ANTAKALIPA

Godspell At the Wits Theatre to watch the Student Production of the Year, "Godspell". So glad it was not preachy, you can't be too sure when Jesus is the main character. He is a good, chilled guy in this production, he even has on his "Superman" shirt. He preaches compassion, joy and faith. A musical conceived by John Micheal Tebelak with music and new lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Godspell presents a series of parables, mostly drawn from the Gospel of Matthew, told through a framework of theatrical games, storytelling, and music. Jesus gathers a group of followers and teaches them lessons of love, humility, and service. The story culminates in a poignant reenactment of the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. The set is simple, wide stage and a fence at the back. Behind the fence above is a big cross made of wood pallets, on either side of the big cross are small crosses also made of wood pallets. The set reinforces the Christian t...

The Importance of Being Earnest Day 4, an extended birthday run, at Ster-Kinekor Rosebank to watch "The Importance of Being Earnest".  One of my favorite superhero movies of all time is Spider-Man 2. In the movie, Peter Parker's love interest, Mary-Jane Watson stars in a Broadway play called "The Importance of Being Earnest". I was always curious, always wanted to see this Oscar Wilde classic. A full circle moment, today I got to watch it on the big screen with Popcorn, Cream Soda with ice and crisp sound. Live theatre production straight from the UK, a production by National Theatre. Watching theatre on the big screen is so refreshing, there's even an interval, the cinema is in my life again, Janet de Kretser is my new best friend.  Oscar Wilde is undoubtedly one of the greatest playwrights of all time. The writing on "The Importance of Being Earnest" is truly phenomenal, with wit, sarcasm, humor, irony, perfect...

Belinda Davids Day 3 at the Joburg Theatre to watch the Whitney Houston tribute show. Whitney Houston is Sharon Spiegel-Wagner's favorite artist of all time. Sharon is also born in August. Happy Birthday great man, long live antakalipa, live long!  Sam and Stew have watched this four times and they don't rule out a fifth. Best birthday ever, I can't conceive of anything better. I never saw Whitney, however she taught me the greatest love of all. I have made up my mind, Belinda Davids is my favorite performer of all time. Belinda Davids is Whitney Houston maybe even better, sacrilegious, I know, I don't know what to say after watching something like that. She is truly amazing!  After the show, I followed Belinda on all her socials because I want her to stay with me forever. So in love with Belinda Davids, that voice, the technique. She is so beautiful. She is perfect. I've never experienced anything like that, couldn't stop singing and cla...

Father and I  Day 2 at the Market Theatre to watch this poignant and emotionally charged play "Father and I". A play that delves into interpersonal relationships between fathers and their offspring. It explores what it means to be a father. To have someone teach you the intracies of life, someone who inspires you and hones skills in you so you can live life with purpose and deliberately. To instill good values, to be dependable, honest and trustworthy. Care and support your family. Someone to teach you stick-fighting and being an honorable man. The stories are told in the first person, making them subjective and personal. The stories evoke nostalgia and have the performers reminiscing about simpler times. Tata taking us to Spur every month and buying me ice-cream after school. He used to be a good guy when he was younger but now we are estranged, yes, he has children all over but still. We see one of the performers regress to a childlike state recounting and reliv...

La Bella Day 1 of my birthday weekend at The Cirk to watch "La Bella - I am a woman". Big weekend, you have to start strong!  I can't imagine anything better than The Cirk to kick-start the festivities. It didn't disappoint. All female cast, so many beautiful, literally perfect ladies on the stage. God's glory, perfect bodies, beauty incomprehensible. The show beams sexuality. It is sultry, passionate and sexy - to reference Beyonce, oh so bootylicious. Costumes: underwear, lingerie and poles to dance for you.  The female form is a thing of beauty, it is art. When it stretches and bends like elastic, it is awe-inspiring. It stimulates your imagination, it's suggestive, it makes you day-dream with your eyes wide awake. It's so difficult to keep your eyes off the ladies on the stage, they are captivating and embody the spirit of femininity. Nothing exists besides them, beauty and talent like that doesn't negotiate. The...

