Read all about the new show coming Bad Romance

Bad Romance is opening soon in Durban

Stars from the show:  Kerry-lee McKibbin and Tasha Basson

                                         

BAD ROMANCE – music review + comedy

Starring: vocalists: Kerry-lee McKibbin, Tasha Basson plus back up dancers
Comedians: Glen Bo & Robby Collins
Dates: April 4th-21st :Thurs,Fri, Sat at 8pm and Sunday at 1pm.
Tickets: R80-R100

Featuring music from:Lady Gaga, The Offspring, Red Hot Chili Pepers, Katy Perry, The Beatles, Nirvana, The Cure, Rihana, Franz Ferdinand, Ke$ha, Justin Beiber and Coldplay

Synopsis: Two brothers (comedians Glen Bo & Robby Collins) are searching for dates to the Matric Farewell, dealing with love, break-ups and their Mom. Set in Durban watch as their imagination and story unfolds to party-music and sublime acoustic sets taking a trip through the 90’s and today with Pop & Rock Hits sung by (McKibbin – Heritage, Barnyard, Pumpkin Theatre, Sibaya shows) and Tasha Basson (Alphalive and shows)  Expect interactive fun, Live singers, dancers and comedic skits taking a fresh take on music-revue show format.

Written by McKibbin & Glen Bo.

Produced by McKibbin Studios and DeathbyLIVE Productions in association with the DSOC( Durban Society of Comedy) & the Catalina Unlimited Theatre.

Tickets via www.computicket.com

Catalina Theatre Box Office: 031 305 6889
info@durbancomedy.co.za

R80 pre-sale R100 at the door. Student and Pensioner discounts apply with valid cards for R80.

More details on www.facebook.com/dsocevents and www.glenbo.co.za   
http://www.catalinatheatre.co.za

(Source - Durban Comedy Productions and DSOC) 

The good folk producing this show have given us 2 tickets for you guys.
To win them all you have to do is Tweet @fredfelton and tell him which
famous Durban Comedian stars in the show? You must also use the 
hashtag #BadRomance in your tweet.  We will do the lucky draw 
on Friday 22 March.  Good Luck! 

Competition is now closed well done to our winner Ashishta :) 

The Mondays At St Clements Short Story Competition

Mondays at St. Clements

Short Story Competition 2013

Precisely 100 words

 (no more, no less)

Our short-story competitions in 2011 and 2012 attracted over 100 submissions each year. We have therefore decided to make this an annual event to coincide with the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere.

In celebration of the shortest day of the year which falls on 21 June in 2013, Mondays at St. Clements is celebrating National Short Story Day. We follow the lead of a UK-wide celebration with the same name, an initiative aimed at promoting fiction in its succinct form, focusing on South African writing that lends itself to this tradition.


Short Story Competition 2013

    GUIDELINES

• length: 100 words (excluding title).

      stories of more or less than 100 words will be disqualified

• entries by email to kwasuka1@mweb.co.za
• state author’s name and wordcount
• use large font: eg. Times New Roman, 14 pt.
• author of winning story will receive a presentation box of wine

     or electric coffee percolator.

• stories will be adjudicated by DAVID BASCKIN
• author’s names will be deleted for adjudication
• no more than 7 submissions per person will be considered
• stories submitted for previous competitions will not be considered
• closing date: Monday  3 June, 2013
• the top ten stories will be published in le petit déjeuner 3,

     comprising a selection of 50 short stories

• all stories will be read at St. Clements on the two Mondays following the presentation.

NOTE  Each year a different judge is invited to adjudicate the stories.
            2011: Kobus Moolman
            2012: Graham Linscott, Carolyn Howie and Richard Finch
            2013: David Basckin

Good Luck!

(Source - Mondays At St Clements) 

An Inspiring ECR GIBS Executive Breakfast

This week I attended the East Coast Radio, GIBS Executive Breakfast.
It was indeed quite inspiring.

Speakers - Nicola Tyler, Buhle Dlamini, and Nick Binedell with East Coast Radio's Trish Taylor
and Seema Diahnan and TIKZN's Wendile Gumede and Norman Chorn.

Put on by East Coast Radio and Trade and Investment Kwazulu-Natal (TIKZN) the GIBS
Breakfast had some fantastic speakers.

Seema Diahnan from East Coast Radio started us off and introduced everyone.

Nicola Tyler was a wonderful MC for the event.

Transnet CEO Brian Molefe

We heard a great talk by Brian Molefe the Transnet CEO.  He told us about the developments
happening at Durban Harbour.  New Cranes will be put in place, new infrastructure.
Twenty Years from now the Durban Harbour will need upgrading.  Transnet is focused on spending on training as as well.  He told us that new jobs are on the horizon over the next 7 years.

Nick Binedell was very inspiring.  He reminded us to learn faster than the rate of change.  He also told us
that there was no country of our size that has produced so many champions.   He told us that SA has a legacy of greatness.  Good people want to work in great companies he said.  Great companies want to be in great countries.  People need great countries.

Norman Chorn showed us how organisations work and the changing face of technology.  This is a much more complex world he reminded us.  He asked us, 'What is the dominant competitive position of your company?'

Lastly we had an inspiring talk by Buhle Dlamini.  What a motivator he is.  He suggested we change our thinking and look for the opportunities.

To find out more follow the hashtag #ecrgibs on www.twitter.com
and get more insight into the Breakfast.

All in all a wonderful event and successful executive breakfast.

Article by Fred Felton - Photo's Courtesy of East Coast Radio.


(Fred Felton was a guest of East Coast Radio.)

Top Durban Speakers at Your Bidding including @makhosikhoza01 @AnilSalick @fredfelton

PSASA Durban is having a great special at the moment.  They are doing some fundraising and you
can book some of their top speakers at a huge discount.  All the money is going to a good cause
so have a look at some of their speakers for your next event, workshop or conference.

Place Your Bids Now!
email: anil.salick@synout.co.za  or call 083-253-7057



(Source - PSASA Durban)

Events, Tales of Coffee and a great Short Story this week

Events

Pat Fleuriot started working 1 week after finishing High School. He completed his Articles of Workmanship through Price Waterhouse, spent 18 years in Accountancy and has been a Certified Financial Planner since 2007. 

Pat is currently a Fellow Partner, Financial Advisor at Fleuriot and Associates and is passionate about ascertaining client’s needs, assessing their financial strength, challenging and guiding them to protect and create wealth. 

He has been married to Jacqueline, for only 26 years. They have a pigeon pair – Richard, his son and partner in F&A and Danielle, his daughter is doing her Masters in USA. 

Pat is a skilled learner, analytic, disciplinarian and activator – which is sure to challenge you! 

Come and join us as Pat shares his journey with us: 

Date: 15th March 2013 
Time: 7:30am-9:30am 
Venue: Three Peaks House, 22A Underwood Road, Pinetown 
Cost: R 114.00 incl. VAT. (Healthy breakfast and coffee incl.) 

Bring a business associate or customer who has never attended one of our workshops before and only pay for one seat. 

Seats are limited to encourage the interactive nature of this event so BOOK NOW to avoid disappointment. 

To book: Contact Janis on 0861 373 257 or email: janism@threepeaks.co.za

(Source - Threepeaks)


A Profusion of Café Society by Timothy Sparks
Relinquish forty minutes in your day, alight from your vehicle and follow the lure of café society. Woody Allen’s charming film ‘Midnight in Paris’ celebrates this break in the cloud that art, dreams and alluring company can give on a pavement near  where you live. You may not wish to rub shoulders with the likes of the “Water drinkers” immortalised in the life, and loves of Henry Murger whose charmed existence was retold in Puccini’s Opera, La Boheme. Place your order and stimulate your senses through these café’s in your city…   

Durban has one coffee shop in the old part of the City. The House of Coffees lies across the street, well almost, from the Royal Hotel and is a place of secrets. The entire area was once an impenetrable labyrinth. Empty commerce and broken dreams whisper from the walls.

