Yokoo

While following the Mr Price Blog -"MrPriceInTheLoop" I came across this link. I love this woman. She feeds off being hardcore. Hardcore at beautiful things.

Memorable words from Yokoo- " most of my ideas come out of silence". Thank you for teaching me a beautiful thing and many others hopefully

TheArrows

TheArrows

20August2011

NewZulaBar, LongStreet

Going ‘gigging’ (the act of going to gigs) is one of my favourite things to do with the boundless amount of time I have on my hands. When I saw TheArrows poster up in Rondebosch and heard the advertising on air, I knew I had to, had to see TheArrows. And I did. This Saturday was one of the very few times I have went out and seen a band perform live in Cape Town (It’s actually painfully sad that while living here I have not gone to any live performances). Going to see the Arrows on their only night in Cape Town was an absolutely amazing way to return to my favourite old past time. The two (wo)man band made up of Pam on vocals and keyboard, Christie on drums and Apple Mac computer  had me and my feeble heart jumping enthusiastically for the entire duration of their set.  NewZulaBar is an awesome event space to start off with and then the performance in that space was cosmic! The band and their laptop were so energetic, Pam was constantly engaging with the crowd talking to us, doing comic dances (or normal dances) and generally having fun around the assorted Capetonians who met to watch. TheArrows being a two person band is unusual but it worked perfectly well and better, in the bands own words, “two is the new four”. There was a time when a third person, the delicious Mark (bass for the DirtySkirts), joined TheArrows on stage and that kept the atmosphere elevated. Pam had on a beautiful sparkly blue blouse which I would very much like to own. I had so much fun, it was an experience almost individual to Cape Town and I hope that in the years to come I do , feel and act more and better than what I did last night.

IzikoNationalArtGallery

August7, Sunday

Iziko National Art Gallery

Feeling really ill today.  Muscle ache from a flu, It feels like there is a thick sap trapped in the discs between my spinal column. Irrespective I went. Took an early Jammie. The sun made a brilliant appearance after a brief absence of leave.

On show at the gallery is a series of photographs taken by Drum photographers in the hey days of the magazine. The focus is around the South African Indian community in the 1950s and the places they hung out like “little Chicago” in Durban. It was amazing to look at photographs again after my own absence of leave from photography. I loved looking at the photographs set up in the exhibition space. That series of photographs impacted me heavily. As a (sometimes) ignorant  South African it was really poignant to see the deep history of the Indian community. The black and white portraiture was effective in humanizing and beautifying  an often ridiculed stereotyped and marginalized community . Another series of photographs were by Rajinth Kally under the byline ,through the lens of Durban’s veteran photographer ,and were curated by Raison Naidoo. The series, photographed impoverished Indian communities, and legendary South Africans Albert Luthuli and his wife(I feel terrible for reducing her to this title) and Miriam Makeba and her then partner Sonny Pillay, the “glamour couple”( I’m desperate to be in a glamour couple with someone, out to seek my fame like these two). I loved the photograph of the Luthuli’s together at their spaza shop( who knew they had one?) and of Makeba and Pillay, the idea of the two of them going abroad to seek their destinies is one I love and hope I have the courage to take on.

Also on exhibition was the work of Vladimir Tretchikoff curated by Andrew Lamprecht (who I saw giving a very detailed tour to some elderly Capetonians). I was particularly excited to see the painting, Chinese girl, as I’d read about the artist and the muse previously. It was beautiful. Tretchikoff did some still life’s early in his career and among them are many-many paintings of chrysenthums. It got me remembering how I desperately wanted to get one tattooed on my hip. Luckily I didn’t do it, it may have been gross.

After the gallery we popped into Fat Cactus a(Mexican) restaurant just off Kloof Street. It was nice. I had nothing to eat, felt to sick to eat fajita's and quesadilla's. The waitress was a funny Afrikaans lady, very strange. I liked it.

Took the Jammie back and went to bed. Slept but remained a wake. My nose was dripping the entire time. Not pleasant.