who will smash and burn everything you love if you don’t exalt and praise his name, which the faithful can tell you is Antonius Jamiroquai.

Tell me about when and where you grew up…

I grew up gnawing on the rusty bones of Detroit, Michigan. We washed down dinner with a glass of tears from each of the Big Three and at night we would use the axles of Plymouths and Pontiacs to bar our doors against the wolves and prostitutes.

I’ll probably never get to meet you so what kind of person would you say you are?

Don’t be so negative, we could have a chance encounter in an airport bathroom in some far-flung port of call. I’m a raptor.

“THere is A CertAin hypnotIC quAlity one experienCes When STAring iNTo THe jAWs of THe infinite.”

Does it surprise you that there would be an interest in your work all the way in ‘deep dark Africa’?

I’m surprised, yes. Given that I’m American, and a product of the American education system, I was quite surprised to learn of the existence of a ‘South’ Africa. The globes we buy from Walmart only feature the US of A on them so I’m not sure exactly where you are but I'm guessing it’s close to Florida.

You studied illustration. Why the departure?

I still illustrate, I just don't make clever little jokes for art directors.

I make clever little jokes for people to hang above their sofas.

The Third Way Out (2009) / wood, paint and nails / 213.4 x 91.4 x 91.4 cm

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one small seed

You’ve said your work draws on American Folk Art, and that there’s a jumble of ideas that all represent American iconography. At the same time, as a South African, I feel a strong connection and appeal to it. I guess the reference to wild animals is universally understood. What is it that draws you to animal subjects?

I don’t think I’ve ever said that. It’s possible, I suppose. I’m prone to blackouts and grandiose comparisons. While I do appreciate American Folk, I prefer to draw from all the grandest traditions of metaphysical chicanery throughout history. The bared fangs of an animal are intensely immediate and, at the same time, perfectly express the eternal cycle. There is a certain hypnotic quality one experiences when staring into the jaws of the infinite. It definitely holds a universal appeal.

Always to Dust (2007) / mixed media / 127 x 132 x 35.6 cm

one small seed

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There’s also the focus on spiritual iconography in your work. Are you a spiritual person? And if not, what are you trying to communicate through the ‘spiritual’ aspect of your subject matter?

Well now we’re getting into it. I think the endless number of gods we keep making are a curse on us all. Humanity has a huge black oily tumour on its collective consciousness and that is God in all his mad, manmade incarnations. It really is the last vestige of our clubwielding, stick-rubbing, cave-dwelling past. We know so much and our potential as a species is so much more incredible than anything a group of goat herders came up with in the desert 2 000 years ago, yet we seem doomed to cling to it. My work is just a microscopic incision, however futile, to lance the greasy tumour of mysticism and a plea to embrace our species’ potential.

A hard-to-miss point of your work is that it’s so, almost selfconsciously, handmade. Is this a reaction to the digitisation of so many artforms? Or is there some other drive (or point you are trying to make) causing you to work in these media?

I like the accessibility of handmade. There is such a huge distance between those of us in the West and most of the objects we surround ourselves with that when you see something created by hand there’s an immediate familiarity and connection, regardless what other intentions the creator had in mind. The endless stream of plastic from China has its zealots and devotees. Well, I can use that same trick coming from the opposite direction.

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one small seed

One thing that resonates strongly in your work is the use of psychedelic colour – it reminds me of trance parties and festivals, a pantomime or an acid trip. What is it for you? Can you explain your choice of palette?

Intensive meditation, ego-shattering journeys, connecting to the infinite and smashing back into the corporeal are all influences on my colour palette.

You’re supposedly quite nomadic, but from the last I’ve heard you’ve been settled in Philadelphia for some time.

What is the appeal about this city and how does it affect your work?

I do have a touch of the wanderlust. In fact, I’ve already moved from Philadelphia to the Pacific Northwest, specifically Portland, Oregon. The Pacific Northwest is the last and least decayed piece of American potential.

How long till you think you’ll move on again? And where to next?

I'm leaning more towards survivalist compound aspirations these days. I’d like to start a stockpile of some kind, purchase a remote cabin on a mountain somewhere and wait for an impending disaster. We have so many great ones to prepare for these days – it’s not just your standard End Times or Race Wars.

We’ve got viral outbreaks, the Yellowstone Caldera eruption, a global banking collapse. There really are just too many to choose from.

You have a show coming up at Jonathan LeVine. Tell me about it. Can we expect a deviation from your current work?

I don’t think deviation would be the right word; I feel my work has just been getting stronger in terms of the concept and craft coming together. I would say definitely bigger and more intense, yes. The fierceness and concept will be the same.

What’s the maddest thing you’ve ever done?

Attempt to change the status quo and challenge accepted tenets with the hope of a brighter tomorrow. Not accepting security in exchange for complacency.

What’s the maddest thing you’ve never done?

Believe anyone who claims to hold all the answers and/or know the mind of God. What’s next for AJ Fosik?

Giant piles of sawdust.

(from left to right) Thaumaturgic Bull (2010) / wood, paint and nails / 76.2 x 68.6 x 45.7 cm The Science of What Is Beyond the Physical (2009) / wood, paint and nails / 45.7 x 45.7 x 30 cm Idol for the Absurd (2009) / wood, paint and nails / 76.2 x 81.3 x 47 cm Embracing Stochasticty (2009) / wood, paint and nails / 91.4 x 71.1 x 63.5 cm one small seed

flickr.com/people/ajfosik

“I STiLL iLLuSTRAte, I juST don't MAke CleVer liTTle jokes for Art DIrectors. I MAke CleVer liTTle jokes for people to hAng AboVe THeir soFAs.”

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nuriamora.com

The upsurge in street art in the world’s major cities is just one aspect of creative urban regeneration that Johannesburg is catching onto. In an interview with Spanish street artist Nuria Mora, Sarah Jayne Fell looks at the beauty at the heart of this renegade artform.

NuriA MoRA AnD THe UrbAn RenAiSSAnCe

In the 21st century, Madrid has also become increasingly renowned for its flourishing urban art scene. In this contemporary milieu, the work of the city’s graffiti and street artists has long since left the realm of undesirable and unsightly scrawled tags. The vibrant colours and idiosyncratic characters inhabiting the large-scale creative masterpieces that adorn the city’s walls actually invigorate public spaces, revitalise deteriorated neighbourhoods and bring art closer to the people. In Madrid, street art has become emblematic of the city’s dynamic bustling energy – a visually inspiring tribute to the beat of its pulsating heart.

The vivacious, cosmopolitan city of Madrid – Spain’s capital and largest city – is one of the world’s most thriving artistic, cultural and heritageladen hubs. It schooled the likes of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali and boasts spectacular art collections that include formidable works such as Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ and Hieronymus Bosch’s ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’. The city is home to some of the oldest universities in the world and the largest bullring in Spain, Las Ventas, ‘The Mecca of Bullfighting’.

Its football club Real Madrid was voted by FIFA as the most successful club of the 20th century. In 2010, Monocle listed Madrid as the tenth most liveable city in the world.

Her trademark works are large murals of flat geometric colour, but many also incorporate floral and filigree motifs or more intricately detailed geometric designs. And while the world is usually her canvas of choice, she also works on actual canvas, watercolour paper, board and even a range of handbags created from a variety of textiles.

Nuria Mora is an artist who represents this urban renewal. Born and raised in Madrid, she has been creating street art for almost 12 years.

As a creator and citizen of her city, she has always thought of the street as her ideal canvas and describes her work in this urban environment as if it were nothing less than her birthright.

An inspiring project that recently emerged in Madrid speaks to this urban creative reawakening. The Walls Management Office is an independent organisation that seeks to connect wall owners with artists, encouraging street art that’s legal and of a superior quality – because it’s commissioned, well planned and not anonymous.

Interventions such as these add to the beautification of the city’s streets and, at the same time, give a positive spin to an artform historically held in contempt by many.

Nuria’s creations remain on Johannesburg’s streets, each one a tribute to this city’s burgeoning urban renaissance – adding light, colour, expression and optimism to a community slouching towards redemption. Like that multiplying sea star, these works will hopefully encourage other similar endeavours, quickening the pulse of Jozi’s heart one beat at a time.

These Johannesburg works were part of something called The Starfish Project, designed to complement a series of ‘interventions’ in the inner city. It began with an installation at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, where Nuria built a giant plywood cube. She painted the cube’s entire interior with flat blocks of bold pinks, blues, purples and yellows: a modern-day cubist wallpaper. She then dismantled the panels from the cube and each section formed the beginning of a new outdoor mural – like a sea star whose arms can break off and regenerate into a new starfish.

Fixing each panel to its designated urban wall, Nuria crafted the resultant pieces of work to flow over the wooden boards and onto the concrete – each reinventing itself to adapt to its chosen location.

Nuria has painted murals all over Madrid. She has also ventured further afield to decorate the walls of London, Paris, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, London, Cairo and even South Africa’s own city that never sleeps: Johannesburg. In 2010, Nuria spent the month of April as an artist-inresidence at the Nirox Foundation in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site. She left her distinctive stamp on the city, creating eight murals in total. These can be found in Newtown (one in Mary Fitzgerald Square, one alongside the Miriam Makeba mural), two in the Arts on Main area, two around Ellis Park (both on Height Street) and two more in Alexandra (one on the corner of Lenin and Phil Ziqubu Streets, one on the corner of Alfred Nzo and 18th Streets).

Nuria works on her own and with the art collective El Equipo Plástico (‘The Plastic Team’) along with fellow Spanish artists Sixeart, Nano4814 and Eltono. She has taken part in group exhibitions that include Street Art (2008) at London’s prestigious Tate Modern and others all over Europe and the USA. She has also held solo exhibitions in Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Glasgow, Tokyo and London.

On the matter of style, Nuria simply says hers is ‘under construction’ – a process that she hopes will never end. For her, the importance of process far outweighs the final piece: it’s about hunting down the right location, planning her choice of colours, studying the lines of the background – while her inspiration is drawn from ‘the city, the surroundings, the architecture, the colour of the surface’.

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one small seed

To Boldly Show...

Clive Rundle Summer Collection 2010/2011

Zimbabwean-born, Johannesburg-raised fashion designer Clive Rundle is renowned for being one of South Africa’s most prolific and gifted fashion exports. A bold statement about a bold designer, but one we can easily back up by pointing to a mere sprinkling of gems studding his decorated career.

Fashion designer: Clive Rundle / Photographer: Ross Garrett

one small seed

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one small seed

drawcard to South African Fashion Weeks over the years with his shows packing out each time.

The collection shown here is Clive Rundle’s Summer Collection 2010/2011, presented as the kickoff to SA Fashion Week, Johannesburg, 2010 at his dazzling new store in The Firs in Rosebank. The show was part of a graffiti installation by young local artist Mark Erasmus. Once again devoted photographer Ross Garrett was on call to support Clive in his lifelong mission to boldly show what no man has shown before. one small seed

cliverundle.com

In early 2010, Clive was one of only ten African designers shown at the Arise L’Afrique-à-Porter Fall 2010/2011 presentation in Paris, with his collection Marie Antoinette Returns to Paris after Attending A Lesbian Wedding in Africa.

His ranges have graced titles like Dazed & Confused, Visi, Elle and Dossier, he was profiled in one small seed’s glossy pages in 2008 (issue 11) and he was commissioned to design the headpiece of our cover girl in June 2010 (issue 19) by Joburg photographer Ross Garrett. Throughout South Africa and abroad, the name Clive Rundle has become a massive

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Photography: Leuwald Botha

Michael Balkind

rants, theatres, art an online guide to Johannesburg clubs, pubs, restau to everything cool in Jozi stop lick one-c your is ive galleries and more – JHBL Friedman, Sizwe Jacques Mbebe, Blerk, Amir Fialkov, Justin McGee Kelly Kidson, Shamiso Matambanadzo, Renard van

The JHBLive team are: Michael Balkind, Daniel

AKA: The Bull Claim to fame: owner & publisher of JHBLive (est. 2000) / co-founder of Content Bar (est. 2008) with Amir Fialkov Born: Moshav Sde Nitzan Israel, 1978 Time done in Jozi: 21 years HQ: Greenside url: jhblive.com

FroM 206 to 2011 – THe ChAnging FACe of JohAnnesburg In the newly post-apartheid South Africa, 206 Louis Botha was a nightclub in Johannesburg’s eastern suburbs that was like a little island in the New South Africa, where the rainbow nation actually existed.

JHBLive’s Michael Balkind takes us through that illustrious 206 era and leads us to the places he believes are driving the Joburg cultural movement in 2011.

The memory of 206 is an important one for many of the Joburgers who were looking for a party during a time of drastic cultural change. Back then Johannesburg was morphing from an apartheid city to the African megatropolis that it is has become.

The fact that 206 was so influential is surprising when you consider it was just a small bar/nightclub on the not-so-trendy Louis Botha Avenue in Orange Grove. Pass the entrance and you arrived at a pumping dancefloor bar, with a long, twirling outside corridor beyond. On certain nights an extension of 206 would be open (aptly named 208) where you could hide in an attic and listen to the sickest newest shit from faraway places like Paris, London and New York. It was the first club to bring styles like drum ’n bass, triphop, big-beat and deep house to Joburg… and one of the first to expose hip-hop to white people.

Louis Botha is a legendary street extending from the arse of Alexander Township straight into the belly of Hillbrow. A hardcore monster street even today, it has more taxis than hos, more hos than shebeens – and a shebeen for nearly every block.

206 was initially frequented by young residents of suburbs like

Orange Grove, Norwood, Yeoville and Edenvale, a mixed crowd of blacks, Jews, Afrikaners, Greeks, Portuguese… you name it.

Alongside Rockey Street and just a handful of other places, 206 was one of the few newly integrated cultural meeting and melting pots only two years after apartheid finally died.

In 1996 the government was led by a mix of freedom fighters, intellectuals and thugs who were still settling into the saddle of New South African politics. A kak-load of whites were either in Australia or on their way to Canada. Many who remained were convinced that the ‘blacks were going to run this country into the ground’, half-expecting them to rape and kill their daughters and wives. Meanwhile, many of the blacks were wondering why the fuck the whites were so grumpy. After all: they still had their own houses and fancy cars. Almal in those days was being screwed by crime.

And winning major sports tournaments seemed to be the only whiff of national unity in the wind.

Against this background 206 was like an independent state in the New South Africa, one where the rainbow nation could actually be found, more so than anywhere else at least. While everyone tried to figure out what came next, 206 just was. one small seed

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There were several factors building 206’s countrywide legend. It was partly thanks to its founders, DJ Bob and Alan Freeman, who created a canvas of a venue that, I suspect, was exactly the kind of place they would want to hang out (every day). It was also thanks to the bouncer, Garth. He determined who would be a regular and made sure that anyone not meeting his loose code of conduct (‘Don’t be a dick,’ basically) was kept away – he didn’t ever fight, his brain stored the names of at least 600 party-people, and I’ve never met a kinder and more just person. The cool people working the bar, the foosball table and the little alleys where you never knew what interesting people you would meet next all helped make 206 what it was.

It’s difficult to explain to someone who never experienced Johannesburg in those days what it was like being in a city transforming from a gold-mining town to the New York of Africa.

Overnight, the city of Joburg emptied of its business people and residents, replaced by migrants from the countryside and immigrants from all over the continent, sharing rooms and the need to send money home.

There was no real rule of law. You could do anything. Massive raves were going down in town in any warehouse you could imagine, packed with whites, coloureds, Asians and general skollies from all over, fucked on huge amounts of disco biscuits, Bart Simpsons and shplees. YFM bashes were packing out the trainstation in town.

Young black youths (who had to have passes in the ’80s) travelled through the venue, pumped on alcohol and dagga, listening to the latest sounds from guys like Vinny Da Vinci, Christos and Oskido. Everyone in those days was getting hijacked; every day the headlines threatened war. But still, somehow, the sports team won.

Looking back, 206 was a safe zone. Its diversity was its strength as it brought together creative minds across a range of cultures. You would smoke a joint with the barman and bond with the carguards – it was just that kind of place. Acts like Die Antwoord, KenZhero, Kid Fonque, Shaun Duvet, Bionic and Blaze were all products or by-products of 206. Actors, fashion designers, art directors, entertainment lawyers and more were all influenced and shaped by the experience, the music and the people they met.

Speak to any person who set foot through the doors of 206 about the place and an instant nostalgic expression will signal a guaranteed few minutes of reminiscing. Everyone is waiting for the second coming of the next, next 206. It was a temple, a legend and holy shrine.

The reason for its importance wasn’t 206’s venue or location but the idea behind it. Since those days Joburg has grown; it has doubled or perhaps even tripled or quadrupled. It has developed mega housing complexes and fancy suburbs with higher walls and meaner electric fences. The cops are corrupt; the streets seem

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“Everyone in those days was getting hijacked; every day the headlines threatened war. But still, somehow, the sports team won.” viciously dangerous at nights. Everyone hangs out at malls. No one stops at robots at night and you can get fucked up in traffic if you drive too slow. You can’t just throw a bash in town anymore and a bar can’t serve drinks after 2 am without being shut down. Council saw to that, enforcing this prohibition with more might than any healthy night creature would be comfortable.

And now, 15 years past the beginning of the 206 era, Joburg is still not a city with enough street life or culture, and it’s not as much fun as Berlin, Tokyo or even Cape Town.

Joburg is a city that is still in between. It hasn’t settled down. It hasn’t grown up. It’s going through a dirty little rough patch. Don’t despair though, stuff is happening, we’re on the up-and-up. In the next few pages, there’s a guide – courtesy of JHBLive's editorial team – to some of the places that are helping to elevate Johannesburg to the cultural powerhouse it has the potential to be.

We’ll get there eventually…

DJ Bob / The Bassline

photography: Justin McGee words: Daniel Friedman

As one of the founders of 206, DJ Bob is one of the grandfathers, um, godfathers of the alternative dance scene in Johannesburg.

He is a bit of a hippie – an extremely rare thing around these parts – but luckily it’s hip-ho p, leftfield dance and electronica rather than trance that rocks his world. Throughout the years, he has been one of few DJs and organisers consistently promoting quality beats in Joburg (and out in the bushveld at places like Oppikoppi). Guys like Bob may be a dime a dozen in Cape Town, but they are so rare in Jozi that he has made an indelible impact on the scene.

Now, with the help of Kwani Experience’s vocali st PO, he’s the man behind the music at The Bassline, one of Joburg’s stalwart live music venues that showcases jazz and urban sounds. He has continued to book the kinds of acts that have made the venue a success, like Ringo Madlingozi and Oliver Mtuku dzi, while broadening the palette by featuring a host of lesser-known artists too.

The recently launched 206 Tuesdays see the return of the sounds that made that venue legendary.

10 Henry Nxumalo Street, Newtown

one small seed

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DJ KenZhero / OST While DJ and producer KenZhero is one of Joburg hip-hop’s pioneers, he has always showcased underground artists and given those headz less concerned with bling and more concerned with consciousness something to enjoy. He can also slip into soul mode and start playing James Brown, Motown and other classics at the drop of a record, so his sets are popular across a diverse range of music fans – not just the headz. He’s been running the incredibly popular Party People range of events for some years, featuring the best in both local and international hip-hop. Without him, Joburg would never have seen the likes of J-Live, Bahamadia, Wordsworth, Kev Brown, Masta Ace, DJ Babu or People Under The Stairs. The latter two played at OST, Kenny’s new venue where GoGo Bar (a little slice of Cape Town in the middle of Jozi CBD) used to be. OST (which stands for Original Sound Track) is far more ‘Joburg’ than its predecessor and just as hip. Who knows which unusual international acts will be rocking the mic there next?

Cnr Henry Nxumalo & Bree Streets, Newtown

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Gert Schoonraad / Town Hall Gert Schoonraad is something of a whiz kid on the Joburg nightlife scene. He launched his first venue, Mama Themba’s Shebeen, when he was only 19. He then sold it and moved a few doors down to open Gin, which he sold when he was 23. Gin then transformed from the intimate, local-bar vibe it started out with to a far more commercial jol, but Gert takes this kind of thing in his stride: ‘It’s sad, but you just have to keep moving.’ Which is exactly what he did, starting indie-electro mecca The Woods with Adam Vinokur – before selling that, moving next door and opening Town Hall, which brings us to the present. The venue itself struggled in the past as Shivava’s and The Songwriters Club. But when Gert took over, it started to pump and continues to do so, showcasing DJs and bands across a range of subcultures including indie, electro, hip-hop, house or drum ’n bass. There have been several international performances, with Gert highlighting LA hip-hop act Blu and Exile and Miami electro-house artist Steve Aoki as his favourites. By now, Gert seems like a veteran when it comes to Joburg clubbing. Not bad… at 25.

66 Carr Street, Newtown

Andrew The DJ / Kitchener’s Andrew The DJ is not the most excitable character. He doesn’t often smile, so when he does you know he means it. Strangely, over the years he has earned a reputation for playing the kind of hard, highenergy electro sounds that make the indie girls go crazy – the only down-tempo thing about this guy is his personality. But his tastes are diverse too, and Kitchener’s reflects that; while Joburg’s techno scene has learned to call it home, you hear acoustic folk acts there at times too. Kitchener’s is not the kind of place you’d expect to work – when Andrew said he was starting to throw parties at an old, sad, Braamfontein bar frequented by aging alcoholics, everyone thought he was crazy. But the place had great wallpaper and came across as ironically kitsch, so it worked well as a hipster nightlife venue.

Now it is one of the few options for Joburg’s design, art, media and muso-types that are too grown up for The Woods, so Andrew could be having the last laugh – though that’s hardly his style. And, if you go through during the day, it’s still the same old bar, aging alcoholics included.

Cnr Juta & De Beer Streets, Braamfontein one small seed

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Photography: Leuwald Botha

Thabo Mphuthi

DJ

join DJ Chubbi on a Joburg Street Tour as he stops to see the people and places that cover his personal highlights of Jozi’s art, fashion, partie s and music

Chubbi

AKA: Chubbi / Chubstar Claim to fame: DJ for Jozi youth radio station YFM (est. 1997) / club DJ / graphic designer / presenter for SABC 3 reality show Young Designers Born: Pretoria, Tshwane, 1983 Time done in Jozi: 20 years HQ: Joburg’s East Rand url: yfm.co.za/dj/chubbi

Joburg, Jozi, Mjoznana, Msawawa…

Call it what you will, but it stands as firm as concrete that South Africa’s pulse lies in the heart of Jozi… it all starts here!

Whether or not you’re in Jozi, you’ve heard or know about the city’s relentless and unforgiving pace. So it’s only fitting that everything that stems from Jozi has the same joie de vivre.

From the gargantuan Jozi CBD skyline to the harrowing traffic that plagues the city – it’s all part of the experience.

A city known for swallowing people, lives and careers… for being a place that can get the best of you. Jozi reaffirms the saying ‘Akupheli nyama, kuphela izinyo lendoda’ – a Zulu metaphor claiming that everything in Jozi is in abundance and people need to pace themselves lest they catch the short end of the stick.

The picture I’m painting of Jozi is not the most flattering but it sets the backdrop to the wonderful landscape that is Msawawa. All is not doom and gloom in the City of Gold and Lights.

Dreams are made here; billionaires are born amidst the grime. Jozi is the one place you can realise your true potential without being clouded by any bohemian revolutions. Even the most bohemian Joburger thinks about money more than anything else. This is where Bohemia meets Hustler.

People outside Jozi will tell you that Joburgers are like cogs in a defunct machine, but never fear: sooner, rather than later, you’ll be no better than the cogs you were snickering at a couple of months ago.

You’ll get to experience the city for all its worth. Testament to this is the looming 2011 Joburg Fashion Week, which for the first time decided to use the city’s landmarks as its backdrop. These include Nelson Mandela Bridge (Newtown), Constitutional Hill, the epic Bus Factory and, of course, the Joburg Art Gallery. This year’s Jozi fashion week includes some of South Africa’s most revered designers such as David Tlale, Thula Sindi, Grapevine, Clive Rundle and more.

Not many cities will offer you contrasts like shopping in Sandton City by day and then heading to your local shisa nyama in the hood while still feeling Gucci fabulous.

The endless clubs in Rosebank give any partygoer more than their fair share of options when it comes to getting in where you fit in, and also houses one of Joburg’s longest-standing clubs: Capitol.

If you have an insatiable appetite for going out, you can always pass by Melville and get involved in Joburg’s version of Long Street: 7th Avenue. This always forms a staple diet for any Joburger: whether you’re jamming it up at the Gallery on 4th or chugging back your last drink for the road at 3.45 am at Catz Pyjamas, it’s always going down.

‘Cosmopolitan’ is the word that best describes Jozi – you have every possible culture thrown into one pot and what a gumbo it is.

But, as diverse as Jozi is, all Joburgers agree on one thing: Work hard and play even harder.

This is Jozi!

Balling! one small seed

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Chubbi chats to Andrew Miller – writer, poet and co-owner of Unity Gallery with his wife Robyn – about his gallery in Newtown and the Jozi art scene

Andrew on Unity Gallery Unity is a gallery space: a gritty urban creative space that caters to writers and artists. Like much of the Joburg art scene, it has a collaborative intent. It’s a place where people can share things on a philosophical or creative level, and on a business level too because artists need to learn how to make money.

Once you’ve left the training institution it’s hard if you’re not born into a wealthy environment to figure out how to make a living. Unity is one of the few spaces where you can get access to resources, internet, fellow artists… and talk about your career. We are underground and represent artists making their way up. Now that we’ve been going a while, some of the people who were initially emerging artists have now emerged, so we’re lucky to have a range of people who qualify as investment artists. It’s important for us that artists earn more money as they grow, and not get caught up in that South African thing where you’re a famous artist but broke your whole life.

Andrew on Jozi’s Art Scene You can split it into the larger formal university-oriented scene, populated by high-profile artists who bridge into the international scene. And then we have an underground scene that’s growing fast, and that’s where the interesting stuff is happening. The formal vibe is quite predictable, whereas the underground scene is edgy and vibrant and dynamic. There’s an interesting overlap between music, fashion and art. More and more in the last couple of years, I’ve heard advertisers and the like refer to Joburg as similar to Berlin – in its intensity of art and the stuff going on here.

One area we need to look at carefully as a city is what kind of access we’re giving our artists to digital technology – and what kind of digital training. Lack of high-speed broadband internet limits your career as an artist severely. If we don’t get that right, there’s a danger of us operating in our own parallel universe. Conversely, if we do get it right, opportunities can open up for our artists to prove that they’re amongst the most dynamic around in the world.

Andrew on the Prince of Newtown Prince makes jewellery out of assorted cutlery. He’s one of the most important people around Newtown. When everyone left the city and ran away about 10 to 15 years ago, it was people like Prince who kept the atmosphere of Newtown alive so that when people came back they could turn it into the bougey artsy-fartsy scene that it is now. Wherever he goes in Newtown, people know and welcome him. He can walk into any restaurant and people give him love and maybe a bit of food and then buy his jewellery. He brings light and laughter with him. He’s not considered a street artist but what he does is given higher value.

Unity Gallery We’re giving him exposure in the media to ensure that The Bus Factory he has a place as an important member of Newtown art 3 President Street community. A formal space for a very informal person.

Newtown unitydesign.co.za

Photography: Themba Masondo

Andile Cele runs Designer Original Products Enterprise, a company that deals with the Cool. He also captains their retail space: DOPE Store.

Chubbi drops by and this is what Andile has to say…

How did DOPE Store come about?

It all started around 2004 when I dropped out of school to start my own clothing label. The label grew and the idea of the store came from trying to find the best store to stock my brand. I went overseas for about three years and worked in retail so I could learn the ins and outs. I came back in late 2008 and the store was opened in 2009.

Check out this dope label, StrussBob, one of the brands stocked in DOPE Store…

Chubbi talks to founder, Nthato Modiselle

‘Joburg is… an energetic and vibrant city. Some say that it’s a smaller version of New York, a concrete jungle for all those that wanna make their dreams come true. It’s not a place for the fainthearted. It’s a “place of Gold”. There’s always something happening. It’s the city that never sleeps, always hustling to become the next biggest thing.’

Where does StrussBob come from?

The name StrussBob (’strue-as-Bob) is derived from a South African way of speaking; a mashup of culture and languages; a colloquial testament to Africa’s stories; a solemn promise to authenticity. It’s something understood by everyone.

Who’s wearing StrussBob? People that are positive, progressive, cultural, cool, real, proAfrican and believe in connecting the rest of the world with Africa.

StrussBob is a Universal Truth meant for everyone and owned by anyone. Artists who wear StrussBob include Mos Def, Bow Wow, Reggie Bush, Dwele, Dj Babu, Green Lantern, Khuli Chana, Locnville, HHP, Dj Dimplez, Dj Naves, Shugasmakx, Tuks Senganga and more.

What is the store about?

It’s about the Cool. I can't describe it any better than that. We are about cool products, cool people, a cool store, cool parties! At the same time we love quality things, fashion, books, food... We believe in the lifestyle 100%. We work hard to find the best and share it with our customers. No one in South Africa has done it as big as us, even worldwide only a few stores have done what we are doing. DOPE is more of a design company. We designed our store and we have just done a café for a friend of ours – Lillians Coffee Gallery, which was a very nice project because we got to design a café inside DOPE store a gallery. For 2011, we want to 30 Loveday Street expand our company’s products Johannesburg CBD and open more stores. iamsodope.blogspot.com

What’s next for you?

Creating an army of cultural StrussBobbers™. 2011 will be about bringing brands together.

What’s the fashion scene like in Joburg?

Street fashion in Joburg has always been there through the influence of music videos seen in places like MTV Base and Channel O. In terms of local brands, there’s been an increase in Joburg in the past two years. Some street brands in Joburg think that building a street-fashion brand is all about placing a dope graphic on a t-shirt and that’s it. It’s a misconception amongst the younger ones, so many come and go. The most difficult thing about building a brand is building loyalty through exciting concepts and campaigns, and letting your consumers know that they own the brand. one small seed

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Chubbi swings by The Bank in Rosebank and bumps into Lulo Café & DJ Franky, partners and DJs from Garden of Eden

Parties at the Gallery on 4th are known to be legendary and this one didn’t disappoint one bit…

Not everybody knows about the space behind the Nike Concept store in Melville, but anyone who does comes through to watch the hottest hip-hop acts in Joburg. What’s normally an art gallery during the day is transformed into a party venue at night. And what a party it was…

Lulo Café on Garden of Eden (GoE) GoE is our Sunday event where we push chilled-out house music and hip-hop. We’ve got Joburg DJs representing. Joburg people are into partying on odd days, I mean just before a Monday before you go to your grind. We start at 3 pm and we close late. There’s braai meat and lunch served. At night, we get down to kwaito and hip-hop. You just gotta be here, chill out, have a drink. GoE is the Sunday Joburg vibe.

Lulo Café on Jozi nightlife The nightlife in Jozi evolves every year. Now the more chilled-out spots are doing quite well. The clubs? Struggling a bit – there has to be more of an injection in marketing for clubs to pop at the moment.

But this year should be different… hopefully the clubs do come back because that’s the DJs’ money, otherwise we need to get in and do our own events like we’re doing right now.

The Bank gets packed like a mother every Sunday because of GoE. All the hott beautiful peeps get there and have a good time.

Young celebs find GoE the place to mingle. Food, music, good vibes… It truly is the Garden of Eden. Balling!!!

Meet DJ Franky I’m DJ Franky from SoulCandy records. I’m also part owner of GoE. I own it with Lulo Café, my man Tibs (Showlove) and Euphonik from 5FM. The GoE started in 2009 with me and Lulo Café at Ink. We moved it to Zouk in Sandton, then MiBar, and now we’re at The Bank.

Plans for this year? We’re looking to take GoE everywhere in the country: Cape Town, Durban, East London and smaller towns.

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The party was hosted by Siz (MTV Base, YFM) and Scoop (V-Entertainment, YFM, RGB). And when these boys host a party, you know it’s on and popping.

Jozi has this mundane culture of kick and bobozas whenever you hit a club or party, which always dampens my mood. But here, unlike the usual rigmarole, peeps were donning their freshest kicks and flyest gear, which added to the eye-candy factor.

As I have a strong affliction for the nectar of the gods, I was indeed getting my fair share of my merrymaking rights. If you weren’t marooned at the bar and were lucky enough to explore the place, you would’ve noticed that the upper level has a breathtaking view of Jozi.

All in all, this party was bananas and brought about the right crowd where Jozi is concerned. That very crowd let loose without any inhibitions… and that’s just up my gallery.

And finally Chubbi heads to a YFM hip-hop party night. The location: Randlords, Braamfontein.

The lineup: Balling!

for Joburg people coming in

the night…

The first performance of the nigh t was Jozi… Da LES and Ishmael are on stage with their new drum mer.

Dineo Ranaka (YFM drivetime DJ) is MC for the night.

Oh yes! Brin g It! Khuli Cha balling on st na is age! Wadi ko nka konka…

Joburg stan d up!

And of course Teargas and

Pro killed it!

Jozi is on fire – bring it! one small seed

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Anothe disappe egins to read, He take r carries e . m e p ip le n e s h b b o e s ir v ta e v n b ri h n y w p T e e d rb e to r. n e a d o e a e h e b t p r ‘Th an er a v izi. ‘T p pa pape nmen the pap rolled-u e news ,’ says M burban enviro g wd g e th in n ro th s s ri c ld u n a o e to e h io h p s in , Prec Then, . He o nce su r. As th . rd g s e fe a n e le y li s b h il rt ic e p e u ig rt h s ea e co ks th t and watc The h drop rough th interjec dle of th rby Fourways, , he drin uncers the mid mbing th Catalan porró a o u e b in n th ’s le a m b z o g, Bo nal fr long ta d like a cheerin rofessio From a boos. his hea enzied oung p fr y e crowd a to h , ts in T o lo . ts e o v s rs a ly as u e . le Nkom b ce e trio llective this sid nds dan t that th ere are school own co h is n s ’s was to (k le her frie a t in p z n o rs o e ut I w the pe dance van. B b iy d t g ll n o in n ra u A lo m . e o s y d Diep goo ger’s ree As they s. ‘Gen lived in , the th ir mana psloot today. music is e e she say ’ , e id th h re ts T own e u to . h ‘I never p O ve Die hea pile in hoes d iends li ks are c ances in at Boza’s ec rated’) n g ri rm d te o n of my fr e rf ‘I h e p wd earth. T t of six f the cro down to the las ound o drinking n people.’ s e y e th m th f , o re ff yny ome these a drive o ad. e misog rsect. ‘W ink loot Ro s th cribes th hol darkly inte s p y e e ie d h D T o . ls k o a n lc s ri a u d nd cio ma overty a But Pre uys the where p e who b o.za – n o re y u n lt a cu bozas.c p with e le y s tl l s il o sm here w ay it is.’

He play st the w crowd. g e sees in H n that’s ju . e v ’s t Boza early e a e ts th h r ig Js fo lub n three c athipa D ss.

Louis M uis runs climb to succe o L . z z ja is d h n a R&B to start g. I see tworkin s a way e a my n b it jo ll his I ca n I have orking – ere. Even whe w it ll a it h n’t c ut I love y place here.’ nally do ‘I perso in life, b m ig p b e e g k goin lways myself se, I’ll a u o h n to Bryans

dancing at

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one small seed

Shane Durrant and Angie Batis are a barometer for all things indie-innovative in Shane Durrant and Angie Batis are a barometer for all things quirky-cool in Joburg.

Joburg. The lead singer of local cult band Desmond & The Tutus, Shane is also The lead singer of local cult band Desmond & The Tutus, Shane is also the design the design and copy brain behind Super Duper Industries. Angie, an art director at and copy brain behind Super Duper Industries. Angie, an art director at BBDO by Net#work BBDO by day, is a style blogger at Lucky Pony and jewellery maker for Hello day, is a style blogger at Lucky Pony and jewellery maker for Hello Fox by every Fox by every other time. In early 2010, the busy pair opened their first coffee shop, other time. In early 2010 the busy pair opened their first coffee shop, Wolves, in the Wolves, in the Sandton suburb of Illovo. Genna Gardini caught up with Angie to chat Sandton suburb of Illovo. Genna Gardini caught up with Angie to chat about owning about owning a cafĂŠ in Jozi and why their sandwiches are like Michael Jackson songs. a cafĂŠ in Jozi and why their sandwiches are like Michael Jackson songs.

Photography: Angie Batis

Speaking of awesomes, I’ve heard your red velvet cake is like iced manna from heaven. What else on the menu is worth ordering?

Our rump steak roll with mustard mayo, cherry tomatoes, rocket and caramelised onions. If our menu was Michael Jackson’s career, this sandwich would be ‘Thriller’. We also serve a mean hot chocolate and our fruit smoothies have been known to make a few people dance with their eyes closed.

What else can you do at Wolves besides eat a lot of confectionery and listen to good music?

You can play boardgames. You can visit the internets. You can make friends. You can buy cool junk off our ever-growing bookshelf. You can start your own private art collection – we feature a different artist’s work on our walls every month. Or you can just come and give us a high-five, we all like those.

one small seed: What made you guys decide to add ‘and also coffee shop owners!’ to your already-lengthy résumés?

