Worth A Thousand Words

Boy, Haiti: Haiti is a tragic place in need of help. This image was taken before the recent earthquake. I hope this young boy was unharmed, although I can't help feeling that his life may be full of struggle

Mursi Woman and child, Ethiopia: It is traditional with the Mursi tribe for women to insert a clay dish in the lower lip from an early age. Around six to 12 months before marriage, the woman's lip is pierced by one of her kinswomen, usually at around the age of 15 to 18

Hamer girl in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia: I spent three weeks journeying through Ethiopia to record the faces if its various tribes

Maasai bride, Kenya: I stumbled across this young bride while photographing a wildlife story in the Amboseli National Park. This was a brief moment of calm reflection before the ceremony

Sacred Waterfall, India: Local people flock to stand beneath this sacred waterfall in Kerala. I love the serenity of these women lost in thought

From the series:  Travelling Light: an exhibition of recent works by Philip Lee Harvey showcased in London earlier this year.

All jacked from The Graun. 

Long Live The Dead Queen

1. I'm a Lady

2. They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To

3. I Put A Spell On Me

On Sophie, the character cast from a fibreglass mould of Mary's own body: 

Sophie’s eyes are always closed as if in a “constant ecstasy of fantasy” and it’s in her mind that her dress becomes a thing 

of voluminous Victorian splendour. 

“If she opened her eyes, it would be back to work – cleaning this, dusting that. 

Her dress would become an ordinary maid’s uniform” 

For more head to Momo Gallery, Johannesburg for live viewing, otherwise checkout www.gallerymomo.com.

 post jacked from the uber fab bombasticelements.blogspot.com!

Imitation is the Cutest Form of Flattery

Li'l Girl Dressed up as the fabulous Janelle Monae, all ready for Halloween.

I've no idea where the pic's from, found it on Threadbare via via via etc 

If you're reading this & it's yours, please can I have her, the kid I mean. : )

I warn you not to be ordinary. I warn you not to be young.

 I warn you not to fall ill. I warn you not to get old.

With Love, Gideon Osborne xxx

plagiarised from Neill Kinnock

pic by Chris Ridell (copyright) jacked from The Guardian

Up in Flames

Been meaning to post my fav'rit choon of the minute, Up in Flames by Labrinth feat. Tinchy Stryder and Devlin. Please subscribe to Labrinth's YouChoob channel for a free download, but UK massive please be sure to buy the single when it comes out on the 24th of October, along with Devlin's Runaway (17 Oct) and Kano's Upside - artists don't make sick music for free all the time.

In DOPE Music We Trust!

Impande Core

fisttap Mahala.co.za

Impande Core are a five-piece unsigned band from Vosloorus, South Africa that's been around for a couple of years on the underground scene, blending neo-soul, mbaqanga, hip hop and funk. I've only just heard of them even though the video's almost a year old and there's very little of their stuff out there on the net, but now that I've added them as friends on Facebook (add: Namanje), I hope to hear more from them.

Impande Core

pic shamelessly jacked from the band's Facebook Album

Sudan365: Drum for Peace

fisttap Bombastic Elements

"This global drum beat sends a warning cry. We are at the eleventh hour. Preparations for the referendum are woefully behind schedule and the risk of conflict is increasing. It is time for those governments who promised to help implement the peace agreement to develop a package of pressure and incentives to persuade the Sudanese parties to broker peace and not war,”

Dr AlBakir Mukhtar Alafif, Sudanese activist

BigUps to Diversity (UK) for being in this video.

Freshlyground: Mugs too Chicken to Change?

ZOLANI on CHICKEN TO CHANGE' MUSIC VIDEO from ZANEWS on Vimeo.

In collaboration with the cartoonist, Zapiro, Freshlyground, one of CapeTown's feel-good funk bands released yesterday, 'Chicken to Change?', a cheeky song challenging President Mugabe to give up power. (If you think you don't know Freshlyground, think Shakira. They were the South African group found purely by chance to sing backing vocals on Waka Waka).

On the one hand I'm thoroughly amused by the thought of George Charamba, Mugabe's pressman foaming at the mouth and threatening any broadcaster who dares play the song in Zimbabwe with imprisonment under POSA (Public Order and Security Act: a draconian censorship law maintained from the colonial days (so much for African nationalism, huh)), and he's prob'ly on the phone to Bra Juju Malema trying to get Freshlyground, 'the bloody agents!', arrested under the proposed censorship laws in S.A - that the legislation's not yet been passed is besides the point, OTOH there are two things I'm uncomfortable with/dislike: a. that it's cute and rather simplistically positions Mugabe as 'the problem' when the situation's more complex than that and if Freshlyground are going to invoke 1980 in their video then, the expectation of a little more is warranted - no? Or maybe not, perhaps I'm r--e--e--e--a--a--a-c-h-i-n-g for things, and should just go with my initial reaction which was and still is, it's a really kif song!  ... but there's side b. which is less about the song and more about reception: that this may give more ammo to a particular group of Rhodesians as they call themselves (to be distinguished from White Zimbabweans), these are White settlers 'in exile' still moaning about the good old days before Mugabe became Hitler and how they wish the Blacks had never taken power in the first place. Checkout this picture of Zapiro's Mugabe and imagine what an old Rhodie might think:

jacked from the Zapiro FBook Group.

