HD by design
Madala Kunene
The King of the Zulu guitar opens up about his musical odyssey
By Sihle Mthembu
Madala kunene stands in the wings of a large-scale stage that’s been transplanted into the middle of an Ulundi soccer field. Guitar draped around his neck, he’s quietly waiting to perform his scheduled 40-minute set at one of those ANC government gigs, when an MC announces that Durban kwaito kings Big Nuz have arrived. Madala shuffles over to the young promoter wearing stonewashed jeans and a white golf shirt with Ray-Ban sunglasses hanging from the collar. He whispers a few sentences in the promoter’s ear before going on stage. It’s musical rush hour and the crowd is feeling boozy.
GoodLuck
This Might Sound Crazy
Mother City electro-pop crew GoodLuck headed back to nature to solve the conundrum of how to musically reflect the continent they come from – while avoiding Afro-exotica.
By Diane Coetzer
There’s a moment in the feature-length documentary, this might Sound Crazy, where GoodLuck’s Juliet Harding finally puts her foot down. “I’m very unhappy about you sending my very nice microphone down a canyon,” the singer says insistently, her sunglasses failing to mask her fierceness, the weighty backpack and camera slung around her neck only adding to her determination.
Philip Seymour Hoffman
1967-2014
The tragic last days and brilliant career of the greatest actor of his generation.
By David Browne
Photograph by Neal Preston
Slouched in the front row of the Labyrinth Theater Company’s performance space in New York’s West Village last May, Philip Seymour Hoffman was his typical focused, super-disciplined self. In the intimate 90-seat theatre, Hoffman – always dressed in one or another of his seemingly interchangeable baggy pants and sweaters – was relentlessly pushing the cast and crew of the play he was directing, A Family for All Occasions, a new work by his friend, Bob Glaudini.