findingthemojo no 332

Morning - as we freeze to death here in CT and wonder why we never invested in double-glazing and central heating, there are two items to ponder on: tomorrow is the first day of Spring and weirdly, there is snow on Table Mountain this am - such wonder!

image: sassiherbalist.co.uk

• "Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language" - Henry James, quoted in The Times

image: walkthecape.blogspot.com

• "A rainy day is the perfect time for a walk in the woods" - Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring

cheers, have a wonderful weekend and themojo will be back on 10 September
jp

findingthemojo no 331

Hello - looking ahead to NEXT week, there are three fab fests to look forward to

• the Darling Voorkamerfest takes place from 6 - 8 Sept, best to book before hand, this fest always has some fantastic surprise acts on offer

• the Tulbagh Spring Arts Festival is on at the same time: 6 - 8 Sept, plenty of great art, artists and musicians taking part

• the eagerly awaited Open Book Literary Festival takes place from 7 - 11 Sept at various venues around Town, best to get tickets early and check details on the website

image: openbookfestival.co.za

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 330

Greetings from a cold and weary wet CT (yet in anticipation of that Spring feeling) and ahead of a  jam-packed weekend - you know what I mean....

• get some new ideas: starting today at the CTICC and on until Sunday 1 Sept is the 2013 Cape Homemakers Expo featuring over 350 stands

• but before you start spending on redecorating or that new Summer wardrobe, a reminder that pledges open on 1 Sept for the annual Santa Shoebox Project - start filling a couple of boxes, such a good cause

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 329

Morning - unexpected traveller's delights - underground subways and tunnels of real artistic beauty

• in Birmingham, Alabama, American artist Bill Fitzgibbons was tasked with doing something amazing with this neglected railroad underpass and he created this lighting installation entitled LightRails, composed of a computerised light system

LightRails by Bill Fritzgibbons, image: contemporist

• have a look at these magnificent photos (from The Daily Mail) of Stockholm's Subway system, transformed into a "gigantic kaleidoscope art exhibition" - the work of 150 artists, let loose over the last 55 years and then there's more.....

Underground art in Stockholm's subway system,  image: AFP/Getty Images

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 328

Greetings - more from isn't nature wonderful

• "when Finnish photographer Kai Fagerström visited his parent’s holiday home in Suomusjärvi, he found various animals in the surrounding abandoned houses. He photographed the new neighbours, resulting in images showing badgers, foxes and squirrels pattering around decaying homes" - charming!

image: kafa.fi from The House in the Woods

• zoologist Kristofer Helgen has found living proof of olinguitos (looks like a cross between a teddy bear and a cat) in the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador - "the first new carnivore to be identified in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years" - not that cuddly!

image: news.yahoo.com

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 327

Hello - wise words from two Thomas's

• "When you have exhausted all the possibilities, remember this - you haven't" - Thomas A Edison, quoted in The Times

image: planetmotivation.com

• "Character is much easier kept than recovered" - Thomas Paine, quoted in The Times

image: answers.com

cheers and have a fab weekend
jp

findingthemojo no 326

Morning - here are a couple of suggestions for the up-coming weekend, both taking place at The Artscape Theatre

image: Cirque de la Symphonie

• from Friday 23 - 25 August, the spectacular Cirque de la Symphonie on this weekend only, tickets R190, R250 or R280

image: dance:momentum

• on Saturday @ 8pm and Sunday @ 4pm only, Dance: Momentum where more than 100 dancers celebrate CAFDA's Dance Theatre success over the last 50 years - includes ballet, hip-hop, contemporary and modern dance, tickets R60

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 325

Hello - recently discovered food terms

• frankenfood - genetically modified food

image: prwatch.org

• cornichons - small pickled gherkins

• lochavore - a person whose diet consists only or principally of locally grown or produced food

image: cbsnews.com

• olive caviar - olives that have been dried, minced and mixed with garlic, herbs and salt, producing a slightly sticky but mostly dry and crumbly textured product

image: yuppiechef.com

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 324

Hello - in case you missed these, take a look at

• the winners of the Sony Photography Awards L'Iris d'Or   The overall winner was Norwegian photographer Andrea Gjestvang with her "powerful series of portraits of children and youths who survived the July 2011 massacre on the island of Utoeya, outside Oslo", entitled ‘One day in history’

image: Andrea Gjestvang

• then the official pics of tiny Prince George, taken by Kate's Dad, Michael Middleton - only the British papers would interview and print the comments by Mr Eddie Mulholland, "vice chairman of the British Press Photographers Association and a news photographer for the Telegraph for 20 years"(!), who pronounced the photos: "lovely snaps for a grandfather to have taken" but "they look like they have been taken with a mobile phone or a consumer compact camera" - seriously!

image: Michael Middleton

cheers
jp 

findingthemojo no 323

Morning - some lovely arty surprises to start your week

image: Courtesy of 21c Museum Hotel. Photographer: Magnus Lindqvist

• give one of these top 10 arty hotels in the world a try, they look amazing but don't think breakfast can be a relaxed affair at the 21c Museum Hotel!

image:  Yulia Bridskaya

• have a look at Russian born, currently resident in the UK, expert quilling and illustrative artist Yulia Brodska's body of work, just incredible what she does with a pen and  piece of paper

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 322

Morning morning - keeping warm, hopefully!  Two wise Georges have this to say

• "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies.  The man who never reads lives only one" - author George R R Martin quoted in the Daily Mail

image: smallbiztrends.com

• "What I regret most in life are failures of kindness" - novelist George Saunders, quoted in The Daily Telegraph

image: grandjunctiondesign.com

cheers and great weekend
jp

findingthemojo no 321

Hi there - have a laugh this weekend

• this Friday and Saturday only - it's the  Mass Hysteria Comedy Show on at 8pm at Grandwest.  Tickets R145 - 170 available through computicket.  Line-up includes

 Nik Rabinowitz
Joey Rasdien
Chester Missing
Ndumiso Lindi
John Vlismas
Tumi Morake
Mpho Popps Modikoane
Kurt Schoonraad

• alternatively, catch Soli Philander at The Roxy Revue Bar, Grandwest in his show, The Passion Gap. Starts at 8:30pm, tickets are R78, from computicket

• or, catch Pieter Dirk Uys at The Fugard in 50 Shades of Bambi.  Starts at 7pm or 9pm, tickets are R150 and available through computicket

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 320

Hello - with the weather being a bit dicey at the moment, you need to plan ahead 

• to drop everything and take the good sunny weather day (s) gap - viewing the Spring flowers up the West Coast is an absolute must, apparently there are already fields and fields of flower fabulousness

• to pick up that jacket and just go to the next free PechaKuch Event at The Cape Town City Hall on Tuesday 27 August, starts @ 8pm

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 319

Hello again - interesting to see what the Brits are up to...... here are two recent reports from The Week

image: Rob Kim/Getty Images

 

• The London Fire Brigade has blamed 50 Shades of Grey for a rise in "unusual incidents".  Crews have released 79 people from handcuffs - usually in their bedrooms - in the past three years.  "We've even been called out to rescue a man whose penis was stuck in a toaster," said third officer Dave Brown.  "The mind boggles: we're an emergency service and should be used as such" - must be the unusually warm Summer the Brits are having, or something?

image: socialenterprise.guardian.co.uk

• there are more than 52 million pornographic web pages registered in Britain - making that country the third-biggest host of internet porn in the world - MetaCert/The Sunday Times - scary!

Cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 318

A sad hello - there are some people who have a positive and profound influence on one and if that person is a remarkable teacher (in the true sense of the word), one can only thank the heavens that you were one of those miserable teenagers who were touched by that inspiring "giftedness"

"I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists.  Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit" - John Steinbeck

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire” – William Butler Yeats

 RIP GH

Cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 317

Greetings at the start of a lovely long weekend!  If you're keen to get in your car and just get out of the City.....!

image: veganbits.com

           

• the two main festivals to visit  this weekend are The Robertson Slow Food and Wine Festival, and the Big Bee Festival in Swellendam

image: Robertson Slow Food & Wine Festival

image: Swellendam Big Bee Festival

•  alternatively, pop into view the interesting collection of new work at Salon 91 in Kloof St in their The Editions Show, on until 24 August
  

cheers and enjoy the long weekend
speak to you on Monday 12 August, again
jp

findingthemojo no 316

Hi - as we head for Women's Day (a public holiday here in SA) on Friday

image: Stylist.co.uk

• here's some excellent "billion dollar" advice from Arianna Huffington, in a recent Stylist mag - love the "device free bedroom", hear! hear!

image: capetownmagazine.com

•  and for more inspiration, check out these local "fearless females" in the latest CapeTownMagazine.com - inspiring!

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 315

Hello - isn't this marvellous!

• go to The Telegraph link to see how Buenos Aires street artist Martin Ron created this amazing work of art measuring 1,300ft square, using 64 litres of paint, over two four-story buildings in just 16 days

image: The Telegraph

• here's another example of his work - quite incredible!

image: The Telegraph

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 314

Morning - it's a bit of a games theme today

• there's a new version of Monopoly in the shops - Monopoly Empire where players buy and trade big-brand names such as Coke, McD's and Samsung.  Playing pieces include an Xbox controller and a coke bottle.  Best news of all, game can be completed in half an hour!

• here's a fun way to test your English and Maths skills "under pressure" - give it a try

cheers
jp

findingthemojo no 313

Greetings

• "Had I abided by good advice I might have been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes " - Edna St Vincent Millay, quoted in The Boston Globe

image:poetryfoundation.org

• "Start worrying..... details to follow" - telegram, ascribed to an archetypical Jewish mother, quoted in The Guardian

image: www.guardian.co.uk

cheers and great weekend!
jp

findingthemojo no 312

Hello - as August is Women's Month, perhaps you should show your support this weekend by

• visiting the Women in Clay exhibition at Art in the Forest, situated just up from the Constantia Nek circle. Several female ceramists from all over SA will be exhibiting. Opens on Sat 11 - 3pm until 31 August (daily, exp Sun, from 10 - 4pm), entrance is free!

• attending the BAHI Healing Concert at The Artscape Theatre on Sunday evening at 6pm, where talented South African musicians (including Nianell and  Zanne Stapelberg) are set to join forces with the Cape Philharmonic Youth Orchestra for a worthy cause and as  part of the seventh annual Women/Humanity Arts Festival.  Tickets from computicket

cheers
jp