In this balmy atmosphere poetry is very far away. Within a fall of masonry from the City Hall, this denizen of café’s blazes a trail of coffee and chocolate cake. Echoes abide, the Bookshop of Steve and Tony’s (now gone) entices one with memories of the old elegance, not out of place in the tale of ‘The Shadow of the Wind’- by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, there are ghosts here; some not worth remembering. The Victoria Boer War Memorial seems to sigh under the blue sky drawing the onlookers, but dispersing doves. House of Coffees is a port of call for businessmen yoked to their coffee by force of habit. Yes, haunts such as these still exist in Smith Street. 

So much for History! No fancy, huddled Umhlangans crowding themselves in banks of sunglasses, and wit. This cavern of melancholy has to be dreamed to be believed. Speaking of sunglasses when last did you visit Vide e Caffé with their red truffle chairs, falling a bit short of Lisbon on a good day?
My first visit to Vida e Caffé was on foot, and sans atmosphere with my newspapers folding at all angles like a meringue. Without these columns and conversation on Saturday morning in Innes Road, I thought Russian-Roulette was in the offing.  Luckily gallery chatting brought Art into view and Durban was compared to Salisbury (Harare) for anyone who was counting. Conversation made the red chairs seem like a surreal statement, an existential meditation of epic proportions. Paintings are missing from this café without any sense of being robbed. 

After all, Harvey’s is next door. Unfortunately said restaurant obscures its true heart. Emotions of great importance are entertained here, and filters through like the minds who dreamt up a building named ‘Best on Seventh’ but the cappuccinos seem harmless enough.

Vide e Caffé should be upstairs through a corridor, and in an antechamber with a false bottom, propped up against the books of Fernando Pessoa. These simple red chairs seem to hypnotise the pretentious crowd, but I am told this is the positive side. A miniature Balkanised café of Umhlanga’s fringes, nestles on the corner of Tender Road surface paid by Apparatchiks or Aperitifs of Zuma:  “infants of the storm,” - we are all fugitives sipping cappuccinos amid waves of subtle and supple maidens, flouting conventions by discussing the foliage outside Villa Shaik, the hairstyle of poodles and the mating habits of sardines.
One of my finest Portuguese friends left South Africa for a run in London. An architect by day, friend of Lisbon by evening, I imagine he would love to chat about the subject of coffee shop revival. 

My conversation with my new friend was punctuated by talk about Colombo Tea and Coffee Co. now dubbed the Factory Café. Does anyone call it The Factory Café? Never mind, I can remember the coffee, fresh and strong; bruising stuff. French Press, Guatemalan Pouring Coffee- heavy brews tapering off, into a distant purple part of the brain. Echoes of sublime evenings in dim bars, paintings of light distilled in the four corners. Talk was stretched out like filter paper:  a canvas of unspoken and unknown provenance. Drinking coffee at The Factory Café is a bit like a Merlot tasting in Cato Manor, unexpected but the atmosphere is muted like a scene from a David Lynch movie.

From this haven in Glenwood, we move to a café of French Resistance created near the fabled Sutton Park. Something draws one to the coffee. The new café set in a rather remarkable garden, is tended by Monsieur Jean-Francois who has both heart and character much like the zesty name, Café  Saint-Germain. French flair pours from the kitchen and the service is prompt and has its eye on detail. In this somewhat hidden cradle of French pastries, Gallic abandon fills the air with joie de vivre. Shapes and contrasts rub green swaths of tablecloths into this subdued place of French charms.

