Slide Machine

So, I guess I was sort of asking for it… you know, wanting a life that is different than the one you were living… a life that doesn’t just cruise by and keeps you in a false state of security until you reach 60 and think what the hell did I do? So I moved. So I noticed:-)

I got some good news regarding my visa on Monday, drinks with a friend that same evening followed by a cool time at Langebaan all day Tuesday. Kite surfers, cool company, beer, weird stories, sun, lagoon… it was a good day:-)

 Then yesterday morning things changed. My flatmate came in to tell me that her boyfriend was held up at gun point in our street at about 5.30 am. Totally unprovoked while packing his car to go to work. Shit-heads. Then I went out that same afternoon to meet with a friend only to find that my car was stolen. It took me a while to register the fact which in itself is kinda funny… I walk out, expecting the car to be there and nope, no car. I put on my glasses to check again and oddly enough still no car. I ask my flatmate to have a look and no, no car in sight… We must have looked quite funny to the random people passing by. She just got out of the shower and was only wearing a towel and I just had the most blank yet incredulous look on my face I’m sure. Huh??. Spent most of the day at the police station and calling the rental car company… Burnt straight through my newly uploaded airtime.

But yay, as soon as I logged on to Facebook this morning I saw the little video the talented Nic Redelinghuys made of the Swimming Upstream exhibition opening. I haven’t got a copy yet but there is one on the Grand Daddy Hotel Facebook page, right here

The title comes from a Mark Lanegan B-side to the Stay 7″ from years and years ago. Can’t get the song out of  my head today. It’s not a badthing seeing how Mark Lanegan is pretty much my favorite singer of all time and he can sing straight out of the phone book and I’ll still love it:-)

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Thinking of Dean Moriarty

Here I am, with suddenly only nine days left to go before the exhibition. It’s wonderfully weird and a little frightening somehow to see it all come together. Slowly but coming together non the less. I keep waiting for the bomb to drop but no bomb has dropped yet and hopefully it never will. Some old 80’s Dutch band sang about “Dansen op de vulkaan” and that’s how I feel today. Excited but not everything is finished yet and there’s still a long swim ahead.

 

We did the last shoot for the behind-the-scenes video today. The video is being made by Pierre De Villiers and Cait Pansegrouw, an awfully talented duo and I can’t wait to see the end result.  It was an awesome day today, hot and muggy but we did good work. We interviewed 3 different people today, just shot a location that I have used for this project and had coffee. Received a call about the project from Cape Town Magazine and hopefully they’ll feature it on their site as well. Driving around, meeting people, beautiful scenery and a cool project to work, what else could one possibly want?

 

 

I secured the fourth “go ahead” from a band today saying that we can use their music in the video. There’s four now; Tristan Waterkeyn, Guy Buttery, Hot Water and Miss Texas 1977. It will be a wonderful eclectic sound, I’m sure.

 

 After the shoots I went to Orms to see the final prints and man do they do stunning work or what? I printed out 11 A2 sized metallic C-prints but chose 10 to be framed and exhibited on the walls of the Grand Daddy Hotel. The others will be shown digitally, together with the video and quotes taken from the interviews.

 

The last shoot was done last week and will start editing it on Friday. We met up in Obs, got the stuff in the car and headed to Guguletu. the idea was to shoot at Mzoli’s but when we got there I didn’t like it very much so we shot in the spaza shop across the road and on the road next to Mzoli’s. Then we had *lunch* at Mzoli’s:-) Much better. We took the long way round out of Gugs and ended up at some run down building. The sun was a little less bright by then which helped the shoot for sure. I am not a fan of shooting in bright bright sunlight.

 

The weekend saw us heading towards Stellenbosch and Franschhoek for a hell of a lot of wine tasting. La Motte won hands down… awesome awesome wine! Their Pierneeff range is simply to die for and I’m sure my brother would have stayed there if he could.

 

Just had a look at the new releases and they’ve got to be kidding… all oldies; Brian Eno, Brian Ferry, Monster Magnet even Jamiroquai (why hasn’t he disappeared yet?) Fair enough, Giant Sand are oldies too.. but Howe Gelb, what can I say, it’s Howe Gelb 🙂 The video btw,  is of Jack Kerouac reading from On The Road… just because I like it. Thinking of Dean Moriarty…

 

 I do kind of like Shaking Godspeed’s album ‘Awe’ on Suburban Records. Am listening to Gold Panda now which doesn’t exactly do it for me so I moved to Warpaint ‘The Fool’ on Rough Trade which I do like so far:-) Will check out Zwart Licht’s “No Juju” later.

 

The Facebook events page for Swimming Upstream is up and running and can be found here: please RSVP… don’t just RSVP but say *yes*, attending for sure and bring people with:-) http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=159213667451942

 

See you there! I for one can’t wait:-))

 

 

Pills ‘n Thrills and Bellyaches

And just like that things change. I wrote an entire blog post on how I was a bit worried. Not exactly stressed yet but worried as a lot of emails seem to be floating in space and no one is replying. And there are 3 shoots left to do and am having a hard time getting hold of people. I have some time left but slowly getting a bit anxious. Yeah, anxious is the right word. I even have a stomach ache…  

Then I got a Facebook message from a friend saying a photo of mine made it into the Cape Times this morning. At the same time an email popped in asking when I would like to do the shoot. Then another email with the pdf file with the article/photo. 

 

And then I checked www.overtone.co.za and there’s the banner that my friends at www.taluut.nl made for my project. Invitations should be ready soon as well. Wow. It almost seems real:-) I am going to have an exhibition. A solo exhibition. A solo exhibition in Cape Town. Cape Town as in South Africa as in not my home country. Nice. I am almost inclined to say that it is a happy Monday. If I was an optimist or even a realist that would be true.

The photo in the Cape Times is a photo that is currently on show at the Museum Gallery. It was taken for the Swimming Upstream project but didn’t make the selection. It’s a portrait of fashion designer Hendrik Vermeulen and we shot it in Tokai a while back. I will post more on that later.

 They’re playing Live on the radio. I hate Live. So I’ll just play something I do like… The Sonics, ‘The Witch’… Maybe some Jon Spencer Blues Explosion next… Now that will get my Monday started properly:-)

And yes, of course, the title is from the Happy Monday’s third album.

But you knew that already:-)  

 

 

 

Slap! – Sidewalk Surfers

So it’s the week after and am having a mild case of post excitement blues. Perhaps also because a planned shoot on Friday morning never happened and left a rather bad taste in my mouth (understatement).

 photo by www.we-are-awesome.com

 Anyway, the week was cool and the exhibition opening was a big success. So many people pitched up, there was enough free booze and cupcakes to go around, the vibe was cool & relaxed and people seemed to have a good time. Thanks so much to everyone who came out! I heard they even sold some of the photos on opening night (not mine) and congratulations to those photographers. Hopefully this is the beginning of selling *everything* at the Museum Gallery, always:-)

photo by Joy-Anne Goodenough (www.flickr.com/photos/greenhairmermaid)

 The new design cafe on the corner of Harrington and Barrack Street is quite cool. It is a pop up cafe and it will only be there for 6 months. It looks like the building is either being sold or renovated and the space is left quite bare but it has a cool vibe. Someone told me there are art studios upstairs but you have to make an appointment to visit. Should do so. These pop up stores are such a cool concept. I don’t know if it’s unique to Cape Town or SA or if it’s an imported idea but I really hope it will spread to The Netherlands as well. Having a cafe or gallery in a place for only 6 months or even 6 weeks while the space is in between owners, renovations or waiting for budget clearing at least it is being used. It also adds a bit of excitement to the city. Stores come and go, they’re always cool and it’s always temporary. Really makes you want to pay attention and keep track of it. I think it’s cool. There. Go find one.

As far as Swimming Upstream is concerned, I decided that I’d like to add one or two more people to the project, two girls preferably as there are a lot of men already which is def not a bad thing but ja:-) I’ve got musicians, dj’s, mc’s, authors, graphic designers and fashion designers. It might be cool to add a dancer, photographer, videographer or graffiti artist. Maybe I should find all of those eh… What do you think? Suggestions welcome for sure!

