Return of the Druids by Gary Cummiskey

Ex by Dashen Naicker

She puts the ex in existential angst.

Max Moodley: 0023

Victoria Williams: 0066

Early Draft – Letter 2

Dear James,

For me, talking to you is like talking to God, in that no-one ever answers.

Michelle Nair: 0002

Turkey Part 1

Turkey Part 2

Weed by Rosemary Lombard

i know why the beach is wet
the sea weed

Max Moodley: 0022

Victoria Williams: 0065

Today friends (I don’t know if you’ve noticed) life is a mixture of good and bad (as opposed to normally being neither one nor the other). For example, the smell in my room: I don’t know where it’s coming from, or what’s causing it. It might possibly be some bad food stuck down the back of my desk, or maybe something nasty caught in Allen’s beard – and that’s bad. But on the other hand it is quite a pleasant spicy smell, which is covering up the usual aroma of damp and mould – and that’s good.

Furthermore, today Jacques has finally allowed me to be in one of his movies (where I will be starring as complex but naïve Nurse Cornlocket, lines: “The tumour is malignant.” And, “Was that it? Was that love?”) – and that’s good. But in preparation for the role he has given me a haircut that I may never recover from. And that my friends, is so bad that it’s going to have to mean goodnight.

Normally

He swims sarcastically. He drowns normally.

Michelle Nair: 0001

Click on image or don't.

Tearoom Books Welcomes Michelle Nair

Tearoom Books welcomes Michelle Nair as a contributor. Michelle is 23, unemployed and spends most of her time on the internet. Her first set of contributions are screen caps of random chats she's had.

Press Play, Press Record by Mary Singh

Local resident Leon Moodley has begun work on a compilation album that will collect highlights of the vibrant cassette tape subculture that existed in Chatsworth twenty years ago. Moodley said that in the late eighties and early nineties teens in Montford were creating original content cassettes and exchanging them in a network of around 50 people. “The home-recorded cassettes consisted of amateur music, rapping, poetry, comedy, plays and sound art. The tapes were called “Sixties” because they were predominantly recorded on C60 cassettes,” Moodley said. Moodley, who is better known by his stage name of Max Moodley, is a Chatsworth-based magician and comedian and was himself part of the “Sixties” subculture. He said that the, as yet untitled, compilation will document an important part of Chatsworth’s alternative cultural history: “In all, over a hundred tapes were distributed. The sound quality on most wasn’t very good and the content itself was often insubstantial but there was a great deal of enthusiasm amongst the tape-makers.” The subculture took off when one of Moodley’s friends fathers, a Durban dock worker, brought home a handful of bootleg tapes that he received from an American sailor: “The tapes contained material like rapping, prank phone calls and standup comedy. They were an immediate hit in Montford and a sort of ‘cargo cult’ grew around them. They were treated almost as talismanic objects. As we listened to them more, we began to imitate them and soon the first tape was recorded.” According to Moodley, the honour of recording the first “Sixty” belongs to Lal Naidoo. Naidoo’s tape was a compendium of jokes that were popular at the time. Naidoo, a welder who lives in Bayview, said that he was proud of the distinction: “I collected the jokes I’d been hearing, mostly ones about Indians or ones told with an Indian accent and read them into my father’s tape deck. I was trying to make a standup tape but I didn’t have my own jokes. I showed it around, and then everybody wanted a copy.” Moodley said that Naidoo’s tape catalyzed the tape-making. “What was interesting was that people soon grew tired of imitating the content and form of the American tapes. That’s when very interesting work began to appear.” “One of my personal favourites is Marcus Govender’s “Tabla”. Marcus is a classically trained tabla player and created a 30 minute solo that was really mesmerizing, and very modern. He was about 13 when he made it. I plan to use a 10 minute section of his solo in the compilation. Other interesting work includes Ash Maharaj’s sound collages. Ash owned a portable recorder and would make these very clever sound juxtapositions. He used the pause button in a unique way.” Chatsworth writer Pravasen Pillay is another of the tape-makers collected in the compilation: “Pravasan and I are good friends but I don’t think he’ll mind me saying that some of his tapes were a bit weird for a 12 year old. The one I’ll be sampling is called “Pillays Not Me” where he read out all the Pillays listed in the Durban telephone directory, which, as you can imagine, took a while.” Pillay said he was pleased to be included in the compilation. “Leon was the glue that held the entire Sixties network together and no-one is better placed to curate a compilation of it.” Moodley said that 20 different tape-makers will be represented in the compilation. He is currently raising funds to produce the album. First published in The Chatsworth Mirror, 6 August 2010

Max Moodley: 0021

Victoria Williams: 0064

Diane snapped open this morning at 5, drawing me from my largely empty double bed and into her dark inner passages – and I don’t care what you’ve heard – it’s not kittens in there that are operating the machinery. I am here to change your mind after all. Diane always says that “Somewhere there comes a point where personal belief must end, and universal truths take over. Here’s one for you – the best way to get through life kid, is try not to breathe.”

(Sometimes I think Diane is just a big fat bull.)

Communicating Vessels by Gary Cummiskey

Raj Patel's The Value of Nothing

"There are two novels that can transform a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish daydream that can lead to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood in which large chunks of the day are spent inventing ways to make real life more like a fantasy novel. The other is a book about orcs." - Raj Patel, The Value of Nothing

Read more about Raj's excellent book HERE

Max Moodley: 0020

Victoria Williams: 0063

Now I’m in a waiting room with a lot of others. We are all of us, hypothetically, lined up on plastic chairs under artificial lights. You won’t be able to see it, but you can tell by someone’s eyes, and their unkempt hair, and their rumpled clothes, and their fistful of prescriptions, and - if you are able to see them – by the traces of soul left after the rest vacated the body. You can tell when someone has taken a seat. They’ve joined the queue of sallow-faced ghosts, who fell for it like the rest of us, and believed that lovers you meet in psychiatric wards might be more interesting.