Wolves: A wise man once said you can never be just one thing, you have two hands so why not build a house or write a short poem? OK, reading this now I think this man was more drunk than wise, so let’s go with this answer: We just felt that we and our neighbourhood needed a cool little spot to come and hang out in, a place that was welcoming and relaxing, sort of like Cheers but not.

Anyone who reads your blog knows that you really like deer. So, why ‘Wolves’?

Do you think your place has added anything to the Joburg scene that was missing before?

Just a sweet little hole in the wall that’s not in a mall, where during the day you can sit and relax and stay as long as you like, and which occasionally in the evening is a place to drink and laugh to your heart’s content.

Who mans the fort at Wolves while you’re at your day job?

And, finally: what can we expect from Wolves this year?

Shane is there every day and at his side there’s Eddy, the guy who can do anything except, I think, Spanish dance; Will, who makes the raddest cup of coffee your mouth will ever have the pleasure of meeting; Lloyd and Pinkie, who work in the kitchen and cook and bake all the awesomes in the shop.

We really want to do more submission-based exhibitions and more fun evenings for the little Wolves community. We’re thinking along the lines of Scrabble, Bingo, Mojitos and maybe even Charades, who knows? I mean that game was popular in the ’90s – we say bring it the hell back!

wolves.co.za | superduper.com

Good question. It’s strange: everything that I love in my life is named after an animal. Lucky Pony: blog.

Hello Fox: jewellery. Wolves: coffee shoppe. Shanie: husband. But seriously, we named it Wolves because we all had this picture of two wolves sort of kissing each other, well that’s what it looked like, and every now and then we would joke about having to get these two in to kiss so we could get some customers. Yes, it sounds ridiculous, but it’s true.

one small seed

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Thesis Social Jam Sessions

A 21st-century South African creative youth uprising

one small seed journalist Batandwa Alperstein speaks to the Thesis crew about the creative revolution they are sparking in the metropolitan Johannesburg township of Soweto.

Every first Sunday of the month, an eclectic mix of Gauteng creatives congregate to mingle, find collaborators, inspire each other and enjoy the musical talents on show that day. Thesis has hosted the likes of Public Enemy (USA), Exile (USA), Toffee (Switzerland) and DJ Oil (France), but their focus is really on established and emerging South African artists. Attendees’ ears are exposed to musical genres from soul to breaks to hip-hop to jazz, but nothing is barred. Poets and comedians are also frequently known to deck the stage. In fact anything goes as long as it’s in the name of authentic self-expression.

Photography: Uviwe Mangweni

The 1976 Youth Uprising in Soweto changed the face of South Africa forever by exposing the world to the violence of apartheid.

Those days are over but today a contemporary revolution brews at 173 Machaba Drive, Mofolo Village, Soweto, addressing the needs of the current generation. Its name is the Thesis Social Jam Sessions, and it’s on a mission to change the face of Sowetan youth culture.

Photography: Zandi Tisani

It’s a street bash with a purpose – to give life to the motto of the Thesis brand: ‘Wear your own identity, culture, style and experience.’

Head designer Mangaliso explains the thinking behind the brand name: ‘In tertiary education you write a thesis. You go out into the field, research a subject and report on your findings. That’s what we’re doing with Thesis: we’re illustrating a new point of view on Soweto, the youth, what’s fresh and what there is to look forward to.’

Thesis is a fashion label as well as a concept store that opened on Youth Day in 2007, in honour of the fallen youth of 1976. The brand is run by a fully Sowetan crew (opposite) who work tirelessly to cultivate the movement they have founded. The manager, Wandile, puts it simply: ‘Thesis is just a bunch of kids from Soweto coming together to say: “This is what our culture’s all about.” But it’s not purely about being Sowetan. We try to capture what’s part of the global community.

We’re about pushing urban street culture. That’s it.’

It is all about collaboration, something Wandile deems vital for personal growth. ‘Collaborating with different people gives you a different perspective on how things are done,’ he explains. ‘As creatives, we’ve always had the problem of working together but we’re learning to break those boundaries.’ And gradually the effort is paying off.

The ‘I Love Soweto’ viral campaign (above) is a great illustration of the kind of projects Thesis strives to inspire. Bringing together a writer, photographer, fashion designer, stylist, various models,

graphic designers, illustrators and hundreds of random members of Soweto’s 1.3-million population, it produced an exhibition of guerrilla photography and graphic design hosted at the Thesis Concept Store since April 2010. The project’s aim was to encourage Sowetans to take pride in their ‘hoodburb’ and think creatively about how to improve it, showing its contrasts and diversity through the simple brief ‘Show love for Soweto’.

This is the first project to demonstrate the vision of Thesis, which Thesis Social Jam Sessions brand manager and DJ Galebowe Mahlatsi reveals is ‘to build a new identity for the youth of Soweto’. Known on the streets as Wireless_G, the 20-something

”We’re preparing the youth of Soweto for the future.“ thesis.co.za | thesissocialjamsession.blogspot.com is a resounding voice for his generation through the cultural loudspeaker of Thesis. ‘We want to be an inspiration,’ he asserts.

‘We’re preparing the youth of Soweto for the future.’ Under this sentiment, Thesis is a progressive movement that seeks to act as an agent of change in everything that it does.

Following in the footsteps of the 1976 Sowetan youth, Thesis is like an offspring of that radical revolutionary spirit. It too fights for the right of expression, the right to define one’s own identity, but in its own unique time and space perfectly resonant of South Africa 2011. one small seed

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Photography: KOPE | FIGGINS

P ie ce s o f J o b u rg The number

gangs

are a trinit y of South African prison gangs

feared around the world. Their primar y locus is poll

smoor Ma ximum Securit y

son at the foot of Cape Town’s Table Mountain Range, pri but their reign infiltrates across most South African prisons.

Among the number, strict hierarchy commands that each gang holds longstanding roles, from protecting the gang’s code to accumulating wealth to dealing in violence. The most infamous are the

28s.

They are the blo odline of the number.

In an exclusive insider ’s account , Paul White tells the stor y of one such gang member of the Pollsmoor 28s.

His name is Joburg.

hen you decide to stab someone in prison, you pick a basic area to aim for and then rely on your anger. One. Two. Three. Then you hand the knife to someone behind you who makes the knife disappear as the person you stabbed lies on the ground, bleeding out.

W

Job ‘Joburg’ Gallie joined the 28s through such an act. An enemy of his from outside had come into jail and Joburg had not wanted to join the number until then. The problem was that no violent acts could be committed in prison without the go-ahead from the gangs.

He went to the senior members to ‘look for work’. They provided him with a knife (handmade, of course), and he stabbed the man twice in the head and once in the back. Joburg was dating the man’s sister on the outside and her brother forbade her to see him, telling her that Joburg was no good. She broke up with him. Joburg vowed to get his revenge.

When I ask what happened to the person he stabbed, he just laughs and says, ‘We became good friends after that… I never got back with his sister though.’

‘ o n ce yo u ’ v e m a d e t h e dec i s i o n t o k ill so m e o n e , y o u jus t d o i t ’ This is Joburg’s story. Violent and funny. Uplifting and sad. A South African story, but only by context – oppression and its inevitable results are universal.

Joburg was born in what is now Kirstenhof in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town on 14 September 1953. His father was a black man and his mother a coloured woman. His father died before Joburg could meet him, not even leaving behind a name.

Joburg’s surname is Gallie and his mother’s is Roman. Neither points to his father’s family – Joburg himself doesn’t know where

his surname comes from, just that it’s not his father’s. When we speak about it, he says, ‘That’s me. I’m not black and I’m not coloured. I don’t know where I fit in.’

Joburg’s family were forcibly evicted sometime during the ’60s from their home in Raapkraal, but by then he was already running wild on the streets. He couldn’t stand living with his mother and, from the age of ten, started living in and around the streets, getting into trouble and stealing to eat. He was first arrested at twelve, for possession of marijuana. ‘When your stomach is empty and you are so hungry, what do you do? You steal apples. You know it’s wrong, but you do it anyway. And when the white magistrate says, “Why did you steal the apples?” you tell him it was because you were hungry and there was nothing to eat. But they don’t care. They don’t care how the coloured people have nothing to eat.’

Joburg, who speaks mainly Afrikaans, uses the word onderdrukking to describe his life. Onderdrukking translates as oppression, but the Afrikaans is more descriptive than English: it really means ‘being pushed under’. And Joburg was pushed under by the apartheid government and then later pushed under by the prison system.

Joburg was just 17 when he joined the 28s, meaning he has been an indota for 40 years. His last stint in prison ended in 2001 – 12 years for murder. He has killed two other people, but the cases never came to court. For that reason he doesn’t want to talk about them, in case anyone incriminates him.

I ask him about the killings, what it feels like to stab someone and see them lie on the floor and die.

‘One of them was an enemy of my family. The other two were rival gang members. Once you’ve made the decision to kill someone, you just do it. I know it’s wrong. But you can’t back down once you’ve made the decision,’ he says, remembering.

Memory is a strange thing. Neither linear nor logical. For this reason, I cannot be sure when Joburg committed these crimes.

I do know they would be at least before 1989. Joburg has told me that from the ’60s to the ’80s he probably wasn’t out of jail for longer than a month at a time. He would come out of jail, steal something the same night and get caught. It was that easy.

This is now the longest stretch of his adult life he’s been out of jail – ten years.

I ask him about crime. And while he does blame his lack of a father figure and the apartheid government quite directly, he has the presence of mind to realise that he is the one responsible. ‘Crime was the only way I saw to break free from the onderdrukking. Stealing was easy and the pay was good.’

In the genesis story of the number gangs, the mystical seer-like character Nkulukut* teaches the two progenitors of the 27s and 28s that stealing is easier than working.

But the metaphor is misleading. As someone gains the knowledge of the number, he has to learn, by heart, its entire story. This drills into the gangs not only the specific ranks and laws of the number, but also teaches that a life of crime is the easiest life. I confront Joburg about this and he agrees – crime doesn’t pay. He has spent most of his life in prison.

And yet he’s more than just a one-dimensional criminal. We are taught by society that wrong is wrong and evil is evil, but that’s not the case. There is room for redemption and for making amends. Joburg himself has described how hurtful it can be when he walks down the street and people cross to the other side when they see him and his prison tattoos. Let’s be honest: in some ways he’s the embodiment of many white fears. A man who’s spent years in prison, pushed down by the apartheid system and its enforced poverty and has all the reasons he would need to go on a white-hating killing spree.

When I ask him if being a member of the 28s taught him to hate white people, he says no – the 28s’ job in prison is to fight for the rights of prisoners.

Joburg is a study in identity. He feels that he doesn’t have a cultural identity, which has helped to lead him down the wrong path. But I see the feelings and impulses in him that are within all of us. His concern for me as a person, or my sister or mother, for someone’s newborn baby – these show the other side to him. I know he’s not feigning care for my benefit.

He could act like a hardened street gangster, and it wouldn’t have stopped me from going ahead with this article.

Perhaps this is a bleeding-heart liberal’s view, but Joburg’s story is one of circumstance – a story of how injustice can lead to terrible decisions. As much as he hates prison, and feels that he was doing his best to fight for the rights of prisoners under the apartheid system, he agrees that it is the best punishment for serious crimes. He spent years away from everyone he knew and he knows how terribly unnatural to the human condition prison really is.

He tells a story that contextualises it well: During his longest stint in prison, he became very depressed and begged the guards to drive him around Cape Town so that he could see how things had changed. Of course they couldn’t. By the time he got out in 2001, cellphones had come into being – and Joburg had never seen one before. I ask him if he feels anything when he sees Pollsmoor Prison now, but he says he feels nothing – * Nkulukut is interesting no pain, no sadness. Just linguistically, because in Nguni nothing. languages, uNkulunkulu is the name of God, the creator of Now, Joburg survives on the universe. Nkulukut, in some a government disability versions of the number gangs’ grant, a pittance really, and creation myth is a spirit, or is in and out of hospital as disembodied voice. his lungs slowly give way.

I sit talking to him in the forest just a few hundred metres from Pollsmoor Prison when he turns to me and hits his chest as tears well up in his eyes.

‘This is like a cancer inside me, this need to see my children.

This is the kind of thing that makes me want to go back to jail – then I don’t even have to think about it.’ He turns away and looks down. Gangsters aren’t meant to show weakness. His two eldest children, both around 30, haven’t seen or spoken to him in years. I think Joburg knows this is the price he has had to pay.

Later on in the same interview, he says something to me that still haunts me when I can't sleep at night: ‘I wasn’t born to live this life.’

