The Trunk, Louis Vuitton’s Anthology of Short Stories
In 1936, Gaston-Louis Vuitton took control of the luggage making company that his grandfather had created. He was known to be a collector of stories from newspapers and the like, that incorporated the trunk, which he kept in a Louis Vuitton trunk. Earlier this year, Louis Vuitton, with French publisher Gallimard, released an anthology of short stories written by 11 French writers, drawing from Gaston-Louis' collections. The letter to the authors says it all: For over a century, the Vuitton family home in Asnières has been filled with the whispering of extraordinary stories of trunks, bags...
Steve Slotow & Kojo Baffoe present The Art of Life Eps 10
The ebb and flow of The Art of Life reflects our lives and our work. This is our 10th episode (although we did have a two-part episode previously) and in it we chat about the 'new' MacBook Air, the Liquid Image EGO, a wi-fi enabled mountable HD action camera to compete with the Go Pro, amongst others, and, finally, I haul out a book. The story of Justin Halpem's Sh*t My Dad Says was one of those that, in the early days, showed the potential that Twitter has. I often wonder whether these types of stories are still possible considering how noisy social media has become. Halpem's follow up More...
Kojo Baffoe & Steve Slotow Present The Art Of Life Eps 9
The 9th episode is done. Shot, edited and finally up on our YouTube channel which you can check out and subscribe to HERE. We generally shoot a couple of episodes in advance and then it is the process of editing and uploading. It would be good to get feedback from those of you who interact with the series either here, on Steve's blog or on YouTube. The intention is to keep going and see where it'll take us. Maybe we'll throw a party with Episode 50, or something. Anyway, in this episode, Steve and I chat about the Sony Action Cam, which is going head to head with the Go-Pro range of cameras....
Win A Set Of Tickets to Sensation ‘Innerspace’ From Heineken
Sensation is a dance music experience born in Holland that has toured the world with over 90 shows, taking place in over 20 countries like Belgium, Canada, Germany, Chile, Brazil, Taiwan and Thailand. Sensation Innerspace is, for the first time, coming to South Africa, happening at the Coca-Cola Dome on September 7th, 2013. The DJ line-up includes international DJs who each have played several Sensation events, such as Mr. White, Nic Fanciulli, Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano, Daniel Sanchez & Juan Sanchez and Thomas Gold. [youtube]http://youtu.be/T9xKxStnoSs[/youtube] As part of the...
Flashmob Recreates Rembrandt’s The Night Watch
The Night Watch is a painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn that was finished in 1642. Considered one of his most famous, it is displayed at the Netherlands national museum, Rijksmuseum, in Amsterdam. In April this year, to celebrate the reopening of the Rijksmuseum, which underwent renovations over a 10 year period costing about $480 million, a flashmob recreated The Night Watch in a local shopping mall. Brilliantly done. I just had to share. [youtube]http://youtu.be/a6W2ZMpsxhg[/youtube]
Steve Slotow & Kojo Baffoe Present Art of Life Eps8
This is the eighth episode of the Art of Life, the web series I do with Steve Slotow. In this episode, we talk about the Mercedes Benz SLK 250 (well, Steve talks and I pretend I know what he is talking about), the Sony Xperia Tablet Z (which we are both big fans of) and Nike #Mipista, a novel initiative that they ran in Spain. The SLK 250 goes for over R600k, the Xperia Tablet is valued at about R9000 and, unfortunately, it doesn't look like we'll be seeing #Mipista in Africa, but it's still a cool idea. [youtube]http://youtu.be/CWx2ybqwRbg[/youtube] Shot at 21Tanks by Quinton Jones....
Win A Go-Pro Hero 3 Camera From Heineken
The Heineken Dropped video series and ‘social experiment’ is in full swing. In the 4th instalment, Capetonian graphic designer Clint Jacobs is, literally, dropped out of the sky into Poland and expected to make his way to Berlin. I previously blogged about the campaign and have been following it on Twitter and YouTube. As part of the competition in SA, where winners will have the opportunity to be a Legendary Traveller, Heineken has hooked me up with the very dope R5000 Go-Pro Hero 3 camera to give away. The world is about stories and experiences and this competition combines both. Manifest...
