arts

Nothing new in Hollywood

I am not a movie snob. I promise. I can prove it too – I like nothing more than some formulaic and semi-mindless action flick. I’m down with buddy cop movies or anything depending on some gratuitous shirtless scenes to sell tickets. As a rule, I don’t like subtitles. A

08.2023 | Peter van der Walt

The stories behind the words

You might use these terms on a daily basis, but do you know where they originate – and if you’re actually using them in context? While many wordsmiths disagree on the various theories and interpretations, here are some possible explanations of a few commonly used phrases.

08.2024 | Ingrid Wood

The Curse of Creativity

Throughout history, there’s a long list of eminent creative achievers in all fields who’ve suffered from depression.

07.2023 | Debby Edelstein

NFTs: the future of art?

The NFT scene is booming, awash with the crypto cash of giddy evangelists including anyone from Jack Dorsey to Paris Hilton. Nowhere is its apparently transformative potential more vigorously targeted than the art world.

04.2023 | Jack Calland

West Cork by Audible

West Cork, named after the Irish region in which the events take place, is the latest in a series of true crime stories developed for podcast.

12.2022 | Alistair Duff

Why Korean Dramas are better than Hollywood Dramas

I was introduced to K-dramas by a friend of mine last year, but I wasn’t ready. Besides the language barrier and the tiredness from reading the subtitles, how would you understand all the different cultural nuances? Nope, not doing that, I decided.

09.2022 | Seymone Leigh Moodley

London Fields

London Fields is Amis’ sixth novel and remains the most recognised of his work. The book took six years to complete, a long time by anyone’s standards.

08.2022 | Alistair Duff

Art museums I have visited

The final study of French post-impressionist artist Georges Seurat’s most famous work, A Sunday Afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte. It’s part of the New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art’s permanent collection.

08.2022 | Charmain Naidoo

Squid Game

Squid Game is the Korean Netflix series that has taken the world by storm. The show, centred around a game that assists in paying off the debt of those who have major bills to pay off

04.202022 | Tendani Mulaudzi

They laughed when I sat down at the piano, but when I started to play!

The rise of social media is only the latest Golden Gun for advertisers, and already they are looking for a new one.

03.2022 | Peter Dearlove

Creativity Series part 3: There’s an algorithm for everything

Up until now, this series has established that there has been a tendency to regard creativity as the product of individual genius whose great cognitive capacities alone are responsible for the products that they create.

03.2022 | Lee Blake

Creativity series part 2: An evolving concept

The big question posed in the previous article was: “Do ideas emerge from within the person, or do people recognise ideas already present in their environments?”

12.2021 | Lee Blake

Lessons from a beauty mogul

When Elizabeth Arden created her empire, she laid the foundations of the American cosmetic industry. Her entrepreneurial spirit underpins the soul of the company today.

11.2021 | Ingrid Wood

Reality bites

For the last 20 years, reality TV shows have demanded more and more space on the small screen, largely because there are loads of willing participants and because reality TV is such an affordable programming option.

11.2021 | Tiffany Markman

When is it Graffiti or Street/Wall Art or even Mural Art?

As a Pilgrim (Peregrino) walking the Portuguese Camino (The Way) during July and August of 2018, the title of this article became very apparent.

10.2021| John Siddall

Chatsworth

Chatsworth, the township, links the stories in this slim but powerful debut collection of short stories by Pravasan Pillay, who comes from the Durban-based area.

10.2021 | Arja Salafranca

Grand theft auto

For those who are not fans of video games, it is possible to never have heard of Grand Theft Auto V, possible but unlikely.

10.2021 | Alistair Duff

Creativity Series part I: A portrait of the artist

Evolutionary theorists claim that reproduction is the ultimate desire of all living things.

09.2021 | Lee Blake

No Logo

There are many ways to recognise a truly great book. Does it alter or enlighten your perspective on a topic? Does it retain relevance? Does it explain or predict phenomena that will impact your job – or even your life?

