Obzlife on The Singemonkey

March 12, 2023

Sun, 12 Mar 2023 16:03:18 +0000

Friday night was my second metal night of the year. It’s getting weird. Most of the metal I ever listen to at home is proto-metal, borderline rock, like Black Sabbath and Motörhead. But the bands are so damn committed and the fans so wholesome that it’s about the best live rock music experience you can have in CT. @bulletscript and @boargazmofficial absolutely rocked. The sound was truly deafening . And it was a fantastic evening out thanks to the invite from @sad_ivan.

October 25, 2019

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 16:43:19 +0000

I now have a contact for reasonable slide film processing in Cape Town (thanks to @goodweatherforducks). I have a plan for this beasty. I brought a couple of lenses from the Pentax 67 as well, with an adapter. Once a droolworthy piece of pro kit, the Pentax 645N is now seen as a “beginner’s” medium format camera (probably mostly because of its ’80s styling more than anything). It’s a brilliant camera and great fun to use.

October 25, 2019

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 16:38:28 +0000

A rare moment of sibling harmony from the gremmies.

October 23, 2019

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 13:53:27 +0000

On the way back from the shop, I stopped to talk to this handsome cat who was watching the world go by.

October 05, 2019

Sat, 05 Oct 2019 16:09:17 +0000

I’m not a big car person. But I do like a twilight Porsche 911.

October 03, 2019

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 12:35:14 +0000

And I shouldn’t keep Crumb from his fans. This is taken during his midday hard-burn sleep. Being this sleepy exhausts him and often requires him to take a post-sleep nap.

October 03, 2019

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 12:32:45 +0000

Trinket is also a big fan of the balcony in spring.

October 03, 2019

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 12:30:42 +0000

Skitten loves its new house. The upstairs carpeting is a neverending joy to it. And the balcony, especially now that it’s spring, is its pure delight.

September 03, 2019

Tue, 03 Sep 2019 09:25:26 +0000

Bun in repose

August 16, 2019

Fri, 16 Aug 2019 10:50:06 +0000

Spring is dropping hints all over the place and these guys are especially enjoying having balcony access.

August 06, 2019

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 11:43:44 +0000

The shuttered remnants of Gandalf’s - for about 20 years the main place for undergrads and other young people to go and enjoy cheap booze, crowds jacked up on youth hormones, and rock ’n roll music. Ian McKellan was once photographed hanging off the sign while shooting something in the area. I played a couple of good shows there though even when the place first opened I felt like a teacher chaperoning at a high school dance. Rock ’n roll is now on its last legs as a mass youth movement.

August 06, 2019

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 11:36:50 +0000

Off Lower Main Road Obz yesterday. Not much is holding out against gentrification now. The city is content for the few who weren’t already pushed off to distant wastelands by Apartheid to be pushed off to distant wastelands by rising rents and redevelopment. At top right is a mosque that I didn’t know existed. The daily call to prayer is emblematic for me of our diverse city and the history of that diversity in building it. Islam in SA began with Indonesian and Malaysian slaves being sent here by their Dutch colonists. Political prisoners too. The first book ever written in Afrikaans was the Qran, translated by a political prisoner from ‘Dutch Batavia’, Tuan Guru.

July 27, 2019

Sat, 27 Jul 2019 13:33:25 +0000

Trying out new jpeg settings on my little Fujifilm XE1. Never used a digital camera I liked this much. Straight out of camera jpegs can be tweaked to look so great.

July 22, 2019

Mon, 22 Jul 2019 10:25:35 +0000

Alarming how denial of Stalinist, Maoist, Cambodian etc.

July 16, 2019

Tue, 16 Jul 2019 17:02:01 +0000

Rush hour at the bird hide in the South African Astronomical Observatory.

June 06, 2019

Thu, 06 Jun 2019 17:36:01 +0000

More Obz Victoriana on the new street.

February 07, 2019

Thu, 07 Feb 2019 12:47:08 +0000

Summertime sleepiness for Skitten and her no.1 fan, Mr. Salacious Crumb.