Lyrical Affair: Frank Ocean - Voodoo

darker times

they’re telling boulder heavy lies

looks like all we’ve got is each other

the truth is obsolete

remember when all i had was my mother

she didn’t compromise

she could recognize

voodoo

our daughters and our sons

are just candles in the sun

voodoo

don’t let him see divide

don’t you let her see divide

voodoo

she’s got the whole wide world in her juicy fruit

he’s got the whole wide world in his pants

he wrapped the whole wide world in a wedding band

then put the whole wide world on her hands

she’s got the whole wide world in her hands

he’s got the whole wide world in his hands.

Listen here

*sigh*

via appleday

A note to myself

I need to take my coats to the dry clean and my shoes for repairs

She Said: Toni Morrison - Song of Solomon

The love I have for this woman tracks back to a day well spent in Greenside at Odd Cafe with a bunch of my girls. Zeng and Akona spoke such beautiful inspiring words about her. They stuck to the walls of my mind. I think they engraved themselves there because I've finally decided to go buy Song of Solomon.

I can't wait!

Nina Simone - Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues

When you're lost in the rain in Juarez
and it's Easter time too
and your gravity fails
and negativity don't pull you through
don't put on any airs
when you're down on rue morgue avenue
they got some hungry women there
and they really make a mess out of you

Now if you see Saint Annie
please tell her thanks a lot
I cannot move
my fingers are all in a knot
I don't have the strength
to get up and take another shot
and my best friend my doctor
won't even say what it is I have got

Sweet Melinda
the peasants call her the goddess of gloom
she speaks good English
and she invites you up into her room
and you're so kind
and careful not to go to her too soon
and she takes your voice
and leaves you howling at the moon

Up on housing project hill
it's either fortune or fame
you must pick one or the other
though neither of them
are to be what they claim
if you're looking to get silly
you better go back from where you came
because the cops don't need you
and man they expect the same

Now all the authorities
they just stand around and boast
hew they blackmailed the sergeant at arms
into leaving his post
and picking up angel who
just arrived here from the coast
who looked so fine at first
but left looking like a ghost

I started out on burgundy
but soon hit the harder stuff
everybody said they'd stand behind me
when the game got rough
but the joke was on me
there was nobody even there to bluff
I'm going back to New York City
I do believe I've had enough

originally by Bob Dylan

He Said: Pico Iyer - The Joy of Quiet

Read article here

Geniuses: J.Rocc and Madlib

stones throw

"You don't say 'good luck', you say 'don't give up' it's the fire"

The Roots

R.I.P. Miss Etta James

In 1997, then Vibe Editor in Chief Danyel Smith sent me to the Sofitel in midtown Manhattan to interview Etta James. Etta was preparing to release her 19th studio album Love's Been Rough On Me. She'd also completed the interviews with David Ritz that would become her 1998 collaborative autobiography, "Rage To Survive." She was self-conscious of her appearance, she was still holding onto weight she'd eventually lose, but she acknowledged she was insecure about it aloud and proceeded to disarm me with a story from her early days as a teenage rising star.

She told me the one time she met Bille Holiday was at a radio station, that she was on her way in and Billie was on her way out. Etta was so intimidated by Billie, so unprepared for this moment in the small anteroom of a broadcasting station, that she fixed her eyes on Billie's hands. She remembered Billie's hands were swollen 'like fat little sausages' and that Billie noticed Ella staring at them as she unsuccessfully tried stuffing her fingers in her gloves. Billie palmed Etta's famously round face and tilted her gaze to meet her own and slurred a warning Etta told me she'd never forget. "Don't you let them do this to you, you hear. My fingers are pumped full of junk and drink, just like my toes. Don't you let this be you girl."

read more here

via ebony/dreamhampton

Inspiration: Mr. Ocean - American Wedding Outro

Don't let 'em front you to say that you can't move
Without them, fuck 'em, I tell them this ain't new
We've been some hustlers since it began dude
Ain't gon' be tripping over some bitch ass dude
They so vain I tell 'em this ain't you
You can get sensitive but the shit ain't true
These niggas can't do nothing that I can't do
That she can't do, that he can't do, that you can't do, that we can't do
Man I had a dream and then the shit came true
And nigga if I did it I think you can too
These niggas can't do nothing that I can't do
That she can't do, that he can't do, that you can't do, that we can't do
Man I had a dream and then the shit came true
These niggas can't do nothing that I can't do
That she can't do, that he can't do, that you can't do

I love this. Or maybe that's just me...

