Cape Town Daily Photo

Cape Town Daily Photo is one of my favourite blogs. As the name implies, it is a daily blog that was started a few years ago by husband-and-wife team Paul and Kerry-Anne Gilowey. Every day they post a photo taken in or near Cape Town and write a bit about the photo or the circumstance in which they found themselves that led to them being at that particular place or event. It's a wonderful snapshot of what daily life is like in our city and it does in pictures what I (occasionally) try to do in words with this blog of mine.

The Giloweys, who are soccer mad, are now in Bloemfontein, a city in the Free State province, far away from Cape Town, chasing the Confed Cup. (And you can read about how that nearly didn't come about in yesterday's Cape Town Daily Photo post!) The distance, of course, presented a little problem, as how do you run a daily photo blog when you're not in the city to take photos (especially since they have a little rule that they don't post photos that are more than a week old, to ensure that everything that is uploaded is always very fresh)?

The answer was to ask a few friends for help, so a couple of weeks ago Paul approached me and we had a look at my schedule (which has been ridiculous, as anyone following me on Twitter will know) and worked out some days and potential events I was expecting to attend or circumstances that I would be in that might lend themselves to good photographs. (Paul and Kerry-Anne will still be writing the text - they just need help with visuals.)

We're now one day in and already half the original (now secret!) plans are out the window but we're on to new plans. So check out the site, and some of uploads, starting today, by Special Guest Star Mandy J Watson! I'm very excited as even I don't know what's going up when or who else may be guest starring.

The Flyovers Behind The Convention Centre, Cape Town

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Above: A stitched three-photograph panorama of the flyovers behind the CTICC.

Last week I attended two of the three days of the World Economic Forum on Africa 2009, which was held in Cape Town at the CTICC (Cape Town International Convention Centre).

As I was leaving on the first day and heading to one of the many CTICC car parks I noticed the (semi) symmetry and beauty of the lights and reflections that occurs between the highway flyovers. For an area that is always buzzing with activity, whether it's morning or evening bumper-to-bumper vehicles stuck in traffic or lots of foot traffic heading to or from a conference at the centre, this scene was rather tranquil.

The building on the left houses a massive ad billboard that is always lit at night and can't be missed by the thousands of commuters heading home in their cars. The ads change every few months but very few are well designed or attractive.

In the centre is a small body of water that serves as the start (or end) point of the new water-taxi service that operates between the CTICC/five-star Westin Grand hotel and the V&A Waterfront. Unfortunately, although I've read about it in the newspaper, I can't find a link about it on the Web. They should have invited me to the press launch!

The building lit up on the right is this building, a 15-floor office block called Convention Tower, which sprang up a few years ago. At night for a few hours it is lit around the edges with the most ridiculous light pollution and it makes it look as if someone plonked a radioactive giant rectangular slab on the foreshore. I have wondered how environmentally friendly the lighting is - does the building collect it via, for example, solar means during the day or is it another unnecessary drain on our already strained electricity supply?

I like my panorama though.

Premier Helen Zille

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Above: Helen Zille (in the cobalt-blue jacket) arrives at Cape Town International airport from the Johannesburg operations centre during the 2009 South African elections.

Yesterday Helen Zille, leader of the DA (Democratic Alliance), former mayor of Cape Town, World Mayor Of The Year 2008, was sworn in as the Western Cape province's latest premier.

A few weeks ago, two days after we all cast our votes in South Africa's general election and two days before the final results were announced, I unknowingly arrived back in Cape Town from a press function in Johannesburg at the same time as Helen Zille had also flown back to the city from the election operations in Johannesburg. (As far as I know we were not on the same plane - I read somewhere that she was on an executive jet.)

As I walked past the bag-collection area at the airport I could hear an overwhelming amount of singing and chanting coming from the domestic-arrivals reception area of the airport and as I rounded the corner I walked in to a media throng on one side and a massive DA supper base on the other. Realising what was up I grabbed my cameras and started taking photos and video. The supporters were holding up signs saying "Premier Helen Zille", even though at that stage it was unclear as to whether her party had won the election in the Western Cape (for days the results drifted around the 49% to 51% marks) but in the minds of these supporters she had won.

The energy was electric and everyone at the airport got caught up in it. The crowd erupted when Helen walked out a few minutes later and the press began to swarm around her, taking photos from all angles. Helen acknowledged her supporters and, even though she was surrounded by security personnel, she moved as close as she could get to the supporters a few times so that they could shake her hand and, well, honestly - a lot of them were a lot more grabby than that. I thought it was quite cool of her to allow herself almost to be mauled by the supporters, who were so excited to see her and at the DA's imminent victory.

