‘There are no big stories left, just paths through the clutter and the inevitable soft landing.’ (Ivan Vladislavic) The other day I emailed my hero. I was thinking about Jono and my vision for Hilton, BOOMTOWN, the gallery, and storytelling. Who’s the landmark writer that I want to attach to a mural? Only one name …
I wrote this piece sporadically throughout last week, and didn’t have much time to edit it, or to engage with it. In between finding last minute quotes for an extra stretch tent, making decisions about generators, doing some painting, chasing up on vendors, helping to put a gallery space together, and remembering to buy toothpaste …
‘Wake up Jaqui; it’s time to go to the Royal Show!’ On this occasion, it was 3 am, I was in Room 36 at the Hilton Hotel, and my brother Nicholas thought it would be bloody hilarious to wake me up from my slumber to enjoy a few seconds of euphoria, before realising it was …
The right stories come at just the right time. They’re like Gandalf that way. Just before every septic tank in the Msunduzi Municipality hit the fan, I sat down to watch Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The film had a mixed response in the US, and I’m not here to defend my position on its …
National Lockdown: Day 67 (Day One of Level Three) Growing up in South Africa in the nineties, there were a few things that every single child had in common. Everyone wanted a strange man dressed in a Simba costume to come into their classroom, yell “surprise”, and give away free bags of chips. I am …
National Lockdown: Day 29 According to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, there are five stages of grief- Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. In South Africa there are currently eight stages of loadshedding, seven deadly sins (which Bheki Cele seems to be reading off), and now five stages of lockdown. South Africans are going to need a helluva …
National Lockdown: Day Six I woke up this morning with good intentions… I busted out Rosemary, I had fucking muesli for breakfast, I went to the shops to buy healthy and boring food… and I waited. Today my niece was born… my perfect little Bat-Eared Fox aka “Foxy Cleobatra” and she is perfect. I’m overusing …
In this age of uncertainty, it’s really nice to know that everyone is doing their bit to “flatten the curve”. I mean previously “flattening curves” meant busting my ass on the spinning bike and limiting my cheese addiction, but now I’m a fucking hero staying at home and watching my shorts get increasingly tighter as …
There’s not even room enough to be anywhere It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there Well my sense of humanity is going down the drain Behind every beautiful thing, there’s been some kind of pain (Bob Dylan) This has been the unwitting soundtrack to this week… a beautiful coincidence brought upon by the shuffle …
More shit I heard in the queue at the Kirstenbosch summer concert. While Monkey was spreading his smoked snoek mousse on his rye bread with a plastic teaspoon, I was sipping away on my crisp wine. Crisp wine was crisp because of my fancy wine wand which looks disturbingly like a sex toy. A sex …