There are two more shoots to do but one of the participants is still on holiday, the other is still finishing her new collection and we’d like to include her new designs in the shoot so I’ll just have to wait a little bit longer. I’m really looking forward to doing both shoots!

In the mean time I’ll finish editing some other shoots as I never got round doing that last week and set out to find a new, cool, rocking chick.

Listening to Fremdkunst’s B-Beats and Soundscapes, it’s kinda cool, must say:-) The title comes from one of their songs: Sidewalk Surfers and Eccentric Dancers.

Tonight! We celebrate:-)

Yeah yeah yeah! The 30th has finally arrived. Today is the day of the Museum gallery opening featuring The New Landscape exhibition. It will be awesome, we-are-awesome (www.we-are-awesome.com/blog) says so:

Museum Gallery. The New Landscape.By andrewberry | Published: September 30, 2010

Dylan Culhane’s latest project, ‘Museum’, opens tonight with some very taleted photographers exhibiting their work.

This is an event not to be missed.

—

So there:-) Be there. Join us for drinks and art. 6 pm. don’t be late

All My Friends Are Insects

Bang bang here we go – another week and it’s going to be a hectic awesome week even if Monday came round in a dull moody kind of way.

 

Anyway, this week is the week of the The New Landscape exhibition!!!! First of three exhibitions. Yup:-) My exhibition quota will have doubled by the time I leave SA. Noice:-) 

 

This week going to be such a cool mixture of work & networking together with friends, drinks & celebrations. Today wil be just work work and sorting out some stupid admin stuff from the operation of two months ago. Apparently SA Admin and Dutch medical insurance companies don’t like each other and they rather mail my mother in the NL, call my friends here in CT etc rather than call me or sort it out themselves. Anyway, it’s annoying.

 

But hey, the rest of the week will be awesome. There’s the Cape Town Design Network (CTDN) The Editors Speak lecture on Tuesday evening.

According to the Facebook page “The CTDN is a fledgling organisation set up to help facilitate the development of design in Cape Town. This session is part of a set of talks and discussions the network has been hosting since early this year. The sessions usually host well-known designers speaking on their work. This is a special event where design editors are put to the test. Check out the network in its zooty new venue on the fan walk. Get a sneak preview of a venue which will be the talk of the town and which opens officially in October”

 

The list of speakers include One Small Seed’s editor Giuseppe Russo and Art SA’s Sean O’Toole which is pretty much the reason why I am going at all.

 

I’ll be running around the whole day Tuesday as I also have a meeting with a potential client in Long Street and with the Museum guys as well. Can’t wait to see the prints:-)

Wednesday brings another Cape Town networking opportunity at the The Field Office in Barrack Street. I also plan on finishing at least 2 shoots. I am actually aiming for 3 but 2 seems more realistic. 

Then I’ll go into town to fetch my passport with my brand new extended visa which in itself is a reason to celebrate:-)

 

 

Last of all, it’s the week of the The New Landscape exhibition!!!!!

 

And no, not all my friends are insects:-) The title comes from a Weezer song off their new album, ‘Hurley’. Listening to Half-Handed Cloud now. Their album ‘As Stowaways in Cabinets of Surf, We Live-out in Our Members a Kind of Rebirth’ is available now on Asthmatic Kitty. Having a folky day apparently as I’m also still loving the Sharon van Etten album.

 

On that note, listen to this song by Fairport Convention. Can’t find a proper video on youtube but this will do. It’s beautiful. Guess I’m a bit of a

hippie after all:-)

 

 

The New Landscape opening Sept 30th

I’ve been asked (lucky fish:-)) to take part in the opening exhibition of the brand new gallery Museum. It’s a group exhibition featuring national and international artists. It would be awesome if you could come check it out and perhaps even see you on the opening night.

