Pako M photography

I'm liking Pako Magabane a photography, he hails from Johannesburg Soweto. He studied photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg. His work has been widely published in Applause magazine and The Sunday world Newspaper. His is also featured on a television program called Agape, which is broadcast every Sunday morning at 10am on SABC1. His work was part of an exhibition called In transit held at the Market Photo Workshop and at the Goethe Institute in Johannesburg.

Gaming

This foosball table was designed by the GRO design team and developed by TIM model makers. The 22 players are made of bright silver chrome, with lighting effects and the software controlling the game adds further excitement to the experience of the player. This table is set to attract a new league of players. It’s unfortunate that only one prototype model exists. The table was exhibited for the first time at the Milan Design week.

Food|World|Art

MOS DEF: ECSTATIC MOMENTS Exhibition in L.A

We would love to see this exhibition is South Africa as it has some footage from our country. Happening this week in L.A

HVW8 Art & Design Gallery, Union LA & Frolab present a photo exhibition entitled MOS DEF: ECSTATIC MOMENTS. Photographer, filmmaker, visionist Cognito showcases rare performance and behind-the-scenes images captured during the two year journey of making and supporting the June 2009 release of The Ecstatic (iTunes) This special one-week exhibition features candid photographs of Mos Def, including images from visits to the Cape of Great Hope, South Africa, performing in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and a powerful series of US Summer Tour “end-of-the-night posse shots” featuring such artists as Jay Electronica, Talib Kweli, Erykah Badu, and even a surprise guest appearance by the legendary Shuggie Otis.

The exhibition will be open to the public from January 30, 2010 through February 6, 2010
at the HVW8 Art + Design Gallery, located at 661 N. Spaulding Ave., Los Angeles CA.
RSVP here for 01/29 VIP opening reception (7-11pm)

Video Thirstday: Mighty Mos Def

Mos Def remains active within the music scene as he drops yet another video for his loyal fans. The visual serves as a teaser for Director/Photographer/Musician Michael Sterling Eaton’s highly anticipated album Mictape Vol. 1 featuring the likes of Mos Def, Curren$y, Ernie Gaines, Scoop Deville, Stalley, The Cool Kids and many more. Check it out.

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Video Thirstday

How I wish South African music artists can go creative on their album covers. This is a crazy concept that lets the consumer feel like the designer of the cover. Innovation meets the consumer. Designed by Hubero Kororo

PAPPELTALKS from vizage on Vimeo.

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Flight of the Conchords

Taken straight from their official website. These dudes are totally awesome. We don't have the airing in SA & me; well through my most trusted source of vision; I was hooked up & got hooked...Tit bit facts about the most dumbest- most briliant duo:

• Bret and Jemaine first met in 1996 at Victoria University Wellington.

• They were both acting in a University Drama Club production called Body Play. Bret and Jemaine were put in a group of five men to create a short theatrical piece about male body issues.

• Melbourne International Comedy Festival

• Unfortunately the Australians didn’t appreciate the show like they had in New Zealand and the season was cancelled after one week.

• In 1998 Bret and Jemaine decided to start a band. With a combined knowledge of three chords on the guitar they set about jamming out. The first song was Foux Du FaFa, (two chords) and they called themselves Moustache. The four piece band had Bret on casio-tone, Jemaine on guitar, and their friends Toby Laing and Tim Jaray on trumpet and double bass. They performed their one song at the Wellington Fringe Festival late night club and members of the audience were said to have been “mildly impressed” by the act.
After the encouraging feedback the pair continued to write songs in their living room, subjecting their six flatmates to relentless three chord jams. After several weeks they knew four chords and Jemaine got them a gig to perform at the Thursday night Comedy Club. On the afternoon of the gig they realised they needed a band name. The initial list of names included Roxygen Supply, Albatrocity, and Tanfastic. But the final name was chanced upon in a series of events that went something like this: Jemaine went to the bathroom and noticed the flat toilet was called the Concorde, he returned from the bathroom to suggest the name Conchord, and Bret said “What about Flight of the Conchords”, and Jemaine said “okay”, and Bret said “okay “, and Jemaine said “okay then” and Bret said “We should go to the gig, we’re late


• By 2000 they had written a dozen songs and decided to escape the New Zealand winter and perform at the Canadian Fringe Festival

• In 2002 they decided to again escape the New Zealand winter. This time travelling to Scotland to perform in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Their venue was an underground tunnel called The Cave. When it rained, which was most days in Edinburgh, the ceiling dripped onto the audience and a dank slime crept down the stone walls. Apparently in the 17th century the room had been used to quarantine plague victims. They performed every night for the month of August and won the Mervyn Stutter Spirit of the Fringe Award. By the time the left they had dozens of fans, and severe chest infections.

• They returned to Edinburgh in 2003 and again performed in the same subterranean grotto. The show had developed to include a xylophone and a dancing toy flower. Their new songs included If You’re Into it, Bret You’ve Got It Goin’ On, Sexy Flower, and Hiphopopotamus vs. The Rhymenocerous.

• In 2004 they returned to Edinburgh this time performing above ground. The sell out show included the songs Jenny, Business Time, Stana and an unfinished love song called The Scientist and the French Teacher.
• From their success in Edinburgh the BBC Light Entertainment Department commissioned the band to make a six part radio series. Bret and Jemaine moved to London in 2005 and spent five months writing and recording a mockumentary about the lives of a fictional version of themselves. The show was the first time they collaborated with NZ comedian Rhys Darby who played the character Brian Nesbitt, the fictional band’s manager.

• Later that year Bret and Jemaine received an invitation to perform at the Aspen Comedy Festival, in Colorado, USA. Against tradition they left New Zealand’s summer to go to the northern hemisphere’s winter and were shocked by the snow when they stepped off the plane in t shirts and jandles. The HBO executives liked their act and asked them to film a half hour performance for a stand-up comedy show called One Night Stand.

• Over the next four years they made a TV pilot, a sitcom, released an EP and a full length album, toured North America, made a sandwich, filmed a second season of the sitcom, toured North America again, released a second album, and went back to New Zealand.

The jazz voice of a generation

The jazz voice of a generation, José James returns with a moodier, edgier and more sensual sound, drawing inspiration from the worldwide underground. His debut LP ‘The Dreamer’ (released in 2007 on Brownswood Recordings) was crammed with smoky, low-slung jazz grooves blessed with Jose’s rich baritone vocals. Magnificent self-penned works nestled alongside uniquely crafted cover versions of John Coltrane, Rashaan Roland Kirk and even West Coast hip hop institution Freestyle Fellowship. Pursuing the same deeply soulful vocal jazz tradition exemplified by Babs Gonzales, Billie Holliday, Joe Williams and Leon Thomas, ‘The Dreamer’ quickly cemented Jose’s stature and raw talent within the worldwide jazz community.

Since ‘The Dreamer’ José has performed in 30 countries, worked with some of the best, wisest and finest artists in the world such as Chico Hamilton and Junior Mance and he has built a community of friends and fellow music-lovers all over the globe. The distance from New York to Tokyo is quickly bridged by music, as the track ‘PROMISE IN LOVE’ with DJ Mitsu The Beats of Jazzy Sport aptly demonstrates. José is keen to stress the way that this global community has shaped ‘BLACKMAGIC’:

“There is community on this record and my community has grown –Minneapolis gave way to New York, while New York in turn gave way to London, Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Sao Paolo, Berlin, LA, Rotterdam, Detroit, Barcelona, Brussels... I've been living and working in these cities – digitally, long-term, short-term, paying rent or whatever, for 2 years or so and it's all there.”

José started the process with LA’s beat conductor supreme Flying Lotus (Warp/Brainfeeder) in April 2008:

“In a phone call he changed the entire scope of my musical direction and focus.”

Tossing ideas back and forth between the East Coast and West Coast, the pair crafted a handful of delightfully dusty, slightly dishevelled hip hop soul joints. Anchoring the album in hip hop’s boom-clap foundation, José is perfectly at ease riding FlyLo’s bumpy sketches, just as he is contributing good-time vibes to DJ Mitsu’s sunshine soundtrack ‘PROMISE IN LOVE’, blessing Moodyman’s retro jazz-funk groove ‘DETROIT LOVELETTER’, or indeed morphing Benga’s dub step anthem ‘Emotions’ into a killer live jazz workout.

José announced his comeback with a killer 12” featuring ‘BLACKMAGIC’ remixes from the hotly-tipped Joy Orbison and dub step innovator Untold. Reworks by dOP and IZMABAD are available digitally.

