Three Things That I Love Right Now!

1. This art from here. 

2. These Snidel sneakers that I cannot find anywhere on the Internet. I spotted them on the Tokyo Fashion IG page and since then I have fruitlessly Googled numerous combinations of the words "sneakers" "Snidel" and "South Africa". 

3. It is only a matter of acceleration now. The way that this article is written. 

Things To Upgrade Yo Damn Self!

This week I've been learning about Nsibidi. The Internet will tell you that the Nsibidi set of symbols is independent of Roman, Latin or Arabic influence and a completely indigenous creation of its African inventors. Also known as Nsibiri, Nchibiddi or Nchibiddy, Nsibidi writing is an ancient ideographic writing system  that is indigenous to the Uguakima, Ebe or Uyanga ethnic groups of western Africa and dates back between 4000 and 5000 BC.  The writing in found in the cultures of Cross River among the Ekoi, Efik, Igbo people, and related peoples of southeastern Nigeria and Cameroon. Praise be to Africa! Ag man, I almost want to get the continent tattooed on my leg. 

While cruising the endless streets Wikipedia, I found this blog with a very noble and interesting mission (click here). Mo' fiya bruddah! 

It is quite lame that I didn't learn about these things at school. Well, truth be told we were too busy watching 2001: A Space Odyssey. Thanks government school. Anyway, I am attempting an education of choice by studying subjects that are interesting and important. Basically, my brain must not turn to pap just because my formal education is complete. This week I've been reading about African literature and writing and so here I am sharing some of my best finds.

Also, I found this website, Issuu (click here) which is great AND free! Just a heads up though, your internet must be strong to enjoy the spoils of this site, so yeah. Right this minute I'm paging through Scoff Zine and I might just read an article about Joey Bada$$ in The Fly. The First World can't hold me down! 

Brain Pickings!

This is my favourite website (click here). It is packed to the rafters with things that make my brain get juicy. 

I am an advice addict. I love reading how other people understand the world and their tried and tested theories of the best path to anything worthwhile. I don't generally mind where the advice comes from, I can ignore it after all, I just find it fascinating to hear or read, because really, in giving advice the person is actually just doling out a slice of nostalgia or regret dressed up as an instruction. 

This website is filled with advice and I am a sponge for shit like this. I especially like this from Zadie Smith (click here) and this from Neil Gaiman (click here).

I tried to think about what advice I have to give to anyone and I pretty much drew a blank. It is strange since in my day-to-day conversations I often say things that must sound like wanker advice but really I'm just bullshitting, I have no idea. I just like to talk, too much and too often. 

Apologies to the countless victims of my ramblings, I am unlikely to change but hey, you never know. 

Hello November!

It's my month. Universe act accordingly. 

Here's my week in photos, just in case you needed some voyeurism. 

The last photo is from my photo project titled I Love You The Most Johannesburg (click here).

The question is, who do you love the most? This participant, Andile kinda cheated in that you're only supposed to put one name (no boring compromises) but since his girlfriend was with him he felt obliged (I think) to be honest and practical, so he wrote his mom's name and his girlfriend's. Wise man, I guess.

I'm slowly but surely collecting the kaleidoscope of lovers in Johannesburg and one day I will have indubitable proof that Johannesburg is really just the city of love. 

P.S. I always look pie-eyed when I am completely sober. I had only had a coke in a Styrofoam cup for goodness' sake. 

That's My Shit: Alain de Botton!

Alain is the kind of writer that articulates the human condition so well that I often feel sheepish reading his observations since they seem to be straight from the part of my brain that must remain undercover if I hope to maintain the guise of normalcy. 

My soul brother Gabriel and I often express this desire to hide our true natures by clicking our fingers frantically. We find this hilarious. 

Back to Alain, I've read two of his books, The Consolations of Philosophy and The Art of Travel. Both are amazing books that I often revisit for clever things to say to others (yes, I claim them to be my ideas so boo!) and I've reread The Consolations a few times in the hope that the ideas will seep into my being and leave me wiser. It hasn't worked, I only seem to retain useless trivia and the names of all the cast members of Cheers. I've never watched Cheers. 

