In part one, we shared six Flowstars’ favourites when it comes to music, blogs, books and general content they’re watching and listening to. Here is part two, with five more Flowstars willing to give you a sneak peek into their browser history and bookshelves.
Edwin Reichel, senior account executive
I just managed to find (actually my sister did, in a shop called De Oude Winkel in Mossel Bay) the Collected Works of CJ Langenhoven. All 16 volumes! My favourite of his works is Brolloks en Bittergal. But I have started with volume one and the first story is Skaduwees van Nasaret.
Langenhoven famously said, “It does not mean much to be important. The most important man at the burial is dead.” I visited his house in Oudtshoorn, now a museum. One thing I clearly remember is the newspaper cut-outs that were used on the shelves, now brown with age.
I am also working my way through Charles Dickens’ comic masterpiece Martin Chuzzlewit. I love this quote from Chapter 2, “The birds were silent; and the gloom of winter dwelt on everything.”
Music: I am working my way through Dmitri Shostakovich’s 15 symphonies. One of his more commonly known pieces is the Jazz Suite. This is the famous waltz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaKdPgkTZ7M
The only blog I find vaguely interesting is Tim Ferriss’s one, The 4-Hour Workweek and The 4-Hour Body fame. His 5-Bullet Friday is always a treat.
On YouTube, I just discovered Home Sweet Home with Joanna Lumley (Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous). The first two episodes have just been screened. She takes you on amazing trips through cities, towns and areas that may be completely unknown to those outside the UK, even to those on the inside. The Ashton Martin insert was a total delight. And after seeing Londenderry, I want to go there. There was also a fascinating insert about the place where George Orwell wrote 1984 and where he almost drowned.
The Vienna State Opera streams a different opera or ballet every night from its archives. The Magic Flute, La Cenerentola (the opera version of the Cinderella story) and Carmen will be screened in the coming week – not as great as seeing them live, but a close second.
Ella Marren, project manager
I love to watch Formula 1 and it is always such a highlight in our house. I am currently watching Formula 1: Drive to Survive. It is so interesting as it gives you behind-the-scenes information about the drivers, the teams and a lot of other things I was not even aware of, like strategy, planning and the driving goals needed to achieve.
Refiloe Mothapo, project manager
I normally scroll through Instagram quite a lot and these pages are always on my feed:
- @mamaesgravidasetentante – an account for mothers and their young
- @theshadeofatlanta – following the housewives of Atlanta
- @oddlysarisfying – Wikipedia explains these videos as “internet video clips that portray repetitive events or actions that viewers find satisfying”. Enjoy!
- @cremabeauty_sa – nail and make-up Instagram account
- @bolosereceitaas_ – an account with beautifully decorated cakes
- @satisfying_ma – an Instagram account about the satisfying look of slime
Sue Blaine, senior writer and editor
I have these two blogs pinned – the always illuminating Brain Pickings, run by American Maria Popova and featuring her writing on the arts, philosophy and culture. It’s beautifully presented and has gorgeous illustrations. Also, A Year of Reading the World, run by English publisher Ann Morgan who, in 2012, realised that she had only really read books from the so-called Western canon, so she set out to read one book from each of the 193 countries recognised by the United Nations.
I’ve just finished re-reading the Harry Potter series, for the first time since each book came out, and I loved that. Now I am reading the third instalment in Stephen Fry’s highly amusing exploration of Greek mythology. This one is called Troy, and looks at the subject of The Iliad (best known through the 2004 movie starring Brad Pitt as Achilles and Eric Bana as Hector). Nerd that I am, I made reading Homer’s full epic poem a lockdown task last year, so reading Fry’s take is even greater fun for me.
Music: this past weekend we watched Rocketman, the 2019 movie about Elton John’s life up to his 1991 implosion (too much drugs and alcohol), so I am listening to Elton’s fabulous singalongs in the car at the moment, but most often you can catch me blasting Bruce Springsteen or Mozart.
My favourite of all these? It’d have to be Brain Pickings. Maria Popova adds a new blog every three or so days, and they are always five or so minutes of the sublime in days filled too often with the ridiculous.
Janet Berger, strategist
Book: Middlemarch by George Eliot (feel I need to get some classics under my belt after a run of crime novels over Christmas).
Television: the third season of Fargo, Belgravia, and I just discovered The Block (to replace MasterChef, which just finished.) And the Six Nations rugby.
Music: the Flowstar Favourites – Spring 2020 playlist, Sasha Sloan, Nick Mulvey, Sara Bareilles, oldies.
I am also engaging with streams of shared videos that come at me via WhatsApp groups –often involving animals, especially dogs!
