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  • Strolling through Troyeville with Ivan Vladislavic

    19 Aug 2007 | 26 comment(s)
    Now that JM Coetzee has emigrated to Australia Ivan Vladislavic has been hailed as South Africa's best writer. His most recent book is set in the grim area of Troyeville in Johannesburg. It's a brilliant microscopic look at the changes in South Africa since 1994. An interview.
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  • Ingrid Winterbach, an Afrikaner in Durban

    20 May 2007 | 3,138 comment(s)
    In Stellenbosch she belonged to the literary establishment, in Durban she's almost completely unknown. Strange country, South Africa, where language defines where you belong and how famous you are. Great books though, also under the name of Lettie Viljoen. An interview.
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  • Gabeba Baderoon

    01 Apr 2007
    In 2005 Gabeba Baderoon won the prestigious DaimlerChrysler Award for South African Poetry. Since then, it’s hard to imagine a successful poetry festival without her glowing presence and crystalline presentation. At the recent Spier Poetry Festival she...
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  • Tribute to Ryszard Kapuscinski

    07 Mar 2007 | 23 comment(s)
    Ryszard Kapuscinski, the best travel writer ever, died in January this year. Here's a little tribute, which appeared in the Weekender last month.
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  • Voelvry; the movement that rocked South Africa

    18 Feb 2007 | 4 comment(s)
    The Voëlvry tour of the late eighties with Kerkorrel, LeToit and Niemand liberated young Afrikaners. Pat Hopkins wrote a great book about it. A review.
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  • Said El Haji

    16 Feb 2007
    Dutch writer Said El Haji landed at OR Tambo International Airport to write a story for the South Africa special of Passionate Magazine. His assignment: stay there for ten days and return with 5000 words of reportage, impressions and reflections. “In my opinion South Africa is largely about death."
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  • Leti Kleyn

    10 Feb 2007 | 81 comment(s)
    Since the decline of the open mike evenings, the black South African poetry scene seems to be stuck in a rut. It hasn't developed much beyond the usual raps and rants. But Afrikaans publisher Leti Kleyn has brought several township poets to the limelight through her small independent publications. "All these poets moan that they can’t go anywhere and that no one publishes them. So why not do it yourself?"
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  • Vijftig jaar On the Road

    29 Jan 2007 | 5 comment(s)
    Vijftig jaar geleden vond Jack Kerouac eindelijk een uitgever voor On the Road. Het boek, een sleutelroman met rollen voor Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady en William Burroughs, heeft nog nauwelijks aan kracht ingeboet.
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  • Ariëlla Kornmehl

    24 Jan 2007
    After living in Johannesburg for a few years, Dutch author Ariëlla Kornmehl wrote a disconcerting novel about South Africa. De Vlindermaand has gone into its second edition and has been sold to French, German and Australian publishers. “I see Fear as a fascinating emotion, which can bring you closer to yourself.”
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  • Ronelda Kamfer

    22 Jan 2007 | 38 comment(s)
    Cape Town poet Ronelda Kamfer grew up on the farm of her grandparents. But at the age of fourteen she moved with her parents to the hardcore township of Eersterivier. On her way to school she had to dogde the different gangs. She witnessed shootings and killings. For most people, there's no way out of Eersterivier. Ronelda was lucky. Her parents moved back to the much more quiet township of Blackheath. She's now a nurse and a published poet. “I like people to read, but I don’t make a big deal about it."
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  • Rian Malan

    19 Jan 2007 | 7 comment(s)
    With his eleven times translated bestseller My Traitor’s Heart (1990), Rian Malan wrote a disturbing and prophetic book in which he not only incorporated his own wrought Afrikaners history, but also the mix of empathy and fear he felt for black South Africans. Since then he has built himself a reputation as a contrarian who has questioned the alarming Aids statistics. In his last latest litany Not Civil War but Sad Decay, which appeared in the The Spectator last year, he paints a distressing picture of his country, with little hope for white South Africans. That the local progressives hate him leaves him cold. “I have an indestructible ego."
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  • Kleinboer

    19 Jan 2007 | 1,010 comment(s)
    Fanie de Villiers, a.k.a. is South Africa’s foremost author of literary porn. His debut Kontrei was originally written in Afrikaans and has now been translated into English as Midnight Missionary. Fanie is one of the few whiteys who still live Yeoville, once upon a time a bohemian neighbourhood near downtown Johannesburg, now a pan-African melting pot with a bad reputation for crime. Fanie lives there with his Zulu wife Lungi, her son, eight pangas and a gun. He estimates that he must have visited over 400 black prostitutes before he wrote Kontrei. “But now I’m getting older, and the pen is replacing the penis."
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  • Crips.nl

    23 Nov 2006 | 173 comment(s)
    ‘Crips.nl’ heeft de subtiliteit van een heimachine. Tweehonderd pagina’s lang denderen de grotendeels in citaatvorm gegoten levensverhalen van een aantal Haagse hiphopgangsters langs. Uit die oral history , opgeschreven door journalist Saul van Stapele...
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Fred De Vries

Fred De Vries

This site contains a selection of my writing over the past few years; reviews, travel, interviews and footloose and fancy free pieces, both in Dutch and English.

Most of it has been published somewhere in some form.

Afrigator

Current bands

Guilty Pleasures

Hidden Treasures

Records

Writers

Desirables

These are little jewels, found listening, watching, tasting, visiting and reading

  • Check out the blog of my buddy siebe thissen! and also www.siebethissen.net
  • Also check the website for great Australian band The Triffids with many beautiful downloads
  • Check the interesting story about British graffiti artist Banksy on the website of the New Yorker, and also one on the Guardian's website
  • Anyone who's interested in whatever happened to that great punk band The Zounds must check out Steve Lake's website and buy his great new cd 'Northampton General Lunatic Asylum' by Thee Evil Presleys, which contains great and furious rock 'n' roll, and can be ordered from Beverly Recordings bevrecordings@btinternet.com
  • Anyone interested in the acetate tapes of the first Velvet Underground album (mentioned in the epiphany section of the August issue of The Wire) can download the tracks for free from the WFMU website (lots of crackles and hiss, but worth it!)
  • A couple of years before Alice Coltrane died, The Wire carried a long interview with her. An unedited version can be found here
  • Also a excellent Alice Coltrane mix on my friend Siebe Thissen's site
  • Great site for anyone interested in garage rock and beat from the sixties is garage hangover
  • Compulsary read: Remake/Remodel by Michael Bracewell, about the individuals, the scenes and the art/historical context that gave us that beautiful, stunning, groundbreaking first Roxy Music album
  • Check out http://www.savoy.abel.co.uk/ for a real underground British publisher that specialises in science fiction, pj proby and lots of other quirky things
  • When in Cape Town, please visit the Book Lounge cnr Buitengracht and Roeland St.Tel +27 21 4622425 Fax +27 21 4622424 E-Mail: booklounge@gmail.com