#Culture

On Thursday I attended a performance of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO). I had a great time, but I don’t know a lot about classical music so I feel uncomfortable reviewing the performance in the traditional sense.

Several days ago, the City of Johannesburg embarked on a campaign to “clean up” the streets of downtown Joburg by evicting informal street traders. As I understand it, the Johannesburg Metro Police swept through the city and ordered every single street vendor to pack up and go home. Tons of goods were confiscated and the police reportedly used force in some cases. (Read more in this article published in the Citizen.)

Mexican/Latin-American food is one of the things I’ve missed most in South Africa. There are a couple of Mexican restaurants in Joburg, including one in Melville called Café Mexicho. (Read my reviews of that establishment – which I now think were overly generous – here and here.) But Mexican food in this town tends to be mediocre.

From the Melville Cat:

I’m free at last. The blasted cone was removed.

May this horrid collar never adorn my neck again. (If you missed the story of how I got the cone in the first place, read here.)

The giant sphere that floated atop the Hillbrow Tower (aka Telkom Tower) for the last four years – painted first like a soccer ball (for the 2010 World Cup) and later like a hot pink dot (an ad for Telkom’s 8•ta mobile phone service) – came down in September.