[ Flickr]

Above: The press swarms around Helen Zille (she's buried somewhere in the middle there).

I don't agree with the stances the DA takes on a number of issues but there's no denying that the party actively stands against corruption and ineptitude and has done the best job of running the city of Cape Town since South Africa became a democracy in 1994. If the party can translate those skills into running the Western Cape province... well I can't complain - we can quibble about issues when our democracy has become more mature and service delivery, health, education, and crime aren't such huge problems that urgently need to be addressed.

This year's election was the most exciting one we've had since the first democratic elections in 1994. There was a buzz in the air for a few days and for a while, while we voted and then waited for the results, everyone was equal and the problems and issues that plague us on a daily basis seemed more distant. Additionally, this year, the worry that the ANC (African National Congress) would continue to have its two-thirds majority, which it won in the 2004 election and which enables a party to have powers to change the country's constitution, spurred many non voters into action and not only did many people who have never voted before (but have happily complained about the government) actually vote, but we had a high voter turnout at around 77% - when it comes to elections it's the one time that South Africans are not apathetic.

When the results were finally announced most of the country breathed a collective sigh of relief and the festivities continued, though for different reasons: the ANC won by a huge margin, satisfying 65.9% of the electorate, but didn't quite reach the two-thirds majority, satisfying the rest of the electorate, so it was win-win all round for everyone, and marked the end of a very exciting period in our democratic history.

Alex Hamilton's Afrotize

Above: The vinyl collection

Alex Hamilton is an artist based in Cape Town whose work is heavily influenced by, and reflective of, pop culture. If you are interested in learning more about his art, influences, and processes you can read my November 2008 interview with him for brainwavez.org, which concerned his previous exhibition, Cast & Crew.

Above: rastamadonna

Alex's latest exhibition is Afrotize, "a satirical comment on colonialism, fashion, popular iconography and, of course, hair". I attended the opening a few weeks ago and the exhibition is still running at his studio in Woodstock.

Much of the artwork for Afrotize focuses on stencilled pop-culture icons, past and present, who have been reinvented in quite a fascinating manner with an afro or rasta stylings. There is also some artwork that has been done on vinyl records and a few larger pieces that are reminiscent of 1970s pop art, but with a contemporary edge.

Above: The topless biker babe that had all the men attending the exhibiton's opening quite mesmerised.

The work is firmly tongue in cheek and amusing to behold and, as much as I find reinvented uses for vinyl records (assuming they are not scratched beyond further use) to be a form of sacrilege, I quite liked the vinyl pop art (you can see examples of it in this post's lead picture).

The exhibition is running until the end of the week, so you have time to visit to see Alex's work (and partake of a free drink or two if you go to the exhibition's closing on Friday evening - and who doesn't like art and a free drink?). There's even free parking at the back of the building so you have no excuse not to go.

Free Comic Book Day 2009: Cape Town

Last year I was off in KwaZulu-Natal having adventures and missed Free Comic Book Day. This year my two local comic shops (Reader's Den in Claremont and Outer Limits in the city centre) both participated (as did, I believe, a store in the northern suburbs but I don't know its name). I went to Reader's Den again this year as it is closer to my home and has become a (semi) annual event as I usually meet some friends there and we hang out for a couple of hours and enjoy the festivities.

Every year Reader's Den makes quite an event out of Free Comic Book Day and, once again, it had lots of specials for shoppers and gave out great lucky-draw prizes to some of the people that had made purchases on the day. Spider-man and Superman made special appearances, posed for photos, and gave out chips to the kids.

This year Reader's Den also gave out prizes to those who dared to appear in costume. A few people wore costumes from notable comics and science-fiction universes including Watchmen, Batman, and Harry Potter. The quality and selection was very good and the participants put a lot of effort into bringing their characters to life.

For my free comic I chose the Star Wars: the Clone Wars comic [preview: 666 KB PDF] from Dark Horse Comics, which included pages for Emily The Strange, Usagi Yojimbo, and Indiana Jones. It was a tough decision as I was also keen to get Bongo Comics Free-For-All! from Bongo Comics [preview: 1.7 MB PDF].

Free Comic Book Day is held on the first Saturday in May, and the comics are specially produced by the publishing companies for the day so, no matter what city or country you're in, you'll be able to choose from the same titles as your friends all over the world. Diarise the date - I hope to see you at one of the events in Cape Town next year!