The next café might have been designed by the Poet de Nerval in a good mood. Style is almost everything, but we are eclipsed by the constants of time, coffee and the ambience that draws every part of the soul into the embrace of carpentry, coffee and conversation. Dream of the Athénée at the Palais Royal, where Apollinaire embroiders the crowd with mad stories, amidst the vanishing point of the piano. Solace and detail, expression and passion, demand every breath and coffee sends one into raptures: one day one may relish a coffee from Naples, stirring the senses. The expresso makes you sit bolt upright on another. Drink and take in these charms, this café is really beautiful and the small garden is an oasis, known amongst the cognoscenti.  Proprietor Senoré Stephano Toffoli   believes in the vision of the Café des Artistes, a galvanising dream that distinguishes his café from the run-of the mill, duplicating cafes that pervade the atmosphere in the city. One is reminded that in the middle of Berlin’s winter, coffee shops are full of artists and people thronging the Strasse. In a short time, Churchill’s seems to have created a place where fashion, Art and finesse jolt the scene in the bustling atmosphere that is Durban.   

This opinion piece written by Timothy Sparks.  He is a Freelance Writer and Part-Time Teacher.
email tpwsparks@hotmail.com

(Source - Durban Chamber of Commerce) 

Vedanta World Durban Golf Day 

Details:

 COURSE:               Royal Durban Golf Club              

  DATE:                     Friday, 05 April 2013                    

  TIME:                     10:30am (Two tees)

  FORMAT:              Four-Ball Betterball Stableford

  ENTRY FEE:          R3000 per Four-Ball (incl. green fee & dinner) 

      For Registration Details: Please contact Sumi  071 111 5505 email: admin@vedanta.org.za

(Source - Vedanta) 

OH JOHNNY by Andrew Verster

“Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, where have you been?”

“Up to London to see the Queen.”

“And what was she like?”

“I didn’t actually see her as she was in India launching a ship or opening a crèche.”

“So what did you do?”

“I sent postcards to all my friends and said how marvellous it was seeing her. That is what they wanted to hear and I didn’t want to disappoint them.”

“So what if they find out?”

“I’ll cover it up with more lies. There’s plenty of time to invent a few.”

“Is that honest?”

“Truth is relative.”

“And lies?”

“Likewise.”

“So what WAS she like?”

“Marvellous. Even better than in her photographs.”

Andrew Verster is a world famous artist and writer based in Durban.

 email:

ANDREWVERSTER784@GMAIL.COM

The Weekend Edition - Events Around Durban and a great Short Story

GIBS and East Coast Radio Executive Breakfast - Leading with Impact

Join GIBS, East Coast Radio and Trade and Investment KZN for the third annual and much anticipated executive business breakfast - Leading with Impact. Confirmed speakers include: Brian Molefe, CEO: Transnet; Prof Nick Binedell, dean: GIBS; Nicola Tyler, CEO: Business Results Group; Norman Chorn, author: Future Builders; and Buhle Dlamini, founder: Young & Able Date: Thursday, 7 March 2013 Time: 07:30 - 11:00 Venue: ICC, Durban, 45 Bram Fischer Road, Durban Fees: R500 per person, R4 750 for a table of ten Contact: Gloria Bokaba on 011 771 4229 or email bokabag@gibs.co.za

(Source - GIBS)

Durban Chamber Event

To book Email - Events@durbanchamber.co.za

(Source - Durban Chamber)

MY DEAREST AUNT by Andrew Verster

It was a sad place, BOXLY HOUSE, a retirement home for the frail, started by Professor Ronald Boxly as somewhere to house his aged, fragile and garrulous mother of 89.

“Either I go mad, or she goes anywhere but here.”

It was sad because the Professor didn’t have quite enough money saved to do what people call “a proper job.” Unwillingly, he had to cut corners, and the result was very far from perfect, in fact, far from just alright.  The rooms were cramped, the ventilation poor, and with old people who are, often, through no fault of their own, not the most of hygienic people, the place had a fetid smell, no matter how much AIRWICK they planted here and there. The windows were thrown open first thing, come rain, hail, sunshine, hurricane or fog, and stayed that way till Matron left round seven and the night staff took over.  

But as most of the inhabitants were heading towards dementia, some hurrying, some ambling, the world they lived in bore little similarity to the actual world or that of Boxly House.”

“We do our best, but I often regret that our best is not good enough. Please excuse me, I see Hilda van Niekerk heading for the fish pond.  Sorry, I interrupted you. Who did you come to see?”

“Molly Stanton.”

“Didn’t they call you? How naughty of them. She let herself out this morning and apparently has taken a coach to Umhlanga, though we haven’t been able to trace the coach. Nor her. But I’m sure she’ll turn up, like a bad Penny. Oh I AM sorry. That was a most unfortunate turn of phrase.”

Andrew Verster is a World Famous Artist and Writer Based in Durban. 

Email:  ANDREWVERSTER784@GMAIL.COM

Here comes the Insanity League and we have a story by @AndrewVersterSA

The Rise of The Insanity League - Aaron McIlroy, Ben Voss and John van de Ruit

Everyone’s ‘normal’ till you get to know them!
 

The Insanity League is a comedy movement, comprising comic actors Aaron McIlroy, Ben Voss and – making a welcome return to the stage after an absence of a decade – John van de Ruit. The trio have teamed up to deliver a sketch comedy show which pokes, provokes and tickles in all the right places – and they’ll be hitting the road from March 2013 for a nationwide tour

The Insanity League was conceived early in 2012 after too much caffeine and not enough fresh air. An inspired conversation led to the frantic scribbling-down of comedy sketch ideas and a plan for nationwide domination was hatched. Between March and September 2013, The Insanity League will bring their more than slightly-left field ideas to theatres in Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban, Hilton, Cape Town and Johannesburg. Their ‘Minute of Madness’ sketches are already broadcast regularly on East Coast Radio and Jacaranda 94.2FM.

The show promises to be more than just a random selection of sketches – the team is preparing a comic study on insanity unlike anything ever seen on the stage in South Africa before. An inspired set is taking shape around their manic ramblings, with Director Greig Coetzee carefully crafting the trio’s comic performances.

Aaron McIlroy is probably South Africa’s least-tauntable ginger. Provoke him at your peril – the master of scything punch lines and nuclear takedowns improvises quicker than a tenderpreneur in front of a Carte Blanche camera. McIlroy has previously earned his stripes and laughs by touring the country with killer comedy shows including Dof, The Golfer, The Loser, and @work.

Ben Voss is best known for his alter ego - Beauty Ramapelepele – a fixture on the South African theatre circuit with a residency on Easy Coast Radio and Jacaranda. Together with John van de Ruit he co-developed the explosive comedies - Green and Black Mamba.

John van de Ruit rose to prominence with Voss in the abover-mentioned sketch theatre shows, developing an eager following countrywide. He rose to prominence as an author with his ‘Spud’ series. Four books and two films later, he’s extricated himself from the couch and has joined the team for an insanely hilarious romp.

The madcap itinerary

• Port Elizabeth - Boardwalk Casino 5-9 March.
• East London -   Guild Theatre 12-16 March
• Durban -            Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre 26 March – 28 April
• Johannesburg - Montecasino 17 July – 11 August
• Cape Town -     Theatre on the Bay 14 August – 1 September
• Hilton Arts Festival - 13-15 September
• Pretoria -            TBA

Keep in touch on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheInsanityLeague or on Twitter @InsanityLeague.

BLOCK BOOKINGS & FUNDRAISERS NATIONWIDE: Contact Ailsa Windsor of Going Places: 0832502690 or email:editor.goingplacessa@gmail.com. Tickets can also be purchased from Computicket outlets (www.computicket.com or 0861 915 8000), except for the run in East London – tickets are available from The Guild Theatre on (043) 743 0704/5




(Source - The Insanity League) 

THE NAMES OF DURBAN TAXIS AND BUSES by Andrew Verster

THE DIVINE WIND : MAHARANI’S PRIDE : KRISHNA’S EXPRESS :

BOMBAY CRUSH : LAXMI QUEEN : DIRTY DEALER : MAC DADDY

NIGERIAN TERROR : DEMOLITION MAN : PIRANHA

Andrew Verster is a World Famous Artist and Writer

Email: ANDREWVERSTER784@GMAIL.COM