A love song for our strange and wonderful country: My Mzansi Heart
My Mzansi Heart sweeps the reader along two equally entertaining narrative strands, one set in the present day, the other in the past, which together form the story of King Adz’s life. The book explores music, culture, food, urban youth culture in South Africa based on King Adz’s life. His writing style is rather gripping, engaging and conversational. Represents chats to him about his latest book. Firstly, I’d like to say congrats on such a relevant, easy yet engaging read and it’s also visually appealing, your advertising and creative background comes out in how the book is layed- out, was that a conscious decision to structure the book like this? Thanks. I had always wanted to write a graphic novel and this was my chance. I had been working on the idea of this book for many years, ever since leaving South Africa to work in New York, and everything fell into place when Jacana published by youth advertising book THE STUFF YOU CAN’T BOTTLE, which lead to a conversation about MY MZANSI HEART. I had many “AHA” moments while reading the book because you talk about things i can identify with while you’re telling your own story. Tell us more about My Mzansi heart? MMH is a piece of my soul distilled onto the page. I have never written anything so personal (it is my 5th book) or so artistic. My previous books were about advertising and street/youth culture but MMH is something else. I wanted to re-define what my work was really about, and this reflects how amazing South Africa is as a country that this book was born out of it. How was the writing process? I write everyday and by now I have the discipline to be able to sit there and work without having to go out and ‘enjoy’ myself, lol. I wrote two books last year as well as travelling and working as a brand consultant across Africa. The two seem to go hand in hand! One was MMH and the other was my next book about how brands have to behave if they want people to like them – so chalk and cheese. How long did it take you to finish the writing the whole book? The concept took a decade. From start to finish. But actually sat at my iMac actually typing and designing it took a year. What triggered the idea to write My Mzansi heart? Reading ‘My Traitors Heart’ by Rian Malan was the beginning of it all. I don’t want to give away too much as you need to read the book, but reading Rian’s amazing book got...
Unyazi IV Electronic Music Festival: Joburg 9th – 13th September
The fourth edition of Unyazi returns to Johannesburg with concerts, talks, workshops, demos, a sound installation and a listening room with a playlist of works by over 30 composers from around the world. Presented by NewMusicSA and curated by Carl Stone (US/Japan) and Cameron Harris of Wits, this international festival features work from around the world with special emphasis this year on music from South Africa and South East Asia. Visiting artists include Tomoko Momiyama (Japan), Kazuhisa Uchihashi (Japan), Alfred 23 Harth (Germany/S Korea), Ravish Momin (US) and Lukas Ligeti (Aut/US). South African-based composers and artists include Jill Richards, Frank Mallows, Brydon Bolton, Jonathan Crossley, Jono Sweetman, Jurgen Brauninger, Sazi Dlamini, Thabo Rapoo, Magda de Vries, Maxim Starcke, Mocke J van Veuren, Joao Orecchia, Marguerite Spies and Waldo Alexander. For more information, please...
Friday playlist: Albums we love
Artist: Trey Songz Album: T R I G G A In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment about the album, Trey Songz said “It’s my every emotion at this point in my life, it’s the good, the bad, the ugly, it’s the beautiful, its last night, its love, it’s hard-hitting beats, but beautiful keys. Its beautiful melodies, it’s so personal to me as well, of course I have songs that are impersonal, that are fun records that just want to get people to move and dance, but as you get to the depths and the layers of the album. We live in the days where people want to hear about the flaws and not perfections. The best albums happen to be the ones with strong lyrical content. The 17 track project is a blend of hip-hop and R&B, something that he’s successfully done well in the past. But what’s a Trey Songz album without them girls? Aha, same formula but that’s what works for him. Stand out tracks from the album are “Disrespectful” and “SmartPhones,” as well as “All We Do” and “Y.A.S. vocally, and production wise, Trigga is a solid commercial album. Some good turn up tunes you can enjoy from the album. Get the album here and you’ll know what we’re on about: http://goo.gl/8bbfHg Download Trey Songz’s Na Na (STWO Remix) for free here http://bit.ly/WfwYPa. Code expires: October 4 2014 Artist: Kelis Album: Food Food is the sixth studio album by Kelis, she describes the album as, “a kind of unspoken lovefest. In case you didn’t know, Kelis is a chef, maybe that’s what also influenced the album title and tracklist? It’s always cute when artists feature their children in their songs, we’ve seen Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Coldplay’s “Chris Martin” do it too. The album’s opening track “Breakfast” is introduced by Kelis’ four-year-old son Knight Jones, who speaks the monologue; “Hey guys! Are you hungry? My mom made food. The first track is catchy which makes you want to listen to the album to see it will be consistent throughout. Kelis’ husky voice is still the one to reckon with, with this album she delivered a plate full of soulfood for the soul. It’s kind of hard to box the album into one genre, or maybe it doesn’t need to be boxed at all and it should just be. Very strong vocals, vulnerable, soulful, honest. Just the way you always loved Kelis. Kudos to her for the amazing album. Get the album here:...
