joburg

I was in Johannesburg yesterday, just for the day.

A pre-event recce, venue walk-through, planning session, shake 'em up kind of day. I'm coordinating a big event there on the 1st.

I didn't take a single picture because I was moving too fast, and also because Braamfontein's not really the kind of place you take out your camera and linger.

But luckily others have, and I'm borrowing some of their pics here ....

The giant Eland we flashed past on our drive in from the station.

The achingly cool coffee stop where I picked up a delicious Flat White for FIVE RAND LESS than you'd ever buy one in Cape Town.

The colourful buildings I ran-walked past on my way back to the station in the late afternoon, a mix of adrenalin and unease fueling my suspicion that it was a little late to be out walking - the rainclouds looming along with my paranoia.

Other fun things which happened:
Telling someone over the phone to calm the fuck down, in full earshot of the whole office.
Accidentally exposing some massive internal incompetence.
Spilling hot chips down my cleavage in front of the ultra-Orthodox accountant.

I love visiting Joburg, I think I've said this before. And this short jam-packed visit to the inner-city was really inspiring and energising.

I'm back at my desk today. I should be exhausted from a busy day and a late night. But I think I brought some Jozi energy home with me. I feel okay, I feel motivated.
And this is a good thing, because there's fuck loads to do!

muizenberg festival

There was a festival in our hood this last week. Music, art, traders, an Open Studio Tour and more ...

I'm a little burned from the annual Observatory Festival which, while fun in places, general descended into a wind-swept display of public drunkenness and desperation from the crafters who'd been over-charged for their stalls and promised lots of well-heeled customers, not the rabble of students after cheap beer and street people having their best.day.ever - all of it covered in a layer of grime and generally viewed through a plastic shopping bag wrapped 'round your face by the wind.
Get the picture?

But .... Muizenberg Festival was nothing like that. Maybe a little windy, and there may have been some drinking, ahem, but it was largely a community-driven celebration of local talent with a good dose of quirk and lots of fun.

We joined the parade on Saturday morning and frankly, if your heart's not stirred by drums and trumpets and belly-dancers with giant silver wings you're just an old fart really.
Stella hitched a ride on a friendly penguin - my brother, who just got engaged to that lovely lady top right! Happy penguin, happy us!
Then a performance by a children's theatre group, with this astounding heron puppet, and a walkabout Studio tour - 25 stops full of arty and bizarre offerings - and later there were free slush puppies (with optional rum for the grown-ups) and a jumping castle under a sprinkler system for the kiddies in the backyard of one of the local shops.

It felt ... friendly. And that was nice.

And here's a thing ... the couple offering the free slush puppy/jumping castle/kiddie fest (an 'activation' they called it) I realised after a while were this couple, and I was touched and inspired at the proof that life, even when you can't imagine that it will, does go on.

home security

Of all the ways we're ripped off as South African middle-class citizens - insurance, bank charges and the like - home security is waaaay up there.

Private security companies take full advantage of the horrendous state of crime in our country and totally coin it. They hardly need to spend anything on marketing either, one only has to read the papers or go to a dinner party with friends to get enough motivation to spend heaps of cash on beams and bars and electric fencing.

My brother-in-law's house was recently burgled in the middle of the day. Their bars and security gates and Doberman posed no hindrance to the determined thieves, and without a house alarm to betray their presence the bastards clearly spent a long time picking and choosing their loot (the doggie was completely unscathed and untraumatised by the way, she probably welcomed the company and no doubt got a big juicy bone too!).

My mother-in-law, understandably rattled by her eldest son's loss, turned to her religion to make sense of it all, saying that it was only due to God's mercy that he and his wife weren't at home at the time. I don't usually credit that fictional being with having a hand in these things but I have to say if I did, in this case I'd say god was with the burglars, they should be on their knees in gratitude that my brother-in-law, a big angry man who carries a weapon, didn't come home to find them there.

