Bonsoir!
A Day in the Life of Eugene is now more or less in its second month! Thank you to my readers for the continued support up to now! Look forward to a couple more wine reviews, gig guides, recipes...and umm...if I gather up a sufficient amount of courage, a small video clip of a familiar cover :-) Until the next post...! P.s... hello all facebook friends, thanks for joining the party!
0 Comments
I recently decided to start up a tumblr account, and while browsing through a couple of blogs, looking for interesting things to read, came across a short quote... Which kind of blew me away. I think it was on the topic of how nowadays we tend to plant or invest (whichever field you find yourself in) most, if not all of our spare time into social media...And it is for the most part, although not surprising, still upsetting. I'll attach a link too, because I like this guy's laid-back approach to writing, and he also keeps it short and sweet...(unlike mine at certain times...), but here's the mini extract...
"One day in the early 1920s, a young Ernest Hemingway rushed along the streets of Paris seeking shelter from a downpour. He soon came upon a warm cafe on the Place St.-Michel and ducked inside. After hanging his rain jacket, Hemingway ordered a café au lait, pulled out a notepad and pencil from his pocket and began writing. Before long he had fallen into a trancelike state, oblivious to his surroundings as he penned a story that would later become the first chapter of his memoir, “A Moveable Feast.” If Hemingway were alive in 2014, he might not have finished what he started writing that day. Realistically, he probably wouldn’t have even put a pen to paper. Instead, he might have ducked into the cafe, pulled out his smartphone and proceeded to waste an entire afternoon on social media." Reclaiming Our (Real) Lives From Social Media - NYTimes.com The quote speaks for itself...and needs no over explanation, but the only thing that I would like to add to this (some snacks for contemplation, if you will) would obviously be, to remember the way things were. Try to separate yourself from the rest of the dominated and somewhat droned population that is constantly placing their online alias/ avatar and presence as top priority. Even something as simple as leaving your phone alone while driving (even though it is already illegal), on a more human level, it is about doing one thing at a time, and doing it with care and presence (not just physical presence). As mentioned in a previous post, the best way to live a full and exciting life (and to alleviate FOMO) is to be as present as possible in every moment. That is where the beauty comes in. That is where your story takes its intricate little turns and weaves. Maybe it sounds cheesy and cliché, but I think that if you decide to put your phone away while you're alone at a coffee shop and do a bit of people-watching instead, or just take some time to take in what's going on around you, you might find that there's a lot more to see. You might be the only one to really take in what life has to offer, or what is about to unfold. So it has been more or less a week and a half since my last post. This partly being due to my test schedule and also because of a couple of crazy events taking place. We've had an unfortunate event that took place at our commune in Pretoria where one of our housemates was robbed inside the house and so for those reasons, and just general safety issues, my folks have suggested that I move out and either back in with them here in Johannesburg or alternatively, with a friend somewhere in Pretoria. So it has been a strange couple of days. What also took place was me delivering a speech at a long-time friend's twenty-first birthday (a momentous occasion considering I had never before been asked to speak at anyone's birthday!). What I have located for today's post was a little memento from my matric year in school-- English class more specifically. I was paging through my general file that I had used in Grade twelve and came across my final speech. We were free to choose which ever topic interested us and it had to be approximately 3-5 minutes in length. I thought I'd share it with my readers :-) Unfortunately, I cannot remember the Title of my Speech, but as you are about to find out, it is about Woodstock 1969. Here goes: "It's a hot, sunny day on a farm in Bethel, New York. There is bumper-to-bumper traffic, while the long grass blows in the gentle 1969 breeze. Excited free spirits decide to grab the essentials and leave the car behind, and see what the next four days have in store. As you make your way along the fence, you pass people making their own music, playing makeshift percussion instruments from old suitcases and guitars with missing strings. A happy couple holding hands are walking barefoot along with you, girls braiding each other's hair and picking daisies to go in it and a circle of some reeeaally relaxed folks lighting up "special 'erbs" and inhaling the goodness. You see a brightly painted bus with tie-dye curtains and people sitting on camps chairs on the roof, some singing songs together while others meditate in Zen-like positions. The atmosphere is one of peaceful chaos. Never has there been 500 000 living souls gathered at one venue in the entire history of the world except for the Pilgrimage to Mecca, but this being only for a music festival. Helicopters fly over the surrounding farmland to try and comprehend the magnitude of the event, taking place below them. You can't see much except for the main stage, a cornfield, some woods and a dam. Oh and a couple hundred thousand people. Local authorities eventually had to intervene, as the proposed scale of the event had exploded almost exponentially. All fencing was removed and people were now able to enter the campsite /gateway-to-the-changing-of-your-life-forever, a little more freely--keeping with the theme of the occasion. One by one, each flamboyant-in-their-own-right act made their history on stage; breaking musical boundaries and journeying into the Great Unknown of musical and cultural possibility. Iconic bands and individuals, who defined an era, such as Sweetwater, Carlos Santana, Canned Heat, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, The Who, Joe Cocker, Crosby, Stills Nash & Young, Sha Na Na, Jimi Hendrix and many more, did more than just communicate an oral message or entertain a crowd but instilled hope into the minds and hearts of the people who longed for something greater than what they've been exposed to in their lives up until that moment. August 16th; Day Two of the proceedings, foresaw a big thunderstorm, followed by buckets and buckets of rain (much to the fear of event coordinators). But, due to the spontaneity of the guests of this musical gathering, they made full use of one GIANT, slip-n-slide, trip-over-your-neighbour-accidentally-on-purpose, get-covered-in-it-from-head-to-toes MUD SLIDE! Everything from jeans to boots and leather jackets were crusted in mud, and there was no other way to clean oneself (which was optional) but to head on down to the local dam; and may I add that most festival-goers preferred to do so without a stitch of clothing--this also keeping with the dress code of the time period. The owner of the dairy farm, Max Yasgur: The farmer that rescued music history, had the idea of conducting Woodstock in his backyard, as plans for it to be held in Walkill, New York, had not worked out. Afterward, Max was sued by his neighbours for damage done to their property by fans during the festival, and the situation eventually ended with a $ 50 000 settlement. When he died of a heart attack at the age of 53, a full obituary was written in his honour in the pages of Rolling Stone Magazine; a monumental honour considering very few non-musical figures were given similar credit. But the real brains behind the legend of Woodstock belonged to best friends and co-creators: Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld. Kornfeld was one of the youngest people to become a vice president for a small, up-and-coming music label called CAPITOL RECORDS! And, by 1966, he had already written 75 Billboard charged songs and worked on over 150 albums. Artie had the connections and hand-picked the line-up, and together, he and Michael shared the vision and the dream. All they needed now was someone to take care of the bill... Call in Joel Rosemann and John Roberts; chief financers of the whole Shebang. The irony of it all comes into the fact that the two men were purely looking to fund a "small" party of which its proceeds would go towards creating a studio in the Woodstock area. No one could ever have imagined the roaring and never-ending success of this project, the fans themselves included. 42 Years and many generations later, the unexplained, psychedelic magic of Woodstock still lives on brightly in the hearts of its followers and will forever maintain its record for influencing the most lives in the space of one...unforgettable...Summer. Peace! " I hope you enjoyed it! Obviously if I were to have to rewrite it, I'd add a little bit more flavour and do a bit more in-depth research. I like to think my writing skill has improved a little since then :-) It has been three years!
Until the next post, keep well, keep safe and keep on listening to the classics! |
AuthorHi there, my name is Judete Fourie. I am a twenty-something-year-old writer living in Stellenbosch in SA's Western Cape. Follow my day to day adventures that involve wine, wit and braaibroodjies. Archives
June 2017
Categories |