Magna CartaLast year there was quite a bit of fanfare surrounding the first of the 'White Mountain Folk Festivals'. I hate to be the one who re-opens old wounds, but in this case I'm going to have to do my part and make a pre-emptive strike, so that when Lloyd Gedye writes another whining piece about how White Mountain is too white, there'll at least be a paper trail as defense. My plea goes like this:

If there are any black people out there listening, PLEASE do make an effort to come along. The 'white' in 'White Mountain' does not allude to any racial discrimination, I swear. Even though I've never been before, I can highly recommend many of the fantastic artists that will be performing and I'm sure you'll love them too.

Speaking of watersports, here's a story from the SurfSki.Info website about a friendly shark taking a playful little nibble of a Surf Skier's Mako6.

It happened off the coast of Umhlanga, where Anton Fouche was cruising down a wave before suddenly being jerked to a complete stop. A passing shark had decided on a whim to see what Surf Ski tastes like. Apparently it tastes like "pure, unadulterated panic".

The tooth fragment that was found embedded in the hull is being sent for analysis, to determine what kind of shark it was. I'm hoping it's the type that finds surfers absolutely revolting.

Here's the pilot of a new series I want to start, something along the lines of a "Surf Spot Review" article. In each episode, myself and some of my more adventurous mates will be scouting and documenting cool surf spots up and down the coast. It's more for us than you really, because we're the ones who will be having all the fun, and you only get to read about it.

But maybe it'll be the inspiration you need to get out there and try one of the hundreds of great breaks that can be found in close proximity to the city. Maybe we'll convince everyone to piss off to other places, so I can finally have New Pier all to myself. Here's hoping.

The master is back by popular demand, playing to a full house crowd at Catalina Theatre on Wilson's Wharf. He's still doing some amazing guitar magic, but with a slightly different twist to his set - it's more accessible, with a few extra upbeat numbers, including a new track called "D.I.Y." that is a major play into more easy-listening blues style.

When tourists come to this city, many of them fall in love. Occasionally they go on to write captivating, poetic diaries of how much they absolutely adore Durban. One such person, who calls herself nosundays, has written a spellbinding account of her time here. It's a piece so deeply moving that it deserves publication in every newspaper and magazine in this city, so that locals can see just how beautiful the city can be to our visitors.

"she [Durban] tried to take care of you but there are too many people to be taken care of, too many human beings are vulnerable in her heart, too many people spit on her face to show their disappointment and only a handful of people are willing to give her a chance to be free, untrammeled and still she tries, struggles to help anyone who lives under her sky. she is beautiful, let me assure you that. she is maybe the most exquisite and ravishing city where i have been but at the same time she is the most fragile and breakable city where i have ever been."

The ultimate in surf reporting has just arrived: ShareSurf.info is a website that allows communities of surfers and other wave-watchers to share pictures and reports instantly using their cellphone cameras. The incentive for sending in pics is that your business logo and details are displayed next to them. All usage of the site is free.

This concept is blazingly brilliant; the kind of idea that's completely obvious yet nobody else managed to think of it first. It's homegrown here in Durbs but clearly has high hopes of dominating the international market, as you can see on the "country" drop-down box which includes Hawaii, Australia and Brazil. I've given it a test whirl and here are some of my initial thoughts.

Nasty, urban techno with a smear of street filth: that's the sound of Liberator! Kicked into life in 1996 by underground free party addicts, the liberator dj's and Paul Harding have gone on to exemplify everything modern techno should be - twisted, hard, gritty, punchy and alive with the noise and feel of the city. Consistently gut-wrenching, never less than mind-bending. Techno is the dirty underbelly Liberator sound. All hail the new scum!

Friday night at the Bat Centre was nothing short of that - a perfect flow of electronic mayhem. A live performance by Seake was a great start to the evening as their beats take on quite the minimal feel, and towards the end had many a toe tapping and head twitching. The change in dancefloor set-up led many to observe from behind in the early part of the night, but by the end of Seake's set enough alcohol had been absorbed by the wriggling tummies of those who had been the brave few to occupy the floor! A big thank you goes out to Luke and Malcolm for doing a benefit set in light of the high event costs for the hosting of Chris Liberator!

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We're making some changes around here, and this is the first draft of the new banner from the graphics department. So I'm going to hold off on saying what I like and dislike about it, instead let's hear it from you guys first. Is it a winner?

I decided that this review would not resort to the cheap tactic of throw-away cliche lines, like "Durban's liberation at the hands of techno legend dj" or "A liberating experience techno style"...nah that would be cheap and nasty...

So the Bat Centre Friday the 27th, saw another Trip Hazard party mission going down eThekweni style, with a slightly different flavour. Durban is most known for supporting breaks, hip-hop and house, so how was this world renowned techno DJ going to be received...

The SABC commissions and funds a documentary on Thabo Mbeki; then spends an estimated five times that amount in legal fees trying to keep it off the air. Sound fishy to you? What are they trying so desperately to hide?

I went to a free screening of "Unauthorised: Mbeki" at the Kwasuka theatre on Wednesday, and came to the conclusion that there's nothing too controversial about it at all. Which is worrying in many ways, because if the SABC will go to such lengths to keep a fairly moderate documentary from airing, what hope do we ever have for a truly free and independent public broadcaster?