tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85543300061002334352024-03-13T05:18:11.745+02:00goodbuddies inc.“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
― Isaac NewtonCharles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.comBlogger287125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-39264252088794547862024-02-16T13:53:00.002+02:002024-02-16T13:53:37.647+02:00 Failure (Station 16)<p style="text-align: center;"><b> Failure (Station 16)</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/BikiniBottomTwitter/comments/teu5e0/on_this_day_in_2000_spongebob_visited_rock_bottom/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqwv9SA2nITZTYXr3zU-CY3r7sOFnVw_YkX43ZUFtKCM55CM05tpOv1Q78ERiLXbC89uOhCRs_fyoaB41-JKP9Y8q-d121Is8oxyN1V1_LbF7aaF07ycu5uQweFH9rkB9FgGmucbGevLHkjtUXZqOKUTX-iOHA3OpCIE7q88ZF3djz5WomqtDtlJicKw4/w400-h225/4h436slzykn81.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">Yhu, mtshana!</p><p style="text-align: center;">I’ve failed</p><p style="text-align: center;">Like, proper failed, hey</p><p style="text-align: center;">I’m writing this note from the bottom of the rock</p><p style="text-align: center;">Scraping the bottom of the barrel</p><p style="text-align: center;">From Station 16,</p><p style="text-align: center;">A psych ward in the middle of Germany, somewhere,</p><p style="text-align: center;">Nowhere</p><p style="text-align: center;">(Irgendwo, Nirgendwo)</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">A man screams into the night from Station 15 below</p><p style="text-align: center;">Lower than rock bottom</p><p style="text-align: center;">But he doesn’t know that</p><p style="text-align: center;">(Maybe he does, I can’t say)</p><p style="text-align: center;">When we go on our morning walks in the park below,</p><p style="text-align: center;">Us Station 16 Leute, </p><p style="text-align: center;">(Station 16 people),</p><p style="text-align: center;">We look up at the Station 14 and Station 15 people,</p><p style="text-align: center;">They’re always screaming something incomprehensible,</p><p style="text-align: center;">The guy next to me always says:</p><p style="text-align: center;">Zum Glück sind wir nicht wie sie</p><p style="text-align: center;">(Luckily, we aren’t like them)</p><p style="text-align: center;">They’re the addicts and the ones who tried to kill themselves</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">I don’t know,</p><p style="text-align: center;">I mean, I’m no better off than them, really</p><p style="text-align: center;">They failed and I did too</p><p style="text-align: center;">I failed ‘better’ because I risked less</p><p style="text-align: center;">They threw the dice on life and death!</p><p style="text-align: center;">I think we all want to escape,</p><p style="text-align: center;">Stations 14 to 16,</p><p style="text-align: center;">Life is too much with us –</p><p style="text-align: center;">It becomes overbearing</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">I don’t mean to sound macabre,</p><p style="text-align: center;">But, the Station 14 and Station 15 people,</p><p style="text-align: center;">They tried</p><p style="text-align: center;">I was too scared</p><p style="text-align: center;">Zum Glück,</p><p style="text-align: center;">(Luckily),</p><p style="text-align: center;">As my therapists tell me</p><p style="text-align: center;">I don’t know</p><p style="text-align: center;">Station 14 and Station 15 people strike me as people of action</p><p style="text-align: center;">A quality I admire</p><p style="text-align: center;">But they failed</p><p style="text-align: center;">I failed</p><p style="text-align: center;">Stations 14 to 16,</p><p style="text-align: center;">We all failed</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">But each morning we Station 16 people look up and say,</p><p style="text-align: center;">Zum Glück sind wir nicht wie sie</p><p style="text-align: center;">I don’t know, hey</p><p style="text-align: center;">We all failed,</p><p style="text-align: center;">To different degrees, sure,</p><p style="text-align: center;">But we’re all here,</p><p style="text-align: center;">At rock bottom</p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com037269 Eschwege, Germany51.1876662 10.039772522.877432363821157 -25.116477500000002 79.497900036178848 45.1960225tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-50010937258358160692023-09-18T21:43:00.003+02:002023-09-18T21:43:51.160+02:00Unveiling Oppenheimer on screen: A journey into brilliance<div class="kInstance-Summary" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="kInstance-Summary" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><p style="color: #676767; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span face="arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif" style="color: #676767; font-size: xx-small; font-style: normal;">My original article <a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/241964.html" style="color: #17a8d2; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></i></p><p style="color: #676767; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span face="arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif" style="color: #676767; font-size: xx-small; font-style: normal;">18 September 2023</span></i></p></div></div><blockquote><div class="kInstance-Summary" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."</span></div></blockquote><div class="kInstance-Summary" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;">Christopher Nolan's <i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Oppenheimer</i> weaves an intricate tapestry, drawing from historical records and masterful storytelling. The film embarks on an intellectual odyssey, a profound journey into the heart of a complex figure.</div><div class="kInstance-Body" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; clear: right; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 30px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="kContentImage " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Image supplied" height="1111" src="https://biz-file.com/c/2309/712403-700x1111.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="700" /><div class="flip-cap" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.625rem; margin: 0px; max-width: 700px; padding: 0px;">Image supplied</div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">A biopic of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, known as the "father of the atomic bomb," the film finds its roots in the 2005 biography <i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">American Prometheus</i> by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. The ambition and scope of Christopher Nolan’s interpretation of crucial moments in Oppenheimer’s life are immense. Within this dense and intricate period piece, timelines tangle, revealing Oppenheimer's multifaceted story.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Cillian Murphy’s portrayal of Oppenheimer captures a man enraptured by the boundless potential of science, only to realise too late the destructive power his creation holds. Like Prometheus giving fire to humans, he carries the weight of the bombs dropped on Japan and the knowledge that his creation might engender further devastation. Murphy excels in this role, his haunting expression and distant gaze in his piercing blue eyes becoming increasingly heart-wrenching as the film unfolds.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Accompanied by Ludwig Göransson’s score, these moments of guilt are both beautiful and horrifying. Oppenheimer’s character is meticulously unveiled, revealing the interplay between genius and torment that moulds his remarkable journey.</p><div class="j-adslot jxa bizad ad-contentbody bizad--hascaption " data-adtype="ContentBody" data-adunit="/8428/SouthAfrica/Lifestyle/MotionPicturesAndFilm/News/Article" data-done="" data-google-query-id="CNeg1pDttIEDFUFoxgodMCYM5w" data-height="250" data-platform="3" data-tname="Pos" data-tvalue="ContentBody" data-visible="" data-width="300" id="div-gpt-ad-ff2cf091-6e0f-478f-8c84-aa3c5bca9d5b-638306664514343666" style="box-sizing: border-box; clip-path: inset(-100vw 0px 0px); font-family: inherit; height: 250px; margin: auto; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uYPbbksJxIg" width="320" youtube-src-id="uYPbbksJxIg"></iframe></div><br /><div id="google_ads_iframe_/8428/SouthAfrica/Lifestyle/MotionPicturesAndFilm/News/Article_3__container__" style="border: 0pt none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; height: 250px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 300px;"><iframe allow="attribution-reporting" aria-label="Advertisement" data-google-container-id="4" data-is-safeframe="true" data-load-complete="true" frameborder="0" height="250" id="google_ads_iframe_/8428/SouthAfrica/Lifestyle/MotionPicturesAndFilm/News/Article_3" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="" role="region" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" scrolling="no" src="https://bb7dbc28e10b7e4abc843fbc4968967d.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" tabindex="0" title="3rd party ad content" width="300"></iframe></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The film commences in 1926, with a young Oppenheimer studying under physicist Patrick Blackett (James D'Arcy) at Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory. An anxious and homesick Oppenheimer leaves a poisoned apple for Blackett, only to reclaim it. The arrival of visiting scientist Niels Bohr (Kenneth Branagh) leaves an impression, leading to Oppenheimer's pursuit of theoretical physics in Germany, where he earns his PhD and crosses paths with Werner Heisenberg (Matthias Schweighöfer).</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Upon returning to the US, Oppenheimer teaches at UC Berkeley, joins Caltech, and encounters his future wife, Kitty Puening (Emily Blunt). His involvement with Communist Party member Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh) adds complexity to his personal life. The progression of Nazi nuclear advancements in 1938 compels Oppenheimer to replicate their work.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">As WWII ensues in 1942, General Groves (Matt Damon) recruits him for the Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer forms a scientific team in Los Alamos, spurred by the Nazi threat. News of Tatlock's suicide reaches him. Post-German surrender, Oppenheimer supports using the bomb to end the Pacific war but dreads the consequences.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The Trinity test triumphs, culminating in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Oppenheimer becomes synonymous with the "father of the atomic bomb" title, yet remains haunted by the destruction it wrought. While he advocates nuclear restraint, President Truman (Gary Oldman) dismisses his concerns. Oppenheimer's opposition to the hydrogen bomb fuels Cold War tensions.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">In a bid to diminish his influence, former allies betray Oppenheimer. Despite defence testimonies, his security clearance is revoked. Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.) orchestrates his downfall, but a flashback exposes Oppenheimer's authentic sentiments about his role.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Oppenheimer brilliantly fuses historical biopic with Nolan’s cinematic artistry. The cinematography encapsulates the essence of the World War 2 era, immersing the audience in a world grappling with the intricate interplay between intellect and conscience. Though the film's narrative structure is complex, it effectively portrays the nuanced layers of Oppenheimer's character. The recurring motif of resounding footfalls underscores the mounting sense of impending peril as the monumental implications of Oppenheimer’s scientific pursuits sharpen.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Nolan is known for his gritty Batman trilogy and his complex mindbending films like Inception, Interstellar and Tenet. Oppenheimer is reminiscent of 2017’s Dunkirk with the structure of 2000’s Memento. It was filmed in a combination of IMAX 65 mm and 65 mm large-format film and it’s spectacular to look at. The ensemble cast is a testament to Nolan’s pull in Hollywood. When he calls every actor worth their salt answers even if it’s for a cameo role.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Other than Cillian Murphy as the titular character, the standout roles go to Emily Blunt as Kitty, Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, Matt Damon as General Groves and especially Robert Downey Jr. as the vengeful and petty Lewis Strauss.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Oppenheimer not only met but exceeded my expectations. It delivers a cinematic journey that intricately weaves history, storytelling, and moral introspection. Nolan's direction, coupled with Murphy's haunting portrayal, vividly brings Oppenheimer's internal conflicts to life. The fusion of intricate narrative, immersive cinematography, and standout performances elevates the film to cinematic artistry that resonates deeply.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Oppenheimer</i> serves as a poignant reminder of the intricacies of scientific advancement and the weight of moral responsibility. This masterful creation, rich in emotion and depth, stands as a testament to the power of storytelling and filmmaking at its finest.</p></div><div class="jx" data-trigger="swipe" data-x="" id="instance-swipe-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a name="contact" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #264ea0; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;"></a></div><div class="instance-footer" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="kInstance-Navigation" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 20px 0px 30px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="instance-nav-buttons" id="jNavigationBlock" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></div></div></div>Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com0Cape Town, South Africa-33.9248685 18.4240553-88.96435222968644 -51.8884447 21.114615229686436 88.736555299999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-37075152527632442162023-08-31T22:34:00.008+02:002023-09-18T21:44:26.190+02:00Barbie: A whimsical and empowering cinematic odyssey.<p style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span face="arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif" style="color: #676767; font-size: xx-small; font-style: normal;">My original article <a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/241265.html" style="color: #17a8d2; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></i></p><p><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span face="arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif" style="color: #676767; font-size: xx-small; font-style: normal;">23 August 2023</span></i></p><p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">I got caught up in the enormous Barbie wave, just like the rest of the world. I eagerly embarked on this cinematic journey, sporting the lone pink text T-shirt I own. Much like a seasoned explorer venturing into uncharted territories, I found myself captivated by the allure of Barbie's world.</span></p><div class="kInstance-Body" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; clear: right; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 30px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="kContentImage" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Image supplied" src="https://biz-file.com/c/2308/709941-700x1045.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /><div class="flip-cap" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.625rem; margin: 0px; max-width: 700px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Mattel’s Barbie as a brand, is a timeless cultural emblem that's captured the hearts and kindled the imaginations of many generations. The brand has also been at the heart of many dialogues concerning unrealistic beauty standards for women in our society.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Greta Gerwig’s fantasy comedy take on Barbie pushes the iconic doll into the limelight once more, ready to ignite new dreams and aspirations. I had no idea what to expect from this film and I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun <i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Barbie</i> is.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;"></p><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 700px; padding: 0px;"><div class="responsive-container-16-9" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 393.75px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 700px;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picQture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" class="responsive-iframe" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pBk4NYhWNMM" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; height: 393.75px; inset: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 700px;" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;"></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">A case of capitalism</h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The film is woke as hell, in all the best ways possible, but at the same time, it’s a film produced by Mattel, the mega toy manufacturing company that produces Barbie dolls and makes a lot of money from the brand. Mattel does something that Disney did with <i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">She-Hulk</i> and Netflix did with the recent season of <i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Mirror</i>; they're poking fun at their evil corporation image.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Like, hey, we know we’re sort of the bad guys, but what are we gonna do? </i>A case of capitalism making money by poking fun at itself. Fittingly enough, the scenes that feature the Mattel CEO (played by a zany Will Ferrell) and his executives are the most unnecessary in Herwig’s </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Barbie</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">. If you cut out the scenes featuring these characters, it wouldn’t take away anything significant from the film.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">As I said, the film is fun and wholesomely woke. Barbie won't solve the problems of patriarchy or consumerism but it will make you think about them. And that is probably also where that will end but maybe that’s something. I could never have imagined a movie about Barbie having an existential crisis could be so much fun. <i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Barbie</i> is a meticulously crafted film. Every detail is a testament to the artistry of Greta Gerwig and her team.</p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The threads of womanhood, masculinity and ambition</h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The narrative is a captivating exploration of identity, intricately weaving the threads of womanhood, masculinity and ambition into the very fabric of <i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Barbie</i>'s odyssey.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The central character is Margot Robbie’s Barbie. She’s stereotypical Barbie, a paragon of modern womanhood, for better or worse. Barbieland is awash in vibrant pink and all is seemingly well. Everything is perfect. Variations of Barbies, Kens and Allan live under a cheerful matriarchy. The Barbies have the most prestigious careers in Barbieland. They have all the political power and are doctors, lawyers, writers and physicists.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The Kens, meanwhile, spend their days at the beach. They have no skills applicable to contributing to society. Ryan Gosling’s Beach Ken is the quintessential Ken and is only happy when Stereotypical Barbie notices him but she barely takes note of him.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Though everything seems perfect in Barbieland, there are cracks in the foundation of their society. The Kens are unhappy but don’t know why and there’s a group of discontinued Barbie models, who are treated like outcasts due to their unconventional traits. Barbies like Kate McKinnon’s Weird Barbie (whom everyone calls Weird Barbie behind her back, but also to her face).</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Things take a turn for the worse when Barbie starts having thoughts of death, develops bad breath, cellulite and flat feet. The problem seems to stem from our world, the real world. Thus Barbie embarks on a whirlwind adventure to our world to deal with her existential crises. In the real world, she meets America Ferrera’s Gloria, a Mattel employee who helps her, and Ariana Greenblatt as Sasha, Gloria's daughter.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Boasting a stellar cast that includes Issa Rae as President Barbie, Alexandra Shipp as Writer Barbie, Emma Mackey as Physicist Barbie, Simu Liu as Tourist Ken, Kingsley Ben-Adir as Basketball Ken, Ncuti Gatwa as Artist Ken, Michael Cera as Allan, and Helen Mirren as the narrator, Barbie's ensemble is nothing short of remarkable.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Yet, beneath the dazzling array of colours and camaraderie, Barbie's true triumph lies in its ability to transcend the cinematic realm. It unabashedly embraces the legacy of its iconic doll counterpart, extending a heartfelt invitation to audiences to embrace their unique narratives and chart unexplored paths.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The film radiates an ethos of empowerment, resonating with the very essence that has made Barbie an enduring emblem of aspiration. As the credits roll, one cannot help but be swept away by the resonance of Barbie's transformative voyage—a voyage that resounds with the mantra, “You can be anything.”</p></div>Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com0Cape Town, South Africa-33.9248685 18.4240553-62.235102336178848 -16.7321947 -5.6146346638211568 53.5803053tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-67711615570157832652023-02-01T07:13:00.009+02:002023-02-01T07:18:03.794+02:00Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, A Study of Grief<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PLy1ue1APGo" width="320" youtube-src-id="PLy1ue1APGo"></iframe></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><p style="color: #333333;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></p><blockquote>“In my culture, death is not the end. It’s more of a stepping-off point. You reach out with both hands and Bast and Sekhmet, they lead you into a green veld where you can run forever.”</blockquote></span><p></p><p style="color: #333333;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-049fb633-7fff-2c46-1dfd-c8df4cbbaed1"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333;">Save the date.</span></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Black Panther: Wakanda Forever</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> will be available for streaming on Disney+ from 01 February. The film had (has, depending on where you are) a solid theatrical run since its late October release last year and will be a welcome addition to Disney+'s Marvel library. On 08 February you can check out </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marvel Studios' Assembled: The Making of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> If you haven’t seen the film yet, you are in for a treat.</span><p></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-cd6c6d16-7fff-28e0-c007-3af2f66a827b"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marvel's Phase 4 kicked off with the Disney+ show, </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wanda Vision</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, whose theme was grief. Wanda loses Vision at the hands of Thanos and the grief of that loss tears her apart. We learn later that she is the Scarlet Witch, a being of unlimited power. Wanda uses that power to trap a town full of people in a bubble (well, a hex). She works through her grief by turning the town into a sitcom and controlling the citizens throughout various decades, depicting the family life she wished she could have had with Vision and their (imaginary?) children. The big problem with that show was that Wanda's grief was larger than life for a character we hadn't had a chance to connect with on such a deep emotional level and with whom she had a largely off-screen romance.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Phase 4 takes place in a post-Thanos world and many of the shows and films that make up this phase are hit-or-miss affairs because the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become too large and unruly. It's become a cinematic multiverse. Marvel's winning formula of telling interconnected stories has trapped them into filling their properties with references to other films and shows, cameos from other MCU characters and planting Easter Eggs. That makes it hard to tell a focused story. I digress, though. What I wanted to point out about Phase 4 is that its overarching theme has been loss and grief. Our heroes defeated Thanos but lost friends, family and lovers doing it.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wakanda Forever</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> presents us with the biggest loss in the MCU. We lost the Black Panther in real life. We lost the great Chadwick Boseman to colon cancer in 2020. He played the graceful King T'Challa knowing that he was dying and sharing that knowledge and suffering only with his close family. Director Ryan Coogler takes the real grief that the cast and fans feel at the loss of Boseman and weaves it into this film's story. The screenplay for </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wakanda Forever</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> had to be rewritten after Boseman's death and Coogler wrote the grief of his passing into it. The film feels a little messy as a result, as messy as grief is.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4VSx2E7WE50" width="320" youtube-src-id="4VSx2E7WE50"></iframe></div><br /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chadwick Boseman's spirit lives in this story. Wakanda may not be real and the Black Panther may be a fictional character but this story does what great stories do and lets us feel the real grief of losing someone who made a positive impact on our lives. Is this a perfect film? No. As I said, it's messy and you can tell that the script was rewritten and it’s bloated with the Marvel baggage all the MCU films have to carry. What it is, though, is a film with a lot of heart and genuine emotion. Boseman's death feels as unexpected in Wakanda as it was for most people in real life and everything is set off balance as a result.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The film kicks off with T'Challa dying from an unknown illness and his sister Shuri racing against the clock to find a way to save him. She fails and instead of being at his side in his last moments, she was in her lab. This film largely focuses on Shuri's grief, hurt and anger. She is young, impulsive and fiercely intelligent. Her grief is a reckless fire that burns down everyone in its path. Friend and foe alike. Letitia Wright plays Shuri's struggling character with heartfelt sincerity. It's no spoiler that Shuri takes up the mantle of Black Panther and does it in a way that shows she's been thrown into a role that's too big for her and that she's struggling to fill big shoes. Wright's performance captures that insecurity because the actress is thrust into the main role in this film because of Chadwick Boseman's passing.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Angela Bassett's performance as Queen Ramonda, on the other hand, is a masterclass in acting. Wow! Just wow! She commands the screen in every scene she's in as the Queen who's lost everything and has to show the world that Wakanda isn't on its knees after the loss of its leader, her son. Her speech asking whether she hasn't given everything for Wakanda sent shivers down my spine. Her Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture is more than deserved. Most of our favourite characters are back for the second outing, along with new faces. The gorgeous Lupita Nyong’o is back as Nakia, the Wakandan spy. Danai Gurira’s Okoye and Wakanda’s greatest warrior has become an MCU staple. She and her Dora Milaje warriors are as no-nonsense as ever. Winston Duke is back as wiser and more grounded M'Baku and Martin Freeman reprises his role as CIA agent Everett Ross.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">South African actress, Connie Chiume reprises her role as Zawavari, previously the Mining Tribe Elder, but now the Elder Statesman. Trevor Noah also reprises his role as Shuri's AI assistant, Griot. While on the topic of South Africa, Xhosa is the official language of Wakanda but the American and British cast seemed to have gotten worse at the pronunciation of the Xhosa words than in the first film. Maybe they didn't have a speech coach this time, I don't know.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In his first MCU appearance in </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Captain America: Civil War</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, T'Challa says to Natasha Romanoff, </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“In my culture, death is not the end. It’s more of a stepping-off point. You reach out with both hands and Bast and Sekhmet, they lead you into a green veld where you can run forever.”</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> This film asks all of us to take these words to heart and to make the best of our lives right here and now because our loved ones are not truly gone. Wakanda may be grieving but the wolves are at the door looking to get their hands on their precious resource, vibranium.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The search for vibranium is what brings the world in contact with the villain (or is it anti-villain?) of the piece, Namor and his people. In the comic books, he is the king of Atlantis and known as Namor the Sub-Mariner. Ryan Coogler and his team changed his comic book origins to fit in better with the world as it is set up in the MCU. The wonderful Mexican actor, Tenoch Huerta Mejía (you might know him from </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Narcos: Mexico</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) portrays Namor as the king of Talokan, an ancient civilization of underwater-dwelling people, who refer to him as the feathered serpent god K'uk'ulkan. The introduction of Talokan is where </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wakanda Forever </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">shines. We've seen the wonder that is Wakanda and now we're being taken to a breathtaking kingdom under the ocean dripping with Mayan symbolism. Wakandans avoided colonisation by hiding their country and Namor's people escaped the enslaving of the Mayan civilisation by the Spanish when their god led them into the ocean, where they built their vibranium-rich kingdom. Namor will do everything in his power to keep the surface dwellers from discovering Talokan and its vibranium. Given the colonial history, do you blame him? Representation matters and </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wakanda Forever </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">does a great job of shining the spotlight on underrepresented people in Hollywood.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The introduction of Riri Williams to set her up for her </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ironheart </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Disney+ series is where the film gets bloated and is bogged down by MCU baggage. The character is an MIT student and genius inventor whose presence feels shoehorned in so that by the time we see her in her show, we can all be, </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">yeah, I know her!</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Actress, Dominique Thorne does the best she can with what she is being given and you can’t expect more.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mx_OexsUI2M" width="320" youtube-src-id="Mx_OexsUI2M"></iframe></div><br /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Music was an important feature of </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Black Panther </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and is equally important in </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wakanda Forever</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Ludwig Göransson returns as the composer and his scoring captures the grief of the film perfectly. The lead single, "Lift Me Up" by Rihanna was written by Tems, Ludwig Göransson, Rihanna and Ryan Coogler, as a tribute to Boseman. Tems' cover of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry", which was used in the film's teaser trailer, was the song that got me in the feels.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wakanda Forever </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is a wonderful sequel to the global phenomenon that was </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Black Panther </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and a beautiful tribute to Chadwick Boseman.</span></p><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com037249 Neu-Eichenberg, Germany51.3845581 9.894913523.074324263821154 -25.2613365 79.694791936178845 45.0511635tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-65116752537419132742021-06-22T22:26:00.002+02:002021-06-22T22:30:01.036+02:00#YouthMatters: General disappointment, anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theories and misinformation<p><i style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span face="arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif" style="color: #676767; font-size: xx-small; font-style: normal;">My original article <a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/427/217111.html?fbclid=IwAR2Bno40W7x03MeqXgw1InHVrTZezOjda59vJC2tZ9A1qpRo_5EpZxuyeps" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></i></p><i style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span face="arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif" style="color: #676767; font-size: xx-small; font-style: normal;">22 June 2021</span></i><div><span style="color: #676767; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span><div><i style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span face="arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif" style="color: #676767; font-size: xx-small; font-style: normal;"><br /></span></i></div><div><i style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span face="arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif" style="color: #676767; font-size: xx-small; font-style: normal;"><div class="kInstance-Summary" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;">"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes." - Mark Twain (but likely not.)</div><div class="kInstance-Body" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; clear: right; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 30px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;">Like those work emails we all send, I hope that this #YouthMonth2021 piece finds you well, but it’s probably finding you frustrated and generally disappointed. The winter chills are settling in across the country, load shedding looms large and Malume Cyril called the dreaded family meeting and put us on Level 3. The third wave of Covid-19 has crashed upon us, we’re wondering when we’ll get vaccinated and a cousin on our family WhatsApp group has suddenly become an expert on nanotech overnight and knows how Bill Gates is using the vaccines as the delivery method to control us. Also, remind me, do we have a health minister again? It’s a tough time to be positive.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br class="kClearLeft" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tr style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td class="kContentImage" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; z-index: 1;" width="724"><img alt="Charles Siboto - Source: Supplied" height="724" src="https://biz-file.com/c/2106/615405.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 625px; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px; vertical-align: top; width: 625px;" width="724" /><div class="flip-cap" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">Charles Siboto - Source: Supplied</div></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="kClearLeft" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: left; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></div><br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />We’ve been living through the ‘Panna cotta’ since the beginning of 2020 and so many levels of lockdown later, there’s a feeling of frustration and Covid-19 fatigue in the air. Which is understandable, of course. I mean, it’s our first time living through a pandemic on this scale and we’re still learning how to cope with it. Memes and TikTok seem to be the go-to coping mechanism. Almost every aspect of our daily lives has been changed by this pandemic in a relatively short space of time. It makes sense that we’re all slightly on edge. But while most of us have masked up and hunkered down with the hope of making it through these unprecedented times, voices spreading conspiracy theories and misinformation, in general, seem to be ringing louder. What is worrying, though, is how many young people are adding their voices to this choir.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><div class="insert-feature" style="border-bottom: 4px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); border-top: 4px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 15px 0px;"><div class="content-browse-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: left; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; zoom: 1;"><div class="cbi-image" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/667/205102.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #264ea0; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="#YouthMonth: What do all these #movements want?" height="120" src="https://biz-file.com/c/2006/560856-120x120.jpg?1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px; width: 100px;" width="120" /></a></div><div class="cbi-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 120px; padding: 0px;"><h5 class="cbi-b-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Roboto Condensed", "Arial Condensed", Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: -4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px;"><a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/667/205102.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">#YouthMonth: What do all these #movements want?</a></h5><p class="cbi-b-summary line-clamp-2" id="" style="-webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-line-clamp: 2; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; display: -webkit-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 0px;">One of the things that the outbreak of Covid-19 has made clear is that all of us are in the same boat, whether we like it or not. What happens in China affects all of us. What happens in the US affects all of us. What happens in South Africa affects all of us...</p><p class="cbi-b-date" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #757575; font-family: inherit; font-size: 10px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 2px; position: relative; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="cbi-b-footer-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">BY</span> <a class="highlight jxPHOH" href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Profile/CharlesSiboto" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #c11b17; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;">CHARLES SIBOTO</a> 12 JUN 2020<a aria-label="shareIcon" class="cbi-b-share m-share-icon jx" data-p="{'on':'hover','delay':0,'transition':'none'}" data-replace="{ 'title':'#YouthMonth: What do all these #movements want?','ci':'205102','location':'196','category':'427','contentType':'1','url':'https://www.bizcommunity.com//Article/196/667/205102.html','short':'https://bizcom.to/1/4e9a','summary':'One of the things that the outbreak of Covid-19 has made clear is that all of us are in the same boat, whether we like it or not. What happens in China affects all of us. What happens in the US affects all of us. What happens in South Africa affects all of us...','twitterText':'%23YouthMonth2020%3a+What+do+all+these+%23movements+want%3f+This+%23YouthMonth%2c+let+us+look+back+at+how+far+we+have+come+%26+brace+ourselves+for+how+far+we+have+to+go+-+%40b3an_Champ+reports+%7c+https%3a%2f%2fbizcom.to%2f1%2f4e9a+%23NotYetUhuru+%23BlackLivesMatter+%23MeToo+via+%40Biz_Lounge','shareUrl':'http://www.sharethis.com/share?publisher=54869764-0f12-4063-99cd-a49c07279e8a&url=https%3a%2f%2fbizcom.to%2f1%2f4e9a&title=%23YouthMonth%3a+What+do+all+these+%23movements+want%3f&img=https%3a%2f%2fbiz-file.com%2fc%2f2106%2f615406.png%3f2&summary=One+of+the+things+that+the+outbreak+of+Covid-19+has+made+clear+is+that+all+of+us+are+in+the+same+boat%2c+whether+we+like+it+or+not.+What+happens+in+China+affects+all+of+us.+What+happens+in+the+US+affects+all+of+us.+What+happens+in+South+Africa+affects+all+of+us...'}" data-x="pRID" href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/427/217111.html?fbclid=IwAR2Bno40W7x03MeqXgw1InHVrTZezOjda59vJC2tZ9A1qpRo_5EpZxuyeps#" rel="j-sharePopup" style="background-image: url("/res/img/mobile/share.png"); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 16px 16px; border-radius: 50%; box-sizing: border-box; color: #264ea0; font-family: inherit; font-size: 22px; height: 27px; margin: 12px 1px 0px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-align: center; top: -12px; width: 27px;"></a></p></div></div></div><br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Roboto Condensed", "Arial Condensed", Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin: 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px;">Starting blocks remain unequal</h2><br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />You know what, though, I do get it. Promises of a brighter future were made to the born-free generation. Some of those promises have been delivered, we can admit. Many of us who grew up poor are doing better than our parents. Most of that progress can be attributed to access to education. But the starting blocks remain unequal between Black kids and white kids, rich kids and poor kids. Our trajectories are different as a result. It doesn’t help that our government isn’t coming to the party.<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 1.5em 10px 1em; padding: 1em 10px; position: relative; quotes: "“" "”" "‘" "’";">Economic change takes time, we get it, but blatant corruption and poor governance frustrate the process at great cost to the quality of young people’s lives. Add Covid-19 to this and things become bleaker.</blockquote>Poor kids are getting their degrees and then going back home to their impoverished conditions and it’s a Herculean challenge to get out. Wealthy kids are getting their degrees, going back home, jamming some Playstation for a bit while they look for work. If they can’t get work through normal channels (which is currently rough for everyone), maybe they can lean on a family connection (which is fine, it is what it is) and if that doesn’t work maybe even go try abroad. Kids in the middle class, if you can even call it that in SA, are in the precarious position of having some resources but also facing the real challenge of maybe being unemployed long enough that it puts a strain on those resources to the point that they run out. These are real, concrete problems. Especially during a very real pandemic that’s costing lives and livelihoods.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><div class="insert-feature" style="border-bottom: 4px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); border-top: 4px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 15px 0px;"><div class="content-browse-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: left; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; zoom: 1;"><div class="cbi-image" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/758/217009.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #264ea0; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Has youth unemployment really become another pandemic in SA?" height="120" src="https://biz-file.com/c/2106/614956.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px; width: 100px;" width="120" /></a></div><div class="cbi-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 120px; padding: 0px;"><h5 class="cbi-b-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Roboto Condensed", "Arial Condensed", Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: -4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px;"><a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/758/217009.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Has youth unemployment really become another pandemic in SA?</a></h5><p class="cbi-b-summary line-clamp-2" id="" style="-webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-line-clamp: 2; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; display: -webkit-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 0px;">For the past few weeks, I have been listening to both political and economic analysts to try and understand how bad this situation is. Some analysts have deemed the state of youth unemployment in SA as not only dire, but as one of the pandemics along with gender-based violence (GBV), Covid-19 and others...</p><p class="cbi-b-date" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #757575; font-family: inherit; font-size: 10px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 2px; position: relative; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="cbi-b-footer-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">BY</span> <a class="highlight jxPHOH" href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Profile/MirandaLusiba" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #c11b17; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;">MIRANDA LUSIBA</a> 18 JUN 2021<a aria-label="shareIcon" class="cbi-b-share m-share-icon jx" data-p="{'on':'hover','delay':0,'transition':'none'}" data-replace="{ 'title':'Has youth unemployment really become another pandemic in SA?','ci':'217009','location':'196','category':'427','contentType':'1','url':'https://www.bizcommunity.com//Article/196/758/217009.html','short':'https://bizcom.to/1/4ng1','summary':'For the past few weeks, I have been listening to both political and economic analysts to try and understand how bad this situation is. Some analysts have deemed the state of youth unemployment in SA as not only dire, but as one of the pandemics along with gender-based violence (GBV), Covid-19 and others...','twitterText':'Has+youth+unemployment+really+become+another+pandemic+in+SA%3f+https%3a%2f%2fbizcom.to%2f1%2f4ng1+by+Miranda+Lusiba%2f%40MirandaLusiba+via+%40Biz_Marketing+%23YouthMatters','shareUrl':'http://www.sharethis.com/share?publisher=54869764-0f12-4063-99cd-a49c07279e8a&url=https%3a%2f%2fbizcom.to%2f1%2f4ng1&title=Has+youth+unemployment+really+become+another+pandemic+in+SA%3f&img=https%3a%2f%2fbiz-file.com%2fc%2f2106%2f615406.png%3f2&summary=For+the+past+few+weeks%2c+I+have+been+listening+to+both+political+and+economic+analysts+to+try+and+understand+how+bad+this+situation+is.+Some+analysts+have+deemed+the+state+of+youth+unemployment+in+SA+as+not+only+dire%2c+but+as+one+of+the+pandemics+along+with+gender-based+violence+(GBV)%2c+Covid-19+and+others...'}" data-x="pRID" href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/427/217111.html?fbclid=IwAR2Bno40W7x03MeqXgw1InHVrTZezOjda59vJC2tZ9A1qpRo_5EpZxuyeps#" rel="j-sharePopup" style="background-image: url("/res/img/mobile/share.png"); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 16px 16px; border-radius: 50%; box-sizing: border-box; color: #264ea0; font-family: inherit; font-size: 22px; height: 27px; margin: 12px 1px 0px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-align: center; top: -12px; width: 27px;"></a></p></div></div></div><br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />There are great stories of people overcoming their circumstances and finding creative solutions to economic challenges, of course. Hell, almost every #YouthMonth in the past three years I’ve been shouting from the rooftops how the kids are doing it for themselves. Struggling your way to the top against all odds is fine but it can’t be the norm to build a country on. We need systems and institutions that do what they are supposed to.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Roboto Condensed", "Arial Condensed", Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin: 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px;">The rise of misinformation vs real problems</h2><br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The point I’m getting to (in the most roundabout way) is that the rise of misinformation distracts from these real problems. How can we take the government to task when we’re too busy wading through a sea of conspiracies? Misinformation is actively killing people during the pandemic as well. People aren’t taking precautions against catching Covid-19 or mistrust vaccines, which results in deaths that could’ve been avoided. We’re all vulnerable to misinformation because we want to make sense of the outrageousness of things. Conspiracy theories get under our skin because they’re sexier than the truth and make it easier for us to turn off our brains. Everything that’s going wrong? It’s Bill Gates, China, immigrants, 5G, the Illuminati or some multi-government cabal. The government cabal is maybe closer to the truth, but not in any complex, multilayered way. It’s just sheer arrogant incompetence. Because they can get away with it and we are too distracted to do anything about it.<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 1.5em 10px 1em; padding: 1em 10px; position: relative; quotes: "“" "”" "‘" "’";">All the people on Twitter telling us that we are sheeple are also just sheeple to misinformation.</blockquote>This #YouthMonth is a rough one and things are generally disappointing. It’s difficult for all of us and perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel, I don’t know. Protect yourself and the people around you by taking the necessary Covid-19 precautions. I’d say get vaccinated but there’s not much to do but wait on that count.</div></span></i></div></div>Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com0Cape Town, South Africa-33.9248685 18.4240553-62.235102336178848 -16.7321947 -5.6146346638211568 53.5803053tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-47125473959286062452021-01-24T09:54:00.000+02:002021-01-24T09:54:03.668+02:00The Women Who Raised Me<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Women Who Raised Me</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-9d074e93-7fff-b0b4-539a-e53f7cee1f6f"><div><span><div></div><blockquote><div>“We was born to mothers who couldn't deal with us</div><div>Left by fathers who wouldn't build with us”</div></blockquote><p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ouK1pNBXY5g/YA0m36-cZwI/AAAAAAAAC6Y/OjTyXuEZl0UwGSwoben-ALDCAzuwkwoHgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1118/66673114-3efa-4de0-999f-f6eb6b73c92e.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="671" data-original-width="1118" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ouK1pNBXY5g/YA0m36-cZwI/AAAAAAAAC6Y/OjTyXuEZl0UwGSwoben-ALDCAzuwkwoHgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h240/66673114-3efa-4de0-999f-f6eb6b73c92e.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m the son of loud and proud Xhosa women who are present</span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m the son of a loud and obnoxious father who is absent</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was raised by women who built me up</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And men who wouldn’t build with me</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My grandmother, Ouma Sag, is warmth and chaos,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A rough and tough Kallit woman</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Who married into the Xhosa culture,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘La gogo we Lawu’</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She taught me Afrikaans and gave me my love of tea</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She is afraid of the government and white people</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Considering her history,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rightly so</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My mother is noise and structure</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She likes things being in their place</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She’s the hardest working person I know</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Life hasn’t been kind to her,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In response, she’s one of the kindest people you’ll ever meet</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She’s a bit of a busybody, though</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She likes getting involved in everyone’s business,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a good-natured, well-meaning way</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My aunt, my Mam’ncane, is quiet and chaos</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She doesn’t like people much</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And minds her business</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She’s fiercely intelligent</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Her focus and determination inspire me to keep pushing myself further</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My sister is cheek and chaos</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She’s all attitude, that one</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Always ready to put people in their place</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She’s crazy and fierce</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Her fire burns hot and bright</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I hope that she sets the world on fire</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With her excellence one day</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am all of these characteristics,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With a generous serving of anxiety on the side</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But all the good qualities I do have,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I get from these wonderful women</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Who raised me</span></p></span>Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com1Sea Point, Cape Town, 8005, South Africa-33.9169494 18.3875487-90 -51.924951299999989 23.401023497694986 88.700048699999982tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-15692062566882685812021-01-15T14:45:00.005+02:002021-01-15T14:54:30.595+02:00Occasional Letters to Death #4<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">Visiting the Departed</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-My3jt_IhLtQ/YAGQWuD4evI/AAAAAAAAC58/2bWnOmSjGTkECmqGRRSqf39gLC-s8__bQCLcBGAsYHQ/s700/tumblr_l1cu01eHQ21qbolnoo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="473" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-My3jt_IhLtQ/YAGQWuD4evI/AAAAAAAAC58/2bWnOmSjGTkECmqGRRSqf39gLC-s8__bQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/tumblr_l1cu01eHQ21qbolnoo1_500.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-32e6255c-7fff-002b-39d5-da25923234c8"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><blockquote><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Death is before me today:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like the recovery of a sick man,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like going forth into a garden after sickness.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Death is before me today:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like the odor of myrrh,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like sitting under a sail in a good wind.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Death is before me today:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like the course of a stream,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like the return of a man from the war-galley to his house.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Death is before me today:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like the home that a man longs to see,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After years spent as a captive.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Neil Gaiman, Preludes & Nocturnes (The Sandman, #1)</b></span></p></blockquote><p> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xFzNyds98hw/YAGM0-HWpjI/AAAAAAAAC5w/1Zwd6KMTZAw2Z2RivHhrqA0pBv_QTajcwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1024/WhatsApp%2BImage%2B2021-01-13%2Bat%2B07.48.02.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xFzNyds98hw/YAGM0-HWpjI/AAAAAAAAC5w/1Zwd6KMTZAw2Z2RivHhrqA0pBv_QTajcwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/WhatsApp%2BImage%2B2021-01-13%2Bat%2B07.48.02.jpeg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dear Death,</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I spoke to four dead men today,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Their graves next to each other in my grandmother’s garden</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I loved them all to varying degrees in Life</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I love them to even more varying degrees in Death</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first man I spoke to was my grandfather</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The degree to which I loved and love him is small,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As small as his mindedness was</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But I was glad to swing by and say hello</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second man was sort of an adopted grandfather, I guess</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He hung out at my grandmother’s house a lot</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We all just went along with it</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We all went along till he just became part of the family</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I loved him in a pleasant sort of way</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I still do</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He told utterly fantastic stories that you could tell he utterly believed</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He had an old-man smell that I liked</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The third man I spoke to was my uncle, my Malume,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My mother’s older brother</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He gave me some of his OCD</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I shine shoes or iron shirts, I think of him</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I loved him</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even though he always shouted at me</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I miss him and I am mad at him</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He died in such a stupid way</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tuberculosis!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Treatable</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He just had to take his pills</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The last man I spoke to was my Malume too,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My mother’s middle brother</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I loved him very much</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He didn’t deserve it</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He was trouble wearing a charming smile</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were all at peace the day he died too young</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Death, we all love him more than we did in Life</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com0Sterkspruit, 9762, South Africa-30.52496399999999 27.3645855-58.835197836178835 -7.7916644999999995 -2.2147301638211445 62.520835500000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-43978128527469543812020-06-15T14:37:00.001+02:002020-06-15T14:37:28.467+02:00#YouthMonth: What do all these #movements want?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #676767; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-style: normal;">My original article <a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/667/205102.html">here</a>.</span><br style="color: #676767; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; font-style: normal;" /><span style="color: #676767; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-style: normal;"><br /></span><span style="color: #676767; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-style: normal;">12 June 2020</span></i></div>
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<i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">"More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness."</i> - Charlie Chaplin</div>
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If 2020 was an old-school video game, it would be the level where they make you fight all the boss characters you’ve defeated before all at once and you have to remember the right button sequences to defeat each of them. While you’re doing that they throw in Covid-19, the new ultra-powerful boss. All of our chickens are coming home to roost this year, it seems, and we have to deal with them somehow.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />One of the things that the outbreak of Covid-19 has made clear is that all of us are in the same boat, whether we like it or not. What happens in China affects all of us. What happens in the US affects all of us. What happens in South Africa affects all of us. The murder of George Floyd by police officers in the US started a wave of protests against police brutality towards black people and the huge issue that is racism in general. This has also made us look at our own cases of police brutality right here at home, especially with the murder of Colins Khosa by members of the SANDF.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br class="kClearLeft" style="clear: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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Charles Siboto</div>
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<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><h2 style="font-family: "Roboto Condensed", "Arial Condensed", Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin: 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px;">
Stop and listen</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I’ve been reading the stories around the #BlackLivesMatter protests and looking at how people I know respond to them, whether in anger that we still have to protest against systemic racism, that we still #CantBreathe or with hey, #AllLivesMatter or what about #FarmMurders and #WhiteGenocide? I spent the week just monitoring my social media accounts and watching people I know grapple with the issue of racism in various ways. Some of the responses I agree with and some not but my goal was to watch, listen and try and understand where everyone is coming from.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />My takeaway is that we all need to stop and honestly listen to the experiences of others, just listen and resist the temptation to say: “Yes, but . . .” As I said before, whether we like it or not we are in the same boat and even if something like racism doesn’t affect you directly it does indirectly.<blockquote style="font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 1.5em 10px 1em; padding: 1em 10px; position: relative; quotes: "“" "”" "‘" "’";">
This #YouthMonth I want to look back at where we came from, back to the Soweto uprising of 1976. I want to remember how far we have come and to look forward to how far we have to go yet.</blockquote>
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The Soweto uprising of 1976</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />What did the thousands of students want on 16 June 1976 when they took to the streets of Soweto in protest? They were protesting the Bantu Education Act that mandated that all school subjects be taught in Afrikaans. What those students wanted was to be taught in a language they understand, equality and equal opportunity for all youth. The Apartheid government clearly didn’t like how those students were protesting and opened fire on them. When former President Nelson Mandela was fighting for the freedom of black people he was considered a terrorist and eventually imprisoned. Bantu Stephen Biko was murdered for his anti-Apartheid activism. In the US, Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated for his views even though he advocated for non-violent resistance against that racist system.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />What I am getting at is that all these people and movements want the same things and have been killed trying to get those things whether they did it peacefully or violently. Whatever system is in charge always responds with violence and that is what should appal us! That the Apartheid government killed people, that the miners in #Marikana were killed under the rule of this government, that Colins Khosa was killed by members of the SANDF.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><div class="insert-feature" style="border-bottom: 4px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); border-top: 4px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 15px 0px;">
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<a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/712/205035.html" style="color: #264ea0; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="New documentary tackling racial inequality to launch on Youth Day" height="120" src="https://biz-file.com/c/2006/560586-120x120.jpg?2" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px; width: 100px;" width="120" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/712/205035.html" style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2em !important; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none !important;">New documentary tackling racial inequality to launch on Youth Day</a></h5>
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Tuesday, 16 June, sees the online launch of <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Good Hope</i>, a new feature-length documentary from award-winning filmmaker Anthony Fabian...</div>
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11 JUN 2020</div>
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Equality and equal opportunity</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />What black people and other people of colour want are equality and equal opportunity. What women want are equality and equal opportunity. What the LGBTQ+ community wants are equality and equal opportunity. That is all. None of these groups wants to take anything away from anyone and that can’t be so difficult to understand! #BlackLivesMatter has never been about black lives being superior, just that they, too, matter. Just matter, that is all. That isn’t difficult to understand.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />#MeToo and #MenAreTrash has never been about trying to destroy men but women holding men who sexually assault women accountable. Again, not such a highbrow concept. Take a step back and just think about this, every single woman you know has experienced some form of sexual harassment, every single woman. Unless they live in some secret pocket of the country I know nothing about, every single PoC you have encountered has experienced some form of racism. Every member of the LGBTQ+ community has been harassed for simply being who they are in some way. That is absolutely wild!<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><div class="insert-feature" style="border-bottom: 4px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); border-top: 4px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 15px 0px;">
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<a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/480/204881.html" style="color: #264ea0; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="#YouthMonth: Preaching inclusivity - Q&A with Toya Delazy" height="120" src="https://biz-file.com/c/2006/559913-120x120.jpg?1" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px; width: 100px;" width="120" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/480/204881.html" style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2em !important; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none !important;">#YouthMonth: Preaching inclusivity - Q&A with Toya Delazy</a></h5>
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Multi-award-winning Afro-techno princess Latoya Nontokozo Buthelezi, aka Toya Delazy, chats to us this #YouthMonth about inclusivity, tolerance and her advice for aspiring young musicians..</div>
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<span class="cbi-b-footer-title" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">BY</span> <a class="highlight jxPHOH" href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Profile/RuthCooper" style="color: #c11b17; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;">RUTH COOPER</a> 8 JUN 2020</div>
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<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />If you are a straight, white male does your life not matter? Do your views not matter? Are you not suffering? Do white people not experience racial prejudice? Do men not experience sexism? As a straight, white male your life and views matter but the social contract we all live under tends to honour its responsibilities to you. You can and, in fact, you definitely do still experience hardships like any human being, though. You can be a victim of crime, you can lose your job, you can be poor and just generally have a difficult life.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />White people can suffer from prejudice, sure, but not from systemic racism. Men can suffer from prejudice and be sexually harassed by women but can also not suffer from the sort of systemic sexism that affects their careers or the sort of harassment that makes them fear to be around women in general. Straight, cisgender people suffer but not for their sexual orientation or not fitting into specific gender boxes.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><h2 style="font-family: "Roboto Condensed", "Arial Condensed", Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin: 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px;">
Start with kindness</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />What can you do then? The best thing to do is simply to listen to PoC, to women and the LGBTQ+ community when they express their frustrations. Taking that time to say things like #AllLivesMatter or #NotAllMen does nothing to help anyone because we know these things. When your friend has been in an accident and is bleeding out on the street they know that it sucks that you got robbed last week but they definitely still would rather go to the hospital first.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Educate yourself on social issues as much as you can. Own whatever privilege you have and use it to fight for those who don’t have the same. Talking about things like race and sexism is uncomfortable but we have to do it if we ever hope to find solutions. Just start where you are and start with kindness. Kindness goes a long way and we need it since we have a long way to go before we reach our goal of equality and equal opportunity. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><div class="insert-feature" style="border-bottom: 4px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); border-top: 4px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 15px 0px;">
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<a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/667/204584.html" style="color: #264ea0; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="12 ways to support your local community during Covid-19" height="120" src="https://biz-file.com/c/2006/558394-120x120.jpg?2" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px; width: 100px;" width="120" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/667/204584.html" style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2em !important; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none !important;">12 ways to support your local community during Covid-19</a></h5>
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In just a few short weeks, the coronavirus pandemic has turned our world upside down and as the crisis deepens, so do the challenges with a growing number of people facing unemployment, mounting debt and numerous other issues precipitated by the disruption of the virus...</div>
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<span class="cbi-b-footer-title" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">BY</span> <a class="highlight jxPHOH" href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Profile/YaelGeffen" style="color: #c11b17; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;">YAEL GEFFEN</a> 1 JUN 2020</div>
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<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />One of the things many people are concerned about with the Covid-19 lockdown is the impact on the economy. As a society, we have a long history of squandering our human resources by not allowing people to fully participate in the economy based on race, gender and sexual orientation. Well, unless people were being forced to participate in the economy for the bare minimum wage.<blockquote style="font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 1.5em 10px 1em; padding: 1em 10px; position: relative; quotes: "“" "”" "‘" "’";">
What I am getting at is the fighting for equality and equal opportunity for everyone is good for everyone in the end because if the social contract works for everyone there is no reason to breach it. That means crime rates drop and no one is marching and looting in the streets, because there is no need to. Being actively anti-racist, anti-sexist and anti-homophobic makes the world better for white men, men and straight people too!</blockquote>
This #YouthMonth, let us look back at how far we have come and brace ourselves for how far we have to go until we are all free because this is #NotYetUhuru when every few months we have to remind people that #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo. Be actively anti-racist, anti-sexist and anti-homophobic in your everyday life. Small deeds go a long way as JRR Tolkien pointed out: “I have found that it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.”</div>
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com0Cape Town, South Africa-33.9248685 18.4240553-34.768186 17.1331618 -33.081551000000005 19.7149488tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-8275468028728139422020-05-31T14:59:00.000+02:002020-05-31T15:23:50.829+02:00Sea Star Summer by Sally Partridge, Book Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>Sea Star Summer</i> is the sort of YA novel you pick up and read in one sitting and when you’re done you feel a bit sad that the adventure is over. It feels like coming to the end of a really good December school holiday and having to come to terms with going back to normal life. <a href="https://sallypartridge.com/">Sally Partridge</a>’s writing in this book is, for the lack of a better word, delicious. She manages to tackle surprisingly heavy and sensitive issues in a graceful manner that allows the reader to grapple with them without feeling weighed down. <i>Sea Star Summer</i> is a light touch where her last YA novel, <a href="https://goodbuddies-inc.blogspot.com/2018/03/mine-by-sally-partridge-book-review.html">Mine</a> was a heavy hammer. The story is told through the eyes of Noami, an awkward, red-haired and bookish 16-year-old girl who goes to Jeffreys Bay for the December holidays with her parents. She’s looking forward to having a chilled holiday reading her books on the beach and avoiding people. Things, of course, don’t go as planned as she not only meets and befriends the carefree and imaginative Elize on the beach but also finds herself being romantically pursued by the handsome surfer, Daniel and Elize’s brooding brother, Marius. From here a whirlwind coming-of-age love story filled with literary references ensues.</div>
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Back home in Cape Town Naomi is the kid at school who never gets invited to parties because the other kids see her bookishness and intelligence as snobby and stuck up. Boys don’t ask her on dates because she’s the sort of girl who corrects them when they’re wrong and would tell them if they confuse the Greek god Poseidon with his Roman counterpart, Neptune. Her mom is always telling her that people don’t like it when you correct them. So when she arrives in Jeffreys Bay and both Daniel and Marius are interested in her she doesn’t know how to deal with the situation, especially when she comes to realise that she actually has feelings for Elize. Daniel is the typical handsome jerk that treats girls poorly and is used to getting away with it and Marius seems to be a nice guy but he is also problematic in his pursuit of a girl who clearly isn’t interested in him. Elize, on the other hand, listens to Naomi and really wants to get to know her.</div>
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Naomi reads <i>Jane Eyre</i> to Elize on their beach dates and a quote from that book captures the theme that lies at Sea Star Summer’s heart, women and their perceived place in society.</div>
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<i>“Women are supposed to be very calm generally; but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.” </i></blockquote>
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Everyone wants Naomi to behave in a certain way in the novel. Her parents want her to be ‘normal’ and to make friends and meet a nice boy. The two boys she meets aren’t actually that nice, though. The relationship she has with Elize is healthy and not as toxic as what she would have with Daniel or even Marius but that’s the one her parents disapprove of. Daniel wants her tone down her intelligence and be impressed with how cool he is and Marius wants to be the saviour type. Only Elize wants her to be just her. Sally Partridge managed to pack in feminism, toxic masculinity and homophobia in <i>Sea Star Summer</i> without it feeling like some sort of lecture on those issues but just the story of a young girl finding herself.</div>
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com037249 Neu-Eichenberg, Germany51.3845581 9.894913551.3052796 9.733552 51.4638366 10.056275tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-20977364868619526872020-03-26T19:05:00.001+02:002020-03-27T15:52:20.385+02:00Unpacking Trauma<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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“We was born to mothers who couldn't deal with us<br />
Left by fathers who wouldn't build with us”<br />
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“Sometimes, I was held down by the gravity of my pen<br />
Sometimes I was held down by the gravity of my sin<br />
Sometimes, like Santiago, at crucial points of my novel, my only logical option was to transform into the wind”<br />
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Trauma runs deep in my generation, right down to our bones. It hit me for the very first time lying in bed recently how much I’ve achieved despite my numerous failures or, rather, a perception of numerous failures. I spend so much time with middle-class to outright wealthy people that I measure my levels of success by their standards. This is something that has been exacerbated by my move to Germany and spending time with Europeans. Many of these people are painfully average and have none of the tenacity many people from my type of background possess and yet they succeed because they come from a place of security. This is no fault of theirs and I don’t blame them in any way. I am also not taking away from the individual challenges that even privileged people face. What I am looking to do for myself and people in the same situation as me, is examine and unpack my own trauma and, perhaps, get some closure.<br />
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Our childhoods form us and continue to haunt us as adults. One thing that sticks out for me when I look back into my childhood is that I am a liar, through and through. Just a terrific liar. Much like Holden Caulfield in <i>The Catcher in the Rye</i>. I mostly lie about my wellbeing. If you ask me, I’m always okay. I don’t know how to tell people that I am, in fact, not okay, that I am falling apart. Lying about my wellbeing has been my go-to brand of protective mechanism. What’s really captured my fascination lately, though, is how I’ve lied to myself over the years. I’ve wanted to be like all my middle-class friends so long that I have downplayed my journey to where I am now. I’ve allowed myself to be crippled by depression because I can never measure up to some standard that was never even for me. All I’ve ever wanted was to be good enough. I’m that fish trying to climb trees alongside squirrels.<br />
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My thoughts have been time travelling back to the parts of my childhood that have always been too traumatic to deal with. I’m the child of domestic workers raised in backrooms. I’m the product of leaky roofs and sleeping on <i>i-sponge</i> on the floor. I grew up with the green bar of Sunlight and taking baths in a <i>waskom</i>. I would never go to bed on an empty belly because my grandmother made sure we at least had a <i>loaf brown</i> and tea to break our fast and pap and cabbage to quiet the stomach rumblings before bed. I was raised by a grandmother who made less than R2000.00 a month. I was raised by a single mother who worked <i>piece jobs</i>, tying together small pieces of income to make ends meet.<br />
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Growing up, I was told that I’m smart and that positive reinforcement played a huge role in how I saw myself, it gave me the confidence to compete in school. I did well, but not a well as I know I could. My academic journey from primary school to high school was pretty much a gradual and somewhat graceful arc of good marks. I made it to university where, rather than a graceful arc, my academic performance became a herky-jerky line from one crisis to another. I look back at my time in university and it’s a time a remember fondly but also one where I feel I suffered failures that follow me to this day. I should’ve done better and I beat myself up quite a lot for that time. With my external circumstances, I did the best that I could, though. I need to recognise that when I had the mental breakdowns I did in university I had no support. No one in my family could guide me through that territory because I was the first person in my family to traverse that territory. I needed mentorship but tried to carry all of that weight on my shoulders. My mountain was higher than that of many of my peers but I didn’t know because I kept looking at them scale their mountains and feeling like I was not as good as they are. For people like me sometimes just showing up at a place is the victory, but showing up isn’t enough, you still have to complete the task at hand.<br />
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My measuring stick has been way off and I have never taken the time to sit back and celebrate any of my victories. I’m sitting here, right now, living in another country and I feel down when, looking back, every part of my life is a resounding success. It’s like Neil Gaiman said of his tremendous success with his comic book series, <i>The Sandman</i>, that he never heeded Stephen King’s advice to enjoy his success. Instead of enjoying his success, he spent the time worrying about it. I remembered this when the children’s book I co-wrote was published and enjoyed every moment of people coming out to support the book. But I still forget to do this with other parts of my life. It’s good to pause and look back at how far one has come. Sure, I’ve not achieved as much success as I would’ve liked and many of my peers are doing much better than I am but I haven’t done as bad as my anxiety would have me believe either. And in this age of Instagram where we only see the best foot that people put forward, you also can’t just assume that people are doing better than you because we hide our struggles. All each of us can do is be sensitive to what others are going through and to continue to learn to know and improve ourselves.<br />
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The main reason I’m trying to delve into my childhood trauma is that I want to write a novel and I am scared to death of the task at hand. The world is on lockdown because of the Coronavirus outbreak so I have time to focus on the task but panic and fear of failure are holding me back. What if I write a book and it’s not good enough? So, I’m sitting here trying to write through those childhood mental blocks. Looking back to move forward, as it were.<br />
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com037249 Neu-Eichenberg, Germany51.3845581 9.894913551.3052796 9.733552 51.4638366 10.056275tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-18380546382384541882020-01-22T12:12:00.000+02:002020-01-22T12:15:04.172+02:00#BizTrends2020: 2020 at the movies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">My original article <a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/199518.html" style="color: #00a1d3; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">09 Jan 2020</span><br />
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<h1>
Here's what to look forward to on the big screen in 2020</h1>
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<div class="kInstance-Summary">
Welcome to 2020 at the movies, let's see what this new decade has in store for us.</div>
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<h2>
Reboots and long-awaited sequels</h2>
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As ol’ King Solomon once said, there’s no new thing under the sun. This year’s reboots kick off with the horror feature, <em>The Grudge</em> –
which will be released in theatres on 17 January. This is a reboot of
three existing films released between 2004 and 2009, and those movies
are based on the Japanese franchise!<br />
<br />
Will Smith and a chubbier Martin Lawrence are back for one last ride as Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett in <em>Bad Boys for Life</em>. This is one we’ve been waiting for since 2003’s <em>Bad Boys II. </em>Belgian
directors Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi have taken over the reins from
Michael Bay but it looks like we can still expect a whole lot of
explosions, car chases and gunfights. <em>Bad Boys for Life</em> hits our screens on 24 January.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jKCj3XuPG8M" style="max-width: 640px;" width="100%"></iframe><br />
<br />
Move
over Eddie Murphy (and, I guess, Kyla Pratt from the straight-to-DVD
versions), it’s Robert Downey Jr’s turn to take a crack at the eccentric
Dr John Dolittle character in <em>Dolittle</em> also being released on
10 January. The man who can talk to animals is accompanied by a wealth
of talent voicing all of his friends, including Rami Malek, Octavia
Spencer, Kumail Nanjiani, John Cena, Emma Thompson, Antonio Banderas,
Michael Sheen, Jim Broadbent, Marion Cotillard, Frances de la Tour,
Carmen Ejogo, Ralph Fiennes, Selena Gomez, Tom Holland and Craig
Robinson. The film is directed by Stephen Gaghan (<em>Syriana</em>, 2005).<br />
<br />
HG Wells’s <em>The Invisible Man </em>gets a remake starring Elisabeth Moss (<em>The Handmaid’s Tale</em>), Aldis Hodge (<em>Clemency</em>) and Oliver Jackson-Cohen (<em>The Haunting of Hill House</em>).
The film, written and directed by Leigh Whannell, comes out on 13
March. 27 March sees Disney continue with its live-action/hauntingly
real CGI adaptations in the form of <em>Mulan</em>, directed by Niki Caro and starring Yifei Liu, Donnie Yen and Jet Li.<br />
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Daniel Craig is back in his fifth film as James Bond in <em>No Time to Die </em>on
3 April, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. The movie picks up after Bond
has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica and
co-stars Rami Malek, as the Bond villain, Léa Seydoux and Lashana Lynch.
Apparently, people have been waiting for a sequel to 1986’s <em>Top Gun</em> and their prayers have been answered! Tom Cruise is back as the legendary fighter pilot, Maverick in <em>Top Gun: Maverick </em>on 3 July.<br />
<br />
Hollywood is taking another stab at <em>Ghostbusters </em>this
year after the 2016 version didn’t go down so well. They are linking
this one right back to the originals and tapping into that glorious ‘80s
nostalgia that’s keeping <em>Stranger Things’ </em>Finn Wolfhard employed. 10 July gives us <em>Ghostbusters: Afterlife </em>with
the original feature’s director’s son, Jason Reitman, in the director’s
chair. The movie starts good ol’ Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd, Mckenna
Grace, Carrie Coon and Bokeem Woodbine.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ahZFCF--uRY" style="max-width: 640px;" width="100%"></iframe><br />
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We’ve had <em>Kingsman: The Secret Service</em> and <em>Kingsman: The Golden Circle</em> and now we go back in time with the prequel to discover the origins of the very first independent intelligence agency, <em>The King’s Man, </em>on 14 February. <em>The King's Man</em> stars Harris Dickinson, Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton and Djimon Hounsou. Matthew Vaughn is back as director.<br />
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<h2>
The comic book stuff</h2>
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DC kicks off things with <em>Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn </em>on 7 February. Remember <em>Suicide Squad? </em>I
guess this movie picks from there. Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn’s
broken up with the Joker and is looking to start a new life. I don’t
even know. At some point, Harley Quinn joins superheroes Black Canary,
Huntress and Renee Montoya to save a young girl from an evil crime lord,
Black Mask. <em>Birds of Prey</em> stars Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth
Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, Chris Messina, Ella Jay
Basco, Ali Wong and Ewan McGregor. The film is directed by Cathy Yan (<em>Dead Pigs</em>, 2018).<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s1l914WkO6Y" style="max-width: 640px;" width="100%"></iframe><br />
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3 April gives us director Josh Boone’s horror-influenced X-Men movie <em>New Mutants</em>, hopefully. The movie was supposed to be released in 2018 but was delayed. It stars <em>Game of Throne's</em> Maisie Williams and Anya Taylor-Joy. Marvel Studios opens their Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with <em>Black Widow </em>on 1 May. The film is directed by Cate Shortland (<em>Berlin Syndrome</em>,
2017) and stars Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow,
alongside David Harbour, Florence Pugh, O-T Fagbenle and Rachel Weisz.
Set after the events of <em>Captain America: Civil War</em> (2016), the film sees Romanoff on the run and forced to confront her past.<br />
<br />
2017’s <em>Wonder Woman</em> was a huge hit and we’re super excited about the sequel, <em>Wonder Woman 1984</em>.
