On deadlines being social creatures

I have come to the conclusion that deadlines are gregarious creatures that tend to congregate in groups of at least 3 or 4 a week, and often far more! During the last few weeks they have been particularly sociable, but fortunately for the pic-of-the-weekers, one of them involved photography, so you still get your pic!

In fact, this week there is a little more on offer, so let me try and give you the story in brief:
In 1771 a grapevine was planted in what is now the charming courtyard of Heritage Square in the heart of Cape Town. 237 years later this little vine is still flourishing and bearing fruit (and featured previously on the pic of the week, here). To celebrate the tenacity of the vine, the new owners of the Square asked a skilled winemaker to work his magic on the grapes, and subsequently just twelve 750ml bottles and four magnums of Cape Riesling have been produced. Not satisfied with just wine, they approached four local artists to create vinic works of art out of the magnums.

The owners, Vicky and Johan Nel, are very involved in community and environmental projects, and one of their beneficiaries is the ZipZap Circus. (Which is brilliant! If you haven't caught at least one of thier acts yet, I suggest you do - and yes, I'm talking to all you adults! Have a look at www.zip-zap.co.za to find out more.)

So, this Saturday 24 Oct they are having an exclusive luncheon at Heritage Square and will be auctioning off the bottles; the 750ml bottles are individually numbered, and of course the magnums are completely unique. I happened to find out that there are a few tables still available and knowing Capetonians, always waiting for the last minute to see if something better comes up, this is possibly what you're waiting for. I asked if I could offer a 10% discount to the pic-of-the-weekers, to which they agreed to, so if you are in town this Saturday, seats for you are R450 instead of R500. Contact Catherine on 021 424 8840, 083 320 2057 or catherine.barkhuizen@gmail.com to book, or view the booklet (which naturally features more of my photography) for more details.


I forgot to mention that in addition to the flocking nature of deadlines, they are also the fastest land creature known to man - way faster than the cheatah, although they often take a few weeks to get up to speed and this deadline was no different! I had an afternoon to photograph all the bottles in order to have the booklet printed in time for the event. The 750mils actually contain Fleur du cap savignon blanc, but since a picture speaks a thousand words and not a 1000 flavours, and since they had the smallest labels and photoshop would made quick work of changing them from clear to green glass, I decided it was fine for the shoot!


Artists (not the cheap kind who do graphic design, but the real things) don't tend to hang out in the same social circles as deadlines, and therefore are completely baffled when graphic artists, (who spend most of thier lives in deadline-bars) start panicking because the artwork has only been delivered 5 days before the event, which is 3 days after the press deadline started drinking straight gin at an alarming rate and almost passed out!