Take Me Away!

A lover
Bikinis
Mary & Fags
Sunglasses
Loose T-shirt
Sunscreen
Music (Norah Jones, Frank Ocean, Diana Krall, Mos Def, Amy Winehouse, Bob Marley)

She Said:

"If you love someone and they keep letting you down and disappointing you , you need to keep going back until your heart tires. In that way once you're done you'll never go back."

Today I Liked This:

TheDepartmentStore

Untitled

Brave are those who can break up with someone they know would die without them.

P A U S E !

My mind has been pacing ridiculously fast. I don't know whether it's the whole notion of new years resolutions or what, but goodness! I think about so many things. In meetings, in my sleep, while i brush my teeth, on my way to and from work, mid conversations (this is rude by the way). It's that bad. I wish i could write down all the things i think about but this might turn into a "dear diary-session" and that's the last thing i want on this platform.

So yeah, here's to more and better mind control/balance.

We grow.

Quick Question: Is That Really Your Face?

Such stunning faces these bellas have.

via nikia

Lyrical Affair: Bryan Adams - Inside Out

the biggest lie you ever told - your deepest fear 'bout growin' old
the longest night you ever spent - the angriest letter you never sent
the boy you swore you'd never leave - the one you kissed on new years's eve
the sweetest dream you had last night -- your darkest hour, your hardest fight

I wanna know you - like I know myself
I'm waitin' for you - there ain't no one else
talk to me baby - scream and shout
I want to know you - inside out
I wanna dig down deep - I wanna lose some sleep
I wanna scream and shout - I wanna know you inside out
I wanna take my time - I wanna know your mind
ya know there ain't no doubt - I wanna know you inside out

the saddest song you ever heard - the most you said with just one word
the loneliest prayer you ever prayed - the truest vow you ever made
what makes you laugh, what makes you cry what makes you mad, what gets you by
you highest hight, your lowest low - these things I want to know

I wanna know you - like I know myself
I'm waitin' for you - there ain't no one else
talk to me baby - scream and shout
I want to know you - inside out
I wanna dig down deep - I wanna lose some sleep
I wanna scream and shout - I wanna know you inside out
I wanna take my time - I wanna know your mind
ya know there ain't no doubt - I wanna know you inside out
I wanna know your soul - I wanna lose control
c'mon n' let it out - I wanna know you inside out
ya gotta dig down deep - I wanna lose some sleep
I wanna scream and shout - I wanna know you inside out
tell me everything...

My friend Anele played this song for me and the first thing I thought was "that's it! These are the best vows ever". I mean if I was to ever want to settle down with someone and hopefully spend the rest of my life with them, these lyrics are spot on. They are it.

P.S. love is lovely

"Oops, I Think I'm Pregnant!"

"I still say people should undergo some sort of testing before they become parents. They want us to have licences to drive, we should have licences to have children because people are having babies like they're buying a new outfit"

My great friend Dawn on people having babies nje! I nodded slowly with my right hand on my chin.

