“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
― Isaac Newton
"Rap is the only thing that I was ever really bad to the bone at
Guess I'm similar to gangrene when I'm angry then I'm
Hulk Smash, so much passion but no compassion
If eyes are the windows to the soul
Then it's broken glass and there's no trespassing"
“Destiny is usually just around the corner. Like a thief, a hooker, or a
lottery vendor: it's three most common personifications. But what
destiny does not do is home visits. You have to go for it.”
―
Carlos Ruiz Zafón,
The Shadow of the Wind
Let me point out from the outset that I have no idea what I'm doing. Let me also point out that I'm the best person in the world at doing what I don't know - I spend at least two hours a day wondering what the hell is going on around me and still pretty much being kickass. I am going on a journey and leaving behind everything I hold dear in order to become a better Charlie and thus best serve everything I hold dear. I am not prepared for this but at least I have a green towel to see me through. I'll be fine.
“For those who are lost, there will always be cities that feel like home.” ―
Simon Van Booy,
Everything Beautiful Began After
Ladies. Gentlesirs. I am moving to Cape Town. This is not something that I planned like I do so many things. This one's just a happening and I am the willing victim. I've been struggling to get into the publishing industry for the last year or so and every door I've been knocking on seemed to yield no response. My long-time companion, Varsha and I went through hope all the way to despair and then back to hope again. Of all the people I know I don't think anyone knows more how I feel than she does. Follow your dreams they said but no one ever told us how quick those fuckers run! But we've caught up now and the buggers are in for a beating. Varsha landed a gig at Jonathan Ball Publishers as a Sales Assistant and seems as happy as punch (I honestly think I don't know what that means) there. She also gets free books, which is always nice. Just before I got too depressed and almost started on my plans to become a super villain hellbent on revenge against literary establishments Varsha sent me an email from NB Publishers looking for an Editorial Assistant. I met all of their requirements and they set up an interview, which I thought was in Jo'burg but turned out to be in Cape Town. It was an amusing situation of me thinking they're here and them thinking I'm there. After some back and forth communication they suggested I move to Cape Town. I thought about it and realised I have nothing keeping me here except everything I love so I said yes, let's do that.
"The city is a sorceress, you know, Daniel? It gets under your skin and steals your soul without you knowing it..." ―
Carlos Ruiz Zafón,
The Shadow of the Wind
Here I am two weeks later scrounging money together, making travel arrangements, finalising places to stay and saying farewells. I'm pretty much doing everything on the run and I'm still in shock. I'm excited most of all. I remember the strangest thought that popped into my head when it all became a reality was: "Shit! Now I have find a new place to gym and new routes to run." That made me laugh. I'm going to miss so much of Jo'burg though. This place is home and all I know about life comes from these grimy streets: family, friendship, love, sex, alcohol, crime, hate, fresh fog fuckery, pain, joy. It all happened to me here. Jozi. My fair city. I love you and all the life I've lived in you.
Attending a book launch at Love Books is always a treat. The store is
beautiful and the owner, Kate Rogan, and her staff are some cool human beings.
If you love books you really should stop by and say hello; and if you end up
buying a book (or ten) and a cup of coffee that's good too. My lovely
companion, Judy, says attending book launches and comic book stores with me is
bad for her wallet. What she doesn't know is that I'm looking out for the
well-being of her bookshelf. I really am. I digress though.
Wednesday, 08 May 2013 saw the launch of Toni Strasberg's memoir,
Fractured Lives, published by Modjaji Books. The book documents Toni
Strasberg's life as filmmaker covering wars in southern African countries in
the '80s and '90s. The book offers a female perspective on the senseless nature
of war, which is often seen as 'the province of men'. Toni focuses especially
on the effects of war on women and children. From what I saw of her on the
night of the launch Toni is a very formidable woman. Her demeanour is that of
someone who will not take nonsense and is not to be trifled with. I imagine
that these are some of the character traits that allowed her to be a woman in
charge of a film crew covering some of humanity's most inhumane actions at the
time. Fractured Lives is a documentary of Toni as a woman and as a human being
who has witnessed war in its many terrible forms and even in its exhilarating
forms. The book provides social commentary on war in general and our
fascination with it. Toni admits to not being a writer in the traditional sense
of the notion as she is primarily a filmmaker and sees the world more visually
than in terms of words. Fractured Lives is her written account of all she has
seen and lived through.
Toni Strasberg was born in South Africa and went into exile in Britain
in 1965, following the Rivonia Trial. She studied in Britain where she
eventually became a filmmaker. Toni's responsible for award-winning films like
Chain of Tears, Chain of Hope and A South African Love Story. In addition to
making films and dabbling in writing Toni has served as an International Peace
Monitor and Election Observer for the United Nations. She was also involved in
NGO work for UNESCO and other similar bodies. At the launch she pointed out
that she's old now and that, of course, she's done some things in her life.
Toni was in conversation with Hamilton Wende, a journalist and writer
who has also seen and experienced many of the brutalities of war on the African
continent and has added his voice to the literature that documents these
conflicts. As formidable as Toni is she is also quite humorous. She regaled the
crowd with funny stories about the slow and arduous process of shooting a film
and meeting flamboyant political figures. As a white woman documenting war in
Africa she did find herself in many humorous and even unsettling situations.
Toni and Hamilton also spoke at length about child soldiers in many African
wars and how, as the title of the books suggests, war fractures people's lives.