Men Rally Against Women And Children Abuse
Violence against women and children in South Africa continues to be at epidemic levels. It is horrific. It’s absolutely tragic. Yet, according to some research quoted by Rev. Bafana Khumalo from SANAC Men’s Sector, only 1 in 5 men are actually abusive. Keeping this in mind, it is imperative that the remaining 4 start to change the paradigm and the perception by ensuring that the one do not continue to define the collective. It is for this reason that SANAC and Brothers For Life are running a Men’s Rally on Saturday August 24th at Johannesburg Stadium from 9:00am to 15:00pm focused on men,...
Art Of Life Eps 7: African Web Series On Tech & Lifestyle
In the 7th Episode of Art of Life - an African web series on technology, the digital realm, lifestyle and motoring - with Steve Slotow and myself, Steve shares his experiences from Research@Intel 2013 in San Francisco, I talk a bit about WeChat, the 'social messaging' app being actively pushed by Tencent in Africa and we touch on Olympus' rough and rugged Waterproof TG-2. [youtube]http://youtu.be/nyQRuYOdqFs[/youtube] Shot at 21Tanks by Quinton Jones. Subscribe to the Art of Life Youtube channel HERE
Random Thoughts: The Future of Holidaying
When I was in my teens and in university, my father always insisted on family holidays, particularly around Christmas. We would pile into the car and head to Swaziland, Durban or East London or something. Before that, I generally spent my Christmas holidays in Germany with relatives in addition to one year in the US for about three weeks. Travel is a wonderful thing. It puts life into perspective. In the last two years, I’ve been fortunate enough to get a great deal of perspective, travelling regularly for work even though, at times, it has often been for only a couple of days in each place...
Digital Crates: DJ Chicken George
In the beginning: When I came to the realisation that, to hear good music, I couldn’t solely depend on radio, television, record labels and all the other components of the ‘formal’ music industry for music – because for many, it is simply a business, man. I stumbled upon DJ Chicken George. Talib Kweli either tweeted about him or tweeted him and, for some reason, that I can’t remember, I felt compelled enough to search out his podcasts, Peddlin’ Jazztronica!, starting with iTunes and then also on his site. While hip hop remains a strong foundation, Chicken George marries that cultural...
Random Thoughts: Africa’s Wikipedia Problem?
In April this year, an American author, Amanda Filipacchi, wrote a piece titled Wikipedia’s Sexism Toward Female Novelists, on the New York Times website in reaction to the discovery that women were being moved from the American Novelists category to a sub-category American Women Novelists. Following that James Gleick, an American author, journalist and biographer, shared his thoughts expanding on this on the New York Review of Books blog, with his opinion piece, Wikipedia’s Women Problem. Early this year, in the Freakonomics Radio Podcast Women Are Not Men, there was a discussion on how...
Heineken Dropped SA
There is something about travel that puts not only one’s home into perspective but also how we fit into the world as a whole. The diversity that is the human species and the planet we live on is phenomenal but few of us have the opportunity to truly experience it, even if it is a snapshot. I often travel for work and, although the access is great, it is hard to truly experience a place when coming through for 3 days, with most of the time spent working. Heineken, with its latest global campaign ‘Voyage’, is giving four men the chance to experience the soul of the planet. Voyage is a...
Eps 6 of The Web Series The Art of Life
In Episode 6 of the web series The Art of Life, that I do with Steve Slotow, we chatted about the Tissot T-Race Touch watch (which can be manipulated by touching different parts of the face), the Drift HD Ghost Camera (which seeks to break into the same market that the GoPro is dominating) and the Asus Fonepad (a 7" tablet which telephony capability). [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7CNsk10Lbg[/youtube]
The Art of Life Eps 5
Another episode of the Art of Life with Steve Slotow and myself is in the bag and live. My piloting inadequacies were front and centre with this episode and we also chatted about the Xbox One (no, we don't have one) and the iGrill. Please go over to our YouTube channel and subscribe (if we don't bore you to death) and share. Also, I've said it before, but if you have interesting products or stuff, share them. [youtube]http://youtu.be/yNWzA5shTWo[/youtube] Shoot at 21Tanks
The Art of Life Eps. 4
The intention is to go weekly with The Art of Life. In this episode, we talk about the quirky Q-Bopz, iShower and Sony headphones. We're still experimenting with format, shooting, cameras, etc. Maybe we'll even have a script and make-up, one of these days. We're starting to have a lot more fun and hopefully that comes through. If there is anything you'd like to hear our 'informed' opinion on, drop a line here, on Steve's blog or on our YouTube channel. A big thank you again to 21 Tanks for letting us use their dope office space as our studio. Enjoy....