Pan Macmillan

Wise words from trends guru Dion Chang, editor of the Flux Trend Review:

“We are discovering that life in the 21st century is nothing we imagined it would be. We find ourselves bombarded with information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The onslaught is relentless. We have less time to absorb, less time to reflect and as a result, less time to make measured or informed decisions. As a matter of survival, not choice, we edit the information flung at us, and discard the information that is not within our immediate area of interest.

“The only problem is that the information we edit out (and don’t believe is relevant), is becoming increasingly interconnected, so we inadvertently block or divert our information channels. As a result, our perspective is skewed, our social interaction is affected, the generation gap becomes widener and we start to miss out on crucial business opportunities.”

Dion Chang’s 2010 Flux Trend Review Conference… powered by Blackberry will track the ripple effect of the global economic meltdown, the consumer revolution that has been sparked off as a result, the technology that has provided the tools for change, as well as the massive shift of social and business dynamics that are altering the journey ahead.

An array of top thought leaders will offer insights on topics ranging from politics, advertising and popular culture to cutting edge developments in technology.

In a nutshell, business and lifestyle trends, which affect the way in which we live, work and do business in the 21st century.

Don’t miss this chance to take stock of the future… before it happens:

• Date: Thursday 25 Feb 2010
• Venue: UJ Arts Centre theatre (University of Johannesburg – Kingsway campus, Auckland Park, Johannesburg)
• Speakers: click here
• Programme: click here
• Register now: E-mail Giuli Osso at giuli@gocomms.co.za to reserve your seat
• Note: Conference price includes finger lunch, tea break refreshments and goodie bag… AND free entry to Digital Lab on Friday 26th February 2010, which is by invitation only
• More information: click here

Book details

• The State We’re In: The 2010 Flux Trend Review edited by Dion Chang
  EAN: 9781770101661
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Image courtesy fluxtrends.com

New from Pan Macmillan

What does a Tsonga speaker from South Africa make of Paris, the French city of love?

In October 2007 Eric Miyeni, accompanied by his trusty pen and camera, spent two weeks in Paris keenly observing the city’s architecture, its history, its people and its culture.

The result is an accomplished collection of essays and black and white photographs that are quirky, often poignant, quite astute, really funny and truly different in their take on the subject matter.

For once the tables are turned in a positive way: an African is observing instead of being observed, and passing comment instead of being commented on.

Eric Miyeni’s A Letter from Paris will spirit you away.

About the author

Eric Miyeni is an accomplished writer and actor as well as a radio and television presenter. He spent fifteen years working in advertising, starting as a copywriter and finishing as Managing Creative Director of ChilliBush Communications in 2006. His acting career has spanned the stage, television and the big screen, working with the likes of James Earl Jones (Cry the Beloved Country), Danny Glover (Bopha!) and Elizabeth Hurley (Dangerous Ground). A Letter from Paris is his fourth book.

Book details

• A Letter from Paris: Essays and Photographs by Eric Miyeni
  EAN: 9781770101722
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Coming out at the tail end of this summer!

“In Last Summer the elegies of love are sung in measured and ironic tones. Higginson’s narrative poise, his understated and restrained emotional charge, are like cool air in our hot literary landscape.”
– Leon de Kock

It is summer in Stratford-upon-Avon. Thomas is a young theatre director at the Royal Shakespeare Company who is desperately in love with Lucy, the leading actress in a production of The Tempest. Their experiences are woven into the life of a theatre presided over by Harry, an ageing South African exile who becomes caught up in a history he sought to escape.

Hilarious and deeply affecting by turn, Thomas’s account is compelling in its lyricism, eccentricity and energetic attachment to life. Through him, we get to meet a colourful cast of characters and live through the gripping events of an ill-fated summer in Stratford.

“Writing believably about theatre folk is hard to pull off, given the slippery slope of their own fictional allegiances, but in Last Summer Craig Higginson manages with some panache a multi-layered love story filled with warmth and lyricism. I was captivated.”
– Janet Suzman, Actress

About the author

Craig Higginson is a novelist, playwright and theatre director. Currently he is the Literary Manager of the Market Theatre in Johannesburg and teaches writing at the University of the Witwatersrand. In the course of ten years spent in England, he worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford. Last Summer is his third novel.

