There was a performance by Croc-e-Moses, who blew us all away with his Love Poem. Sort of Hip Hop meets Yeats. www.croc-e-moses.com for info about him and where to get his album.

At the same time as feeling prices are getting higher, I'm finding more bargains. Bayside Cafe's two-for-one special is an excellent way to fill a tummy while, St Elmo's Two-for-One Monday pizza offer almost makes it cheaper to eat out than in. I recently discovered, serendipitously, Helen Mellon - a manufacturer of linen and pretty cotton things. At a smidgen of the retail price you'll find her at the Old Castle Brewery Building - newly crowned with a beautiful black slate pinnacle.

This is how the Cape Argus www.CapeArgus.co.za  (August 26, 2004) quoted from Simon Mann's note as smuggled out of jail in Harare. Aside from the cloak-and-dagger intrigue that surrounds this story, what struck me especially was the language used in Mann's note. Not, you may imagine written on a leather-covered writing desk, but from prison on two plain sheets of paper and a scrap of a magazine page. It got me wondering how I associate an elegant use of English with good manners and, generally, someone being worthwhile. Even without reading that Mann went to Eton I could tell, from his writing style, that he was a gent. The fact that he seems to be implicated in a murder-for-money coup plot comes as a total surprise to me. After all, anyone who writes so well - from prison no less - can't be all bad?

I think it was the colon that impressed me; also the light touch in using 'heavy" at the start of the sentence and, for greater impact, 'heavily" at the end.

The reawakening of the development of the site adjacent to the Sea Point Pavilion has me thinking about how difficult it is to effectively communicate objections. For some, objection to any development in Sea Point is seen as obstructive and old fashioned, while for others, objecting to development - in any form, happens as a knee jerk to a hard hammer.

In the malaise around this development emotions have blurred some of the key issues. The Sea Point Beachfront, gifted by the Crown to the people of Cape Town as public open space, is designated by one title deed which means that, should development conditions be changed at one section, future development will be permissible elsewhere on the strip. This must ring a cautionary clarion.

The City's proposal call for development requires that the development produce income to offset the running costs of the adjacent swimming pool - a civic amenity enjoyed by people from all over Cape Town. My view is this is flawed thinking and requires the development to be bigger than it need be for ordinary commercial purposes.

   • 

More   • Permalink   • Comments [0]

---

Sea Point seafront development demands constant vigilance (24-Aug-04)

News again of the development of Sea Point's pristine beachfront promenade to make way for a hotel is worrying me.

When I was chairman of the local ratepayer's association, city officials and the then Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism were clear that the site, adjacent to the public swimming pool, would not be developed into the hotel and shopping complex so many residents apposed. 

The City of Cape Town, turning a blind eye to the Mayoral Committee which is held in camera, talks about transparency but then has deliberations that are secret.

This development has once again raised it head. It proves the constant need for vigilance, watching and being suspicious of every move that government makes. For me it is exhausting and demoralizing because I now feel that our elected representatives are looking to balance city coffers rather than respond to what residents need or want.

   • Permalink   • Comments [0]

---

Super Sized Public Affairs (23-Aug-04)

Saw Morgan Spurlock's fast food diss, Super Size Me last night. A powerful piece of communication, that, much like Moore's Bush-bashing bingo 9/11, draws the audience in with the suggestion of it being a documentary.

As a super-sized fatty myself, although a KFC rather than a Mc devotee, I felt the fire in my belly expand with rage at recognizing myself in the story. Even as a savvy marketeer I find myself seduced by fast-food promotions. 

Those of us who handle Public Affairs should take a long, hard view at all of the truth relating to our clients. Hearing the hapless PA man in the movie trying to focus attention on the good education provided by the food industry instead of acknowledging the pitfalls; while at the same time stressing issues of self determination and free choice.

   • More   • Permalink   • Comments [0]

---

Moerdyk, spooks and scrambled eggs. (22-Aug-04)

It's always nice to read positive things about PR. Marketing guru Chris Moerdyk, writing in this morning's Sunday Times, about Eddie Jones' successful PR tactics, he describes PR as "... one of marketing's most economical and powerful tools...". It feels good to have Moerdyk singing our discipline's praises, especially when he suggests that it is, and should be even more, used strategically to keep competitors' eyes off the ball.

