Strato Copteros's Posts - neofundi2024-03-28T16:28:37ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteroshttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1550360755?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://www.neofundi.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=3476j8xqxmtr6&xn_auth=noEast Cape Bluestag:www.neofundi.com,2012-07-18:6394384:BlogPost:756712012-07-18T14:00:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>Thank you to neofundi and my good friend Socs - a friendship now into its 35th magnificent year - for providing such an amazing platform for me to share some of my thoughts ... and now my music.</p>
<p>So ... emboldened by my friends' positive reaction to my posting of one of our band's songs "My Death" yesterday, today I'm posting the vid of one of our live performances earlier this year. The song's called "East Cape Blues" and was shot exclusively on iPhone and edited on laptop by good…</p>
<p>Thank you to neofundi and my good friend Socs - a friendship now into its 35th magnificent year - for providing such an amazing platform for me to share some of my thoughts ... and now my music.</p>
<p>So ... emboldened by my friends' positive reaction to my posting of one of our band's songs "My Death" yesterday, today I'm posting the vid of one of our live performances earlier this year. The song's called "East Cape Blues" and was shot exclusively on iPhone and edited on laptop by good friend and Rhodes TV Journ lecturer Paul Hills. The venue's our beloved Champs, where we play our happiest gigs in Gtown! The vid's fabulously 'rough n ready guerrilla style' and gives you a taster of what it's like when we perform. Enjoy! Socs - you're the man bro! Thank you! </p>
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<p><a href="http://www.neofundi.com/profiles/blogs/sunship" target="_blank">SunShip</a></p>
<p></p>SunshiPtag:www.neofundi.com,2012-07-17:6394384:BlogPost:757382012-07-17T14:42:43.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>Having blogged intermittently about the 2012 Grahamstown National Arts Festival; and written bits and bobs for the last year about SunshiP - the band I drum in - finally I have something to show my friends in Jozi, most of whom haven't seen me play - in fact all of whom knew me before my exit from Jozi and mid-life existentialism drove me to finally actualise the dream I've had since childhood. </p>
<p>So ...</p>
<p>SunshiP is the band; and "My Death" is the single that appears below. The…</p>
<p>Having blogged intermittently about the 2012 Grahamstown National Arts Festival; and written bits and bobs for the last year about SunshiP - the band I drum in - finally I have something to show my friends in Jozi, most of whom haven't seen me play - in fact all of whom knew me before my exit from Jozi and mid-life existentialism drove me to finally actualise the dream I've had since childhood. </p>
<p>So ...</p>
<p>SunshiP is the band; and "My Death" is the single that appears below. The song's a lot happier than its title alludes; and the video was shot by TV students of the Rhodes School of Journalism and Media Studies. Their project was to select a piece of music by a Gtown band, and then create a visual narrative around it, which they had to film and edit. The actual sound recording of the song was done about a year ago - before we had Rick playing with us on sax, so it's just Larry, Anton and I - on guitar n vocals, bass and drums respectively. How we play the song has also changed in the last year. It's pace is much faster now, but the recording's still a catchy ditty, a lot of fun, and we'll record it again when we do our album.</p>
<p>For now, this goes out with much love to all my people in Jozi. My dream is to play live for all of you soon.</p>
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<p>EMBED <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9Vj2WfiJEBM?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0"></iframe>
</p>National ArtFest Days 8,9,10, 11 - More Than One Could Ever Imaginetag:www.neofundi.com,2012-07-10:6394384:BlogPost:750982012-07-10T14:30:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>So its over. The ArtsFest for 2012 is done. As am I. I'd hoped to write daily updates - to put you right inside the glorious kaleidoscope that the Grahamstown National Arts Festival always is. I couldn't. This year was just too big, too much, too busy, too full, too intense, too constant. My god! Every day was so full, that by evening what had happened just that morning felt like it was days, even weeks, old.</p>
<p>Having worked as a wordsmith for a dozen years, I pride myself at being able…</p>
<p>So its over. The ArtsFest for 2012 is done. As am I. I'd hoped to write daily updates - to put you right inside the glorious kaleidoscope that the Grahamstown National Arts Festival always is. I couldn't. This year was just too big, too much, too busy, too full, too intense, too constant. My god! Every day was so full, that by evening what had happened just that morning felt like it was days, even weeks, old.</p>
<p>Having worked as a wordsmith for a dozen years, I pride myself at being able to describe anything. This year's festival brought out my loss for words. It is truly impossible to even begin describing the 11 days that have just passed in Gtown - the talent, the artistry, the courage, the creativity, the conceptual magnificence of the work that was presented ... the sheer immense volume of it all!</p>
<p>Go to <a href="http://cuetv.ru.ac.za/">http://cuetv.ru.ac.za/</a> for a taster. </p>
<p>This festival was phenomenal! It was a dreamland of some of the most spectacular live performance experiences one can ever hope to have! It was breathtaking! Mind-boggling! Insane!</p>
<p>In truth, more than anything else, the National Arts Festival is an entire parallel dimension that for as long as you are in it, occupies your every second, fills your every minute, keeps pouring more and more into you! It is the glory of the human condition - of the ability to express - being both celebrated and acknowledged in the most powerful possible way! - Jazz, music, drama, comedy, dance, performance art, classical music, ballet, sculpture, painting, photography, musical theater, stand-up comedy, world music, multimedia, cinema, and Think!Fest - focusing on panel discussions and presentations on the most pertinent national and global issues of the day. Art meanders, street theater, foodstalls, flea markets, multi-disciplinary collaborations, ad hoc jams - And more, more, more, more, more! And I have nothing more to say.</p>
<p>It would take weeks to describe what I've just been through. Over the next few weeks, as I reflect, I'll discuss some of what I saw. For now, my DNA is adjusting to what has just been poured into, and out of, it - having both seen and performed so much this year!</p>
<p>It was billed as "11 Days of Amazing". And by god it was!</p>
<p> </p>Days 6 & 7: Creative Heaventag:www.neofundi.com,2012-07-05:6394384:BlogPost:748272012-07-05T13:51:08.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>In our little normally secluded corner of the Eastern Cape, when Fest rolls into town, everything changes. Obviously! But it's more than the obvious influx of shows and people. It's almost as if the town's DNA,and that of its people, is irrevocably altered - a kind of creative cosmic shift, where the largesse of what is all around us somehow infuses itself into our bloodstream through our pores. For a while, like plants, we grow by osmosis. For some in Gtown, Fest is the annual cash express…</p>
<p>In our little normally secluded corner of the Eastern Cape, when Fest rolls into town, everything changes. Obviously! But it's more than the obvious influx of shows and people. It's almost as if the town's DNA,and that of its people, is irrevocably altered - a kind of creative cosmic shift, where the largesse of what is all around us somehow infuses itself into our bloodstream through our pores. For a while, like plants, we grow by osmosis. For some in Gtown, Fest is the annual cash express - a chance to finally make real money in a province where not much is usually made. For others, Fest is an opportunity to finally have huge activity come to you, as opposed to you having to go out foraging for it in nearby cities. For local performers of every ilk, Fest is a phenomenal opportunity to showcase ... and to watch and learn! For me, Fest is the latter. SunshiP is cooking! Our fest gigs are getting better and better; and out of towners are digging our groove! The exposure is invaluable! But the groove I see in other musicians performing at fest, is what for me is the intangible gem! Man, people are good! I mean really good! I mean fanf^&%ngfantastically awesome! The music I see; and the drummers I watch over fest, are what catapults me onwards and upwards every year in my musical evolution! And it's not just musicians blowing my mind at the moment! The performance art on this year is breathtaking - and the three three big shows in this genre are Brett Bailey's "Exhibit A", the legendary Steven Cohen's "Cradle of Humankind" and the local multi-disciplinary collaboration, "Discharge". The first two I've seen, and was mesmerised. "Discharge" I'll watch tonight; and then I'll blog about them all together tomorrow. </p>
<p>There is still much I want to see, and a truckload I know I won't. That aspect of Fest - the not seeing so much that was right here - used to gut me. But having done nearly a dozen fests - four of them as a Gtown resident - I've finally made peace with the fact that for the next month, everyone I see in town will be telling me about brilliance they'd witnessed - much of which I didn't see. Many of the shows I won't have even heard of. C'est la vie. It would take 6 months to do all of fest. We have 11 days. And I still haven't done any art exhibitions. When, when, when? Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.</p>
<p>The one thing I'm going to tell you, which I beg you to take most seriously indeed, is this: The Grahamstown National Arts Festival is the most spectacular creative event this country hosts.</p>
<p>YOU HAVE TO EXPERIENCE THIS! At least once. Although, everyone who does Fest, returns! Put it in your diary now! June 27th to July 7th 2013! Do it! Your DNA deserves it! I promise you on all I hold dear, and on all the marvels I've encountered at Fest 2012 till now - you will never be the same again! Trust me, you'll be better for it! </p>Days 3,4,5: The Arts Are Alive!!!tag:www.neofundi.com,2012-07-02:6394384:BlogPost:745892012-07-02T20:07:29.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>... And it's nearly killed me! This has by far been the busiest festival I've had in years; and how much of a good thing I can stand, now seems to have become the sub-plot of my fight against fest fatigue. You know when a kid comes back from the zoo and starts listing? - "We saw lions, and tigers, and monkeys and leopard and ... and ... and ... Oh and ... wow and there were ..."</p>
<p>Check this out for the Strato Artfest zoomania days 3, 4, & 5 retrospective </p>
<p>In the last three…</p>
<p>... And it's nearly killed me! This has by far been the busiest festival I've had in years; and how much of a good thing I can stand, now seems to have become the sub-plot of my fight against fest fatigue. You know when a kid comes back from the zoo and starts listing? - "We saw lions, and tigers, and monkeys and leopard and ... and ... and ... Oh and ... wow and there were ..."</p>
<p>Check this out for the Strato Artfest zoomania days 3, 4, & 5 retrospective </p>
<p>In the last three days I have seen:</p>
<p>Fantastic puppetry - a collaboration of Paris-based puppet company Les Grandes Personnes and local communities trained to make and use stunning puppets that range in size from a fist to Goliath;</p>
<p>A soloist playing the piano parts of Mozart compositions - on marimba - with a full symphony orchestra behind her - Magda De Vries is a percussionist extraordinaire;</p>
<p>One of the country's top young sopranos performing arias from La Boheme - Kelebogile Boikanyo deserves her award as Standard Bank Young Artist Winner for Music; with a voice that has the timbre and nuance of Callas in it - my mother cried as she clapped and gasped "bravo";</p>
<p>A jazz trio that plugs all its acoustic instruments through electric converters that turn the sound into literal electro firefights - A.Spell - Songs & Sounds is gob-smackingly brilliant,</p>
<p>Two breathtakingly beautiful photographic exhibitions - Cedric Nunn capturing the ravages of apartheid and the majesty of people's survival in 1960s to 1990s rural Natal in epic black and white; while Standard Bank Young Artist Winner for Visual Art Mikhael Subotzky captures ordinary life with a kind of immediate full-colour poignancy that somehow almost makes you forget the lens;</p>
<p>Two mind-blowing shows where normal plastic packets have little arms and heads attached to them, so that they now look a bit like the chickens you buy from the supermarket - thrown into the air on a circular stage surrounded by floor fans controlled by a team of four people, with incredible music playing, and the controlled wind vortex turning the packets of various sizes into dancers flying and gyrating to the music with amazing rhythmic precision - and then bigger packets doing duets with a human dancer onstage - Vortex and Afternoon of a Foehn are the perfect symmetry of mankind, technology, and the unspoken essence of melody and movement, all entwining perfectly.</p>
<p>A hauntingly beautiful performance art exhibition that had most people in the audience weeping like babies - Brett Bailey's Exhibit A literally in the most beautiful way possible takes you into the unforgivable cruelty of colonialism in a way that tears your heart open and makes you see how a continent's soul was ripped out and how little still has changed ... real people as models like the native freakshows of late 1800s Europe - you stare into those eyes and feel; </p>
<p>An international jazz quintet of young SA, US, Bulgarian and German musicians - whose drummer has the fastest hands and some of the most creative stick control I have ever seen - the NY/SA collective were sometimes overly inebriated by the exuberance of their own musicality, but Bobby Petrov on drums is like watching God hammering out the Himalayas at the birth of our planet;</p>
<p>A film-fest documentary on the search for a shape-shifting monster some Karoo locals say they have often seen -director Nicole Schafer is a friend of mine, and her movie was quirky, offbeat, from the hip and fabulous;</p>
<p>A brilliant band that combines electro beats with African and Brazilian percussion - NAPALMA's groove is infectious!</p>
<p>And an 18-piece big band with conductor, giving a free concert and introducing kids to different types of instruments and foundational rhythm and melody. Joburg's very own mega-maestro Richard Cock is not only one of the finest conductors in the world - also directing the symphony orchestra that supported both Kelebogile Boikanyo and Magda De Vries - but he is kind, compassionate, funny and simply wonderful with children! R E S P E C T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>Oh and I played two gigs - one of which is probably the biggest and best live performance our band has ever given - 200 people that ranged in age from late 60s to late teens - screaming, dancing, going ballistic, wanting to know when we're recording, asking when we're touring to Joburg, wanting to know when we're playing Cape Town ... calling us back for countless encores. We played till our hands nearly fell off. Three and a half hours with two ten minute breaks. </p>
<p>Amazing! And Relentless! Cos like fest itself, the music and the show must go on!</p>
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<p> </p>FestDay 2- Rebirth of Boogalootag:www.neofundi.com,2012-06-29:6394384:BlogPost:745352012-06-29T14:30:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>So one of you took me seriously yesterday - got jealous, got on a plane and came! Well done Dimitri!</p>
<p>Dimitri and I have done over half a dozen festivals together; and it doesn't feel like fest without him!</p>
<p>Now that's who arrived. What disappeared were the SunshiP posters - replaced by some other schlongs' who took mine down and put up theirs. Sneaky sneaky. The Gtown 10-day poster wars have begun. And while we all jockey for wall space and attention, the festival juggernaut…</p>
<p>So one of you took me seriously yesterday - got jealous, got on a plane and came! Well done Dimitri!</p>
<p>Dimitri and I have done over half a dozen festivals together; and it doesn't feel like fest without him!</p>
<p>Now that's who arrived. What disappeared were the SunshiP posters - replaced by some other schlongs' who took mine down and put up theirs. Sneaky sneaky. The Gtown 10-day poster wars have begun. And while we all jockey for wall space and attention, the festival juggernaut hurtles forth at high speed. 'High' being the operative word, because fest's is one of the greatest natural highs on Earth!! There's a creative buzz that permeates everything! - Even the ubiquitous all-year-round beggars are miming, singing and pulling faces for their money this week.</p>
<p>TRAFFIC!!! Now that's insane! Combine bamboozled out of town festinos looking for their shows and for precious parking spaces, with Eastern Cape locals that wouldn't break 60km/h in a Concorde, and you have life in the slow lane, slowed down to snail's pace. I saw two tortoises come whizzing past between the jazz and the Village Green.</p>
<p>The Village Green is what one might call the social hub of fest - beer tents, food stalls, a massive flea market, kids playground, a gig-rig with free shows and a ton of buskers of every ilk. Wonderful! As for the jazz; well as the song says, "where do I begin?" Double Standards last night was fantastic! Two piano trios - drums, double bass and piano - playing together. How marvelous to see two amazing jazz drummers play off each other! I went home and practiced after that!</p>
<p>At lunchtime I took my nephew Ilyo to see some free street theatre - a lovely production with amazing township performers for whom fest - just like with all us Gtown locals - is a chance to put yourself out there before a national and global audience. There are a billion shows I want to see! But who's had time to draw up show lists and make the ticketing arrangements. Not me. Yet. For now, the journo's hat gets shelved for the night and the drumsticks are whipped out. I'm off for set-up and sound check. Tonight SunshiP gigs! At a venue called the Lowlander, just after the acoustic guitar genius of Guy Buttery and Nibs vd Spuy; and tomorrow night at our beloved Champs - the most rocking music venue in Gtown! And as the fest's musicians come pouring in, so does our line-up fatten! Tonight we have the inimitable Mr. Matt Sabine do a set with us on electric lead guitar; and tomorrow night the outrageously talented Mr Adam Howard blows trumpet. We've never played with a trumpeter before and I can't wait! Festival is here and I'm enthralled. Come and play! Come one, come all! </p>
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<p><a href="http://www.neofundi.com/profiles/blogs/festday1-n-the-fun-s-begun" target="_blank">FestDay1 n the Fun's Begun!</a></p>FestDay1 n the Fun's Begun!tag:www.neofundi.com,2012-06-28:6394384:BlogPost:742922012-06-28T14:00:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>It starts ... slowly ... a creative giant gently opening one eye to stare out at a world arriving to watch it groove! That's always the Grahamstown National ArtsFest's first day - the slumbering megatron of a billion bits of creativity now beginning to wake. In a week's time, the freshly woken creative gargantuan of today will be in full-on arts and culture overdrive, as it heads into its last weekend. But right now as the first weekend of fest begins to loom just above the horizon like the…</p>
<p>It starts ... slowly ... a creative giant gently opening one eye to stare out at a world arriving to watch it groove! That's always the Grahamstown National ArtsFest's first day - the slumbering megatron of a billion bits of creativity now beginning to wake. In a week's time, the freshly woken creative gargantuan of today will be in full-on arts and culture overdrive, as it heads into its last weekend. But right now as the first weekend of fest begins to loom just above the horizon like the dawn of dance, all is still, still - but getting mobile at an ever-quickening pace.</p>
<p>As I write this, show posters are flying onto every free wall space in Gtown - feverishly tied, taped, prestick'd, stuck, plonked, plastered, stapled, affixed with a hope and a prayer by thousands who have shows and exhibitions here - praying to every divinity they each believe in, that the audience will come. How anyone expects to stand out from a million images all silently screaming for visual attention, I don't know. And yet - there I was yesterday, putting up SunshiP gig posters, as I implored the gods of Rock and the granddaddies of Blues to send us audiences that love us!</p>
<p>Tomorrow night SunshiP plays its first gig. Tonight I go to my first show. Called "Double Standards", it's part of the Standard Bank Jazz Fest here at ArtsFest: Two drummers, two bassists, two pianists. I am excited! Anton, SunshiP's bassist, and I are going together - hopefully acquiring some double-inspiration from our musical counterparts, before we lay it all on the line tomorrow at our Lowlander gig.</p>
<p>Earlier on, I popped into a fantastic photo and interactive multimedia exhibition, which is part of ArtsFest's Think!Fest programme - an entire sub-festival focused on open discourse and dialogue through seminars, panel discussions and many other events, about the nation's most pressing issues of the day. Titled "Being & Belonging in South Africa", the exhibition is part of the Rhodes Journalism School's Mellon Foundation-funded festival Think!Fest programme on citizenship and democracy. The blurb says: </p>
<p>"If being a citizen in a democracy entails more than just voting every five years, then how active and engaged are South Africans as citizens? What real say do they have in the shaping of their democracy? And what role does the media play in enabling them (and especially those previously disenfranchised) to be active partners in deepening democracy?" Good questions. And a stunning exhibition! Look out for a young SA photographer called Sophie Smith. She has it in her to be one of the greats! For now though, I'm off to find my answers in music; and for the next 11 days, first and foremost, I'm going to be a citizen FestCity!</p>
<p>Chat tomorrow fundis! And hey - if I've made you slightly jealous, hop onto a plane and come! </p>Overnight Me to "Amazing"tag:www.neofundi.com,2012-06-27:6394384:BlogPost:744062012-06-27T15:30:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>So I've just collected my media accreditation for the Grahamstown National Arts Festival 2012. To use the festival's strap-line, "Welcome to Amazing" fundis! Quite nifty to have the world's second largest arts festival in my hometown, don't you think? Yep - only Edinburgh pips us; and this year's ArtsFest fringe programme is bigger even than the "burgh's".</p>
<p>The festival programme booklet that my media pack came with, is over 250 magazine pages long - with up to six individual offerings…</p>
<p>So I've just collected my media accreditation for the Grahamstown National Arts Festival 2012. To use the festival's strap-line, "Welcome to Amazing" fundis! Quite nifty to have the world's second largest arts festival in my hometown, don't you think? Yep - only Edinburgh pips us; and this year's ArtsFest fringe programme is bigger even than the "burgh's".</p>
<p>The festival programme booklet that my media pack came with, is over 250 magazine pages long - with up to six individual offerings per page in places. MAMMOTH! Magnificent! More than I can bear! Too much! Perfect! Huge! Evocative! Breathtaking! You cannot begin to imagine how many have put their all on the line and are baring their hearts and their creativity to a world flooding in to see them! Between visitors and performers, 100 000 people will flow in and out of Gtown for the next 11 days. The town's population literally doubles. </p>
<p>Check out <a href="http://www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/" target="_blank">http://www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/</a> where the programme can be viewed online.</p>
<p>Indeed my fine-feathered-fundi-friends, online at ArtsFest is where it's at for fun-dudes and fundis one and all - because beyond my usual blogfull of musical musings, artrageous arty-facts and performance ponderings, neofundi has partnered with Cue - the fest's official online newspaper, TV and radio network and content provider - becoming one of a handful in the country to have Cue syndication. Why? Because love is the answer! Because this is neofundi and fest is fun! Because the exquisite sight and sound palette of ArtsFest just has to be seen and heard to be believed! Because this is human creative beauty at its most delicious, and every fundi should to get a taste.</p>
<p>... Because creation and creativity is what fundis breathe and we're about to turn the arts aircon all the way up to 'red is for racy'. So get ready to gulp it all in. I'm not exhaling till next Sunday!</p>
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<p>Tomorrow it all begins! "Overnight me to Amazing Scotty." </p>ARTiculationtag:www.neofundi.com,2012-06-19:6394384:BlogPost:735662012-06-19T15:14:56.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>Having just completed a monumental marking marathon of 120 assignments and 120 exam scripts, the greatest difference that struck me between students was not so much whether some had grasped the course content more than others, but how capable they were of articulating their knowledge. Ok - so it was Media Law & Ethics at university level. Certainly not everyone's cuppa coco. Of course the level of understanding would vary. The thing though, is that I got most of them into it - with a…</p>
<p>Having just completed a monumental marking marathon of 120 assignments and 120 exam scripts, the greatest difference that struck me between students was not so much whether some had grasped the course content more than others, but how capable they were of articulating their knowledge. Ok - so it was Media Law & Ethics at university level. Certainly not everyone's cuppa coco. Of course the level of understanding would vary. The thing though, is that I got most of them into it - with a lecturing style that could quite easily be described as a tad unorthodox. And I mean really INTO IT! After just 3 months some students gave me exam answers that final year LLB students would have been proud of! And yes, the bulk of the class got it. Some however, could articulate it better than others. </p>
<p>It's perfectly apt that the first 3 letters of the word 'articulate', by themselves embody a whole world of creative expression. Indeed, expression itself is ultimately creative! Not many of us consider the fact that every time we speak we create. Literally. What we say did not exist until we said it. That's powerful daily stuff! The trick is then to make our creation the best that it can be! And it all begins with education. In The Sunset Limited - probably one of the best dialogue plays ever written; and recently turned into a fantastic film starring Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L Jackson - there is a line: "Education makes the world personal."And it does you know! Education gives us a sense of our ability to influence a world that has catapulted right into within our grasp, because we now know about it - and often what to do abut it. Of course that will define our capacity for expression! Right now, millions of kids in our country are having their articulation strangled in their throats by an education system failing them on every level. By the time they get to me, I have to literally try stop the choking and then, for a while, try make sense of the mumbled flow that comes out - encouraging the sputter to grow into a stream; and to then guide it to start pouring out with deftness. I wish I had more time with them!</p>
<p>What I do know though, is that in a country where culture, performance and creativity seeps out of every pore, language is not all we have. There is more! There are THE ARTS! And they pre-date verbal communication! And they hold the secret to how our kids will re-learn how to express! Creativity and performance are the future! Even if the industrialised world collapses - which it very well might - and it all implodes, the last thing we will have left is our ability to clap, to dance, to sing, to draw a circle in the sand - to express!</p>
<p>Soon the National Arts Festival comes to Grahamstown once more. Expression will rule supreme for 11 days - and every fundi will have front row seats! This I promise! Watch this space! Last year I blogged about fest! This year, we'll be unleashing the full flow of its audiovisual spectacle. ARTiculation is a gift.Let's share it! </p>Climate Change - The Myth of Emission Reductiontag:www.neofundi.com,2011-12-01:6394384:BlogPost:498322011-12-01T10:28:05.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>Right now, as the world’s signatories to the Kyoto Protocol meet at COP17 climate summit in Durban to negotiate new emission reduction targets, you’d be forgiven for thinking that after so many years and 17 annual climate change summits, emissions were coming down. The facts: </p>
<p>In the latest report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) - the world’s premier energy consumption monitoring body - <b>2010 marked the greatest increase in global warming gas emissions ever recorded</b>. …</p>
<p>Right now, as the world’s signatories to the Kyoto Protocol meet at COP17 climate summit in Durban to negotiate new emission reduction targets, you’d be forgiven for thinking that after so many years and 17 annual climate change summits, emissions were coming down. The facts: </p>
<p>In the latest report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) - the world’s premier energy consumption monitoring body - <b>2010 marked the greatest increase in global warming gas emissions ever recorded</b>. In total, over 30 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide poured into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels <b><i>-</i></b> <b><i>564 million more tons than in 2009 - a record 6% annual increase</i></b> <b> - higher than any worst case scenario projected just half a decade ago.</b></p>
<p>Weren’t we supposed to be decreasing green house gas emissions? Yes - by building new fossil fuelled power stations, gas-guzzling factories, dirty oil extraction plants like the tar sands and un-eco sensitive buildings - with many more planned for construction around the world. South Africa has two coal powered stations on the cards. That’s how we’re reducing emissions - With fossil fuel, self delusion and wishful thinking. And whatever is built now that emits carbon, will do so for years … decades. It’s the "lock-in" effect - humanity locked into fossil fuel-burning energy for the foreseeable future - with the carbon we emit having a hundred year lifespan. That’s how long it stays up there - A century of helping us bake and just five years to go till irreversible climate change. Tick tock.</p>
<p>Climate scientists all agree that the world has to stay below two degrees Celsius of warming to prevent irreversible climate change. Two degrees is the limit of safety. After that we’re in uncharted territory. To stay below that point, emissions must be kept at no higher than 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We’re already on 390 parts per million; and with fossil-fuelled infrastructure still being built, this figure keeps rising. We’ll break the 450 parts per million barrier in 2017. Then we’re in climate change wilderness. The last time this much carbon was in the Earth’s atmosphere was 65 million years ago! This is serious! Two degrees already wipes out most of our coral reefs and glaciers. And the political and economic will to do anything about it, other than talk, seems to be non-existent. Too much money is involved. China, the world’s premier polluter together with the USA, has decades of coal reserves and is building coal-powered power stations at a frenetic pace. In the USA, the sustained PR and lobbyist war on climate discourse by mining and oil has decreased the percentage of Americans concerned about climate change from 71% to about 45% in less than half a decade. The big polluters like the USA, China, Japan and Europe - two thirds of all global emissions between them - don’t care. And the media really doesn’t seem to either. The IEA’s report of last year’s record-breaking emission increases should have made every front page on the globe - been the 8 o’clock lead story on all TV stations. It was buried.</p>
<p>Rhodes’ School of Journalism and Media Studies Deputy Head, Prof. Wasserman recently spoke about the media's response to Climate Change - in which he addressed the frequency, prominence and tone of climate change coverage. Like the fact that the amount of coverage by the media is not commensurate with the scale of the issue; that it normally appears as a special feature or part of natural disaster stories, rather than being integral to daily reporting; that it vacillates between apocalyptic sensationalism and the opposite notion that climate change is a distant problem; and that it ultimately lacks a critical humanisation of climate change - not really dealing with how climate change is already affecting, and likely to affect, the lives of people. People like us.</p>
<p>You see, what we all should know is that climate change is an all-permeating, all-encompassing issue with potentially catastrophic effects on everything we take for granted. And it’s inextricably entwined with the every aspect of human-driven planetary degradation. Be it climate change, deforestation, habitat loss, the fact that 80% of the planet’s fresh water is no longer drinkable, every kind of pollution you can imagine, or soil erosion to the point of desertification, the entire catastrophe is interlinked. It’s us. And we have to stop it. Or it will destroy everything beautiful in and around us.</p>
<p>Point to Ponder: Within our complex body coding we still have the exact same 200 genes as the original single-cell organisms from which life on Earth evolved.</p>
<p><b>We are not just in this world. We are of it!</b> And maybe when we remember that, precious profit will take a back seat to the precious life we’ve been part of for 6 billion years and counting. </p>
<p> </p>Black Tuesdaytag:www.neofundi.com,2011-11-22:6394384:BlogPost:476512011-11-22T16:00:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>It was meant to actually be Black Wednesday - the day the secrecy bill was originally planned for tabling before parliament - tomorrow. But it smacked too much of the original Black Wednesday - October 19, 1977 -when the apartheid regime shut down three independant newspapers, banned a host of civic organizations and arrested countless activists, less than a month after murdering Steve Biko. Today, Biko and those who laid down their their lives for freedom, weep in their graves - too…</p>
<p>It was meant to actually be Black Wednesday - the day the secrecy bill was originally planned for tabling before parliament - tomorrow. But it smacked too much of the original Black Wednesday - October 19, 1977 -when the apartheid regime shut down three independant newspapers, banned a host of civic organizations and arrested countless activists, less than a month after murdering Steve Biko. Today, Biko and those who laid down their their lives for freedom, weep in their graves - too exhausted too turn in them - shocked that those who they died to free, now imprison the nation in silence and secrecy once more. P.W. Zuma! How quickly the oppressors' mantle gets worn by those that they opressed. George Orwell where are thee now? Why did you have to be so blooming right in "Animal Farm"? Why are people so cruel, so selfish, so thoughtless, so dumb?</p>
<p>Hillariously enough, the ANC Chief Whip, Mathole Motshekga, in his statement released as a response to the National Press Club dubbing tomorrow Black Wednesday - before the ANC quickly moved the date up one day - said, "The only result this unfortunate comparison and the planned campaign, in which people are urged to dress in black, will achieve is to dilute the real history of the Black Wednesday and insult the victims of apartheid's barbaric laws".</p>
<p>Wow!</p>
<p>Stupid, self deluded and with no sense of irony. But don't worry - I can't be arrested for saying that, even though the secrecy was passed - It's not a state secret. Just simple fact. </p>
<p>229 in favour, 107 against and 2 abstentions. That's how the vote went. Noone in the ANC came out vocally against it, and all essentially voted to pass it. They are now officially the New Nats. Soon they'll leave the black, green and gold for the good old orange, white and blue; and start hanging out with Adrian Vlok and Magnus Malan. Birds of tarnished feathers, lie to the people and stand together.</p>
<p>More than anything though, I would argue that current Black Wednesday references, far from 'diluting' the real history of the original, simply show the ANC repeating that history, stomping on it, and peeing on the graves of those who sacrificed everything for freedom's dream - a dream at first deferred, then forgotten and now completely abandoned - sold for cash.</p>
<p>Zimbabweans warned me about this a decade ago. I laughed at them then. It doesn't feel so funny now. Biko weeps - as we all should with him!</p>
<p>The real test comes next - Constitutional Court. This is not over - not just in songs where the words are uttered, "We've only just begun." And we'll beat it. And we'll beat it again and again, because we are not animals, this is not a farm, and bugger Orwell! We have the good in us to rise up and stop being sheep! Wear black tomorrow anyway! </p>
<p>They thought the struggle was over and we'd ignore and forget. Are they insane? The revolution's returning, one more time with feeling! WATCH THIS SPACE!!!!!!!</p>Get Played!tag:www.neofundi.com,2011-10-14:6394384:BlogPost:402872011-10-14T14:00:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>As a drummer playing actively in a band, I have to come up with the right drum parts for every song we do - ones that reinforce the bass guitar's rhythm and drive forward the melody of lead guitar and vocals, to the best interests of the music. Sometimes it's relatively easy. Sometimes not. In most songs there are those niggly 'turnarounds' - the big rhythmic shifts, such as verse to chorus and back, which to cock up as a drummer is the musical equivalent of a missing the gear when taking…</p>
<p>As a drummer playing actively in a band, I have to come up with the right drum parts for every song we do - ones that reinforce the bass guitar's rhythm and drive forward the melody of lead guitar and vocals, to the best interests of the music. Sometimes it's relatively easy. Sometimes not. In most songs there are those niggly 'turnarounds' - the big rhythmic shifts, such as verse to chorus and back, which to cock up as a drummer is the musical equivalent of a missing the gear when taking a corner. So coming up with appropriate drum parts for the 65+ covers and originals we do, has been a mixture of bliss and trauma experienced simultaneously. I'm quite new at this, but I try to be tasteful in my play and sensitive to what the rest of the band is doing. So the creation of the right drum parts that actually contribute to the structure and energy of a track is very important to me. I'm not one of those drummers that like to stay lost at the back as faceless timekeepers, but neither am I a drummer who likes to dominate or show off. It's a beautiful balance if you can find it. Thankfully very often, it finds me.</p>
<p>I can't tell you how many times I've struggled and struggled with some numbers - trying this, experimenting with that, going for thin sticks, then heavier ones, switching to brushes, changing the tempo bla bla bla - until one day, either in practice or during a gig, while I'm focused but not thinking, the perfect way to play the song just emerges from my body. It's amazing! And now it's starting to happen all the time. I engage with full thoughtless focus, immerse myself in a tune, and before I know it, there it is - a seminal moment when the song starts to play me. It's as if the song has entered my cellular structure and is now moving muscles; shaping my every move. I swear to you, it's as if the song is playing me!</p>
<p>But that's life I suppose - and the drumming has just made it more obvious to me. So often in life, we plot, we think, we try ... and out of the blue something completely unexpected happens to shift the seemingly unshiftable - life playing you just when you thought you couldn't play it.</p>
<p>Tomorrow night SunshiP gigs again; and I'm ready. And I hope the weekend plays you as beautifully as I'm hoping our songs tomorrow night play me.</p>
<p> </p>The Eternal Light of Beingtag:www.neofundi.com,2011-10-03:6394384:BlogPost:387022011-10-03T15:54:37.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>There is no better way to be in your body, in the present, than looking at the stars. And where I live outside of Grahamstown - with only pinpricks of distant man-made light in the distance - on nights when the moon is still young and slim, the sky drops to just above my head - so filled with stars that it almost becomes white. And it's exactly in those moments when forever comes alive - when eternity is visible.</p>
<p>Now we all think of eternity as something nebulous, spiritual,…</p>
<p>There is no better way to be in your body, in the present, than looking at the stars. And where I live outside of Grahamstown - with only pinpricks of distant man-made light in the distance - on nights when the moon is still young and slim, the sky drops to just above my head - so filled with stars that it almost becomes white. And it's exactly in those moments when forever comes alive - when eternity is visible.</p>
<p>Now we all think of eternity as something nebulous, spiritual, metaphysical. But it's not. It's this, here, now, always - with us in it. Think about it. We are part of a galaxy made up of billions of stars, which itself is one of several billion galaxies in the universe. Billions x Billions = Neverending. That's it, that's all. There is no start or finish - just a number running to infinity. This is an eternal universe.</p>
<p>At the same time, many of the stars we look at right now are millions of light years away i.e. it takes the light of those stars millions of years to reach us i.e. when the light of many of the stars we gaze at was actually generated, dinosaurs still walked the Earth. We are looking at million-year-old images nightly. Some actually no longer exist at our time of viewing. We are seeing whispers of the past in the present. How's that for a timeless gateway backwards in the now.</p>
<p>Indeed, somewhere in our universe in a few millions years, some may be gazing at our today from afar, which just then just reached them; and we'll be the past's whispers on their winds. How's that for eternal life without having to pander man-made notions of the religiously heavenly. Suddenly eternity doesn't feel so far fetched after all; and the present doesn't feel quite as isolated now does it? We are indeed living out the endlesness of our being every second - here, now, always. And maybe, as the great Albert Eistein once said, "Time only exists so that it all doesn't seem to happen all at once." It does though.</p>
<p>So welcome to eternity; and have a good week within it fundis! </p>Wildlife, Mallrats & Moronstag:www.neofundi.com,2011-09-16:6394384:BlogPost:363252011-09-16T14:00:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>Driving out of the Addo National Park yesterday late afternoon, it occured to me that at four and a bit months old, my niece Luna had been exposed to her first lions and elephants before her first shopping mall - Not that she'll remember, but the notion made me smile. I recall bumping into an old varsity acquaintance and her young daughter at the Woolies in Sandton once - their trolley packed with little girl pink of every size and description, with the young girl clutching, and…</p>
<p>Driving out of the Addo National Park yesterday late afternoon, it occured to me that at four and a bit months old, my niece Luna had been exposed to her first lions and elephants before her first shopping mall - Not that she'll remember, but the notion made me smile. I recall bumping into an old varsity acquaintance and her young daughter at the Woolies in Sandton once - their trolley packed with little girl pink of every size and description, with the young girl clutching, and beg-pleading, for more. Going past my initial "spoilt brat, mall-mom, how much stuff does this kid need"-judgement, I eventually felt for both of them. What pleasures are there available - what non-stuff joys are there to give to kids in Joburg? - a big city with no large body of water, a crime problem that's made secure environments a prerequisite and an entrenched culture of shopping malls and casino entertainment complexes as the only real public leisure spaces available.</p>
<p>Joburgers as mallrats makes me sad. Because they're not like that. And that becomes patently obvious at events like Joburg Day and the fabulous outdoor Beautiful Creatures family concerts; as well as at outdoor eating venues where kids and adults are catered for on weekends. But how sad that a city of people born to be outdoors is turning into the mallrat kingdom through lack of credible alternative. </p>
<p>Shopping! What a wonderful pasttime for me in cities I've experienced, which have fabulous shopping streets - Paris, Athens, Amsterdam, Belgrade, Melbourne, Thessaloniki, Rome, London, Delhi, Mumbai, Milan! What a joy to be walking on a pavement, store to store, sitting down at open cafes, turning the whole day into an adventure - sun on my skin, non air condiotioned oxygen to breathe, real light above! Shopping streets! - Not commercial malls masquerading as leisure environments. I don't think I'd take Ilyo and Luna shopping for fun on Ermou in Athens. I'd take them to a beach. And that's the point. I think that kids who grow up thinking of shopping as part n parcel of their funtime are doomed to become morons - the kind of morons we ecountered at Addo yesterday, who when the two big male lions and the lioness came down the hill past all our parked cars, turned their engines on and followed the males - intruding, cutting the female off and unnerving her - people who think of our whole world as a big mall existing to feed our consumption - with us free to touch, taste and hold whenever and however we like, as long as we pay for it. Eish!</p>
<p>I don't know what the answers are in Joburg. Here in the Eastern Cape we're blessd with natural beauty all around. And we are indeed so lucky! We'd already seen herds of wildebeest, Zebra, Eland and a group of Giraffes just on the drive to Addo yesterday! By lunchtime, Ilyo was perched on my lap in the car, watching elephants frolicking in the water 15m away. So I admit - it's easier here to teach the fundamental lesson that not everything precious can be bought or exists solely for our amusement. But it's a lesson I feel that must be taught everywhere. Otherwise Gandhi will be proved right - because when asked what he thought of Western Civilization, his reply was that it would be a good idea! And I agree. It would be. </p>Never EVER Give Up!tag:www.neofundi.com,2011-09-12:6394384:BlogPost:352062011-09-12T12:16:08.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>Watching a documentary on sharks with my nephew Ilyo this morning, there is a particular scene that he and I love! We watch it again, and again, each inspired in our own way and becoming progressively more elated together! It's a scene shot in a bay, where baby gennets (seabirds) take to the water for the first time to fly - without their parents, who've already left the colony. Understandably, inexperienced young birds floating on water and flapping their wings draws sharks. Big ones. Bull…</p>
<p>Watching a documentary on sharks with my nephew Ilyo this morning, there is a particular scene that he and I love! We watch it again, and again, each inspired in our own way and becoming progressively more elated together! It's a scene shot in a bay, where baby gennets (seabirds) take to the water for the first time to fly - without their parents, who've already left the colony. Understandably, inexperienced young birds floating on water and flapping their wings draws sharks. Big ones. Bull sharks. In SA we call them Zambezis. They're large, brutish, aggressive and fast! And the float-flapping hatchlings they go after don't really stand much of a chance. </p>
<p>THEN COMES THAT SCENE!</p>
<p>A young gennet - struggling to take off - fights back! It maneuvers, flip-flops, ducks, turns, dives, twists AND PECKS! Couldn't believe it! - A 40cm cheeky little bugger pecking away at a 3m shark and maneuvering for its life! PECKING! AND THEN PECKING AGAIN! It's incredible! MAGNIFICENT!</p>
<p>Eventually the twist-trurning of both the gennet chick and the shark becomes so much that all you see is ocean froth.</p>
<p>And then ...</p>
<p>My God (and I use that word in real veneration of the spirit even a seabird chick is imbued with) - suddenly out of the torrent of frothing bay the gennet emerges - flapping and running on the water while being trailed by the biggest open mouth it'll ever see and live to tell the tale. And as if carried aloft by willpower alone, it takes off!</p>
<p>The first time Ilyo and I saw this scene, astounded we sat - and then we fell back on the bed and burst into hysterical laughter. We both so clearly got the joyful significance of what we'd just seen, that no words were needed. No explanation necessary. LAUGHTER only would suffice!</p>
<p>Now, as we all start another week together, I wish you gennet-chick-spirit, brave abandon and the kind of elation whose amazing grace need never have to be explained! </p>FUNdi!tag:www.neofundi.com,2011-09-09:6394384:BlogPost:348502011-09-09T14:17:05.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
I've been spending a lot of time on my drum kit lately. The better I become, the better I want to be - especially since the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. And now that I've hit you with two great cliches in a single sentence, let me make my point. If you don't love it, it aint gonna be fun for you, and you're not gonna become a FUNdi at it!That's it, that's all! I love love love playing drums! So it's fun for me to sit there starring into the distance doing rudiments and…
I've been spending a lot of time on my drum kit lately. The better I become, the better I want to be - especially since the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. And now that I've hit you with two great cliches in a single sentence, let me make my point. If you don't love it, it aint gonna be fun for you, and you're not gonna become a FUNdi at it!That's it, that's all! I love love love playing drums! So it's fun for me to sit there starring into the distance doing rudiments and paradiddles - drumming's version of musical scales - on and on and on. And I swear as magical as drums are, without the love, my rudiment and paradiddle routine would feel exhausting and monotonous. With the love, it becomes a glorious meditation and the short-route to rapid improvement! Passion makes even hard work fun! A lack of it, and even molehills grow into mountain ranges.<br />
PASSION! - The most overused word in modern marketing today. Every company's suddenly so passionate about what it does. Which begs the questions of how an inanimate construct can feel the heart's fire; and where that emotion is on a Monday morning when staff drag themselves into work. I've never seen passionate morning office parking lots. In the afternoon, on the way out, it's a different story. The truth is, very few really love what they do! Those fortunate enough to do so, are blessed! - They can actually have fun and become brilliant!<br />
So that's my little Friday contention for the day - that the first three letters of fundi actually define what it takes to become one! Find your fun! And then turn it into your proficiency. Money follows passion; and the rest's just hard work that feels like it!Juliustraction - Juju's Sole Purpose of Distractiontag:www.neofundi.com,2011-09-05:6394384:BlogPost:337262011-09-05T18:00:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p><a href="http://www.neofundi.com/profiles/blogs/juliustraction-juju-s-sole-purpose-of-distraction" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="http://www.greenitweb.co.za/images/stories/julius-malema.jpg?width=300" width="300"></img></a> Remember that daft game we played at school? - the one where you held out your left hand, got the other kid to look and then bonked him on the head with your right - remember? In today's South African socio-political landscape, that game's now a firm favourite - and the red herring left hand has a name: Malema.</p>
<p>It happens time and time again, as I've pointed…</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.neofundi.com/profiles/blogs/juliustraction-juju-s-sole-purpose-of-distraction"><img class="align-left" width="300" src="http://www.greenitweb.co.za/images/stories/julius-malema.jpg?width=300"/></a>Remember that daft game we played at school? - the one where you held out your left hand, got the other kid to look and then bonked him on the head with your right - remember? In today's South African socio-political landscape, that game's now a firm favourite - and the red herring left hand has a name: Malema.</p>
<p>It happens time and time again, as I've pointed out to untold juju-worriers that spend too much energy on an emotional adolescent with a a R100million diamond chip on his shoulder - Every time our beloved ruling party needs to sneak something past us quickly and quietly, it sets off a jujubomb that most will turn to look at, while mayhem goers on behind their backs.</p>
<p>Oh yes fine friends of our fading democracy - last week while we all looked left at juju's juggernaut of juveniles rampaging through Jozi, to the far right, the final fascist touches to the Protection of Information Bill were pushed through unhindered by the light of democratic openness, behind firmly closed doors. Yip yip! Hooray! The preparations of our very own Secrecy Bill were finished on Friday! Now, after almost two arduous decades of the ANC having to suffer through the free speech it claims to have fought for, our country's governmemnt will soon be in a position to imprison journalists again. Hello Africa, tell me how you're doing!</p>
<p>Big Bob up North must be so proud! Bye bye press freedom; hello Apartheidesque legislation - not only targeting the media, but whistleblowers as a whole. Anyone read George Orwell lately?</p>
<p>And where is our beloved media on such occassions? Where are its eyes at the back of our heads that we count on not to be bamboozled by bollocks - meant to monitor and sound the alarm - to point out patently obvious ruses like this! Being sucker-punched as they watched wild youthful protest, is where - streaming live their oh so serious reports on ANCYL's antics and earnestly pondering on juju's future, while theirs and ours was being destroyed right in front of our noses.</p>
<p>This Bill that essentially muzzles government critics, was finalised undisturbed by a media spotlight, because our press - the schmucks that this affects the most - were made to look the other way at a bloated turd with authority issues. It wasn''t even such a clever trick! And in my opinion, it needn't have been - because with all due lack of respect, our press - the business that it now is - is clearly more interested in boosting audience numbers through sensationalism to sell ad space, than in actually tackling the more important, but less eyecatching-headline, issues. It's true - and this really is reason to panic - our watchdog's a tootless bandit more interested in bones than burglars. And now its own stupidity and paper-selling greed is allowing retards to muzzle it. </p>
<p>Good lord; how far we've sunk!</p>
<p>So please, please, please - don't be a dumbass and fall for the jujutrick again. Ignore him and focus on signing any and every petition against the passing of the Protection of Information Bill. Parliament votes on it on the 15th of September, and unless its stopped before, the ANC's legislative majority will push it through. God help us literally, the African Christian Democratic Party is pertitioning JZ against it. This bill must not be allowed to passed into law! Our media aint much, but even dumb dogs deserve the right to howl at the government moon. We do!</p>
<p>And finally - a handy hint - so I can finally put Malemania to rest.</p>
<p>Next time a jujubomb goes off, look precisely in the opposite direction. You'll be shocked at what your government's trying to sneak by unnoticed! </p>The PeOpLePoWeR of my lifetag:www.neofundi.com,2011-09-02:6394384:BlogPost:330272011-09-02T13:30:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
Having recently returned from Jozi, where I was treated with all the love saved up for the prodigal son, and was then welcomed back in Gtown with so much warmth, I've felt like a very very lucky so and so all day! Add to that being featured on neofundi, putting that on facebook and getting such a kind response from so many, and I'm flying on my friends' wings! Love is an amazing thing! In my heart I know it's what we're made of! And the people in my life remind me daily! Fifteen years ago…
