findingthemojo no 167

Hello
Winding up October ..... in a scary way

image:  sodahead.com

• trust you have your fizz-pops, jelly-tots and liquorice-allsorts at hand for this evening when the trick-or-treaters ring your doorbell?  Be prepared!

image: moto.mpora.com

• tomorrow is the 1st of November 2012 - only 55 days till Christmas, oh boy!

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 166

Morning

Do not miss these

• Body Worlds & The Cycle of Life opens in  CT this week.  Dr Gunther von Hagens' "original ground-breaking anatomical exhibition", featuring 200 exhibits will open at the V& A Waterfront Breakwater Boulevard on Wed 31Oct - 31 Jan 2013, www.bodyworlds.co.za has all the info

Richard Smith's Maze 2 (Musha)

• the Irma Stern Museum in Rosebank will host the Richard Smith exhibition Head and Shoulders, curatored by Rose Korber.  The exhibition opens tonight and is on until 24 Nov.  Read more about Richard and his work

• here's a really interesting and poignant piece by Dan Lewis on lunar art in yesterday's edition of his daily blog, Now I Know

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 165

Monday again - morning!

image:  Southafrica.info

• so, the 2012 group of matrics currently writing matric are the first of the born-frees to do so, will be interesting to hear what their plans are for the future....

 

• do not forget that the Moonlight Mass Night Cycle takes place tonight at 21:00 in Green Point and there are now two other 'off-shoots' closer to your neck of the woods, maybe(?):  in Obs, in the River Club car park - meet at 20:30 and further down the track at the St James Station - meet at 20:00.  All info available at http://www.moonlightmass.co.za/

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 164

Morning

Loved these two, to end the week

• "It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realise just how much you love them" - Agatha Christie, quoted in The Times

• "The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper" - Bertrand Russell, quoted in The Sunday Telegraph

cheers and have a wonderful weekend
jp

findingthemojo no 163

Hello

image: CTCB

Any plans for the up-coming weekend?  try these

• enjoy the smooth moves at The Artscape Theatre where The Cape Town City Ballet's production of the Cole Porter ballet Night and Day opens on Friday 26 Oct - 3 Nov.  Tickets are available at computicket

image:  comedycentralafrica.com

• we all need a good  laugh.  Go and see Nik Rabinowitz in his one-night-only show Stand and Deliver on Saturday 27 Oct at 9pm ,at the CTICC.  Hilarious guy!  Tickets also at computicket

 cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 162

Morning - did you hear about

• the gentleman from Grahamstown, his toenails and the Chinese Embassy  - a different kind of protest

image: tiptoptens.com

• silly Melanie Minnie from Pretoria, the 19 kids and her Renault Clio - what was she thinking?

image: nico van heerden

Only in SA
Cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 161

Good afternoon

Yes, we're in for another sandy, teeth rattling, bad hair week of note, it seems - guess we'll appreciate those precious windless days even more...................

• in spite of the icy gale and pretty grey skies, Hermanus was the place to be last weekend, to enjoy the wild craziness of those beautiful creatures - cavorting, leaping, tail swaggering power and lots of it.  Wow! what a display - go and watch the whales play in the Walker Bay area, magnificent!

image: whalecottage.com

• speaking of wildness and this damn wind, loved this extract taken from one of Harriet Beecher Stowe's works called Hymn

When winds are raging o’er the upper ocean
  And billows wild contend with angry roar,
’T is said, far down beneath the wild commotion
  That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore

Going swimming
Cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 160

Hello

• are you also hugely disappointed in Lance Armstrong?  It feels just like the Hansie Cronje skandaal.  Watch this old Nike ad, quite incredible!

• do not forget to book your tickets for the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour 2012 which starts this Friday 26 Oct - 1 Nov.  Book at www.sterkinekor.com and check out the program at www.banff.co.za

image: zolmax.com

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 159

Hello and welcome to the weekend

Fascinating art bits

• what would Leonardo's Last Supper look like minus the figures?  Check out Hungarian artist Bence Hajdu, whose "Abandoned Old Master Paintings" have created huge interest on the social media networks

Bence Hajdu and his "Abandoned" Master paintings, image: Hajdu Bence fb

•  who owns what art in Britain?  The Observer reports that after 10 years, involving 100 researchers, and 6 million pounds, the Your Paintings Project organised by the Public Catalogue Foundation is nearing completion - photographs of "all 210,000 paintings by 46,000 artists will be online by the end of the year."  The PCF plan to start cataloging Britain's works of sculpture next year

Music in the Tuileries Gardens (1862) by Manet, image: The National Gallery/EPA

Cheers and enjoy the weekend - summer is coming, promise!
jp

findingthemojo no 158

Morning morning

Weekend ahead and a suggestion that you head out into the hills - those wine-producing hills that is. 

• Roberstson hosts it's sixth Wine on the River festival at the Goudmyn Farm between Roberstson and Bonnievale.  "This family friendly fiesta" starts on Friday 19 Oct, find further details at www.wineonriver.com

• on the way back from your languid liquid lunch on Sunday at one of our fabulous wine farms, why not stop off and do some early Christmas shopping at the fabulous "Kamers Vol Geskenke" fair @ the Lourensford Estate, outside Somerset West.  On from 21 - 27 Oct, more details at www.kamersvol.com

NB to take a deep and broad boot, ok, make that a bakkie for all your lovely purchases - lekker wyn!
cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 157

Good day

Did you know

• that an estimated 10,000 human organs are traded on the black market each year and 75% of those are kidneys - from The Guardian.  Grisly stuff!

image:  coldtruth.com

• that one in three children leave primary school unable to swim - from The Daily Mail. Crazy!

image: waterwings.biz

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 156

Greetings

image:  guardian.co.uk

• interesting man was Herbert Karel Angelo Kuchacevich Ze Schluderpacheru, that hilarious, blinking and manic Charles Dreyfus, "forever remembered as Inspector Clouseau's nemesis".  He died recently at the age of 95 and according to The Week, having escaped to Britain from Prague during the rise of Nazism, became a film actor, collected art ("he owned several Picassos"), ran a Christmas tree farm in Kent, and wrote books - we know him as Herbert Lom

image: childrenshospitalblog.org

 






 

•  loved this one: "most children threaten at times to run away from home.  This is the only thing that keeps some parents going." - Phyllis Diller, quoted in The Advertiser

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 155

Hi there

October is all about

2011 Finalist "Oceans of Life", image: David Beatson

• National Marine Week in SA and as part of the celebration, the Save our Seabirds (SOS) Festival organised a "Oceans of Life" photographic exhibition.  Top international and local photographers participated and the 50 winning entries are on display @ the Iziko-SA Museum until 20 November - don't  miss these breathtaking images

• Seniors' month, so pay a visit to an elderly person you haven't seen in a while - make their day ......... and yours.  Alternatively, go to www.ikamva.org.za - every bit helps

image:  ikamva labantu

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 154

Hi there

image:  hoover.org

Weekend words.....

"Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength" - Eric Hoffer, quoted in The Times

image: czechsite.com       

•      "A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us" - Kafka, quoted in   The Guardian

and oh, yes! good luck to all of you taking part in the Gun Run on Sunday morning

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 153

Hello

image: City Sightseeing    

• those (love them or hate them, depending on where you live) red hop-on hop-off City Sightseeing buses, so familiar to CT residents will also be moving tourists around JoBurg from January 2013.   The Joburg route will be quite history orientated -  "it begins at Gautrain Park Station and proceeds to Gandhi Square, then City Hall, Roof of Africa at the Carlton Centre, the James Hall Transport Museum, the Apartheid Museum and Gold Reef City, the Mining District, the World of Beer, the Newtown Precinct, the Origins Centre at Wits University, and ends at Constitution Hill." - definitely a must do for visitors

• worth going to watch this coming weekend is the world's best surfskiers, gearing up for the first and biggest race (12km) of the Best4 Surfski series.  Starting at 9:00 - 11:00 on Sunday at The Clocktower, V & A Waterfront - it's free and apparently there are good viewing spots, for more visit www.waterfront.co.za

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 152

Hello

Always be reminded that elsewhere in the world, things are just as crazy, strange - promise!

• "an unusual disarmament drive involving a military marching band and a prize draw to win Hyundai hatchbacks, flat-screen TVs and iPads" - this is what a private Lybian TV station organised last weekend in Benghazi, and it seemed to work - "Kalashnikovs, anti-aircraft guns, rocket-propelled grenades and even a couple of tanks were handed in" to loud hoorays!

image: defensetech.org

• the Danes have decided to take their low birth rate in hand by "offering to provide two hours' free childcare each week so that parents can go home to bed and make more babies".  Wonder how the child carers will explain that one to the kids....?  

image: theworld.org

• those responsible for the new Saudi Arabian Ikea catalogue, came in for some mighty flak when they removed all women from this version of the catalogue - asking for trouble from the Women's Rights Movement

image: clickrally.com

• and from now on, don't take a sip of your coke or nibble at your take-away pizza anywhere near sites that are of "particular historic or architectural value" in Rome - you will be fined, heavily.  It's part of a new move to  "restore respect" in that beautiful City.  Like this one

image:thebesttourism.com

Thanks to The Week for highlighting these stories

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 151

Hi there

Lots of interesting new reads are on the shelves/kindles again - hooray!

image: salon.com

• Zadie Smith, author of the previous winners, On Beauty and White Teeth has a new read out about a group of Londoners in their mid-30s, NW (referring to her home postcode).  The book has had some mixed reviews with some great ones: "It is joyous, optimistic, angry masterpiece, and no better English novel will be published this year, or, probably, next," said Philip Hensher in The Daily Telegraph.  Can't wait to try it

• Previously, authors would thank and credit one/various muse(s) for their inspiration.  It's now become the in-thing for authors to thank an online app for their success.  According to The Week,  "online tools that block users from looking at certain websites or limit their access are becoming all the rage among writers."  Two apps:  Freedom and SelfControl were acknowledged by Ms Smith for "creating the time"to write her latest novel.  Sign of the times

image: programs.alberta.ca

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 150

Morning

So the testing South Easter (only good for birds) has arrived and Summer must be on the way - surely?

Jurgens and his 'Baby'

• amazing what's happening down on the Sea Point Promenade these days.  Just yesterday we bumped into, no, not skate-boarders and roller-bladders but Jurgens and his beautiful salmon pink 'Baby' - who turned out to be very tame (both of them, actually) and totally unruffled by the gale

Ms K and 'Baby'

• toward the end of last week, US hurricanes blew a Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger), "a tern-like seabird that is native to the Americas", into Rietvlei Reserve in Milnerton - never sighted in Africa before and naturally, all the birders went ballistic.  Amazingly, this same bird seems to have moved on to Walvis Bay Lagoon over the weekend, see http://www.westerncapebirding.co.za/news.php?article=1093 for all the updates

abcbirds.org, image:  Black Skimmer by Alan Wilson

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 149

Good afternoon

• Woody Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg) recently interviewed in The Guardian by Oliver Burkeman, says he won't be retiring anytime soon as he likes making movies too much - he is 76 - "You work with beautiful women, and charming men, who are amusing and gifted; you travel places, and the money's good.  It's nice living."  He is especially keen on the French who he says "think I'm an intellectual because I wear these glasses, and they think I'm an artist because my films lose money."

Penelope and Woody, image: filmdrunk.uproxx.com

• he was quoted in The Independent recently, saying "I don't want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live on in my apartment."

• and, in The Daily Telegraph: "There are two types of people in this world, good and bad.  But the bad seem to enjoy the waking hours much more."

Love Woody!
Cheers and have a great weekend
jp

findingthemojo no 148

Greetings

That delicious hint of weekend is in the air - time to plan ahead.  Lovely selection of choices but two inspiring recommendations include

image:  The Baxter Theatre

• 8th Baxter Dance Festival starts tonight until 13 Oct.  Featuring "work by established professionals as well as by exciting up-and-coming dance practitioners".  Go to http://www.baxter.co.za/dance.htm#dancefest and click on detailed schedule

image: flickr.com

• the Cape Town Month of Photography festival continues till the end of Oct with exhibitions and workshops happening across the City (& in Joburg) - from the Casa Labia in Muizenberg, to the Jewish Museum in town, to the Lovell Gallery in Woodstock.  The festival is a "celebration of photography as a medium, and includes work that spans categories ranging from personal and artistic expression to social engagement, political commentary and philosophical discourse", culminating in an auction at the Lovell Gallery at the end of the month.  See all events on the Festival schedule

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 147

Good afternoon

Victoria Beckham in her Burb image: glamour.com

• oh! my G - just been reading about the new and revamped Burberry  Store, at 121 Regent Street, London on Emerald Street's blog, and like the Anthropologie and Abercrombie stores, definitely worth a visit just for the experience.  Blending "physical with digital", the new 'World Live' experience -  an "impressive 44,000 sqft" includes "500 speakers and 100 screens" and  "digital rain showers are synchronised across all screens and speakers at selected moments throughout the day" - heavens!  Go to www.burberry.com and order your bespoke trench now!

         

image: peppedoubleg.deviantart.com  

• discovered that the Japanese have a word for the smell of an older person - kareishu.  Now, according to The Daily Telegraph,  scientists tell us that the smell of  an elderly person is the easiest to tell apart from the smell of someone younger than say, 75.  Reassuring, for those of us headed that way, an older person's smell is said to be "the least intense and offensive" - keep showering!

cheers
jp 

findingthemojo no 146

Hello again

• just LOVE Jerry Seinfeld - quoted in The Advertiser:  "Dogs are the leaders of the planet.  If you see two life-forms, one's making a poop and the other one's carrying it for him.  Who would you assume is in charge?"

image: geology.com

• an interesting statistic: "only 2.6% of the total street value of cocaine produced in Colombia remains in the country" - scary stuff!

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 145

Hello

Here's a really great idea for your Monday

if you're over 40, sing, play a musical instrument or have a band, enter the Forever Young Competition.  Auditions are happening at Ferrymans at The Waterfront for the month of October, every Tuesday and Wednesday night.  Register at www.foreveryoung.co.za  What fun!

Jackal & Hide, Kloof St

• and, we enjoyed a lovely meal at a newish restaurant in Kloof St last Friday night:  Jackal & Hide, phone no 021 424 1020, contemporary/cool atmosphere and decor.  Do not miss the 'tenderstem broccoli' starter - it is divine!  Very good prices too

cheers dears
jp