MTV VMAs 2014 Winners List
Last night, Beyonce won big at the 2014 MTV VMAs awards, Jessie J, Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande will hit the stage last night to perform their hit song “Bang, Bang” for the first-time ever. Check out the full list below: Video of the Year Miley Cyrus, “Wrecking Ball” Best Hip-Hop Drake ft. Majid Jordan, “Hold On (We’re Going Home)” Best Male Ed Sheeran, “Sing” Best Female Katy Perry ft. Juicy J, “Dark Horse” Best Pop Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea, “Problem” Best Rock Lorde, “Royals” MTV Artist to Watch Fifth Harmony, “Miss Movin On” Best Collaboration Beyoncé ft. Jay Z, “Drunk In Love” MTV Clubland Award Zedd ft. Hayley Williams, “Stay the Night” Best Video With a Social Message Beyoncé, “Pretty Hurts” Best Cinematography Beyoncé, “Pretty Hurts” Best Editing Eminem, “Rap God” Best Choreography Sia, “Chandelier” Best Direction DJ Snake & Lil Jon, “Turn Down For What” Best Art Direction Arcade Fire, “Reflektor” Best Visual Effects OK Go, “The Writing’s On the Wall” Best Lyric Video 5 Seconds of Summer, “Don’t Stop” Catch the repeat tonight at 8pm on channel 130 MTV if you missed it last night and let us know what was your highlight of the...
Visual storytelling from Fak’ugesi Digital Africa festival
As part of the Fak’ugesi Digital Africa Festival taking place during August and September this year, Hacks/Hackers Johannesburg will be hosting a workshop and hackathon exploring data and visual storytelling and how to make numbers look great. Co-organiser and Editor-in-Chief htxt.co.za and Hypertext Media, Adam Oxford, says that when looking for stories in data, analysing the raw numbers is only half the work: “The real magic comes when you present it. We need to research how leading websites like The Economist, The Financial Times and Quartz produce dozens of graphs a day without ever looking dull or being meaningless. That’s a skill anyone can learn.” From infographs to interactive charts, mobile applications to mapping tools, Oxford says there’s a wealth of options open for anyone who needs to put numbers in front of users or readers without putting them to sleep. “Whether you’re producing news, features, apps or games, presenting data is a vital skill for any communicator in the Internet age and we are extremely excited about presenting this workshop as part of the Fak’ugesi Digital Africa festival.” Working with top designers from the Praekelt Foundation at Jozihub, the format for the workshop will see attendees working in teams to analyse large datasets and present the stories they contain in imagery. “We’ll bring the data, you just bring a laptop and a willingness to produce vivid storytelling for a visual generation.” Prof Christo Doherty, co-founder of the Fak’ugesi Digital Africa festival is delighted with the visual storytelling angle: “It was our intention to use different events to turn the spotlight on some aspect of digital technology. This workshop will bring coders, journalists, designers, students and game developers together to collaborate and innovate with useful and relevant outcomes.”...
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