Crime Beat

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NEWSFLASH: Jane Taylor’s talk at the Schlock Horror discussions will be up on Crime Beat tomorrow.
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Last night Margie – the Dame – Orford presented a brilliant lecture to the Schlock Horror audience. She had ‘em rivetted, gasping with, you guesed it, horror, and laughing at her idea that when you wake up in Johannesburg you stretch enthusiastically, shout, “Yay! I haven’t been killed. Let’s go shopping.” Her paper will appear here in due course, so, as they say, watch this space.

Talking about Johannesburg, today Longnight Angela Makholwa flies in from the big smoke to get acclimatised before tomorrow night’s panel discussion. Will she wake up tomorrow morning with the typical Joburg shout, I wonder?

Anyhow, she was a tad rude about Cape Town in an email, referring to it as the permanently pregnant city. You know, referencing the Mother City tag, the tour operators love to bandy about. Not a little affronted I asked for an explanation. She chirped back that it’s an old joke that it takes nine months for anything to happen here, and then at the end of the nine months still nothing’s happened, so the city’s perpetually pregnant. Yeah, I know, it’s a real Jozi out-to-lunch joke.

I’m up tonight at the Schlock Horror series with a look at the Naked City. If you’re a dirty mac type then pop along – I’ve got a sleaze-list to die for.