Lifestyle South Africa weekly newsletter - 5 Feb 2013

Spreading the love

Feeling fairly strapped for cash post-holiday season, but still want to significantly spoil your other half on V Day? Then why not enter Bizcommunity's BizBigBucks competition and stand the chance to win R5000 in cash money! Speaking of giveaways, we have two tickets up for grabs for this Sunday's Kirstebosch Summer Sunset Concert which features Cape Town's finest folk and acoustic musicians. In other music news, the voting is now open for the 7th annual MK Awards.

Eugene Yiga reports back on current popular theatre productions; the sassy Dirty Dancing, and the laugh- / sing-along comedy cabaret Fascinating Aïda. Daniel Dercksen takes on movies; Lawless, and Argo, and Charles Siboto is impressed by latest Tarantino offering Django Unchained.

If you attended Up the Creek this past weekend, I hope good times were had by all and recovery has been swift. Take a browse through our gallery to relive those sunshiny lilo times, and if you're one of the thousands who have tickets for Red Hot Chili Peppers tonight, enjoy! Let's hope the logistical nightmares that plagued Joburg are avoided in the fair Cape.

Ruth Cooper, production manager (@biz_lounge)

PS Please send all your lifestyle and entertainment news to lifestylenews@bizcommunity.com, exclusive opinion pieces to contributors-lifestyle@bizcommunity.com and international news to internationalnews@bizcommunity.com; also take a look at our guide "How to contribute to Bizcommunity, from op-ed pieces to news". Don't forget to follow @Biz_Lounge on Twitter and join us on Facebook!

Dragon Boat Challenge - Have you got what it takes?

[Issued by Corporate Games] This February, 3rd South Africa, Official License Holder of Corporate Games South Africa, is challenging companies to battle it out on the sea for the grand prize of complimentary practice sessions leading up to the Cape Town Corporate Games in June 2013. Read more >> visit press office >>

Stuffed strawberries

[Nina Timm] 2013 started with a bang, that's for sure. I think the load on school-going children is more and more each year and, ultimately, the load on parents too as we drive the taxis that must get our children to their various events. So, putting it mildly, I am a wee bit weak in the knees already and we are in month two only. Luckily, I know that the children will soon settle into their routines and things can become less hectic. Read more >>

Amarok becomes the automatic choice

[Henrie Geyser: motoring editor] Volkswagen's impressive Amarok bakkie has steadily been silencing the pessimistic noises from the doomsday prophets and the blue-bearded 4x4 'manne' who initially scathingly predicted all sorts of performance failures and possibly even the early demise of this classy German 2-litre, twin-turbo one-ton bakkie. Read more >>

Cullinan - a hotel of many facets

[Brian Berkman: contributing editor, travel] With its neighbouring Southern Sun Hotel Waterfront and Protea North Wharf, Tsogo Sun's Southern Sun Cullinan Hotel forms the triumvirate of hotels best suited to access the Cape Town International Convention Centre, Waterfront and the highways in and out of the city. The five-star Westin, of course, is connected to the CTICC by its hip, but following The Cullinan's spiffy refurbishment you can expect a deluxe experience here too, at keener rates. Read more >>

Oh look, Darling - there's Evita!

[Brian Berkman: contributing editor, travel] South African olive oil is among the best in the world and is better than much of the stuff we import. I remember being transfixed by Marius Malan of Slaley Wines, which also produces olive oil, when he told of some of the practices that dupe us into thinking we are consuming olive oil that is Extra Virgin or, of greater concern, from the country of origin as stated on the bottle. Read more >>

Win BIG in the BizBigBucks Competition and celebrate Valentine's Day your way!

[Issued by Bizcommunity] Come on, admit, you'd love R5000 in cash, right? Whisk your true love away for a romantic St Valentine's weekend... or not... Maybe it's that set of golf clubs you saw that need your fingerprints all over them... Well, here's your chance to do just that, and it's so easy... Read more >> visit press office >>

Tarantino at his best

[Charles Siboto] When a Quentin Tarantino movie hits the big screen we all pay attention. People like me get wildly excited and forget to wear pants to the cinema. Other folks throw their hands in the air in disdain at the amount of blood that will be spilled on-screen and worry about the direction in which our society is headed. Add American slavery to the mix and you have Spike Lee refusing to see the film. Read more >>

When lawmen become immoral

[Daniel Dercksen] It's astounding how the humble hardship of humanity at its worst can ignite exuberant greed and foster enraged cruelty.In Lawless, John Hillcoat's consummate portrait of Depression-stricken America and the blossoming of hoodlums at its most profound, the untamed and bloodthirsty pack mentality of wild animals in humans is terrifying and heartbreaking. Read more >>

Music Exchange partners with African Dance & Music Technology at the Music Exchange Conference

[Issued by Triple M Entertainment] Music Exchange is proud to announce their partnership with African Dance & Music Technology (ADMT) at the Music Exchange Annual Music Conference, held this year on 21 and 22 March 2013. Read more >>

Fascinating Aïda's Cheap Flights Tour

[Eugene Yiga] "See them before you die," wrote British newspaper Mail on Sunday, "otherwise your life will have been meaningless." That's quite a strong endorsement for comedy cabaret trio Fascinating Aïda. But after seeing the Cheap Flights Tour at Theatre on the Bay, I'm starting to get a sense of why the reviewer was so thrilled. Read more >>

Get down and Dirty Dancing

[Eugene Yiga] The Dirty Dancing stage adaptation has been a hit ever since it opened in Australia in late 2004. It broke records in Germany and the UK for having the highest advance ticket sales in history and was sold out for six months in London before the show even began. Now, after being seen by millions around the world, Cape Town audiences can have the time of their lives. Read more >>

Asses and arses all mixed up with some love juice in a sylvan setting

[John Cooper] A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's best-known and loved comedies. Given current events is it fair to call a play set in Athens (actually mainly in a nearby forest) a "riot"? It takes a while to get going perhaps, but soon enough there is riotous behaviour indeed in the woods. Read more >>

Spreading the love

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Flawless Argo [Daniel Dercksen]

The importance of creating unique customer experiences [[Kobus Meyburgh]]

So you know Gauteng townships? [[Tatenda Chiweshe]]

Addressing project management issues in business [[Louise Worsley]]

Changing POP display behaviour [[Jason Frichol]]

Getting mines online [[Jaco Visagie]]

Young graduates face new challenge of financial security [[John Marsden]]

'Most exciting' New World wine [[Cadine Pillay]]

Rainbow Chicken buys stake in Zam Chick [[Zeenat Moorad]]

Chinese Girl under the hammer [[Janine Erasmus]]

Hi-tech shacks for better living [[Wilma den Hartigh]]

SA's solar energy market finally heating up, according to experts [[Edwin Koot]]

How to train staff for 2013 [[Cindy Payle]]

Astrapak wants 22 new senior managers [[Mark Allix]]

Malema will oppose liquidation [[Amanda Visser]]

Cards celebrate SA's languages [[Wilma den Hartigh]]

New CPA rules entitle a tenant to cancel a lease, but it can be costly [[Wayne Albutt]]

Real estate and the family business [[Linda Erasmus]]

What 2013 will bring for the SMS industry [[Pieter Streicher]]

Revamping Gauteng's freeways [[Janine Erasmus]]

Take a tour of 100 000 more locations worldwide with Google Earth [[Lauren Granger]]

Rental market boosts January vehicle sales [[Alexander Parker]]

Is autonomous car tech driving us around the bend? [[Marc da Motta]]

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