Global Fluency CEO Donovan Neale-May said,  at a Cape PR Consultants' Forum meeting, that in the US communications are used strategically to not only buff the image of the client, but also tarnish the image of the competitor. At first, this feels to me like PRs become CIA spooks, but on reflection, if my client's competitor, say, makes a publicity issue of the money they donate to the children's' hospital, and I know that the way they treat their staff is dodgy, if I can whisper that in the ear of a journalist, isn't that also part of my responsibility?

Aside from the cloak and daggers game that will emerge amongst communicators, the public will benefit from greater transparency and hopefully better practices.

   • More   • Permalink   • Comments [0]

---

Thai Food (21-Aug-04)

I remember my first  "mi - yum - cum" @ Wang Thai all those years ago ... mmm.

   • Permalink   • Comments [0]

---

Pants around my knees and newspaper retrenchments (20-Aug-04)

Had this great routine about untied shoe laces and pants around my knees, which was hacked out of my Cape Times' restaurant review of 95 Keerom Street in Top of the Times  today - I'll have to find another place for it.

Also noted the Cape Times' report that Sunday Times' Business editor Thabo Leshillo is Sowetan's new editor-in-chief following the approval from the Competition's Commission that Johncom take control of New Africa Publications. While management Snakes and Ladders can be expected, I was distressed to read about the 32 retrenchments. My fear is this is yet another nail in the coffin of journalism standards where cost-efficiency and not quality is king.

Since I read the National Editors' Forum report on the juniorisation of News Rooms, I've thought that the opportunity for communications consultants, who can string literate sentences together, vastly improve the chance of media releases being printed verbatim. 

Savvy journalists who either cash-in on retrenchment offers or give the finger to increased work pressures for piddling pay, are jumping into PR with alacrity. For some, though, the reality of being on the asking side of the Media/PR scale is much less desirable than imagined.

   • Permalink   • Comments [0]

---

Thai with Chai eleven years on (19-Aug-04)

Eleven years ago, when Chai and Tang Lekcharoensuk opened their first Thai Restaurant in Cape Town, I was introduced to them by my client at Quay Four.

I remember the moment well. It was my first Tom Yum soup which seared my palate with scalding hot chili and started a love-affair with spicy cuisine, but I also remember not understanding one word of Chai’s massacred English. I went on to handle their publicity for many years.

Last night, we had a reunion dinner at Simply Asia in Heritage Square, and while listening to their extraordinary success over the last years with restaurants in Mauritius, New Zealand, Bangkok, Johannesburg and all over Cape Town, I wandered about long-term publicity relationships.

   • More   • Permalink   • Comments [0]

---

Torchbearers, meeting spots and more cars (18-Aug-04)

www.biz-community.com editor Louise Marsland forwarded an article to me from Seth Godin’s Blog http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ which, PR-wiz and writer Sally Falkow http://www.webstrategies.blogspot.com had sent her. The piece is about torchbearers – people who will run with an idea to the finish. It also talks about the new commerce where entrepreneurs are king – rousing stuff especially for young South Africans who find formal employment difficult.

My new favourite place to have meetings is the Library at the Cape Grace Hotel. The room has an intimate feel and cleverly arranged seating, so that a number of meetings, business and social, can happen simultaneously without too much fear of eavesdropping. It is a smart room, made even more comfortable by a fireplace and afternoon tea service that includes masterpiece cakes.

Was it last week there was a Cape Times’ front page story about the heavy traffic? I’m feeling the difference – even midday traffic leaving town is heavy. Does this mean there are more people in the city or just more people working flexitime?

   • Permalink   • Comments [1]

---

Package from India (17-Aug-04)

I've just opened a package from India that arrived in the post today. I can smell the sweet spiciness that permeates everything there - including the pages of Eats Shoots & Leaves - the zero tolerance to approach to punctuation.

I bought the book, at a smidgen of what it would cost here, through www.abebooks.com.

I'm really impressed by the August issues of three magazines - The Property magazine for its brilliant full page (A3) pictures especially in the District Six feature, Naomi Larkin's newly edited Style that has done away with those full-page upfront columns that made it look more like a text book than lifestyle magazine and, my personal favorite - Top Billing Magazine. I haven't noticed another publisher printing cover lines on the plastic wrap instead of the cover - I much prefer the clean visual on their covers once it's unwrapped.

   • More   • Permalink   • Comments [0]

---