Painting in The Joburg Guidebook

My friend Nechama Brodie is the author/editor of The Joburg Book, published in 2009.  It's an informative and well-written collection of history and geography, and I've enjoyed reading it.

Now she has been tasked to transform The Joburg Book into a handy guide for visitors.  She tells me it's nearly finished.

In turn, she asked me to provide an image for the new guidebook.  I sent her one painting, and we'll see what happens next.

Book Launch: The Last Resort by Douglas Rogers, SA version

Last night we saw my friend Dougie get interviewed by Rian Malan at the South African launch of The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe.

We attended the New York launch party of this book, also, as I mentioned earlier. Here at the Boekehuis, Joburg's best independent bookstore, the dedicated crowd hung on every word. The bookshop was not only crowded, it was intent -- probably because the Zimbabwe story is only a stone's throw away.

The SA book cover is different from the US cover (wish I'd painted either of them, but we ran out of time -- the publisher was in a rush). The SA one is more literal, an actual photo of the empty swimming pool at Douglas' parents' resort, whereas the albino frog on the US cover refers to an anecdote in the story as well as the "white outsiders" that the Rogers family sometimes is and sometimes is not in Zimbabwe.

For more info on Douglas and his book, see www.douglasrogers.org

Book Launch: Resident Alien by Rian Malan

We went to Rian Malan's book launch at The Radium Beerhall last night. Resident Alien is a collection of his magazine articles from the past 20 years.

I loved the speeches -- by Rian himself, by his friend Steven "Boytjie" Sidley who harbored Rian when he fled to Los Angeles, and by the publisher.

Each illuminated what an outcast Rian has made himself by espousing difficult beliefs -- for example, that AIDS is an exaggerated crisis, with numbers inflated in order to garner more international funding. I can't wait to read the book.

The Radium is one of my favorite places in Joburg. The oldest pub still open in the city, it's cozy and real, with wood-clad walls and Guinness on tap.

For more on the launch and a book summary:
http://jonathanball.book.co.za/blog/2009/11/12/rian-malans-resident-alien-launched-at-the-radium-beer-hall/

Book Launch: The Last Resort by Douglas Rogers, US version

In a luxurious apartment in SoHo filled with art, we attended the US launch of Douglas Rogers' book "The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe."

Douglas went to university with me, and we have kept in touch since then, traveling through post-Katrina Louisiana on a photo-journalistic mission and getting up to other mischief. This time we had a terrific visit with Douglas and his wife Gracie at their home in Brooklyn.

Douglas will be coming to South Africa to promote his book in about two months. For more information on The Last Resort, which is getting great reviews, see www.douglasrogers.org

"Portrait with Keys" released in the U.S.

The excellent book "Portrait with Keys" has just been published in the United States by Norton. The author, Ivan Vladislavic, asked me to contribute a painting for the cover. I'm very pleased by the way it turned out.