What All Parents Should Do . . .

Tina Fey: I want to thank my parent's for somehow raising me to have the confidence disproportionate with my looks and abilities.  Well done, that is what all parent's should do.

Down time on a film set finds you in peculiar places. photo courtesy of Zubin Mistry

While working in studio as the on-set costumer on a commercial shoot with director Mehdi Norowzian and DOP Zubin Mistry, I found myself cuddled in the coolest place during breaks--in between the air conditioning system.

  Needless to say, the eye on set captured it on his phone.

                                       photo courtesy of Zubin Mistry

"Grandma's clothes look incredible" MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS - THRIFT SHOP FEAT. WANZ (OFFICIAL VIDEO) - YouTube

My friend Mary sent me this link because I'm one of the many girls who has fly dookie brown leather jackets and 99 cent priceless Tshirt from thrift shops around the world.   Love this flavour!  Now when I go to clothes swaps, I end up holding onto the fine cotton threads I've had since 5th grade, and getting rid of the new shit... may just have to do a compilation remix of my thrift journeys from Honduras to Cape Town with Macklemore.  And I am definitely going to use this as inspiration for the next music video I work on :)

  MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS - THRIFT SHOP FEAT. WANZ (OFFICIAL VIDEO) - YouTube

Conscious Hip Hop and MC's: She The Hard Way

Eversince Lupe Fiasco released "Bitch Bad", I was thinking where the Female voice was in Hip Hop.  Nicki Menaj and Azelia are bubble gum wrappers that don't have much chew capacity.  Mc's are not absent, they are strong in all parts of the world.

  I am drawn to the sisterhood in Atlanta where the MC's are releasing lyrics to the highest super delight, no need for repetitive materialistic chants-just solid dope lyricists that don't spit from an adam's apple and represent Respect.

 I'm giving respect and spreading inspiration from She the Hard Way.  A collaboration of different poetic flow from Sa-Roc, Khalilah Ali, Stahhr, Rita J, Boog Brown.  I love the way Stahhr describes the compilation as a delicious 5 course meal.  I don't have any information on the progress of this project, but each of these MC's hold a strong place in the way Hip Hop continues to evolve towards conscious poetic messages for our global socio-polito-econo-naturalistic Earth concerns.

 

World Rhino Day 2012: Do you care if Rhinos disappear?

 

 Our Earth loses 2 rhinos a day due to acts of killing these endangered animals for money.

 Rhinos are poached predominantly for exotic animal-part trade or medicinal mythical cures-medical ideas that have been scientifically proven to not treat or cure what they are advertised for.

 The value of protecting rhinos needs to be taught in order to replace the value of trading their parts.  Poaching is not the only problem, but it is the most important one to stop as educational projects and programmes can reverse the idea that the demand for them is necessary.

   A man in South Africa, as seen in NHU Africa's Saving Rhino Phila has begun to farm as a way to influence a flood of rhinos horns into the marketplace, thus reducing their price and striving to maintain a healthy rhino population. But farming rhinos is not a solution as it doesn't eliminate the myths of these medical 'cures' and provides a 'safe' place for killing animals that will be may one day be called "previous wildlife, now cattle".  Although there are other human-caused risks to rhinos, it is imperative to stop poaching these animals and supporting positive wildlife conservation education.


  Human-centric ideas such as rhino horn uses for human consumption only decrease the longevity of our wildlife and will drive them into extinction.  We have a responsibility to our planet to work towards becoming wildlife conservation activists in our own capacity.

  Chris Mason from Natural History Unit Africa, produced and directed this Public Service Announcement, PSA, for World Rhino Day 2012: a Call for action to support Anti-poaching projects by WESSA, The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa. They filmed it on Kloof Street, Cape Town City Bowl, on a timelapse and reversed the Mak 1 One art piece into a disappearing artpiece.

  It asks a question:  Do you care if Rhino's disappear?  

    Let's hope this message and many other efforts allow us to care everyday to take responsibility to the stop of poaching.  

  Ideas to combat poaching through education projects are welcome to be shared here.

  Other artists share concern about the killing of Rhinos.  The Wooster Collective showcased words and pictures from another prolific Cape Town based graffiti aerosol artist, Faith47,  painting in Shanghai, click here to see and read.  She brought the spirit of African Rhinos into Asia.

A Raw Sun in Marikana

MARIKANA
by Ari Sitas

The digital images fold as the TV screen tires
The cops, rifles in cabinet, past their third beer are edging towards bed
The night is quiet as the smelter has been closed,

the only music is of the wind on razor wire
the ears are too shut to hear the ancestral thuds on goatskin
humanity has somehow died in Marikana
who said what to whom remains a detailed trifle
the fury of the day has to congeal, the blood has to congeal
I reverse the footage bringing the miners back to life
in vain, the footage surges back and the first bullet
reappears and the next and the next and the next
and I reverse the footage in vain, again and again in vain

The image of the man in the green shroud endures
Who wove the blanket and what was his name?
There are no subtitles under the clump of bodies, no names
stapled on their unformed skull
A mist of ignorance also endures, a winter fog
woven into the fabric of the kill
The loom endures too, the weaver is asleep
The land of the high winds will receive the man naked
The earth will eat the stitch back to a thread
What will remain is the image and I in vain
Reversing him back to life to lead the hill to song
In vain, the footage surges back
another Mpondo, another Nquza Hill, another Wonder Hill
the shooting quietens: another anthill

My love, did I not gift you a necklace with a wondrous bird
pure royal platinum to mark our bond?- was it not the work of the most reckless angel of craft and ingenuity? Was it not pretty?
Didn’t the bird have an enticing beak of orange with green tint?
Throw it away quickly, tonight it will turn nasty and gouge
a shaft into your slender neck
And it will hurt because our metals are the hardest- gold, pig iron, manganese
yes, platinum
Humanity has somehow died in Marikana

What is that uMzimu staring back at us tonight?
Darken the mirrors
Switch off the moon
Asphalt the lakes

At dawn, the driveway to the Master’s mansion
Is aflame with flower, so radiant from the superphosphates
of bone
of surplus oxygen and cash,
such flames, such a raw sun
such mourning by the shacks that squat in sulphur’s bracken
and I wait for the storm, the torrent, the lava of restitution
the avenger spirits that blunt the helicopter blades in vain

these also endure: the game and trout fishing of their elective chores
the auctions of diamond, art and share
the prized stallions of their dreams
their supple fingers fingering oriental skins and their silver crystals
counting the scalps of politicians in their vault

The meerkat paces through the scent of blood
I want it to pace through the scent of blood,
she is the mascot, the living totem
of the mine’s deep rock,
the one who guards the clans from the night’s devil
she is there as the restless ghosts of ancestors
by the rock-face
feeding her sinew and pap

goading her on:
the women who have loved the dead alive
the homesteads that have earned their sweat and glands
impassive nature that has heard their songs
the miners of our daily wealth that still defy
the harsh landscape of new furies
the meerkat endures-
torn certainties of class endure
the weaver also endures: there-
green blankets of our shrouded dreams
humanity has died in Marikana

The strike is over
The dead must return
to work.


-----------------
" (written after a tough two weeks and seeing Pitika’s miner sculpture with the green corrugated iron blanket) "

Rollaball Skate Soccer Movie: Support This-Ability

  Serious skills when it comes to extreme sports! A sport in Ghana that was invented to suit their abilities.  What a cool story to share with the world: Big World Cinema presents a film by Eddie Edwards.

   I support anyone who spread the true sense of the word: This-Ability instead of Dis-Ability.

 A must-to-support for a must-see movie!

 Good luck!

Meet Lorenzo, our adopted puppy.

You're making me wear this?

   We got married. We adopted a puppy. 

Adventures with Lorenzo

 Our friend Ross said, "Countdown 9 months and you'll be pregnant before the 9th month.  That's what happens when you get a puppy."  I have to say I'm love drunk for this fur-lined heartbeat creature.  But I am not convinced I'll love a unfurry human baby more.  Unless they come out hairy with a furry back.  Chances of that happening are high with Greek blood running 75%.  I'd hashtag myself #I don't-have-a-maternal-gene except for cute adorable puppies. We named him Lorenzo and we think he is the best dog anyone could ask for!

   So I made this video clip for his fan-club overseas and across the country.   This was a mission we did in our first week as puppy parents.

   He has grown to walk easily on a lead and cruises through the city with me so easily.  I took Lorenzo on an epic city walk into Cape Town Centre.  We visited the Castle of Good Hope, went shopping in the Grand Parade, and he managed to sniff out every KFC Chicken Licken chicken bone that gets thrown on the street after 1pm lunch.  Needless to say, his 1 hour cruise means he's cuddled up right next to me on the couch as I write this.  Another hashtag moment #nothing but love for the pupson.

The moat around the Castle of Good Hope

Puppy parent supplies

His winter jersey by the Vredehoek Ravine

August 23rd, why do I think he looks so mature?

Just the daily chill.

This is Lorenzo's pretty mom.  And maybe his dad behind her!? She is a Staffordshire  Terrier and dad is believed to be a pavement special: German shepherd, Africanis, mix!

First day at our home, Aug 7th.

Took this for size reference. I'm a size 8UK/9.5US.  He looks like a furry chicken deer.

This was our first sighting of him on African Tail's Facebook page.  He is 10wks here.   

  If you can adopt a dog, foster a dog, sponsor the welfare of a rescue dog or simply donate to

African Tales

Click through and make a difference.  

Afterwards, tell me your happy furever story.

   

     

Athens Graffiti Art Tells a Tale: Anti-Violence, Anti-Racist, Anti-Xenophobic

  I used to work in Exharia, Athens-Greece.  I read the walls from the Ommonia Metro station all the way to Exharia's platia.  For me, reading the walls shared the visual pulse of the city, the issues, the political climate, the stories unheard. Today, I don't read the walls.  I live in South Africa.  But today I read the Athens News from the internet: "Racist violence escalates." Citizens hating citizens, humans attacking humans within these man-made borders we create.

  The unrest in Greece is not isolated there.  The messages I read on the walls in Greece reaffirmed why I love graffiti.  They portray different headlines and display opinions in different syntax without a web address or a printing press.  Just some spray paint, a marker or a sticker will do.

  They are public forums.  Tales are told.  I took these photos last summer and the messages still ring true.  Anti-violence.  Anti-Xenophobic.  What is Xenios Zeus, the Athens police campaign to kick out anyone without govt. papers, going to do for the betterment of our world?   To all the writers in Athens: Keep pasting, keep writing peace on Athens streets and advocate for change.

A wheat paste paper sticker on the wall with the image of HATE.  Eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

This is my favorite of our cultural pluralism.  Freedom is a global right.

Greedy servings of the pie.  Austerity serving anyone?  Pro-Hemp stencil on the top right corner.

Anti-Nazi stencil, Anti-Prejudice, Anti-Racism, Anti-Xenophobic!

The Television will not be Revolutionised

"Running from the thoughts, I keep bumping back into it, trying to get away-keeps dragging me into"
Note: look are the Burqa stencil and then the X over it. 

In the streets near the public university 

Anyone is a Citizen member

Pissing on the Golden Dawn (far-right political party in Athens, Greece)

   

 


  

Athena and Chris Go to Madagascar.

  Husband and wife team weave visuals and syntax about Madagascar.   Read all about it here on Wavescape's breaking news story:  I Like to Move it : In depth about the Malagasy travels!

 and yes, it was our honeymoon.              Thank you TrueBlue Travel for organising a sweet trip!

Pirogues in in Fort Dauphin Tolagnaro-Libanona Bay

Beer at Talinjoo

Young Malagasy girl braving the warm yet winter Indian ocean

Learning French and Malagasy along the way in order to get a meal!

We thought this Lemur reminded us of Desmond Tutu-blessing us with his wisdom of the forests

What Madagascar produces: Vanilla

Young Malagasy boy fishing from a handline in Fort Dauphin Tolagnaro

Reef fish off the coast in Fort Dauphin, Tolagnaro

Ring-tailed Lemur in the Nahampoana Reserve