The town is a-buzz with its latest architectural and cultural landmark.  Circa, a striking elliptical building on the corner of Jellicoe and Jan Smuts Ave, is the daring project of Mark Read of Everard Read Gallery fame.  Seemingly encased in dark streamlined metal fins, the Gallery space has 3 levels.  Exhibition spaces are visiblethrough glass from the [...]

The disastrous 2008 power outages in Gauteng and the recent announcements of shocking electricity price hikes, (45% for the next 3 years), bring into focus yet again the political nature of electrical power. There has long been a contest and tussle between municipal power supply and national power supply. The city of Johannesburg historically generated [...]

A bronze sculpture of a lone man seated on a chair and holding his precious saxophone, was unveiled on 25th September.  
Kippie Morolong Moeketsi by Guy du Toit and Egon Tania
Located outside the ‘original’ Kippies Jazz club in Newtown, and designed by Guy Du Toit and Egon Tania, a second empty chair encourages the spectator to [...]

A superb Johannesburg exhibition ends on Saturday 10th October. If you are local get there if you can. If you are an international traveler, contact Sally Thompson of The Thompson Gallery in Melville (info@thompsonsgallery.co.za  or phone on 011-482-2039) for access to Sally Gaule’s photographs of Johannesburg.   The Jo’burg Gini takes its title from the Gini coefficient [...]

‘Craighall Park Township, which forms the northern boundary of the Johannesburg Municipality, is one of the beauty spots of the Rand. .. The business man finds in the exhilarating air a peace and calmness, which are part of the place, a restorative to the nerves.’ 
No, this is not part of a 21st Century marketing drive [...]

702 Talk Show host Jenny Crwys-Williams, had several conversations and interviews last week around the state of the Barbican building, a heritage resource in the Central CBD of Joburg.  Since leaving Wits University in 2005, where in my latter years I headed up a newly-established post-graduate division of Heritage, Tourism and Cultural Management Studies, (what a [...]

Having missed the opening on the 4th July of Arts On Main I moseyed off to visit it last week-end.  Located in Main Street at the corner of Bertha St, the only giveaway from the street of this newly renovated industrial space, is the pavement upgrades. The 1911 building was originally part of the D.F. Corlett [...]

Kim Sacks, who is a potter, a teacher, a facilitator and much more besides, has developed a gallery which sells a range of exquisite artefacts. These range from historical to contemporary, and include functional objects used in a traditional context (milk gourds, head rests, stools, sticks, clothing regalia, etc.) and objects like pottery and artwork [...]

Janine Hobbs from Cotswold Gardens, an excellent 4 star guest house in Saxonwold , sent me this wonderful oh so South African story:
Janine writes:
Yesterday I took a trip to Nasrec to work out the exact kilometres from my place to Soccer City.  Well this mlungu [white person] took the wrong turn off and got so lost [...]

A visiting academic who is staying here at Liz at Lancaster referred this morning to Boekehuis as ‘Johannesburg’s Best Kept Secret’.  What a shame not to spread the word about such a gem of  a store. The title of Lucille Davie’s article (www.joburg.org. za  7 June 2006):  ‘Boekehuis one of the world’s 50 unique bookshops’, says it all.  [...]