Avatar’s End
17 Jan 2010 5 Comments
in fantasy, opinions & reviews
(many spoilers in this post, if you haven’t seen Avatar yet)
Sometimes a story just goes wrong. The author sets it all up just right – and then somehow the whole thing falls apart. That’s how I feel about James Cameron’s Avatar. Its a stunning movie. The richly detailed landscapes and lovely Aliens draw one deeply inside the world of Pandora. And apart from the glorious visuals, there is a tragic heart to the story that makes you want to watch it to the end, even though you know that it cannot end well.
I’m struggling to articulate why one would feel drawn to tragedy. Is it simply the affirmation of facing your fear? Maybe that is why I felt so let down by the way that Avatar plays out. Instead of facing up to the inevitable tragedy of its story line, we get a day dream fairy tale ending.
I felt the same about WALL-E . That was a truly dark story. More
The Body (Un)comfortable: Teaching with blogs
15 Dec 2009 2 Comments
in inspiration, opinions & reviews
Recently Franci Cronje – a colleague of mine - ran a blog project with her 2nd year students. Some remarkable blog posts were created.
Teaching with blogs is not as straightforward as it may seem, and Franci shared her experience with me: More
Translation is the art of failure
14 Nov 2009 8 Comments
So – I’m in the habit of reading when I eat. A book is ideal, but anything will do which is why I was browsing through an advertising insert from Pick & Pay during my lunch break the other day.
There was the usual assortment of pots, pans and brooms – and then I came across this strange device: a Broodgraan Uitdeler. I was a little disconcerted but read on. Maybe everyone else knows what a Broodgraan Uitdeler is. Then I found this:
I had always thought of it as a “gieter”. But that makes perfect sense. “Watering Can” could, indeed be translated as “Natmaak Blikkie”. Following the same logic, we have a “Elektriese Grasmaaier”: More
Challenging my Assumptions
07 Sep 2009 Leave a Comment
Well, I had an interesting, if rather surreal experience yesterday.
I was waiting in line at the check out queue at the supermarket. I noticed a couple of young (student age) black girls, obviously a group of friends, standing in the line next to mine. One of them was an albino. I noticed her because she did a big double take at the magazine rack and said “Oh wow, look! Wow!” to her friends. Very excited.
I leant over to look at the magazine she was pointing at. It was the “You” magazine, and there was a photograph of Caster Semenya on the cover. Caster was looking very different from all the media images we’ve seen of her lately – she was wearing a sexy dress, her hair was teased out in little curls and she was wearing make up. The byline said “Look at Caster Now!” or something similar. I though she looked great.
These girls were super excited. They passed the magazine around, laughing and pointing. Then the albino girl held the magazine up in front of her face, stared at it hard and said:
“Frrrreak!” very emphatically, and with great disgust.
I was so taken aback. Oh well.
If you are wondering about Caster, here are some posts written about her on Blogher:
and
District 9 (Here Be Spoilers)
02 Sep 2009 1 Comment
Its been a couple of days since I saw District 9, and I’m still figuring out how I feel about it. Its a rough movie. Rough in its presentation- the jerky view point of the hand held cameras, the lack of slickness. Rough in its structure - the way it moves without warning from the mock documentary style into more conventional story telling. Rough in its subject matter – the moral dilemmas, the resonance with our Apartheid past and Xenophobic present. And rough in its violence. This is a difficult movie to watch.
I was reminded of Starship Troopers, which also had any number of insectile alien bits spraying around the screen. But unlike Starship Troopers, which had a pretensions to an ironic message, District 9 asks some honest, difficult questions. More
The Hamish Hamilton Book of Princesses
22 Apr 2009 8 Comments
in books, opinions & reviews Tags: fairy tale, princess
Continuing the “Once Upon a Time Challenge” with a review of The Hamish Hamilton Book of Princesses
Title: The Hamish Hamilton Book of Princesses
Edited by : Sally Patrick Johnson
Series : There are many of these Hamish Hamilton collections – about Dragons, Goblins, Heroes, etc.
Illustrated by: Fritz Wegner
Rating: 
In Short: A collection of short stories about Princesses, by eclectic list of authors including Somerset Maugham, Oscar Wilde, James Thurber and AA Milne.
I expected this book to be like a chocolate box of stories. Lots of variety, certainly, but fundamentally …sweet. But I was wrong. A better culinary metaphor would be a medieval banquet table, with sweet confections next to the bizarre dishes- a boars head, maybe? More
The God Beneath The Sea
02 Apr 2009 7 Comments
in books, opinions & reviews Tags: book review, charles keeping, edward blishen, greek myth, leonard garfield, the god beneath the sea
Title: The God Beneath The Sea
Author: Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen
Illustrated: Charles Keeping
Series : First of two books – followed by “The Golden Shadow”
In Short: A re-telling of some of the most famous Greek myths as a single narrative. Intense, lyrical and satisfying.