STAR LINE Chance the Rapper is back! Thank you for coming back to us Lil Chano. Sometimes you lose your best just so you can come back even stronger. A heck of a redemption arc, you were phenomenal since #10 Day, Acid Rap, Surf and Coloring Book but then the big day came and you flopped spectacularly. Awful album, "I love my wife, I love my wife", you became corny, you became a meme. The big day became ironic and somehow spoiled your previous work. You spiraled out of control and your wife divorced you. You receded into the darkness, you were never heard off again. A lot of fans were disappointed in the big day but I never lost faith, you still won 3 Grammy's independent, talent like that doesn't just fall into obscurity. So what she left? Move forward, life goes on, some of us have been here since #10 Day. Having Chance the Rapper at 30 is such a blessing. No one in the mainstream raps anymore, he was never mainstream, he fills the gap. Whitne...

celebrity II: Clout Making viral content that stretches across all fours like a tent. Clout, likes, shares, eyeballs anything for that content. Will use my kids to get likes, gimme, gimme, gimme! Degenerate, attention seeker, will sell my mamma for some views. Can never be content with that 9 to 5, provides life without substance - content. Content is king. Dopamine infested existence, chasing a thrill, a high, virality, clout, shock value, sex! Celebrity, celebrity would do anything for the views. Insight disrespect and cut queues, I am on a stream, 50000 views, 50 million more and I'll be living my dream. Bot clique, manufactured social proof, 6 million followers but no engagement. Pay attention to me, look at what I can do, I've got a big ass, I can dance for you, subscribe and see my cat, it's pink!  Controversy, shock value, disrespect, violence, clout, everybody can be famous, anyone can be a celebrity. The death of mainstream has destroyed civility. Tal...

Folie a deux Gaga sent me back here, Gaga is endorsed by Sam. A troll this movie is, "Joker: Folie a deux", it's in the name, thought you were getting something critically acclaimed but you are getting a musical. Same camera guys, same director, same team but you are getting a musical - bring in Lady Gaga!  Caught me off guard the first time, 23 minutes in, I paused and checked the internet, I thought it was a psychological thriller. Blood on the streets, a barrage of negative reviews, still have 2 hours to go. Let it breath, let it breath, abandon the mission. I saved time, what if they butcher the memory of the first movie? Let it breath, let it breath, if it's good, it will come back again. A couple of months later, I fall in love with Gaga and she sends me back to Folie a deux. Let's try again. The story continues, Arthur is trialed for the murder of 5 people, one live on TV. Arthur's shadow catches up and engulfs his life, underrated masterpie...

GANGSTER II I've found that to be successful, you have to be a monster. Integrate your darkside, shatter glass, break the forth wall. A good man is one who knows he is dangerous but controls himself. We often lie about success claiming that if you work hard enough you'll attain everything you ever want. But that's a lie, although not popular, success is given. You are given that corner, move product, make money. If the corner is unoccupied, take it, claim it, it's yours now, protect your territory, move product, make money. You ascend to the top because you know someone and worked out something that is mutually beneficial. You ascend to the top because of compliance and connections. You ascend to the top because you butchered everyone on the bottom and took the top by force. Force, it displaces objects and moves matter. You have to be powerful to be on top. You work hard, you're a good soldier but someone dictates whether you rise up in rank. You can be ...

Literary genius Just as I feared, Fyodor Dostoevsky has ruined Literature for me. I read other books and authors and it's not the same. They are too surface level, no depth, no risk, lazy, PG, predictable. I don't finish reading the books because they bore me. Everything is mediocre after Dostoevsky. Maybe I will never get somebody as great as Dostoevsky. His characters are multilayered, they have fears, flaws and motivations. Fyodor Dostoevsky illuminates the darkside of human nature. Siberia made him a genius. He was scheduled to be at executed but at the very last minute, the order was changed to life imprisonment instead. Those final minutes, those last seconds when he thought he was going to die made him the writer he ultimately became. In those last moments, the colors of plants and nature were fuller, the sun was shinning just for him, for the last time, he gained clarity, he negotiated with God, begging him for another chance. He would become a new man, he n...

Six inches works Six inches works, It goes deep enough, Won't touch the base of the ocean, But it's enough to induce some screams. Six inches works, More is better, But six is all I got. Won't send her to the emergency room But it's enough to make her drip. Six inches works,  Sure,  I am not Superman or Batman at the least.  I'll take Robin,  He also fights crime and gets the plaudits with the Teen Titans.  Six inches works,  It's the worldwide standard,  Ridiculous to compare myself with God.  Six inches works,  Not well hung,  But sometimes in the summer it drops.  Winter is the real enemy.  Six inches works, Sauce concentrated. See conclusive results in 9 months. Will give you Aids, If that's your thing. Six inches works, It's comfortable and portable. Add fourplay and it gets the job done! 

Scar Sometimes a Mufasa will come out of nowhere to steal your throne, you kill him, they blame you when he was the one that triggered you. I am gonna kill me a king, I am kingslayer. Heroes get set up to take the fall. Making them easy targets, the ones to save the demsel in distress, crocodile tears flooding the ocean, drowning to save a lost course. Sometimes a Mufasa will steal your girl when you already called dibs on her, you betray him, they blame you when he was the one who did it first. You gotta hand out receipts, sometimes the disrespect gets rampant, shaking reality that they don't see who they are next to, a little taste of their medicine levels out the playing field. Sometimes a Mufasa will come out of nowhere to disturb the peace, you start smear campaigns and plot against him, they blame you. When you were next in line. How you gonna let an insignificant creature come out of nowhere to beat you in rank? Convincing everyone of his legibility and taking al...

My Worlds I used to love this album. It had a purity about it, it was innocent, it came from a source that was not tainted by anything, it was all love songs and as a poet, I loved all the poetry about girls and love. I understood and connected with Justin all the way. He was born in 94 and I was born in 95, a big selling point. I remember I had a friend, Nkosana Thusi, who loved his music. He had the "Somebody to love" remix with Usher on his phone as an mp3 when it came out - no one had that, that was the video version, everyone had the original version, the remix was highly sought after. The gents back then weren't open to consuming some Justin Bieber content, everyone was closeted but he had no problem blasting "Baby" featuring Ludacris for all to hear. I would never listen to Justin Bieber out in the open like that! Wouldn't want the girls in school to think I was "soft" and "sensitive". Oh hell no, street cred and reputa...

Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you. Thank you for voicing out your concerns, feedback from the world always helps. I have to be honest, I am also concerned and worried about you. Despite what you may say, you are not an old man, in fact you are operating at the peak of your powers. One might say "in your prime". You need to get better, you can't carry on living like that. Dignity - empower yourself, you need to start making your own money. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, life goes on, trapped in the same loop since 2009. All my friends have guidance and help to get through life and I have had nothing from you - just birthday texts, nothing that will help me progress in the real world. I am confused. Why are you worried? You never helped. Why do you have a voice? You never gave me any choice. Where's your job? How did it turn out for you? What gives you the right to be critical? Oh, I get it, the annual "Happy birthday to you". Passive a...

Happily single Happily single, unattached without staples, we act like relationships are everything, well I am turning the tables. Fixated on long held beliefs, of people living in the past who couldn't conceive, of the 21st century and what living in this time really means. Who said life is a checklist? Ticking items down like a wishlist. Marriage, kids before 30 is that on your list? Useless if you don't meet the list? Working hard to sustain a myth that won't give you peace. What happens when your imagined life won't give you peace? Divorce, custody, yea it's hard to keep the peace. Happily single, it needs to be about me. Single-minded and selfish but I am trying to get the cream. Providing for Africa is my dream. It's a waste of time starring in somebody else's dream. They be trying to change me to their specifications like my reality ain't what it seems. Happily single, we act like children can't be the spoke on the wheel, sure you ...

Jonathan Roxmouth At the Teatro for the Jonathan Roxmouth My favorite Broadway show. Seats so good, you stay seated when someone ahead of you is on their feet. Literally eyeball-to-eyeball with Jonathan and you can see the Maestro's shoes. Thank you Belinda Howard and as always SamSays on the credits.  Charisma, presence, composure, calm, warmth are adjectives to describe Roxmouth. He keeps you engaged, he is captivating and the delivery masterful. Last time I was at the Teatro, I was watching "Swinging Las Vegas" - high octane show with hits galore! Came back for the Maestro and Jonathan Roxmouth for new memories. It's ridiculous how good Jonathan is, he commands the stage, has comedic timing and spellbinding on the mic. Songs about love and a couple of ABBA classics - thank you for the music! He sings with passion, love and attention for his craft. You are at his mercy, the world stops for him. His voice melts on the pan like butter. It is so...

STUPIDITY Beware of the stupid person, he will drag you down to hell. Reason is not his guiding factor, he causes harm to others and himself, leaving everybody worse off. Baffling, he even surprises himself. Stupid people are everywhere, social class, success, education and genes have nothing to do with it. You can find a stupid rich person, in fact they are everywhere. Academia is not a refuge either, the world is filled with stupid professors who are lauded by top Universities and have multiple degrees. They still cause harm to others, while gaining nothing themselves, leaving everybody worse off. Stupidity doesn't discriminate. Attractive people also suffer from stupidity. Stupid people are worse in numbers, the most dangerous thing in the world, the greatest threat to humanity. More dangerous than all the armies in the world combined. More dangerous than criminals and bandits. You can predict the action of criminals and bandits, self-interest usually prevails. They ...