Getting a visual...

     Hello my lovelies!  Although this is completely irrelevant to the rest of this post, I feel the need to tell you about the weather here of late.  Now, we all know that weather is a "safe topic" and something people are told to talk about when nothing else is left to say*.  Fear not weather: this time, the limelight is all yours!  As I'm sure you know, we are in the middle of winter here in South Africa.  When I was in the Ithala Game Reserve, which is about five hours north of here, it was 2 degrees Celsius our first morning there.  Yeah...  Then!  This past weekend, wait for it.... 90 degrees Fahrenheit; talk about a range!  Too bad I don't have any shorts here anymore.  It was sweltering?!**

     As promised, below you will find the link to my Google+/Picasa web albums from my various excursions and adventures.  It's been a long, fun ride and I feel lucky to have gotten to share it with so many people.  I still can't believe it's almost at an end-- a begending!  Ever picture in every album is captioned to give snippets of information about the location and what's going on.  Hopefully, the viewing will be spectacular and you'll be able to see everything clearly.  If not, let me know!

1.  The Chateau
Thought it would be a good idea to start off with some mouth-wateringly good photographs of my favorite eatery in South Africa-- a patisserie of course!

2.  V ZA
These are all pictures from around mid-May to mid-June when I was able to travel a bit further out towards Pietermaritzberg and the Midlands (the range of foothills below the famous Drakensberg Mountain Range) and then also a bit of traveling around Kloof with some friends and a visitor.

3.  in&around KLOOF
Photos from the beginning of my cousin Jasmine's trip to South Africa, where we explored Kloof, Hillcrest, Durban, and all the fun ins and outs around the towns.

4.  Kingdom Animala
Behold, the Ithala Game Reserve and Jasmine and I's five hour drive there and our eleven hour drive back again.  The trip was full of thatched rooves, zebras, bushpigs, and giraffes who really didn't care (in a good way!).

5.  Cape Town, Day One
Plane ride, Bo-Kaap, the Stadium Guest House, Signal Hill, the Two Oceans Aquarium at the Victoria and Albert Waterfront, and a puppy!

6.  Cape Town, Day Two
Exploring the V&A Waterfront, Robbin Island Museum, the Craft Market, the Redline Bus Tour, St. George's Cathedral, the South African Museum, Castle of Good Hope, Parliament, Company Gardens, and several bays, beaches and viewpoints.

7.  Cape Town, Day Three
The Old Biscuit Mill, Oded's Kitchen, LOTS of food, a ritzy art shop, Canal Walk at Century City, more delicious food and sweets, Exclusive Books, Mug & Bean, Table View, beaches :]

8.  Cape Town, Day Four
Butterfly World, Anura Vineyards, Franschhoek: town and winery, Franschhoek Cemetery, Boschendal Vineyards, Hillcrest Berry Farm, Spier Winery and grounds.

9.  Cape Town, Day Five
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, Groot Constantia Winery, Hout Bay, Simon's Town, Fishhoek, Kalk Bay, the Brass Bell, St. James, Muizenberg, Tribeca Cafe, Boulder Beach, Baboons, and Cape Point (where two oceans meet).

10.  Cape Town, Day Six
The Plattekilp Gorge Trail to the summit of Table Mountain, "At the Top" Cafe (home of the world's worst coffee), Rock Dassies (Hyraxes), high tea at the Mount Nelson Hotel, voted best high tea in the world by several respectable associations, and our last night in Cape Town :'[


*  Mrs. Dashwood: Hush, please. That is enough, Margaret. If you cannot think of anything appropriate to say, you will please restrict your remarks to the weather!
[LATER]
Edward Ferrars: I trust I find you all well? 
Marianne: Thank you, Edward, we are all very well. 
...hella awkward pause...
Margaret: We've been enjoying very fine weather.
[Marianne nudges her] 
Margaret: Well, we have! 
Edward Ferrars: Well, I-I'm glad to hear it. The roads were very... dry. 


**this is a new composer I've been following lately who is bloody brillant!  Feel free to check out his website or the video I found him through which features puppies in high definition!

All the small things

     So, here's the deal guys: because I have been such a naughty little procrastinator, I have decided that the most word-economic manner of catching you all up on the fun times this side of the globe will be to write teensy, snippet-reviews of all the important events, complete with picture albums and playlists to fill out the vision in your heads :]

EMPIEZA

UNO

     My good friend Megan and I went to see the Imperial Russian Ballet when they were in town with her family—sister, mother, sister's boyfriend's mother, you get the idea.  The Moscow-based performance corps truly outdid themselves that evening!  The opening was a semi-garish (merely because it was more modernist* and the music of the harsh, operatic variety) excerpt that left the audience uncertain as to what to expect next.  However, the second set of selections was much more classically dominated.  Durban's Look Local website says:

     “...Artistic director Gediminas Taranda, a soloist of the Bolshoi Ballet brings creativity and innovation to the company’s classic productions.  The company consists of outstanding Russian trained dancers and also leading artists from European and American companies.

 The Durban programme features Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana in the first act and scenes and extracts from classical masterpieces in the second act which include Walpurgis Night (the one-act ballet from the opera Faust), the Adagio from Scheherezade, the Grand Pas de Deu from Don Quixote [the ballet] and Jacques Offenbach’s Can-Can Surprise.”

Most Moving: the female soloist performing Dying Swan from Swan Lake

Most Winsome: forest scene with impish male half-animal, half-human tricksters

Most Awesome Moment of my Life**: tallest male dancer cross dressing for the Can-Can and trying to woo my favorite male dancer (who also happened to be the shortest corps member I believe)

     Megan and I spent a good majority of the production in titters, trying to decide which of our two favorite male dancers we would be marrying that evening.   In the end, I chose the one playing a mischievous, Bacchanal fawn playing the Pan-flute.  Note, the two favored young men had the most roguish grins and couldn't have been taller than 5' 9” (or 175 centimeters, for my metric readers).  Unfortunately, there wasn't an opportunity after the show to woo them in person, and the programs for the show were outrageously expensive***.

     The final highlight of the evening in my eyes was the location.  The building itself had a stunning interior (did I mention the café where Megs and I had coffee and some B-1 chocolate cake!? Nom, nom, nom, nom...) and was situated just across the street from Durban City Hall.  This is a marvelous old building that I would love to explore some more in the future.  Lots of detailed, minute statues all over the stone facade and simple, but elegant lines.  All in all, a city treasure.

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*What do I mean by “modernist” in this sense?  Well, let's see.  Very harsh, unnatural RED lighting, wavering, slightly-nightmarish music, sudden movements placed between abrupt stillness, and patternless unitards.  Get the idea?

**within the ballet itself, of course!

***another one of my least favorite things about the country.  I mean, you're already paying to get in and see the performance!   The least they can do is give you a little background on it—it's PAPER for goodness' sake!!

DOS

     All the fun MEDIA related events in my life seem to have come to a head in recent months. For anyone who knows me a little better than the stranger-level (which, would be cool, since you're reading my blog and all...) will know that I struggle to say the least, with all technological affairs. However, I feel it strangely necessary to share with you all my most recent discoveries, my plunders of the virtual realm! For those of you with too many internet-based addictions already, please, save yourself now and skip this section—you're welcome.

     “How I Met Your Mother” (HIMYM) is one of the best written shows on television at the moment. It has several qualities I admire, firstly, Neil Patrick Harris, secondly Neil Patrick Harris and thirdly! Well, I'm sure you get the gist.  Additionally, this show marked my introduction to Jason Segel, an exceptionally talented young actor and writer (most recent work, The Muppets 2011). In both men, I adore their fearlessness and, In Segel's character, the sweetness. Every woman wants sweetness in her life; deep down, I think every man does too. I also love rooting against Canada throughout the series—I promise this Canada-bashing is all in jest, my friends.

     Other television exposure includes the first season of ABC's “One Upon a Time” and the subtle mental nudge to finally finish “Dawson's Creek.” The former was intriguing as a concept, though the script was devastatingly weak. P'raps since viewership has increased, their budget will have also increased, allowing them to hire better writers. We can always hope. As to the latter, no progress has yet been made. I suppose I just really want to know whether Pacey “wins” in the end. Because, as HIMYM has taught me, there is always a winner and a loser in a break up.

     Keeping on the video topic, here's a really nerdy fascination. I have completed, finally, my second complete viewing, via YouTube, of A Very Potter Musical, a fan-made musical production co-written and starring Darren Criss, better known for his appearances since AVPM on Fox's “Glee.” The music, mostly done by Criss, is simple, sweet, and addictive like nothing else you've tried before. His musical work beyond Potter extends into soft rock and acoustic numbers with semi-theatrical vocal and where guitar is heavily featured. He also has solo covers of his songs from AVPM, available in HD on YouTube.  Ladies, get ready to swoon!

     In the realm of classics, my gigs with the BBC, of late, have really swept me away. It's actually quite horrid: I'll finish watching Emma, or some such lovely flippancy and then facebook message someone coming across far more formal than I ever intended!  One other point I must be unquestionably clear upon is that the BBC's six hour version of Pride and Prejudice, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, remains the greatest version to date, bar none!  No matter how hard she tried, I could never really believe Keira Knightly to be a Miss Bennet.

     Now, for those of you who also enjoyed this level of theatricality, character tension, and romance, there is another mini-series you simply must devour! BBC's North & South, based on the novel by Elizabeth Gaskell belongs on the A-list. Promise me you'll take a gander soon? There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking this promising waltz back to the industrialization period of England*. I also found the work to be quite politically charged.

     Lastly, for those of you longing for a more cozy, fire-side affair, fear not! There is yet another mini-series for you. I haven't had the opportunity to see the one for myself yet, but it is definitely on the docket for my yuletide movie schedule this year! It's called Cranford. Set in a fictionalized British town of the 1840s, the show features one of my favorite actresses, Judi Dench in yet another BBC novel-based series. Having won several awards for acting, direction, costume design and more, the show returned with a brief sequel, Return to Cranford that aired around Christmas-time and met with much success.

     Switching topics completely, I have one final confession to make: I'm reading a web comic. How on Earth, you might ask, did this addictive habit begin? And how on Earth did I find this particular one out of the myriad of hundreds upon thousands that occupy that invisible stratosphere called the internet? On my drive to Ithala (a game reserve Jasmine and I visited that I will tell you allll about very soon), Jasmine showed me a two-hour, annual, stand-up set from a podcast she follows called The Nerdist.  Through this completely random happenstance, I found and fell in love with my new favorite comedian: Hampton Yount. Feel free to check out his website and download his free CD from one of his recent live shows!  Just remember—this is comedy: people are intended to be offended and swearing will occur. Watch out for little kids!

     Anyways, after doing a little research on this awesome performer, I found out that he and his brother Clay, an artist, have been maintaining a web comic—Clay doing the art, and Hampton writing the dialogue and storyline. It's been around for a number of years now, so I started waaaay back at number one and am up to 2008 at the moment. I am inching my way, comic by comic to the more recent additions. Though semi-grueling, it is incredible to be able to really see visually the development of both the artwork and writing so instantaneously!  It's like an entire archive, at my fingertips.  If we could but replicate this in the literary realm, how much easier my research would become!   Don't get me wrong though—I''m still a hardcore advocate of doing things the old fashioned way, aka, using a book's index (that's what it's for!).

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*now, isn't this oddly well-timed with the opening of the 2012 Olympics in London? If you didn't catch it live (it started quite late at night for me, not sure what time it started back in the States), there's bound to be about a gazillion versions on YouTube—fret not!

TRES

     A bit about my recent experiences in “the big city” : Durban

     Some time ago, I went to House of Curries on Florida Road, a very posh little neighborhood near the water's edge in Durban, and ate bunny chow.  Now, I can tell you right away that this in no way involved bunnies! Rather, bunny chow is the name given to a particular Indian dish that is said to have originated in Durban.  Imagine a thick loaf of bread; now, cut it in half, scoop out the inside, and fill it with curry: voila?!   BUNNY CHOW.

     More in the realm of food: I've recently kindled an obsession with the local frozen yogurt shop, also on Florida Road, called Wakaberry (think Muppets: waka-waka-waka!!).  It's pretty much the only dessert you can eat and then still pretend to feel good about by saying a) it's not really ice-cream and b) it has fruit on top, so it must be good for me.   A win-win in my book.

     Also, if anyone in the Durban area is actually reading this, I loved the Essenwood Saturday Market—so many amazing shoes, crafts, CDs, paintings, foods, et cetera. I must return and if not soon, do it for me, Durbanites.

     Recently, I've had more exposure to the downtown music 'scape.  The groovy scene where it all goes down.  Not too long ago—the last Monday of August—I had the good fortune to be out on the town with some of my favorite Durbanites* enjoying a meal at Billy the B.U.M.'s to cure the Monday-night blues.   During the meal, Luke mentioned that a friend of his was playing in a band down on Wilson's Wharf.  For my Bay Area readers, this is Durban's version of the Embarcadero, though a bit less upscale in some ways.  We agreed to check out the gig after paying the bill (note: not paying “the check;” that's a strictly American phrasing I try to avoid here'bouts).

     Well, if anybody knows how restaurants in South Africa work, you'll know that they always take much longer than you think they will and that the service is generally pretty laid back (that's my nice way of saying “don't tip your waiters”), though not quite as bad as Spain in that regard. As it was, by the time we got to Zack's

the band we had originally gone to see had been off stage awhile. Still, the next band was setting up and we decided to stick around for a drink or two. Some of the gang went to find seats, and myself and a few others were chatting over some cider by the bar. After the first song, I went to go see if I could cop a squat with the others—somehow, we'd scored front row seats and I sidled into one of the chairs as quick as I could. This group was a standard three-piece indie affair: guitar, drums, bass, with the bassist doubling as lead singer and the guitarist providing backup vocals. Song number two was about to begin when the bass player looked up and saw me. Can you imagine how shocked I was? We'd met before! Jordi Bruce Van Dyk: part-time bass player for Scarlet Hill, part-time waiter at Sam Brown's Homegrown Café! If you haven't heard me rave about this place before, feel free to do so here.  The other band members include David Daniels (Guitarist/Backup Vocals) and Bryn Scott on drums.

     Though still a bit rough to the trained ear, the group has a cohesive sound and some solid originals that could really get them places if they continue. I also think a lot of credit goes to whoever is photographing them in their “shows” and “untitled” albums on the facebook page. I'll try and find that name for you if I can. In the meantime, here's a recent track they've put up on soundcloud.  I saw this one live and it was pretty awesome!

     Well, needless to say, after their performance, I was definitely down to stay for the next band (even though it was a Monday night and all my friends with day jobs were giving me death glares). And ohmigoodness, am I glad I did! The next act really spiced things up—an eight-piece, co-ed, jazzy group. A complex setup with a simple name: Brass Rock

     Every member of the band was nailing it. On fire, people! Mind you, I've seen a fair share of live performances and this is saying something. Their vibe was totally groovy—personally, I'd love to get rich quick so I could ship them overseas to play at all my events. Please check out their page and the mini-recording at the bottom. If you get a chance to peruse the bios at all, you'll realize the individual members are just as eclectic as their musicality. Now, I don't have spotify, but I'll also include the link for that here as well—you'll have to let me know if it works.

     But seriously folks, this is a band to watch for! I was livid when we left. That's how good we're talking.

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*I was gonna list out everyone's name, but then realized that they would just be names to most readers, and could be considered an invasion of privacy to those mentioned.

QUATRO

     In other news, I have some new and exciting treats on the way for you all. Part of being a lazy writer means taking lots of pictures instead. I like to pretend I'm an amateur photographer on a semi-regular basis. In that regard, there will be not one, not two, but!—okay, okay, I'm joking, just two, haha—photoblogs posted to the site very soon to help summarize and visualize the larger trips I've taken. One, to the midlands surrounding the famous Drakensberg Mountains of KwaZulu-Natal and a second giving a day-by-day account of my trip in and around the Cape with my cousin and godmother Jasmine.

Lastly, there has been a new addition under the roof: a second Africanis dog. Her name is Rowe and she's about two years old and settling in nicely with Abiqui. Welcome home, pup!