Words: Tecla Ciolfi

More than comfortable spinning tracks for any appreciative individual, DJs Black Coffee, Euphonik and Kent have become household names due to their concentrated efforts to bleed house music beyond the cracks of Joburg and into mainstream South African culture.

This could be because it tends to be forgotten once the DJ has spun his last track, but it seems that over the last decade a handful of Joburg-based DJs are using the drifter-like factor of house music to their advantage.

‘House’ is a strange name for such a nomadic genre of music.

Photography: Lwazi Hlope @ Brush Images / Euphonik Productions / Jonathan Andrews

Featuring Jozi DJs Black Coffee, Euphonik and Kent

A PLACE FOR HOUSE TO CALL HOME

More than in any other city in South Africa, house has been welcomed with open arms into Jozi’s pulsating nightlife, owing mainly to these prized DJs championing the cause of their beloved genre.

A long way from its American place of origin, it appears that house has settled comfortably into its new home, sporting a proudly South African stamp to equal its international compatriots.

And so, Black Coffee has evolved into something of an alter ego to his fictional ‘Superman’ character, becoming a bona fide hero and pioneer for local house music.

Another DJ who knows a thing or two about radio exposure is DJ Euphonik (Themba Mbongeni Nkosi), who has two timeslots on South African radio station 5FM – one being a collaborative effort with his F.eU productions partner, the ever-enigmatic DJ Fresh, every Wednesday on the Fresh Drive.

soulisticmusic.com | euphonik.dj | djkent.co.za

Somewhat of a Wunderkind when it comes to knowing what pleases his listeners into swaying in sync with his beats, Euphonik is in complete control of the creative process of his tunes and appears to have his fingers in multiple commercial pots – pretty impressive for a man who has only recently hit his mid-20s.

With all this in mind, it would not be too bold to suggest that Joburg has become a melting pot for house DJs to collaborate and share their expertise with each other and their devoted followers.

He even contributed his musical talents to the FIFA Confederations Cup and last year’s FIFA World Cup, penning and producing a track with Robbie Malinga (producer of local heavyweights Arthur, Kabelo, Ntando, etc) for fast-food moguls McDonalds.

The uninterrupted 25-minute Ulti-mix at 6 that DJ Kent currently runs once a week on 5FM is testament to this, becoming a firm favourite among drive-time listeners.

His 2009 SAMA Award for Best Urban Dance Album tipped him as redhot property and – after establishing his own record label, 88 Productions – built a reputation for gratifying the club masses through his grooveworthy mixes.

And DJ Euphonik is not the only 20-something house artist who’s making waves. DJ Kent (Khensani Mabaso), once at the helm of the nowabolished Joburg-based production team Kentphonik (which included DJ Euphonik and Tumi Mokitlane), has steadily established himself as the crown prince of the scene: the favourite son, if you will.

Unafraid to take risks both professionally and personally, DJ Euphonik has emerged as the fearless dark knight of – and role model for – the local house music scene, evident as he proudly displays his HIV-negative status on his website for all to see.

Recently though, it’s been his smash hits ‘Juju’ and ‘Superman’ – featuring vocals by Bucie – that have amounted to extensive exposure on national radio and TV.

“house has been welcomed with open arms into Jozi’s pulsating nightlife”

It was during this time that he met Hugh Masekela: a pairing that spawned the reworking of the jazz legend’s iconic track ‘Stimela’.

The result was home-brewed postmodern pastiche at its best. By successfully maintaining Masekela’s quintessential old-school jazzy beat while simultaneously making the track accessible to a younger, hungrier audience, Black Coffee made a name for himself as a 21st-century magician among DJs.

Undoubtedly one of the best house DJs this country has ever exported, Black Coffee's inclusion in the Red Bull Music Academy in 2003 paid homage to his years spent studying music as well his natural ability, and allowed him to taste the musical diversity of the European scene while promoting his unique style of Afro-infused house.

Lighting the way with his continuously expanding fanbase is 2010 SAMA Award-winner for Best Male Artist and Best Urban Dance Album, Black Coffee (Nkosinathi Maphumulo).

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Roger Ballen: Fly Me Away

Hanging Pig (2001) – Shadow Chamber

84

one small seed

Roger Ballen: Fly Me Away ‘This crazy life, This crazy world, We're living in is magical’ (Goldfrapp – ‘Fly Me Away’)

Located not far outside Johannesburg is a big empty space, a space where people are divided up with blankets, sheet metal and wood… a place that Roger Ballen calls ‘The Boarding House’. Between 2004 and 2008, the photographic artist would spend five days a week living and interacting with the people there, capturing those individuals on film who saw The Boarding House not as a big empty space but as Home. one small seed met with Roger Ballen at the exhibition for this body of work and uncovered a little bit more about this and Roger’s own intriguing world.

After completing his third photographic volume, Platteland (created 1986–1994; published 1996), Roger Ballen changed direction. A new aesthetic emerged from his new interaction, as an artist, with his subject matter in the construction of each image. A team of two, Roger Ballen and the world, embarked on a voyage to find the obscure in the most banal or surprising of objects. His experiences

Words: Sarah Claire Picton / Images: © Roger Ballen

during these years would ultimately culminate in his latest project: Boarding House (2009).

Talking Heads nailed it in their debut hit ‘Psycho Killer’: ‘You’re talkin’ a lot, but you’re not sayin’ anything.’ There does seem to be a lot of loose talk along these lines nowadays: recycled broken-line bullshit that sounds so damn sweet to say out loud. But sometimes one is lucky enough to encounter an individual whose words and images are so powerful, so transcendent, that they leave you just a little less jaded… and a little more real.

Meeting Roger Ballen at the Iziko Museum in Cape Town was a surreal and humbling experience… a rare lunchtime interlude that warranted no refined plastic questions. The photographs that make up Boarding House stole all concentration and left me lost in memories of experiences I’m not quite sure were ever real. I was cast into an internal dialogue of uncertainty, lingering with that bitter aftertaste of spending too much time in one’s own head. With Roger Ballen’s distant eyes lost in memories, and mine in my thoughts, a raw and unfamiliar dialogue unravelled.

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Bite “It remains up to the viewer to figure out the relationship with various things in the picture with each other, which is often very difficult to get a single word to describe. But, if you can’t find a single word, it doesn’t matter – you just accept it for what it is.

Take from it and make whatever you want from it.”

“When you walked into The Boarding House, a stuffed ape was right in front of the building. This animal became a rough metaphor for the people in this place. The Latin word ‘pathos’ means a deep pain, something the people in The Boarding House felt. I feel that it is a pain everybody feels but tries to cover up with fast cars, jetting around the world or playing tennis… we can’t get away from it really.”

Bite (2007) – Boarding House

Pathos (2005) – Boarding House

Could you describe the atmosphere of The Boarding House?

When I look at the images in Boarding House, I feel saturated with questions that have nothing to do with your subject matter, with questions that I stopped asking a long time ago.

The Boarding House is a strange and surrealistic place, certainly a place where the human condition exposed itself on all different levels.

The photographs taken in the series are in many ways very abstract.

Complex or not, what most people experienced from the images in Boarding House are that they take you into another zone, another place… almost a place of the psyche.

When people look at the pictures, they shouldn’t worry about ‘Where is this place, how do they get to this place or what is this place?’

And this, and that… It’s really about finding a place that reveals something about [yourself], rather than necessarily worrying how I took the picture.

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Pathos

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Well, then the art has done what it was supposed to do. Unfortunately, we live in a world where art is just about reinforcing what we know already, everybody likes to be reinforced. And that’s not what art is about. It should make people question the world around them and help to understand themselves a bit better.

Mimicry “‘Mimicry’ highlights the importance of hidden visual truth in the photograph, and begs the question: Is it tragic or is it funny? The images are dark but they are also light. And, like our psyche, their meaning is not so easy to describe.”

Mimicry (2005) – Boarding House

Speaking of questions, so many are rather about finding the answer. It’s comforting to us to know there is a solution to things.

People have become scared of asking the proper questions, scared of the proper answers… We want everything packaged so we can put it under the bed and sleep at night. And unless this problem is solved, we don’t have a future as a race. All the problems come from our psyche. It’s not necessarily about ‘this’ or ‘that’, it’s about what’s going in inside our own psyche, and we have to solve that problem first. That’s the hardest issue.

…and plenty of self-help books.

Plenty of self-help books… that’s pretty funny, yeah, and there will be plenty more.

Watch the full interview with Roger Ballen on onesmallseed.tv

There are plenty of psychiatrists around, plenty of philosophers, plenty of poets, plenty of this… plenty of that… one small seed

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Cut Loose (2005) – Boarding House

Perhaps life – as real as it is – is constructed of scenes and instances that are so intricate, so conceptual… even revolutionary… that it seems all too overwhelming and intense to be of a worldly nature. These moments are impossible to define.

As a person with a lot to say, I still sit with many questions. I do know that, whether tragic or comic, light or dark, theatrical or real, Roger 88

Ballen’s Boarding House is ultimately whatever it means to you. But perhaps Roger puts it best: ‘You can try for the rest of your life to come up with words that define these photographs, but you’re still not going to hit the bullseye.

And that’s what ultimately makes good art. Art that can stand on its own… Art that doesn’t necessarily need words to explain it.’

Boarding House (2009) is published by Phaidon | phaidon.com | rogerballen.com

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Post-Production: Still still-image.net

Location: Shelleys VW shelleys.co.za

Photographic Equipment: The Sunshine Company sunshinecompany.co.za

Men’s Clothing: Models’ own

Women’s Clothing & Shoes: Errol Arendz errolarendz.co.za

Men’s Styling & Makeup: Reno Horn

Women’s Styling: Pieter Scholtz

Women’s Hair & Makeup: Matthias Scheufler matthias-scheufler.com Marite Crous maritecrous.com

Photographer’s Assistant: Andre Lategan

Photographer: Guido Schwarz guidoschwarz.com

Models: Beauty Kota @ Ice Model Management / Curtis Hardin @ Fusion Models / Daniel Band @ Full Circle Model Management / Dannalize @ M1 Management Elle King @ Base Model Agency / Marike @ M1 Management / Matthew Brown @ Full Circle Model Management / Miguel Simoes @ Ice Model Management

Photographer: Janah Hattingh Black Pimp’n Jesus does not make sense in Cape Town. They’re just too grimy. ‘Joburg is a blend of realities. And that’s the BPJ experience. We embrace it,’ says Koos van der Wat, their wildhaired guitarist. Nadine Theron interviews the band.

Black Pimp’n Jesus’ metropolitan surroundings play an essential role in their music. ‘Just don’t call our music old-school rock ’n roll,’ they insist.

‘We’re not. We’re urban rock.’ Evert Snyman – lead singer and backbone of the DIY band that writes, records and releases all its own music – begs to differ: describing their genre as ‘Hindu trucker samba blues’.

Each track on their second album The Devil’s Gospel links to the city of Johannesburg. It depicts it as a diseased and incoherent place. ‘We are in a sea of disease,’ Evert explains. ‘It’s not perfect or right but it sure is a weird and colourful mixture. Joburg is an African City. But it’s also very European. It’s first and third world combined, and these two cultures blend into a rotten stew.’

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Bianca Nobanda is Evert’s girlfriend. She took up drums to help his fledgling band and recorded her first song two weeks later. Koos says she’s the fighter of the band. Paul says she’s the marketer. ‘The boys are girlier than me,’ Bianca admits. ‘I’m the balls of the band. The boys always get into shit when I’m not around. I’m always the one who has to get them out of jail.’

‘We have a very punky, grungy live way’ is Koos’s attempt to explain.

‘Some people call our performances “avant-garde”. We have broken a few guitars…’

Unfortunately, the shortage of rock stages left in Joburg isn’t helped by their ‘avant-garde’ performances. Several venues have banned them.

‘We’re not looking for attention,’ argues Koos. ‘We’re just fucking rock ’n roll. Rock ’n roll is supposed to be a rebellious stab. Most “rock” is just music with guitars and drums. Our controversy might be a bit of a joke but it confronts people with something a little hardcore.’

‘Our name is unmarketable,’ Paul Vermaak, diplomat and bassist of the band, sighs. ‘You can’t make a living out of cult status. We sure had cult status. I spoke to this girl from the West Rand and she told me that Black Pimp’n Jesus and Marilyn Manson are the two biggest bands at her school.’

But what about the obvious issue: Why Black Pimp’n Jesus? ‘Easy!’

Evert exclaims. ‘Race, sex and religion. It’s the three reasons people kill each other. We want to draw attention to the evil in your backyard.’

‘Now we’re at that chapter of the New Testament where Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane and says to God: “I can’t do this anymore”,’ Paul admits miserably.

‘People are offended by our name,’ Koos says. ‘No one can say why.

They’re misdirected. When we played Potchefstroom, a town full of conservative Christians, people threw chips at Bianca and shouted insults at her. That’s why race and religion are part of our name. The fact that people get so upset by it shows that these issues are still a problem.’

‘To die,’ says Koos, ‘is the final statement that could be made in rock ’n roll. Conceptually we put a huge thrust into the world, but sadly the world hardly noticed.

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If their rock ’n roll dies, it will be for a good cause then. Just like Jesus.

myspace.com/blackpimpingjesus

bLACk piMp’n jesus: CruCified

KARABO KEEPILE interviews award-winning Jozi-based rappers Teargas about their giant steps for hip-hop on the road to international acclaim.

It's rare to find a hip-hop group whose members boast university degrees that don't include a course in sound engineering. Let’s face it – most hip-hop artists drop out from higher education to further their musical aspirations, or are too headstrong in following their passions to consider anything else.

So it’s fair to say that South African hip-hop trio Teargas took the road less travelled by first completing degrees in public relations, computer systems and fine art before branching out into the unpredictable world of music. But they admit that music was always Number One on their agendas.

Judging from the number of awards the group has scooped in the last two years, it’s likely Ma-E, his brother Bantu ‘Ntukza’ Hanabe and third member Ntokozo ‘KO’ Mduli are more than just managing to live with their decision.

Just last year, their third album Dark or Blue was awarded Best Rap Album at the South African Music Awards (SAMA). And it wasn't the first time either. In 2009, Teargas won a SAMA in the same category for their second album, Wafa Wafa. They even won Best Group at the MTV Africa Music Awards 2010.

Dark or Blue, just like their first two albums, generated several hit singles – the most popular being the Afro-pop inspired ‘Mhlobo Wami’. Teargas, for one, were surprised it blew up the way it did, because apparently they were just joking around…

‘We were surprised people liked it. But we weren't thinking in a box and decided to take a risk,’ says KO.

KO acknowledges there are those who claim Teargas didn't deserve their first SAMA, but this year’s award was a special one for them. ‘It goes to show what hip-hop can achieve. We had three nominations in 2010, a big step not only for us but for South African hip-hop as well.’

Without a doubt, 2010 was good for Teargas, but they know the hard work will continue. They have hit 2011 at a sprint, with projects that include promoting their group CashTime Fam, which features unsigned, aspirant musicians whose talent the three recognise. ‘We decided to form the group to give back because someone once did that for us,’ KO explains. CashTime Fam already has one single and a video out, and CashTime Entertainment – Teargas’ media, events and production company – hopes to spend 2011 promoting their work.

Also in the pipeline is a 13-city tour with local artists HHP and Liquid Deep, running from April till June 2011. Follow their Facebook and Twitter feeds to find out which city the musos will be in next.

And that’s not all. Teargas has also begun work on a new album.

While nothing is on paper yet, the group is spending plenty of time in studio accumulating material. It’s due for release at the end of 2011. one small seed

teargasonline.co.za / Image: courtesy of Electromode

‘Music was always our biggest passion, and, the fact is, it brought more business,’ Ezee ‘Ma-E’ Hanabe tells one small seed at Darkie Café in downtown Johannesburg. ‘Things connect and you go on this journey doing what you like most,’ says the Sowetan hip-hop maestro.

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Drinking: yes you can!

D: We can drink our fair share but napping and a good dinner before are important.

T: He’s an old man. I love to party. Next time you drink tequila, try this: breathe in deeply, hold your breath, down the shot, and exhale all the air out your mouth. Then, small sip of beer or whatever you’re drinking. Done. Repeat all night. No tequila face. Voilà!

On groupies, or, casting your cheap porno D: Tim is in charge of the groupies department!

T: We don’t hire girls for cheap pornos… We’d like to think they’d volunteer. (Not really!)

Groupies are what make us keep doing this – not in a hook-up kind of way, but in a ‘you’re doing something right’ kind of way.

Double Adapter on crowd control Dan: Crowds are only bad when they don’t move. I want to have as much fun as everyone else and when people are lame I get a little lame. Throw ’em a stagedive – that should keep ’em going!

Tim: We’ve seen some crazy shit. Our favourite is to invite the crowd up onstage. We’ve played some shows with more people jamming onstage than in the crowd! The weirdest but coolest we’ve played to was in Potch during Aardklop festival – those kids aren’t really listening to the same stuff as the kids in Cape Town and Jozi, but DAMN they threw down when we got going!

Dan (21) and Tim (26) Apter have no problem with slightly dirty puns. Which is why they’ve merged their skills to form Jozi-based electro outfit Double Adapter. Dan handles visuals and lighting while Tim tweaks all things musical. Their sound mixes pop and hardcore electro. ‘We like it hard and dark,’ says Dan, ‘but we still think it’s important to keep it fun and to entertain.’ They’ve quickly developed a huge following, amping up crowds while mainlining bass and killer rhymes. So we had to get the dirt on partying hard from the bros themselves…

Words: Donna Hill / Photography: Liam Lynch

Meet the Brothers Apter: purveyors of sexy, filthy electro since 2010.

Ready to dance your faces off?

Double Adapter Double the Pleasure

Double Adapter are managed by Griet Artists | griet.co.za

How not to kill your brother D: Take each other lightly, copious amounts of alcohol, take naps and, of course, sharing is caring.

T: What he said. It’s cool being brothers in a band – you can fight, but you can’t really fall out. Blood will prevent us going our separate ways.

On the road D: Touring is great, airplane drinking is the best and getting picked up in cool cars is a plus. I’ve flown to Cape Town and back twice in three days. That’s one hell of a hangover.

T: I also love touring… Cape Town has become our second home. This year we’re headed to Germany and Italy to tour and get drunk, um, work in new places. We’re working on documenting the whole thing – it’s going to be embarrassing to watch!

Getting physical D: It’s mainly just falling with style. Gravity does strange things when you’re drunk.

Personally, I’ve only stagedived once. I’ve never seen Tim do it but I’ve seen a lot of photos. I think it’s Photoshop!

T: For some reason, Dan has missed me stagedive every time. That’s a lot, dude! We’re physical onstage – we jump, we flip, we fall, we tackle each other… we fall some more. We go crazy because it’s something that was missing from the DJ scene. You can’t incite a crowd into the best night of their lives unless you’re also having the best night of your life.

How to tell that you’ve partied your life away D: Well, my back is already fucked. It’s constantly stiff and after a show I can’t get up for a day or two. I think I’ll be deaf by the time I’m 30.

T: It’s also because he’s so old! I’m in pretty good shape – DJing the way we do is super physical. I’m hoping that when I’m old I’ll have a six pack to show for my DJing years.

Grievous bodily harm D: You can tell it was a good night when you wake up with half a cheeseburger in your hand and a compulsion to go to hospital. During a show, Tim dropped a beer on my laptop and fried it so I picked up two lights and danced on top of the DJ booth to make up for the lack of visuals. I fell. I cracked four ribs. The rest is a codeine blur.

T: At a gig with DJ Antention (Russia) and Haezer (Cape Town), I managed to slice my hand on a mixer that only had metal faders – the knobs had fallen off. I still have blood all over my desk. I kinda like it. That night I also fell backwards off the DJ desk at Town Hall in Joburg. Quite a drop! For some reason it didn’t even hurt (see my tequila tip above).

Looking the part D: We get all sorts at our shows, from hipsters to metalheads and punks. It’s something that I really like to see: crossing genres is definitely our goal. My life is a wardrobe fail… wearing white in a club? It’s more like wearing various shades of alcohol!

T: Somehow I got lucky and got the black outfit… Dan has always been more into fashion than me. I do love clothes though. I just got a tailored suit made in Thailand to wear at our Double Adapter shows – loving that!

A New York City Rock & Roll Fairytale

Dan ‘the Russian Bear Hunter’ Chaitowitz blazes a trail through icy New York City and finds himself careering through The Rock & Roll Circus…

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Photography: Chris Becker

singer’s spunk is sweet as honey. Some clamber on stage and huddle around the foursome. Others mosh like rain dancers in the Australian Outback or surf the sea of hands that throbs to the melodic beat. The band, with their Killersesque ear-easy tunes play the crowd like a fifth instrument. And they leave my innards barely riveted to my bones.

The MC, a screaming queen who looks like a sweet-and-sour Chinese springroll in a pink ’80s cocktail dress, with bandied cowboy legs and a horse’s mane for a hairpiece, eggs the crowd to screech for Pharmacy.

Dressed in corduroys, knitted Christmas sweaters and loafers, Pharmacy strum their Fenders, stroke their ivories and whistle a melody.

Reflecting the Swedish poppers Peter Bjorn and John, this quirky trio offers pleasant folksy rock less suited to a Hollywood sex scene than to the credit roll of a surfer flick. For fans of the screaming ’60s, this band would sit dandily next to The Beatles or The Beach Boys.

o shop has the unappealing appeal that attracts so violently as the Abercrombie & Fitch store.

Drifting through the slinky mall, the heavily rancid arsenal of the A&F cologne breaches my snot-filled snout and possesses my grey matter.

With a jolt, it has me snared by both nostrils, dragging me into the dark cavernous store to be greeted by the all-American foxy blonde in the red plaid shirt and black cling-wrap jeans. After having my ego blunted by the preppy, ice-cold assistants, I emerge exorcised, shimmying like a preteen Lady Gaga fan with two new sweaters and a shirt.

And then the world as I know it changes. Los Angeles’ Voxhaul Broadcast burst onto the sunken stage. The crowd huddles semicircular around the band and the photographers sit perched like snipers awaiting the defining shot. David Dennis, the lead singer – tall, slight, asymmetrical hair, bedecked in leg-clinging jeans and Converse sneakers – blurts out hard-hitting lyrics with a voice that could topple Babylon and lung capacity that could inflate the Hindenburg. A confident command of the stage allows the limelight to beam directly onto him, pushing his band members into the darkness of backstage.

After blowing all that cash, the sound of a free rock gig at the Lincoln Center is music to my ears.

Through the catchy poppy beats, it is his voice that leaves the angels upstairs playing air guitar solos.

The Lincoln Center, hosting the Big Apple Circus’ candy-coloured hexagonal volume, sits beautifully on Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, inviting a crowd to mingle. On this night, unlike all other nights, the debauchery of the Rock & Roll Circus is set to soil the red carpets and turn the big top into a heaving rock orgy.

Once Voxhaul have unscrewed their high hat, rolled away their bass drum and unplugged their Marshal amps, the Circus turns into a zoo.

The mainliners, with intoxicating substances submarining through their veins, are greasy long-haired guys in clown suits in the front row. But it’s the headliners that the crowd are amped to witness. On the bill this fine night are The So So Glos, Pharmacy and Voxhaul Broadcast, and they will be playing second fiddle only to the hard-hitting punk rockers Japanther.

Strapping myself into this rollercoaster ride, an injection of euphoria allows pure rock bliss to wash over me. The So So Glos, hailing from the vibrant streets of Brooklyn, are decked in black skinny jeans, 12-eye Dr Martens, pencil-thin ties and suit jackets. They are the caffeine kick the crowd needs to bounce off the walls of this rock ’n roll asylum. The crowd laps the band up, treating them as if the lead

Japanther, a hardcore local punk band, launch into their act. Their lead singer, Slash-like with his Krusty-the-clown cotton ball of an afro and top hat, incites the crowd into raw rock ’n roll violence. The groupies burst onstage like a splattered melon, engulfing the band members.

The moshpit is carnage. Fistfights break out and it’s the Rodney King show all over again. A voice, a godly voice over the PA, urges the crowd to retreat.

After barely three tracks of finger-callusing punk rock, the show nosedives like a lead zeppelin. The effects lights are doused, the audience disperses and the dial on the rock station moves to a snowy silence.

I walk out, hands in pockets to avoid frostbite, swipe my metro card and jump on the '1' train home. What a night. New York’s gnarly form rears itself once more, invigorating, energising, and sending my creative juices into a cocktail best served on crushed ice. one small seed

rockandrollcircusparty.com

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Letting intermission slide without tucking into a vegetarian hot dog would be sacrilege. Starving, I scoff it without chewing and hear it drop into the cavernous bowl of my stomach with a thud. To moisturise my parched, cracked lips I guzzle a half-litre of tar-tasting ale made in the back garden of some Brooklynite. Now it’s left only to rock to fill the remaining gaps.

