said
Stuart Reichardt
hank you for embarking on this visual and auditory fantasy. If last month's 2000+ readers are anything to go by, RTB will dramatically increase its readership again this month.
In this issue we celebrate women, for without them, we men would be destined to spend an eternity attending to arbitrary technical tasks, working on delusional unfinished ideas that involve putting a couple of magnets together in a circular fashion, with opposite polarities facing each other, so that we might attempt again, to solve the free energy enigma that has plagued us our entire lives. Besides free unlimited energy, which I think is not far off, we could just as easily get sucked into the vortex of adjusting the idling speed on the spluttering weedeater or succumb to taking that broken stereo apart and fixing it so that it still doesn't work.
These are but a few of the myriad reasons why we need women, beautiful women, to stroke our brows when we return from battle with a handful of 'extra' bolts that mysteriously appeared during the reverse-engineering of the 'thingy' that now looks nothing like its former gleaming guaranteed self. "Lovely potplant holder," said my partner as I slunk through the house with my used-to-be-fine computer tower. We need women to stabilise us, drink wine with us, laugh with us and love us, or our lives would be a tumultuous foray into the world of disfunctional appliances that will never ever work anyway.
As a thank you to all those wonderfully supportive women who buy us electric screwdrivers, DIY '1000 screw' gas braais which take two weeks to assemble and other equally confusing gadgets that make everything seem perfectly level ... we salute you and we're sorry for damaging so many electronic items and most things that can shock you.
We, in our hearts, deep down, reserve a special place for the feminine form in all its beauty and wisdom and this is encapsulated in the cover of the magazine.
Isn't it a masterpiece? Sensual and serene, painted by the talented hand of artist Javier Arizabalo. As we have done in previous issues, each month we will focus on one or two artists who stand out from the crowd. Hyper-realism, in its essence, is not simply the copying of a photograph or a literal rendition of the subject matter, but is rather the fundamental use of a pictorial foundation that creates the feeling of reality. Javier Arizabalo conveys all these elements in his painting that forms the focal point of the magazine. A little further on in the magazine we come across Pedro Campos and his amazing works that need to be seen to be believed.
Vusi Mulambo, our motoring correspondent, delves deeply into his inebriated friend's pocket to lay his hands on the car keys of a Nissan Micra 1.2 Visia Plus. Chris Krog astounds us with his photographic genius and our monthly wine estate feature called 'corkscrew' takes an aromatic sip of the wonderful selection of wines coming from the vineyards of the Cloof Wine Estate. If the RTB journey becomes too visually overwhelming, take a break and dive into the black hole on the opposite page, square c1, (bottom row, third from the left, for non chess players)and you'll be able to view the May issue, a month before it's even compiled, in our parallel reality edition. We interview surfing legend Shaun Tomson and highlight the musician Farryl Purkiss who gets the feet tapping with his lilting lyrics and strong fluid melodies. If that's not enough nourishment to fulfil your visual and auditory requirements, then tuck into the hamburger on page 18. Enjoy the ride!
That's all from the basement cubicle.
See you in May. .
said
T
Stuart Reichardt