you'll be pleased to hear that not only was the Great Scout weekend a success but we also met these two travelling magicians who agreed to put on a performance for this year's show 'n tell.
Monday, 30 March 2009
anything is possible in matjiesfontein......
you'll be pleased to hear that not only was the Great Scout weekend a success but we also met these two travelling magicians who agreed to put on a performance for this year's show 'n tell.
Thursday, 26 March 2009
The Great Matjies Scout Weekend
never fear matjies...it's that time of year again, the great matjies scout weekend.
a few intrepid souls will venture across the karoo, we will brave the mandatory gin and tonics that the bar staff force you to drink and yes, we will even down the hotel's deep-fry-up breakfast. our bravery knows no bounds. never fear, never fear....scouts honour that we will stop at nothing to pull yet another show 'n tell out of our hats. even if we die trying.
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Gert and Ben
Head-porter one and head-porter two - twiddle dee and twiddle dum..
Gert and Ben have known each other since they were born and work together on shifts at the Lord Milner Hotel
...see Mike's fountain in the background in the darkness..click on the image to enlarge
Gert and Ben have known each other since they were born and work together on shifts at the Lord Milner Hotel
...see Mike's fountain in the background in the darkness..click on the image to enlarge
Monday, 09 March 2009
Heads Up!
As you will have noticed, we have a new blog header.
This makes us very excited. It also lead us to an idea. We want to offer all you Matjies out there a chance to design one too, that we will use. Send your designs to Marc or the Matjies email address. Below is a mirror ball. It hates to be left out of the picture. Really.
Keep the horizontal format, the one used now is 2362 x 466...Can't wait to see those designs!
Roll up, roll up!
Circus freaks...
Tourists...
Escaped zoo animals...
Lesbians...
Dead celebrities...All are welcome to this years Show 'n Tell. No really, just look at this lot that turned up last year. We let them stay...
Friday, 06 March 2009
Dig deep..... for this year's show 'n tell
apparently we're at the brink of a financial crisis but what better reason to dig deep into your recessionista pockets and cough up than matjies show 'n tell?
credit crunch? i eat credit crunch for breakfast.
Wednesday, 04 March 2009
save UP
Accommodation Showntell 2009
We had a really good turn out last year but for the event to continue this year you'll have to dig a tiny bit deeper in your pockets..
Accommodation wise most people booked into the train and the self catering cottages resulting in the hotel standing mostly empty..
Showntell block books the entire hotel until a month before the event - in order to have exclusive use of the whole Hotel & Town including magical lounges full of national treasures.... in general the hotel is extremely accommodating but they run at a financial loss. Spring time is very popular for weddings in Matjiesfontein and they could book the hotel out easy if it was not for our gathering.
So the extended organizing committee and the hotel have come to the conclusion that unfortunately we can not offer the train as an accommodation option this year. Only the self catering and the hotel rooms (which includes the garden suites) will be available if the weekend is to continue in the town of Matjiesfontein.
KEEP WATCHING THE BLOG for when BOOKINGS open..
The Lord Milner Hotel is 3 star luxury accommodation (breakfast included). It might mean that some of us have to save a little bit in advance to make sure that we can make it, but we think that it's worth it... don't you? The accommodation is really your main expense for the whole weekend experience.
Yours, in the spirit of the "best weekend of the year" (your words not ours!)
Julia
+++++++++
Hey -
Im in ,im not camping again ,id love to stay in the hotel .
We got to keep the spirit and tradition of Show and Tell alive .
Keep up the good work.
Love Graham x
Still support Matjies…… YEBO YES…. All the way!!!! Bart
Ja ek is verseker in! Ek sal in die hotel bly. Dis lekker om te commit vir iets soos hierdie. Xx liezel
We had a really good turn out last year but for the event to continue this year you'll have to dig a tiny bit deeper in your pockets..
Accommodation wise most people booked into the train and the self catering cottages resulting in the hotel standing mostly empty..
Showntell block books the entire hotel until a month before the event - in order to have exclusive use of the whole Hotel & Town including magical lounges full of national treasures.... in general the hotel is extremely accommodating but they run at a financial loss. Spring time is very popular for weddings in Matjiesfontein and they could book the hotel out easy if it was not for our gathering.
