See when my partner and I cooked up streetmag late 2008, we were never aiming to go to print cptstreetmag was meant to be an online platform, sharing and basking in the vibrancy of Cape Town our Mother City. We both at the time had a hard to explain love for the City and wanted others to experience the same kind of love we feel. With my ink fingers in the mix we both took a journey, our current commitment at the time was the re-vival of UWC Radio, due to matters beyond our control and student politics which we had no interest in, we decided that 2009 is the birth year of a digital magazine that interacts on lifestyle matters of like-minded or other-minded youth.
Along the way we have made mistakes, learned about the business, failed with ideas, been judged, been questioned and at most times we have had to deal with people saying this idea will amount to nothing, we have experienced technical problems, changing servers, changing hosts, financial problems, and truck loads of changes from writers, photographers and just people who have along the way become part of the brand indirectly. Some of these changes were uncalled for, some of them had to happen, I think with most times the hardest situations have been linked with a feeling of betrayal disloyalty and at some stage having people say we stole the cptstreetmag idea from one of the people we know, blogging however is not a new idea And lifestyle magazines are nothing new, but to clear up most of everything streetmag came as a labour of love for the mother city and that hunger to have people celebrate their own talents in Cape Town.
Suit and tie fuckery aside CPT STREET MAG is more then what meets the eye, bullshit aside Streemag is not going anywhere and it will bleed blood , sweat and tears before we hang our knickers.
What gives me joy right now is the fact that even though we were never going to print, we have since decided on a print edition, the print is more of a keepsake, seeing the cover sample drove home the notion of having a one of a kind copy of what we see as purely Cape Town, everything on the online magazine has been a journey, it has crippled us and it has built us, through the resilience, the print edition is a testament of all that and more.
To be honest deep down inside I'm phucking happy about the print. But on the surface I'm crying cash ties and lack of madiba's - printing costs are a bitch, but it's all worth it!
Tanki Em
Head Bad-ass at www.cptstreetmag.com
