Lacuna Coil made history when new album Shallow Life reached number 16 on the US Billboard Top 200 charts: the band’s highest Billboard chart entry. Lacuna Coil recently kicked off its Shallow Life European tour, and vocalist Andrea Ferro got real with Clink before the band’s London performance at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Read more on Clink…

There is nothing more annoying than a pram in a busy city. It bites at heels and monopolises pavements, buses, trains and supermarket aisles. That was my opinion before I became a parent and it still is my opinion! The ideals enveloped in the notion of pram etiquette could go a long way to appeasing frustrated commuters. Read more on Sudocrem’s Mum Blog…

I know that many parents, new parents especially, are often uncertain when it comes to getting around with a baby and the mere thought of overseas travel can be daunting. As young, vibrant and socially active soon-to-be parents, my hubby and I always maintained that our little darling would fit in to our schedule rather than the other way around. Read more on Sudocrem’s Mum Blog…

Retrospect can be a wonderful and yet decidedly pointless exercise but on this occasion, the death of my grandmother, I’ll allow my thoughts to run their course. I feel like I have been cheated out of a treasure. A treasure called wisdom: a sacred wisdom that belongs to a grandmother and is relinquished in death as a new matriarch, a grandmother’s successor, assumes the role. Read more on Rant!…

Whilst walking home on Friday night, I was fortunate enough to witness three guys perform a stealth operation right in front of my very eyes: one was the designated tip-tagger, and the other two were lookouts. Once the deed had been done they bolted down the street as if the armed forces were breathing bullets down their necks. I shook my head and then laughed out loud – if I wanted to mark my territory I would find a more attractive way of doing it. Read more on Rant!…

Myths are allegorical representations of ancient society. Much like fairytales and folklore, myths served to maintain models for behaviour as well as social structures and institutions. The myth of Narcissus teaches society of the dangers of self-love, which leads to sorrow and even death – literal and figurative. This is certainly the case for Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray, who sells his soul in payment for the preservation of his youth and beauty. Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray can be considered a modern myth – a cautionary tale of supernatural horror, similar to the legends of old. The author’s biting wit allows for an acute social commentary on the plague of narcissism that has laid claim to soul of society. Read more on Rant!…

There is one thing that cannot be refuted when it comes to Zapiro: the man certainly pulls no punches. As I browsed the Mail & Guardian this morning, I was sickeningly elated to discover Zapiro’s latest comment. If there ever was a point to be made about last week’s announcement that the corruption, fraud, money laundering and racketeering charges brought against ANC leader Jacob Zuma have been dropped, it is boldly blasted in this week’s cartoon. Read more on Rant!…

A brief discussion of Art, Life and Spirit in The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand) and Faith of the Fallen (Terry Goodkind), in accordance with Objectivist ethics.

The soul of an artist is revealed through his Art, and the soul of an individual is revealed through his response to Art. Dominique Francon of New York and Kayhlan Amnel of the fantastical world of the Midlands (Aydindril) are characters created by different authors, existing on different planets, but are fictional representatives of the same entity – Life. Ayn Rand, in her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, explores the theory of objectivism – a theory she devoted her life to creating, developing and teaching. The influence of Rand’s revolutionary literature, particularly The Fountainhead, and the ethics of objectivist thinking are poignantly apparent in Terry Goodkind’s fantasy novel Faith of the Fallen – the sixth in the eleven-book ‘Sword of Truth series’. The parallel between the aforementioned female protagonists, is drawn through the artistic representation of the Spirit of each character. Read more on Rant!…