The Living Room in Maboneng is a fresh rooftop venue offering Urban-Eco Café Cuisine, Plant Art and Urban Design; a showroom for green design and lifestyle.
Designed, built & growing by the hands of the Tiakaya Designs team, the truly organic space is constantly evolving as season’s
change, plants grow, and new creations come to life. The space boasts prototypes
of vertical gardening solutions, and there is a shop which sells potted plants, gifts
& jewellery.
The Living Room is like an oasis in the sky, a veritable Hanging Gardens of Babylon. And a super cool place to watch the sun set over the cityscape.
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| The cafe has a nice tapas menu |
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| Plant shop! |
And there's a full bar for sundowners.
Down it goes.
Ah, nothing like a blue sunset ...
We were there to see and hear Jesse Clegg, the son of
Johnny Clegg and as you would expect, a very talented musician, songwriter and performer.
Acoustic and (almost) unplugged - there was some amplification. He was awesome!
I love Japanese lanterns.
Nice backdrop too of the Telecom tower and
Ponte City with its Vodacom billboard. Another fun night in the CBD.
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| with Graham Parker after he performed Live @ Drew's |
The intimacy of the setting and the incredible view reminded me of an actual real living room where I heard and saw musicians perform in NJ. About 10 times a year, Drew
Eckman, a former associate editor at Newsweek magazine, invites musician friends - who are usually in town anyway to perform live in New York - to come over to his house in Ringwood, NJ and perform in his actual living room, a venue he calls Live @ Drew's.
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| picture windows overlook the lake |
Drew has a log cabin on a lake in the country with a large central
living room overlooked by a second floor balcony. He removes the
furniture and sets up rows of folding chairs for about 60 to 65 guests
to come and hear live music. Guests bring a snack and something to drink and
leave a little something for Drew to pay the artist and also the cleaning
lady the next day.
In both cases, the more intimate setting makes it feel less like a concert with an audience and more like a musician performing with a small circle of friends. Nice.
The Living Room is located on the top floor at 20 Kruger St, right in the heart of Maboneng.
Spring is definitely (probably) here and Joburg is blooming with both flowers and art. We are in the middle of Art Week Joburg when for one week galleries, museums, arts organizations and artists collaborate to create a strong public focus on the vibrant art scene. Started in Cape Town in 2012, this is the first year for Art Week in Joburg. Participating art exhibit spaces can be visited in Maboneng, Braamfontein-Newtown, Alexandra, Soweto, and the Rosebank Arts Strip.
Art Week Joburg is timed to end with the weekend-long FNB Joburg Art Fair being held at the Sandton Convention Center. FNB Joburg Art Fair is the leading African art fair and first of its kind on the African continent. It was established in 2008 by Artlogic and in addition to art exhibits and art platforms, there are three days worth of talks and workshops on everything "From Jung and Marcel Duchamp to the Illuminati and the Underground." 
At the same time, the seven parks that African Parks manages in six African countries in conjunction with its Government partners will also be walking the walk, physically or virtually, in their parks in support of the initiative on the day. Follow all of them on the African Parks and park-specific Facebook pages as we put our boots on the ground in support of African wildlife.
The Authentic Mexican is a Gauteng-based distributor of well known Mexican Imports (est, 1998) and distributes a wide range of traditional Mexican goods, traditional spices, sauces and food products imported directly from Mexico.