Museum Gallery, Upper Eastside, at the top of Brickfield Road, Salt River

www.museum-gallery.co.za

See you there I’m sure:-)

Rambling Billy Speed

I really should call this post from 10 to 5, not time wise but “things I have to do” wise… You see I am a last minute worker, always have been been and most likely always will. But then I decided I am going to try not to be one, or perhaps be a “last 5 minutes worker”. I can make a list of a gazillion thing that I have to do but there are 10 things that really need to be finished uhm before October 22nd but  I decided just now that I am going to do 5 of those things this week. Ha. Shortening the list from 10 to 5…

 

Besides the 5 things I have to do I will also be doing a shoot and interview with Eavesdrop for the Swimming Upstream Project tomorrow. I am totally looking forward to it and I am really hoping that tomorrow will be overcast as well as overcast days make for pretty pictures.  I also need to get my stuff together for the upcoming exhibition at the end of this month (see upcoming post above) and I need to edit the photos from last week’s shoot.  And i need to make sure the Swimming Upstream banner gets made so I probably need to get the GD logo and I need to edit, write, email, network, quote, ask, organize, back-up, do, get visa and RICA’d (or not)… I am totally back to 10 things or more… I need coffee that’s what I need. And to go for a run.

 

 Btw this photo was sold by World Portraits about two weeks ago. This should be good news but for some reason I am not feeling it… Suppose it is because I am not sure if I’ll be allowed to use another image from this collection in an exhibition. I am still waiting for the official ok. World Portraits doesn’t allow photoshopped images into their collection and you can see the original here… http://www.world-portraits.com/blog/wp/

And so here we go again, another week.  I woke up early today but I have been dragging my feet all morning allowing myself to be distracted by all sorts of social media which could explain yet another wobbly, rambling post. I guess I am the Monday Rambler, in fact I am the cranky Monday Rambler who has strawberries and oceans on her mind.

I want to work for magazines btw… just thought I’d throw that out there.

And I even though I’m listening to the Pan African Space Station (www.panafricanspacestation.org.za) yet I totally have this late 60’s song in my head

Oh and I quite like the Crocodiles album Sleep forever… part of the title for this post comes from their album… song 6

Catch my shoe

So, … cool things are happening.

I was approached by someone on Monday to take part in a group exhibition at a new gallery in town. Totally jumped at the chance.

I’m not entirely sure of how public or secret the whole thing is but better play it safe and not say too much. Anyway, I can submit 4 photos of my choosing as long as they are in landscape format and fit the theme. The guy picked 4 photos but 2 of them are out for different reasons: one was shot with a point & shoot and would never hold up on A2 and the other was shot on film and I don’t have the file with me here in SA except for the low res image that is online already.

 

I am suspecting a problem with one of the other photos he picked as it is part of the World Portraits Collection, an online stock agency that used to be part of the Dutch ANP press but became an independent in 2008 or 2009. They never sold the photo anywhere and frankly, I want it back. Or at least I want the freedom to do what I like with it.

 

So I came up with 3 sets of 4 images and can’t quite figure out which to choose. Pros and cons everywhere and it all depends on what you want and all that jazz. Decided to let it sink in a little, ask my good friend thegreenhairmermaid for advice and write everyone involved in the mean time trying to get their ok with me using it for the exhibition.

 

The greenhairmermaid called (sounds cool eh? getting a call from a mermaid:-)) and after having discussed the options with her I sent through one set and two possible images. I just hope he likes the first set.

 

Dates to remember: 09-30, 11-11 and 12-03… 3 months, 3 exhibitions

If I only I could get my stuff published in magazines… I’d be a happy camper then

 

I also just found out that I got my visa extension. Have had the Black Keys'”next girl”  firmly stuck in my head for days now, still love the new (-ish) album. Blonde Redhead now though… Oh and btw, I think that Weezer cover for Hurley is just brilliant! 

Seriously, just check out http://3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/

 

 

If you’re thinking what do these images have to do with the Swimming Upstream project you are right, they don’t have anything to with it. But neither does this entire post. Thought I’d be consistent:-) And it looks nice.

 

And …  going to the Pecha Kucha meeting last week totally paid off:-)

 

Told you, good things are happening…