Scary, apparently

Who would have thought that the little gem of a sweet-nowhere-one-hotel-half-a-street-town Matjiesfontein is in the top ten scariest places in South Africa! The only thing I was scared of was not having enough fun. Well, some people think otherwise... Matjies has got the chills like The Old Goal, the Africana Museum and the Southern Seas...

"At Matjiesfontein, the Victorian village in the Karoo, the past and the present are inseparably intertwined. So do not be surprised to find that some of the visitors are staying forever. Among these are the spirits of founder Jimmy Logan and Lucy, who has never checked out of her hotel room. Wearing only a negligee, she’s often spotted in the corridor."

hmmmm... put that in your Show an Tell ideas bag.

(Scary places in South Africa)

Little matjies

organisation for matjies 2009 is in full swing.... and word on the street is that there's probably going to be some little matjies at this year's show 'n tell.

The Great Matjies Playlist

Listen up! This is the Great Matjies Playlist.

The idea goes something like this:

• you send me your favourite 3 or 4 tracks - not the actual song, just the details. ( johnluke at gmail.com )
• I will create a myspace to host a playlist of all the tracks (hopefully I can find them all on Myspace)
  
• and a month or so before Matjies we vote on a top 20 of all the submissions and I will mix it up - into a playlist that we will drop at some point on the grass or D-floor.
• I might even burn you guys all a take home copy...

So! think of what you love road tripping too in your cabby or jammin to on the dance floor. And we will mix an match an vote in the best 20 tracks...

press release 2009

Show & Tell 2009

Not for the first time, friends and unknowns will descend on the tiny sub-Karoo hamlet (a place is a hamlet when a guide book says it is) of Matjiesfontein on the 2nd and 3rd of October 2009 for South Africa’s damn well nicest and best dressed* happening: Show & Tell.
Anyone can come. You too. It works like Show & Tell worked when you were a little cutie with ponytails who took a wounded Namakwaduifie in to Mrs Goosens’s class. Yes, you must do something. You can sing a song, hum Nkosi Sikilele, draw pictures of toenails, stick poems to the doorposts, create a labyrinth (last year’s was so good we lost four dear friends in there), organize a game of naked touch rugby or DJ the Koue Bokkeveld Skank or ANYTHING your precious Liqui Fruit box heart desires. And then you must come to Matjies, and share it with some of the funnest people you’ll meet outside of an AA meeting which decides to meet at Kaizer Chiefs home games, Main Stand, block G, row J.

* debatable

words by Toast Coetzer


The small print: Show & Tell is not a commercial undertaking, so all participants are responsible for their own accommodation, costs, logistics and technical requirements for your contribution.

bottom image from the :Portrait studio 2007

NOTE: click HERE or on the ABOUT tab on right to find out more

from Chew magazine issue 3

"* The most random group of people, wearing vintage houndstooth, coloured skinnies, brogues and odd-ball badges! Accompanied by electronic mixers, an array of dauntingly complex cameras, origami and a love of Joy Division " Carmen Pool
( note: click on the image to read better if needed )

QUESTION What ISSSSS Show 'n Tell ????!!!

HERE is the FULL low down - READ IT - or be square

When ?: weekend of 2 and 3 October 2009

Board the train, or pour some black gold in your car, gits, you can even walk if you have the time and want to keep your carbon footprint down to a size 4, but come! Where? What? Here, or there, to Matjiesfontein in the Karoo, where, besides the ghosts and the cat
in the foyer of the hotel and a lekker rowdy bar with a loud bell to clang if you don't get the attention you think you deserve, Heritage weekend offers you the most unusual party of the year.

Party? Half-party, half-event, half-made up, half planned, the Show & Tell weekend is now in its FOURTH year and promises to be all the undercover hype you've heard and more.

Thing is, Show & Tell is all about you . Yes, promise. It's made up by you. If you can sing, bring your voice. If you can strum, bring your guitar. If you have some old films or weird DVDs you wanna share with people, bring the projector or the screen or the whatnot. Everyone who comes to Show & Tell must bring something to show or tell, it's that simple. What happened at school if you didn't bring anything to show or tell on show and tell day? Yup, nought out of ten for you and an hour in the corner behind the sandbox facing the wall.

So don't be a drag, come participate. Play tennis in funny clothes, juggle grapefruit at breakfast, read a poem your mother wrote, make a handstand while holding your dog's leash in your mouth, whistle a Romanian folk tune, take photos, exhibit, paint your bum yellow, snort a tequila for Dali – everything counts!

Matjiesfontein belongs to Show & Tell for the weekend – the aim is to book out most or all of the village's accommodation so that it's filled with like-minded people.


Truth: Show & Tell is not a commercial undertaking, so all participants are responsible for their own accommodation, costs, logistics and technical requirements for your contribution. However, resources are pooled, ie if three of you wanna DJ, then between you you arrange for the decks or whatnot.

You speak to the ORGANIZERS
,the organizers points you in the right direction.
Introducing: Julia, Inge and Marc ( featured here)




No additional fees will be charged to see the individual shows, which will be scattered throughout the weekend in the most relaxed sort of way, indoors, outdoors, up a tree, in a cupboard.

Matjiesfontein can only sleep 100 people, so that's the limit. It's a heritage site, so there's no trampling the succulents going on.

Once you've decided on your creative contribution, book your bed and tell us what you plan to show and/or tell. You can operate alone or in a group of course.

words by Toast Coetzer