Yasser Booley's Blog

Making South Africa Proud At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival!

Peace and Blessings

In the plethora of events, performances, music gigs comedy acts that is the Edinburgh Fringe Festival it is only to easy to let lost. If I was lost, then I was found, in the form of an electric performance put on by the Memeza Africa last night.

Memeza Africa is the product of a South African and Canadian collaboration that was formed in 2005 when Holly Wright, a Canadian doing training workshops for Sasol decided to rerecord a track she had written a few years before with a distinctive South African sound. She met up with Jimmy Mulovhedzi who was at the time the head of a choir group consisting of locals from Soweto, and the rest , as they say is history.

Memeza Africa performed the track at The World Aids Day celebrations in Kwazulu Natal. At the celebration they met with a Canadian HIV NGO , EDZIMKULU, who invited them to Canada to perform at a fundraiser for the organisation in Edmonton in 2008.

Jimmy and Holly striking all the wright notes

Now Memeza Africa find themselves at the biggest performing arts festival in the world, enlightening audiences with their overwhelming energy and joy.

Without the any of the edgy cerebral attributes that inspire contemporary critics to haul out their tertiary educated cognitive arsenal, Memeza Africa powers through the insubstantial boundaries of nationality, language and culture to strike at the heart. Launching a full assault in the universal language of joy and humility, and the simple pleasure of listening to beauty in the form of the human voice.

What they have to offer to people who traveled from all over the world in one short hour, reminds me intensely of that which makes South Africa a beacon in the world, her pride, her people.

posing with a Japanese audience member after the gig...

Salaam

Yasser

Rockness anybody?

Peace and Blessings be with you.

I am curios to find out if there are people out there who have heard of the Rockness music festival? It would take me more time than i currently have to make a fairly decent representation of the 3 day mega-music festival that featured bands like Prodigy and Basement Jax, yes thats right, Live!!

This will also be the first time that I am putting a sequence on the blog, I think you will see the reason.

as am I.

Salaam

Yasser

Neist point continued

Peace and Blessings be with you.

We had a picnic on the beach, and were entertained by a giant seal resting watchfully in a little bay not far off.

and then of course the Actual Lighthouse, which from the looks of things, together with the adjoining cottages were converted to holiday accommodation units, which meant that the whole complex was off limits to the general public.

Salaam.

Yasser

Revisiting Cawdor Estate

Peace and blessings be with you.

teddy in the cupboard... — teddy in the cupboard..

Perfectly logical, right next to the bed, ***** was kind enough to let us use her room during our stay.

Fish are jumping and the weather is fine...

The walks are pretty spectacular too, though not without its perils!

Eventually you get to the top.

A river runs through it... — Yes, a river runs through it...

Then on to Skye, and Neist Point.

Salaam

Yasser

Aldeburgh

Peace and Blessings be with you.

With all the excitement about CHAPTER starting to tick over there seems to be more time to concentrate on the blog, theoretically at least. In reality i am still 2 months behind on the blog, and now we find ourselves back in Suffolk.

And typical to a lovely seaside village, it is not hard to spot the couples on a romantic outing .

and neither is it hard to spot the tourists.

and last but not least, the delicious fish cannot be forgotten. The boat coming onto the beach below is was the one that caught a cod that made a superb dinner that evening.

They actually use a winch to draw the boat up across the pebble beach along runners...

Salaam.

Yasser

‘CHAPTER’ Launches today!!!

Peace and Blessings be with you .

I am very happy to announce the publication of ‘CHAPTER’ . Officially today is the first day that it being ‘live’ . The website responsible for production and distribution is based in California, and as yet they are only posting to the U.S, U.K and Canada, but we are hoping that they will extend their distribution network.

http://mierkat.magcloud.com/ is the link to send to all your contacts in the above 3 countries when you tell them about the new magazine from Africa that they MUST have!

