My Magical Place: My thoughts on The Hunger Games

Okay, so here I am, over a year later after its release, and I can finally say that I've seen The Hunger Games. I was never really negative about it at any point but I was also not super amped to get to it or anything. It was just there. Waiting. Whenever I'd decide to watch it something else would just pop up -  I'd have to save my family from a burst geyser or something. I almost didn't watch it yesterday either because my DVD player did a thing and I was too lazy to fiddle with it. Luckily my roommate was on-hand to connect his laptop to our TV.

The first time I heard about The Hunger Games and its premise I thought it sounded a whole lot like Battle Royale (which I've also not gotten around to seeing. It's just there. Skulking.) in terms of kids on some island/forest set-up having to kill each other. I'm not the biggest fan of kids killing each other in my movies or books (I still haven't read Lord of the Flies. It's sitting somewhere. Scowling perhaps?) I'm fine with kids killing adults though. That's fine. Anyway, back to the issue at hand. I liked The Hunger Games and think it's a good movie. It still disturbed me highly though. Straight up Mount Everest levels highly. It wasn't that it was graphical in its violence or anything. Something about it just got to me. Good art is supposed to unsettle you I guess.

Kids killing kids (KKK). Okay (K).

Throughout the movie I sat there thinking, Dafuq is wrong with these people? But this shit's happened on numerous occasions in the real world before and is still happening in some form or another right now. Our history as a species is drenched in blood: war, prejudice, terrorism, racism, sexism and a string of other forms of hatred. Mindless hatred is just something we do and we're good at it. Add the spectator element from the movie and that's us right there. We love being the audience on other people's tragedies. We do show some level of sympathy towards others and their misfortune but mostly we view it with a morbid kind of fascination and think how lucky we are that it's not us going through that shit. The Hunger Games made me feel a certain level of shame in terms of how I'd probably just look on if that sort of thing were to happen in front of me. Just as long as it wasn't me it was happening to. I liked the movie but it made me feel really shitty. Then I watched The Hobbit afterwards, which cheered me right up and I could return to my complacent ways...

I am looking forward to the next movie, Catching Fire, I must say. Those Capitol bastards are clearly riled up by Katniss and that Peeta bloke for showing them up a little. Also, how do you go back to a normal life and shit after having to kill some people who you didn't really have anything against, except those 'evil' career tribute kids who were assholes and totally deserved to die... Even though they're kids, you know.

I figure I should read the books but I feel no real motivation to do that so I'll just wait on the movies and see how that goes.

Occasional Letters to Death #2

Hi Dee,

I'm gonna go with Dee because I think you'd like that, what with the whole whimsical outlook that you have on... er... life. Tell me, what's the thing you have with the hotdogs? Now, don't get me wrong, I respect hotdogs as much as the next person but I'm not all that crazy about them. Give me a good boerewors roll on any day (yes, even Tuesdays when I'm ironing my socks) and I'm ready to go. I'm not sure where to but I'll be ready nonetheless. Well, I guess the one thing I won't ever be ready for is meeting you in person - boerewors or not. I've been down with sickness of late and that made me think of you a little. Look, I like you, I really do but I'm just no ready to meet you yet. The thing is that you're very pretty and I'm shy. I wouldn't quite know what to say and I'm usually a guy who knows what to say. Anyhoo, whatever, we'll see how that goes whenever you decide to pop over to get me... It'd be nice if it was later rather than sooner though.


A colleague lent me her copy of Endless Nights and it was quite cool reading about you and all your siblings. I must say that you are fairly patient, waiting for those people who locked themselves away from time on that island. I guess you have some time on your hands though. You must introduce me to Destiny! I think he's my new favourite of your siblings. He likes books (well, the one book but it's the book that contains all the stories ever told) and I like books so maybe we could get along. I have a friend, Sleuth, who's very much like him in demeanour so I can hang with him. Let me know hey. I like that guy. Also, tell Dream to cheer up a bit. He's been giving me odd visions at night of late. I don't mind odd things but lines need to be drawn. I really am not sure why these lines need to be drawn as opposed to painted or embossed but it is what it is. Be a good girl and tell him, why don't ya.