Book details

• Last Summer by Craig Higginson
  EAN: 9781770101814
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In a world that’s ever connected and constantly changing Dion Chang and co offer guidance with the yearly Flux Trend Review, looking at what will be hot (or not) in the months to come. Chang shared some of the findings in The State We’re In: The 2010 Flux Trend Review on BizCommunity:

1. Peak experiences:

The global financial crisis and ensuing recession of 2009 and can be regarded as a global peak experience. Peak experiences refer to these types of events that stand out in our mind, affecting us deeply and in most cases, changing our thoughts and behaviour patterns: 9/11 was a similar global peak experience.

What the crisis and recession has done is made us more aware of our actions (their impact and responsibility we need to take), to our business practices, the planet and our fellow human beings. It has shifted our thinking from a self-centred “me” era, to an era of “us” and “we”.

As a result, people are looking for deeper life experiences, as well as brand experiences (product and services) that stand out. Brands and corporate companies need to adapt quickly to this changing consumer mindset.

• Read the complete article

Book details

• The State We’re In: The 2010 Flux Trend Review edited by Dion Chang
  EAN: 9781770101661
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Following the African Cup of Nations tragedy in Angola’s Cabinda province, which saw the Togo football team come under attack – three men in the convoy were killed – longtime Africa correspondent Alex Perry calls for the world media to show restraint when tying the development to the FIFA 2010 World Cup. “The distance between Paris and Kosovo is around half that between Cape Town and Cabinda,” he writes:

South Africa’s success or failure shouldn’t be written off five months before the first ball is kicked. But that’s exactly what has happened following a Jan. 8 attack on a bus carrying the Togolese national team in the northern Angolan province of Cabinda, where an Angolan rebel group killed three people — the bus driver, a coach and the team’s press officer —, and injured at least two players on their way to an Africa Cup of Nations match. Even though the attack took place in a country other than South Africa, Britain’s Daily Mirror declared the incident “a disaster for the forthcoming first-ever World Cup in Africa. The machine-gun attack on the Togo players may have taken place in northern Angola last night but the shots would have been heard around the world.” Fox NewsCHK said “the fatal attack on the Togo national team in Angola has increased concerns the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa will be targeted by terrorists as violence continues to rage on the troubled continent.” The London Daily Telegraph told its readers that “Africa’s dream is in tatters.” “It is hard to measure the damage that has been done,” it intoned.

• Read the complete article at Time.com

Book details

• Falling off the Edge: Globalization World Peace and Other Lies by Alex Perry
  EAN: 9780230706897
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SA’s own Lion Whisperer, Kevin Richardson, and his lions have been involved in the production of the film White Lion – Home… is a Journey, due for release this February.

The film has been nominated for a string of awards at the SAFTAS (South African Film and Television Awards): Best Cinematography, Best Music Score and Best Sound Design. It looks like it’s going to be well worth seeing. If you’d like to get to know the film’s feline stars so long have a look at Richardson’s book, Part of the Pride, co-authored with Tony Parks.

Here’s more on the film:

“The casting process was a tricky one,” recalled Richardson.

“As the original story was about a tawny lion, I had all my little tawnies, of all age-groups, lined-up, and then we got the call saying, ‘Hang on a moment what would you say if we cast the main hero as a white lion!’ It made sense, but it also made my life a nightmare. We only had a few white lions at the Lion Park, and our main hero white lion, an adult male, is probably the only completely workable one in the country. The two lions that we actually had to source, were the lions needed to portray the teenage period of Letsatsi’s life. The lions we finally used were ‘Bruce’ and ‘Bravo’ who were aged just fourteen-months at the time.” Richardson continued. “The difference between these lions and those in other movies or Hollywood productions, is that ours are not ‘trained’ lions; i.e. lions who can hit their marks: stop there, sit down, lay, stay.”

• Read the complete article at WhiteLiontheMovie.com (click the “Casting” tab)

And here’s the video trailer:

• Not loading? Watch at trailer home

Book details

• Part of the Pride by Kevin Richardson, Tony Parks
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9780312556747
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!