Anyway the result is that even that big angry pistol-packing man is freaked out, and looking to improve his home security. Quotes he's currently receiving to install a home alarm system are in some cases in excess of R40 000.00. Forty thousand rand to sleep better at night. What the actual fuck?

Which brings me, finally, to the inspiration for this post. This crude sign I photographed outside a house this morning.

A desperate, innovative, much more affordable and extremely indicative of how we're all feeling, approach to the constant threat to our possessions and well-being.
How long until the unlucky testicles of those who don't heed this sign (or can't read) are displayed along this wall as a real warning ... ?

not-so-super sleuth always gets her man

Seriously, this has been bugging me since October 2008 and I've finally got it!

I did a post then including some pics of street art from my neighbourhood. I love, love, LOVE the kids with the suitcase and I've finally found out who the artist is!

Gabriel Hope. Interview, and more pics of his work, here.

Some call him South Africa's Banksy. I say Banksy better watch out yo.

PS. Lynne, this one's for you.

street art

A new tattoo 'parlour' (why? why are tat shops referred to as parlours?) has opened in my 'burb. And it's causing a stir.

Located at the main intersection - renowned for moving in cred i bly slow ly - Tattoo has big open shop front windows, good lighting and all the action takes place right there, street side, so you never know what you're going to see while waiting for the light to change.

I'm told by those in the know that there is a back room should you not feeling like going under the gun in full public view, but from what I've witnessed in the last few weeks, there are many punters out there unabashed to be inked in public.
I did notice however, that soon after it opened the shop owners had someone put spikes up along the low external window sills, seems it became a gathering spot of sorts for the local indigent population keen on a bit of street theatre, I'm guessing there's a difference between being admired by passing motorists and leered at for the duration of your tattoo by a one-eyed guy smoking newspaper roll-ups and providing a running commentary in unspeakable language?

Anyhoo, it's a welcome change for us passing motorists after just having the one-eyed guy to look at for all these years.
I've seen some very special sights. No genital piercings as yet (though a friend saw a guy getting his nipple spiked - that's a traffic safety risk right there), but I've seen some nice work being done on some nice bodies. I've appreciated some rippling torso, a shapely calf or two, some very nice bicep. The tattoo artists themselves aren't too hard on the eye either ...
I've seen some serious slapper cleavage too though, a bit more cellulite than I'd like to while out buying the paper, not to mention some hairy shoulders. Eeeuuuwww.
Husband's still livid about the evening (tat shop's open from 1-10 pm) I saw a pretty young thing drop her shorts to expose a tiny g-string and a great ass. Now there's a fender-bender danger.

But my favourite sight was this evening's. A lithe young thing stretched out on the full length bench. Clad in jeans and a bikini top she was getting the colour-work done on a full back piece. She had two artists working on her, the shop's resident pit-bull (of course) sitting solemnly by their feet.
And just outside, hands clasped disapprovingly behind their backs, heads shaking and tongues no doubt cluck clucking, 3 elderly aunties, aghast at the antics of the kids of today, but unable to draw themselves away.
'What would her mother say if she could see her now tsk tsk tsk .... '

writing on the walls

I've mentioned before how much I like living in a part of town where people paint on the walls. In a suburb of thinkers, students, activists and drama queens ~ many of whom seem to like to live out loud.

I've also said how I love that South Africans have such a strong tradition of political commentary, often expressed through satire. This trait kept many people sane through the apartheid years, and I'm pleased the trend still seems to be alive and well.

This professionally printed poster went up in a random shop window within days of South Africa refusing the Dalai Lama a visa, and remains there still.

Ja, wtf was up with that?? 

And then, just days after we got our new President (he of a dubious legal past), these went up all over the 'burb. 

And I had to include this one, also a new addition. A simple Peace sign. Nice.

Of course I nearly stood in dog poo twice while taking these pics, and I drove from site to site 'cos I didn't want to risk walking with my camera on my own. And I got some broken glass lodged in my shoe. 