JOSE JAMES – ‘BLACKMAGIC’

1. CODE

2. TOUCH

3. LAY YOU DOWN

4. PROMISE IN LOVE

5. WARRIOR

6. MADE FOR LOVE

7. SAVE YOUR LOVE FOR ME

8. THE GREATER GOOD

9. BLACKMAGIC

10. DETROIT LOVELETTER

11. LOVE CONVERSATION

12. BEAUTY

13. NO TELLIN'

Happy Birthday PlayKayStat

Two turntables ,two cdj's ,a mixer ,scratchamp, effex machine & macbook these are the gadgets he needs to rock a party.
Kabelo Taukobong also goes by the name of PlayKayStat
PLAY [ Spin, bmx, collect, brand]
KAY[ cliche...we all love it, no need to mention]
STAT[ making numbers, Recruit]

That' s how he explains himself and who am I to question that?

This very cool dude co-owns one of my good friends GINGA BRED a publicist company, I once took an Alter Route with.

Catch him live at the next Jam Session on the 07th of February.

Killer Looks!

Photographer: Pako Magabane; Stylist: Nombulelo Dhlomo; Make Up Artist: Musa Sekele; Models: Tumi Selatlhedi & Nombulelo Dhlomo; Stockist: Thesis Concept Store 011 982 1182

Smoking

The first time I even took a drag was when I was in high school. It didn’t make sense why I was doing it. I just became dizzy in a very peculiar way & it wasn’t nice at all. Smoking is a very bad habit for the fact that it was painful starting it; it’s like losing your virginity; to pollution & unhealthy lifestyle!! Its much more painful letting it go. You fight with so many demons: your conscious; your craving; your social status & your smoke buddies. You tell yourself you quitting from tomorrow; from today, from now or after this one!! When will the day of “stopping at once” come?? When our chests start wheezing or when you start getting tired after 3 flights of stairs..... All smokers should be ashamed of being bad role models to your own selves. I curse the day TV, magazines came to life. Be honest, these mediums play a big role in making us think smoking is so damn cool!!!!!!!

They say it’s not about you saying or trying to quit, but quit quitting!! Well I say nothing, because I still have a cigarette in my mouth! Hopefully this journey of letting go, wouldn’t be as hard as letting go of an old ex-girlfriend. Apparently the craving stops completely after 3 weeks. Damn, that’s like waiting to find out if your girlfriend is pregnant or not!! Hoping also the fruits of great health would’ve been harvested for me enjoy after I stop. Here is to stopping smoking & asking ourselves why we doing it in the first place.....

Knock offs, copies, replicas and counterfeit goods.

You see, I am a fashion lover; hence I work with clothes and fashion. I’m intrigued by the process of making clothes; from designing, to cutting patterns right down to a finished garment and the final look. There is just one thing that tears my soul apart, it really does...seeing people wearing fake labels! Nothing is as worse; rather opt for Mr Price I promise you can get a quality outfit with just 200 bucks!!!! Rather than wasting your money on a fake product which will cost you more. Most popular or on the scene lately is Louise Vitton, Gucci...Don’t get me started on that Gucci shit! Diesel, Energy, Ed Hardy, Guess, Nike, G-Star, Channel, Ama Kip Kip and so on!
See the thing is, it not only tears my soul or rob the wearer of their conscience, the original designer does not profit. Buying fake products is BAD ok...! So lets not try to find a justifiable reason for buying fake products because I refuse to wear a copy of CHANNEL earrings, they are the most gorgeous little thing that’s in my heart lately!
Why they are bad:
• They rob the state of huge amounts of money because it is a tax-free business. So legitimate citizens like you get robbed when paying tax!!!
• They are unsafe! According to the IACC – International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition those fake Gucci, Prada or whatsoever brands people are rocking, can shatter easily. They also fail to provide UV protection.
Don’t be fooled, here is how to spot a knock off.....
• They are easily available on the street....DUH!!
• The old method- Cheap leather, flimsy finishing -the stitching -and misspelled logos, need I say more...Mike instead of Nike!!
• The internet is full of cyber sellers and online auctions which are inspired by.... That should let you know the product isn’t the real thang!
• The price, no it’s not a good deal you are being knocked off!
• Where its being sold... boot sales, sounds familiar?
• Point of origin, do not trust that Made in Taiwan tag heard they are not authentic hmm...
• The dealers overkill words like “authentic” and ”genuine” to describe their fashion items to you.
• This is quite obvious: QUALITY!!! Like these Sonia earphones will stand the test of time! (Not)
Here s a way to take sure it’s the real thing
• Only buy from an authorized dealer
• Labels use company owned sites like www.thesis.co.za
• Contact the designer if you are in doubt and ask if you are buying from an authorized dealer
Ain’t nothing like the real thang baby!!!!