“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 Newton
I had a chat with the lovely folks over at Freelance Cape Town some months back and they decided to publish the whole affair on their blog! Here I though we were just having a nice chat between friends. But since we are airing laundry you can go check out their post on my life as an editor and freelancer here.
Stay fresh and as the kids say, respect that good ol' hustle.
I am closing my year in style by taking a look back at 2015 at the movies over at my other goodbuddies' house, Bizcommunity.com. Check out my article there.
All I can say is merry Star Wars! Christmas can take a backseat this year ;).
Hello world! I've officially kicked off my Bulletproofreading venture and I am hoping for the best. If you have no idea what I am talking about check out my Facebook Page, like that bad boy and then tell your friends, family and pets all about it! You can also send them my nifty pamphlet with my details.
Journeys have been an overarching
theme in my life of late, whether it’s at work or at home. Journeys are perhaps
one of the overarching themes of all life. That and running a race. All my
teachers in primary school loved comparing life to running a race. I digress,
though. What I want to get at is that when one is on a journey it is good to
stop once in a while and take stock. Just stop, catch your breath, relax and
look back at the way you have come. A little break also allows you to look at
the road ahead and to plan a bit. I recently joined the wonderful people over
at Freelance Cape Town as a freelancer (duh!). Marius Vosloo, the guy who heads
the team up, immediately made me feel welcome and at home. They recently
launched their blog, called Our Voice and it serves as a platform for creative
people to be heard. Marius asked me to write something about my journey as a
freelancer thus far. I haven’t looked back on the way I have come in a while and
this proved to be the perfect opportunity for me to pause, take stock and
reflect on my journey as Charles thus far and to add my voice to theirs and see
what sort of music comes of it.
Dear Reader and fellow traveller, sit
down and rest your feet a while and let me tell you my story.
My name is Charles Siboto and I am a
reader and lover of beautiful stories. I haunt places where I can find good
stories. My love for stories has resulted in me becoming someone who works with
stories, whether they are my own or stories that other people wish to tell. I
mainly prefer stories that other people tell because there is nothing better
for me than getting so caught up in someone else’s visions that you just cannot
help but love and understand that person a bit more than you did before being
moved by their story. I grew up as a reader and from early on I knew that
stories are magic and that I want to be a part of that magic when I grow up. I
never knew in what capacity I would help make and spread more of this magic but
at least I had a general direction in which to start looking for where I can
fit in.
I am not even all that picky in my
love for stories. I love the stories my grandmother told me as a child and
listened to Gcina Mhlope on the radio every Saturday morning on a show she had
that was sponsored by Joko tea. I can’t remember the name of the show but I
loved the monsters she always told of and how the children in the stories
always outsmarted them. I read books, comic books, played video games, watched
movies and listen to weird radio dramas. I landed up studying English
Literature, Linguistics and Literary studies and I loved most of it and hated
some of it. I remember one instance in my fourth year of university where I
read the comic book, Final Crisis by Grant Morrison and had one of the greatest
moments of my life reading a story and it shook me to my core. Final Crisis is
a massive story in its complexity and when Zillo Valla (if my memory serves me
well), one of the beings in charge of protecting the multiverse utters the
following words it just gets me every single time I read that story: "Behold:
we monitors who were faceless once . . . We all have names now, and stories.
There are heroes and villains . . . secrets and lovers." Things like this
unstitch me. Somewhere in that comic book Superman asks that the words, To Be
Continued be carved on his tombstone because humanity’s story never comes to an
end, it always carries on. I read and love J.R.R. Tolkien and he taught me that
some stories can break your heart and yet still strike you with sorrow as sharp
as swords, eucatastrophe he called it, the good ending that breaks your heart.
Stories lead me to where I am today.
My name is Charles Siboto and I am an editor of children’s books by day at one
of South Africa’s biggest publishing houses. This is a great honour and
privilege for me because it was a struggle for me to get my foot in that door
but like any good character in your favourite stories, I persevered and always
kept ongoing. I am also a freelancer in the sense that I use the majority of
my free time to blog and write about books, movies, comic books, video games,
technology, lifestyle events and even a dash of politics for various online
media. I also offer my services as a proofreader and editor to almost just
about anyone who needs it. Interestingly enough, French engineering students
turn up on my doorstep with reports for me to proofread on a regular basis.
This led me to my exciting new venture, Charles Siboto Bulletproofreading for Interns Abroad. A bit of a mouthful, right? But it’s all very exciting and I
hope the venture does well. I have even dabbled in doing voiceovers, officially
becoming the voice of one of our book characters at work, Dogtective William.
This, dear Reader and fellow
traveller, is where I find myself currently. I am juggling a publishing career
and exploring many avenues as a freelancer. I am learning a lot in both spaces
and I love it. I’m working with stories and helping people who tell them find
ways to tell them as clearly as possible, whether it’s an author writing a book
for children or a company that needs content written to succinctly share their
vision. My own story remains, always, to be continued . . .