Having recently returned from Jozi, where I was treated with all the love saved up for the prodigal son, and was then welcomed back in Gtown with so much warmth, I've felt like a very very lucky so and so all day! Add to that being featured on neofundi, putting that on facebook and getting such a kind response from so many, and I'm flying on my friends' wings! Love is an amazing thing! In my heart I know it's what we're made of! And the people in my life remind me daily! Fifteen years ago almost to the day, my father passed away suddenly in a motor vehicle accident. Apart from the fact that it was one of my oldest friends who selflessly carried the almost impossible burden of having to break the news to me with such compassion, what happened next was a mass action of love I'll never forget - all my friends flowing into my house to be there - some still in their pjs - the circle closing around me and holding firm - no need to ask - just there! It was like being held up by an ancient wall that could never break down. And to this day, every time I'm in Jozi, those same people welcome me back with a love and a ever-present smile that to me is a magnificent reflection mostly of who they are. It's more than I deserve, which makes me all the more grateful. Gtown too has held many people blessings for me. And in a varsity town that's always a bit of a turnstile of people coming and then moving on, the connections I've made and the interest shown in finding out who I am, is like basking in sunshine on a late Summer's day. It's my happy tale of two cities, and indeed whether in Jozi or Gtown, I know I can bank on those I call my friends. They're my treasure trove of priceless beauty! My People! - A spectacular creation! - Perfectly emotional beings that always with such generosity have so much love to give! So today, my blog is a brief but ultimate homage to the people in my life and the love they're all so exquisitely capable of! And nothing has ever made me feel as safe or as whole, as knowing them!Ard's the rule not the exceptiontag:www.neofundi.com,2011-08-25:6394384:BlogPost:302282011-08-25T10:30:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>No - not Art, as in "arts and culture", but Ard as in Mr Mumble Matthews who slightly slaughtered our national anthem live on TV before the full Springbok squad. </p>
<p>Shame. I felt for him. Cos as much of a leftie as I've always been considered to be, a patriot, a committed African, there is always that tricky passage in the second paragraph of Nkosi Sikhelele that I always hum to after boldly singing the opening stanzas and before I kick in again on "uit die blou van ons se hemel", which…</p>
<p>No - not Art, as in "arts and culture", but Ard as in Mr Mumble Matthews who slightly slaughtered our national anthem live on TV before the full Springbok squad. </p>
<p>Shame. I felt for him. Cos as much of a leftie as I've always been considered to be, a patriot, a committed African, there is always that tricky passage in the second paragraph of Nkosi Sikhelele that I always hum to after boldly singing the opening stanzas and before I kick in again on "uit die blou van ons se hemel", which I remember from those daft assemblies at school.</p>
<p>Apparently lots of us suffer from this, as I found out at Scifest in Grahamstown this year, where an interesting little device actually allowed you to sing into it to the tune of Nkosi - measuring just how much of the anthem you sang correctly. As I hung my head at the end of my relatively dodgy rendition, the lady manning it smiled kindly. "Not bad" she said. "Not bad?" I replied. "I was awful!" "Still", she said. "You are better than most ..." I knew she wanted to say it but couldn't - most whiteys. She was very impressed with my toy toying though, when in desperation I whipped out my limited "got tear-gassed at Wits from 1986 to 1989 struggle credentials". And she thought my ability to speak the township slang of tsotsitaal - learnt through 18 years of my BCC, (behind the cafe counter) - was quite cute. But still I walked away feeling a bit like a fraud - How the heck do I still not know all the words of our national anthem 17 years since freedom?</p>
<p>So seeing Ard Matthews blunder his way through it didn't fill me with indignation or compassion. It just reinforced a tad my shame. I will learn that middle paragraph! And I won't mumble my way through proclaiming my Africanness again. And let's all not be so hard on our Arty farty. He's no guiltier than millions of us. It doesn't mean that what he did was fine. But I do think it opens up an amazing opportunity for all of us to look into the mirror and practice singing the full length of our anthem - remembering how special it is that we are free to sing it proudly today! </p>
<p> </p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.neofundi.com/profiles/blogs/nando-s-quick-thinking">Related post with video</a> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>You might like to read more of my <a target="_blank" href="http://www.neofundi.com/profiles/blog/list?user=3476j8xqxmtr6">blogs.</a></p>Mining Ministresstag:www.neofundi.com,2011-08-18:6394384:BlogPost:283132011-08-18T15:30:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>Women we are taught are insinctive nurturers, protectors, carers and empathisers - more compassionate towards, and in tune with, the world. Which leads me to conclude that Sharon Shabangu, SA Minister of Mineral Affairs is actually a man. There is no other way to explain her nonchalant dishing out of prospecting licenses - putting vast swathes of pristine eco-sensitive environments under devastating threat - or the controversy after controversy that's wracking her department about personal…</p>
<p>Women we are taught are insinctive nurturers, protectors, carers and empathisers - more compassionate towards, and in tune with, the world. Which leads me to conclude that Sharon Shabangu, SA Minister of Mineral Affairs is actually a man. There is no other way to explain her nonchalant dishing out of prospecting licenses - putting vast swathes of pristine eco-sensitive environments under devastating threat - or the controversy after controversy that's wracking her department about personal connections with mining licensees and revolving doors between mining business and the ministry. Check out verlorenvelei.co.za - another piece of our ecology facing extermination from mining. And as for the fracking that Shabangu seems to be a huge fan of, none but her ministry and her petroleum industry mates think its a good idea. Prof. Anthony Ingraffea of Cornell University - the world's leading scientist on the evaluation of fracking has concluded that hydraulic fracturing for natural gas is ridiculously dangerous! In a skype lecture that he gave from Cornell, which I attended here, Prof. Ingraffea stated that the technology used is not 60 years old as the Ministry would have us believe, but a combination of practices each of which is no older than two decades and all of which have only been combined for about ten years. The fracking that's tried and tested is only for oil exploration, but our Minister chooses to ignore facts - pandering always to mining interests. If you can, get hold of a documentary called Gasland. If that doesn't inspire you to take your place in the anti-fracking lobby, nothing will! Fracking is catastrophic, but Shabangu's complete dismissal of environmental concerns has reached such proportions that the government task-team recently appointed to investigate whether the current moratorium on fracking should be lifted does not include anyone from Water or Environmental affairs. Let's take a wild guess where that's heading. And it gets better. The open cast mining practices that currently threaten the dunes of Transkei have been banned in Australia - but no fear when Shabangu is here. The Australians have just brought it over to SA, proposing to mine the mostly state-controlled Transkei beachfront. The irony is that Ms. Shabangus perennial excuse for all this madness is job and wealth creation. But fracking and mining are not labour intensive, and jobs are lost when the minerals run out - ask any ex mining boom town now down to its last five residents. Tourism employs people and can last for always - but an ecotourism project in the very same Transkei region as where the mining is proposed was halted in its tracks by government - a project that would have brought in half a billion Rand of revenue in its first decade. Indeed, if our country is to employ and empower, tourism, and eco-tourism in particular, hold huge potential! Look at Botswana! Entire communities have been uplifted and co-own wildlife lodges generating millions. It can be done! The models exist! But where's the money for you in that hey Shazzy Shabangy? She has even given Coal of Africa the right to open an open cast coalmine next to Mapungubwe - ignoring protests from every quarter - even dismissing the fact that if the mine opens up Mapungubwe will not be declared a UN Heritage Site as was planned for this year. She's mad! So I'm pleading with all who read this blog - and women in particular! Get involved and put enough pressure on our mining's mistress to either be dismissed or to change her ways, before any hope of upliftment through eco-tourism lies under a sludge of oil covered in coal dust as she struts off in the Prada boots bribery bought her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>You might also like:</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.neofundi.com/profiles/blogs/talk-on-game-off">Talk On, Game Off!</a></p>Talk On, Game Off!tag:www.neofundi.com,2011-08-16:6394384:BlogPost:279122011-08-16T13:00:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>Isn't the new World Cup Springbok Rugby TV ad brilliant? Uplifting, inspiring, exquisite!</p>
<p>- Fantastic CG animation, our team's kingpins socking it to all those critters who stand in their way, and the final brilliant payoff line - Game On! Fantastic!</p>
<p>A load of bollocks really. And bless the creators of the ad for making my brand bla bla point for me with animated style!</p>
<p>Two blogs ago, in…</p>
<p>Isn't the new World Cup Springbok Rugby TV ad brilliant? Uplifting, inspiring, exquisite!</p>
<p>- Fantastic CG animation, our team's kingpins socking it to all those critters who stand in their way, and the final brilliant payoff line - Game On! Fantastic!</p>
<p>A load of bollocks really. And bless the creators of the ad for making my brand bla bla point for me with animated style!</p>
<p>Two blogs ago, in <a target="_blank" href="http://www.neofundi.com/profiles/blogs/brand-s-what-they-do-to-cows">'Brand's What They Do to Cows In Texas'</a>, I bemoaned the banality of brand-centric thinking, which has seen the facade of what a brand projects become more important than the quality it actually offers. And if you've watched the 'Game On' TV ad concurrently with our recent Tri-Nations performances, you'll know exactly what I mean!</p>
<p>Call me a stickler for detail, but the big bravado of the Springbok commercial doesn't seem to be quite replicated ON THE ACTUAL PLAYING FIELD! Anything but. In three Tri-Nations encounters so far, the Springboks have looked like lost shadows of the fearless warriors in the ad - no strategy, handling errors and a style of rugby about as expansive as living in a cardboard box. I don't know - maybe it's easier to tackle a CG graphic than an actual person - especially if Peter De Villiers isn't calling the play. And our players are brilliant, even if their manager and his team couldn't be trusted to win an U13 tournament. But my point is this: We made the same kind of bravado oozing ads when we hosted the ICC Cricket and FIFA World Cups - becoming the first host nation ever to be eliminated in the group stages of the latter, and being summarily dismissed at the quarter-final stage in the former. Where was the bravado then I wonder? And I personally am now sick of all talk and no action!</p>
<p>I don't know about you, but I would swap actual on-field performance for Springbok ad bravado anytime - be far more interested in our team actually making a serious play for the IRB World Cup than smiting comics on TV - would believe far more in an ad that puffed its chest out far less and was backed up by true quality a lot more!</p>
<p>What makes me really sad though, is that within the borders of 'brand SA' this kind of hollow back-slapping tedium that's based on nothing has become the norm - the talking of a great game now more important than the playing of a good one - the pointing to a progressive bill of rights more important than the fact that enshrined rights cannot be accessed - the animated tackle given greater credence than the real one that prevents a try, wins the game, and maybe - just maybe - gives us a shot at a World Cup that right now we seem incapable of actually winning.</p>
<p>So shut up and play South Africa! The Game really is On. And like it or not, we can't just advertise our way to victory!</p>WomanPower Unleashed!tag:www.neofundi.com,2011-08-15:6394384:BlogPost:274092011-08-15T14:30:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>Almost a week after Women's Day and already in the middle of SA Women's month, the statistics on the abuse of women in our country remain frightening: One in nine of reported rape cases ever leads to successful prosecution and the estimates run as high as one in twenty ever being reported at all. </p>
<p>Our disconnect between the most progressive gender-equality-promoting Bill of Rights on Earth, and an appalling track record of actual abuse against women is not just bizarre, it's wrong! We…</p>
<p>Almost a week after Women's Day and already in the middle of SA Women's month, the statistics on the abuse of women in our country remain frightening: One in nine of reported rape cases ever leads to successful prosecution and the estimates run as high as one in twenty ever being reported at all. </p>
<p>Our disconnect between the most progressive gender-equality-promoting Bill of Rights on Earth, and an appalling track record of actual abuse against women is not just bizarre, it's wrong! We can't just be A ok in theory - making vast PR declarations while real women get really hurt! But here's a little story to warm hearts and bring smiles, in my favourite womanpower tale of all time. And it's all true.</p>
<p>My mates Graeme and Alette in Grahamstown employ Nomsa to look after their little girl. Nomsa is sweet, quiet, well spoken, polite, slightly built and always smiling. A rural girl, from a small Transkei village. Sweet beyond!</p>
<p>One night earlier this year, a man broke into her home in Joza - Gtown's lokshion - drunk, aggressive and looking for all kinds of the wrong love. </p>
<p>Hardcore!</p>
<p>But this is where it gets good. </p>
<p>Nomsa pulled out her kierie and bliksemmed the devil out of him - clobbered him literally to within an inch of his life - put him in hospital before he went into custody. Nearly killed him! Turned the monster into a wimpering pound of bleeding flesh.</p>
<p>You see, what the poor evil bugger didn't realize was that he'd broken into the home of the girls' stick fighting champion of a small Transkei village; and she wasn't going to take his crap lying down!</p>
<p>Amazing!</p>
<p>Today, every time I'm bombarded by yet another meaningless message against women's abuse in SA, which is backed up by nothing but sentiment and government blown hot air, I smile as I think of Nomsa and her personal bill of rights enforced by a strong kierie and a big heart. And in the middle of women's month, what greater smile than that can there be?</p>Brand's what they do to cows in Texastag:www.neofundi.com,2011-07-29:6394384:BlogPost:236122011-07-29T12:00:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>Five years of an ever increasing amount of 'brand'-based linguistic paraphernalia, and as both a writer and a reader, I'm utterly exhausted by the complete meaningless inanity of it all. And if I sit in one more meeting where some marketing dodo hits me with crap like 'brand architecture', 'brand custodian' and 'brand promise', I'll brand them in original branding style with a hot poker on the rear.</p>
<p>I cannot begin to tell you just how many problems I have with the notion of 'brands' -…</p>
<p>Five years of an ever increasing amount of 'brand'-based linguistic paraphernalia, and as both a writer and a reader, I'm utterly exhausted by the complete meaningless inanity of it all. And if I sit in one more meeting where some marketing dodo hits me with crap like 'brand architecture', 'brand custodian' and 'brand promise', I'll brand them in original branding style with a hot poker on the rear.</p>
<p>I cannot begin to tell you just how many problems I have with the notion of 'brands' - but I will :-)</p>
<p>My biggest, most fundamental critique of branding as it has become, is that it focuses more on the window-dressing than on the window - more on the image than the reality behind it - more on the paint than the wall - more on warm and fuzzy nonsense in a commercial than on the actual service being provided - more on colouring book bollocks than actual truth. It has become about what you think you should project, instead of who you really are - essentially just a bunch of hot air. Do you think Coco Chanel sat in her first studio and muttered to herself 'I want to be the most progressive fashion brand in the world'? No. She was passionate about creating great fashion; just as Henry Ford was passionate about creating great people's cars, or Enzo Ferrari was about creating fantastic sports automobiles. Brilliant products create great brands. But currently it feels like everyone with three minutes of experience and a day's worth of insight into marketing, thinks differently. </p>
<p>What makes me sad is that what I'm saying is not new. It's not even particularly clever. It's the classic 'emperor has no clothes' fairytale, and I'm completely ashamed for the people of the industry that I've been part of for 13 years that I have to even point this out to them.</p>
<p>What makes me deliriously happy however, is that I know that brand-based thinking is on its way out. And it's my three years in high fashion that tell me so. In the three years that I was part of of the Socrati footwear team, I'd watch as we'd launch a new wave of style and design, which was immediately tried out by our early adopters - those who liked being at the vanguard of fashion. Then, within two seasons, when those styles had been copied and proliferated into department stores - when everyone was wearing them - we'd already moved on to the great fashion of that day, while the rest had caught up with our yesterday. The irony of it all, was that while the fashion craze we'd been part of starting now seemed like it was at its zenith, it was essentially already dying - replaced by where we'd already moved onto. And just like back then I used to find those cheap imitations of our original styles so grotesque, today I find brand discourse - if it's even worth being called a discourse anymore -cheap and tasteless - the plastic leatherette version of what once was a noble ideal of being a name that people could actually trust for good reasons. </p>
<p>It's ok though, cos as I look out at an entire industry still flinging banal brand expressions around like they're meant to mean something; all I can see is that dude from Brakpan who right now thinks that tight jeans, pointy shoes, thick silver chains and a mini-mohican just above his forehead are the new big thing. Shame.</p>
<p> </p>Amy Winehouse - Queen of Blues Brittaniatag:www.neofundi.com,2011-07-26:6394384:BlogPost:234032011-07-26T14:00:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>As we lose one more great talent to drugs and mayhem, I don't want to make any clever jokes, and for now I don't even want to mourn. I just want to laud, applaud and pay homage to the “Red, White and Blues” Amy Winehouse became the 21st century queen of, albeit for too short a time. In my mind, she is the most significant songstress to come out of the UK in three decades; and what I loved about her music from the first chord I ever heard, was how she took the timeless musical languages of…</p>
<p>As we lose one more great talent to drugs and mayhem, I don't want to make any clever jokes, and for now I don't even want to mourn. I just want to laud, applaud and pay homage to the “Red, White and Blues” Amy Winehouse became the 21st century queen of, albeit for too short a time. In my mind, she is the most significant songstress to come out of the UK in three decades; and what I loved about her music from the first chord I ever heard, was how she took the timeless musical languages of Swing and Rhythm & Blues, and gave them her own unique mod reinterpretation, while retaining the amazing soulfulness they inherently embody. In this she was magnificent - and more importantly, the latest manifestation of a Blues Brittania legacy that forever changed all notions of modern music from the moment it began. It's a story not many know, but is certainly one of the best tales ever told, and I think a fitting farewell to her. And it starts like this: Once upon a time, in the 1950s, Britain’s youth, as Eric Burdon of ‘The Animals’ so beautifully puts it, “reached into the trashcan of American society to bring out culture”. Yes indeed - British kids in post-war Britain discovered the old Blues that the US had ignored for half a century, created their own blues wave in the 60s through incredible bands and musicians like Taste, Savoy Brown, The Bluesbreakers, Cream and Peter Green, transformed their Blues into what became Rock and then re-exported it to America to for the first time in history awaken interest in the Blues in mainstream America. It was the Brits that discovered the works and resuscitated the careers of all the great bluesmen and used the Blues to birth Rock through bands like Cream, the Yardbirds, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and The Who. And original Blues legends like Son House that hadn’t played in thirty years and were slowly dying as forgotten old retired postmen in America, suddenly in their 70s were filling British arenas - looked for, found, brought back to life by British musicians and managers! Amazing!</p>
<p>In an interview, I watched the great BB King relate with tears in his eyes his joy at finally playing in front of white American audiences that had ignored him for two decades - An interest that was all inspired by the British Blueswave that had just hit the country. Indeed, the British contribution to the latter 20<sup>th</sup> century’s musical explosion was tantamount to birthing an entirely new musical discourse. So it's ironic that such a warm gift could be bestowed by a people most of us think of as cold. But as one music journo so perfectly described it, "Blues was the only force capable of thawing the emotional permafrost of post-WWII austerity Britain”.</p>
<p>Britain and the Blues saving each other. Beautiful! </p>
<p>In America, in early 1966, Jimmi Hendrix was playing to twelve people in smoky bars. A month after his English manager discovered him he was the toast of London and in six months, the biggest star in the world. This is how it hapopened: The Blues Jimi Hendrix grew up with and landed up playing as a young man in his early 20s, across the Atlantic inspired a flowering of British blues, whose additions and reinterpretations like the use of feedback through the amps, upping of tempo and a definitive rhythm section of bass and drums growling in the background, all sculpted new grooves into the face of the new Brit Blues that Hendrix then landed up listening to on imported records in funky NY record shops, which in turn encouraged his own exploration of those ideas, thus taking them to a whole other level - then being discovered by Chas Chandler, being taken to London, given the credence and support he deserved, and then rocketing back to America to definitively ignite it’s Rock and Blues fire quite literally with his seminal, gob-smackingly brilliant, insanely musical, guitar-burning, epic performance at the 1967 Monterrey Pop Festival in front of a crowd of thousands.</p>
<p>On the night Chas Chandler discovered Hendrix, his audience was 20.</p>
<p>Today, as a bluesman myself, in my heart I know that just like Hendrix's tragic loss at the same age for the same basic reasons, Amy Winehouse's passing is a veritable musical tragedy. Who knows what more she would have created? But what she did give us, more than just its own individual brilliance, is ultimately another superb stepping stone on the great pathway of Britain's magnificently culture-changing contribution to the music of our modern age.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>You might like to view more of my blogs <a target="_blank" href="http://www.neofundi.com/profiles/blog/list?user=3476j8xqxmtr6">here</a>.</p>THE LOOOOOOOOOOONG BLOG - BY A GREEK ON THE GREEKStag:www.neofundi.com,2011-07-21:6394384:BlogPost:220252011-07-21T13:57:40.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<br />
<p>A friend sent me the link to a New York Times opinion piece inspired by Greece’s current unexpected leading role in the global financial crisis. In it, a Professor of history discusses Greece’s oft forgotten vanguard function at the forefront of modern European development, beyond just its ancient cradle of culture cliché - from Greece’s 1820 revolution against the Ottoman Empire rousing the whole of Europe and ultimately leading away from empire-building to the birth of homogenous…</p>
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<p>A friend sent me the link to a New York Times opinion piece inspired by Greece’s current unexpected leading role in the global financial crisis. In it, a Professor of history discusses Greece’s oft forgotten vanguard function at the forefront of modern European development, beyond just its ancient cradle of culture cliché - from Greece’s 1820 revolution against the Ottoman Empire rousing the whole of Europe and ultimately leading away from empire-building to the birth of homogenous democratic states; to its position as the only European country to have beaten one of the axis powers, Italy, in WWII and stirring up a German-subjugated Europe; to Greece becoming the first post-WWII Cold War battlefield as American money and advisors poured and its air force napalmed ‘communist’ villages in the Greek Civil War; to overthrowing its military junta in the mid-70s in finally and firmly cementing the democratic ideal in all of Europe; to Greece’s early inclusion in the then EEC pragmatically paving the way to the current more inclusive EU model - etcetera, etcetera. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/opinion/30mazower.html?_r=4">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/opinion/30mazower.html?_r=4</a></p>
<p>A brilliant piece indeed!</p>
<p>“Why don’t you write something like this?” my friend prefixed the mailed link.</p>
<p>Well, why not? A question for a question - Greek style - flowing on from what I was mailed: </p>
<p><b>So why is it that the Greeks from ancient times to the modern day consistently remain a European evolutionary galvanising point?</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Location! Any property agent will tell you that.</li>
</ol>
<p>Ancient Greece was literally at the centre of the Afro-Eurasiatic world, and the confluence of everything travelling North ↔South and East↔West. Here, like pollen falling off buzzing insects’ legs, knowledge, insights and beliefs - from Western Druidic, to Nubian, Egyptian, Phoenician and Eastern Mesopotamian - was deposited right on the doorstep of those who became the ancient Greeks - seafarers, traders, thinkers, explorers, encountering the entire known world both in its own backyard and in theirs. </p>
<p>In fact, so vast was the amount of pollen deposited by this endless to and fro, that it led to an epic flowering of Greek thought, which was then exported in perfectly arranged philosophical bunches, and whose greatest gift was the birth of reason.</p>
<ol start="2">
<li>Reason! The combination of intellect and emotional gut-knowing.</li>
</ol>
<p>Unfortunately, reason is often confused with an entirely different concept, logic. Logic is a merely mental deconstruction of reason’s merely mental elements. And merely mental, as the Greeks will tell you, never really works. Ancient Greece was birthplace of reason! Do not confuse our philosophers with purely rational beings. It was their hearts that fuelled the furnace of their minds in a phenomenon known as ‘psysiognosia’ - a clear sense of knowing something through the body and then into the mind. That’s why Socrates was willing to die for believing in one all-encompassing god. Or why Plato spoke of the tragedy of <u>thinking</u> your shadow on the cave wall is life, while the majesty of creation happens just outside the cave behind you. Or why of all the philosophers in history, Aristotle embodies a clear sense of simply knowing.</p>
<p>Indeed, the depth, breadth, scope and diversity of knowledge deposited and blossoming in Greece, more than the wisdom and know-how it contained, by the ease of its exchange also gave the Greeks a clear understanding of the notion of knowing just because you do. After all, we were the heart of it all - with our minds filling from the thinkwells of the globe - from which the quest for freedom was the only possible outcome!</p>
<ol start="3">
<li>History! Once you have Thermopylae, nothing balks you.</li>
</ol>
<p>“Heroes fight like Greeks”, said Winston Churchill about our WWII performance.</p>
<p>Of course we fought! Reason, by its very physiognostic nature, focuses on freedom. You can’t know the power of your own heart and mind and still be willing to be subjugated. And once you recognise that, you’ll do anything to defend it - bravely and cleverly! The fact that the Spartan 300 and a thousand others stood down an army of hundreds of thousands was more than just courage. They forced the Persians to come at them through a very narrow pass, which essentially neutralised their vast numerical superiority. And it worked. And to this day, the phrase “Molon Lave” uttered by Leonidas to the Persian emissary seeking his surrender, which loosely translated means “you want it, come get it”, remains a national calling cry of defiance! - A taunt of the free, mindfully resisting those wishing to subjugate them!</p>
<p>Greeks remember. And memory means ongoing longevity, because it places even seemingly insurmountable odds into a historical context of having successfully overcome much more, before. “We did it then, we’ll do it again” in Greece has become an ingrained, almost genetic, construct. Our national memory is so clear, that the name Ephialtes, the man who betrayed the Spartan 300, is the Modern Greek word for ‘nightmare’.</p>
<p>We never forget. And it’s that same spirit of remembrance and reason’s love of freedom that a) drove the Greeks to go to war with the invading Italians in 1940, b) discounted the Italian numerical superiority through the whole Greek army fighting a very clever guerrilla war and c) inspired the same army to with captured Italian arms fight the invading Germans that came to save Mussolini’s face, virtually to the last man and last bullet. It’s also this combination of heart and mind that allowed Greeks to transform the Eastern Roman empire into the Greek controlled Byzantine Empire - from within - outliving its Western counterpart by a thousand years. And why our people under Ottoman control for four centuries after Byzantium fell, still retained their language and religion, even when they were banned, and rose up in open insurrection to an established empire on a continent of established empires - inspiring much of Europe to back them!</p>
<ol start="4">
<li>Assimilation and Alexander the Great!</li>
</ol>
<p>I often remind English friends that just like their nation, through Alexander the Great we also once built a vast empire that stretched from Western Europe to India - bravely fighting against spears and swords - except that we only had spears and swords ourselves. And we weren’t misguided missionaries with a messianic complex either - never discounting others’ culture as primitive, and always seeking to seamlessly assimilate the best of what we offered with the finest of what we found. Cleopatra, the legendary Egyptian queen, was Greek of the Ptolemaic bloodline, Alexander’s general whose progeny ruled Egypt for hundreds of year very much as Egyptians. Alexander himself, after conquering Persia, when in the empire’s royal court behaved as Persian Emperor - retaining the personnel, wearing the garb, abiding by the protocols and even marrying a suitable princess - while simultaneously infusing the Greek ethos and thought into the empire’s discourse. Not surprisingly, in far-flung villages of Central Asia, ancient Greek-based dialects are still spoken. </p>
<p>And why Alexander the Great’s assimilationist ideal? Because the Greece he represented was itself an assimilation of essentially autonomous free Greek states under his control. “With all the Greeks except the Spartans” one of Alexander’s conquest plaques reads. The Spartans chose not to join him. Free! </p>
<p>The point is that Greece’s intellectual and spiritual fertility, first propagated by the global contacts its geography facilitated and then cemented by its sea trade and free-state expansionism, also firmly embedded the notion of assimilation and common ground into our national psyche. And it’s this, which when combined with our history and our inherently physiognostic makeup, allows Greeks to both retain their national identity and still have a strong sense of being members of a bigger world - as a people. Today, in relative terms, ours is the greatest diaspora on Earth - with half of all Greeks on the planet living outside of Greece.</p>
<p>So in the context of today’s global financial crisis, the Greeks’ 3000-year amalgam of homogenous identity, reason-driven sense of freedom and assimilation-inspired notion of global citizenship, now translates into a unique “Molon Lave” to global capital - not only from the Greeks, but on behalf of all other free people caught in its spectre. In truth, nothing that Greece is guilty of in the crisis solely rests on, or is unique to, us. Today the US government is essentially bankrupt, the UK is sitting on a 4.3 trillion pound debt bomb and China is lending other countries money they can’t possibly repay to keep buying its goods. It’s so ridiculous that it’s almost become hypothetical! A mess! - A global crisis created by an unchecked global financial system, which has orchestrated the greatest transfer of wealth in history from the hands of the many into the clutches of the very few, aggressively promotes endless debt cycles, rampant materialism, neoliberal economics and ecological degradation in the name of progress and has decimated the small nations of Europe and the globe. Unlike in Iceland however, which is global banking’s clearest theft and the 2008 financial crisis’ greatest unjust tragedy, in Greece it is our people and not our volcanoes, vehemently voicing their discontent.</p>
<p>And maybe - just maybe - it is up to Greece to galvanise all the likeminded countries of the world, such as Iceland, to break away and form an all-new pan-global alliance of truly free nations - free from industrialised hegemony and systematically proliferated debt.</p>
<p>Ultimately though, having been around as a people for three millennia, the Greeks more than anyone clearly understand that events evolve, situations shift, things change and that we all come and then go in the endless circle of Earth-life. So for me, the greatest contribution that the Greeks can make to the current evolution of the world lies in the inherent understanding that in the greater scheme of things we as individuals are not here for a long time, but a good one! That we are not slaves - not to invaders and certainly not to debt. And that we will defend our freedom because we know in our bodies the glory of what our hearts and minds contain. You want to know why Greeks break plates. Because the ecstatic energy of being free to express cannot be contained! It’s naturally flung out of our bodies to affect everything around us; and is exactly the reason why throughout history every time there’s Greek plate-breaking, all of Europe starts dancing!</p>
<p> </p>Winter Wars & Inspiration!tag:www.neofundi.com,2011-07-21:6394384:BlogPost:220222011-07-21T13:54:14.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>After one of the coldest winter's in years, Grahamstown's spent the last week basking in sunshine! It's still freeeeeeezing at night, but daytimes are positively balmy! And maybe it's cos I was writing a commentary piece on the Greeks yesterday - check out the long blog after this one - but as I was making a fire last night, my thoughts fell on two little nations - one at the bottom of Europe and the other at its very top - who in the bitter cold of winter 1940 fought these amazing guerilla…</p>
<p>After one of the coldest winter's in years, Grahamstown's spent the last week basking in sunshine! It's still freeeeeeezing at night, but daytimes are positively balmy! And maybe it's cos I was writing a commentary piece on the Greeks yesterday - check out the long blog after this one - but as I was making a fire last night, my thoughts fell on two little nations - one at the bottom of Europe and the other at its very top - who in the bitter cold of winter 1940 fought these amazing guerilla wars against naked aggression by really big powers. Finland was invaded by the Soviet Union and Greece by Italy at the end of summer 1940. Both were monstrously outnumbered, both were expected to fall within a fortnight, and both held out for the entire winter - turning their armies into guerilla units that hit and vanished back into the snow.If you watch footage of both Finland and Greece's winter wars, the conditions were appalling! Blizzards! And still they fought. Never gave up! Never surrendered! Men and women stretching themselves beyond the superhuman to endure and win!</p>
<p>Of course tragedy followed anyway. Having signed an uneasy truce with the Soviets in which they did give up some of their land, the Fins joined forces with Hitler when he invaded the USSR - forced to get into bed with a monster by the simple reality of 'my enemy's enemy is my friend' and suffering the post-WWII consequences. And Greece was of course dessimated by the German army that came in to salvage some victory in Greece.</p>
<p>Be that as it may, as I sat in front of my cozy hearth last night, pondering my endless dilemma of how to monetise my escalating interest in the arts and make ends meet, I thought back on those brave Fins in their all-white snowsuits defending their country against vast odds in the freezing chill of a Scandinavian winter; and of the courageous Greeks in the mountains of Ipiro, where women were dragging cannons up steep ravines to free up men to fight - and my crisis by comparison seemed tiny.</p>
<p>It's amazing how the after-scent of human courage never dissipates, even decades on - How it inspires in the most unexpected ways! I don't know why the bravery of the Fins and the Greeks in their respective winter wars of 1940 always moves me so much! Maybe it's cos deep down inside there's a part of me that recognises - that feels - what it took for them to stand up, say NO and back it up with action! Maybe. But what I do know is that every winter, at some stage I always remember that bravery and draw courage from it myself!</p>
<p>And hopefully, when the winter feels too much for you, you too will cast a quick thought to two nations' long forgotten winter wars and remember the true grit we as human beings are made of.</p>Manufacturing Consenttag:www.neofundi.com,2011-07-18:6394384:BlogPost:208912011-07-18T13:00:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>What I'm about to say will probably peeve off everyone I know in marketing and advertising. But I'm going to say it anyway. Just like any nationality can only truly be criticised by its own, after 13 years in corporate communications, I think I've earned the right to point.</p>
<p>So ...</p>
<p>I have come to believe that members of our industry thrive on the impossible deadlines, long hours and the ridiculous turnaround times we're all subjected to, because the degree of difficulty that…</p>
<p>What I'm about to say will probably peeve off everyone I know in marketing and advertising. But I'm going to say it anyway. Just like any nationality can only truly be criticised by its own, after 13 years in corporate communications, I think I've earned the right to point.</p>
<p>So ...</p>
<p>I have come to believe that members of our industry thrive on the impossible deadlines, long hours and the ridiculous turnaround times we're all subjected to, because the degree of difficulty that these entail provide some validity to what is essentially an utterly meaningless pursuit - selling stuff to people that they don't need, on behalf of organizations that truly don't matter. What we do, at its core is rubbish. And we all know it - which is why so many find solace in getting lost in the difficulty and the semantics, so as not to have to look at themselves in the mirror and admit that we're lie-merchants and creative mercenaries whose task is to manipulate human emotions to make people decide in favour of morons that care only about bottom line.</p>
<p>We "manufacture consent", as the great modern day American linguist, philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky would put it. And the ultimate tragedy is that all that we do is based on a fundamental principle of manipulation that underpins all advertising and PR theory - invented by Edward Bernay who is hailed as father of modern PR - which is premised on the fact that all people are stupid members of a herd and whose emotions can be manipulated to reap favourable results for the manipulators. So we in marketing are essentially nothing more than manipulators' lackeys. </p>
<p>The trouble though is that we do has awful consequences, beyond just the fact that we've sold out our creativity for cash. And I'm as guilty as anyone!</p>
<p>I'm the schmuck who on behalf of a large retirement fund administrator scripted the videos that convinced retirement fund members to switch from defined benefit to defined contribution funds, which made the administrator millions and gave all its execs fat bonuses, but which essentially resulted in countless hard working people losing up to half their lifetime's retirement savings when markets crashed in 2008. I knew it was wrong but I wrote it anyway. That was my job you see. I'm also the paluka who after one of the country's major banks pulled off the dumbest merger in SA fin services history, scripted the then CEOs Xmas message video, in which he stated that there would be no job losses resulting from the merger - before he retrenched 4000 people a month later. I'm the dumbass that came up countless ways for SA banks to wine and dine their heavy hitters during last year's world cup - spending about R150 000 per couple - while the consumers they claim to care so much about were getting their debit orders bounced for going over by a hundred bucks. I'm the dingbat who scripted an ESKOM presentation lauding its efficiencies, about a month before blackouts began. And frankly I'm sick of it. </p>
