the bioscope: an eclectic spot.

Robyn

Last night my fellow sub editor Natalie Egling and I braved downtown Jo’burg traffic and one-ways to watch an intimate screening of a documentary at The Bioscope. This little treasure of a place is nestled in the heart of the eastern side of Jo’burg’s city centre, which is quickly becoming a trendy hot spot for artists, musicians and culturists alike to hang out and be interesting. 

The Bioscope forms part of the ground level of a renovated 1970s industrial building called Main Street Life, a project developed by Jonathan Liebmann to rejuvenate the inner city, making it an attractive place to live and invest in. Main Street Life is still a work in progress, but residential studios, a boutique hotel, retail shops and a rooftop events venue will make up the rest of this unique place. So, move over Greenside! 

Back to the The Bioscope. Co-founders Darrel Els and Russell Grant started this independent art house and cultural cinema to showcase a mixture of content for SA movie-goers. It’s all about developing local audiences for locally and internationally produced cinema.  And, you can hire it out as a venue, too! Go a little further and open the doors to the Chalkboard Collaboration Café next door – a cosy restaurant that has chalkboard table tops, where you can exhibit your personal art or inspirational quotes for the day.  

I’ve actually been to this artsy-fartsy spot before, but last night it was to see a documentary on childbirth called The Business of Being Born, produced by Ricki Lake (remember her?) and directed by Abby Epstein. It’s a fascinating take on how a woman’s choice in her experience of giving the right of passage is being stolen from her in a world of ‘designer births’, i.e caesareans, and quick turnaround times in hospitals. 

For info on a viewing, call the Genesis Clinic on 011 646 3923 or visit their website Genesisclinic.co.za.  Check out Thebioscope.co.za to see the latest film and documentary screenings.

I made my mark.

Robyn

I voted on May 18. Did you?

I felt so proud standing in the [very short] queue at Edenglen Primary School, waiting to mark my X at the political party I hoped would make a difference to our municipalities. And I must say, I was really impressed by the whole process, which took a massive 20 minutes to complete. 

The line of 80-odd people moved quickly up the path and branched off into five or six organised voting rooms. When I got to mine, I felt quite special seeing my name printed on a piece of paper – like I’d been specially invited to this day, where I could try make a difference to my country. That’s an invitation I’ll accept any day, and I implore you to change your mind if you think otherwise. 

After all, what better invitation to accept than the one to your political party – perhaps one that says it will clean up your streets, offer corruption-free delivery, and lets you know the truth by promising a free and independent media.  

Current municipal election update as of May 20, 2011 
ANC: 153 seats in City of Johannesburg (58.83% of the vote) 
DA:    90 seats in the City of Johannesburg (34.78% of the vote)
Inkatha Freedom Party: 4 seats in City of Johannesburg (1.64% of the vote)

Fabric and samoosas = inspiration

Robyn

Every girl I know has a very foreseeable picture in her mind about what her wedding day will be like. And if not, they will at least know exactly what they do NOT want on that day, i.e, mustard-yellow bridesmaids’ dresses, five noisy flower girls, and your mother’s cupcake wedding dress with puffy sleeves she secretly hopes  you’ll wear, a ’la 1982. 

This weekend I went with my sister, soon to be married, and her other two bridesmaids to the Oriental Plaza to find our purple duchess satin dress material. Apart from the crowds – pushy short women (dressmakers I presume) and bride’s-to-be furiously searching for material – the Oriental Plaza is pre-fashion heaven. And once there, I was irked to see my own wedding colour scheme of navy blue and gun-metal silver change completely after I saw the myriad of fabric available. See, when I stepped into one of the material shops and saw all the satins, silks and chiffons lined up on the racks, every plan I ever made went out the window, as I got inspired by everything from aqua-marine organza (ooo, a beach theme!) to autumn reds and oranges. 
Then, if that wasn’t enough to leave me excitedly frazzled, the spicy, dream-like aroma of samoosas was calling me from every angle. I really gave in. I bought three cheese and two chicken samoosas, and guiltlessly ate them all. Because considering the laps we did around the material track, I felt they were well deserved, and went with the theme of the place … So now my current wedding colour-scheme obsession is salmon-pink silver (a colour I’ve invented), gun-metal grey and light starry silver. It’s something to add to my obsessive wedding portfolio; although, an engagement ring would probably kickstart the whole project.