You really can’t go wrong with wine and it’s even more
difficult to do so with chocolate. This is why a festival dedicated to these
two things is a great idea. Chocolate and wine is by far a much better love
story than Twilight. Almost exactly a month ago I got to be part of this love
story at the 2015 Winelands Chocolate Festival at the beautiful Lourensford Wine Estate in Somerset West, which is part of the Stellenbosch Wine Route.
The festival took place from 25 to 26 July. I am in love with the Cape Winelands
and visiting the various wine estates is one of my favourite things to do. The
Lourensford Wine Estate is one of the more beautiful wine farms and provided a
lovely gathering place for lovers of chocolate from all around the country.
My lovable friend and I went on Sunday, the second and last
day of the event. Though the weather looked like it was leaning more towards
the miserable end of things I jumped into my friend’s trusty ol’ Corsa Lite (or
the Erin-mobile, as I like to call it) and off to Somerset West we went with a
song in our hearts and chocolate and wine on our minds. The weather turned out
to be quite mild and lovely by the time we arrived at the venue and we were
immediately taken in by the bustle of chocolate aficionados walking around and
stopping at the various stands to nibble on some chocolate and chat to the
masters of chocolate behind the beautiful and tasty heaps of chocolate goodness
on display everywhere. I am a sucker for chocolate fountains and those bad boys
were on display everywhere. You’d think my friends call me Chocolate Charlie
because of the hue of my skin but, no, Sir, you’d be wrong! They call me
Chocolate Charlie because I’m a sucker for chocolate fountains. Exhibitors at
the festival included chocolatiers like Alexander Avery, Chocolat Frey,
Gayleen’s Decadence, Honest Chocolates (who does not love chocolate that does
not lie to you?), LINDT (a brand that we all know and love) and My Sugar. There
were loads of other chocolatiers in the mix and everyone had a really good
showing.
The food wasn’t to be scoffed at either. There was some mean
grub available from the restaurant, Bistro 13 and three great food trucks. I
you wanted some coffee Origin was on hand to sort you out and the Tipsy Gypsy
Art Bar looked after you needs in terms of drinkables.
We had a great time at the Winelands Chocolate Festival. It
was just amazing soaking up the sun, drinking wine, tasting and buying a whole
lot of chocolate. The venue was just spectacular and the people were all
lovely. This festival definitely goes onto my annual calendar of things to do.
It was also lovely to receive a free gift in the form of a digital gift voucher
for Yuppiechef.com’s Indulgent Chocolate Creations course in my email box a few
days after the festival.
As a movie reviewer/blogger do you ever just wake up
in the afternoon (that’s when everyone wakes up, right?) and just think how
Marvel Studios possesses absolutely no chill? Can they just stop being so
amazing with their movies and series! I am a fan, for sure but it just feels
like I spend half my time writing about some new great thing they did. After
the sheer joy that was Avengers: Age of Ultron I figured I’ll tone down any and
all excitement about Ant-Man. In fact, I’d just wait for it to come out on DVD.
Seriously, they can’t just leave out Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne from the
original Avengers line-up and then hope to somehow make it work now, can they?
They can’t just give Ultron, Pym’s creation to Tony Stark and just get away
with it, can they? I finally went to see Ant-Man and Marvel did all these
things and made it work! Ant-Man is my favourite entry into the Marvel
Cinematic Universe (MCU). I hate Marvel, dammit!
Ant-Man is reminiscent of the Daredevil series in
terms of its scale in the MCU. It takes place after the events of Age of Ultron
and whilst still quite a major event it is more of a closed-in story about
characters that are a bit more accessible than the Avengers. While the Avengers
are busy dropping cities on people characters like Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) are
just trying to get by. The story kicks off with Lang just being released from
prison and trying to make amends with his daughter and keep away from his
former life as a thief. He then gets caught up in some superhero stuff with Dr
Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and the brilliant man’s daughter, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline
Lilly) and eventually becomes Ant-Man. The villain of the piece is Darren Cross
(Corey Stoll) who ends up donning the Yellowjacket suit. Cross’s motives are
very much like those of Loki in Thor, which is to say he is just a whiny child,
really. Loki has a certain charm so ends up working as a character people are
interested in but Marvel still seems to struggle to create compelling villains.
The Kingpin is the only villain they have really done well to date. Pym and
Janet’s backstory is merely hinted at but enough to let you know how they fit
in with Howard Stark and Peggy Carter’s S.H.I.E.L.D.
Like Winter Soldier was a political spy thriller
Ant-Man is a heist film more than a superhero film and a very funny one at
that. This movie knows how to push all the right emotional buttons with the
audience. Scott Lang is the sort of character you can really root for and his
misfit team of friends provide a lot of very funny comic relief in the film. Michael
Peña (Fury, 2014) as Lang’s fast-talking friend, Luis plays the role of the
funny guy to perfection. David Dastmalchian (Animals, 2014) and rapper, T.I.
appear as Lang’s other wacky companions, Kurt and Dave and they also deliver a
pretty solid performance. Ant-Man sees Peyton Reed (Yes Man, 2008) in the
director’s chair and fan favourite, Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,
2010) as one of the screenwriters. Wright was first signed up to direct Ant-Man
in his popular zany style but got replaced with Reed later.