But hey, sometimes I think I'd still rather bear all that than live in a suburb filled with fake Tuscan architecture and whiny middle-class whingers.

for art's sake

 Last night I started quite a deep and meaningful post, and was really enjoying getting a little, er, deep and meaningful, when we ran out of bandwidth and lost the internet! My god, what to do??

A short argument ensued about who'd been doing more downloading and chewing through our cap, then a mad rush to phone our service provider and order more, a temporary meltdown when we discovered their support line closes at 9pm (wtf??) and then we pulled ourselves together and got amazingly productive. Well, I did.

In the absence of the internet I;

1. Completed an album of photos from a friend's wedding

2. Made some more origami fish and strung them up in my 'studio'

3. Sorted and stored away my winter clothes (and then obviously today's been a little chilly and I had to pull out a cardi again. Obviously.)

4. Made a list of everyone I need to buy/find/make Xmas presents for, and

5. Sorted and resized a whack of photos which had just been dumped randomly onto my PC

In the process I found these, taken in and around our neighbourhood while out walking Frieda over the last few months. I love living in a suburb in which people paint on the walls.

 Milton Rd, Observatory Cape Town Oct 2008

 Gordon Rd, Observatory Aug 2008 (and in other places around Obs and the rest of town - it's a movement!)

 Lower Main Rd, Observatory Oct 2008 - I'm intrigued by this one. Who did it? What does it mean? Hmmmm....

And of course, one my personal favourites was this, but alas censorship prevails and it's been painted out. Spoil-sports.

Later we're off to the first Obs Night Market, hopefully there's some fun to be had, and then maybe even later, I'll get all deep and meaningful again...

lists of 5: 5 updates on stuff

1. This was a disappointment : (

I realised after about 50 pages, but I did still need to find out what happened, so I skip-read it in under an hour. Yada yada yada.

But I did discover this while looking for one of these. Two favourite novels, two very different stories, one iconic landmark.

2. This was fun : )

I've expanded my repertoire! And am playing with this Design*Sponge tutorial.

3. This is becoming overkill : |

No Mummy, not another one! (Pls excuse dork hair. She's only 16 months you know. Exactly. My baby... Sigh.)

4. This I couldn't photograph, her new piece I mean. But her gallery is so well worth a visit.

5. And pssst, I might have a job! Finally. Tho' obviously I'm not counting my chickens or anything. Or dreaming about spending my first pay cheque on this. Nothing like that of course.

faith47

Doing some errands this morning I discovered my favourite graffiti artist, Faith47, has been busy....

And then just around the corner I glimpsed her putting up a new piece. I was caught in traffic so couldn't stop for a work-in-progress shot, but I'll be back round there on the weekend to see what's up.

Literally, 'up'. That's like cool graf speak for doing a piece see.

madiba

I hope he's ok. I keep thinking of him watching what the ANC's been up to and getting more and more despondent.

I really hope this is not the case and that he's at peace, having a whiskey with Graca in the evenings, playing cards, watching BBC crime programmes in front of the heater, having long naps in the Eazi-Boy in the afternoons...

This piece of old struggle graffiti never ceases to warm my heart. It's up on the wall outside Groote Schuur hospital and has been there since the 80's. I wish I knew who put it up then and I'm pleased that it's been respected ever since. No one has tagged it, or added to it, or attempted to paint it out. It sits there to remind us of our history and I'm sure I'm by far not the only person who smiles whenever I drive past it.

Let's hope it stays there for a long time yet, no matter what else may happen in this bizarre nation of ours.

blasphemy

Ok so anyone with religious sensitivities should probably skip this post. I, however, am laughing long and loud over the following....

First is pic sent to me by my equally wicked husband - 

(not sure how / where to credit this one)

Which made me think of the second, a piece of stencil art which went up in Obs some time ago and never fails to make me laugh out loud every time I drive past it. Love this!

If anyone asked me which sense I couldn't live without, it's definitely a sense of humour - no matter how sick and twisted!

Wow, 3 days after I photographed this the piece was painted out - after being there for at least 3 months. So glad I snapped it when I did!