Lyrical Affair: Erykah Badu - Love Of My Life

“I met him when I was a little girl he gave
He gave me poetry and he was my first
But in my heart I knew I wasn’t the only one
‘Cause when the tables turned he had to break up
Whenever I got lonely, or needed some advice
He gave me his shoulder, his words were very nice
But that is all behind me,
‘Cause now there is no other
My love is his and his is mine,
My friend became my love of my life…”

Imagineering: Chacho Puebla - Grandmother Tips

behance

Imagineering: MTV Switzerland 'Sex Is No Accident' Campaign

adweek.com

Imagineering: Comic Sans Project

We are the Comic Sans defenders. We fear no fonts and we will make the whole world Comic Sans.
Because Helvetica is sooo 2011

comicsansproject

Le Look! Eyebrows

The one and only time I ever tried tweezing my brows was in Primary School and I used a minora blade. Yes, that minora. Imagine a +-12year old tweezing herself whilst hiding from her mother. Needless to say I came out looking like the black version of Bart Simpson gone EXTREMELY wrong. It didn't help that my mom forced me to go to school the next day, without eyeliner, of course. Actually, I'm cracking up so much let me stop.

Shirley from one of my favorite blogs, meek~n~mild has what I call the perfect eyebrows. She is making me consider trimming my brows. Look at how she's simplified this art most women get wrong. Gosh I've seen some angry looking brows out there.

How Maverick!

"Error: your expectations are a little too high

Look, we're working at it – hard – but being new and nimble and all that doesn't come easy. Some parts of The Daily Maverick are still under construction, and this is one of them.

We'll get to it real soon, pinky-swear, but right now we're a little distracted by providing you the best possible service in the parts of the site that are already live. You could see this as a failure on our part, but we'd prefer that you see it as something to look forward to. Kinda like Santa left you your gifts, plus an IOU to deliver more in January and February and March.

If you are subscribed to any of our mailing lists, then we'll let you know as soon as each new section is brought online. If you consider e-mail too old-fashioned, then check back here from time to time. It will be worth the wait."

The above is what appeared on my screen after I typed (not clicked through) some link for an article in Maverick. Clearly i typed something wrong, lol.

He Said: George Clooney

"There's this strange thing that happened over the last 25 or 30 years where there's this decision being made that women aren't able to carry the box office. Now, Bridesmaid has proved that to the bulls---, and The Help has proven it to the bulls---."

George Clooney

He Said: Taelo Immanuel

"The South African Advertising Industry is an oligopoly. We have four major European media corporations controlling most agencies represented on our shores: Omnicom, WPP, Interpublic Group and Publicis. Most of the multi-million rand accounts in our industry such as MTN, Vodacom, Cell C, Standard Bank, FNB, ABSA, Toyota, Nissan, Mercedes Benz, VW, Unilever, Tiger Brands, Steers, Wimpy, KFC, McDonalds, Nestle, Liberty Life, Momentum, Pick ‘n Pay, Spar, Checkers, Clicks, etc, are all held by agencies owned by these four media groups. Omnicom owns TBWA, Network BBDO, Tequila and Interbrand. WPP owns Grey, Ogilvy, Young & Rubicam, JWT and Metropolitan Republic. Interpublic Group owns Draft FCB, McCann and Lowe Bull. Publicis owns Publicis Worldwide, Leo Burnett, Saatchi and Saatchi, and Starcom. Imagine being a local client and having Ogilvy, Young & Rubicam, JWT and Metropolitan Republic on your pitch list thinking you have different agencies represented only to discover it’s only just one big media giant.

If we had to use the TBWA model as a benchmark, we’d see a picture of exploitation begin to develop. Of the local TBWA business only 5% sits in an employee trust, 25% is owned by Shanduka Trust (Cyril Ramaphosa) and the rest of the 70% is owned by Omnicom. Most of the abovementioned agencies have the exact same structure and they keep winning pitch after pitch because according to the BBBEE Act, they are ‘empowered’. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that about 70% of these agencies’ profits leave our shores, furthering our status as an extractive economy. These European oligarchs are modern-day colonial masters and local agency heads are nothing but contemporary colonial administrators and Randlords.

this is an extract from The South African Advertising Industry - The Last Colonial Post

Of Course Attitude Is Everything!

via artistichaos

Oh Snap!

via web

Of Course Attitude Is Everything!

Every girl needs a click