I plan to read more of Dream's stuff but Destiny needs to stop being so passive and also get stuff because I'd be very interested in reading his stuff.

It's been a while since I last wrote you and I apologise for that. It's a good thing that you're so patient. It's Friday over here and so I need to rush off to do Friday kind of stuff like go to the beach or whatever. Mainly whatever. Have yourself a good time hey and I'll write you again soon (the human version of soon, not the Endless one).

Later days,
Charles

My Magical Place: Disconnect Review

“We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity; more than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.” – Charlie Chaplin

If there is one thing you should learn in this digital day and age (albeit not as digital as science and science fiction speculated in the 20^th Century) it’s that social networks will undo you in a matter of seconds if you are not careful. Look at what happened to model, Jessica Leandra Dos Santos on Twitter last year – two racist Tweets out of anger and her modelling career went down in flames. Disconnect looks at how our online activities affect our everyday lives over time.  The film is centred around the idea of how people’s online lives spill over into their ‘real’ lives and how, ironically, being connected via the Internet people have actually become disconnected from each other.

The plot follows the stories of four different sets of characters and contains a number of interconnections between the different story arcs. Disconnect is not the movie I expected from what was revealed in the trailer and I am glad it isn’t. I was expecting a feature with a strong focus on cybercrime in terms of fraud and paedophiles preying on children by means of social media and sinister chatrooms. The latter issue is a very important to address but usually movies deal with it in a manner that freaks viewers out in the same way slasher movies do. Disconnect deals with all these issues in a very human way. The story is simply about people who are drifting further and further apart as a result of being too connected to the communication platforms that the Internet and the technology surrounding it affords. Henry Alex Rubin’s (Girl, Interrupted, 1999) direction is brilliant in terms of how the story is paced and how it develops. Many of the scenes are very quiet and all you can hear is the sound of people typing away on keyboards and when they do talk it’s usually over the phone or via a webcam. All these methods of communication feel very natural to the viewer because that’s how we communicate on a daily basis. Reading a fairly large portion of the movie’s dialogue onscreen as people text each other becomes second nature. The film reaches a dramatic climactic point that you just don’t expect and blows you away for a few seconds – especially after how calm everything has been more or less up to that point.

Andrew Stern (Nurses, 2007) wrote a good story that will stay with you for a while after seeing the movie and the ensemble cast delivers some good performances. The initial story is that of Kyle (brilliantly played by Max Thierot), an underage chatroom worker who meets a reporter, Nina Dunham (Andrea Riseborough), in one of his chatroom sessions who wants to help him leave that world behind by sharing his story. The question, though, is does he need her help?  There is the story of teenagers, Jason (Colin Ford) and Frye that deals with the issue of cyberbullying and its outcomes. Ben Boyd (Jonah Bobo) is the victim of the cyberbullying by the two boys and the plot also centers on the fragmented lives that he and his family lead. This arc of the story deals a lot with loneliness as one of its major themes. Jason Bateman (Horrible Bosses, 2011) and Hope Davis (About Schmidt, 2002) play Ben’s parents and Frank Grillo (End of Watch, 2012) plays Jason’s father. The last story is that of a couple, Cindy (Paula Patton) and Derek (Alexander Skarsgård) who have become distant from each other as the result of having lost a child and how they cope with having their credit card details stolen online as a result of them spending so much time on the Internet in an attempt to find refuge from their problems. These stories are all cleverly and subtly interwoven throughout the movie and at times you are given glimpses of how things could have gone in another direction instead of the one the plot follows. Things could go horribly wrong or they can go right.

I enjoyed Disconnect a lot. It’s a very apt story in our digital age and hits home with its message. I highly recommend that you go see it.

Horses and Getting Back On Them

Now that I think about it (I've been putting this off), moving down to Cape Town at the drop of a hat has been quite a mission. Most of my experiences for the last three weeks have been new to me: new job, new location (this is still not settled yet), new people, new Apple Mac to get used to at the office (I still want to throw it out of the window) and some other things I can't think of now. All this means that my routines and structures have been thrown out of the old window.

