Friday, June 29, 2012
Friday Damn Jam! - Solange: T.O.N.Y.
I do have a musical crush on Solange. Love her style of music, I am a firm believer of individualism and personal style and she kicks ass with it, no doubt. Directed by Va$htie.
Enjoy!
signing out...
StreetSindz
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
I'm Sold!
In a time slotted nicely at my memory archives of the 90's, my mother was a driving force in my shoe game (obviously). As the first born, I went through all the spoils! I wore rare pieces, expensive clothes and was a very stylish baby, and later youngling. I remember, in particular, my favourite shoe. It was a pair of Nike high tops. Yes! High tops existed long before today. Now the thing is, today at my day and age, I do not own a pair of sneakers. Not even one! I had an all black pair of Converse sneakers that my baby sister jumped from me. And that was it.
When I realised this, I was gutted. I am a sandal kind of girl, so trust that I have loads of those. Now unfortunately, I am too broke to start on my sneaker collection. So I will put this on hold, until I finish paying off my studies and have a bit of financial freedom.
Sooooooo, this is the reason I fell inlove with sneakers all over again. I am SOLD!
Introducing the Isabel Marant Bekket High Top Sneaker. This is not available in South Africa, if one wants a pair, they would have to shop online. They go for $665 which is about R5581. A lot for a pair of sneakers, but if you have the cash, go for it. As for me, I dream of them and hope some reputable brand will make similar ones.
signing out...
StreetSindz
When I realised this, I was gutted. I am a sandal kind of girl, so trust that I have loads of those. Now unfortunately, I am too broke to start on my sneaker collection. So I will put this on hold, until I finish paying off my studies and have a bit of financial freedom.
Sooooooo, this is the reason I fell inlove with sneakers all over again. I am SOLD!
Introducing the Isabel Marant Bekket High Top Sneaker. This is not available in South Africa, if one wants a pair, they would have to shop online. They go for $665 which is about R5581. A lot for a pair of sneakers, but if you have the cash, go for it. As for me, I dream of them and hope some reputable brand will make similar ones.
 |
| suede, strapped with a secret wedge...so your hight gets pushed up a bit. how gangster is that? |
 |
| available in various colours. |
StreetSindz
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
A different Revolution
About a week back on June 16th, South Africa celebrated 36 years since the popularized and respected youth uprising that happened in Soweto (and later other parts of South Africa). A day that started off as a normal day for many students who were involved, ended up a brutal slaying of young and old, an etching of the youth struggle into the minds of future generations and a ripple in the waves of the butterfly effect that liberated South Africans.
The march was planned by SRC's and was intended to be a peaceful demonstration and the students were to march from school to school picking up fellow students, and meeting at a central point in Orlando Stadium. A plan that was never fully realized. Tsietsi Mashinini, one of the instrumental leaders in the fight for freedom and one of the organizers, addressed the students in a plea to keep them calm after reports that police were coming. If this were a movie, one would know that trouble was brewing and lives would be changed. The rest as they say is history. Many have reported the happenings thereafter, and how many students and people were killed and injured. As history has come to tell us, 12 year old Hector Peterson's death is the symbol of the Youth Uprising and the picture of his death reminds us of what it meant to be a young, black person living in the apartheid era. And as history has come to forget, 15 year old Hastings Ndlovu, the first student to be shot who died much later in hospital from a bullet wound to the head.
Fast forward to 2012.
Today we live in a democratic society. So much has changed and so much more has stayed the same. We are challenged with unemployment, inadequate or lack of education, a steep living standard, lack of affordability, poverty, impoverishment, and most tragically lack of knowledge or lack of desire to seek knowledge amongst other things. The rate of crime increases every day as the youth seem to teach themselves that survival means taking (life) from another, not working to receive. This is not helped by the fact that the same youth are educated, but unemployed. We get told that in order to succeed, we have to be educated. Yet we sit at home, day to day, watching the years go by and nothing comes of that education. Anyway, this is not the point I am trying to get to.
If you observe social networks and read what the country's young 'thought leaders' have to say, you will pick up a trend. I observe such medium, dominantly Twitter where even the voiceless clearly have a voice. The trend I have picked up is that most of them seem to be asking themselves (in turn us spectators) what our revolution will be. What will we be remembered for? What will be written in history books about us? What wars will we win? What systems are we going to change? How much blood will we shed in order to be legendary? And the like...
Now I don't have a problem much with these questions per se, because they are valid questions. My problem is the pressure to repeat history that they seem to invoke. Why is there a demand for history makers and so called philosophers? I doubt the people in our history planned to make history. History cannot be planned, it happens by itself. And considering that we are living in the present, we should not be worrying ourselves about what kind of history we are going to leave behind. The future people will decide on what to take and what to leave out of our generation.
However, each person in their own capacity should strive to be historic. No, not all of us are politically inclined, not all of us will join the military, or get to invent life changing products and services. The people who fall into this category will make their own contribution to history books, but not all of them will make it. Also, being historic is not only based on challenges and struggles. Musicians, filmmakers, designers, actors, doctors, prostitutes, drug-lords make it into history books too. So do you see why I say that each person should in their own capacity strive to be historic. Our thought leaders should stop pressuring us into a wrong kind of revolution, they should be recognizing the evolutionary in all of us, and strive to nurture that.
History does not have to be tragic, it can be beautiful, enlightening, fun, insightful, trendsetting, motivating in ways never seen before. But we all have to recognize the need for each of us to spend intimate time learning the history of those before us. Because in order for us to understand ourselves as people, we should understand how it is that we became what we are as a country today. Some of this knowledge is hidden to the average person, because it is so powerful that it would elevate us as a people to extreme hights. But seeking it and exhausting all information sources will change your life. Guaranteed!
Unfortunately, we are distracted. Our time is filled with technology, social networking, socialism and little things that ensure that we have no time to seek knowledge. Try find how many young people have reading as their hobby today, find out how many of the read proper newspapers, find out how many of them understand consciousness. They exist, but a large number of young people have YOLO motto's, want an ass like Nicki Minaj's and wanna be bad girls like Rihanna and have no idea that book stores exists, debate teams, creative hubs and public speaking platforms.
I want to make history, even if that history means a legacy for my future children and stories that get passed on from generation to generation. I am not going to be a politician, I am not a philosopher, I will not be fighting for a better South Africa for all, or any of those things. I am, however, going to do what I love doing. I am going to perfect my craft, and through that, my history will be made.
signing out...
StreetSindz
The march was planned by SRC's and was intended to be a peaceful demonstration and the students were to march from school to school picking up fellow students, and meeting at a central point in Orlando Stadium. A plan that was never fully realized. Tsietsi Mashinini, one of the instrumental leaders in the fight for freedom and one of the organizers, addressed the students in a plea to keep them calm after reports that police were coming. If this were a movie, one would know that trouble was brewing and lives would be changed. The rest as they say is history. Many have reported the happenings thereafter, and how many students and people were killed and injured. As history has come to tell us, 12 year old Hector Peterson's death is the symbol of the Youth Uprising and the picture of his death reminds us of what it meant to be a young, black person living in the apartheid era. And as history has come to forget, 15 year old Hastings Ndlovu, the first student to be shot who died much later in hospital from a bullet wound to the head.
Fast forward to 2012.
Today we live in a democratic society. So much has changed and so much more has stayed the same. We are challenged with unemployment, inadequate or lack of education, a steep living standard, lack of affordability, poverty, impoverishment, and most tragically lack of knowledge or lack of desire to seek knowledge amongst other things. The rate of crime increases every day as the youth seem to teach themselves that survival means taking (life) from another, not working to receive. This is not helped by the fact that the same youth are educated, but unemployed. We get told that in order to succeed, we have to be educated. Yet we sit at home, day to day, watching the years go by and nothing comes of that education. Anyway, this is not the point I am trying to get to.
If you observe social networks and read what the country's young 'thought leaders' have to say, you will pick up a trend. I observe such medium, dominantly Twitter where even the voiceless clearly have a voice. The trend I have picked up is that most of them seem to be asking themselves (in turn us spectators) what our revolution will be. What will we be remembered for? What will be written in history books about us? What wars will we win? What systems are we going to change? How much blood will we shed in order to be legendary? And the like...
Now I don't have a problem much with these questions per se, because they are valid questions. My problem is the pressure to repeat history that they seem to invoke. Why is there a demand for history makers and so called philosophers? I doubt the people in our history planned to make history. History cannot be planned, it happens by itself. And considering that we are living in the present, we should not be worrying ourselves about what kind of history we are going to leave behind. The future people will decide on what to take and what to leave out of our generation.
However, each person in their own capacity should strive to be historic. No, not all of us are politically inclined, not all of us will join the military, or get to invent life changing products and services. The people who fall into this category will make their own contribution to history books, but not all of them will make it. Also, being historic is not only based on challenges and struggles. Musicians, filmmakers, designers, actors, doctors, prostitutes, drug-lords make it into history books too. So do you see why I say that each person should in their own capacity strive to be historic. Our thought leaders should stop pressuring us into a wrong kind of revolution, they should be recognizing the evolutionary in all of us, and strive to nurture that.
History does not have to be tragic, it can be beautiful, enlightening, fun, insightful, trendsetting, motivating in ways never seen before. But we all have to recognize the need for each of us to spend intimate time learning the history of those before us. Because in order for us to understand ourselves as people, we should understand how it is that we became what we are as a country today. Some of this knowledge is hidden to the average person, because it is so powerful that it would elevate us as a people to extreme hights. But seeking it and exhausting all information sources will change your life. Guaranteed!
Unfortunately, we are distracted. Our time is filled with technology, social networking, socialism and little things that ensure that we have no time to seek knowledge. Try find how many young people have reading as their hobby today, find out how many of the read proper newspapers, find out how many of them understand consciousness. They exist, but a large number of young people have YOLO motto's, want an ass like Nicki Minaj's and wanna be bad girls like Rihanna and have no idea that book stores exists, debate teams, creative hubs and public speaking platforms.
I want to make history, even if that history means a legacy for my future children and stories that get passed on from generation to generation. I am not going to be a politician, I am not a philosopher, I will not be fighting for a better South Africa for all, or any of those things. I am, however, going to do what I love doing. I am going to perfect my craft, and through that, my history will be made.
signing out...
StreetSindz
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
It can get a bit too much
I would boast if I could, that I don't know what depression feels like, or frustration for that matter. Until I took time to actually think about it, and I realised that every human being can get depressed and we all infact know exactly what it feels like. Fortunately, there are different kinds and I guess I fall under the umbrella of those who don't get extreme cases of depression or frustration. However, today my heart is very heavy. My mood is fine, but I have a lot on my mind. Actually I have too much on my mind and an escape would be appreciated, thank you very much.
First of all I feel trapped! I know for a fact that I am not supposed to be where I am, I know I am not supposed to stay where I do, I know I am not supposed to wake up every morning for what I do, I know! So I wonder why God put me here. Because honestly, if there are life long lessons I am supposed to learn, its not happening much. I am just unhappy with this part of my life. The choices I made obviously put me where I am today, but I have every reason to believe that in some of the choices I make, there was no other choice. It is either I took it, or I left it. And taking it, as we all know, always comes first in the game of trying to survive.
I imagined (when I was growing up) a life different to what I am living. A job that would enable me to travel, to write, to create, to have encounters with creative people, a job that would enable me to do the things I love doing. But no, when you grow older, you realise that good things only happen to certain people and that most of us are stuck in jobs we hate (even white and indian people, not just blacks) and the only thing keeping us from quitting is because bills don't pay themselves.
I do, however, think that I still have a chance to be one of the certain people good things happen to. What I always fail to realise is that those certain people (well some of them) were right where I am at some point in their lives. I do not want to compare myself to any of them (or anyone for that matter), but indeed they were here (maybe not lucky enough to have a blog so they can vent). But the truth of the matter is, before light rises darkness has to finish lifting. I am at the lifting stage, but I am tired damnit!!!
I am studying, I am working, I do not see my family often and twice a year is the best I get, I don't get to socialise, I am constantly stuck between the office, school and my house. I am unhappy. Very much so. But I am glad to say that most times, I am happy (thank you baby). But unhappiness feels heavier, therefore prevails at this point. I don't trust anyone (no really), people have shown me flames. Maybe the things I go through are not as bad as the ones you go through, but I have my fair share of blazes.
But I am a good person. I have an optimism for other people that I lack for myself. When people I know are down, I do my best to lift them up. I am supportive, I care, I give of myself whole heartedly. I am not selfish, yes I have a bad temper, but I am not selfish. There is so much good in me. And NO, I am not trying to convince you of this. If you know me, you know. Just thinking about making someone else's life better makes me happy. So tell me, where are the rest of the people who are exactly like me? Why have I not come across much? And mind you, if I do, they mostly do not stick around. So is there something wrong with me? NO, there isn't.
Life can get overwhelming. I am overwhelmed and I need my wake up and rise moment to come soon. I am destined for so much, that the little I have now is an understatement of what I am going to be (I know we all think this, but honestly its not true of many of us). I know I will not be happy always, but let me be unhappy in the job I love doing, in the home I want to live in (with my future puppy) and with this qualification (and more) that I am working towards.
signing out...
StreetSindz
First of all I feel trapped! I know for a fact that I am not supposed to be where I am, I know I am not supposed to stay where I do, I know I am not supposed to wake up every morning for what I do, I know! So I wonder why God put me here. Because honestly, if there are life long lessons I am supposed to learn, its not happening much. I am just unhappy with this part of my life. The choices I made obviously put me where I am today, but I have every reason to believe that in some of the choices I make, there was no other choice. It is either I took it, or I left it. And taking it, as we all know, always comes first in the game of trying to survive.
I imagined (when I was growing up) a life different to what I am living. A job that would enable me to travel, to write, to create, to have encounters with creative people, a job that would enable me to do the things I love doing. But no, when you grow older, you realise that good things only happen to certain people and that most of us are stuck in jobs we hate (even white and indian people, not just blacks) and the only thing keeping us from quitting is because bills don't pay themselves.
I do, however, think that I still have a chance to be one of the certain people good things happen to. What I always fail to realise is that those certain people (well some of them) were right where I am at some point in their lives. I do not want to compare myself to any of them (or anyone for that matter), but indeed they were here (maybe not lucky enough to have a blog so they can vent). But the truth of the matter is, before light rises darkness has to finish lifting. I am at the lifting stage, but I am tired damnit!!!
I am studying, I am working, I do not see my family often and twice a year is the best I get, I don't get to socialise, I am constantly stuck between the office, school and my house. I am unhappy. Very much so. But I am glad to say that most times, I am happy (thank you baby). But unhappiness feels heavier, therefore prevails at this point. I don't trust anyone (no really), people have shown me flames. Maybe the things I go through are not as bad as the ones you go through, but I have my fair share of blazes.
But I am a good person. I have an optimism for other people that I lack for myself. When people I know are down, I do my best to lift them up. I am supportive, I care, I give of myself whole heartedly. I am not selfish, yes I have a bad temper, but I am not selfish. There is so much good in me. And NO, I am not trying to convince you of this. If you know me, you know. Just thinking about making someone else's life better makes me happy. So tell me, where are the rest of the people who are exactly like me? Why have I not come across much? And mind you, if I do, they mostly do not stick around. So is there something wrong with me? NO, there isn't.
Life can get overwhelming. I am overwhelmed and I need my wake up and rise moment to come soon. I am destined for so much, that the little I have now is an understatement of what I am going to be (I know we all think this, but honestly its not true of many of us). I know I will not be happy always, but let me be unhappy in the job I love doing, in the home I want to live in (with my future puppy) and with this qualification (and more) that I am working towards.
signing out...
StreetSindz
Friday, June 8, 2012
The lovely ASA at Zoo Lake '11
I was going through a folder that holds many of my photographs this morning when I came across this set of photo's. These were taken last year during the free Jazz on the Lake festival that happens during Joburg's Art's Alive Week. It was my best friend and I's first gig together, and we had a good time. Other artists performed as well, but my favourites were Asa and 340ml who I blogged about shortly after the concert. And to add to her peformance, Asa had Simphiwe Dana join her on stage. I like things that are legendary, and that was definately one of them. I look forward to this year's line up of who will be there, and ofcourse, to attending. I do hope that this year it can be more than just my best friend and I, and we can have our own 'entourage' hehehehe (jokes).
Joburg decides to throw a month long party during September, and every one is invited. Art's Alive, as it is named, was launched in 1991 and has been an exciting cultural experience for all those who attend it. It is deemed one of the biggest events in the African continent, and I agree fully. There is a mixture of dance, poetry, film, live shows, workshops, visual arts, and theatre among other things. Some of the events throughout the month are free, and others reasonably priced. I have attended two of their Jazz on the Lake festival's, in 2008 and in 2011. I would like to make it an annual date, and honestly nothing should be stopping me from that.
Here are some of the pictures I took of Asa:
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Joburg decides to throw a month long party during September, and every one is invited. Art's Alive, as it is named, was launched in 1991 and has been an exciting cultural experience for all those who attend it. It is deemed one of the biggest events in the African continent, and I agree fully. There is a mixture of dance, poetry, film, live shows, workshops, visual arts, and theatre among other things. Some of the events throughout the month are free, and others reasonably priced. I have attended two of their Jazz on the Lake festival's, in 2008 and in 2011. I would like to make it an annual date, and honestly nothing should be stopping me from that.
Here are some of the pictures I took of Asa:
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If your'e in Joburg in September, slot this in your diary and go check it out. You will not be disappointed (:
signing out...
StreetSindz
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