Thanks and Praise, as ever, is due to the Maker of atoms, The Fashioner of Love. I must recognise the support of my wife and her family for enduring my long anti social hours at the Mac, Thank you Precious Heart. To my family for their endurance in dealing with me I owe a debt that I doubt I can ever repay,especially my mother, thanks Ma!
To all the people who make the mission to come to this blog, turn up at my exhibitions, show their support and encourage, thank you!

I shall soon be starting to work in ernest on the second issue, all feedback appreciated, no welcome!!!

I sold the first one to one of my earliest friends, you know who you are bru, thanks!!!

Salaam.

Yasser

Along the boardwalk and beyond.

Peace and Blessings be with you.

On this particular day, which happened to be the 9 May, which is more than a month and a half ago, we went for another walk past the Snape Maltings,built originally to make beer, they fell into disuse in the 60’s , were rebuilt and later became famous as a venue for classical concerts, under the influence of English composer Benjamin Britten. It also houses many of the concerts for the Aldeburgh Music Festival.

Like i said, this particular day over a month and a half ago, we walked straight past the Maltings to the stretch of marshland beyond.

The amazing variety of songbirds in England never cease to amaze me, it could perhaps be that back home I am not the most attentive person when it comes to the spontaneous eruption of the mellifluous avian type, but i most certainly notice it on this side of the equator. The” Sky Lark ” for example, a most extraordinary bird that hovers in same position high above the ground, singing its heart out. This must be my favourite.

There are a number of dead trees that dot the landscape from the vantage point of the boardwalk. Gnarled and partially blackened they resemble in instances human limbs,and the word upheaval comes to mind.

Or thats what i thought at first glance, in fact this area is not a stranger to the nordic raiders.

Or at least i hope so!! Again we were blessed with weather that I would more expect from a South African than English summer, but hey, there you go! Ending of with what i thought was really impressive, this Aunty, at the Maltings with her 35mm camera, at least 85 yrs old, still firing away on film.

Salaam.

Yasser

A new home for my canvas print

Peace and Blessings be with you.

One of the canvasses from the exhibition in Cape Town has travelled all the way from there to Suffolk with our help to end up here…

Creativity, inspiration I think begins with the decision to be Creative, inspired, being open to it. In our age, these terms most often are associated with artists or people in the “creative” industries, though in fact these perceptions have been consciously informed. Who says for example that a mother of 3 is not creative, or inspired in the way she deals with the day to day running or the family life? the casting of creativity as a resource into the form that only allows access, permission to “creatives” needs to be deconstructed in a very conscious way. Again, individually this too begins with a decision.You my be interested to know why this “topic”? My wife received a tiny box of paints from her cousin, and i was surprised to find myself gleefully attacking the blocks of a newspaper crossword puzzle in all colours of the “RAinbow nation”

life is like a painting and you have the box of colours...

Salaam

Yasser

Snape surrounds

Peace and blessings be with you .

I have completed my “secret ” project and now find myself for the first time in a while able to attend to this blog!! It would, I think be unfair to start uploading images from where I am at the moment, which is Edinburgh, to those who are following the “story” not to mention the travel sickness that will cause by moving backward and forward in time, so i shall start from where i left off, which is more that a month ago. when we were still in Snape…

the best way to remember the names of places you've been to.

On this particular day we went for a walk to the Snape Maltings.

The local pig farm, actually, its a fairly new arrival to the village of Snape, as the local farmer who owns the land , rented it to a pig farmer only 3 or so years ago.

so I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and say goodbye for now.

Salaam

Yasser

Thank you for your patience

Peace and blessings be with you.

I would like to thank all who have been checking the blog over the last few weeks. I must apologise for my absence, and at the same time let you in on a little secret…. i have been plodding away on an online magazine… it shall al be revealed insha Allah!

In the meanwhile, it would not feel right to post a blog without any picture, so….heres scotland in the summer believe it or not…

Salaam

Yasser