So the extended organizing committee and the hotel have come to the conclusion that unfortunately we can not offer the train as an accommodation option this year. Only the self catering and the hotel rooms (which includes the garden suites) will be available if the weekend is to continue in the town of Matjiesfontein.
KEEP WATCHING THE BLOG for when BOOKINGS open..
The Lord Milner Hotel is 3 star luxury accommodation (breakfast included). It might mean that some of us have to save a little bit in advance to make sure that we can make it, but we think that it's worth it... don't you? The accommodation is really your main expense for the whole weekend experience.
Yours, in the spirit of the "best weekend of the year" (your words not ours!)
Julia
+++++++++
Hey -
Im in ,im not camping again ,id love to stay in the hotel .
We got to keep the spirit and tradition of Show and Tell alive .
Keep up the good work.
Love Graham x
Still support Matjies…… YEBO YES…. All the way!!!! Bart
Ja ek is verseker in! Ek sal in die hotel bly. Dis lekker om te commit vir iets soos hierdie. Xx liezel
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
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)
Friday, 20 February 2009
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.
Sunday, 15 February 2009
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...
Monday, 09 February 2009
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 )
Friday, 06 February 2009
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
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
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Thank you for the music
Rose's photographs of Alex playing at Show 'n Tell 2008 with Oom Kosies Band..
Friday, 09 January 2009
It is with the greatest possible sadness that I pass on the news, to those of you who haven't already heard, of Alex's death ysterday. he was killed in a collision on the N1, on the morning of the 7th of January 2009.
For those of you who spent even a short time in his company, you will know the great loss that family, friends, and so many lives touched through the seduction of music, collaborations with people from Cape Town to Namaqualand, Sweden...
I feel immensely honoured to have been his brother-in-law, and to have made music with him. Especially to have shared with him and his longest and dearest friend, Brydon Bolton, his last recorded concert at Artscape Arena last month.
Please go to the new www.derekgripper.com for sounds from this gig. And thank you so much to Ross for getting the new site up for me in a hurry (for fixing my attempts at web design). It felt important to have something there.
I can't imagine how we will play music again. Every moment brings a new awareness of the scope of loss. It is personal and more - he was South Africa's most feeling blast of raw energy and power. He was deeply in love with this country, its music, and people, and worked tirelessly in his last years with so many, to bring the music of this region out.
Bye bye boeta. We love you.
Please pass this on as you see fit. Many thanks,
Derek Gripper
+27/21/7801418
www.derekgripper.com
www.myspace.com/derekgripper
For those of you who spent even a short time in his company, you will know the great loss that family, friends, and so many lives touched through the seduction of music, collaborations with people from Cape Town to Namaqualand, Sweden...
I feel immensely honoured to have been his brother-in-law, and to have made music with him. Especially to have shared with him and his longest and dearest friend, Brydon Bolton, his last recorded concert at Artscape Arena last month.
Please go to the new www.derekgripper.com for sounds from this gig. And thank you so much to Ross for getting the new site up for me in a hurry (for fixing my attempts at web design). It felt important to have something there.
I can't imagine how we will play music again. Every moment brings a new awareness of the scope of loss. It is personal and more - he was South Africa's most feeling blast of raw energy and power. He was deeply in love with this country, its music, and people, and worked tirelessly in his last years with so many, to bring the music of this region out.
Bye bye boeta. We love you.
Please pass this on as you see fit. Many thanks,
Derek Gripper
+27/21/7801418
www.derekgripper.com
www.myspace.com/derekgripper
Saturday, 06 December 2008
Looking forward to another weekend of murder, magic and mayhem...
Slurping double G&Ts
Dressed up as die Volk.
Playing the quintessentially Albion
game of croquet.
Meeting madmen and spectacular specters in the hallway at midnight.
Writing ink drenched yellowed
postcards in the sun.
Blessed and sealed. And posted
in shiny happy red boxes to eager lovers
and grandmas crocheting tea cosies..
Dressed up as die Volk.
Playing the quintessentially Albion
game of croquet.
Meeting madmen and spectacular specters in the hallway at midnight.
Writing ink drenched yellowed
postcards in the sun.
Blessed and sealed. And posted
in shiny happy red boxes to eager lovers
and grandmas crocheting tea cosies..
