Attention International Googlers: Natalie Becker Is Not A Lesbian

(Nor Will She Be Appearing At Your House Scantily Clad In Leather (Except, Perhaps, On Your Big-Screen TV))

I mean, as far as I know South Africa's Natalie Becker is not a lesbian. Maybe she is. Let's speculate in the comments, shall we?

Background, for those interested, or confused:
A few years ago I wrote a blog post (with a rather scathing undercurrent...well, okay, overcurrent) about Natalie Becker's MCing abilities, which had been marring my enjoyment of cultural events all over Cape Town. Soon after I made the post she disappeared off the MCing scene. I was both elated, as I was feeling that perhaps I'd been a bit hard on one of our own and would now have an excuse not to continue (plus I'd have more pleasant Kirstenbosch Summer Concert experiences) and dismayed, as I could no longer continue The Natalie Becker Game, which had briefly proved to be a source of amusement to myself and a few of my friends.

I was trolling my blog stats today, which is something I remember to do every few months, and the stats were clogged with Google searches of "Natalie Becker" from all over the world - Australia, Ireland, India, Egypt, Italy, the US, Slovakia....

Usually I get a search or two about her a month. All of a sudden it's multiple times a day. My intuition told me something was up!

Off I went to do some research, which I present here, so that you don't have to.

Natalie Becker is starring (in a non-principal actor, non-lesbian (I think - I haven't seen the movie) kind of way) in The World Unseen, a Indian-lesbian-themed movie set in apartheid-era South Africa, as well as The Scorpion King 2: Rise Of A Warrior, a seemingly straight-to-video* bomb that was filmed near Cape Town. Could more disparate universes collide more forcibly, more spectacularly, or more fantastically? I think not!

But, the plot thickens.

There is also a Russian bellydancer named Natalie Becker (a pseudonym, I'm sure). Is this the scantily-clad individual piquing the interest of adolescents and lesbians the world over? I wonder. It's quite mysterious.

Anyway, hello to Natalie Becker Googlers, whomever you may be searching for, since you'll be finding this page now too, I presume. In fact, I'd be interested to know what you were looking for, if you'd like to leave a comment.

I mean, you can be honest - is it the bellydancer?


*Cape Town is pretty much the straight-to-video filming capital of the world, so no surprises there.

A Post In Honour Of Our Paralympians

Now that the 2008 Paralympics have concluded I thought I would honour our magnificent athletes by highlighting possibly the biggest - and least known - obstacle they have had to overcome in their quest for glory: SABC reporters with microphones.

Some noteworthy moments:

Monday, 8 September 2008
SABC reporter to Natalie du Toit (who had just won one of her gazillion shiny swimming golds and was trying to be polite in the face of another inane, rampant SABC reporter): "Natalie: how do you handle being so modest?"

Wednesday, 10 September 2008
SABC reporter to David Roos, men's long jump silver-medal winner in the F46 category (who lives in East London): "David: if you lived in Johannesburg do you think you'd be a better pentathlete, or something?"

Thursday, 11 September 2008
SABC reporter discussing the efforts of discus competitor Duane Strydom: "With a throw of 36.47 it was the best throw of the session and only good enough for 4th place."

Tuesday, 16 September 2008
SABC reporter to Fanie van der Merwe, gold-medal winner of the men's 200m dash in the T37 category, who obviously thought Fanie was representing South Africa at the 2008 Beijing Paranormal Olympics: "Mooi gedoen. Het jy geweet jy gaan die wêreldrekord breek vandag?"
(For the non-Afrikaans speaking readers: "Well done. Did you know you were going to break the world record today?")


Need I say more? Best not to, I think.

A full rundown of South Africa's results and participants can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa_at_the_2008_Summer_Paralympics.