findingthemojo no 112

Morning

image: Fotosearch Platinum

St George's Cathedral, image: en.wikipedia.org

• Support a good cause on Wednesday 1 August: the Cape Town Chamber Choir performs in the 6th Raise The Roof concert series to raise funds for the roof of the iconic St George’s Cathedral at the Cathedral.  Starts at 19:30 and tickets cost R90, email davido@sgcathedral.co.za for more info

image: poundland.co.uk

• Sad news for some:  the percentage of families that eat marmalade on their toast in the mornings has declined from 36% 40 years ago to just 7% today!  mmmm more for me...

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 111

Hi there

Cameron van den Burgh

• Olympic 2012 fever! and we have our first gold medal, hooray!

image: 123RF

• Two Buckinghamshire residents have the last say on those irritating cold calls.  As soon as you can get a word in, say "And vot is your passverd?" suggests Ann Wainwright, or as Geoff Perfitt usually says "Before you go on to tell me things, can I ask you what you're wearing?"  The Daily Telegraph   Brilliant!

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 110

Morning morning

Coca-Cola torchbearer Tyler Rix and London Mayor Boris Johnson carry the flame during the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay Finale Concert in London's Hyde Park (Picture: Getty)

Exciting times ahead:  the London Olympics officially start today.  Here are some interesting stats (courtesy of The Week):

• The BBC is " devoting" 26 channels to the Olympics - forget watching anything else on TV

• An extra 10,000 trains will transport spectators to venues outside the capital - The Waterloo and City lines will run on Sundays for the first time since 1947

• Around 100,000 condoms have been provided for the athletes residing in the Olympic Village, along with "an industrial quantity" of pregnancy testing kits - party time!

• Six surface to air missile batteries have been installed around London to bring down rogue aircraft - the security budget is 553 Million pounds!

• The only credit card accepted at the games is Visa - look after your wallet

Here's some fun for those first time visitors to London
http://london2012.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/a-guide-to-british-manners/

PS:  did you notice that Boris has had his hair cut for the occasion

Enjoy your weekend
cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 109

Hello

Plans for the weekend ahead?  Here are some suggestions

James Cunningham in Sunday Morning

 

• The Kalk Bay Theatre has James Cunningham appearing  in the fast paced comedy/thriller Sunday Morning at 8:30pm most nights - has had great reviews, go to www.kbt.co.za for more

• Alternatively, enjoy a good laugh at The Grand West Arena with the best of SA's comedic talent starring in Mass Hysteria, Friday and Saturday only at 8pm, tickets available from www.computicket.co.za

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 108

A scene from The Silver Fez, a look at
South Africa's colourful Malay subculture.
(Image: Africa in Motion)

Hello

• The Best of African Cinema Online: MNet's African Film Library (AFL) has 100 African movies available as a download service - they plan to increase the number to 600 titles.  For only R42 one can rent one of these movies for 36 hours (and watch it multiple times). Read more: http://www.mediaclubsouthafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2999:the-best-of-african-cinema-now-online&catid=49:medianews&Itemid=113#ixzz21cRe8BjM

image: trendmedia.com

 

 

 

 

• Loved this one:  "why would I tweet when I've not read The Brothers Karamazov?" - Michael Palin quoted in The Mail on Sunday

 
Cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 107

 

Greetings

Loved these classic arty quotes

•  "All children are artists.  The problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up."  Picasso quoted in The Guardian

•  "Interpretation is the revenge of the intellectual upon art."  Susan Sontag quoted in The Argus

Two viewers walk past an exhibition while Damien Hirst's piece, Damien Hirst Room, stands alone. A study found that people only bother to look at pieces by Hirst and Emin for under five seconds

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365672/Modern-art-How-gallery-visitors-viewed-work-Damien-Hirst-Tracy-Emin-5-seconds.html#ixzz21Wuti300

 

• "In the art world, 'tasteful' is probably a bigger insult than 'tasteless'."  Grayson Perry quoted in the Sunday Telegraph

Albert Einstein

• "Creativity is intelligence having fun."  Albert Einstein quoted in Ad Age

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 106

Hi there, welcome & where shall I begin........?

Hashim Amla celebrates reaching his triple century during the 1st Test at The Oval, in London.  Image:  Daniel Hambury, PA

Ernie Els celebrates winning the 2012 Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes.  Image: Glyn Kirk, AFP/Getty Images / SF 

 

 

The Sharks celebrate beating the Reds in the Super 15 in Brisbane.  Image: Steve Haag Gallo Images

Wow! what a winning weekend! - did you actually leave the couch, at all?  Love it!

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 105

image: digital-literacies.com

Weekend greetings

So it's going to be a cold and wet one out there

• Do not spend too much time in front of the box or your laptop: other than the obvious and sad 'blob' effect, medical experts reckon that the "risk factors for cardiovascular disease start to increase above two hours of TV-watching a day" but then you knew that, didn't you?

• Do keep moving - both the mind and body!   Invite friends around for some sop en dop or Beouf Wellington and 30 Seconds.  Remember "happy people do a great deal for their friends" - Willa Cather, quoted in The Boston Globe

image: t plaistowe

Cheers and keep warm
jp

findingthemojo no 104

Hello again

As some of you only receive this notification a day later, here are a couple of weekend suggestions you might need to plan ahead for

• The Man is in Town and all soccer enthusiasts are welcomed to the MU practice session on Friday night - ahead of the match on Saturday - at the Green Point Stadium at 7pm, tickets only R10 from www.computicket.co.za

• Theatre treats: at The Fugard there's The Blue Iris on at 8pm - has had some pretty good revues and all the details are on www.thefugard.com  .  The Kalk Bay Theatre has an excellent (by all accounts) one hander entitled Sunday Morning on @ 8:30pm, so there's time for a relaxed supper somewhere down the line - more on www.kbt.co.za

Image: rodrigolab.com

Cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 103

Hello

• The Meaning of Mandela is the opinion piece in today's Daily Dispatch (online), see www.dispatch/news/article/3724 , quietly celebrating Madiba's 94th birthday today (as is every other news platform across the world).  Instead of the 67 Minutes campaign, my sentiment goes with regular Cape Argus columnist Helen Walne's suggestion that "it's everyday that counts, not the every-year Days" - much more meaningful.

image:  wakeup-world.com

• "To be forgotten is to die a little" said Aung San Suu Kyi in The Independent.  For the sake of this country, let us never forget our most precious icon and remember his teachings, every day.

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 102

Morning - two items that recently caught my eye

Image:  The Homecoming Revolution

• Only in Africa classic!  - The Homecoming Revolution is promoting it's new line of Smells like Home" perfumes: 'Karoo Stoep', 'Zulu Leather' and 'Highveld Storm' in "places frequented by expats, including South African embassies around the world, events like expos, and recreational facilities like restaurants and shops".  Apparently, this initiative was a collaboration with Aroma Logo (seriously?), a company that designs logos with scented branding, to re-create these smells - fragrance wands doubled as wristbands for samplers to take away. Campaign directors at Morrisjones, a JoBurg branding and design company who boast being 'results-befok' (no lie!), and "describe their work as ‘allvertising’, said at this stage there are no plans to mass-produce or sell the fragrances", says Cadine Pillay of Brand SA.  THR can't be serious?

Image: strangecosmos.com

  

• Sporting progress?:  Ken Rosewall (1970's tennis spin master) was able to generate a spin of 1,500 revs per minute; Rafael Nadal averages 3,700 rpm with a maximum of 4,900.  Some players have recently taken to spraying their raquet strings with silicon before a game, generating 40% more spin.  Raquets are also three inches wider than they were in the 1980s, "with larger sweet spots and slippery copoly strings which slide, stretch and then snap back in a fraction of a second to create extra torque", say Barry Flatman in The Sunday Times.  The International Tennis Federation are "looking into" this practice.

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 101

Hello

• An interesting exhibition has opened at the Iziko SA National Gallery - entitled Rendezvous 12, this exhibition of international contemporary art from the Lyon Biennale in France is part of the France-South Africa Seasons 2012 and 2013 and is on until October 14. " The goal of these Seasons is to improve mutual understanding and contribute to the diversification of France’s image in South Africa and South Africa’s image in France by emphasising the modernity and values that the two countries share."  See www.france-southafrica.com for more.  Organised and implemented by

 

• "All children are artists.  The problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up." Picasso in The Guardian

Cheers
jp


 

findinthemojo no 100

Hello, it's the weekend!

If you're not heading out to Franschhoek to share in all the joie de vivre surrounding Bastille Day celebrations, there's plenty on the go in CT itself, so before the cabin fever sets in, get out there!

Kathleen Tagg & Zanne Stapelberg

• Kuier lekker by Die Boer in Durbanville, where SA soprano Zanne Stapelberg and pianist Kathleen Tagg will be hosting Soul of Fire, featuring music from Spain and Latin America.  Starting tonight @ 8pm and running until Sunday, go to www.dieboer.com

• Or, as Bob Dylan said "A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do."

Bob Dylan doing his thaing

Enjoy your weekend
cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 99

Morning

Some interesting projects are on the go elsewhere in the world

• Britain from Above: experts have been unable to identify all the locations in an archive of 16,000 aerial photographs of Britain taken between 1919 and 1953 by an air survey company, Aerofilms.  The photos which have recently been digitised and placed online are free to view and the public has been invited to assist in recognising locations.  Go to www.britainfromabove.org.uk The website will eventually contain 95,000 images - quite amazing!

• The Mpemba Effect:  why does a warmer liquid freeze faster than a cooler one??? Named after the young Tanzanian student Erasto Mpemba who first posed this question in 1963, scientists are still baffled as to this phenomenon.  As a result, and as of 26 June 2012, the Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK are sponsoring a £1000 prize to anyone that can solve this puzzle.  All interesting and inventive solutions should be submitted at www.hermes2012.org/ice Good luck to you!

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 98

Hi there

Respect Diversity – Football Unites campaign at Euro 2012

 

 

• We all have good memories of the Soccer World Cup 2010, here in SA and it was interesting to read that Euro 2012 has helped the Poles in much the same way - showing the rest of the world that they "speak English well", and that they have "comfortable public transport, great food, and beautiful girls" and that the predictions of violence, racism and general disaster were unfounded, putting to rest "a number of national inferiority complexes and breaking some stereotypes".   

Women's Doubles during the BWF World Badminton Championships

•  Interesting statistic: this year's Olympics 2012, starting on Friday 27 July in London will be hosting "10,500 athletes from 205 countries who will compete in 302 medal events at 34 venues.  They will use 1,8 million pieces of  sporting equipment, including 8,400 shuttlecocks." The Daily Telegraph.  You don't say!

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 97

Hello

Get away for a couple of days, to be reminded of our good fortune and be grateful. The sun, fresh air, water and another lovely view. 

Knysna Quays - July 2012

•  In spite of all the negatives, we live in an amazing place which makes 'coming home" such a pleasure (despite freezing our socks off in this icy CT winter weather!).  For others it's a bit of a problem when you rely on the view and sporting tourism to fill a Town/City's coffers, as they do up the Garden Route.  You have to offer your visitors (especially those non-sportsmen/women) something more than just a view or you'll soon have another dying dusty dorp - Knysna should watch out!

Image Brand SA

•  Have you watched the newish clip produced by Brand SA, called Inspiring New Ways, cheesy but moving - http://www.brandsouthafrica.com/tvc/watch-the-advert.html

Cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 96

Morning

With a early run-up to the weekend, here are two suggestions to feed your soul

• The Imperial Russian Ballet is in CT, performing a varied programme at The Baxter till Sunday, 5 -7 @ 7.30pm, 8 July @ 3pm,  - should be awesome! See www.baxter.co.za for details

Imperial Russian Ballet

•  If some cool jazz is your thing, don't miss The City Hall Sessions, a mini-jazz festival starting tonight @ 7:30 and on until Saturday, 7 July, @ The CT City Hall.  Fabulous line-up of musicians, including some new artists - go to www.cityhallsessions.co.za for all the info.

Who said CT was boring in Winter?

Loving and leaving you with this quote from Gloria Steinem: "The truth will set you free.  But first it will piss you off."

Cheers, taking off a bit of a long weekend, so will speak to you on Tuesday next - take care
jp

findingthemojo no 95

Hello

The Haven Passport

• A good idea: instead of those coins you hand over to the needy at the robot or to the car guard, purchase some Passports from The Haven Night Shelters.  R10 per passport, entitles a homeless person to a meal, a shower, clothing, a bed, Social Work Services and assistance in finding a way back to a home, family, and/or community.  Phone them on 021 425 4700 or see www.haven.org.za  for your local Haven location.
  

  

  ifood.tv

   

   

•  For another perspective on inner city street life culture, check out the SA Street Style Exhibition at the Freeworld Design Centre, 71 Waterkant St, open until 10 August and "celebrating and showcasing the incredibly vibrant local talent that South Africa has to offer"  See www.freeworlddesigncentre.com for more info.

Sharp Sharp SA Street Style -Ed Suter

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 94

MoonlightMass Ride

    

Greetings on this grey and misty Tuesday

• It's Full Moon Rise @ 17:45 tonight and a reminder re the MoonlightMass Bike Ride, raising awareness about cycling safety in and around our City - join the group for a casual ride, starting @ Green Point Circle at 9pm, should be a blast - more on www.moonlightmass.co.za

•  Remember "you're not stuck in traffic, you are traffic" - from a German transport campaign, quoted in the Guardian

Keep warm
cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 93

Hello

• Belonging to a group, be it a wine club/book club/gardener's club/girls' soccer club, is so important. Knowing that you are going to be able to interact with interesting like-minded friends once a month to discuss shared passions is quite comforting and wonderful!

"the different layers!" Mark & Di @ last week's Unique Bookclub meeting

• Woody Allen says: "Life is full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly" - all the more reason to share it with a good  friend, asap! 

cheers
jp