Do you guys remember how much fun old school movies
like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) were? Ant-Man’s action sequences are reminiscent
to that in their hilarity. When Lang shrinks down to the size of an ant he
retains his strength as a normal sized adult male and can also control various
ants with the aid of a device behind his ear created by Pym. This allows for
some really fun action sequences and also introduces us to one of the cooler
characters in the movie, one of the ants that Lang lovingly names Antony.
Ant-Man is a really great entry into the MCU and is
well worth your time. The 3D effects are really good and I imagine seeing it in
IMAX would be great as well. It’s been on the local circuits for a while now so
if you haven’t seen it yet I’d recommend you do so. Take your mom, dad,
grandparents, children and strangers in the street with you.
Seriously, you guys, I am freakin' super hyped about the Deadpool movie project! Since seeing footage last year and the shaky cam Comic-Con stuff I am on-board and I love how aware the project is of the past blunders with Ryan Reynolds and uses Deadpool's breaking the fourth wall shtick to poke fun at stuff like Green Lantern and how the Merc With a Mouth appeared with his mouth sown shut in Wolverine: Origins.
Fox has released the official green and red band trailers and both are just fun, especially how the green band trailer pokes fun at you for not just watching the red band version. The trailers also reminded me that I once liked DMX.
Here are both trailers and the trailer from yesterday with Deadpool narrating the debut of this official trailer. Sonic BOOM!
So Comic-Con 2015 has come and gone and as per usual we were teased with comicy goodness that had us salivating for more and now we have to wait for all that good stuff to come out. But being the industrious geeks we are we will spend the next few months speculating about every little detail in all the trailers we saw.
Here are some of the stuff I thought was cool and look forward to:
Well, Star Wars is obviously going to be the biggest deal for me because that's how my geekiness was born. I have a love/hate relationship with the old movies but I constantly returned to them and I always wanted more of the stories and often read up on all the non-canon lore to get my fix. The Phantom Menace is rather silly but I still watched the nonsense out of it and collected the posters and figurines. Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith were okay for me but the old movies were still the most fun, especially The Empire Strikes Back, I love that movie. Looking at this reel from Comic-Con it looks like The Force Awakens is really a labour of love for everyone working on the film. It also looks like J.J. Abrams and his team are making Star Wars fun again, which is great because that's what Star Wars should be. Nobody cared for Anakin's pained facial expressions, what when we had cool shit like Boba Fett, R2-D2 and Chewie dammit!
Marvel have become so big with their Marvel Cinematic Universe that they don't even need to bother showing up at Comic-Con anymore. This gave DC a great chance to show off some things they have planned and although it was not the best showing (they really should have gone bigger with Marvel not being there to hog all the attention) this trailer for Batman V Superman has me a little excited. Man of Steel was more of a miss than a hit and lots of people don't have much faith in the whole Batfleck situation but this trailer gives me some hope. Zack Snyder is good with the darker and more serious stuff, which is why Man of Steel didn't go down so well but add a Frank Miller, The Dark Knight Returns sort of Batman to the mix and maybe that dark tone can work. I love what Snyder did with Watchmen and the political stuff happening with Super Man in this trailer is very reminiscent of that. Then we also have Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and we know Snyder is not the greatest with how he represents female characters so that could really go any way. I'm really hoping this one is good though, we deserve a good movie with Superman in it. Do good for us, Mr Snyder and crew.
Then there is Suicide Squad and from what I can see in the trailer I'm sold. I can roll with all this silliness. People seem not to be reacting so well to Jared Leto's Joker but I think it can work. Really, this whole thing looks so ridiculous that I can't wait to see it. I'm also pretty much cool with how the members of the squad turned out. Margot Robbie looks fun and sexy as Harley Quinn. Will Smith makes for a decent Deadshot and we have the wonderful Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. I have always thought that in a world of ridiculous villains Captain Boomerang is still quite silly but it works for him and Jai Courtney looks quite cool as the character. The way Adewale Arkinnuoye-Agbaje's Killer Croc looks reminds me of the character in Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo's Joker graphic novel. So, yeah, I'm pretty hyped about this one.
The official trailer may not be released yet but from the leaked versions floating around the interwebs Deadpool was probably the coolest thing at Comic-Con this year. I'll dare say that it was even cooler than Star Wars in some regards. The Merc With a Mouth has always been a fan favourite and it's good to see that it looks like 20th Century Fox will be doing right by him.
Those are my Comic-Con highlights and there were loads of other stuff to see and love that will be all over the interwebs by now. All I can say is cheers to the next few years of geeky goodness :).
Ladies, gentle-Sirs and beautiful puppies, as an update to my last post, I present to you all of the TEDx Table Mountain 2015 videos in one nifty playlist. These are hot, right off the presses!
