I am Iron Man

This is what I'm doing tomorrow night. I managed to get my hands on some tickets to the NYC premier and have invited some friends along for the action. Our tickets even have VIP printed on them in big red letters. We will be posing as ballers, apparently.



Sometimes I feel badly about the current dearth of serious content on my website -- but what's a boy to do when he's having so much fun?

the Shopocalypse is coming

I'm giving up on this work thing for a minute to go check out the Durban International Film Festival. Those are the posters for it over there on the left. Pretty cool, aren't they? DIFF is run through the University of KwaZulu Natal here in Durban, and takes place over 10 days each winter. I don't have much time to write about it more just now, but here's the description for the film I'm going to see this afternoon:

WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY?
d. Rob Van Alkemade, USA 2007 DOC 23 Suncoast 16h00; 24 Musgrave 14h15

This funny and thought-provoking fi lm follows “Reverend Billy” and his gospel choir on a crusade across America to rescue people from the “Shopocalypse” that grips Americans
most feverishly around Christmas. Subjecting themselves to harassment and arrest, Reverend Billy’s team brings anti-corporate and anti-consumerist messages to shopping malls through beguiling but satirical, Christmas songs. Humorous adaptations of confession and exorcism drive home the message that millions of Americans are replacing Christian love with materialism. Screening as part of the Poverty and Inequality Challenge Film Festival.

Filmmaker in attendance
English, Video, 91 min

///


I can't imagine a more interesting place to see this movie. Some South Africans are religious in a way similar to how I imagine this Revered Billy character will be. I'm not sure if the film festival will draw that particular crowd - but movie goers will probably see an interesting reflection of their own culture in a movie made far, far away in America.

I gotta roll. Later

///

**Update** The movie was excellent. I highly recommend that you guys check it out when it gets a wider release in America later this fall. The film debuted at SxSW in Austin and has picked up a lot of momentum since then. Interestingly, this documentary was produced by Morgan Spurlock's (the guy who filmed himself eating exclusively McDonald's products for a month in Super Size Me) company. The filmmaker was at the showing and ran a nice q&a session after the movie finished. Alright, back to work for a little while.

I got a visa, I got a visa/ I got a visa, hey hey, hey hey!

I think that about says it all. For those of you keeping track at home (or those who read my earlier post), I decided to get a tourist visa - which, it turns out, doesn't even require a visit to the South African Consulate. This visa can be extended by either leaving the country every 90 days or through an application to the Home Affairs office - both of which can be done in a single day. Applying for the temporary residence permit proved to me too much of a hassle, and I think having an excellent excuse to leave the country every 3 months will prove to be a good thing.

I have also been spending some time trying to track down books, movies, &c. about life in southern Africa, and South Africa in particular. Most of what I have found - Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, the books of JM Coetzee, Cry the Beloved Country, Mandela's autobiography Long Walk to Freedom - center around a South Africa in the midst of Apartheid. And while these books give me a great deal of historical perspective on South Africa, I wonder if these books are now dated in a particular way.

Part of me feels that this books might still be relevant, and it is obvious to me why, for 45 years, fiction and nonfiction work coming out of South Africa focused on the issues of Apartheid. However, with the democratic elections of 1994 and 1999, I am hoping that the dialouge in South Africa has progressed some since these books and movies were penned.

Have any of you read books or seen movies that address post-Apartheid South Africa? I would love to hear about them - good, bad, or otherwise.


I also wanted to let you know that I'm currently deciding between the Friday the 19th and Saturday the 20th, but that my going away party will be at the Luca Lounge between 13th and 14th streets on Avenue B in the East Village. Hopefully I'll have a finalized date for you guys by tomorrow - check back here soon.