Nokia N900

Apr 8, 2010 |

Being a layman, when I first heard that there was a new Nokia smart phone that was the closest to a mini-laptop as they have ever come, I looked to the geeks I knew. It was towards end of last year and I was attending a couple of Nokia events with those in the know who all reckoned it was Nokia’s best ever device. I had the opportunity to briefly fiddle with it but, at the time, it wasn’t going to be available in South Africa. The hype around and response to it from the techno gurus made Nokia change their mind and it will now be available sometime this year. While a bit heavy and bulky, the...

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Red Bull Music Academy Radio’s Afro Picks Live

Apr 7, 2010 | ,

This last Sunday (April 4th, 2010) I took a drive to OST in Newtown to experience Red Bull’s Afro Picks, a live show that is recorded and made available on Red Bull Music Academy Radio. Initially recorded at the Red Bull Music Studios in Cape Town with telephonic interviews and music, this was the second instalment of the live experience and the second show in Joburg. Hosted by the legendary DJ Kenzhero and Lee Kasumba, each Afro Picks show focuses on artists from a different country on the African continent and last weekend’s show featured Kenyan artist Liz Ogumbo. The five Cape Town shows,...

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A Beautiful Soul – Joolz Denby

Apr 5, 2010 |

In 2004, the British Council in South Africa put together a poetry show called The Writers Ball presents Joolz Denby. A couple of us were booked to come and share our poetry at the show, which took place at Horror Cafe in Newtown. We were still finding our own voices as poets and writers and I remember being worried that this poet they were bring in from the UK would possibly look down on our work. I had an image of a matronly woman steeped in the literary and poetic traditions from Chaucer and Shakespeare through to Wilde and Hardy without any interest or consideration for the contemporary...

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