As a result of war many families are scattered across the globe and it's difficult for
them to stay in touch. War takes lives and ruins those it leaves behind. Humans
are also very resilient in that they find small things to hold on to in times
of conflict, things like a music teacher charming Toni and her crew into
filming a boy he taught to play the piano. War is also exciting and addictive
Toni points out. She has made a career out of documenting war because all those
stories need be told but also because it got her adrenalin pumping.
War is hell as is always said but as humans we are ever drawn to it.
Pick up a copy of Toni Strasberg's Fractured Lives and Hamilton
Wende's Only the Dead on sale at Love Books.
As per usual, thanks to Joostenberg for providing the wine to fuel an amazing
literary evening.
I continue my slutty ways (risking some sort of digitally transferred infection) and write a review for Bizcommunity.com explaining to you why you should go see Iron Man 3. As if you needed any reason to begin with, you sly dog of a comic book nerd ;).
NetherRealm Studios has decided
to give our favourite DC heroes and villains a stage on which to beat the snot
out of each other and it sure does look pretty and is loads of fun to play.
Injustice: Gods Among Us is the new kid on the block in the fighting games
arena and it holds its own against the big boys like its stablemate, 2011's
Mortal Kombat. In fact it’s pretty much Mortal Kombat with new mechanics added
to the gameplay. DC has never had its own brawler unless you count Mortal
Kombat vs. DC Universe, which you should seeing that it’s still fun to play. Most
gamers grew up on fighting games. I remember running to the ‘games shop’ (we
never called it an arcade) near my house after school with a pocket full of 50
cent coins with the aim of kicking butt. Most of the fun in fighting games
comes from mastering all of the characters’ hellishly difficult moves and
stringing a bunch of cool combos together. Looking back I realise that this was
actually an achievement on the same level as attaining a PhD. Injustice allows
you to spend hours mastering a character like Batman’s moves so you can kick
Superman in the head in a showdown.
I’ve yet to meet a fighting game
with a storyline that actually makes sense and Injustice doesn’t stray from
this time-honoured tradition. The story in Injustice exists solely to give you
a rather flimsy reason as to why DC’s roster of characters are all standing
around beating the nonsense out of each other. This isn’t a bad thing because
you’re really only playing to beat up a bunch of virtual people. The plot
explains things like how Batman is able to beat Superman into a Kryptonian
pulp. Everything kicks off with in an alternate reality in which the Joker
tricks Superman into murdering a pregnant Lois Lane, which results in the
destruction of Metropolis because the Joker linked bombs to her heart beat.
Superman loses his mind and kills the Joker in fit of super rage. Batman
witnesses this and because of his moral inclination cannot stand for it. This
results in two sides being established; evil Superman and those who side with
him and Batman and his side of good guys. Add an incident that allows travel
between alternate universes and you have Injustice: Gods Among Us. It’s all
fun.
As I’d mentioned earlier,
Injustice looks pretty. The characters are well designed and they look good.
The Joker looks especially creepily crazy, which we like. The game levels look
amazing and are interactive. Each level is tiered and you can beat your enemies
through walls and such to launch them into the next tier in a spectacular
fashion. The fighting stages include classic locations like the Batcave,
Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and the Justice League’s Watchtower. You get to
battle it out on many of the places in the DC universe where you’ve ever wanted
to see a showdown between DC’s finest or worst – depending on your inclination.
The gameplay in Injustice is all
the things you’re used to in fighting games with cool twists added. Every match
consists of only one round and each player has two health bars and the match
ends when both those bars run out. The four-button control scheme consists of
light, medium and heavy attacks. The fourth button activates an ability unique
to each character. This is one of the features in the game that levels the
battlefield for characters like Batman and Green Arrow against behemoths like
Superman and Doomsday. Characters are divided into ‘power characters’ and
‘gadget characters’. The former use their brute strength and super abilities to
bash your skull in and the latter rely on weapons and other external mechanisms
to defeat their opponents. Speaking of external mechanisms, each level is
littered with interactive elements each character can use differently. Superman
can throw a car at his enemies whereas Batman can use that same car to launch
himself into the air and pull off a combo. Players also have super meters that
you can fill by pulling off cool combos against enemies or by getting
clobbered. You can use the meter to either to perform special attacks or to
compete in wager battles by means of the Clash system. When you go into wager
mode a cutscene pops up to interrupt the current play and each player has to
put a portion of their meter energy on the line. The player whose wager is the
most wins the clash. The clash can only be activated when you’re down to your
second health bar. This adds a great strategic element to the game in addition
to the interactive elements littered around the levels. I like this system of
gameplay as it makes every fight more exciting. The game isn’t difficult to get
a hang of but mastering it is a different matter – that requires some effort.
The game doesn’t have much of a tutorial system so players have to master
character moves during actual combat. The game does include different game
modes in addition to the Story Mode and sparse Training Mode. These are Battle
Mode, Versus Mode and S.T.A.R. Labs (missions that consist of Batman using
S.T.A.R. Labs facilities to complete objectives).
Online multiplayer options
consist of King of the Hill and Survivor modes. In the latter mode players
spectate matches whilst awaiting their turn. This mode supports up to eight
players. Survivor Mode consists of players carrying over whatever health they
had left from previous battles throughout as many fights as possible. Playing
through all of Injustice’s modes unlocks artwork, new costumes and music.
Pick up Injustice: Gods Among Us
for approximately R600.00 at your nearest games retailer. Injustice is nowhere
near being a great fighting game but it’s fun to play and because it’s not as
technical as Tekken or Street Fighter anyone can pick it up and have a great
time fighting against their favourite DC characters. The roster is on the
skimpy side but DLC will probably fix that soon enough.
Pick up Injustice and button mash
your way through the ranks.