<p>At best we've all sold out. At worst, and I truly fear the worst, we've become maestros of misrepresentation whose only real contribution is to the dissemination of misinformation and the making of false promises. And I don't want to be a manufacturer of consent any more! </p>The Confessiontag:www.neofundi.com,2011-07-13:6394384:BlogPost:206032011-07-13T16:30:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>The last trills of acoustic guitar that I'd woken up to every day for almost a fortnight, finally faded away today at lunchtime. Steve and his family stayed on after fest for two and a half days and it was fantastic to experience my friend of four festivals as a father and a husband - with his family down for the last weekend of Artsfest. Like all professional musicians, Steve spends much of his life on the road; and he and all the guys that normally stay with me for fest don't usually bring…</p>
<p>The last trills of acoustic guitar that I'd woken up to every day for almost a fortnight, finally faded away today at lunchtime. Steve and his family stayed on after fest for two and a half days and it was fantastic to experience my friend of four festivals as a father and a husband - with his family down for the last weekend of Artsfest. Like all professional musicians, Steve spends much of his life on the road; and he and all the guys that normally stay with me for fest don't usually bring their families down; so I know them in a very different way to being family men. Thus, the last two days really coloured in the picture I have of the man so many know as Steve Newman - Tananas' guitarist and arguably the finest of his kind in the country and the world. Like all true greats though, his kindness, humility, generosity and compassion are even more poignant than his music. And I saw this with how he treats his wife and sons; and how generous he was with my nephew this morning. Ilyo arrived at 10h00 for his usual Wednesday morn with uncle Strato, and walked into a family of five and one of their son's friends. All strangers, except for Steve, whose known him since he was baby from the two previous festivals. A little uneasy, and more than a little clingy, Ilyo was a bit out of sorts and upset when his dad left him. That's when Steve whipped out the guitar. And the man whose polyrhythmic melodies have blown us away for over 30 years sat Ilyo down in a patch of sunlight outside the kitchen and played funny nursery rhymes and ditties for him - pulling faces and putting on accents. Ilyo LOVED IT! I loved it. And the genuine goodness that came out of a simple act like that was majestic, all pervasive, inspiring! It was well and truly this year's fest's final farewell year to me; and Steve Newman - great human being - gave it to me!</p>
<p>To think that I almost missed it all ...</p>
<p>So here's the confession.</p>
<p>It's no secret that my move to Grahamstown while being the greatest life-promoting gift I've ever given myself, hasn't been the smartest financial move I've ever pulled! Combine career by remote control for Jozi clients from the rural Eastern Cape and a recession with marketing budgets going to pot, and you have a perfect storm I've barely navigated for 3 years. NO MATTER! I could have used my years in Joburg far more wisely to accumulate the parachute I'd have needed. I didn't. NO MATTER! Gtown's being kak for my rep at Nedbank but great for me.</p>
<p>And in the midst of this up against the wall waiting for the phone ring milieu, came that phonecall two days before fest started.</p>
<p>"How soon can you be in Joburg?" A client I haven't been briefed by for a year, but had been bugging for work for ages. "July 11th - the day after fest finishes." "I need you here tomorrow." And it was good money! The kind of money I need desperately! I went through an afternoon of torment. I needed the money!!! But!!! It would have meant letting down my band, my sister who I was doing a small show with and not interacting with the musicians I wanted to. I needed the money!!!! So I almost said yes. Almost. I didn't. Some would call me foolish for turning the work down. God knows my inner critic went mad for a while. "Who do you think you are? Do you really think you can grow into a musician in your 40's? Take the money! You're only gonna make a grand from all your fest gigs. The Jozi job's good tom! You're behind on everything. You're just a small band! Yours and your sister's is only a small show. Grow up!" So I did; and I shut him up - that infernal critic masked as a voice of so called reason. I made the call to stay; and bollocks to being summarily summonsed to appear forthwith at camp commercial. I had commitments important to me! The other thing I did though, was not to agonize about the what ifs once the decision was made. For the first time in my life I didn't wring my hands in anxiety, wondering if I'd made the right call. It was my call to make and I made it.</p>
<p>So much opened for me once I did - not the least of which is my newfound passion for blogging on neofundi, which began with my fest blogs and will continue, or the amazing write-up our band got, or the magical transition I have finally made to being able to look other musos in the eye and utter the phrase, "I am a drummer".</p>
<p>I am you know. And a blogger too. And a neofundi. And much more than that. And even if that doesn't make huge financial sense, my heart reminded me this afternoon that I'm far happier today than when I was making bigger, but far from better, money. </p>PLAY - ArtsFest Farewelltag:www.neofundi.com,2011-07-11:6394384:BlogPost:201022011-07-11T14:00:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>What a wonderful word: Play. </p>
<p>Play music. Play a role. See a play. Come play.</p>
<p>As another National ArtsFest now gently bubbles over into Schools Fest and Gtown simmers down to post-fantasia tired bliss, we've had the most balmy winter's day in weeks. Soft light, but clear and strong. Thin sweatshirt weather. Perfect! Even the sun came out to applaud and wave to the countless who performed here and the thousands who saw them.</p>
<p>And each one played in one way or another…</p>
<p>What a wonderful word: Play. </p>
<p>Play music. Play a role. See a play. Come play.</p>
<p>As another National ArtsFest now gently bubbles over into Schools Fest and Gtown simmers down to post-fantasia tired bliss, we've had the most balmy winter's day in weeks. Soft light, but clear and strong. Thin sweatshirt weather. Perfect! Even the sun came out to applaud and wave to the countless who performed here and the thousands who saw them.</p>
<p>And each one played in one way or another during their particular time and in their own way, in Grahamstown.</p>
<p>Adults don't play enough, I feel. Of anything. But thank goodness the creative playground that is ArtsFest at its core, provides the perfect play-boosting pill of remembrance that I swear hurtles something of your childhood;s wonder back into your grown-up consciousness. You can't come to festival and not be amazed! "Welcome to Amazing!" - the festival tagline. Trite but true! And all our truth as human beings can stretch its limbs and arch its back through play. So give yourselves festival one day. Do it next year. Live the dream! Even for a little. Remember. Feel it in your body - the glorious sense which French philosopher Pierre de Chardin describes as the realisation that "we are not human beings on a spiritual journey, but spiritual beings on a human journey." The experience of creation and creativity is the essential gift of being human for me.</p>
<p>This year at ArtsFest, every musical, theatrical, literary, cinematic and artistic genre and performance format was reprsented! PLUS. PLUS. PLUS. PLUS! In a single day you could have climbed to the highest peaks of innovative, mindful, entertainment and intellectual thought, and then sunk down into the blissful in-your-body-presence that only live music can bring. ArtsFest literaly feeds, coulours in and restores your heart back into the playful, excitable, positive, open vessel it was designed to be. And mine nearly exploded out of my chest this afternoon, when on ArtsBlog one of SunshiP's band ensemble gigs was described as "a gig that would have rocked any house in the world, including New Orleans."</p>
<p>To all my friends. Please read the full review on <a href="http://www.artsblog.co.za/?p=1975">http://www.artsblog.co.za/?p=1975</a> </p>
<p>Of all the things I've ever done in my entire life, this is my proudest moment yet. And it's these moments that it creates, which makes the Gtown National Arts Festival well and truly amazing indeed in deed! </p>Sunday.Last daytag:www.neofundi.com,2011-07-10:6394384:BlogPost:198112011-07-10T17:00:00.000ZStrato Copteroshttp://www.neofundi.com/profile/StratoCopteros
<p>Sunday. Last day. All over. Not quite. Schools' Fest starts tomorrow and some of the ArtsFest's offerings will still be here for that. But the town's emptying fast. Already, the eyelids of our usually sleepy hollow are starting to droop. And all I can do is look back and marvel! So much was, and so many were, here. Here it all was. So here we all were. HERE WE ALL WERE!!! Truly amazing! </p>
<p>You see, beyond astounding creativity abounding; even more than the breathtaking choice of what to…</p>
<p>Sunday. Last day. All over. Not quite. Schools' Fest starts tomorrow and some of the ArtsFest's offerings will still be here for that. But the town's emptying fast. Already, the eyelids of our usually sleepy hollow are starting to droop. And all I can do is look back and marvel! So much was, and so many were, here. Here it all was. So here we all were. HERE WE ALL WERE!!! Truly amazing! </p>
<p>You see, beyond astounding creativity abounding; even more than the breathtaking choice of what to do, see and experience; over and above the spectacular aray of whats and hows, is the glory of who! Because more than anything, a festival like the Grahamstown flings people together with an artistic intensity that truly allows sparks to fly off at every human interactive collision. It puts individuals from far-flung corners of the country and the globe into the greatest creative cocktail shaker in our nation, and one of the finest on the planet; and what emerges is totally delicious - the sweet inebriation that comes ultimate human expression, be it from those presenting their work, the response of their audience, or the connections formed between audience members themselves.</p>
<p>Collaboration! What a word! What a practice!</p>
<p>With so much incredible talent in town for the week, ArtsFest for SunshiP creates an annual context of connection between us and a myriad others like us - those strange beings who sing, strum drum and toot for their supper - musicians. Througth ArtsFest, my drumming or our band has been catapaulted on a competency progression trajectory it would have been impossible to achieve without it. We are who and what we are, in many ways, because of ArtsFest. The festival is essentially the annual growth spurt that defines the year that follows. Our year. My year.</p>
<p>My drumming years: 2.5</p>
<p>My drumming festivals: 3</p>
<p>Fest 1: After 41 years on Earth, finally a drumkit. Finally the chance to do what I'd dreamt of daily as a child. Still hardly any idea how to properly hold a stick. Cue in Kesivan Naidoo - arguably the best drummer in the country and that year's Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz - and his gracious kindness at cancelling a rehearsal in his busiest festival ever, to give me the 3 hour drum lesson that started and changed everything! I also become mates with Steve Newman, Ashish Joshi and Greg Georgiades - three outstanding musicians and truly good men - who lodge with me for the duration of fest. Go to every one of Kes' gigs and watch him like a hawk. Jam a bit with Greg and Tony Cox, two musical giants who so graciously play with a total newby.</p>
<p>Fest 2:First year of SunshiP in existence, and a small, regular, late-night pub gig throughout fest. Kes comes to watch. So do Steve, Greg, many others. They live with me again. The tips I get are insightful. The courage I gain from performing before those I deeply respect, is deeply heartening. The proficiency I develop through intense, regular, performance is priceless! Go to every band that has a good drummer and watch them like a hawk.The name SunshiP is first heard by those outside of Gtown. Our Sunday jams after fest transform to band practices. </p>
<p>Fest 3: Second year of SunshiP. Second fest as SunshiP. Steve, Greg and Ashish are back and staying with me again. So's Kes and our late-night drumming conversations and lessons. Two festivals of intense development with two focused years in between and the band and my playing have come a long way. Now our band performs on various occassions with Steve, Greg, Ashish and Rick van Heerden. We now have acoustic guitar, bouzouki, arabian drum and sax ontop of our trio. Blues and exotic instruments played by those who love music is a dreammatch! We blow our audiences away - a perfect demographic mix of every race ad age in the country. Out of towners who saw us last year come looking for us. That they do, makes me laugh and cry for an hour after in a parking lot I hear, "You're the drummer from SunshiP. We've been looking for you everywhere!" We start to whisper the sacred phrase, "Crossover appeal." More tips! More staring at every move of every great drummer at fest. More growth. SunshiP and I emerging on a higher level! Talks of an album of the full fest ensemble. Laughing like kids onstage. And me now comfortable on kit. </p>
<p>So this year, I walk out of fest a drummer - really a drummer in my own eyes! For that alone, and for the last three years of glorious growth context they've given me, I could kiss Ismail Mahomed and Tony Lancaster, (ArtsFest Director & CEO), on both cheeks with tears in my eyes! For all they do to create "amazing" they deserve more praise than any of us could give!</p>
<p>Ultimately, what I think I'm trying to say, is that festival is always a beautiful germination point of something within each of us, which rises up and out of us because we were here. So yes I could tell you that there is almost an over-abundance of human creation to entertain and astound you at ArtsFest - and I'd be telling the absolute truth! You have to, have to, have to, HAVE TO come and see for yourself the majestic beauty of creation that humanity is capable of. But whatever you experience, more importantly, what I guarantee that this will elicit in, and from, you, will be your gift to take home forever from the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, with love!</p>
<p>Fest is over and I've been crying and laughing all day.</p>
<p>Tomorrow we wrap up. </p>
<p> </p>