Early this year I created a photo book for my siblings. It has some old family photos preserved for each of us. You can take a look at some of the old photos below in the preview:
Self-control. November 19, 2010
He who overcomes others is strong, but he who overcomes himself is mighty.
-Tao Te Ching
Lao Zi Statue in Qhanzhou
Day 12 of not smoking. Feeling a bit overwhelmed with the amount of work at my job and the tight deadline for two presentations due the day after Thanksgiving. I am so happy that I get to visit my sister and her family in PA but I have to buckle down even harder this weekend to complete everything. I just need to make it through November…
I Can See the Light November 17, 2010
Great Migrations
It’s Day 10 of me not smoking. Big whoop, right?
People don’t think of me as being a heavy smoker. I almost never smoked in the morning, at work even and sometimes went through the evening without a cigarette. I smoke socially, I would say. And think. The truth is, however, that I smoked a lot. I would smoke when I drank. I smoked when other friends smoked around me. I smoked in the car when boyfriend lit up. I smoke when I wanted a break from a stressful situation or even to pass the time when I was bored waiting for something. If you take away all the tiny triggers, the big one for me is “going out.” A cigarette and a drink, man.
Getting through a few days without a cigarette is something I have done before, but getting through nights out with friends without smoking is a small success for me. And I have done it THREE times already in the course of my ten day cessation.
One other tiny success that I will mention is that on Day 3, I had a required speech to present in my public speaking class. If there was ever a time I would want a smoke, it’s then. But I made it through. And I got an A. Hooray!
[The impetus for me to quit was silly, really. I went to Fun Fun Fun Fest and got sick, as I always do, from the dusty park and all the smoking. That and I have been saying I want to for months.]
I don’t feel magical at all having quit. I am still hacking and coughing and wheezing. In fact my asthma has flared up. But I know that it’s better. And my breath is better. And my clothes smell better. And food smells and tastes better. So that’s something.
I hear it takes 28 days to really break a habit. Dec 5th is that day for me.
Fun X 3 November 14, 2010
This year’s Fun Fun Fun Fest at Waterloo Park had a great lineup. It didn’t rain and it was dusty as hell. In fact, my lungs were filled with so much dust I thought I was going to die after Saturday night. I actually quit smoking then (Thanks, Fun Fun Fun!)
Seeing Polvo, Os Mutantes and Yelle were the highlights of my weekend but I also managed to see these badasses:
A-Trak
Best Coast
Big Freedia
Deerhunter
Delorean
Descendants
Devin the Dude (4th time to see him this year. 5th time free?)
Dam Funk
Gwar
High on Fire
Jean Grae
Mastadon
MGMT
RJD2
Slick Rick
Pharaohe Monch
Toro y Moi
Hooray, music festivals! But I gotta tell ya: my absolute favorite gem of the weekend wasn’t at the festival. I caught Bon-Jay at the Beauty Bar Friday night and that girl’s voice cut through me with sex-lasers.
Zef Side November 12, 2010
[I’ve never been over the top about Halloween. Growing up in a very religious household, we didn’t really participate in Halloween. I remember being jealous of my older brother’s cute costumes that Mom made for him before her conversion to Christianity. Occasionally, my brother and I were able to sneak off into the neighborhood for some trick-or-treating with hastily made-up outfits to fill garbage bags with candy. As an adult, I’ve tried to make up for lost time and get excited about Halloween: the costumes and the parties. Trouble is I fret over my costume choice every year and the parties never live up to my expectations because 1) it is a KID’S holiday and 2) it’s kind of stupid.
This year was different.
I had a really great Halloween weekend. I went to a Lost Boys-themed party that DID NOT SUCK on Friday. On Saturday, I went to a warehouse party that also DID NOT SUCK. Having been satisfied with the “Halloweening” the weekend had offered me thus far, a friend and I decided to simply watch scary movies, make pumpkin pie and give candy to kids on Halloween. Super chill. Halloween-ish, at least, with minimal energy required. Because forcing holiday celebrations is ridonkulous.
AND THEN.
After watching, “The Crazies” (which is worth it for the scary CAR WASH scene, but overall SPOILER ALERT: military biochemical spill=masochistic murdering zombie townspeople) by a stroke of good fortune on the interweb I came across an event page that said Die Antwoord was playing that very night in my very own town in only 2 hours! Oh ghoulish delight! Oh spooky pleasures! Even though we had spent all of our laundry money on candy for the kids, we had to go. We took the pies out of the oven, slapped some party clothes on, dropped the credit card down and took the ride to the Zef Side.]
Die Antwoord’s performance at La Zona Rosa was one of the best concert experiences I have had in a very long time.
Even though I nearly suffocated in the packed crown up front and even though one of Ninja’s crowd dives ended up bruising my head, the rush of excitement from finally seeing this South African music group paired with the enthusiasm from all of the other concert goers would have been enough to go on. But the performance of Ninja and Yo Landi Visser was majik.
“F&$% the upper class!” she yelled and the crowd backed her up during “Rich Bitch.”
The two taught the crowd a supposed childhood taunt-phrase: “Jou mae se poes in a fispaste jar” which means “your mother’s private parts in a fish paste jar.”
Vulgar, disgusting, irreverent, endearing.
Some of the elements of that make up Die Antwoord’s style are summed up by Yo Landi’s explanation of Zef in an article from the UK’s Guardian:
“Zef’s kind of like you don’t give a f–k and you have your own flavour and you’re on your own mission,” says Yolandi. “It’s associated with people who soup their cars up and rock gold and shit. Zef is, you’re poor but you’re fancy. You’re poor but you’re sexy, you’ve got style.”
The Die Antwoord FaceBook profile has a photo album of dedicated fans rocking Yo Landi’s or Ninja’s hairstyles and track suits.
The modern, trashy appeal of Die Antwoord is spreading like HOT FIRE.
Best. Halloween. Ever.
