You’re welcome for your favorite new genre: South African House. Like any good citizen I have been Shazamming the shit out of things and also going dancing, and as a result have this fire mix from Xhosa-local Busiswa to share with you. Use this to spark up your Monday (/shine that light on Friday), and then plug it into like a pandora station or something– you want more of this, trust me.
Me: I’m in Cape Town
Everybody: HOW’S THE WATER SITUATION.
Well, lemme tell ya. People have been good about saving— when I got here Day Zero (that’s the day when there will be literally no more tap water) was slated for March and now it’s June, which is hopefully also when the rain will come. But it’s unclear what the long-term eco solution is, given that the problem has resulted from a gradual decrease in rainfall year-over-year, rather than a particularly and temporarily dry season. So, there’s reason to feel lightly more secure in the short term, but also guilty about our global contributions to climate change. Anyway, the reality on the ground is a lot of awesome ‘if it’s yellow let it mellow’ signs in restaurants and stuff (accompanied by mellowing yellow, naturally), sanitizer in place of hand soap, and capturing grey water (like using a bucket of post-shower water to then flush toilets). California friends, you know what that’s about, but here’s sets Cape Town’s strategy apart: they’re imposing steep fines for exceeding your daily limit of 50 liters per day. And since income inequality is so stark, that means there are only a few people who can afford to blow off the limits and continue to fill their swimming pools (true story). Whatever happens, tap water will continue to flow to the townships, where people need it most.
Water or no water, I am quickly learning that people drink plenty of dranks in South Africa– and, in Eurocosmo Cape Town, craft gin is incidentally super in right now (something to do with chill regulations, I hear). Accordingly, there was a big G&T festival at the Biscuit Mill yesterday (the big hipster venue in town), where a local distillery called Pienaar and Son teased a ‘drought gin.’ If you’re wondering what that is, it’s just gin that skips the final step of diluting with water, so it’s double-strength, which is either terrible or a revelation— why don’t we all just skip the watering and leave it to the bartender? Probably because it makes the gin worse. But hey, desperate times.
(Shouts also to Hope, the first craft distillery on the block, and Mayine, the first black-owned gin label on the continent; have been hanging around both.)
South Africa’s top restaurant also just announced they’re running a drought menu. The Test Kitchen, once ranked the 22nd best restaurant in the world but now below the top 50 because bookings are so tight the testers can’t even get a table, will replace its menu with a low-water edition starting in April. (The visible water-reduction efforts were limited to reusing silverware when I copped a res last week, but hey.) On first glance, the drought menu feels kitschy: The Test Kitchen doesn’t need any more marketing, so why are they doing this (forgive me) flashy gesture in the face of the drought? Upon further reflection, if the move isn’t for publicity then the initiative is extra noble; in a place where a number of the ‘haves’ don’t give a shit (I see those pools), at The Test Kitchen they’re given no choice but to at confront the situation, at least in an intellectual way. In case you wanted a reminder of why art matters.
One more note from Cape Town today: obv am staying in Airbnbs down here, but also have been noticing a bunch of fun things to do under their new ‘Experiences‘ product: cook Cape Malay food with a local, bike around wineries, hike x mountain… All of which is sweet for a traveler, but maybe even sweeter as a host. As an Experience host, you get to share your knowledge with travelers *and* make money for doing your thing. I know you guys are people who do interesting things, which is why Airbnb wants YOU– specifically Lorem Ipsum readers– to host experiences. If you know how to: cook, give a tour (even just a cool run around an interesting area), surf, lead yoga, or if you have an event series that you host (concerts, anyone?), you should sign up to host— it’s basically marketing for you. Follow this link and click “New Idea” to get the ball rolling— and make sure to tell me when your Experience is listed so I can come to it.
Bottoms up,
Margot