Sho 'nuff it's a funny caricature and would prob'ly make a great postage stamp, but there's also alot more that could be read into it. Of course artists shouldn't be censored from making art on the basis that it could incite a few nutheads out there, both the die-hard Mugabe loyalists who would see this as disrespectful representation and the Rhodies, who in the context of negative press Mugs has rightly n wrongly recieved, never hesitate to trot out their 'Mugabe the Baboon' images. Obviously I'm not trying to put this on Zapiro or Freshlyground, I'm thinking out loud out, or at least trying to...

...Moving on, if we still have a forceful opposition in Zimbabwe, not the newly come fat cats enjoying the ministerial perks of an inclusive government and not the ones who see the inclusive goverment through rose-tinted spectacles, compliments of Tsvangson Opticians, but the real members of the opposition, doing hard graft in the trenches whose slogan is Chinjai Maitiro (Change Your Ways) they will know how to use this song to invigorate the populace. And if they can't/don't maybe, Mugs will prove he isn't too chicken to change and giveup coz his body's weary.

 Checkout The Grauniad for more info on the video.

Max Tannone is a BEAST!!!!

Max Tannone's remixed Talib Kweli's songs over a reggae dub beat, as he did for Mos Def.

Get your siiick download here.

In DOPE Music We Trust!

L'Art du Métissage

The Kiss

Lovefuckme (my fav'rit)

 

Venus Baartman

All pics jacked from arthrob.co.za

Artist: Tracey Rose (S.A) (2001-2003)

'Apartheid never stopped people from seeing each other and fucking; I'm the living proof'

Happy Birthday Michael

RIP

Introducin'... Lindiwe Suttle

Been meaning to post this for the longest times, oops! This is Lindiwe Suttle, Felicia Mabuza-Suttle's daughter, and although I'm not a fan of her mother's talkshow (those from Southern Africa will know the Felicia show), Lindiwe - iLike! Oh so stylish (could jack her whole wardrobe!) n So so soulful, lookin' forward to samplin' her work & seein' her live one day.

Kelechi Meets Keziah

Kelechi Amadi Obi vs Keziah Jones from Joel Benson on Vimeo.

simply beautiful.

                                                                                           fisttap thisisafrica.me

Shangaan Electro

Please Note: 1. Dog is translation of his nickname which is Nozinja.

2. Artists in the West, regardless of race, gender or music genre, are notorious for stealing beats so when you hear a 'new' track sounding sumtin like dis, remember where you heard it first and shout TIEF!

SoulJAH

We met in the Cape in the summer. We, The KonWomyn, them, Fifth Floor. Us, four poets without a mic and them, five (of 11) MCs spitting on the mic. Together we had the best of times, hiphop nites uptown and dancehall/Binghi vibes in the kasi. iGive thanks for the journey that made me the sista iAm today and for the many memories, but today I mourn the passing forward of one faya brotha.

Rest in Eternal Peace, Bongani Mangcu Bongz, KingDaniel, Zebo: one of CapeTown's finest MCs, among the baddes' graf artists and the most complex of souls.

Most High Bless.

JAH Live.

postcard from texas...

foto cred: Pat Sullivan/AP

Padre Island, Texas, US:

A trio of Kemp's Ridley turtle chicks make their way through

the surf after being released into the Gulf of Mexico

jacked from theguardian 27.07.10

Dirty Paraffin

                                                                                                                                          fisttap thisisafrica.me  
                                                                                                                                                                                            

For episode two of Pitch Perfect documentary series, the FADER staff visit with Dirty Paraffin of Johannesburg. The duo of okmalumkoolkat and DJ Spizee, originally from Durban, bring the sounds of many childhood days spent listening to Zulu radio station Ukhozi FM into their genre-defying music. They give a short history of SA dance pop and perform at the Pitch Perfect kickoff party in Jo’burg.

words by afronline
"Dirty Paraffin

is a shambeez visual/performance art outfit

out to pomp positive vibes with this new

smanje manje Kwaito Primus Stove."

 

 

Gone Too Soon

L-Boogie On The MIC

Lauryn Hill performed at the Harmony Festival 2010 in Santa Rosa, California earlier this week and seems like there are reservations from some quarters, but to me L-Boogie can do no wrong. I saw her a few years back and she tore the roof off and to makeup for being over an hour late, we got full refunds...Concerning this performance, iLove most things Elizabeth Seward does not. I don't know abt how the live sound was as I wasn't there, but her hair (especially!),  the chunky earrings and the jumpsuit are FABULOUS! Her performance is kewl. For those not getting her, think Janelle Monae and Erykah Badu mashed up in one.

Art iHeart

Been meaning to post the work of Wardell Milan II and Demetrius Oliver since a while back when I had a convo with, Gee Chee, a member of my digital fam, about their work. iDig Wardell Milan's site, it's worth checking out. Most of all I like his Battle Royale collection, the way he mashes up the pics using a similar style to that of Titus Kaphar (peep the archives) - they have rolled together and have set up a museum together with Demetrius Oliver. Battle Royale is based on Ralph Ellison's boxers in 'Invisible Man' and the images explore issues surrounding identity politics, masculinity, falliability but most importantly, IMO, the elasticity of identity and power.

Wardell Milan

Self-Potrait

Demetrius Oliver is also nice, I mean his art is nice. His work draws inspiration from various places and these pics below provide commentary on inscription/erasure of identity through history and contemporary consumerist culture. The body is used as a canvas, as corporeal metaphor for the cultural and political condition of a people. Excuse me, I'm channelling Sartre here.

Bust

2006

DV if you ever see this, this is Demetrius' work not Leslie Hewitt as y'said on ur blog.

Lump

2006

Tracks

2006

Halo

2005