The sequel hits screens on 5 June, it’s set in the ‘80s (like so many
films and series these days) and sees the return of Steve Trevor
somehow. The movie is the ninth instalment in the DC Extended Universe
and is directed and co-written by Patty Jenkins. It stars Gal Gadot as
Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, alongside Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro
Pascal, Robin Wright and Connie Nielsen.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sfM7_JLk-84" style="max-width: 640px;" width="100%"></iframe><br />
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<h2>
More highlights</h2>
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Other films to look forward to in 2020 are <em>The Turning</em>,
based on Henry James’s novel – which is the story of a nanny hired to
take care of two creepy kids in a creepy house in Maine. The film stars
Mackenzie Davis, Finn Wolfhard (this kid again), Brooklynn Prince and
Joely Richardson. <em>Sonic the Hedgehog </em>is a thing that’s
happening. In this live-action adventure comedy, Sonic and his new best
friend Tom (James Marsden) team up to defend the planet from the evil
genius Dr Robotnik (Jim Carrey) and his plans for world domination.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rl33gU2APIs" style="max-width: 640px;" width="100%"></iframe><br />
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A film I’m looking forward to – because I loved the books as a kid – is <em>Artemis Fowl, </em>which
is about a 12-year-old Artemis who is a millionaire, a genius and a
criminal mastermind. But Artemis doesn’t know what he's taken on when he
kidnaps a fairy, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon Unit to harness
her magic to save his family. Disney Pixar is also releasing an
interesting project with <em>Soul</em>, a journey from the streets of New York City to the cosmic realms to discover the answers to life’s most important questions. <em>Soul</em> stars Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey and is directed by <em>Inside Out</em>'s Pete Docter.<br />
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I wish you 2020 vision at the movies this year.</div>
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com037242 Bad Sooden-Allendorf, Germany51.2703403 9.980095699999992651.1114063 9.6573721999999922 51.4292743 10.302819199999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-72674741340475409212019-12-09T20:17:00.000+02:002020-04-20T14:08:44.000+02:00Jozi: The City Under the City<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oDRVqVAlJSc/Xe5an3x8tqI/AAAAAAAACts/KGOakb8ULqUy4T1t62OoCsv7YNhicn-VwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/banner5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="1600" height="174" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oDRVqVAlJSc/Xe5an3x8tqI/AAAAAAAACts/KGOakb8ULqUy4T1t62OoCsv7YNhicn-VwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/banner5.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://pierreblignaut.com/about/johannesburg/" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto slab" , serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">© </span>Pierre Blignaut</a></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal;">“So, if a city has a personality, maybe it also has a soul. Maybe it dreams.”</span></span><blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal;">― </span><span class="authorOrTitle" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; white-space: normal;">Neil Gaiman, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal;"></span><span id="quote_book_link_25103" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal;"><a class="authorOrTitle" href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1009277" style="color: #333333; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;">Worlds' End</a></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eish, Jozi . . . Ja, neh . . . Jozi, that great city where dreams and their dreamers are swallowed up whole more often than not. To survive in Jozi you don’t necessarily need the right tools, you need the creativity to make the wrong tools work for you. Like many major cities around the world, Jozi is made up of layers. The top layer is the rough and tough face of its everyday business, that mainly being people going about their business at a furious pace. The first lesson my mother taught me about this city is to keep moving and not to speak to anyone. On its surface, this warning always seemed like it was about avoiding being a victim of crime but it also served as a warning about something stranger. The warning sometimes included the word </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">amasilamusi</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. A word that both intrigues and frightens me to this day. A word that made quite the impact on Twitter last week.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The great city of Jozi has a mystical layer that appears on the surface every now and then but that usually exists under everything else or on the fringes. In Neil Gaiman’s novel, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Neverwhere </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">another London exists below the hustle and bustle of the familiar one on the surface, a mysterious and magical London Below. Inspector Tyador Borlú finds himself trying to solve a crime that spills over into a city that occupies the same space as his city in China Miéville’s novel, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The City and the City.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> A city most can see from the corner of their eye but avoid focusing on. In Jozi, too, below its bustle and grime, there exists another Jozi. One most of us have heard about but tend to look at only from the corner of our eye, if ever at all. The citizens of Jozi learn to navigate the city around its strange elements.</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iGpMYjvZVv4/Xe5bcopdWxI/AAAAAAAACt0/-vA0uLbNQG0LrhcMsnojRwBXrn-AlVFRACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/img_9543-austin-malema-jhb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="1000" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iGpMYjvZVv4/Xe5bcopdWxI/AAAAAAAACt0/-vA0uLbNQG0LrhcMsnojRwBXrn-AlVFRACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/img_9543-austin-malema-jhb.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "alegreya sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a href="https://nontando58mposo.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/img_9543-austin-malema-jhb.jpg" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12.8px;">©</span> Austin Malema</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of these strange elements made an appearance on Twitter last week with Noluthando Zuma’s <a href="https://twitter.com/Thandoo_Zuma/status/1198272863301783552" target="_blank">Tweet</a> asking if people know about the taxi from Fourways to Bree that’s driven by a cat. Her Tweet blew up as others came forward with their own stories of this taxi driven by a cat looking to make ends meet. More people came forward with other equally strange experiences or stories from sources like cleaning ladies at work. In my own experience, cleaning ladies at work are an excellent source of all things weird and to do with witchcraft. The story with the cat makes for great memes but what stands out is how many people seem to have encountered this cat driving his route between Fourways and Bree. We might not be sure if this cat plays </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maskande </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amapiano </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">on his drive but we all do believe the story on some level. The concept of </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">isalamuzi </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">amasilamusi </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">came up, with people reporting having had their heartbeats stolen by a driver that made sounds like a baby or purred like a cat.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My mother’s warning about Jozi was also a warning about </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">amasilamusi</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, whose powers seem to change according to whoever tells the story but there are overlapping elements in all the stories. One of my mother’s experiences with these people, creatures or whatever they are, happened in the late ‘90s. She was coming out from the now infamous Smal Street Mall when she was stopped by an old lady asking for directions. My mother made the rookie mistake of stopping the hear the lady out and fell under some spell. She says she lost control of her wits and found herself going to an ATM with this lady and withdrawing her daily limit. The whole thing was like being in a dream. Next thing she was in an alley with this woman and some men carrying a suitcase filled with money. The old woman told my mom to hand over the money to the men and take the suitcase from them. The idea was that the two of them split the money in the suitcase. My mother obliged and made the exchange. And just like a dream, the next thing she remembers is being in a taxi from Faraday to Turffontein. The suitcase was now a Checkers plastic bag in her lap filled with cut-up newspaper. She told the people in the taxi what had happened to her and, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, they told her it was the work of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">amasilamusi</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.rubismecenat.fr/en/photographers-mentors/thandile-zwelibanzi/" target="_blank">© Thandile Zwelibanzi</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Apparently, some </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">amasilamusi </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">are so powerful that they can steal all the money on your person by merely touching you and when you get home all you have is worthless paper where the money was. This only happens if you talk to them, though. That seems to be their one binding rule, that their powers can’t affect you unless you speak to them. Most of us have a blueprint to navigate this other Jozi because our parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents told us these stories but it becomes buried in our subconscious at some point, operating in the background. Noluthando Zuma’s Tweet about that industrious cat has taken the world of </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">amasilamusi </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and introduced it to Twitter. The result has been largely hilarious and a bit frightening but my thinking here, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">eyam’ iworry</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is whether </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">amasilamusi </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">are ready for Twitter? Can their world still exist in the shadows with Black Twitter’s finest on the lookout?</span></div>
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com037249 Neu-Eichenberg, Germany51.3845581 9.8949135000000351.3052796 9.73355200000003 51.4638366 10.05627500000003tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-8257490508291067412019-10-23T14:53:00.000+02:002019-10-23T14:53:09.877+02:00Todd Phillips's Joker doesn't reach the lofty heights it's reaching for<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.5px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">My original article <a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/197031.html" style="color: #00a1d3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.5px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">23 October 2019</span></span></div>
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I remember first hearing about <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Joker</i> around this time last year and not giving it much attention - until I started seeing the marketing footage over the next few months.</div>
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A lot of the visual style made me think of Lee Bermejo’s illustrations in Brian Azzarello’s brilliant 2008 graphic novel, <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Joker</em>. The end result does bear some resemblance but you can see that there isn’t a direct inspiration or anything. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br class="kClearLeft" style="clear: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<br class="kClearLeft" style="clear: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><h2 style="font-family: "Roboto Condensed", "Arial Condensed", Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin: 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px;">
Scorsese in the Batman universe </h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Some of Alan Moore’s <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Killing Joke </em>is in there somewhere. And I can even argue for Grant Morrison’s <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Arkham Asylum</em> inspiring a lot of the film’s take on mental health in the modern age. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I would say that writer/director Todd Phillips (<em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">War Dogs) </em>went with his own take on this iconic character, though. And the result is a character study that leaves the viewer feeling unsettled.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<br class="kClearLeft" style="clear: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Phillips and his team draw heavy inspiration from Martin Scorsese’s films, <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Taxi Driver </em>(1976) and <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The King of Comedy </em>(1982). Quite amusing. Scorsese views all these comic book movies from the last decade as not being “real” cinema – much in the same way that comic books are often not viewed as “real” literature.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The comic book film aspect of <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Joker </em>sits in the back row of what this film is about, even more so than in Christopher Nolan’s gritty and “realistic” Batman trilogy. So, what I’m saying is that <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Joker </em>is a Scorsese-esque film that happens to play out in the Batman universe.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><h2 style="font-family: "Roboto Condensed", "Arial Condensed", Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin: 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px;">
Dark and twisted </h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The film has a lot going for it. The cinematography is gorgeous! This 1980s Gotham City is dark, gritty, straight up dirty and the atmosphere is oppressive. The city itself makes you feel depressed, and it’s the sort of place where people’s psyches are broken. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<br class="kClearLeft" style="clear: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Joaquin Phoenix (<em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Irrational Man</em>) portrays the mentally-troubled comedian Arthur Fleck, who lives with his ill and equally mentally-troubled mother. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />He’s bullied at work and in public and just waiting to have a nervous breakdown. Phoenix’s performance is breathtaking but also feels forced at times.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The supporting cast consists of Robert de Niro as Murray Franklin, a talk show host Fleck admires; Zazie Beetz as Fleck’s neighbour and love interest, Sophie Dumond; Frances Conroy plays Fleck’s mother, Penny; and Brett Cullen plays a Thomas Wayne who is more ruthless businessman than the philanthropic version we’re used to.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<br class="kClearLeft" style="clear: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />As a character study, <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Joker</em> focuses on the circumstances that eventually lead to Fleck’s utter and violent breakdown. This is a character suffering from mental illness, who comes from a broken and abusive home trying to survive from day to day in a city whose institutions fail to help him. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><h2 style="font-family: "Roboto Condensed", "Arial Condensed", Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin: 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px;">
Mental illness and economic inequality </h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />This is something we see in our own societies, where funding meant to assist people who need it never seems to actually make it to the institutions responsible for this assistance. Meanwhile, you have people like Thomas Wayne sitting in their mansions and judging the people on the ground as being clowns who are too lazy to do anything with their lives. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Fleck is also misunderstood at work, adding to his difficulties to deal with his reality.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />When he finally has a nervous breakdown, a wave of violence ensues and this is where people are divided on what to think of the film.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<br class="kClearLeft" style="clear: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Are we to sympathise with this character? Is the film a warning to us of what happens when we ignore the troubles of those around us? Does the film encourage violence in a time where mass shootings in the United States have become a fairly regular occurrence? It’s all up for discussion.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Joker </em>is a film that tries to take us deep into the troubled mind of someone alienated by society, and explores the catastrophic results of that alienation. The film succeeds in many ways to do this but a lot of it also just feels flimsy, like the whole premise is built on a house of cards. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Especially when you look at all the characters around Fleck, most of them are having just as difficult a time as he is but they don’t go on any shooting sprees. His neighbour is a struggling single mother living in the same squalid apartment block he does. You could centre a whole film around her. The film also doesn’t actually do much work exploring Fleck’s mental illness. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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An incomplete character study</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />He bursts out laughing at inappropriate times and has delusions, but we aren’t given any deeper explanation than that. In the end, I’d say that the film gives us an incomplete character study compared to let’s say a great example like Walter White from <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Breaking Bad </em>but that’s an unfair comparison, perhaps.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><div class="insert-feature" style="border-bottom: 4px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); border-top: 4px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 15px 0px;">
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<a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/196548.html" style="color: #264ea0; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Joker is less of a tour de force and more of tragic caricature" height="120" src="https://biz-file.com/c/1910/520713-120x120.jpg?2" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px; width: 100px;" width="120" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/196548.html" style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2em !important; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none !important;"><i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Joker</i> is less of a <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">tour de force</i> and more of tragic caricature</a></h5>
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I am as big a champion of the villain's story being told as you could hope to find. My academic research and vast collection of Evil Queen memorabilia can attest to this...</div>
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<span class="cbi-b-footer-title" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">BY</span> <a class="highlight jxPHOH" href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Profile/NatalieLeClue" style="color: #c11b17; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;">NATALIE LE CLUE</a> 10 OCT 2019</div>
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<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />A better comparison is to the other portrayals of the character in cinema over the years, especially to Jared Leto’s take on the character in <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Suicide Squad </em>and Heath Ledger’s take in <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Dark Knight</em>. I still find it difficult to make a comparison because all the other portrayals are very much comic book villains with the usual outlandish evil plans. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zAGVQLHvwOY" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Jared Leto’s Joker is silly at best and Heath Ledger’s version makes for a better comparison. The Heath Ledger version has the advantage of being able to stay shrouded in mystery and that being the whole point. He’s a force of chaos and we don’t know where he got those scars, but that’s what makes him scarier. He’s also not the focal point and responsible for carrying the whole film so it’s easier to praise him as the better Joker.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />My verdict is that the film has a lot going for it, and it’s worth the trip to the cinema. The cinematography is a thing of beauty and the acting brilliant (with some over-the-top moments from Phoenix) but the movie doesn’t reach the lofty heights it’s reaching for.</div>
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com0Leipzig, Germany51.3396955 12.37307469999996151.022287 11.72762769999996 51.657104 13.018521699999962tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-10467172438272764052019-10-21T09:38:00.000+02:002019-10-21T09:38:00.211+02:00Occasional Letters to Death #3 / Letters to God #8 / Chill Sessions with Joy #1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: adobe-garamond-pro; font-size: 20px; text-indent: -20px;">"Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write."</span></blockquote>
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- Sir Philip Sidney</blockquote>
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Hello,<br />
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Death, God, Joy,<br />
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Remember me? It's been a while since I wrote to you last. I apologise. Life happened. I should be thankful for Life, I guess.<br />
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Death, you've been sticking quite close to me these last years. I won't even front, your call has been very enticing and I'm hoping to find a way to stave you off a while by writing these letters. I'm trying for that Drake More Life kind of thing.<br />
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God, how are you? I sure have strayed far from the flock. I've been busy being woke. So, no time to talk when I don't even know if I believe. The prodigal son returns it would seem.<br />
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Joy, I've been very far from you, indeed. You think it would be okay if we talk every now and then?<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: adobe-garamond-pro; font-size: 20px; text-indent: -20px;">"Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show"</span></blockquote>
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I'm 32 now! I've has some success and just a whole lot of failure. I got married. In that time I've caused my wife more tears than laughter. I miss laughter. I became part of a team writing children's books. That fell apart. I joined a team working on some EduTech software. That relationship fell apart. Life's been hard but I really want to change that for the better. So, I'm thinking that I need to sit down and put my thoughts to paper, make that commitment.<br />
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I want to fall in love with Life. I'm hoping that turning to verse or, rather, turning to the written word in general, I can explore that love in fall deeper into it in the process. I'm 32 now and can feel that this living in the light of past mistakes isn't working out for me. I need to do better and to be better.<br />
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I've picked up my pen again and hope that these sessions with all of you result in me being a better person.<br />
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Let's talk again, right? This is good, right?<br />
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Charles</div>
Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com0Leipzig, Germany51.3396955 12.37307469999996151.022287 11.72762769999996 51.657104 13.018521699999962tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-30431507665355999282019-05-06T15:34:00.000+02:002019-05-06T15:34:49.006+02:00Will we ever witness a superhero spectacle as grand as Avengers: Endgame?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.5px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">My original article <a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/190456.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.5px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">6 May 2019</span></span></div>
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Last year, at pretty much exactly this time I sat down and wrote about how <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avengers: Infinity War</i> lives up to the 10 years and 18 Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies worth of hype. And here I am doing it again for the spectacle that is <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avengers: End Game</i>.</div>
