Represent ♥’s Everyday Tweeple – Meet @umlungux
And with @umlungux, Represent ♥’s Everyday Tweeple series just gets sicker. If you haven’t got it yet, we’re sharing our own twisted bouquet of everyday Southern African hearts and minds with you, we hope you’re keeping up. It’s takes a lot of different people to truly Represent. So we’ve still got a long way to go. Don’t forget to follow us on @sisiwami. Sharpile Garth Shoebridge for the hawtness and for being toi… * Name: Garth Shoebridge * Location: Melville, Jozi * Bio: There ain’t room enough in one line for me and my summary What does the X stand for? I don’t know if you remember, but back in the day there was a left wing political party who’s leader renamed himself to Khoisan X (After Malcolm X). I thought this was such a dickhead move, that when I had the opportunity to use umlungux, it only felt right to continue the idiotic tradition. My partner and myself decided to call our company umlungu in 1999. And I have used umlungux ever since. Over the years the best mutation of it that I use is oom lungu. Here’s some room, tell us your summary A failed rockstar, pornstar and deathstar, umlungux divides his time between gun and drug running, running a small digital agency in Jozi, and trying to perfect a bubblegum flavoured strain of mary jane on his plot. Why Melville? Melville is where the company router and server is. During the day it’s got a fantastic vibe and when on its best behaviour, it reminds me a bit of Yeoville. At night it becomes a very good place to practice your “Don’t fuck with me” walk. I used this to good effect when in Nuremburg, Germany recently. To answer your next question, the trademarked “Don’t fuck with me” walk consists of wearing Michelle Pfeiffer’s cat suit but cutting a hole for your dick and balls to hang out. Seems to have worked thus far. Melville is also the Yang to my Ying which is a smallholding 20mins south of Johannesburg. The contradiction between the somewhat urban Melville and Farm like home environment is invigorating. (see attached pics of our 4.2 Hectares of south african happiness) WTF is a sushiup? Vegetable, Animal or mineral. Some of us that have met on Twitter get together over dinner every now and then – at a Sushiup Tell us 5 things that are Very Bouffant for you right now 1. The never-ending rollercoaster of a journey that is living in a house with 4 females (1 missus and 3 daughters) 2. My job – working with things that go click-in-the-night...
Through urban’s Eyes: The View From her Camera
Sharpile to @_thanda_ aka Thanda Kunene for asking great questions of such an inspirational young South African creative, urbanmosadi. We ♥ the way urban describes why she loves living in Cape Town as well as her nickname for Johannesburg… and our favourite line from the interview has to be… “I seem to thrive outside of my comfort-zone, and in this case being away from home, is the only way I grow.” Representahs, make sure to shift your comfort zone every now and then – while you can, and always DO what you love. We’ll leave it up to Thanda and Urban to convince you: Tiisetso Molobi AKA Urban Mosadi is an ever-changing soul with plenty of thoughts and silent serenity. She speaks deeply about her love of photography and the need for vintage in one’s life… The name is Urban Mosadi. How did it come into existence? urbanmosadi (with the lower case) urbanwoman. I needed to open up a new email account and I needed a name that described who I was, and what I wanted to become. Mosadi means woman. The t.molobi@blahblah was really not an option for me. For the longest time I have been a tom-boy, so wanting to blossom into a woman/lady one day, made it easy for me to stick with the word and name. I have had this alias for about 5 years now. Although I still have tom-boy tendencies, I feel like I’m evolving into this urbanmosadi I envisioned years back successfully. You now reside in the windy city of Cape Town. What made you change scenery from Joburg which is also your home town? I’m a rolling stone. The moment I am in myJoHo for too long I start getting ants in my dashiki pants…lol. After coming back from living in Los Angeles for most of last year (2009) I wanted to find a place that I could connect with back home, Capetown is alot like LA, or LA is alot like Capetown. Lots of landscape similarities, I reckon the C in Capetown definitely stands for Creativity. I love that about this city. Call it what you will Slaapstad, Apetown Little Europe, but there is an organic creative buzz about this town. I also love that folks out here are mad stylish. I love love that. But over and above that, I needed a place that would be kind to my heart. I seem to thrive outside of my comfort-zone, and in this case being away from home, is the only way I grow. I never understood the “cut throat” term used to describe myJoHo…I still don’t. I’m actually starting to...
South Africa, the world loves you. Much Love, Editorista
As many of you may know, I, Editorista, currently reside in Belgium and have been living here for a while now. I have to tell you that right now, everywhere I look, whether it be a corny advert on TV(see below), a 20 page spread in a music magazine (see below below), the front cover of a holiday brochure or the clothing rack in a supermarket, South Africa is EVERYWHERE. Or should I say, Afrique du Sud. I have been documenting all the places I see our name on my twitter feed @sisiwami – please do follow me to stay in touch. Today, however has taken the cake, or should that be ze gateau! While strolling through the park in my city, I was handed a can of Fanta, and guess what the flavour was??? See the photo! South Africa.Exotic. I kid you not, see CocaCola Belgium’s website here. So… how do we taste you may ask? Pretty damn Schweet! Forget the naysayers, the world loves South Africa and many people recognise our young democracy as somewhere really special. A friend said to me the other day: “what’s it like to come from a place that’s on everyone’s lips – in a good way”. I tell you what, it feels freaking awesome. Now if only ALL South Africans could adore our country as much as we do. Here’s to a successful World Cup, I know we’re gonna prove them all right. I’m so glad I’ll be there. See you soon! Bisous! May 19th: La nouvelle revue d’histoire also have South Africa on the front cover http://bit.ly/boPhJe May 19th: Dutch publishers have done an entire special edition of their mag on Zuid-Afrika this month http://bit.ly/c1fsjT May 16th: here is the ridiculous advert playing every day here in Belgium with the guy ‘speaking in & dancing Zulu’ http://bit.ly/dnVTkF rofl&smh May 15th: In Monocle this month: Ready for kick off – South Africa http://bit.ly/bZ6IzN May 20th: still speechless. DL creates special world cup sauce… South African Jambo. Isn’t that swahili? Cheap shot....