Previously on Cape Town > South Africa > Africa > Earth:
* Free Comic Book Day 2007: Cape Town

The Summer Bee

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This little guy was wandering around aimlessly near our pool a few weeks ago on one of those last hot summer days, which now seem so distant. I did what any photographer would do, of course, and crept in closely to immortalise my new friend, who was doing a little lone bee dance, I suspect, although I couldn't figure out the rhythm or the pattern.

[ Flickr]

There isn't much large wildlife (or action) in the suburbs of Cape Town so over the years I have built up a collection of insect shots - everything from dragonflies to praying mantises - but this is my first bee.

[ Flickr]

If you click through to any of the Flickr images you can see a slightly higher res photo with better detail.

At The Blog Awards

[ Flickr: Slight Orton Effect]

Above: Paul Gilowey of Cape Town Daily Photo taking photos (see the results here) at the 2009 South African Blog Awards. This is about the best photo I took that evening so I share it with you, complete with a slight Orton Effect, for it currently amuses me so.

Regarding the awards themselves: I, unfortunately, did not win and it took me days to process what I witnessed at the awards event. I have been watching the awards every year since they started but this is the first time I was nominated, so it felt a bit more personal. Each year I spend a lot of time contemplating the process as it is tweaked and after this year's event I spent a lot of time thinking about how some of the problems could be addressed.

However my two-week mail and hosting problem that occurred in the middle of this became a huge distraction after the awards as the problem just got worse and worse (it is now resolved - hopefully for good!) and led to me not getting around to posting my thoughts, which I was hoping would open up a constructive debate to which everyone would feel comfortable contributing.

In the meantime, although I was only able to give it my full attention yesterday evening and then realised how bad it was, an all-out war erupted on the Web as people offered their opinions or, rather, hurled abuse at the few who dared to offer a dissenting voice regarding some of the nominees and winners.

I still intend to post my thoughts but, until I can muster enough courage to weather the abusive comment onslaught that will likely result from me posting my completely uninflammatory analysis of how I believe the problems that exist with the awards (although some may argue there aren't any problems) can be addressed, I will not do it. Perhaps I shall do so in a few months when the fever has died down and people are - I hope - feeling more objective and constructive and less rabidly passionate.

In the meantime, if you're interested, you can search for topics and posts related to the "SA Blog Awards" to find various items scattered around the Web or you can see what I expect to be in for by having a look at some of the blog posts, and links off the posts, that Heather Ford wrote. She unintentionally took a bullet, and a scary one at that, on behalf of a lot of people, such as myself, who don't have the fortitude to deal with this sort of thing, and for that I applaud her.

On a happier note, I would like to thank Chris at Huddlemind, as well as others who were so quiet I don't know who they are, for their efforts in putting the awards together. I would also like to thank all my friends and visitors to both this site and brainwavez.org who voted for one of my articles, getting them nominated and then officially, forevermore runners-up in 2009. I appreciate it!

2009 South African Blog Awards Finalists Announced: Your Assistance Is Required Imperatively!

I was buried in deadlines last week, dead to the world, so I'm not sure when it was announced but I found out over the weekend that I have been nominated for the 2009 South African Blog Awards. Twice. In the same category. So I'm fighting myself (as usual) and the rest of the world (as usual).

Should be fun.

I am most grateful to everyone who voted for me in the first round to get me officially nominated for the final round (so I guess I can call myself a "finalist", then). You guys rock and I really appreciate it. This is the first time I've been nominated for a blog award and I am unnaturally excited about it. I know - that is so wrong. Apocalypse nigh.

Of course, now, I need your help one more time. My nominations have been in the category Best Post on a South African Blog. If you visit the site you will see two items with the word "brainwavez" in the URL under that category - those are my articles. One is an article I posted on my group web site brainwavez.org (The Anti-Connoisseur's Guide To A Walk In The African Bush) and the other is a post on my blog (A Cultural Expedition To A Nearby Mall To Snap Photos Of Models In Swimwear).

Personally I favour the KwaZulu-Natal story but your choice is your choice. However, a concerted effort on one entry, rather than having the vote split between two, may* give me a better chance of winning (this is called applied mathematics because I have applied mathematics to something that isn't, on the surface, mathematical - it's a technique science and technology journalists such as myself employ to make our work "edgier").

Voting won't take too long, and I appreciate your support.

Let's win this! I might get to make a speech! (In public! With permission!)

*I say "may" because the voting process is über complicated.
(I had to say "über" once in my blog. This is that time. Bask!)