We’re leaving South Africa on Monday, which means many good things: Chipotle,

(UNBELIEVABLE NOTE: I just wrote “Chipotle” and then literally stared off into space for about 30 seconds, thinking about what else could be that good. And the first thing that pops into my head is … coffee cake from Starbucks. Jesus.)

Anyhoo: This has been a ridiculously excellent trip, and we have seen many ridiculously excellent things. South Africa reminds me so much of America, moreso than any other place I’ve ever been. I love summer more than traveling, though, and experiencing May in autumn is painful. In fact, swapping two months of spring for autumn literally goes against everything I hold most dear. (Er, not literally. But close.)

Eh. The first time I came here, I was so scared that I didn’t want to go outside, because I thought someone would mug me. I wonder if that’s how people feel when they come to New York the first time. South Africa, we will miss you so much. Sheesh.

Above: a wood-cut by South African artist Joshua Miles. I think it’s Cape Town. I’d put money on it, in fact.

I just found out I’m writing about this South African band called Gazelle, which I love and was one of our favorite discoveries of our seven weeks in southern Africa. I love this song. I watched this video with the two of the guys who made it, and in general, I think it is ridiculously beautiful, but I was all like, Yes, but why? The girls? Who do nothing? But stand there? Eh, cultural differences. It’s not like it’s worse than Whitesnake or anything. Sometimes I close my eyes when I watch this video, but the rest of it is so beautiful that I open them eventually.

We must say, HURRAH to being back! We have worked in/on/around websites for over 1/3 of our young (er, maybe not so young anymore) life, and we cannot stand redesigns. Sure, everything looks prettier after, sometimes things work better, but we have absolutely zero patience for the time they take. We hope that everyone can still find us, and that those who can, like what they see. We’ll be ramping back up to our normal posting speed over the next few days – but it feels lovely to be back!

Above, just because we think it’s pretty – Tame Silk Knot Necklace from Le Train Bleu, $55

-LB

These came out like three years ago (more specifically: two and a half months)—but BS was broken then, so we can only share now, while we finish fixing up the site. If you haven’t seen them—we love these beyond all turning back. Lula is the magazine equivalent of this guy from our middle school whom we adored but asked out the girl whose locker was next to ours. (Torture, but it turned out he was gay, so her victory was a little pyrrhic, we’re thinking.

Anyway: love. These were all shot by were shot by Damon Heath, FTR.

Artist Kudzi Chiurai is one of my favorite in South Africa—which is to say, living in South Africa, since he is Zimbabwean. We—that is, my bff /photographer David and I—have been here for more or less seven weeks, and Kudzi—I don’t know, Kudzi just breaks my heart. He is the most soft-spoken artist I’ve ever interviewed, which contrasts entirely to his artwork, which tends to involve things like election violence and depictions of Robert Mugabe on fire. I asked him if he thought that art could ever exert political muscle—if art could change dire political realities, like those in Zimbabwe—and basically, he has to say yes, because otherwise, he is engaging himself in a lifelong struggle with futility. But of course he said no, that it didn’t, that art was powerless in the face of corrupt institutions designed to make money for those who support them. (Them being the institutions.)

These are photos from our shoot at Kudzi’s apartment in downtown Johannesburg this weekend.

This is a crazy, unbelievable, ridiculous city with an equally ridiculously early last call. We will be happy, I think, to be back in NYC next week, but we’ll miss it in a way I would not have thought possible. I mean that in the most literal way.

Hello! This is our site. It is broken, or at least not quite finished working. So while we fix all those links that aren’t working, here is our current favorite song [that is not sung by Kelly Clarkson]. Usually we don’t like live YouTube footage, but this is hysterical, because (a) the song is amazing, (b) it’s a singalong, which means we must see the Mountain Goats live as absolutely soon as possible, and (c) this screen-grab contains the funniest YT comments we have ever seen: