sisters (1987)

Pick an old photograph of you. Go back and look at what was happening in the world around the time it was taken.

1987-Lombard's-Bakery-and-Delicatessen-2

Waterfall, Natal, winter 1987

From SA History Online:

1987
11 June, The year old State of Emergency renewed. Regulations governed security, media and black education. Initial period of detention extended from fourteen to thirty days.

24 June, Government Notice No 68: Repealed curfew regulations. Commenced: 24 June 1987

30 June, Proclamation No 8: Declared a state of emergency in Transkei. Commenced: 30 June 1987

July, Key African ANC personnel are assassinated in South Africa’s neighbouring states. Amongst them is Cassius Make and Paul Dikeledi, both killed in Swaziland.

1 July, Eight multi-racial Regional Services Councils are established to provide basic services, such as water and electricity.
The Reverend Frank Chikane succeeds the Reverend C.F. Beyers Naudé as head of the South African Council of Churches.

6 July, A new black party, the Federal Independent Democratic Alliance (FIDA) is launched to oppose apartheid and prepares to work with the government.

9 July, The Margo Commission of Inquiry into the death of President Samora Machel releases its findings. The plane carrying him crashed due to pilot error and negligence and was not lured off course by a decoy beacon as alleged by the Soviets and Mozambicans.

9 July – 12 July, Sixty-one white South Africans, mainly from the Afrikaans community, meet the ANC in Dakar, in search of a democratic alternative for South Africa. Eric Mntonga, an IDASA official, who organized this meeting, is found stabbed to death.

10 July, Ratifies the Convention on Assistance in the case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency; also ratifies Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident.

20 July, Signs an agreement with the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comores relating to the basic conditions governing the secondment of officials to, and the recruitment of other personnel by South Africa on behalf of the government of the Republic of the Comores.

26 July, Prominent anti-apartheid activists are arrested. Amongst them is Azhar Cachalia, national treasurer of the United Democratic Front (UDF).

30 July, A bomb explodes outside the headquarters of the South African Defence Force, injuring soldiers and civilians.

31 July – 3 August, International Student Conference in Solidarity with the Struggle of the Students of Southern Africa, London.

31 July – 3 August, International Student Conference in Solidarity with the Struggle of the Students of Southern Africa, London.

14 August, Reverend Allan Hendricks, a cabinet minister, resigns from government.

4 September, KwaNdebele: Public Safety Act No 5: Commenced: 4 September 1987

7 September, An intricate prisoner exchange takes place in Maputo, involving 133 Angolan soldiers, anti-apartheid activists, Klaas de Jonge, a Dutch anthropologist, Pierre Andre Albertini, a French university lecturer and Major Wynand du Toit, a South African officer captured in Angola two years ago.

11 September, A revised National Statutory Council is released providing a forum for blacks to discuss policy and assist in drawing up a new constitution.

13 September, Venda Border Extension Act No 31: Included further territory into Venda. Commenced: 13 September 1979

23 September, Signs treaty with Malawi providing for the training of nurses from Malawi in South Africa.

24 September, Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa is launched to articulate the interests of tribal chiefs and act as an extra-parliamentary opposition movement.

27 September, Oliver Tambo, President of the ANC denies that it is in contact with the South African government.

October, Chris Hani is appointed new Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe.

5 October, President P.W. Botha decides against scrapping the Separate Amenities Act, but agrees that some residential areas can be opened to all races.

patti smith – kimberly (1975)

Patti Smith and her sister Kimberly, 1962. (Photo posted on Facebook by Kimberly.)

The wall is high, the black barn,
The babe in my arms in her swaddling clothes
And I know soon that the sky will split
And the planets will shift,
Balls of jade will drop and existence will stop.
Little sister, the sky is falling, I don’t mind, I don’t mind.
Little sister, the fates are calling on you.

Ah, here I stand again in this old ‘lectric whirlwind,
The sea rushes up my knees like flame
And I feel like just some misplaced Joan Of Arc
And the cause is you lookin’ up at me.
Oh baby, I remember when you were born,
It was dawn and the storm settled in my belly
And I rolled in the grass and I spit out the gas
And I lit a match and the void went flash
And the sky split and the planets hit,
Balls of jade dropped and existence stopped, stopped, stop, stop.
Little sister, the sky is falling, I don’t mind, I don’t mind.
Little sister, the fates are calling on you.

I was young ‘n crazy, so crazy I knew I could break through with you,
So with one hand I rocked you and with one heart I reached for you.
Ah, I knew your youth was for the takin’, fire on a mental plane,
So I ran through the fields as the bats with their baby vein faces
Burst from the barn and flames in a violent violet sky,
And I fell on my knees and pressed you against me.
Your soul was like a network of spittle,
Like glass balls movin’ in like cold streams of logic,
And I prayed as the lightning attacked
That something will make it go crack, something will make it go crack,
Something will make it go crack, something will make it go crack.

The palm trees fall into the sea,
It doesn’t matter much to me
As long as you’re safe, Kimberly.
And I can gaze deep
Into your starry eyes, baby, looking deep in your eyes, baby,
Looking deep in your eyes, baby, looking deep in your eyes, baby,
Into your starry eyes, oh.

Oh, in your starry eyes, baby,
Looking deep in your eyes, baby, looking deep in your eyes, baby, oh.

Oh, looking deep in your eyes, baby,
Into your starry eyes, baby, looking deep in your eyes, baby…


Simon Reynolds in a fascinating discussion with Patti Smith of her Horses album here.

olöf arnalds – a little grim

She makes it sound so breezy, easy to be Zen…

And here’s the B-side to this single, performed live by Ólöf with her sister, Klara — one of the loveliest versions of this Dylan classic I’ve heard. Oh, and that little instrument is a charango, in case you’re curious.

“Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.”

a blanket for juliette

My sister Heather started crocheting this beautiful blanket at the age of 16 while pregnant with Juliette, spending hours of time in difficult reflection as her friends carried on being carefree teenagers. Heather has finally finished the blanket and handed it to Juliette, now 16 herself, who has also been going through an incredibly hard and painful time lately. Today Heather posted a couple of photographs on Facebook with the following caption:

“Labour of love for my big girl-child. Every stitch was done with you in mind. Tears and love and prayers are woven into the threads, my precious gift from God.”

My heart is swollen.

blanket for juliette

the boswell sisters – shine on, harvest moon (1931)

Recorded in New York on 27 August 1931 with the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra: Mannie Klein (tpt) Tommy Dorsey (tbn) Jimmy Dorsey (cl, as) unknown (vln) Martha Boswell (p) Eddie Lang (g) Joe Tarto (sb) Stan King (d)
E-37112-A Shine On, Harvest Moon (Norworth-Bayes) 3:08 Brunswick 6173, [BSC1], [NWST], [IGSOY], [IY], [ITG]
E-37113-A Heebie Jeebies (Atkins-Boswell) 2:37 Brunswick 6173, [BSC1], [NWST], [ELMB], [IY]

The Boswell Sisters were a close harmony singing group that attained prominence in the USA in the 1930s.

Sisters Martha Boswell (June 9, 1905 – July 2, 1958), Connee Boswell (December 3, 1907 – October 11, 1976), and Helvetia “Vet” Boswell (May 20, 1911 – November 12, 1988) were raised by a middle-class family on Camp Street in uptown New Orleans, Louisiana. They came to be well known in New Orleans while still in their early teens, making appearances in local theatres and radio, and their first recordings for Victor Records in 1925. However, the Boswell Sisters did not attain national attention until they moved to New York City in 1931 and started making national radio broadcasts. After a few recordings with Okeh Records in 1930, they made numerous recordings for Brunswick Records from 1931-1935. These Brunswick records are widely regarded as milestone recordings of vocal jazz.

Martha, Connie and Vet Boswell, New Orleans, 1925

Martha, Connee and Vet Boswell, New Orleans, 1925

Connee’s ingenious reworkings of the melodies and rhythms of popular songs, together with Glenn Miller’s hot arrangements, and first rate New York jazz musicians (including The Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman, Bunny Berigan, Fulton McGrath, Joe Venuti, Arthur Schutt, Eddie Lang, Joe Tarto, Manny Klein, Dick McDonough, and Carl Kress), made these recordings unlike any others. Melodies were rearranged and slowed down, major keys were changed to minor keys (sometimes in mid-song) and rhythmic changes were par for the course. Interestingly, the Boswell Sisters were among the very few performers allowed to make these changes to current popular tunes as during this era, music publishers and record companies pressured performers not to alter current popular song arrangements).

The Boswell Sisters were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998.

(Info from Youtube.)

cherry bomb – the clock struck

fleurmach7rose

This is a page taken from FLEURZINE, a zine curated and illustrated by Julia Mary Grey. You can go and download this beautiful work of art for free on her site, HERE.

The name was inspired by Fleurmach, and six pieces of writing from this blog appear in the publication. This piece is by Fleurmach curator Cherry Bomb and was first posted HERE.

ella jara – sweets for thohoyandou

fleurmach7ella

This is a page taken from FLEURZINE, a zine curated and illustrated by Julia Mary Grey. You can go and download this beautiful work of art for free on her site, HERE.

The name was inspired by Fleurmach, and six pieces of writing from this blog appear in the publication. This piece is by Fleurmach contributor NoHolyCows, and first appeared HERE.

the clock struck

My earliest childhood memory is of my second birthday.

It’s a sunny winter afternoon. The dry grass smells stubbly and brown. The pelargoniums smell interesting too. I know what they are called because Nana always shouts at me when I pick the glowing red flowers. The slasto paving is warm and there are stripy lizards that scuttle away.

Mommy has made me a Hickory Dickory Dock cake, and set it on the outside table (which is white moulded asbestos/concrete in the shape of a faux slice through a tree trunk…I remember this well because it was around for several years). Standing next to the table, I am only able to see the side of the cake. Pink and white marshmallows encircle it, magically turned into mice with little cardboard ears and liquorice bootlace tails, and when I am picked up to blow out the candles, the clock’s face on top of the cake is made from liquorice too, and glacé cherries. The liquorice doesn’t taste very nice. I like the cherries.

Yes please, thank you very much, Nana. I say it after her because if I don’t she won’t give me what I want. Don’t put your feet on the table. No. That’s very naughty. If you do it again Nana will smack you. The threat makes me dissolve into tears. The frustration! I’m learning about manners. Manners are annoying.

I feel very big. I have a brand new baby sister, a month and a bit old. She is in a navy blue vinyl pram nearby. If I pull myself up on the side of it, I can juuust see over into her tiny, swaddled world.

Pelargoniums. Photo by Rosemary Lombard