Anti-crime march

Covered this for Die Burger, a South African daily, last week.

The Bibliomancer's Dream: Dream On

I really liked this installation which I discovered by chance in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Conceived by artists Alinah Azadeh and Willow Winston, visitors were invited to select a line of text "with the help of chance". They then had to write it down in one of the blank books, so that "a new endless poem will emerge".

Ultravox @ Hammersmith Apollo

Kath and I covered the Return to Eden Part 2 gig for Glasswerk in April. I only know a few Ultravox songs including, of course, Vienna (which I once played to death on a pool hall jukebox). But I recognised more songs than I thought I would, and I liked all the rest. Fantastic concert. They were on top form. It probably even made it into my top 10 gigs of all time.
Ended up chatting to a guy on the tube who caught one of the drumsticks, and he gave it to me because he's "more into football stuff". It's not worth anything, obviously, but this is quite possibly one of my top 10 random cool events of all time.

Arno Carstens (ex Springbok Nude Girls frontman) was the support act. It was good to hear some of his new stuff, but I do miss the Nudies.

The Parlotones @ Electric Ballroom

I reviewed this gig for Glasswerk.co.uk about a month ago. I didn't think I'd need anything wider than 50mm. Got that spectacularly wrong.

Turning heads

Nick Brandt's magnificent animal portraits often look like paintings, so why not go a step further and make an actual painting of one of them? You can't charge what he's charging, of course, but it seems you can get at least half.

Köszönöm szépen, Sunday Times people!

I bought the South African Sunday Times while I was on holiday there recently, and noticed a competition in the Travel section called Been There, Done That. Readers were asked to send interesting photos of their travels, and each published pic would get £50. I sent this shot of my brother, Rudi, doing (Palinka-induced) cartwheels on Budapest's Heroes' Square (Hősök tere) just after midnight, and was obviously delighted to hear the photo was published - mainly because I'd already spent the money.

Jack Parow - dik heavy uitgeskollie

I recently discovered Jack Parow, a new South African parody-rapper. Everybody in South Africa was talking about him (and new zep-rap trio "Die Antwoord", which got rave reviews at Coachella this year), so you couldn't really miss it. Parow’s popularity was mainly fueled by the cult success of his song "Cooler as Ekke". You don't have to be a fan to enjoy the very entertaining lyrics; but you definitely have to be Afrikaans.
(Something along the lines of: You think you're cooler than me/because I drink Klipdrift, you drink Peroni/You have friends in Sweden, I have friends in Benoni/I’m original, you’re a copy; I’m a flashdrive, you’re a floppy/Jack Parow, the life of the party/You only wear fucking Issey Miyake, etc.)

I was quite keen to find out what the fuss was about, so went to see him at one of the Stellenbosch Woordfees Events at Beyerskloof, at the beginning of March.

And this is basically the effect he has on most people - something between hilarity and disbelief:

The Black Cat Bones did a cover of a Valiant Swart song, which made them really, really angry.

But Andries (Roof) Bezuidenhout was probably my favourite act as I'm a big fan of the man, and his music.

Blood, sweat and beers at the London Marathon

I did the London Marathon in about four hours last Sunday. Not bad, eh? It was my second one, and I didn't really train very hard at all. No excuses, I should've known what I let myself in for. But despite the very real risk of getting lens and gear envy, it's always a fun day out. Next year, I'll probably aim to get there earlier, and leave a bit later: I'd like to get to a better spot in time to catch the wheelchair guys, and stay at least until a rhino comes past.

About 10mins after I arrived in Canary Wharf, David Weir came past.

At that point he was well ahead of Josh Cassidy, who took the title in the end. Unfortunately, I heard afterwards, Weir had a double puncture. And after the second one, at the 20-mile mark, he just couldn't keep his lead. (I suppose it's like running with a cramp.) I was really hoping to see the legendary South African athlete Ernst van Dyk win the title. Ernst was a contemporary of mine at Stellenbosch University, and a well-known sight on campus - almost always out training. Apparently he often raced time trials in the hallways of his student hostel, Helshoogte. But it was obvious that he wasn't going to win the London Marathon. Not this year, anyway. Perhaps he had not yet fully recovered from the Boston Marathon which he won for a record ninth time a week earlier.

Shortly after that the elite women came past. Britain's Mara Yamauchi, last year's runner-up and one of the favourites to win this year, had a disappointing race and eventually finished in tenth place.

But, as the Telegraph tells us, at least she won the travel marathon (aka a "six-day journey from hell") to make it to the capital on time.

I then headed over to South Quay to meet up with friends. Among the masses, we managed to spot a friend, as well as Richard Branson, Natalie Imbruglia, the Royal caterpillar, a few leprechauns, a giraffe and the gingerbread man. But after about 90mins of watching waves of people coming past, I felt so dizzy and exhausted, we had to abandon the race.

Hanging with Hawking

On Thursday, I went to a preview screening of Stephen Hawking's Universe, on behalf of a friend who had to write an article for Rapport, South Africa's national Afrikaans Sunday paper, about Hawking's recent revelations regarding aliens.
Executive Producer John Smithson told the audience how they went to Cambridge three years ago to pitch the series (which starts on 9 May) to Hawking. And how intimidating it was to wait (for the longest ten minutes ever) for his reply. Fortunately he loved the idea.
It's quite fascinating watching him compose a response with the slightest movement of his eyes. When he's not talking, the screen resembles something from the Matrix. Yes, I sneaked up on him for this one...

It's extremely unlikely that life could spontaneously create itself, Hawking said, but it's like winning a lottery. "Though the odds are astronomical, most weeks someone wins the jackpot."

I think it's safe to assume I will see plenty of aliens before I ever win the lottery! In fact, I saw plenty at the O2 on Friday evening. Alien life is common, as Hawking said; intelligent life less so.