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top of THe HEAp Imogen Heap is anything but understated. From her mad-scientist hairdos to outlandish stage garb and esoteric vocal stylings, one might imagine she inhabits a world of her own, where organic life forms create electronic music (and vice versa), where sound has nutritional value and Love is all you need.

Bit of a hippie really.... words: Jon Monsoon / photography: Jeremy Cowart

Yes, it’s an awesome place to be at the start of 2011, although Imogen is happy to admit that horrible things can also be creative wellsprings. But she’s not here to talk about that. The 34-year-old singer-songwriter and lover of Mother Earth wants to share her vision for a world where we are all creatively linked and our mass creative unity results in real empathy for our ailing planet. ‘It just makes sense, don’t you think?’ she chides, more by way of statement than any real question.

If there is one lesson that the songstress has learnt through a career spanning almost 15 years, it’s that putting 102

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yourself in the way of commercial globalisation as a promoter of good is a sure-fire way to attract attention to yourself and your music. ‘I don’t want to be a bulletin board. People switch off after a while and become immune to your message if you keep on hammering them,’ claims the wild-haired singer who has lent her voice and mastery of all instruments to help save more than just a few noteworthy charities and individuals.

In 2008 she gave of her sound to Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace project. She then participated in a charity run, placing fifth and raising over £1 000 for cancer research.

Last year she teamed up with Richard Branson’s Virgin Unite and the Vokle.com blog to raise awareness and money for the flood victims in Pakistan.

‘I performed a 5-hour-long concert – set up in different people’s living rooms – and broadcast that over the Net.’ The Net is something Imogen Heap has embraced in her quest for total global freedom (in every sense of the word). ‘It forced a change,’ she tells. ‘Without it, we’d still be stuck in hell with the record labels.’

Yes, the internet has done many things for music, most of all causing record labels to think twice. And that is a good thing. It allows artists like Imogen to be artists like Imogen and make the kind of music that saves planets.

imogenheap.com imogenheap.com

‘I’m deeply in love at the moment,’ she starts, chatting down the line from her home/studio/creative enclave somewhere on the secret island of Great Britain. ‘A really good head space,’ she enthuses wistfully, and I can feel the love flowing down the line. This ability to transmit great emotion over vast distances makes Imogen Heap one of the most underrated contemporary musicians. Happy to expand on the topic of love and its numerous health benefits at the drop of a cliché, Miz Heap beams forth from a location as cosy and intrinsically human as any artist of her immensely beatific outlook can hope to find herself. As she eagerly tells: when you’re fired up by positivity and the beautiful things around you – that’s when the good times happen.

music reviews Words by: Batandwa Alperstein (BA), Daniel Friedman (DF), Ernst Lass (EL), Sarah Claire Picton (SP)

7ft Soundsystem God Shuffles His Beat (2010)

African Dope Records are known to drop South Africa’s most leftfield electronic music. With God Shuffles His Beat, production duo 7ft Soundsystem show why they are part of the label. The album is a story told through

Frankie Beagle

that her debut album is a thing of beauty. And while it is every bit as good as, say, Fiona Apple, it may not find as big an audience as it deserves – principally because the market for this kind of music is small here, and overseas doesn’t want anything from South Africa unless it sounds suitably ‘African’. Trying to break this

The Sounds (2010)

It’s hard to find significant fault in this warm folk-pop-rockjazz collection (mainly) about matters of the heart. Joburgbased Frankie has a gorgeous voice with lots of soul, and she’s taken her time and found the right musicians to ensure

The Brothers Streep Suitable for the Whole Family (2010)

My alter-ego Deep Fried Man does musical comedy, so I was stoked to discover one of the few local acts doing the same after their performance at the first annual SA Comics’ Choice Awards in January 2011.

Tale of the Son Self-titled (2011)

There are few people in SA creating music in this style – call it what you will (I’d go with post-noise-rock-experimental if I didn’t think it made me sound like a pretentious Pitchfork writer). Pretoria act Kidofdoom, perhaps, have a gentle take on it,

the constant skank rhythm of dub in a lucid narration.

Freshlyground’s songstress, Zolani Mahola, features on the jazzy ‘Love Be the Power’, a song that epitomises the spirit of the album: spreading positive vibrations. ‘The Hits’ is a festival favourite with its upbeat tempo but most of the tracks are laidback and

album there may be a bit like selling ice to Eskimos. I hope I’m wrong, because it would be great to see Frankie Beagle flying in the international charts. (DF)

the FOTC reference because they’re a duo and are funny and play guitars. So forget I said anything. Find it and buy it and hear it on its own merit.

Warning: Spoiler Alert for the song ‘Bruce Willis is Dead’.

(DF)

I’ve always had immense respect for comics who can be genuinely witty without being dark in the slightest, and this pair’s album is, indeed, Suitable for the Whole Family. This stuff has potential mass appeal. It’s quirky and, while the influence of Flight of the Conchords can be felt, their style is totally their own. Maybe I just made

whereas Tale of the Son are so brutal it’s hard to believe there are only two of them. Live, they combine warped and bizarrely pretty visuals with Gregoire Pinard’s blister-inducing, peddleswitching guitar attack and Ray Orton’s pummeling of the drums in a million time signatures, sometimes at once. It’s extremely powerful, and I wondered if the

smooth – like Jamaican rum – with a few sombre tracks to provide a balanced experience.

The ebbing basslines, gentle instrumentals and mesmerising electronica make this album the perfect soundtrack to sit back and contemplate life – with a smile on your face. (BA)

recorded album could match up. I think it does. It’s been stuck in my car ever since, and I won’t take it out despite my newfound road rage (fraught with the occasional pang of reflective sadness). That may sound odd, but so is this album – it’s tremendously harsh and yet simultaneously excruciatingly delicate. (DF)

music reviews Words by: Batandwa Alperstein (BA), Daniel Friedman (DF), Ernst Lass (EL), Sarah Claire Picton (SP)

Spoek Mathambo Mshini Wam (2010)

Spoek Mathambo brings a fresh new flavour with his debut album, Mshini Wam. The beats and lyrics share the same characteristics: simple, cryptic and infectious. Tribal drums meet grinding synths to create an atmposphere of grungy downtown Jozi streets. There is

Mix n Blend Joy and Lost Double EP (2011)

Having dipped their records into ska, dubstep, funk, ambient electronica, hip-hop and breakbeat over the last few years, Cape Town-based electronic act Mix n Blend takes us to the jungle in 2011 and we’re all jumping around

Skream Outside the Box (2010)

Dubstep has come a long way in the past decade, and Skream has been at the helm of the subculture’s progress.

Outside the Box does what the title suggests by taking dubstep out of the confines of dance music and into a

Kanye West

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

Yeezy is back, and he is going for the Heavyweight Title. Not of hip-hop but of pop culture.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is arguably the most hyped and critically acclaimed album of 2010. After a long

a powerful irony in the special blend of sophisticated cheesiness that Spoek has invented as The King of Township Tech. Mshini Wam has elements of social commentary; but nothing is conclusive, rather the listener is left pondering. In a way, the Richard The Third-produced ‘War on Words’ encapsulates the essence of the album – a questioning

of the things that constrict us.

However, on tracks like ‘Don’t Mean to be Rude’ (featuring Zaki Ibrahim) the message is explicit: ‘I got something all you haters can kiss.’ The local and global mixture of sounds leaves the taste of chakalaka and couscous in the listener’s mouth and the irresistible desire to get-down-and-jive. (BA)

in a chorus of ‘Amen, Amen, Amen!’ Released through African Dope Records, the blend boys Kevin Ribbons and Jon Arnold have doubledropped us with their new fix, with a spoonful of Joy and a dash of Lost. The two EPs – sold individually and as a pair – contain two tracks each. They feature vocals by

bluesy Sindy Dondolo and raga star Crosby, and there’s some brutal guitar work by Bosko Popovak – owner of Cape Town locals’ much-loved café Narona. Check out the online Dope store to get your hands on these two soulful, sweatinducing jungle gems. (SP)

and elongated frequencies and abstracted vocals. Skream goes garage on ‘How Real’ (featuring Freckles); jungle on ‘Listenin’ to the Records on My Wall’; and bass heavy on ‘Wibbler’. Outside the Box is a testament to Skream’s talent as a dubstep pioneer but also expresses his refusal to be boxed in as an artist. (BA)

more accessible territory. This is not to say that the music is watered down: Skream manages to maintain the essential dubstep elements such as the neck-jerking snares and the belly-turning basslines. The album is meticulously experimental and takes one’s mind on a sonic journey through bent

introspective break from his celebrity life, Kanye’s comeback shows growth and maturity, while retaining his signature arrogance that has made him so loved (and hated) across the world. The album is the announcement of his arrival, the embracing of his creative genius. He now seems completely comfortable in his

skin. Every track on the album is laden with personal, intimate insights into Kanye’s struggles and victories with the battles we all go through in life. He isn’t quite the modern-day Michael Jackson yet. (BA)

Console Herself (2010)

Rarely has programmed music sounded as warm and embracing as on this album. Martin Gretschmann, the electronic whiz kid for German indie band The Notwist, provides laidback beats with blissful chord arrangements that are beautifully complemented

Gorillaz The Fall (2010)

I’m a sucker for interesting collaborations, and that’s always been the strength of Gorillaz (apart from Jamie Hewlett’s visuals). Damon Albarn is cool, but it’s really the rare chance to hear, say, Lou Reed, De La Soul and

Cee-Lo Green The Lady Killer (2010)

Cee-Lo Green seems to come up with perfect pop songs effortlessly and, like Mark Ronson, he takes the originator of the perfect pop song, Motown, as a stylistic starting point. And if you thought ‘Crazy’ was a fluke, or thought that he

PJ Harvey

Let England Shake (2011)

This is PJ Harvey’s eighth studio album, following 2007’s White Chalk. Performing over half the album in a 19th-century church in her hometown of Dorset, Polly Jean exalts fierce and beautiful songs bolstered with the raw energy of the band. The album’s

by Miriam Osterrieder’s vocal styling. The album ranges from ambient background tracks (‘Walking The Equator’, ‘Dropped Down’) to songs that demand more head-bobbing attention (‘A Homeless Ghost’, ‘Upon’).

Gretschmann is adept at creating vast soundscapes that submerge the listener into his dreamy club tracks and multi-layered

sounds, making this a great album to explore with a good set of headphones. The album comes together as a whole, with tracks bleeding into each other to generate a cohesive listening experience. Standout track ‘A Homeless Ghost’ could easily gather more mainstream appeal and be included in set lists for lowfi and chillwave DJs. (EL)

Little Dragon – all on the same album – that gives the project its genius. So I was a tiny bit apprehensive about The Fall, an album recorded on iPad and with only one collab (with Bobby Womak, also included on Plastic Beach). But this album proves that, even without any super-famous producers or rappers or rock

stars, the Gorillaz are on point, with incredible sounds to back up their incredible ideas. This act has now gone way beyond its cartoon, novelty side-project origins. (DF)

it’s almost impossible (unless you are Prince) to fill an entire album with songs that live up to its promise. (And this was unfortunately the problem that befell both Gnarls Barkley albums.) There are promising moments, but most of the album can’t help but be overshadowed by one of the greatest tracks I’ve ever heard. (DF)

needs Danger Mouse to make him sound great, witness how ‘Fuck You’ (or ‘Forget You’, as the disappointingly cleaned-up radio-version is titled) blows the earlier benchmark out of the water. This track is a collab with another person who proves pop doesn’t need to be crap: Bruno Mars. The only problem is that the single is so good

unique sound is also attributed to PJ performing most tracks on autoharp – an instrument common to folk music – and in this case one that the singersongwriter detuned to create a darker sound. Playing with intonation on ‘Glorious Land’ and ‘Let England Shake’, her vocals plough over the English landscape and, at times, leave us castaways

on the battlefield with her transcendent mournful cry that verges on hysteria. The 12-track album features contributions from long-time collaborator John Parish, musician Jean-Marc Butty and ex-Bad Seeds’ Mick Harvey.

Award-winning war photographer Seamus Murphy has also produced a series of short films for each song on the album. (SP)

film reviews

Local

Reviewers: Carien Els (CE), Jonathan Rodgers (JR)

Johannesburg in film

The Battle for Johannesburg Director: Rehad Desai Starring: Rehad Desai Category: Documentary

The film opens with a scene of the unfamiliar sight of a group in red carrying furniture. Unfamiliar, that is, if you are from the privileged classes.

