I should live in salt

So. Art exhibit #2 was Absa's L'Atelier, held at the Absa building in Joburg's CBD. Getting there was quite testing because there was traffic everywhere and as soon as we hit the inner city we stopped moving because of the build-up of cars, commuters and taxis. My spidey senses tell me that this was a very larney do, because of the following clues: 

- there was a guest list. 

- the ladies were all wearing heels. 

- lots of waiters in black. 

- there was an MC and speeches. 

- it reeked of pretension

- I was a +1. Haha. 

It was a mixed bag. Some of the artworks were plain silly (see the rainbow-coloured rugby balls and the basin below). Some were mediocre. Some were really cool. My favourites were the two works by Skullboy because they were fun, awkward and at times slightly sad as well. They felt human, whereas most of the other works felt more like they were created to get into the exhibit, not to express a particular emotion. I guess, like everywhere else, there is a lot of bullshitting that goes on in art.

Sasha Hatherly, Circadian I, 113111

Blantina Khutso Mmethi, Rhythmic Railway

Daandrey Steyn, Kalosesthesia & Eidosesthesia

Heidi Janice Mielke, This little piggy...wore high-heeled shoes

Cassandra Wilmot, Prosthetic II

Pierre Henri Le Riche, Hierargie (Hierarchy)

Louis De Villiers (AKA Skullboy), The Lost Supper

Andrew Sprawson, Drawn Curtains II

Andrew Sprawson, Detail from Drawn Curtains II

Megan Patricia Mcnamara, Flood

Skullboy, You & Me

From here onwards, it is just individual parts of Skullboy's You & Me piece.

Nothing

Most often, art does nothing for me. I'll search for who it might be aimed at and who might purchase it, but ultimately art is a gut reaction, a stirring of an emotion that says: Ah! Now this, this I like! In turn, what I like might not be liked at all by others. Or one might admire the craftmanship but not the subject matter. Art is a fickle, intangible response by the self to what it experiences when looking at/touching a 2D image or 3D object.

This week I went to two exhibits, and the first one was rather disappointing. It was titled Metro Musings and held at the University of Pretoria's Rautenbach Hall on Monday evening. I randomly saw an invite on FB and decided to attend. It was rather disappointing because most of the works were by fine arts lecturers, and it didn't seem all that cool. Maybe my eye just needs better training.

The sun going down on my way to the exhibit.

Diane Victor - Vagrants from the circle (Panel 1), 2013

Diane Victor - Vagrants from the circle (Panel 2), 2013

Diane Victor - Vagrants from the circle (Panel 3), 2013

Elfriede Dreyer - Ship of Fools I, 2012

Frikkie Eksteen - Detail from Blindfold - South, 2013

Frikkie Eksteen - Blindfold - East, 2013

Pieter Swanepoel - Whitewash, 2013

Magdel van Rooyen - Concrete Conversations, 2010

Magdel van Rooyen - Detail from Concrete Conversations, 2010

Leana van der Merwe - Untitled II, 2013

Sing me a love song / From your heart or from the phonebook

The Editors released a new album recently, emotively titled The Weight of your Love. For me, 2008 was filled with An End has a Start and I was extremely jealous when my sister saw them at a festival. Then came the shock that was In This Light And On This Evening, because suddenly there was a lot more synth and a lot less guitars. It was like listening to a different band, but not necessarily in a bad way.

Well, here is a song I like from their newest release.

When we were little the whole family got together for Christmas at my grandmother's house. This meant four families would travel to Jeffrey's Bay and overindulge in one another's company. The greatest part of going was playing the game of who could spot the ocean first. The second greatest was Dirkie. Dirkie were tubes of flavoured condensed milk that we could suck on for the hours and hours that it would take to get to the sea from Pretoria. Oh Dirkie. And then, suddenly, Dirkie was gone from the shelves.

Today my mom came home, and in memory of Dirkie I baked a condensed milk cake. I am not sure of this cake. It is very dense and tastes ok, but it didn't feel airy enough, or light enough. However, I think that maybe the appeal of this cake. If you prefer plain, simple cakes that lean more to the dry side then this is the one for you. If you like your cakes moist and fudgy, don't try this one. I kind of felt like the cake was a waste of a good can of condensed milk. And I cut myself with the tin's lid, so it might have been smarter to simply punch a whole in the tin and suckle on condensed milk for a week than to try change it into something baked.

Here is the recipe if you want to try it yourself, via Dr Ola:

Ingredients: (8 pieces)

1 can condensed, sweetened milk (400 gm)
4 Eggs
1 cup Flour (150 gm)
1/2 Teaspoon Baking powder
50 gm melted Butter + 1 Tablespoon for brushing the Cake form.

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 175°C
Prepare your 22 cm Cake pan ( better a ring form ) by brushing it with 1 table spoon butter & spreading flour.
With an electric mixer, mix all ingredients (milk, eggs,flour,baking powder & melted Butter) till smooth then add them to the cake pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes (or less according to the Cake thickness).
Sprinkle some powdered sugar on top & serve with fruit sauce or fresh fruits.

This is another link to a condensed milk cake, but it is basically just double the one above. And 8 eggs sounds like a sh*tload.

 

Nuvole Bianche

“It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched for they are full of the truthless ideal which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real, they are bruised and wounded. It looks as if they were victims of a conspiracy; for the books they read, ideal by the necessity of selection, and the conversation of their elders, who look back upon the past through a rosy haze of forgetfulness, prepare them for an unreal life. They must discover for themselves that all they have read and all they have been told are lies, lies, lies; and each discovery is another nail driven into the body on the cross of life.” 

― W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage

If you're having girl problems I feel bad for you son

I stumbled across this tumblr, and boy has it made my day not only because it is funny but also because I've had the song looping over and over in my head since Sunday. Ok, no, not the entire song, just the chorus. And damn it is getting irritating. So this was great comic relief.

Click here for all the 99 problems, Ali Graham is on #41.

And my favourite:

Cheers (Drink to That)

When we were in school we didn't much care what we drank, as long as there was alcohol in it. But even back then when my friends drank Black Label I stuck to my trusty Hunters Dry. It might have cost R11 and not R9, but beer has never been my friend. To me it is something I'd add to a chocolate cake or bake bread with, or mix with Sprite. To each his own. 

Germany has all kinds of strange beer-mixes. Beer with Tequila. Beer with raspberry syrup. Beer with coke. Beer with tomato juice. Beer with grapefruit. Beer with prickly pear flavour. Hot damn. No thanks. I like my ciders. In France I was very excited to see they had cidre, but it's not the same. Nothing beats Hunters. 

However, I did go to a beerfest this weekend. Capital Craft took place on Saturday at the Voortrekker monument and showcases the brewing talents of micro-breweries. On their site they state that "micro-breweries have fast become the tasty and trendy alternative to commercially brewed beers. The painstaking efforts taken to brew and mature these specialist beers can be tasted with each and every sip. At the Capital Craft Beerfest, you will be able to sample beers by over 10 different microbrewers all the way from Darling, Cape Town to Valley of a 1000 hills in KwaZulu Natal."

Luckily they also had ciders :) I tried a red Stone cherry and a Red Stone pineapple cider and finished it off with a Everson pear cider. In between my one venture at beer was Mitchells Award Winning Festival Ale, which was drinkable. I think I just haven't yet acquired the palate for beer. 

Deep Fried Man, Tidal Waves and others performed and people just enjoyed a relaxed day out. 

Boom, badoom, boom bass/ Yeah that's that super bass

We snuck into the UN buildings to see if the view from the roof would be better. In the end it was not. This Sunday the Munitoria building went 'BOOM' at a few minutes past 12.00, without great announcement or goodbyes. It was damaged by numerous fires in its 44 years of existence and will now be rebuilt as Tshwane House, the new seat of municipal government for about 3 billion Rand.

We only witnessed the explosion in street-view mode from the corner of Pretorius and Walter Sisulu Street, but it was impressive nonetheless. Strange how concrete can be turned into dust in a matter of seconds. Here is the link to a video that shows its short destruction better than my photos can.

How to disappear completely

"That there
That's not me
...
I'm not here
This isn't happening"

Once in a while I'll look in the mirror and not recognise myself, because who is this 'I'? What does it really matter, what is the point of exiting, what is the reason for getting up in the morning and going to sleep at night only to do the same thing, endlessly looping, until one day your whole life has passed you by and you wake up old, forgetful and ready to stop breathing.

In most moments of wonder, of insecurity, of not knowing, of not wanting what I have, of wanting to be anywhere but here, well, then it is time for music. Music has the ability to transport me away from all that is into all that could be without having to move. It is an escape mechanism that requires nothing more than a song and a pair of headphones. Mostly I'll turn to old playlists that have accompanied me since the age of teenage angst : Sia's Breathe Me, Ray LaMontagne's Lessons Learned, Sufjan Stevens's For the Widows in Paradise, for the fatherless in Ypsilanti, and then, always, Radiohead (either the post's title track, or their version of Wish You Were Here from the Lords of Dogtown soundtrack with Sparklehorse).

I like them all because the instruments and the voices become tangible: as Finn Andrews of The Veils says, "a large problem with the digital era as it seems to me, is that nothing knows how to rot", and thus everything sounds too retouched. There is a time and a place for electronic/digital music, but the quest for the answers to existence seeks music that is itself wondering and imperfect.

A friend posted the following image/quote, and perhaps that is the answer: to understand myself, I must swallow a world as well. And what better way to maintain this consumption of ideas and questions than by immersing myself in music.

Poster design by Brett Thurman

Typewriter Tip, Tip Tip

My mom and I had to run some errands, but if my grandmother had tagged along it would have taken foooooorever. So I asked if she wanted to watch a film while we were gone. Her options were The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (turns out everyone over 40 has seen it), Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (no), Friend with Kids (no) and Moonrise Kingdom (ok). I was very happy that in the end she chose Moonrise Kingdom, because I will admit to riding the hipster bandwagon that is liking everything Wes Anderson does.

One of my favourite movies will always be The Darjeeling Limited (this posts title is from this song that is featured in the film) because Anderson has the ability to immerse the viewer in a world that is strange, wonderful and magical while also relating to the instability, turmoil and love present in all human relationships. It is as though one is watching one's own family drama, told through a much more beautiful lens.

Spoke Art has curated a series of posters called "Bad Dads" A Wes Anderson tribute, and they are all equally wonderful and strange.

Jessica Deahl,  I Promise I'll Never Be Your Friend

Fernando Reza, Go Mordecai

Derek Gabryszak, Something Fantastic

Derek Eads, I'm a Little Bit Lonely These Days

DKNG, The Films of Wes Anderson

Dave Perillo, Khaki Scouts

Ibraheem Youssef, Suzy

Stefan Fahler, Sharked

Randy Ortiz, We Got the Tail, but We Missed the Fox