Anyway, Alain's Wikipedia page is really interesting too (click here). As a zealot of The Lord of The Internet I now judge people by their Wikipedia page and his is quite a prize. Here's a clue: mad money! But the thing on his page that predictably alarmed me most was the fact that he wrote his first book at 23. No man, Alain. No. Anyway, jealous down, I really feel like his books should be essential reading for all humans. Huge call and probably not well thought out but I'm sticking to it. 

Take a look at these gems:

“Out of the millions of people we live among, most of whom we habitually ignore and are ignored by in turn, there are always a few that hold hostage our capacity for happiness, whom we could recognize by their smell alone and whom we would rather die than be without.” 

“There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.” 

& this too

“Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough.” 

I've blogged about Mr. De Botton before (click here) but it was his tweets (click here) that impelled me to do this post, on Twitter (and in life) I come across as a semi-literate Japanophile while he manages to spit inspiration daily. He has a very weird head though, that's my consolation. 

P.S. More unrelated photos. But, c'mon, the sky was pregnant with clouds. 

Best Friend, Boyfriend & Haruki Murakami!

This is a very happy time for me because yesterday my best friend celebrated her birthday and tomorrow my boyfriend attempts to celebrate his. My scorpio tribe take up so damn much of my heart that I barely have space left for Conan O'Brien, receiving money for nothing and baby pug gifs. 

Both Tommy and Tumelo are bound to be richessful (rich and successful) so I'm hoping that they'll keep me around or else I will be penning their unauthorized biographies with photos, ya dig? Nonetheless, I got mad love for my two T's and this wouldn't be my self-indulgent blog if I didn't attempt to praise their wonder and all-around amazingness.

In other news, this is a gift from the internet (click here). I engage in delusional thinking on the regular and one of my classic bitches-be-crazy daydreams is that Haruki Murakami is my homeboy. I usually just text him or he invites me for a beer in a dingy bar somewhere. I don't drink beer but that's wholly irrelevant. His writing just inspires that kind of intimacy, well, that's my reasoning anyway. Read this and follow it up with some of this (click here).

 “It’s strange, isn’t it?” the woman said in a pensive voice. “Everything is blowing up around us, but there are still those who care about a broken lock, and others who are dutiful enough to try to fix it. . . . But maybe that’s the way it should be. Maybe working on the little things as dutifully and honestly as we can is how we stay sane when the world is falling apart.”

Haruki Murakami, Samsa in Love.

One last thing:

"If we are the same person before and after we love, that means we haven’t loved enough."

Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love.

P.S. I realize that these photos are completely unrelated but I took them and I like them so that's all there is to say about that. 

Nick Wooster! Always & Forever!

Here at Fabric Of The Heart Towers, we love us some Nicky Woo. 

If you don't believe that then go check our archives (click here), we've got something from like four to four million posts about the dude. 

Why? I hear you asking from Midrand to Paris. We're not entirely sure. We did a quick survey around the office and decided it's because he always looks like he's having fun. Enjoying whatever trend he's currently got on and that's probably the most important part about fashion, to have fun with it, if you don't engage with it, then you're missing the point. 

That's all an excuse, it's really just because he shaved his head.

Three Things That I Love Right Now

1. This article.

Click Here & Love Malcolm Gladwell Even More

2. This piece of ass(piration).

3. These words from the indomitable Nizar Qabbani.

Kanye West X A.P.C.

So Yeezus dropped and the album has been exploding across the internet like a zit on a 14 year old boy's face. 

Kanye West is now apparently a god, Steve Jobs and well, umm, Yeezus. 

But as you know there's no rest for K and lo and behold a fashion collaboration between Mr. West and A.P.C. is fast approaching. 

According to W Magazine and sporadic hints throughout the album; A.P.C. and it's tubby man in chief, Jean Toutitou are the next to get onto the Kanye West train. 

How successful this will be, only time and Kanye West's gargantuan ego will tell. 

My Bestie The Internet!