For the residents of Hillbrow, the sight is neither new nor welcome. The film centres on the pre-World Cup city beautification or urban renewal projects, a task filmmaker Rehad Desai calls the ‘reimagination of the city by property developers’. Yet this reimagination leaves no space for the inner city’s poor, and raises the question of what it means to be a city. Is a ‘World-Class African City’ devoid of the poor, empty of diversity and difference, a pristine middle-class haven? Desai notes that we no longer see the difference between the poor and criminals.

Though the cinematography of the film is rather unexciting, The Battle for Johannesburg asks some brutal questions and offers intriguing alternative viewpoints. (CE)

unhinged: surviving jo'burg

the battle for johannesburg

Hardly considered one of the most scenic cities in the world (mainly because nobody bothers to go there in summer – try it, you might change your mind!), Johannesburg is the unlikely focus of some quirky, serious and award-winning films over the past few years. Unsurprisingly, the films made in or about Joburg often centre on violence and crime, with the exception perhaps of Craig Freimond’s 2010 comedy Jozi. The violent and vibrant nature of Joburg’s streets has filmmakers enthralled and has led to a near obsession with city introspective. One can safely say that the Academy Award-winning film Tsotsi (2005) turned the world’s eyes upon this gritty city of gold, with Ralph Ziman’s Jerusalema (2008) riding the same storytelling wave about opportunity and despair in this gangster’s paradise. The sci-fi masterpiece District 9 ensured that all Americans would know the name of at least one city on the African continent after it opened to critical acclaim across the United States in 2009. Perhaps filmmakers find Johannesburg so fascinating because it’s such a challenging city to portray… with its hybrid identities and almost unbelievable contrasts. And Joburg hasn’t lost its filmmaking appeal yet: 2010 saw the release of two more fascinating documentaries: The Battle for Johannesburg and Unhinged GP, two films well worth watching for insight into this crazy city. (CE)

Unhinged: Surviving Jo’burg Director: Adrian Loveland Starring: Ferial Haffajee, Robbie Brozin, Justice Malala and David O’Sullivan Category: Black Documentary

Director and narrator Adi Loveland takes the viewer on a manic, almost neurotic tour of the more-than-slightly unhinged city that is Joburg. This fast-paced look at the city’s many facets will have your head spinning with the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright incongruous things that make up Joburg, Jozi, Egoli. I doubt the film will manage to convince non-Joburgers that it’s the best city in South Africa, but Jozi locals will recognise the small and (to outsiders) insignificant things that make them stay rather than defect to Cape Town or Sydney. The noteworthy views of the likes of Ferial Haffajee, Robbie Brozin and Justice Malala are both enjoyable and well balanced, and provide some relief from some of the frenzied and scary issues highlighted. Yet somehow, despite the very distressing realities that Joburgers face, this film leaves you with a prospector’s hope and energy for finding success in a perilous place. (CE) watch the trailer at onesmallseed.tv

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the unclothed man in the 35th century ad

international

black swan

The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century AD

true grit

Director: Dash Shaw Art/Animation: Jane Samborski, Dash Shaw Category: Animated Web Series

Black Swan Director: Darren Aronofsky Starring: Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey Category: Psycho-Melodrama

This Oscar-baiting psychological thriller is strung tighter than a ballet dancer’s hair bun. Director Aronofsky treads familiar territory. As in his earlier films The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream and Pi, Black Swan’s obsessive and self-destructive characters suffer physical and mental torment in pursuit of a life-changing moment, only to fall at the last hurdle through no fault but their own. Natalie Portman delivers a suitably frigid performance as Nina Sayers, an ambitious and naïve young ballerina cracking under the pressure of her first lead role – the Swan Queen in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. It is an intense performance from Portman. But, like Ellen Burstyn in Requiem, it is Barbara Hershey who commands attention in her role as Nina’s domineering stage mother. Aronofsky’s trademark style creates a claustrophobic and threatening atmosphere in this picture. And, while a tad pretentious, the films depiction of a dancer’s descent into madness is genuinely frightening. (JR)

True Grit Directed by: Joel & Ethan Coen Starring: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Hailee Steinfeld Category: Old-School Western

Independent comic book writer/ illustrator Dash Shaw has created something special with this animated web series, released on ifc.com.

This sci-fi headtrip is unlike any other animation you’ll see. It tells the story, over four episodes, of a future dystopia where droids have taken over the tasks of daily life. Our hero, antidroid agent Rebel X-6, is tasked with disrupting this droid world in whatever way he can. But The Unclothed Man is less about plot and more about enjoying the imagination of a highly original artist. Featuring a collision of contrasting styles– from line drawing to Atari-era computer game animation – this web series is both odd and oddly satisfying. Dash Shaw is currently working on his debut feature, The Ruined Cast (you can see the trailer at ruinedcast.com), and is on the verge of introducing his unique voice to the pop culture mainstream. (JR)

The Coen Brothers’ 15 films have covered everything from screwball comedy to prison escape so it is surprising that they hadn’t tackled the most American film genre: the Western – until now. In the Coen’s Wild West, everything has a price.

When Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) travels to Fort Smith to arrange for the funeral of her murdered father, the headstrong teenager uses her considerable powers of persuasion to hire gnarly US Marshal Reuben ‘Rooster’ Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to track down and arrest her father’s killer. The two set out into Indian Territory in the company of Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Matt Damon) to find Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) and see him hanged for his crime. In this adaptation of Charles Portis’ classic Western novel and the 1969 John Wayne version, the Coen Brothers riff on the great Westerns and deploy their own offbeat sense of humour in a typically spacious setting with gratifying results. (JR) one small seed

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now showing

image courtesy of Testify Films

one small seed tv brings South African pop culture to life one small seed tv is the online video counterpart to your favourite South African pop culture publication. It features original video content created by one small seed Productions, including live event footage and exclusive interviews with artists and industryleaders. We also present the makings of fashion shoots, music videos, art interventions and more... with behind-scenes clips from all the best South African pop culture. From insightful documentaries to wild action-filled party clips, plus music videos and film trailers, one small seed tv covers all bases and brings you hours and hours of online entertainment.

In addition to our latest selection of video content, this issue of one small seed brings you preview snippets of interview footage available only on one small seed tv.

The Origin Wine Canvas Bringing together renowned UK graffiti artist Ben Eine with Cape Town’s legendary Faith 47, The Fair Trade Project moved from the streets to the Cape winelands as the two painted ten gigantic wine tanks on the Fairhills wine farm in Stellenbosch. Read on to hear what they had to say about the project and then head to onesmallseed.tv to watch these giant artworks take form.

Ben Eine: One of the great things about my job is that I get to travel round the world. I got an invitation to come to South Africa, a place I’ve never been before… and the opportunity to work with a pretty cool client.

It’s a pretty big canvas to paint, and I’m not sure how I keep everything to style and in perspective… I’ve spent a long time painting drains and we always tried to paint the biggest possible thing we could. The bigger the letters, the better it works. I know this is going to come back and haunt me.

I Walk the Streets with Loose Parts

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Directed by Ryan Kruger and beautifully choreographed by Oscar O’Ryan, I Walk the Streets with Loose Parts is a short experimental film based on Deborah Steinmair’s poem ‘Dream Weaver’, and forms part of the City Breath project. Its dance scene contrasts city spaces filled with mass human traffic with the same ones later abandoned – like train stations where inhabitants pass through like ants during the day and disappear to their ‘nests’ when night falls… Watch the beat of the city slow down as the day draws to a close.

Money or not, I’d still be doing this kind of stuff so I understand and appreciate companies that are not out there ripping people off …

So the Fair Trade Initiative is a great idea. It’s putting money back into communities, helping them grow on their own two feet. And I’m down for that kind of thing.

Faith 47: Recently Ben was at the Monaco Art Fair and we chatted.

Then he phoned me and said: ‘There’s two more tanks, do you want to come do them with me?’

I’ve never painted wine tanks before. It’s a bit of a strange shape because it’s round, so your perspective gets a little distorted when you’re going around the curves. So I struggled with that a bit, but otherwise it’s quite fun.

I enjoy the theme that they’ve given me to work with… because it’s something I also believe in. The text I chose is ‘A Fair Exchange Is Not Blind’ and I played with the character of Lady Justice with a blindfold on and off… the idea of transparency and to have transparency in trade.

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PUMA Social Event

The invite-only launch of the PUMA Social Club took place at 120 Buitengracht Street, Cape Town in December 2010. The campaign is about having fun off the track, hanging out with friends, letting go and enjoying life. The party flaunted a host of local celebs and media faces. Zef-rapper Jack Parow was part of the live entertainment. It also saw the launch of the PUMA Creative Factory, where celebs and attendees could design their own kicks. Join the onesmallseed.tv crew and discover what it really means to be an after-hours athlete.

Red Light Stereo – ‘Daydreaming’

While Durban band Red Light Studio takes their music seriously, they also believe it’s important to have fun! Their debut music video ‘Daydreaming’ – directed and produced by Matthew Nefdt from iKind Media in Durban – reflects this: ‘The music video depicts how most of us feel when we daydream – wishing for an escape from the boring mundane life that is every day. Everyone has those dreams of going to the moon, or in this case being a ballerina… some of us are just lucky enough to be able to live them out (even if only in a music video).’

Urban Eniquity – Fashion Exclusive

For this edition of one small seed, we commissioned German photographer Guido Schwarz to shoot an industrial grime-inspired fashion story, featuring an underground hedonistic den of iniquity that would symbolise the darker side of Johannesburg life. Behind the scenes were oiledup models and lacquered lips as a storm brewed overhead and a caged Rottweiler threatened to break loose into the grungy mechanic’s workshop. Head to p. 90 to see how the spread turned out… then go to onesmallseed.tv for all the raw and uncut action. one small seed

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The Last Word

FroM CApE ToWn, WiTH doVEs

So I was swimming at one of our beaches the other day (I can’t remember which, all I remember is that it was beautiful), and I was thinking about Johannesburg. I nearly drowned. That’s only because the sun was setting against the sea in such a stunning way that I started to take on water. I don’t know why people feel the need to constantly compare Cape Town and Joburg. When people from the Cape warn their kids against tiring themselves out riding around freely around the streets all day and missing their trips to the beach, people from Joburg are tying their children to sticks in the back garden so they won’t get blown up.

See? We aren’t that different.

Can we not bury this hatchet? We Capetonians in the rich loam, stepped on by Jan Van Riebeeck and the Dutch when they claimed this ‘the Cape of Good Hope’, and Johannesburgers in the silty soil of the mine-dumps, where the first voortrekker laid down his hat and said: ‘Well, this seems far enough away from the damn Britishers. What’s that – some gold?’

(Apparently it was an Australian who first ‘discovered’ the gold, and was paid less than ten pounds for his discovery. He was never heard from again.)* We all have to stick together in the modern world. I watched the documentary about the aliens invading Joburg and I think that we Capetonians should do our best to support those South Africans who live there. Those prawns look dangerous! I personally haven’t been to Joburg, so I haven’t seen the giant spaceship over the city, 112

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but I hear it creates a nice shadow in the summer. We’ve got the mountain; you guys have a spaceship. That’s a fair trade, I think.

Perhaps you should consider putting a cable car up to the top of the spaceship – but maybe I’m just being biased.

Similarly, I think Cape Town could do with a new nickname. You’ve got Jozi. So I was thinking we could start calling Cape Town ‘Cosy’.

Cosy like a warm down duvet in the depths of winter, cosy like a mother’s loving touch. And indeed if we are the Mother City, then Joburg should start calling itself the Father City, surly and standing in the doorway, just home from working so hard – not wanting to speak to anyone lest the frustrations of the day flow out the mouth like a never-ending river. Ah… dads.

There must be some way we can unite our two cities, to make mother and father love each other again. At least we’re not Bloemfontein or Port Elizabeth, there’s always that. Perhaps if we can find a common enemy. Joburg has Parktown Prawns. We have Dassies – they’re so cute with their little noses and soft brown fur.

Actually, that’s not going to work. We’ll just agree to disagree.

Yours eating organic avocados, drinking spring water and marvelling at Cape Town’s natural beauty, Paul White P.S. My erstwhile partner, the great Rudi Cronje, will return for the next issue.

P.P.S. I know I haven’t taken into account the original inhabitants of Cape Town and Johannesburg. It’s not because I’m unaware, it’s because being PC isn’t always funny. *Actually, now that I think about it, those damn Australians beat us at everything. We have found our common enemy. Let’s be friends.

Illustration by David Maclennan | allworkallplay.net & Si Maclennan | be.net/simaclennan

You may notice the title of this article. You may notice the subversion of a common saying. I subverted it, Dear Reader, to make peace between our two cities. No longer should we backbite and snarl at each other. No longer should we feel tension between our two fine cities, Cape Town and Johannesburg.

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