Blogs by Vuvuzela staff.
|
|
Written by Samantha Morrison
|
|
Monday, 08 March 2010 22:27 |
|
I was so pleased that the "Academy" honoured a lesser known director tonight: John Hughes. He penned great movies such as Breakfast Club and Ferris Buellers day off. Extreme comedy or coming of age stuff, full of angst and self-disapproval. It brings to mind St Elmo's fire... the quintessential eighties young adults film. A little old for my tender teenage years, granted, but therein lay the appeal. The montage of 80's films presented brought back some amazing memories. On the flipside, I only read "Catcher in the Rye" a year ago: a book written in the 40's/50's, and I only clapped eyes on its magnificence recently. It was such a revelation, I devoured it in a couple of days and then reluctantly returned it to Parkview library. Needless to say, it bumped something off its perch in my top ten. So now it sits comfortably with Captain Correllis Mandalin, Poisonwood Bible and anything by F Scott Fitzgerald. Unfortunately, John Hughes was honoured because he died last year. I'm not sure he was ever nominated for anything like an Oscar, but he made seriously good teenage fodder. |
|
|
Written by Ruona Agbroko
|
|
Monday, 08 March 2010 10:27 |
|
Lesley. Anton. Margaret. Franz....Lesley. Anton. Margaret. Franz. Lesley...
I would stand in front of the full-length mirror in my hotel room in Sandton and chant these names repeatedly for days before I resumed classes at Wits. Even my reflection thought I had gone bonkers. Still, months later, I struggle with the strangeness of having to call my lecturers by name.
|
|
Written by Aurelia Chapman
|
|
Thursday, 04 March 2010 13:53 |
|
Some people like to have a bit of a “lie-in” on Saturdays. 
Photo by:Joane Carew |
|
|
Written by Yumna Mohamed
|
|
Friday, 05 March 2010 08:13 |
|
Haiti...Has it been over-reported? The people of Haiti have been done a disservice because in a way their struggle has become overexposed and given the celebrity treatment, rendering it the fashionable "disaster flavour-of-the-month" to the piont that people are actually sick of hearing about it. But the problem is that once the cameras are put away and George Clooney moves on to his next heroic endeavour (probably to Chile, since those Latino stories are so sexy), the people of Haiti are still stuck with rebuilding their lives from scratch. I've seen all the images of Haiti that we have been bombarded with, but when Alon Skuy came to show us his work, I really looked, and what I saw was destruction that I have seen so many times before that it doesn't even register with me anymore. But in the back of my mind, in all my ignorance, it was always just imagined that whatever destruction I had just seen would magically rebuild itself after I stopped looking. But what Skuy's photos and commentary openened my eyes to is that the aftermath of such disasters is rarely temporary. I can't fathom what it would take for the Haitian people, for the victims of the 2004 Tsunami, or of the numerous genocides and wars over the decades, to recover. Another thing that I've been thinking about is Skuy's story about the prisoners who escaped after the prison collapsed in the earthquake, and how the first thing they did was form gangs and kill the wardens. The question in my mind is, what part of the human psyche were they operating on? Was it a part of human nature and the deep-set desire to exact revenge, or does it have something to do with their innate sense of criminality? Is it something within all of us, or are we conditioned by our circumstances? I am sure this question has been asked before, but I haven't found a satisfactory answer. |
|
Written by Zaheer Cassim
|
|
Wednesday, 03 March 2010 17:10 |
I have come to terms with my inner geekyness, but I must say “Guitar hero” really brings out the worst in me.
I spent a large chunk of my December holidays in Gateway, a mammoth mall in Umhlanga. Under the watchful supervision of the Dion security guard, I would play guitar hero for about an hour everyday until one of the staff members would request that I give other customers a chance.
The irony of the situation is that I sold more guitar hero bundles than any of the Dion staff, as people would watch in awe as I ripped through one of Bon Jovi’s all time best songs, “Living on a prayer”.
After a month of non-stop practice for free, Dion finally kicked me out. Fortunately, Incredible Connection were letting their customers test out DJ Hero, which I was happy to do for two hours everyday.
My musical adventure did not stop in Durban. When I returned to Johannesburg I decided to invest in a real acoustic guitar. Every Wednesday I go for lessons and every night before I sleep I play for an hour. It’s quite addictive, even though I am sick of playing “Knocking on heavens doors”.
I really wished that my parents had forced me to play a musical instrument when I was younger, but they were too busy being good Muslims forcing me to go to religious classes, like I could care less if Adam got kicked out of Eden cause of Eve – shit happens Adam, next time pick your own fruit.
Most religious people would scream “BLASPHEMY”, but I really don’t care what they think. In essence music and especially rock and roll is about telling all the big mouths of the world to shut up, which I think is necessary once in a while. Just imagine if Osama Bin Laden or Adolf Hitler played in a band, they wouldn’t have had time to plan the deaths of innocent people, nope they would have been to busy practicing the “D” chord, cause its really hard to find.
Moral of the story, make sure your kids play a musical instrument – otherwise they may turn out to be Nazis.
|
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 Next > End >>
|
|
Page 1 of 3 |