Unlikely Johannesburg – Part One
The other day I got a call from New York – a friend’s Uncle on his way to the World Cup in South Africa called me to get some advice. His faraway voice calmly explained that bien sûr, he was excited to be visiting South Africa, but after reading a couple of recent scathing media reports citing violence, violence, violence, he was beginning to question the wisdom of choosing to stay in Johannesburg for their entire visit. Ironically enough, I was on a train out of Brussels and nowhere near the city of my birth, I have been away from Jozi for over two years now, so despite my heart & head being firmly rooted there, I couldn’t say I’m a local right now. This recent absence, coupled with the fact that talking rather loudly on a cellphone in downtime traintime in this part of the world incites targeted headrest incineration, meant that I had to think fast. And so, I took the path of least resistance, I told him to relax and enjoy himself, that yes, Johannesburg had a dangerous side, but that everything was going to be just fine. The police are on diet and the security companies on high alert, I told him, big brother is awake; ‘people are living there and life goes on’ I drawled- conscience of my slow accent I fell on old ways of explaining things away. Let me explain, when I read the email preceding the call and saw that he and his family were staying in Johannesburg only, for nearly two weeks i.e. for their entire visit…I felt a thrilled kind of fluttering in my chest. At last, I thought, our soulful neglected city, most often treated as a trampoline for tourists to bounce off to some other fabulous beached or bushed corner of our country, was being taken seriously as a tourism destination. By a New Yorker nogal! Let’s face it, when have I, or you for that matter, ever met tourists who have come to South Africa with only one destination on their list: the scary city of Johannesburg? I could feel the swelling pride in my voice as I described to him the place he was lucky to be visiting and the place that I can never quite shake off, that always pulls me back no matter how much of my oyster I believe the world to be. I was flattered, appeased and willing to please. And so, I started to tell him the inside story that any (and only) good Johannesburg-loving citizen can and probably will tell you. We’ll all agree Johannesburg is a bit of...
TBD: Bringing ‘virtual’ good to real life
Winter is on it’s way in SA and the cold is setting in…brrr. Do your bit this winter to help those in need by supporting the first ever Twitter Blanket Drive this Saturday the 29th of May, an impressive and ambitious effort by some South African tweeters who hope to rally the South African Twitter community to action… Follow Represent.co.za on twitter @sisiwami : Just a short while ago, the idea of rallying the South African Twitter community for a good cause was hatched. The power of social networking and the strength of the SA Twitter community has flexed its muscles and this idea has grown into a full blown initiative with national interest. The community pushed for a stake in the ground and the date has been set for Saturday, 29 May 2010. This is the 1st national TweetUp in the country, and from 6pm in main cities around the country Tweeters will be out in force, all for a good cause. All events will take place on the same day and time countrywide. Venues have been confirmed in Cape Town (2 venues), Joburg, Durban and Port Elizabeth. Knysna and Plettenberg Bay have also shown keen interest in holding their own event too. We would love to have an event in East London as it is the city with the 3rd highest amount of registered tweeters in SA. There are over 50,000 registered and active Twitter users in South Africa. The event will be considered a success if just 5% of these Tweeters make a contribution at the TweetUp or through alternate channels. Tweeters and non-Tweeters alike are invited to join in this groundbreaking social media experiment by coming along to any of the TweetUps and making a donation. For more information go to www.twitterblanketdrive.co.za or follow Melanie Minnaar on Twitter: @melanieminnaar RSVP’s to any of the national events can be done through this website too. City Host Media partner Venue & contact Venue address Joburg Melanie Minnaar @melanieminnaar melanie@twitterblanketdrive.co.za 702 Highveld VidaE Sandton, next to JSE CapeTown (S.Suburbs) Amanda Lambe@alambchop amanda@twitterblanketdrive.co.za Cape Talk Kfm TRUTH Coffee V&A Waterfront Cape Town (N. Suburbs) Stefan Diedericks@sdiedericks stefan@twitterblanketdrive.co.za Cape Talk Kfm Coffee Junction Tyger Valley Centre Port Elizabeth Monique Taylor@monique_tays monique@twitterblanketdrive.co.za Algoa Mint Café Bar Humerail Durban Nevin Pillay @nevinsp Nevin@twitterblanketdrive.co.za East Coast Radio VidaE Gateway Pretoria Janthinus Schrage @Janthinus Janthinus@twitterblanketdrive.co.za 702 Highveld The Hub Cafe Universiteitsoord premises 105 Duxbury road, Hillcrest Pretoria. Coordinates: S25*45’20” E28*14’14” East London...
Proudly brought to you by:
