I’ve had half a dozen bloggable experiences in the past 48 hours. Please bear with me while I catch up.
I’ll start with the most recent: yesterday’s Fête de la Musique in Melville. Fête de la Musique is a free music festival sponsored by the Alliance Française. This is the second year in a row that the Fête has taken place in Melville, which is a great source of pride to those of us who live here and believe our suburb deserves more love.
I blogged about the Fête last year, so yesterday I decided to enjoy the day like a regular person rather than a blogger. I brought my camera with me but didn’t really plan to take any photos.
Then I found myself standing on a table in a new venue on 7th Street called the ‘Fro Music Lounge, watching a band called The Brother Moves On. I was so amazed by the scene that I had to pull my camera out.
The Brother Moves On performs at ‘Fro Music Lounge.
Note the sea of people, both inside the club and stretching to infinity outside. Note the band members in the center of the room, clad in what appear to be boy scout uniforms and red berets. Note the band’s drag-queen sidekick (red gloves, leopard-print jacket, curly black wig) shaking his booty in the middle of the crowd.
It’s not the best photo I’ve ever taken, but I think it says everything that needs to be said about Fête de la Musique and Melville more generally. Such fun.
After the performance my friend Pearl took a photo of me with Siya, lead singer of The Brother Moves On. Unfortunately the lighting was bad the photo came out very blurry. Sad.
Since I can’t include that shot, I’ll post another shot of Siya that I took a few months ago.
On the day the shot below was taken, I received a random Facebook invitation late in the afternoon to watch The Brother Moves On perform at their house in Melville. I had seen the band play a few times, but had never met the musicians and didn’t realize they live a couple of blocks from me. I was initially suspicious when I got the Facebook invite, which was shared publicly. The Brother Moves On is a popular band – would they really invite a bunch of strangers to their house for a gig?
Instagram of Siya and The Brother Moves On, performing in their living room.
This is Melville. So the answer is yes. It was one of the best live performances I’ve seen in South Africa.
Melville = awesome.
How have I never blogged about 44 Stanley Avenue, the coolest shopping and dining complex in Joburg, which is only five minutes from my house?
I guess it’s wrong to say I’ve never blogged about 44 Stanley; I’ve mentioned it countless times over the years (see here and here) when writing about specific restaurants or shops that are there. But I’ve never written a dedicated post about 44 Stanley as a destination and it’s about time I did – especially now, with the holidays upon us.
I’ve been dreadfully uninspired lately, struggling to think of anything I want to blog about despite having a long list of great ideas (many of which you, my readers, provided in September). I’m finding it hard to feel positive about life at the moment. But on Saturday Thorsten and I got the chance to visit Indwe Park, an indigenous garden and sculpture park in Braamfontein, and I knew I had my topic for today.
Given this week’s political nuclear bomb blast, it feels like a weird time to publish a light-hearted post about my recent (pre-election) jaunt through the United States. But I’m hoping you’ve have had enough of the U.S. election horror show – I know I have – and are ready (at least temporarily) for some wholesome American travel adventures. If so, please read on about my four-day visit to Maine, the northeastern-most state in the lower 48, with my sister, Susanna.
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It makes me smile, when I see it.