Road down to the Promenade, Bantry Bay

I've been very into gym but that's on hold now till I finally move into the place I'll actually be living in in the Gardens/Vredehoek area. I tried setting up some sort of routine but between living in a guesthouse for a week and now a backpackers that's failed miserably. Running's been my only salvation in terms of exercise even though my plan was to kick up the gym thing a notch and tone down on the running. But I need some sort of outlet and running along the Promenade for the first week in Cape Town and now having discovered a mountain route near Observatory has been and continues to be very scenic. My diet's also shot to hell! I've been living on cereal and take out food for three weeks and I've only cooked once. First of all I'm very lazy to cook, I've been busy and lastly it's a waste for me to go stock up on groceries when I am going to be moving in a few days time. I try at least make the food I eat be clean in terms of nutrition but it's not working out all that great.

Running route in Newlands Forest

Having a new job that I spend most of my day at actually doing things (and adjusting to speaking Afrikaans all day) also means that my freelance and recreational writing pursuits have been benched for a while. This has been upsetting me the most as I was starting get my writing out into the media world and people were responding positively to it. This morning I told myself that it's best to accept that till I move to Gardens and get settled in my writing will be on hold. I think I've even managed to convince myself to look at it as a little holiday. I was looking forward to covering some E3 news for Xbox 360 Gamer SA and that didn't happen but hey! It's the gaming industry and till the Xbox One and Playstation 4 actually do get released there'll be lots of news to dig up for speculation's sake.

I'm a movie fanatic and even that's taken a knock. I still haven't seen Star Trek: Into Darkness and Man of Steel :( and I had the time this last weekend but then I was broke from just living in good ol' Cape Town. I'm even sad about things like Oblivion (Meh, Tom Cruise) and After Earth (Yay, Will Smith).

My bookworm ways haven't deteriorated to naught at least and that's a good thing. When all else fails in my life there's always J.R.R. Tolkien to read more about. I'm reading Tom Shippey's Tolkien: Author of the Century and after getting passed the rather tedious Foreword I'm enjoying the book. Everything by Tolkien and about Tolkien is food to my soul and I happen to be in possession of a very ravenous soul.

That's more or less what's happening with me and it's amazing and frustrating all at once. As Fall Out Boy (those amazing boys) would say, let the good time roll in case God doesn't show.

Settling In

I'm a hobbit at heart, soul and feet. I love food, warmth and comfort. I tend to dislike new experiences and new places because it means I have to take some time getting used to them and I feel weird during that whole process. My Tookish side, which is to say my adventurous side sees me through such times and when I am at the other end I'm not sure how I got there but it feels like home.

I arrived in Cape Town last week Sunday to the most dreadful weather possible! It was just hail and wind that threatened to sweep me off of my feet. The city was still very beautiful though and I couldn't wait to explore it and get to know it. I lived in Bantry Bay for the first week, near the sea and that was lovely! I got to run along the coast and watch waves when I came from work. Some really nice folk even took me to Stellenbosch to do some wine farming over the weekend and that was just beautiful. I'm earnestly considering moving to Stellenbosch for a while after getting to know Cape Town intimately.

Work has been nice and confusing at times but I'm getting the hang of it and will be a rockstar at it. The people are uber friendly and Afrikaans so my Afrikaans brain is kicking in full force and I will be a chocolate boertjie very soon.

I've moved again, to a backpackers in Observatory this time and it's an odd experience living with so many people from so many different countries. I got to talk to some cool people though and that's great.

That's me still getting the lay of the land and laying down a framework for the future :).

Audio Slave: Slaughterhouse's Our House, My Battle Song

"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"

Farewell to My City

 “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.

Xbox One Reveal – A Summary

Xbox One Reveal – A Summary

Me summing up the Xbox One reveal from last week for you. I do these things because I love you :).

The Gig Life: Fractured Lives Book Launch 08/05/2013

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.

Go see Iron Man 3

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 ;).

Go see Iron Man 3