From Timeslive:

Bloc Party’s Joburg fans can rejoice because the UK indie band will be hitting the City of Gold after all.

The four-piece will headline In The City, a new concert that will feature three local acts as well, organisers announced.

Who the supporting acts are is a secret at this stage, but organisers are promising fans a night of great entertainment.

Bloc Party have already been announced as headliners for Rocking The Daisies in the Cape, which will take place between 4 – 7 October. The band’s fourth album Four is due in August, four years after their last album, Intimacy.

In The City will take place at Mary Fitzgerald Square on Friday 5 October.

Tickets are priced from R265 and are available on Webtickets.

For more information see the In The City website.

Image courtesy of MK

South Africans all over the country have been more than delighted to receive the series of announcements of performances to come our way this year. In the last month alone we found out that the Eagles of Death Metal and Diplo will be performing at Oppikoppi 18, Sweet Thing. Moreover, tickets for Lady Gaga have sold out within the first week of the notification that her tour will include Jo’burg and Cape Town.

The Swedish pop and electronic act Little Dragon will also be touring South Africa in August/September 2012.

Tour dates:

31 August in Cape Town at the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock

1 September in Johannesburg at MAOD in the Maboneng Precinct

Tickets can be bought online from Webtickets.co.za

From TimesLive:

Little Dragon have released three albums since 2007 – their self-titled debut, 2009′s Machine Dreams and 2011′s Ritual Union. They collaborated with Gorillaz for two tracks on 2010′s Plastic Beach album and with TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek on his Maximum Balloon project. Lead singer Yukimi Nagano has contributed vocals to tracks by SBTRKT and DJ Shadow.

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia.org

The Guardian in the UK released a list of ‘The Best Books of 2011‘ on Friday 25 November. Being the booky person I am, I pounced on the list and quickly found myself confused. Who reads these things? From obscure historical novels about Tudor Britain to extremely literary novels very few people have ever heard of.

Now this is not to say that these titles don’t have literary merit, but we have to factor in readability and accessibility when it comes to choosing ‘The Best Books’. The judges in this year’s Man Booker Prize did just that and immediately the “literary critics” and “book reviewers” got on their hobby horses and spewed criticism all over the internet.  The public however, gave a completely different opinion:

Accusations of “dumbing down” were levelled at this year’s Man Booker shortlist when the judges aimed for “readability” above all, but it turns out readability was exactly what the public were looking for after the six novels competing for this year’s prize became the most popular Booker line-up since records began.

At the end of the day this boils down to a discussion on the purpose of literature. Is the job of the author to dazzle with literary prowess or to entertain? Or is it to find a balance between the two? Looking at the books published in the last year, and best seller reports it is clear that the man on the street prefers entertainment over highbrow writing. Even though some of the books that stand out as bestsellers barely scrape through on the definition of literature it is heartening to see that the balance between substance and entertainment holds true for most of the books making waves in the world.

In a time where the future of the printed word is heavily discussed in both mainstream and academic circles, is it appropriate for reviewers and literary critics to make reading into an activity shrouded in clouds of literary pretentiousness that is exclusive to the intellectuals and the academics? Or should reviewers be introducing people to the joys of reading?

One thing that can be said, is that many of the South African reviewers do just that. Very few of them engage in literary pretentiousness, opting to rather maintaining a fine balance between entertaining titles and literary titles. A quick look through the titles reviewed by TimesLIVE, Women24 and book-maven Jenny Crwys-Williams showed a greater propensity to the accessible without compromising on quality. Should this not be what all reviewers should strive for? Bringing well-written and readable books to the reading public?

Keep an eye on the blog later this week, when I’ll share with you my top five reads for 2011.

What do you think? Is there a place for pretentious book reviews, or should book reviews speak to the majority of the book-buying population?

The international superact Coldplay has released the music video for their single, Paradise, taken from their upcoming album Mylo Xyloto. Times LIVE reports:

The band, recently on tour in the country, said they were so taken by the beauty of the land, the cities and especially the sunshine, they decided to shoot a video here.

Watch the ‘Paradise’ video: