Alistair finds himself delayed in South Africa’s newest monument to consumption, finding time along the way for pointed commentary as he speeds past the lights and lives of the Mall People.
Maul
September 14th, 2009The yearning
August 25th, 2009Many sometime travellers will know the feeling. It starts quietly, with a remembrance. You haven’t left the confines of your arrondissement in some time except to engage in cross-city drinking. Then something triggers off your memory; a smell, a name, a certain shade of late afternoon sunlight; and before you know it you’re off into your head, visualising something you once experienced half a world away.
If you travel long enough
May 22nd, 2009When you travel, you get to be someone else for a time. It’s an addictive freedom that ends when you return to life. But what if you get used to it and cannot easily find a way to reconcile what has become essentially two modes of living?
So I have sent off all of my documents and I will now officially be attending NYU this fall to get my MA in Media Culture and Communication. It’s an exciting step forward, and it is one I hope to document on a new blog that I will dedicate completely to the topic of life in New York (more on that when I figure out a title for it and get it up and running) The more I think about the move and talk with friends, the more I think about what it means in terms of a lifestyle change. I mean, this is as big of a change as moving to Japan was.
Driving Under the Influence
April 14th, 2009Ever since I got my driver’s license some seven years ago, I’ve been driving while under the influence of music. The quick drives to school, the jaunts during university to the local rock club, even cross-country affairs have all been memorable largely to the music. What I’ve recently been mulling about, after a trip to Pretoria (relatively short, +-40 minutes’ drive), is just how certain drives have remained riveted to the insides of my memory because of the music I listened to while on it.
Oh England with your hills green, where is your soul?
April 13th, 2009Spending two days walking 50km through familiar countryside is probably not most travellers’ idea of an adventure. That depends on what you call adventure. At the very least it can be the discovery of something new. During the walk I gained, other than a handful (footful?) of blisters, an insight into English claustrophobia, the spirit of the rambler, some ancient history and even had a surreal encounter with a few thousand hungover ravers. Not bad for 36 hours, I think.
Travel as an exercise in living
April 8th, 2009There is a purpose to travel beyond simply seeing beautiful sights and collecting stories that will stick forever. It’s an exercise in learning to really live again. To make decisions on who you will be and how you will relate to the world around you in a way which all to often becomes overlooked in the day-to-day. Travel, you see, can be an exercise in learning to really live again.
Toilets of Gauteng – The Beginning of the End
April 5th, 2009I’ve been rather quiet on this matter, but I have finally decided to come out and begin this epic odyssey, hopefully compiling in the coming months and years what I expect will be the most expansive, and descriptive, guide to toilets in the greater Gauteng area (Johannesburg and, in a small part, Pretoria.) First up: Zeplins Nightclub in Pretoria
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Moments in Time
April 2nd, 2009In this piece, I share my opinions on gun-toting polo drivers and tourists who visit places through their camera’s. Unfortunately, the original version was not suitable for public consumption. Enjoy.
The Nashville Nine
March 23rd, 2009This weekend I made the trip out to Nashville, Tennessee for a film festival/ collaboration/ project in which a college buddy of mine, Mr. John Newman was the production designer. The project, called The Nashville Nine, was innovative and unique. How exactly do I explain this… the team set out in 9 days to find 9 stories. Each day, they collected 9 stories and chose ONE to use for each day of the project (9 days = 81 stories collected = 9 stories picked to use in the project in total). Stories were collected by interviewing locals in Nashville and just asking if they had any good stories to tell. After a story was picked, it was passed on to the writers.
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