John Edwin Mason: Documentary, Motorsports, Photo History

Cape Town & Goema: The Sound of the City

Cape Town is lucky in all sorts of ways. (It's also deeply troubled, but that's a topic for another post.) The city nestles between Table Mountain and the sea in one of the most spectacular natural settings in the world. The people are wonderful, the food is amazing, and it... Read more →

Funky Friday with Mac McKenzie and the Cape Town Goema Orchestra

What to do in Cape Town on the next two Saturday nights? Take yourself over to the SABC Auditorium, in Sea Point, where Mac McKenzie -- always one of most unpredictable figure on Cape Town's music scene -- will lead the Goema Orchestra in the world premiere of his Table Bay Concerto in G. Read more →

How to Shoot Like an Historian

An historian with a camera? That's a bit like a fish with a bicycle, isn't it? After all, a camera isn't a quill, a pencil, or a microfiche reader. It's not a computer or even an audio recorder. It isn't, that is, a tool of the historical trade. Don't get... Read more →

Funky Friday with the Goema Captains of Cape Town

A little Funky Friday music from Cape Town, South Africa. It's Goema Captains playing their version of a song from the Cape Town New Year's Carnival. This is as local as it gets -- music that's unique to Cape Town -- and it's lekker (which means it's exceedingly good.) You'll... Read more →

Mac McKenzie & the Cape Town Goema Orchestra, Saturday, 28 August 2010

I just got off the phone with my friend Mac McKenzie, one of the most creative, original, and brilliantly off-center musicians ever to walk the streets of Cape Town (as anyone in the know will tell you). We were talking, among other things, about the upcoming premiere of his Goema... Read more →

Exhibition: "Ghoema & Glitter" @ Iziko, the Museums of Cape Town

Ghoema & Glitter: New Year's Carnival in Cape Town, a terrific new exhibition, opened last Saturday at the Castle of Good Hope, the ancient Dutch East India Company fort that's pride and joy of Iziko, the Museums of Cape Town. A "board," in the style of those carried by Cape... Read more →

Book Launch! "One Love, Ghoema Beat: Inside the Cape Town Carnival"

In less than a week, we'll be launching my new book, One Love, Ghoema Beat: Inside the Cape Town Carnival. Clarke's Bookshop, on Long Street, in central Cape Town, is hosting the event. Paul Weinberg, the South African photographer, will say a few words. Zorina's, home of the some of... Read more →