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<a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/176551.html" style="color: #264ea0; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Avengers: Infinity War lives up to high expectations" height="120" src="https://biz-file.com/c/1805/438868-120x120.png?2" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px; width: 100px;" width="120" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/176551.html" style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2em !important; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none !important;"><i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avengers: Infinity War</i> lives up to high expectations</a></h5>
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Ten years, 18 movies, a lot of hype and finally <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avengers: Infinity War</i> arrives. The question is, does the movie deliver?</div>
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<span class="cbi-b-footer-title" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">BY</span> <a class="highlight jxPHOH" href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Profile/CharlesSiboto" style="color: #c11b17; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;">CHARLES SIBOTO</a> 2 MAY 2018</div>
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<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I say spectacle because this is what directors, Anthony and Joe Russo, have given us. They’ve made a film that surpasses ridiculously high expectations and services, now, 21 preceding MCU films with an insane amount of love and detail. This is by no means a perfect film in the sense that when YouTubers pick it apart and agonise over every detail that everything makes sense. We live in a time in which everyone’s a screenwriter and knows better than the people paid to do so – no film or series can meet those expectations.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br class="kClearLeft" style="clear: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<br class="kClearLeft" style="clear: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />This past weekend was huge for the geeky fandom. <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avengers: Endgame </em>was released to huge hype and the third episode of the last season of <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Game of Thrones </em>promised us the biggest and longest night battle sequence since the battle of Helm’s Deep in <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. </em>Social media was buzzing (and still is) with memes, spoilers and on Monday morning perhaps a sense of disappointment. I think both <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Endgame </em>and <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Game of Thrones </em>delivered and that emptiness that we now feel is that we won’t see such spectacle for a long time. Both Thanos and the Night King represent such a huge scale of threat and villainy that we just honestly don’t know where to go after this.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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Picking up where we left off</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I digress, though, we’re here for me to tell you about <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Endgame.</em> I thought that after <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avengers: Infinity War </em>that all this movie could hope for is to be as good as that but, no, it goes and far surpasses that movie! The 181 minutes of runtime means that the movie pays attention to all the characters and give them all a bit of the spotlight. This also means that the movie can hit different thematic beats in its story. The movie opens with the remaining Avengers and the rest of the world recovering from and dealing with the repercussions of that finger snap from the last film that resulted in half of all life in the universe being wiped out. Everyone’s grieving and we spend time with the surviving characters, all of whom have lost people. The Avengers are not used to losing and Thanos has soundly defeated them so they’re at their lowest.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><div class="insert-feature" style="border-bottom: 4px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); border-top: 4px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 15px 0px;">
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<a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/190268.html" style="color: #264ea0; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Avengers: Endgame is emotive and impactful" height="120" src="https://biz-file.com/c/1904/494561-120x120.jpg?2" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px; width: 100px;" width="120" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/190268.html" style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2em !important; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none !important;"><i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avengers: Endgame</i> is emotive and impactful</a></h5>
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<i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avengers: Endgame</i> has ensured that a 10-year journey has come to an end with a film so emotive and impactful that it will be spoken about, in reverence, for some time to come...</div>
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<span class="cbi-b-footer-title" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">BY</span> <a class="highlight jxPHOH" href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Profile/NatalieLeClue" style="color: #c11b17; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;">NATALIE LE CLUE</a> 30 APR 2019</div>
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<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />All the characters deal with their grief in their own way. Hawkeye is back and pretty much on a criminal murder spree after his family gets dusted. Tony Stark is angry at Captain America for not being there when he needed him and for the rift created between the team after the events of <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Captain America: Civil War.</em> The Cap is running a survivor’s support group where he helps people move on from their grief but admits that he can’t move on.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<br class="kClearLeft" style="clear: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Natasha tries to hold the rest of the Avengers team together because they’re the only family she has. Thor is in a state of self-loathing because he should have gone for the head. Everyone’s pretty much not having a great time. This part of the story also reveals a flaw in Thanos’ plan. He erased half of life in the universe but the remaining half hasn’t forgotten and instead of moving on people are stuck in their grief and the world goes through somewhat of an apocalypse because, well, half of the universe’s workforce is just gone.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><h2 style="font-family: "Roboto Condensed", "Arial Condensed", Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin: 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px;">
Fan service and Easter eggs abound (*Spoiler alert*)</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />You can’t keep the Avengers down for too long, though, and the movie kicks it up a gear when Ant-Man escapes from the quantum realm and puts time travel on the table for the team. They come up with a plan they refer to as a time heist and go off to try and get back everything they lost. The time heist allows for many, many callbacks through the MCU’s past movies. This part is pure fan service and just a treasure trove of Easter eggs. The references to the MCU are just brilliant and the nods to other time travel movies make for a lot of laughs.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />This part of the film is Marvel showing off their amazing ability to use humour whilst still making you feel like everything you love will be lost. It’s quite magical. The time heist itself is wibbly wobbly timey wimey and probably doesn’t make sense if you overthink it. Things obviously go wrong when you mess with time and the action kicks in on an epic scale from here on. It would be too much of a spoiler to tell you how huge everything becomes from here! Again, all I can say is that it’s a spectacle of astounding proportions! Thanos is still very much the main threat and he is still as menacing as ever.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TcMBFSGVi1c" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Marvel has crafted a masterpiece with <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Endgame </em>and I think whatever they do from here on out, it will remain as a highlight that will not be overshadowed anytime soon. You don’t need to have watched all the 21 preceding movies to enjoy this movie, but it sure as hell makes your experience so much better if you did. The MCU has taken what for the longest time could only be successfully done on the pages of comic books, showing off the sheer spectacle of a huge space villain like Thanos, that Mad Titan hell-bent on destroying half the universe on a massive scale. You don’t even understand, this movie is me reading Grant Morrison’s epic comic book, <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Final Crisis </em>(DC, I know) and wondering how a comic book can be so massive in scale and emotion. Watching <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Endgame </em>is like that and as the credits roll up you wonder if you’ll ever feel this way again.</div>
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com0Cape Town, South Africa-33.9248685 18.424055299999964-34.768186 17.133161799999964 -33.081551000000005 19.714948799999963tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-57952429831941796722019-01-16T16:58:00.000+02:002019-01-16T16:58:52.391+02:00#BizTrends2019: 2019 at the movies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">My original article <a href="https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/728/184578.html" style="color: #00a1d3; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">15 Jan 2019</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Let's take a look at what 2019 has in store in the movies, shall we?</span><br />
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In tribute to the creator of worlds</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />On 13 November 2018, we lost the great Stan Lee, the man who gave us iconic comic book characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, and Black Panther. In tribute to this storytelling icon, we’re going to kick off our 2019 at the movies with all the comic book goodness in store for us.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />“Unbreakable, what, you thought they'd call me Mr. Glass?” Are we allowed to still quote Kanye West? Anyway, we kick things off with M. Night Shyamalan’s <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Glass</em>. The sequel to <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Unbreakable </em>(2000) and <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Split </em>(2016), making up the third part of the <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Unbreakable </em>series. Bruce Willis returns as the superhero David Dunn and James McAvoy in the persona of The Beast and his other split personalities. Samuel L Jackson’s Mr. Glass serves as the villain that orchestrates events. <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Glass</em> hits cinemas on 18 January.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/95ghQs5AmNk" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avengers: Infinity War </em>left many cinemagoers traumatised by Thanos’s finger snap and we need to know how the good guys will make a comeback in the sequel. From the end credits scene, we do know that Captain Marvel is going to play a part in saving the day. So while we wait for the second part of <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Infinity War </em>we can get ourselves clued up on Carol Danvers’s backstory in <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Captain Marvel </em>on 8 March. Then bounce right over to DC’s Captain Marvel, who can’t be called by that name, Shazam. On 5 April, we get <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Shazam! </em>The comic book movie we never really asked for. But here we are and at least it means we’ll see The Rock play Black Adam’s character somewhere down the line. The <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hellboy</em> series gets a more welcome revamp with David Harbour (<em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Stranger Things</em>) as the Big Red Demon. The film’s coming out guns blazing with an R-rating on 12 April. We get the <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Infinity War </em>sequel, <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avengers: End Game</em>, on 27 April. You know, the story we’re really looking forward to.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pyjvTmAfCmE" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Ah, the <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">X-Men </em>film series, where I have only the vaguest idea of what the timeline is. The 12<sup style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.83em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">th</sup> film in the series, <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Dark Phoenix </em>comes out on 7 June with Sophie Turner (<em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Game of Thrones)</em> reprising her role as Jean Grey and unleashing the iconic Phoenix character. Apparently, our favourite neighbourhood Spider-Man survives that whole <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Infinity War </em>mess<em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, </em>but he’s going to make it home late for supper and poor Aunt May’s worried. <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Spider-Man: Far From Home</em> comes out in theatres on 5 July. The rest of the year gives us <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">New Mutants </em>on 2 August and <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Joker </em>on 4 October.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6loOKKVgZeQ" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><h2 style="font-family: "Roboto Condensed", "Arial Condensed", Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin: 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px;">
“Go then, there are other worlds than these . . .”</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />It’s always okay to quote Stephen King. There’s more to the world than just comic book movies, so let’s look into that.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Remember that amazing 2011 French film, <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Intouchables</em>? It’s a pretty great film, right? Well, now you get to see it in American as <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Upside</em>, starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart on 11 January. Who understands French anyway? <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Lego Movie </em>gets a sequel on 8 February and <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World </em>gets a 22 February release.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EWw7rCHcduQ" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Jordan Peele brings us another horror film on 15 March titled, well, <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Us</em>. Plot details are still pretty hush-hush for now and the film stars Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, and Tim Heidecker. Tim Burton has not just been sitting around twiddling his thumbs either and 29 March sees his take on <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Dumbo</em>. The film stars Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, and Eva Green.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7NiYVoqBt-8" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />As I said, you can never go wrong with Stephen King and Hollywood agrees. We get two movies based on his books in the form of <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pet Sematary </em>on 5 April and <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It Chapter Two </em>on 6 September. Another movie that we didn’t know we want but it turns out we really do is <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pokémon: Detective Pikachu</em>! I can’t even front, you guys, I’m in. I’ll be there on 10 May to watch Pikachu solve things.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VllcgXSIJkE" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />John Wick is not done killing his way through hordes of bad guys in <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">John Wick 3: Parabellum</em> on 17 May. Disney is still on a roll and <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Aladdin </em>gets the live action treatment on 24 May; Will Smith gets the role of Genie. A living legend, Sir Elton John gets a biographical musical film based on his life in the form of <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Rocketman </em>on 31 May, the same day we have Godzilla trampling a city or two in <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Godzilla: King of Monsters</em>. You still have a friend in <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Toy Story </em>in its fourth installment on 21 June.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DtVBCG6ThDk" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The second half of the year brings highlights such as <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Lion King </em>in its CGI format, <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Artemis Fowl</em> and <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Frozen 2</em>. We also get a Quentin Tarantino picture titled, <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Once Upon a Time in Hollywood</em> on 26 July with the Manson Family murders of 1969 serving as a backdrop. The film stars names like Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, and Dakota Fanning. We get a <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Star Wars </em>Christmas again this year with <em style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Episode IX </em>on 20 December. JJ Abrams is back in the director’s chair in the closing chapter of the new trilogy.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-obWOz2dCdo" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />That's that from me. Here’s to a great 2019 at the movies. Excelsior!</div>
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com0Cape Town, South Africa-33.9248685 18.424055299999964-34.768186 17.133161799999964 -33.081551000000005 19.714948799999963tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-23986126470640518212018-09-13T17:09:00.001+02:002018-09-13T17:09:44.227+02:00The Blacksmith and the Dragonfly<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>Ndiliswa dreams of becoming a warrior and the commander of the royal guard. But she is the daughter of a poor blacksmith, who makes spears just to get by. Prince Siyabulela has never been a soldier like his younger brother and his father fears that he's not fit to be the next king. When Siyabulela is transformed into a dragonfly by a wicked spell, it is up to Ndiliswa to save the prince.</i><br />
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I'm super excited to be able to finally announce the beautiful South African fairy tale I've been working on with Riana Louw and Christelle Lambrechts! The Blacksmith and the Dragonfly is being published by Human & Rousseau and will be available in all good bookstores and from online retailers like takealot from the beginning of November 2018 for R160.</span></div>
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com0Leipzig, Germany51.3396955 12.37307469999996151.022287 11.72762769999996 51.657104 13.018521699999962tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-85833866023317464422018-06-14T15:00:00.000+02:002018-06-14T15:00:02.582+02:00#YouthMonth: Check up on your "strong friends"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.5px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">My original article <a href="http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/480/178327.html" style="color: #00a1d3; text-decoration: none;">here</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.5px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">14 June 2018</span></span></div>
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In my last two #YouthMonth articles I've admired the youth for speaking that <a href="http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/427/145961.html" style="color: #264ea0; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;">slick talk </a>that we do and for our <a href="http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/427/163610.html" style="color: #264ea0; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;">creative hustles</a>. We're pretty damn golden! This #YouthMonth I want to address something serious, something that we usually avoid talking about and something I wrangle with personally.</div>
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As I write this I’ve just found out that celebrity chef and all-around television personality, Anthony Bourdain has committed suicide. Fashion designer Kate Spade also committed suicide recently. In the last few years, the world has lost Robin Williams, Chris Cornell, Chester Bennington, and many other people to suicide. I have lost two friends to suicide in the last two years.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><div class="insert-feature" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 4px; border-top-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 4px; font-family: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 15px 0px;">
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CNN has confirmed the death of American chef, author, and television personality, Anthony Bourdain, who was 61 years of age...</div>
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<span class="cbi-b-footer-title" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">BY</span> <a class="highlight jxPHOH" href="http://www.bizcommunity.com/Profile/JuanitaPienaar" style="color: #c11b17; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;">JUANITA PIENAAR</a> 8 JUN 2018</div>
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<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />When I was growing up most of the suicide stories on the news were people who were in debt or whose lives were ruined on a tragic Shakespearean scale. Depression, in its many forms, existed then too and many people who suffered from it did commit suicide but it wasn’t reported much and was surrounded by stigma. While there's still a stigma around depression and other forms of mental illness today, we’re moving forward and recognising it and talking about it.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br class="kClearLeft" style="clear: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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Royce da 5'9"</div>
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The vocal generation</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Young people are dealing with a lot of things and, contrary to what older people believe, life is difficult. We're standing on the shoulders of giants like umama uWinnie Mandela and we're trying our best to build the sort of society they envisioned and fought for. The older generation was made of tougher stuff, the stuff of legends really, but they did sweep some issues under the ol' rug and we're trying deal with those issues today. After apartheid, we didn't have the tough conversations we needed to and that can be seen in the racism and inequality that still plague us and we're plagued by sexism and homophobia.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />We're the generation that is starting to speak up about things like the sexual abuse that women have been dealing with and continue to deal with. Our Truth and Reconciliation Commision is taking people to task and having them take responsibility everywhere we can, whether it's on Twitter, in the workplace or our universities. We're trying to build a nation here and every topic, no matter how uncomfortable, is on the agenda. Depression is definitely on the agenda because we need to take care of our mental health as much as we take care of our physical health so that we can get on with the business of nation-building.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YumeZzWAUuI" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><h2 style="font-family: 'Roboto Condensed', 'Arial Condensed', Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin: 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px;">
Popular music dealing with depression</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I've been listening to a lot of the new releases in popular music over the last months and I've noticed depression as a running theme with a lot of new albums, especially in hip-hop. J. Cole dropped <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">KOD (Kids on Drugs, King OverDose or Kill Our Demons)</i> in April and explores drug addiction in the music business and just in normal life as a result of modern society's pressures and depression. He goes on to recommend meditation over medication. The ever-controversial Kanye West has been seemingly losing his mind more than usual on Twitter making comments about slavery being a choice and praising a very problematic Trump. I've always been a fan of Ye's music because of its poignant tones of existential crisis. The dude was clearly busy in the studio whilst being crazy on Twitter, though, working on three projects: Pusha T's <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Daytona</i>, his own <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Ye</i> and his collaboration with Kid Cudi, <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Kids See Ghosts</i>. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y8ibdsPYOgw" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />On the latter two projects, Kanye gets into his struggles with mental health (the text on the cover reads: I hate being Bi-Polar it's awesome) and Kid Cudi's struggles with depression and suicidal urges have been in the public sphere for years. In a 2014 interview Kid Cudi stated, "I’ve dealt with suicide for the past five years. There wasn’t a week or a day that didn’t go by where I was just like, ‘You know, I wanna check out.’ I know what that feels like, I know it comes from loneliness, I know it comes from not having self-worth, not loving yourself." He checked himself into rehabilitation for depression and suicidal urges in 2016.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />What really got me thinking about depression and mental health more than I usually do, though, was Royce da 5'9"'s <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Book of Ryan</i>. He has a song on there, <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Strong Friend</i>, in which he explores depression and suicide in some detail, especially among friends we think of as strong. These strong friends are usually the ones that are hurting the most and are barely holding it together. They keep their pain to themselves because of the stigma associated with mental illness. He encourages people, especially black people, to seek out help and for us to check on our friends more and not to think they're okay because they look okay on the outside. At the end of the song he quotes other personalities (and himself) in the entertainment business who've committed suicide or addressed mental illness:<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uo-lhKMdccE" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Depression and other mental illnesses are serious and we have to address them the same way in which we would a disease that afflicts our bodies. Life is difficult for young people and many of us are strong and it amazes me how so many of us overcome almost insurmountable challenges in the pursuit of our dreams. Young people hustle hard but we must also take care of ourselves and our friends. Instead of making it difficult for people who struggle with depression we should create an environment where people can come and talk to us about their struggles. I love how people are sharing information on job opportunities, information on where to get psychiatric help, ways for women to access safe abortion clinics or pretty much anything helpful on Twitter in the form of RT to save a life. That's exactly how we should look out for each other. Check up on your friends this #YouthMonth and beyond, even if they seem to be strong on the outside.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Check out The South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), they are SA’s largest Mental Health Advocacy Group.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />You can find them on:<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/TheSADAG" style="color: #264ea0; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">@TheSADAG</a> (RT to save a life), 0800 21 22 23 or 0800 12 13 14 (24Hrs) or <a href="http://sadag.org/" style="color: #264ea0; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">sadag.org</a>.</div>
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com037249 Neu-Eichenberg, Germany51.3845581 9.8949135000000351.3052796 9.73355200000003 51.4638366 10.05627500000003tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-57493467142212198672018-05-02T13:47:00.000+02:002018-05-02T13:47:33.951+02:00Avengers: Infinity War lives up to high expectations<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.5px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">My original article <a href="http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/176551.html">here</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">Ten years, 18 movies, a lot of hype and finally </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avengers: Infinity War</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"> arrives. The question is, does the movie deliver?</span></div>
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Especially when expectations are so high? When the Avengers first assembled in 2012 it was the sort of ambitious event that comic book fans never dreamed was possible for a film. When 2015's <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avengers: Age of Ultron</i> landed the magic was still there but Joss Whedon, the man at the helm of both those Avengers films felt the strain and bowed out. After a great showing with <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Captain America: The Winter Soldier</i> (2014), directors Antony and Joe Russo were hired to direct <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Infinity War</i> and its 2019 sequel. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br class="kClearLeft" style="clear: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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One epic package</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Over the last 10 years, Marvel Studios has managed to deliver blockbuster after blockbuster and the Russos were tasked with taking all of that material and putting it together in an epic package. I am happy to report that they deliver a movie that takes all the different tones and characters from all of the preceding movies and blends them together to produce something quite magical. There are a lot of moving parts in this movie and somehow it all comes together perfectly.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Infinity War</i> is not the best movie Marvel Studios has produced if you look at it as a standalone and it was never meant to be. This is meant to be grand-scale spectacle following 10 years of build up and, yet, the movie manages to have pathos and carry itself with a sort of grace I did not expect. You know that the stakes are quite high coming into the film but you don't expect the movie to make you feel as deeply as it does. As a fan who knows that the movie draws heavily from Jim Starlin's 1991 comic book <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Infinity Gauntlet</i>, I knew what to expect coming in but somehow the events that take place managed to surprise and somewhat shock me. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<br class="kClearLeft" style="clear: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />All the characters we know and love are all there but this is Thanos's story, for the most part, Thanos on his quest to collect all of the Infinity Stones. Josh Brolin's Thanos is larger than life, he has gravitas, commands respect and dominates all the scenes he is in. As soon as you first see him you feel that you are in the presence of a superior being. He is on a mission to wipe out half of life in the universe, balance the scales, as it were and he has an indomitable will to get it done. He is not just a generic big bad, there is a charm to him and a certain sadness. You almost want to take his side.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><h2 style="font-family: 'Roboto Condensed', 'Arial Condensed', Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin: 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px;">
Character continuity</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />We have seen the Avengers assemble and have had a bunch of them onscreen at the same time, but not like this. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) did stand out for me among the good guys and his arc is quite strong and well done. All your other favourites are here and definitely not to be messed with. Events pretty much kick off straight after <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Thor: Ragnarok</i> and <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Panther</i>. All the players in those movies are where we last saw them, in space and in Wakanda. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The Guardians of the Galaxy show up (with all the humour they always bring to a party), as do Doctor Strange, Wong, Iron Man, Spider-man, Captain America, Black Widow, Falcon, Scarlett Witch, Vision, and War Machine. There are some surprise characters that are a nice touch as well. The story even takes time to throw in some Norse mythology Easter eggs with Thor's storyline. You can't be a self-respecting villain without some henchmen and Thanos has some zealous and pretty scary ones referred to as his Children. There is the hulking (pun intended) Cull Obsidian, the truly terrifying sorcerer Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The film is quite long at 149 minutes but the pacing is done so well that you don't get tired of watching or feel like scenes are merely there as padding, which was the case in <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Star Wars: The Last Jedi</i>. Like <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Last Jedi</i>, this movie does spend some time subverting fan theories and delivers some nice surprises as a result. Many people will find it annoying that issues aren't resolved and that is to be expected. The movie does all it can to be the spectacle that it is and that we wanted, it delivers a villain worthy of waiting 10 years for and it is a good story that manages to juggle a huge cast of characters and locations quite nicely. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6ZfuNTqbHE8" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avengers: Infinity War</i> manages to live up to very high expectations and though it's quite self-contained it does leave you wanting more, which you will get in the 2019 sequel. As is tradition, stay for the end-credits scene and its Easter egg.</div>
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com0Leipzig, Germany51.3396955 12.37307469999996151.022287 11.72762769999996 51.657104 13.018521699999962tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-19971715262734070182018-03-20T13:53:00.000+02:002018-03-20T13:58:46.496+02:00Avengers: Infinity War is upon us<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We have waited 10 years to get to this point and it looks like Marvel Studios is going to deliver their most epic movie to date. When that first trailer dropped and I heard Thanos' menacing voice I was simultaneously excited and had chills running down my spine.<br />
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"In time, you will know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you're right, yet to fail all the same. Dread it. Run from it. Destiny still arrives."<br />
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Marvel has just been going from strength to strength since first giving us <i>Iron Man</i> as an introduction to their shared universe. They have had some low points in their 17-movie run but they had a long-term vision and learned from their setbacks.<br />
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The first Iron Man movie has stood the test of time and remains a classic and many still consider it to be the best movie in the MCU. The sequel is less than memorable and then they made up for it again with a solid third installment, post-<i>Avengers</i>. The first Captain America was so-so and then the sequel, <i>the Winter Soldier</i> was so good that the directors, the Russo brothers were bumped up to direct <i>Avengers: Infinity War</i>. The third entry, <i>Civil War</i> served a bit like Avengers 2.5 movie. The first two Thor movies struggled to find their feet but with last year's <i>Thor: Ragnarok</i> they made a gem. <i>The Incredible Hulk</i> is probably their lowest point and one that I always skip when I have a Marvel marathon.<br />
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<i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i> came out of nowhere with James Gunn at the helm. It was another <i>Iron Man</i> situation with Marvel taking a risk on fairly unknown characters and making a space opera. The risk paid off because both <i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i> movies are a lot of fun and fan favourites. This opened the door for movies like <i>Ant-Man</i> and <i>Doctor Strange</i>. Marvel also had a big win when they managed to get the rights to Spider-Man from Sony as he is quite critical to the Infinity Gauntlet in the comics and just a great character. <i><a href="http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/174085.html">Black Panther</a></i> deserves a post all of its own. I expected it to be good but it exceeded all expectations and is a phenomenon.<br />
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We have seen the Avengers assemble 2.5 times now and the Guardians team up twice but on April 27 we see the whole MCU come together to face the Mad Titan, Thanos! It looks like it's going to be a great day at the movies.<br />
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com0Cape Town, South Africa-33.9248685 18.424055299999964-34.768186 17.133161799999964 -33.081551000000005 19.714948799999963tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-65108157841429304562018-03-01T17:12:00.002+02:002020-05-23T14:07:07.350+02:00Mine by Sally Partridge, Book Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://sapartridge.com/">Sally Partridge’s</a> YA novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mine </i>hits harder than Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir. Reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mine </i>feels like you’re on a runaway train that is threatening to derail at any moment. By the end, you need to catch your breath and check for any injuries that you might have sustained. Yes, it’s that good. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mine </i>is the story of two Capetonian teenagers, Kayla and Fin struggling to make sense of life and love. It’s a story that’s as tragic as it’s beautiful. The story’s gritty and doesn’t treat difficult issues like sex and alcohol with kid gloves. If you live in Cape Town and are familiar with the surrounding areas you’re sure to get even more of a kick out of this novel because the manner in which Sally Partridge writes about the city is like it’s also a character in the story. You’re also in for some great music and comic book references. Music and pop culture play a huge part in the life of most teenagers and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mine </i>is told through that lens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kayla Murphy is 16 and totally cool but she doesn’t know it. She doesn’t believe in love because she has been hurt too many times. She has learned time and time again that guys are asshats and only want you for one thing. What she doesn’t realise is that although she might feel broken she is beautiful, with her blue hair, ripped jeans, Vans sneakers and Led Zeppelin t-shirts. She is also an amazing skater, knows more about comic books than most guys and she is a total classical music nerd, with the flute b</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 16.9pt;">eing her instrument of choice. Finlay September is enthralled with her from the first day he sees her zooming by on her skateboard and giving him the finger. He is 19 and has a host of his own issues. He is repeating matric and it looks like he is well on his way to failing again. His situation at home is quite bad, what with his dad who beats him when he is not neglecting him. He has his music going for him, though. He is the frontman of a popular band on the Cape Town circuit, Dark Father. When he gets on stage and spits his hard-hitting lyrics he transforms from Fin to Thor and he is a god. These two characters collide and a love affair like no other ensues. Their love affair is beautiful, intense and tragic because of meddling from outside, miscommunication and trust issues. Both these characters are emotionally intense and have deep-seated issues with loving and being loved.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sally Partridge excels at portraying characters that you can relate to and whose emotional state mirrors that of many teenagers. Navigating love is difficult and Kayla and Fin deal with many obstacles as they try to stay together and be each other’s mine. Kayla’s character is the most complex and intriguing. She has to deal with bullying, slut-shaming and not knowing when to say no when guys are just using her for sex. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mine</i> takes you on an emotionally intense ride but tells an important story of how difficult life and love is for teenagers these days. Some people might be put off by the swearing, alcohol, drugs and sex in a YA novel but the reality is that this is what teenagers are dealing with and shying away from those themes doesn’t help anyone. Kayla and Fin’s story is worth the bumpy ride.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com0Cape Town, South Africa-33.9248685 18.424055299999964-34.768186 17.133161799999964 -33.081551000000005 19.714948799999963tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-52744456019407340812018-03-01T16:00:00.001+02:002018-03-01T16:00:36.565+02:00Inclusive storytelling with Black Panther<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: x-small; line-height: 22.5px;">My original article <a href="http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/174085.html">here</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.5px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">26 Feb 2018</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">Shall we discuss the giant black panther currently in the room? I have been keeping track of the production of Marvel's</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"> </span><i style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Panther</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">for the last two years and the end result is beyond anything I could have imagined. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">I honestly thought that </span><i style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Panther</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"> would be on the same level as </span><i style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Dr Strange</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"> and </span><i style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Spider-Man: Homecoming</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">; that it would be solid but serve more as just another introduction of a new character to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You know, setting up all the pieces for </span><i style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avengers: Infinity War</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">. I should have known better, I really should. I should have know when the legendary South African actor, John Kani appeared as King T’Chaka in </span><i style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Captain America: Civil War</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"> and greeted his son, T’Challa, in Xhosa that it was a foreshadow to something that would turn the world on its head. </span><i style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Panther</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"> is a great Marvel movie but it has also managed to give black people a sense of pride at a time when we need it most. When I went to see </span><i style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Wonder Woman</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"> last year I walked out of the cinema grinning from ear to ear because it came at a time women needed a heroine. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">I walked out of the cinema after watching </span><i style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Panther</i><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"> and I was stunned at how good it felt to see a comic movie and relate to it with your heart and soul. As a black, Xhosa-speaking South African I’d venture to say that I got more from the film than a black American did. But, hey, there is more than enough meaning in the movie to go around for everyone. I don’t know if what I am writing next is going to be a review or a verbal rain dance giving thanks to Marvel Studios and Ryan Coogler for telling a story that gives voice to a people.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I do not dare to give away too much of the plot because you really have to experience it for yourself but, in a nutshell: <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Panther</i> kicks off right after Civil War and T’Challa arrives back in Wakanda to take up his deceased father’s mantle as king. Chadwick Boseman plays the character of a son who has to step up and be king in a quiet and thoughtful manner. His rule is challenged from within Wakanda and also from without. There is also conflict within himself about what sort of king he wishes to be and in what direction he will lead his people. Andy Serkis’s Ulysses Klaue is cruel and has this crazy sense of humour that you can’t help but like. They have Andy Serkis really lay that South African accent on you and it works. Klaue quickly gives way to Erik Killmonger as the main villain of the piece. Michael B. Jordan steals the show and his Killmonger sends chills down your spine whilst simultaneously breaking your heart. Killmonger is the MCU’s most tragic villain and while you know that he has to be stopped the reasons he does what he does, make sense. He is the Hamlet of Wakanda.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The female characters are my favourite. The women of Wakanda are intelligent, resourceful, and will definitely kick your ass! T’Challa’s love interest is Nakia played by the gorgeous Lupita Nyong’o. She is an undercover spy and can more than hold her own in any situation. Letitia Wright plays T’Challa’s sister, Shuri. At age 16 she is Wakanda’s genius inventor who takes every opportunity to make fun of her older brother. Danai Gurira’s Okoye is Wakanda’s greatest warrior. She is head of the Dora Milaje, the elite, all-female unit that guards the king. She is no-nonsense and loyal to the throne.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other characters that stand out are Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross, Daniel Kaluuya from <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Get Out</i> as W’Kabi, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Forest Whitaker as Zuri, and the graceful Angela Basset as Romanda, T’Challa’s mother. John Kani returns from <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Civil War</i> to portray T’Chaka and his son, Atandwa Kani portrays a young T’Chaka. Another South African television and film veteran, Connie Chiume appears as the elder of the Mining Tribe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Wakanda that director Ryan Coogler and his team have brought to life is a visual miracle. In the trailer, you hear Everett Ross’s character say: “I have seen gods fly. I have seen men build weapons that I couldn't even imagine. I've seen aliens drop from the sky. But I have never seen anything like this.” We have seen places like Asgard and Xandar but we have not seen anything like Wakanda. The research that Coogler’s team did was clearly extensive. They took inspiration from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, and many other African countries to create the aesthetics of Wakanda. Throw in some advanced tech and you have an Afro-tech society like no other. We have long known that black culture inspires many fashion trends so it comes as no surprise that everything in Wakanda drips style. Black culture has also always been at the forefront of music so it makes sense that the music in Black Panther, like in Luke Cage, can almost be seen as a character in its own right. The soundtrack, spearheaded by the urban poet (as Malusi Gigaba referred to him in the Budget Speech) Kendrick Lamar is worth listening to on its own. If you’re a fan of the <i>Black Panther</i> comic books, you’re also covered. The movie digs quite deep into the lore with many of its Easter eggs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Panther</i> is not merely a comic book film but a celebration that I think anyone can enjoy. You don’t have to be black or into comic books to enjoy this movie. It is not perfect but where it falters you can easily forgive those missteps. At some points, the actors butcher the Xhosa language but you can see that they gave it their best and you appreciate the effort. If you have not seen <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Panther</i> yet, go out and do so. #WakandaForever</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A note on representation and gatekeeping</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have been involved in nerd, geek, and pop culture ever since I picked up a copy of <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Spider-Man</i> in my first year of school and I love the community with my heart and soul but there is a large part of our culture that is toxic. The culture still has too many fragile male egos that rail against making room for women or people of colour. There is also still a hipster-like gatekeeping culture that bars anyone with only a casual or mainstream interest in the culture. If you don’t know what happened in <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Uncanny X-Men</i> #141-142, you’re not one of us. If you don’t know who the wizard, Radagast the Brown in <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Lord of the Rings</i> is, do you even really nerd, bro’? Seeing projects like <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Wonder Woman</i>, <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Luke Cage</i>, <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Panther</i> and the new <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Star Wars</i> films become more inclusive gives us hope that our culture will get to a point where we can tell the stories that make room for all of us as human beings. I always go back to Grant Morrison’s<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Final Crisis</i> as the high-water mark for the grand scale in which comic books can tell stories and a quote by one of the celestial beings (I always forget if it was Zillo Valla or Weeja Dell) monitoring the multiverse is what I think inclusive stories should be: “We all now have names and stories; there are heroes and villains, secrets and lovers.” That is what we all want, to have names and stories in the media. Films like <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Panther</i> bring us closer to that.</span></div>
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com0Cape Town, South Africa-33.9248685 18.424055299999964-34.768186 17.133161799999964 -33.081551000000005 19.714948799999963tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-53536171925433372822018-01-10T14:39:00.002+02:002018-01-10T14:39:57.528+02:00#BizTrends2018: Noteworthy films and film trends for 2018<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">My original article <a href="http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/728/171290.html">here</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">10 Jan 2018</span><br />
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Welcome to my 2018 edition of trends in film. Let's get right into it.</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Roboto Condensed', 'Arial Condensed', Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px;">A Star Wars Christmas 3.0</span></div>
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<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Disney has a plan to take some of your Christmas bonus money for at least the next 20 years. When it comes to the Star Wars franchise most of us are like, ‘shut up and take my money’. JJ Abrams gave us <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Episode VII: The Force Awakens</i> in 2015 in his usual fanboy love letter style and then Gareth Edwards gave us a prequel to the original trilogy that we did not know we needed but boy, did we! <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Rogue One: A Star Wars Story</i> answered the question of how the rebels got the plans for the Death Star and why it had such a stupid weak spot. We have yet to find out exactly how many Bothans died to get information on the second Death Star but we can’t have it all, now can we?<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q0CbN8sfihY" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Now we have Rian Johnson’s much-anticipated <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Episode VIII: The Last Jedi</i> currently showing in cinemas. After two years of everyone and their dog on the Interwebs theorising, we finally got the lowdown.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><div class="insert-feature" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 4px; border-top-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 4px; font-family: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 15px 0px;">
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<a href="http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/172008.html" style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold !important; line-height: 1.3em !important; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none !important;"><i style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Star Wars: The Last Jedi</i> is a worthy follow up</a></h5>
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Let me say it right off the bat that <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Star Wars: The Last Jedi</i> is a great movie and a worthy follow up to <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Force Awakens</i>. If you've been following any news about the movie, you'll know that there is a split between some Star Wars fans and film critics.</div>
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<span class="cbi-b-footer-title" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">BY</span> <a class="highlight jxPHOH" href="http://www.bizcommunity.com/Profile/CharlesSiboto" style="color: #c11b17; font-family: inherit; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">CHARLES SIBOTO</a> 1 DAY AGO</div>
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<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />May 25 2018 sees the release of the second Star Wars anthology in the form of <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Han Solo: A Star Wars Story</i>. The film went through some rough patches with initial directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (<i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">21 Jump Street</i>) getting replaced by Ron Howard (<i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Inferno</i>) midway through shooting. The actor from 2013’s <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Beautiful Creatures</i>, Alden Ehrenreich was cast as Han Solo after an extensive search for exactly the right person for the role. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Donald Glover is playing the other charming scoundrel, Lando Calrissian. Everyone’s favourite Khaleesi, Emila Clarke plays the female lead and Joonas Suaotamo reprises the role of Chewbacca for which he was a double in <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Force Awakens</i>. Thandie Newton, Woody Harrelson, Warwick Davis, Paul Bettany and Clint Howard are also in the cast.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tEsKyCRShHQ" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><h2 style="font-family: 'Roboto Condensed', 'Arial Condensed', Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin: 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px;">
Marvel v DC. . .Joking, it’s just Marvel (DC totally lost)</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />So much winning for Marvel every year. It’s like that time Donald Trump said: “We're going to win so much. You're going to get tired of winning." They went hard with <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Guardians of the Galaxy 2</i>, <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Spider-Man: Homecoming</i> and the oh-so-much-fun <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Thor: Ragnarok</i>. When I first saw the trailer for <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Avengers: Infinity War</i> and saw Thanos in action it hit me that we watched 17 Marvel movies to get to this point! That is one huge build-up.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Marvel kicks off 2018 with <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Panther</i> on 16 February. The trailers look mad dope and, personally, I cannot wait to see some action go down in Wakanda. The big spectacle that is Avengers: Infinity War starts on 4 May and then they close their 2018 with <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Ant-Man and the Wasp</i> on 6 July.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xjDjIWPwcPU" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><h2 style="font-family: 'Roboto Condensed', 'Arial Condensed', Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin: 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px;">
Anastasia Steele, Lara Croft, Deadpool, a T-Rex, Grindelwald, and Aquaman walk into a bar</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />That sure would be an interesting evening at that bar.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Hate it or love it, the 50 Shades franchise keeps on keeping on and Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele return on 9 February 2018 for <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">50 Shades Freed</i>, the er . . . climactic finale.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nJCc5HRPxYA" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The Tomb Raider video games got a much-deserved overhaul with a grittier feel and a Lara Craft that does not look like a pubescent boy’s idea of a woman. 16 March 2018 sees a Tomb Raider movie in the same style as the new video games with Swedish actress, Alicia Vikander (<i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Light Between Two Oceans</i>) playing Lara Croft.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Our favourite fourth wall breaking merc with a mouth returns in <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Deadpool 2</i> on the first of June and we get to see Josh Brolin as Cable, another beloved and pretty badass Marvel Comics character.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />On 22 June 2018, we get some dinosaur action with <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom</i>. Chris Pratt is still having a great go as Hollywood leading man material and is still one of the sexy Chrises.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vn9mMeWcgoM" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The first dark lord of the Harry Potter world gets his day in the sun in <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald</i> on 16 November 2018. I put the first movie off for a long time but when I got around to it it was actually quite charming and I look forward to seeing Johnny Depp’s Grindelwald and a young Dumbledore, played by Jude Law.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />For all of its faults, you have to like Jason Momoa’s Aquaman in Justice League. Dude’s got a lot of styles and gets his own movie on 21 December 2018. We hope it follows in the style of Wonder Woman and not Batman v Superman.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sa6S1eA8ZOw" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><h2 style="font-family: 'Roboto Condensed', 'Arial Condensed', Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin: 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px;">
More highlights</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />There is loads more happening at movies in 2018 and I can’t cover it all but here are some more titles to keep an eye out for: <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Ready Player One</i>, <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Incredibles 2</i>, <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">A Wrinkle in Time</i>, <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pacific Rim: Uprising</i>, <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The New Mutants</i>, <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Ocean’s Eight</i>, <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">X-Men: Dark Pheonix</i>, <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Mission Impossible 6</i> (these missions are clearly very possible) and wait for it . . . <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Mary Poppins Returns</i>.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QUsfH7EI6Oo" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Here’s to a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious 2018 at the movies.</div>
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com037249 Neu-Eichenberg, Germany51.3845581 9.8949135000000351.3052796 9.73355200000003 51.4638366 10.05627500000003tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-47198612607071928502018-01-09T14:47:00.000+02:002018-01-09T14:47:26.166+02:00Star Wars: The Last Jedi Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Original review <a href="http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/172008.html">here</a>. </span></div>
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Let me say it right off the bat that <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Star Wars: The Last Jedi</i> is a great movie and a worthy follow up to<i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Force Awakens</i>. If you've been following any news about the movie, you'll know that there is a split between some Star Wars fans and film critics.</div>
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Some of the fans feel that the movie is not a Star Wars movie at all and lacks the franchise’s essence. Many film critics praised the movie for its strong storyline and for the manner in which it subverts the viewers’ expectation. Director Rian Johnson (<i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Brothers Bloom</i>) delivers a solid Star Wars movie with many unexpected twists and turns. <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Last Jedi</i> captures the magic of Star Wars but is brave enough to turn a lot of the lore on its head and steer the franchise towards a new direction. It does take some missteps as it changes course, though.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br class="kClearLeft" style="clear: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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A New Hope</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />In 2015, JJ Abrams wrote the most beautiful love letter to Star Wars in the form of <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Force Awakens</i>. As fans, we loved it because it was ‘Star Wars’. We looked past the fact that it was a rehash of <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">A New Hope</i> and that it did not really move our favourite franchise forward much. Sure, we got new villains in the form of the First Order, but we must admit that they were introduced as carbon copies of the Empire’s villains. We got a new weapon in the form of Starkiller base (we see what you did with the name there, JJ) and that was pretty much the third Death Star. Snoke was pretty much the Emperor, Kylo Ren wanted to be Darth Vader and General Hux (with his amazing coat) an up-and-coming Grand Moff Tarkin. The good guys followed a similar mould, with maybe the exception of Finn. Don’t get me wrong, <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Force Awakens</i> is a great movie but it served as a soft introduction to the new trilogy and did that well. Rian Johnson’s <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Last Jedi</i> has the difficult task of being a Star Wars sequel and moving the story forward in an unexpected direction. It does that well.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><div class="insert-feature" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 4px; border-top-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 4px; font-family: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 15px 0px;">
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<a href="http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/139616.html" style="color: #264ea0; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="JJ Abrams' love letter to Star Wars" height="120" src="http://c.biz-file.com/c/1601/327699-120x120.jpg?1" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 5px 5px 0px; width: 120px;" width="120" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/482/139616.html" style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.3em !important; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none !important;">JJ Abrams' love letter to Star Wars</a></h5>
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Okay, by now we all know that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is good. It is frighteningly good.</div>
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<span class="cbi-b-footer-title" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">BY</span> <a class="highlight jxPHOH" href="http://www.bizcommunity.com/Profile/CharlesSiboto" style="color: #c11b17; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px;">CHARLES SIBOTO</a> 19 JAN 2016</div>
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<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Luke’s words from the trailer are pretty much what The Last Jedi does: “This is not going to go the way you think”. Johnson gives the Star Wars universe some much needed fresh air by moving away from the beats we expect from a Star Wars movie. The good guys learn that they cannot fight the Dark Side using the same tactics they have been and the Dark Side goes to a place we’ve not seen before. Everything is not so Dark Side and Light Side, <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Last Jedi</i> dares to give us a grey area. We are given a new perspective on the Force and how it works and moves through the galaxy. Mark Hamill steals the show as a disillusioned Luke Skywalker. The story pays respect to the older Star Wars characters but it is more the story of solidifying the new characters’ place in the story. Every time you see Carrie Fisher as Leia onscreen you can’t help but feel emotional and her last performance as the character is beautiful. Daisy Ridley’s Rey learns to pick up the mantle as a Jedi, Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron learns to be a better leader and John Boyega’s Finn learns to value what he is fighting for. Adam Driver is brilliant as Kylo Ren and both his and Rey’s struggle with the Light and Dark sides of the Force is portrayed expertly. Domhall Gleeson as General Hux (his coat is so cool!) continues to vie with Kylo for the Supreme Leader Snoke’s favour. Snoke (Andy Serkis) is as menacing and mysterious as ever.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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The Empire Strikes Back</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The movie opens with the rebel scum doing their rebel thing and the First Order doing their chasing and threatening thing. Nothing new here. <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Last Jedi</i> opens on the same beat we expect from a Star Wars movie: a Star Destroyer looks cool in space, there is a cinematic battle, the good guys fly their X-wings against impossible odds whilst keeping up their humorous banter, a cute droid beeps, a villain loses his cool and a John Williams soundtrack is pushing all the right emotional buttons. It’s great. Then, all of a sudden our expectations start getting subverted at every turn. All of our YouTube prophets’ fan theories are trampled into the dust and we are in new territory. It’s great! Johnson questions things we believe about the Star Wars universe and opens new avenues of exploration.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q0CbN8sfihY" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;" width="100%"></iframe><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><h2 style="font-family: 'Roboto Condensed', 'Arial Condensed', Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin: 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px;">
The Last Jedi/The Return of the Jedi (They really need to make up their minds)</h2>
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />It’s not all lightsabers and BB8, though. <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Last Jedi</i> makes mistakes and they do take away from the vision that Johnson has. My biggest gripe is that the movie is too long. I love long movies but only when it does not feel like padding. <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Last Jedi</i> gets to a point where there is a lot of padding and what feels like unnecessary storylines. They introduce places and characters you can’t bring yourself to care about and that takes away from the brilliance of the core plot. At the end of the movie you are tired, happy, confused, possibly angry and then you go home and give it more thought and smile because this is a great middle act. The Last Jedi answers some of the questions we had offhandedly, not at all or asks us questions. The threads are left dangling and both groups of people who liked it and did not like it are left hoping that Episode IX answers all of our questions. YouTube fan theorists get to keep their jobs for the next two years as <i style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Last Jedi</i> leaves a lot of mysteries that need solving.</div>
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com037249 Neu-Eichenberg, Germany51.3845581 9.8949135000000351.3052796 9.73355200000003 51.4638366 10.05627500000003tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554330006100233435.post-23103453429551070482017-11-11T17:41:00.000+02:002017-11-11T17:41:35.002+02:00“Stories are in our DNA” – local publisher, Charles Siboto, on South Africa’s reading culture<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An article I wrote for <a href="http://bookslive.co.za/">BooksLive</a>:</span><br />
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<em style="background-color: white; color: #011932; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2017/09/29/stories-are-in-our-dna-local-publisher-charles-siboto-on-south-africas-reading-culture/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Local publisher, Charles Siboto, on our reading culture, competing with international titles and reading as tool to raise our standard of education</span></a></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The South African publishing scene is a strange one, consisting of many peculiarities and oddities. The first thing that you notice is that it’s not representative of the country and its diverse range of cultures. There are many factors that lend to how lopsided our reading statistics are. The biggest factor is that as a nation we don’t read much and there are no books in most households, so a reading culture is never fostered. I have worked in publishing for four years and can testify that books are luxury items for most households because they are expensive, especially local books. Publishers would love to make books more affordable but the reality is that publishing books </span>is<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> expensive, with the highest cost being printing. In order for publishers to survive, they have to print enough books to cover the cost of producing the books when most of that print run sells. The more books publishers print the cheaper the cost of printing and thus the cheaper the book for buyers, but if those books don’t sell they sit with excessive stock and pay warehouse costs for that stock, which eventually will have to be pulped. The South African publishing scene, thus, is a fine balancing act of publishers trying to make books as accessible as possible while making enough money to continue existing so as to publish more books. Now, as both publisher and reader, I am thinking we can all do more to promote diverse South African literature, especially as readers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">South Africa already has a model of what a healthy, local reading culture looks like in the form of Afrikaans books. Afrikaans publishers are the biggest in the country and Afrikaans readers buy books. The Afrikaans community does have more buying power than most other language groups in the country but the other thing they have is pride in their language. Afrikaans speakers can still largely get by in our economy without having to learn English. Parents know that the country is constantly becoming more and more English but they still don’t stop placing an emphasis on children speaking and reading Afrikaans. In many cases, English is more the supplementary reading. With the other language and culture groups in the country the emphasis is more on English than on the mother tongue, and for the most part, we all know why and I will touch on this later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having spent some time reading books by local black writers in English, I know this is by no means a bad thing and it allows for more people being able to enjoy those books. There is an increase of the black middle-class and publishers realise that they have to tap into this market. Young, black and especially female writers are also on the rise and this makes for a great recipe to produce local books that are entertaining, informative, address social issues, expands minds and are just straight up ‘woke’. The problem with publishing in English is that people still buy more international titles than local ones in English. I am one of those people and I have made conscious decision to buy more local titles and readers who can afford to should do this. Afrikaans publishers usually do publish in English and to a smaller scale some of the other local languages but they have realised long ago that they cannot compete with the international market and have opted to focus on their strength, publishing Afrikaans books. Competing with international publishers is difficult because as a country we are not yet confident enough in the power of our own stories and this should not be so. South African publishers publish books of a high caliber that can compete with titles from the UK or the US but they get lost in the crowd. Publishers have had to be much more creative in their marketing a can continue to do so, but as readers, we should also come to the party.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have great stories as a nation, our cultures are rich in stories that deserve to be shared with the world. I am in no way asking people to stop reading international titles but simply saying that you can read both local and international. It is refreshing to read stories where the heroes and villains are people you can relate to and people that you can imagine meeting when you walk down the street, stories where the lovers and their secrets are people like you. Local books are still expensive to produce but if we all do a little to support the local reading scene it goes a long way. We can do a lot simply by each person in a circle of friends buying one book and then swapping the books among themselves until everyone has had a chance to read every book in the circle. These are things that help to nurture our reading culture. The stronger our reading culture becomes the cheaper and more accessible books will be and publishers will be able to work with more new writers adding their voices to the tapestry of our stories.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last thing I want to mention, especially having spent most of my publishing career working with children’s books, is that we have to promote our children reading in their mother tongues. This is way easier said than done because the resources are scarce. Resources aside, many black households are afraid to focus on children reading in their mother tongue because they might then miss out on learning English. This is not so, children who can read their own language well can better transition into a second language and excel at it. Being a multilingual society is complex but we gain more when we allow people to read in their own language and learn English in addition. This makes for more people who are truly bi- or multilingual, in the sense that they are equally proficient in multiple languages. This will take some time and resources to fully implement, though. Some publishers do prioritise publishing books for younger readers in multiple local languages and that is a great start and a process that we should support where we can. I come from a family that does not read but I was lucky to fall in love with books because we lived near a wonderful public library when I was a child so I understand that many families are too busy with the business of surviving from day to day to worry about books. But if we are to raise the standard of education and want to invest in a society of knowledgeable people we have to nurture our reading culture. Resources like public libraries help with making books accessible but all of us can add something to the culture. We can do things like buying local books if we can afford them, sharing books, giving away old books or just telling people about the magic of stories. Stories are in our DNA as a species and adding to that collective pool of knowledge only helps us to progress as a nation and as human beings.</span></div>
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Charles Sibotohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02387031215317827106noreply@blogger.com037249 Neu-Eichenberg, Germany51.3845581 9.8949135000000351.3052796 9.73355200000003 51.4638366 10.05627500000003