Other books by author: Leon Garfield – “Black Jack” , “Devil in the Fog”
Rating:
“The God Beneath the Sea” is the first in a series of two books in which the Greek myths are re-told as a single, continuous narrative by Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen. They explain that they wanted to rewrite the “haphazard sequence of tall tales” as these myths are usually presented, to recapture the profound impact the stories had on them when they first read them as children. More
Inkdeath
29 Mar 2009 8 Comments
in books, opinions & reviews, Richard's Booklist Tags: book review, cornelia funke, fantasy, inkdeath, inkheart, young adult
Title: Inkdeath
Author: Cornelia Funke
Series : Third book in the “Inkheart” trilogy
In Short: A compelling story set in a glorious fantasy world. This is a dark, grim book about difficult choices, lit with moments of beauty.
Other books by author: “The Thief Lord”, “Dragon Rider”.
Background: Inkdeath is the final book in the trilogy which began with “Inkheart”. It follows the story of the book restorer Mo and his young daughter Meggie. Early in Inkheart we learn that Mo has a very special talent: when he reads out loud, his voice beguiles the characters to step right out of the story into our world. And sometimes, people are swept from our world and into the book… More
Insight and the Importance of Sleeping Late
28 Mar 2009 1 Comment
in opinions & reviews Tags: innovation, sleeping, teaching
It’s interesting, being a teacher. I often experience a sort of double vision - my memories of being a student and my present experience as a teacher. I particularly remember the frustration, as a student, of having some one else interfere with my creative process. And yet these days is that not exactly what I’m doing as a teacher? More
Design Indaba 09 || Day 3||Frank Tjepkema
08 Mar 2009 Leave a Comment
in Design Indaba, opinions & reviews Tags: Design Indaba, frank tjepkama, tjep
Frank Tjepkema’s presentation started quite strangely. He showed us images of Holland as it might be in the future - a model of a sustainable city farm, its lack of warmth possibly caused by the inhumanely smooth computer generated graphics.
Frank Tjepkama then moved away from this slightly worrying vision of the future, and continued a theme that was apparent in many of the previous speakers – that of design that is concerned with the personal and the warmly human. More
Design Indaba 09 || Day 3 || Young Designers
08 Mar 2009 1 Comment
in Design Indaba, opinions & reviews Tags: Design Indaba, revital cohen, young designers
The Pecha Kucha session at Design Indaba allowed a number of young designers to show their work.
They were Jon Stam, Sandhya Lalloo, Revital Chohen, Arno Mathies, Barbara Cilliers and Lauren Mackler. More
Design Indaba 09 || Day 3 || Nobumichi Tosa
08 Mar 2009 Leave a Comment
in Design Indaba, inspiration, opinions & reviews Tags: Design Indaba, edelweis, maywa denki, nobumichi tosa
Nobumichi Tosa treated us to a wacky, nonsensical performance on the third day of the Design Indaba. He appeared on stage strapped into one of his absurd contraptions and proceeded to act out a ceremonial dance.
His mock formal greeting was punctuated with loud sounds produced by his strange instrument-outfit. More
Design Indaba 09 ||Day3|| Marian Bantjes
08 Mar 2009 Leave a Comment
in Design Indaba, illustration, inspiration, opinions & reviews Tags: design, Design Indaba, Design Indaba 2009, Marian Bantjes, typography
The last day of the Design Indaba started with Marian Bantjes who proceeded to make me most uncomfortable. She held out a vision of how life could be that I found deeply disturbing.
Work which is synonymous with love. Drawing and writing, ornament and pattern. And the promise that these are within reach if only one is willing to risk it all. More
Design Indaba 09 || Day 2 || Marcell Wanders
08 Mar 2009 1 Comment
in Design Indaba, inspiration, opinions & reviews Tags: Design Indaba, Marcell Wanders
Marcell Wanders did not so much talk as dance us through his presentation. We needed this sparking energy to revive us at the end of the long second day of the Design Indaba.
Here is another designer who’s presence dominated the occasion. He looked like a smooth and charming Lucifer, complete with casual jeans, jacket and a string of pearls. And the work he showed us spoke of a world of temptations and luxury most of us can only dream of. More
Design Indaba 09 || Day 2 || Ferran Adria
05 Mar 2009 Leave a Comment
in Design Indaba, inspiration, opinions & reviews Tags: Design Indaba, ell bulli, ferran adria
One of the great stars of Design Indaba this year was Ferran Adria, the Spanish chef.
Ferran Adria has been called the “Picasso of cooking” and “the greatest chef in the world “. His restaurant, El Bulli receives over a million reservations a year of which only eight thousand get a table. More
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