I have been thinking about the internet a lot lately. There's no denying that I spend hours trawling the interwebs but the question remains whether I really should actually be doing this or if it is as I tend to suspect it is; a really (really) delicious but dangerous time eater that hates my dreams. 

Reasons I like the internet (incomplete list):

1. The Guardian. Sweet baby Jesus. I survived a 9 to 5 thanks to this gem. For realz.

2. Puppy sandwiches, Tumblrs dedicated to Corgis (click, click, you gotta see this), 9GAG and anything utterly ridiculous yet undeniably life affirming (see: puppy sandwiches). 

3. Wiki-fucking-pedia. In varsity I was told to hate it but now free of the shackles of tertiary education, (my bubbe thinks I have a doctorate) I can love and kiss Wiki all I want. Gee whiz, the Random Article button alone deserves mad love.

4. Need I say more? 

5. Good Reads. Quotes from just about any author or book. I am sincerely in love with so many dead people thanks to this website. 

6. My dynamic girlfriend collection. The internet has introduced me to so many beauties. 

a. Julia, oh Julia.

b. Hanneli, sweet Hanneli Mustaparta!

To be continued (basically my back hurts and I need a nap)...

A is for Airforce 1!

I've never been much of a sneaker head, copin' the latest jordans or Air Forces has never been pretty high up on my list. 

I mean I've always appreciated the laces off sneakers but like cars or tampons they've never really had my heart. 

However lately, sneakers have been creepin' up slowly into my heart, I don't know why, the possibility of getting even like 5% of shoes that make the international footwear scene go into heat like a female deer in the spring of her life, is almost next to nil when you live in Roodepoort, South Africa. But the young go hards are increasing my sense of fashion insecurity with their Nike Roshe Run's and Yeezy 2's or whatever. 

So if you're tired of hiding your tatty and fecal matter tinted vans every time a young go hard walks by, congratulations you're in luck! 

Shea Serrano over at Four Pins has created an Alphabet of footwear with pictures! 

Yay! Harambe! Viva!

Click the link and let it upgrade ya:

UPGRADE HERE! 

Found

For the stories behind the pictures and for more amazing photographs clickety-click on my new favourite Tumblr http://natgeofound.tumblr.com/. 

Tommy's Post: Fashion Figure Inc

After Heather, the deluge. In case you're wondering, I'm the deluge. Deluge of what, pray tell Mr Dennis? Since you asked internet, the deluge of high bro culture.  

Heather's previous post was all "Thinking Fast and Slow and shit" and all "yo boyfriend I gots a degree", so I'm hitting back with some "yo girl, I gots fashionz figurines!" cos' you know that's what I got. Toys dressed as anthropological species from the fashion world. Not from my fashion world cause all I got is that one dude who just looks like he owns a chain of mildly successful petrol stations. These men populate my life like flies... But until someone is metaphysical enough to depict that lifestyle in toy form you have to visit http://www.fashionfigureinc.com/. 

Like actually visit, don't be that guy whose doesn't do in-depth investigations , but actually go, because you know, you're worth it.

Three Things That I Love Right Now

1. This watermelon cake. 

2. This lady and this song! An earworm that I wanna love and nurture. I just wish that I could've been one of the clapping ladies in the video. 

3. These beauts from graphic designer Hrefna Sigurðardóttir. Click here to see more of her amazing work. Seriously, the girls drowning (good drowning) in creativity. 

Yoko Furusho!

Lately Pinterest has been stealing my waking hours. 

In the safe, super-organised world of Pinterest I can indulge my Susie Homemaker tendencies while pinning ubiquitous pictures of Ashley Madekwe (honestly, the girl is sublime). 

But every blue moon I come across something that makes my heart smigh (smile and sigh). 

Just yesterday I found the work of this lovely lady and I fell in love. 

The detail! The colours! The healthy dose of bunnies! I hope heaven looks like this. 

Fantastic things like this make me so happy that the internet exists! 

Click here and here and be happy and amazed too! 

P.S. The last picture is the interior wall of a fast-food chain in Asia. And that folks is why Asia is the best.