07.2021 | Alistair Duff

How not to be an art pleb

Strolling through the Louvre, I realise my mind has already left the building. It’s contemplating the gateau I’ll enjoy later in a lovely Parisian patisserie.

05.2021 | Lesley Stones

Bought for pennies

This may come as a shock to many young men and women today who keep their fingers busy only on a keypad, but the fact is that people used to write letters to their friends.

03.2021 | Peter Dearlove

A will of steel

Legendary artist, feminist icon, playful exhibitionist, champion of Mexican culture … Frida Kahlo has been described in many ways. But despite her passionate persona, much of her life was marred by deep, physical pain which dominated her powerful portraits.

03.2021 | Ingrid Wood

The Dark secret of time travel

All storytelling is fundamentally about a change in fortune: Someone had or gained something, only to lose it—says Kurt Vonnegut.

03.2021 | Lee Blake

The man who created a universe

I suppose many tributes begin with some background information on their early lives, their ancestry, possibly even make reference to the fact that they had a different name at birth. To be honest all of these things seem far too grounded in our universe.

02.2021 | Alistair Duff

Is the music no longer good or are you just getting old?

People of my generation and older generally aren’t qualified to comment on the state of music today. I’m 30 years old and I have to concede that my peers and I long entered the stage of our lives in which we start to sound more and more like our parents.

12.2020 | Kibo Ngowi

A man, a mouse and an imagination

People of all ages around the world have been touched by Walt Disney. Whether you watched his productions as a child or have enjoyed them with your own children, his classics have kept open the doors of make-believe.

12.2020 | Ingrid Wood

Slush pile blues

People still give the “rabbit look” – that wordless upward wrinkle of the nose – when you confess to the solitary act of self-publication.

11.2020 | Tom Learmont

Witty with a dash of sweet acid

Steven Boykey Sidley’s fourth novel, Free Association, is quite simply brilliant. It also has its finger pulsing on the heart of all that is topical

20.2020 | Arja Salafranca

Did Hollywood become a cash cow business without anyone noticing?

No industry has been more involved in shaping trends and informing the masses; nor has any industry been the topic of near constant conversation around the water cooler more than Hollywood.

10.2020 | Alistair Duff

Are genres gendered?

Why are the majority of memoirs written by women? Is it because they relate better to their subjects?

06.2018 | Tendani Mulaudzi

10 Evergreen paperbacks

I can remember the first book I read – by myself and because I wanted to. There were always books around, at school or at home. Books of all kinds, including magazines. I suddenly felt a tremendous urge to read something.

04.2020 | Pete van der Walt

World tapestry

HUMANITY. We exist in contrasting shapes, sizes, shades and guises. We exhibit various characteristics and distinctive preferences.

03.2020 | Daniel Heintz

Hillbilly Elegy: a memoir of a family and culture in crisis by JD Vance

Appalachia. No place like it. A place often romanticised and, consequently, misunderstood. A place that holds deep secrets and unspeakable tragedy.

12.2018 | Peter van der Walt

Science fiction becomes science fact

First the dreamers, then the engineers … how much of the technology in our lives today do we owe to stories of an imagined future?

12.2018 | Alistair Duff

Superhero films − how big genres live and die

Although the superhero genre has been around since the mid-1940s, over the past two decades these films have occupied the top spot among all genres available to us, on the big and small screen alike.

11.2018 | Lee Blake

Are genres gendered?

Why are the majority of memoirs written by women? Is it because they relate better to their subjects?

06.2018 | Tendani Mulaudzi

Dirty John

Dirty John is the crack cocaine of podcasts. Just ask any one of the five million listeners who got hooked on the series within the first three weeks of its launch.

04.2018 | Denise Slabbert and Nicole Wills

The stranger at the gate

It’s ambitious to call your novel Johannesburg, for there are as many versions of this city as there are novels about it.

07.2019 | Fiona Melrose