Monday, 01 December 2008
Friday, 14 November 2008
weekend 2 / 3 october 2009
hot off the press..
2009 Show 'n Tell dates - weekend of 2/3 October!!!
Keep it in your dagboek now ..lots happening that time of year..
start saving up for your luxury hotel room...
2009 Show 'n Tell dates - weekend of 2/3 October!!!
Keep it in your dagboek now ..lots happening that time of year..
start saving up for your luxury hotel room...
LOST AND FOUND
Due to the unfortunate case of me leaving a rather important piece of equipment behind in Matjiesfontein, I took a not unpleasant Sunday drive to revisit the site of Show 'n Tell... to retrieve our bits and bobs that we left all over the place. Not all items that people lost were actually found, but if anything in the photos looks familiar to you, please let me know and I will gladly return them.. I may put up a fight for the pink scarf though...
Someone left this dress at the clothes swap, and looks like Nathan left something in the Proteas...
Sorry guys, this great black coat has been claimed!
And this one I was very glad to have back, it's the fabulous Inge Cloak!
So we should probably have a shot with her in it too...
This looked like a feather boa but could also be a wig. Marc do you recognise it?
Luckily this spot had just been vacuumed in time for the shoot...
Someone left this dress at the clothes swap, and looks like Nathan left something in the Proteas...
Sorry guys, this great black coat has been claimed!
And this one I was very glad to have back, it's the fabulous Inge Cloak!So we should probably have a shot with her in it too...
This looked like a feather boa but could also be a wig. Marc do you recognise it?
Luckily this spot had just been vacuumed in time for the shoot...
Monday, 10 November 2008
Sunday, 19 October 2008
calling cape town matjies
Hello! good news.
The Photostudio pictures are ready to be viewed!
So we are going to have a little gathering:
Where: The newly re-opened Fstop Cafe, Maynard St, Gardens (behind the hole in the ground that once was the Corner house.)
When: Thursday, 22nd October
What: Photographic Slideshow and finger supper.
Time: 7:30pm
Please rsvp
Please each bring ready to eat fingerfood
x Julia
076 5093 765
Skype: juliamerrett
Tuesday, 14 October 2008
DO NOT PANIC
No reason to get upset that its over -
its only good-bye for now, not good-bye forever
Show 'n Tell 2009 will happen..
watch this space for details for next year.. and start dreaming up your contribution so long..
im gonna make very sure this time around not to miss it..
its only good-bye for now, not good-bye forever
Show 'n Tell 2009 will happen..
watch this space for details for next year.. and start dreaming up your contribution so long..
im gonna make very sure this time around not to miss it..
"Yoh just another big thanks to you for the most awesome weekend ever. I just cant stop thinking about it and how much fun it was. and all thanks to all your hard work.- Dannali"
"I just wana say a massive heart felt thank you for such a wonderful weekend away. everything went so smoothly and just flowed so well. there were so many great things going on all the time in a setting fit out of this world and i miss it already. and the people! what a rad bunch we all were. im sure you must have worked hard to get things to run so well and i really appreciate it all especially because i know its a space for everyone to have fun and no one walks away benefiting more than the other so a special thanks to you two for the weekend...i so look forward to next year and to seeing all the photos etc the weekend produced.-Meaghan"
"thank you so much for a wonderful weekend...we were last to leave as you saw so you know how much it fun we had. -Annelie"
"Well done on such a lovely weekend. had such a great time. havnt danced like that in donkeys ears! see you soon for more - Erin"
"Thank you so much for the Weekend of The Year
My soul feels nourished by magic and wonderful company!
love to you! - Jess T"
"Thanks....mostest wonderfullest weekend. - Gene"
"THANKS AGAIN. what a beautiful, restorative, inspiring weekend - Rose"
"Thanks again for the effort this weekend. It was splendid, just splendid. - Andrew"
"Thanks awesomely Julia. You do flippin' stunning work. - Bryn"
"Thank you so much for putting that together. I feel so much better than I should, all things considered. Must be a side-effect of happiness. - Jeremy"
"thanks for a great weekend! i had sooo much fun -ant"
Wednesday, 01 October 2008
rose
never mind being a great great DJ - rose is an excellent photographer.. thanks for sending the links to your galleries
album one
album two
album three
Monday, 29 September 2008
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