Facebook irreverence

The Status Is is a collection of absurd facebook statuses - if this is stream of consciousness, we might be better off in a coma.

London

I think this is one of my better shots from London. I love the concrete geometry juxtaposed with elegant, ornate St Pauls.

My new favourite blog

My new favourite blog, omgblog.com brought to my attention some particularly adorable and disturbing book cover variations. Check them out.

Only in South Africa

Is it just me, or is there something a little disturbing about the fact that on the experiential gifts stand at CNA, "Shotgun training" is classified as "family fun" (see bottom left)? It would be an interesting family indeed that thought it a wholesome alternative to the Zoo to introduce little Johnny or Phumzile to the thrill of a powerful recoil. Admittedly, I've never fired a weapon. Maybe it is fun. In fact, there are some members of my family whom I've fantasised about introducing to a rifle, but I don't think that sort of satisfaction is included at a mere R499.00.

It can't be far off now when the marketers of these gifts look at their catalogue and see that the obvious progression of their work is to combine adventure and family fun and start offering an Advanced driving and Shooting adventure where the insatiable South African family get to race around Kyalami, Dad drunk at the wheel and Mom riding shotgun (literally) while the children fight over the grenade launcher.

Tempting, but I think I'll take the Moonlight Night Spa for One all the same.

You don't have to be Jewish to shop in Rosebank

This little gem was spotted at the African market in Johannesburg somewhere between the Indian head massages and the "tasteful nudes". The cover looks like a portrait from an early United Nations diplomatic social. I first thought that this would turn out to be some crackly recording of sulky Organ music but of course the joke was on me... It's a slick irreverent comedy recorded in the 1960s in New York and not at all out of place in Rosebank. Before I realised this, though, I thought it would be fun to imagine all the wonderful ways that you might finish that sentence... Go on, you know you want to.

Too Cool for Crack

Louise Bourgeois must have some seriously freaky dreams. If this building sized arachnid sculpture is anything to go by, I suspect David Lynch would pay handsomely to surf the sub-conscious of the diminutive artist.

We recently went to the Tate Modern to see "the crack", which (warning, excruciating pun ahead) is not all it's cracked up to be. I can muster a healthy respect for the architectural challenges the artist must have overcome to be able to introduce a massive fault into the foundations of one of London's most iconic buildings, but as an artistic device I think it falls somewhat short of it's alleged purpose.

The artist's intention, according the pamphlet we received at the door, was to describe the divide between wealthy and poor, the affluent West and the blighted post-colonial third world. In the turbine hall of the Tate Modern though, there is nothing to indicate that your experience of the world is at all different depending on which side of the crack you inhabit.

The differences between the first and third worlds are stark and they certainly merit public attention, so why present it in a manner so abstract as to make no attempt to describe the difference? Perhaps it was for the ironic enjoyment of the artist. After all, there I was, a warmly-dressed white middle class Westerner feeling that I didn't quite understand what to do about this chasm, or myself... a sentiment I feel whenever I read about the very distant but very real suffering of people in poorer parts of the world.

Either way, I failed to find a way to photograph the crack that didn't reduce it to an uninteresting documentation of the texture of concrete, so I concentrated on the massive and much more visceral experience just outside the entrance, Louise Bourgeois' Spider. This cold, metal monster speaks much more clearly of the dark side of the human experience.

Sitges and Barcelona, May 2007

I cheekily created this blog entry without any actual content because I wanted it to appear as being written in May when I did eventually get around to it. In the meantime, the pictures are here.