The RAND CLUB nearly burns down!
This February Represent’s Editorista celebrated a rather decadent birthday party in the hallowed rooms of the glam Rand Club in downtown Joburg…It was a night to remember as the masala of party guests turned it’s snotty history on it’s head. It is thus with great shock that we heard that a fire had gutted the first floor and mezzanine level of this robust institution. The Bar on the fi…rst floor was legendary and gorgeous, the mezzanine level was completely over the top and to die for darl… In September last year Johannesburg tragically lost an ancient architectural and historical treasure, the Wanderers Club, which sadly did not make it through the ravages of an electrical fire… We will go and get some pics of the Rand Club, but in the meantime check out this article from the TELEGRAPH that tells it as they see it. This pic is of a section of the LIBRARY at the Rand Club – for more pics check out our photo’s on FLICKR...
South Africans live in small spaces like New Yorkers
South Africa has a history of small houses – just look at the thousands of famous four-roomed houses in Soweto and other townships – neatly stacked together row after row… although these days many owners have done alterations, some even building a second level to increase the living space – The point is, we’re not the only people to live in small spaces – so do many other people the wor…ld over – we look to New York for inspiration on how to make a small space work. The shortage of housing and the high-crime rate in Johannesburg (not to mention unscrupulous tasteless developers) has resulted in the building of an unbelievable number of townhouse complexes, duplexes, simplexes, you name it – all made compact and small to satisfy the exploding suburban emerging market. For most of us, this is where we will live at some point or for much of our lives, as it’s the only option we can afford – that is of course until more affordable large city apartments become the norm – come on urban regenerators! For now, dreams of spacious living areas may never materialise for many suburban inhabitants as the price of larger homes cuts the average house buyer out and restricts them to the low-end “can’t swing a cat in this” townhouse. But don’t despair, small living spaces are the norm in the most fabulous of cities the world over – just ask any South African that has lived in London or New York… Property is expensive and they pack ’em in in both those metropolises. Everybody wants their home to be comfortable and many of us like it to look good and feel good. As the saying goes – it’s not about the size, in this case it’s about how you use the space. Today we look towards the city of NEW YORK for inspiration on how to make the most of a small living space and really make it look fantastic. APARTMENT THERAPY is a fabulara BLOG that held a competitiion amongst it’s readers based in New York called “the SMALLEST COOLEST APARTMENT CONTEST” and invited people to send in pics of their space and how they made a small space work beautifully. Go and have a look and scroll through some of the apartments on show – be inspired by a range of fantastic ideas. It’s a pity we don’t have IKEA in our country – for those not-in-the-know, IKEA is an affordable house decorating shop loved and adored by people all over the world… we will send them an email and ask them where they are. We give...
HARARE Squatter camp – pre and post removals
Thanks to Varan who pointed out this set of interesting satellite photographs of a squatter camp in HARARE – Apparently the one on the left was taken before the troops were sent in to clear out all illegal squatters and the one on the right was taken once they had mowed down their shacks during the recent ‘CLEAN UP’.. If anyone has anymore info on this or can recognise where it is and substant…iate that it is genuine – please mail...
Come on straight-haired boys – break out a bit!
On our little trip to South East Asia, one thing that suprised us was how un-visionary so many of our straight-haired brothers are here in SA when it comes to hairdo’s. There is no longer an excuse really – the cultural embargo ended a long time ago and we have many sources from where to gain inspiration. We’re tired of the same old safe short back and sides, chinos and suits. This wee…k we encourage all straight-haired men to break out a bit and explore some funky hair-styles. This one is a typical one as seen in South East Asia – our model Ming just added some colour to give it his own twist… come on ou’s – let’s get the hairdo revolution started – we’re tired of the conservative...
GreenPeace goes VIRTUAL – make your mark online
Are you a tree hugger or a collector of Dolphin memorabalia…? Well it doesn’t matter if you are or aren’t – Greenpeace needs as much support as it can to SAVE THE WHALES and it doesn’t matter if you can’t make the boat either – they have a new innovative concept in PROTESTING – A Virtual March! All you have to do is place your photo on the site and your voice is… heard… I mean seen…...well…COUNTED. All the images will then be projected onto buildings at the march, making a virtual crowd – BRILLIANT. Lee, our resident ECO WARRIOR spreads the word: Despite an international moratorium on whaling, thousands of whales will be hunted this year due to a loophole in the provisions of the ban. In addition, the Japanese and Korean governments are aggressively campaigning to lift the ban on commercial whaling. Many whale species are endangered and hunting methods are exceptionally cruel, so the international environmental movement wants to ensure that this doesn’t happen. Greenpeace has developed a new concept to ensure that the voices of ordinary people are felt in international matters such as these. It is organizing a massive “virtual” photo protest against the lifting on the ban on whaling, the first of its kind. The idea is that thousands of photographs of people from all over the world will be projected onto the front of the building where delegates from hundreds of governments will meet on June 20 to decide whether or not to lift the ban. The meeting will be in Ulsan, South Korea. I’ve sent my picture to Greenpeace to add my voice to the No Whaling Virtual March and I’m asking you to do the same. It just takes a minute and the more pictures we have, the better the chances are that the ban will stay in place. On the first day of this campaign, over a thousand people uploaded their photographs onto the site and more are being added all the time. To upload your picture, go to http://whales.greenpeace.org and follow the easy steps. If you don’t have a digital camera, just send an existing photograph, preferably with a slogan chosen from the Greenpeace site typed onto it as a title....
Have you got a 1gig GMAIL account yet?
We’ve nearly given them all away – HURRY UP…. GOOGLE – our love and inspiration has invented the GMAIL account – a word-of-mouth email that you can only get if you’re invited to join. We’re giving away a few of these free Gmail accounts! We’ve got 10 Gmail invites for the first ten people that email the editor GM…ail gives you the following benefits as opposed to other arb accounts: Gmail is a free, search-based webmail service that includes 1,000 megabytes (1 gigabyte) of storage. The backbone of Gmail is a powerful Google search engine that quickly finds any message an account owner has ever sent or received. That means there’s no need to file messages in order to find them again. When Gmail displays an email, it automatically shows all the replies to that email as well, so users can view a message in the context of a conversation. There are no pop-ups or untargeted banner ads in Gmail, which places relevant text ads and links to related web pages adjacent to email messages. You really want one – believe...
Proudly brought to you by:
