the green issue

THE GREEN ISSUEVOL. 1 NO. 1

SEPTEMBER 2010

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Eyjafjallajökulthe volcano in Iceland, erupted grounding all flights across Europe for 6 days (15 - 21 march 2010).

the volcano in Iceland, erupted grounding all flights across Europe for 6 days (15 - 21 march 2010).

European aviation industry’s carbon emissions in 6 days: 344 109 tons.

Volcano Eyjafjallajokul’s carbon emissions during eruption: 15 000 tons

Carbon emissions saves by grounded aviation

industry: 206 465 tons

Shots: Sean Stiegemeierwww.in-perfidia.com

Illustration: Alexander Bosman

At our first meeting for this issue we walked in thinking, well, it’s in the bag. We’re producing a green issue which is going to be simple-hotshit. The assumption that due to its very pop nature, green as terminology, was one we were all simply so exhaustibly famil-iar with that putting together this issue would happen in a quick second. Little did we know that we were dealing with a term so fraught with meaning that navigat-ing its different perceptions, mis/re-directions and imperfections was set to take us on a labyrin-thine trek. What is green, where did it come from, where is it going and how did it come about are all questions each of us were faced with in this frantic maze, the way out seemingly nowhere near. The real problem being that this word ‘green’ had anthropomorphically escaped its traditional definitions and was now left on the surgery table of a marketing conglom-erate somewhere in an under-ground bunker. As consumers left to translate these constructed definitions it becomes quite ir-ritatingly obvious that once you think you’ve got it someone else reminds you that you are, in fact, quite incorrect. Those cute vin-

tage boots you lovingly purchased at the Deer Hunter junk sale have in fact traveled further around the world than the knock offs you saw at Mr. Price and have buttons that wouldn’t dissolve in a vat of acid, let alone organically decompose in your vegetable patch.

With this issue we have attempt-ed to help you map your way through this endless mess. As a publication, we would never be so arrogant, or perhaps stupid, as to state that this is what green is or isn’t. We have provided you with the insights of a group of young, brilliant individuals (or col-laborators) whose views on the subject range from indifferent to down right anarchistic. Essential-ly, we have done the groundwork and left the matter of definitions up to you, our fabulous, gorgeous reader whom I hope will let all their fabulous, gorgeous friends know about this phenomenal publication. Our team is hungry and need your hits to survive. So save the planet and start clicking.

Garreth

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PAGES, SCREEN, PAGES

Carmen Lambrianos

“Without defacing the purpose of the whole green movement... I like the sound effect of the water hurrying out the tap”

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The idea of green, to me, is an obscure one and I’ll explain why. While we find ourselves bom-barded with what we should be doing, or not doing, it still feels as though I’m further out of the loop than in it. And so with this, came difficulty to decide just on what to write about. It was exclaimed that if we’re so bombarded by all things green – why then is there an element of angst when I sit down to discuss what I’ve taken from the massive, almost obtru-sive, green machine. Well, I’ve not yet mastered the maze, in which many South Africans and I’m sure all folk, find themselves immersed, one which requires concentrated navigation. It’s all around us as we try, in our own capacities, to get passed the re-petitiveness of the green. If you can’t beat them I suppose...

Join them. Without defacing the purpose of the whole green move-ment (not that it would be pos-sible for little old me to achieve, nor would I want to) I’ve tried to listen to a “be green” tip talk. But, I like the sound effect of the water hurrying out the tap while I brush my teeth – it sets the pace of my mornings. Of course – ever since the ad campaign featuring a stick-er of a child’s face stuck to the bottom of public basins with an open mouth where you’d expect the water to fall, punched itself into my life, well - I’m always late now – the pace isn’t set. I also like

the feel of paging through pages of stories to retell and pictures to be inspired by that I had found, then printed, then breathed in. Hand rendered visual diaries are never really the same and who’s skin-tone ever looked good under the white, harsh, almost fluores-cent blankets thrown over us by energy saving light bulbs? But somehow it has happened for me, you’ll find me white-washed with my laptop instead of printed goodness. Somehow, the green has infiltrated my thought-to-ac-tion reflexes.

If you can’t join them, then they’ll just beat you. While we may be trying to figure out (or just wait-ing for it to fall into our laps) what more we can do to be green with-out inconveniencing ourselves too much, we put ourselves into a “one of those” categories. “Oh, you’re one of those?” The less desensitised to media people, those who take every advert, piece of news or campaign seri-ously, are the ones being affected by the green movement, more so the rest of us, and major compa-nies, corporations and projects going green will mean the rest get left behind. It’s confusing and daunting and at times a mission but whether or not you’ve no-ticed, the green machine... it’s there, and we should follow suit by embracing all things green. Easier said then...

It’s done. Green’s all the rage these days and it would appear the dire-sounding environmen-tal news and the campaigns and campaigns and campaigns have paid off somewhat. Don’t get me wrong – if being green was easy... Here and there I find my-self doing what’s right according to the green machine and it’s a consolation. If your house is solar powered and your elbow grease is used solely for Greenpeace operations, then maybe some of us are moved by the media’s offerings, enough to induce the green rage within. But, ill have you know, the media’s advice hasn’t completely flown over my head.

PAGES, SCREEN, PAGES

“Without defacing the purpose of the whole green movement... I like the sound effect of the water hurrying out the tap”

Illustration: Daniel Edwards

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NO GREEN HIGHS

NO GREEN HIGHS Illustration: Alexander Bosman

Ok lets all be honest now, drugs, in their own wicked way, make this world go round, they are the ba-sis of a multi-billion dollar indus-try and while we pay absolutely no thought to how they are pro-duced (because we are just con-cerned with getting high), the fab-rication of contraband is having a profoundly negative effect on our already fragile environment. The Form explores what our intoxica-tion is doing to the green Planet. Is your high really worth it?

We may finally have overcome de-nying the existence of the thriving drug cultures in different commu-nities all around the world but now it is time for us to explore what the environmental impact is of illegal drug consumption is and come to terms with it.

Before your next line, pill or joint, if you find yourself that way inclined, it may be worth thinking about the force your brief buzz has on the lives of others and our precious planet. There are many criticisms of drug use and we have presum-

ably all heard *ad nauseam* about the physiological effects of contra-band, so here’s a fresh perspec-tive.

“Manufacturing one pound of methamphetamine creates five pounds of toxic waste, this is the main ingredient in the infamous; Tik, Lolly, Choef, Speed, Ice, Crys-tals, tuk-tuk or whatever other affectionate names this life de-stroying drug has been given like; globes, Hitler’s drug, popeyes, a straw, chalk, crank, croak, crypto,crystal meth, fire, glass, meth, tweek , White Cross.

This highly addictive substance causes great harm aside from the holes it eats into a long term user’s brain. Chemical by-products from meth have been found in places in-cluding public parks and can loiter in soil and groundwater for years, posing immediate and long-term environmental health risks. The highly toxic chemicals and waste that are dumped into our environ-ment may contaminate water re-sources for humans, animals and

plants for years to come.Mostly human beings as a race are extremely destructive to the eco-system and while there is nothing that can replace a good high we need to start accepting the fact that making our tools for escapism will ultimately contribute to the earth’s demise.

“Coca, marijuana, and opium pop-py cultivation have replaced nativevegetation in areas covering hun-dreds of thousands of acres that are often in vulnerable areas such as species-rich rainforests and erosion-prone cloud forests.”(3)

The Coca plant, from which co-caine is derived, is grown in the Colombian rainforests of which nearly 700 000 acres of forest are destroyed every year mostly *à cause de* coca plantations. “Coca cultivation has been blamed for the deforestation vast areas of land in the Amazon region of the Andes as well as the killing of wildlife and the disappearance of several fish species.”

NO GREEN HIGHSWords: Nikki Bliss Monique Commandeur

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To create room for these plan-tations the forests are razed to the ground with ‘controlled’ fires. There is no need to encourage fur-ther destruction of the rainforest, one of our main oxygen sources, especially not by conflagration. The production of a kilogram of coca paste generates almost 600 kg of waste and contaminates at least 760 litres of water. For every gram of cocaine consumed, four square metres of Colombian rain-forest is destroyed.

So when someone warmly tells you to refrain from sticking half of Columbia up your nose, they mean it literally.

This is before we even mention that, due to the illegal nature of working at a cocaine plantation, the employees, who are often the poorest locals, are severely mis-treated. There is no space for un-ionization and therefore nothing ensuring that the workers are paid enough, so this vulgar and primi-tive treatment can continue in the shaded veil of the ugly drug under-world. There are lots of movies that depict the drug lords withtheir armies, just watch a little

Johnny Depp ( and his sinister good looks) in ‘Blow’ for a taster or should I say tease.

People risk their lives to convey drugs from one place to the next and buying it supports one of the most corrupt industries in exist-ence.The majority of the environmental damage, however, results from the pesticides, fungicides and herbi-cides that are dropped in effort to kill weeds (excuse the pun) among the vegetation or the illegitimate crops themselves by govern-ments. “Since the mid-1980s, the US government has insisted on chemical fumigation as a corner-stone of its policy to destroy illegal drug crops, and forced producer countries to follow the party line. Colombia, for example, was under

Intense pressure during the 1990s to allow the use of fumigation planes to drop chemicals on coca and poppy fields in the country’s eastern savannas and jungles, a major area of drug crop cultiva-tion.” And finally we get to our fond favourite Mary-Jane, Marijuana is green you say? Perhaps if you know someone who grows it in

their back yard, but the pesticides used in thriving mass growing plantations is also detrimental to the environment as with the Coca plants.

So when you feel like sparking up a spiff, to make yourself feel better make sure it is pure green-house or hydroponic Chronic, indoor or outdoor. That is my frivolous solu-tion to this environmental conun-drum.The gloomy reality is, this piece of writing is not going to stop any of you from doing drugs because lets face it, its drugs and they are not going anywhere, anytime soon. They are the cruel holders to many of our destinies and the master of disillusion but my hopes for this feature is that it will make all of you ardent drug users more aware of the effects it is having on our home. You can fuck up your life as much as you want but when it comes to a place that we all share, take some time to consider the harm you bring because while you getting high, your are tearing our environment down to its bare minimum. GET FAMILIAR.

NO GREEN HIGHS

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PAPERCASHMONEY.Illustration: Daniel Edwards

PAPERCASHMONEY.

PAPER CASH MONEYGreen is American for money. America is English for large; for world dominating power: Green is shorthand for the pursuit of hap-piness; green is the American Dream, and we all aspire to it. Disregarding the fact that green currency is not universal; here in South Africa, the only green cur-rency we deal in, is the R10 note. Which is not enough to buy a slice of American pie, let alone the en-tire dream.

As much sentimental value as we hold to that green dollar note; there happens to be a new green in our hearts; he’s ‘besties’ with Leo DiCaprio, his dad is Al Gore and for the time being, he’s more important to us than the green dol-lar note. Yes, I am indeed talking about the Big, Eco-Friendly Giant. The only thing more recognizable than the American Dream is that which threatens to destroy it. But does that mean eco-green is the new American Dream? Probably not.

‘The American Dream’ is success, which inadvertently equals money. As binary opposites would have it, money is the antithesis of eco-friendly. To justify this point; lets talk about ‘Allan’ who recently lost his car, is living with his parents again and is so broke, he doesn’t have money for cigarettes. To any-body else, it would seem that Allan is a total failure; he has broken the most important rule of success by going for broke. However, if I am to explore his situation in terms of his carbon footprint; Allan has stopped supporting cigarette man-ufacturers, stopped contributing to global warming with a gas guz-

zling, ozone destroying car and he is saving on water and electricity by sharing it with his folks. Allan, ladies and gentlemen, is a green hero!

However, when he hits le club to-night, skimming off friends and feeling rather desperate, Allan will most probably not enjoy himself the kind of evening a hero deserves, even after regaling the girl of his wet dreams about his remarkably tiny carbon footprint. What she hears is: ‘I have no money to get you drunk and sleep with me, then regret it. Even if I did have that kind of money, you would most prob-ably share an awkward breakfast with my parents in the morning, after having spent the night with a cushion over your mouth, wait, not the whole night, just those 5 minutes before you were force re-tired to the couch, so that my mom could see you in the morning and be reminded that she needed to give you a lift home.’

It would appear the green hero of today, is yesterday’s anti-hero. While Leo Dicaprio promotes go-ing green with documentaries, campaigns, websites and pure good example; he’s still less green than Allan. Why? Because he has money. With his money, Leo is contributing to a great economy, oh and guess what? A great econ-omy is contributing to the destruc-tion of the planet!

When the economy is bad, it means that people have less money. Less money means less cars and less gas, which in turn means less pollution. Less retail sales means less demand from

factories supplying them and less energy is used for manufacturing; energy that come from coal plants which screw the environment with carbon emissions. Oh and an-other fact; unemployment equals less deforestation; the average employee uses 10 000 sheets of paper per year. According to ‘Con-serveatree’: 1 tree makes 16.7 reams of paper, which is 8, 333.3 sheets. So on average; a single office employee destroys at least one tree per year.

Now, there is the issue of ‘carbon credits’ to compensate for eco-de-structive industries. Carbon credits are commodities created by finan-cial industries, they can be earned by means of making a greener ef-fort; in turn the more carbon cred-its earned by these industries; the higher their value. Currently, the Carbon Trading market is valued at 30 billion US Dollars. A small titbit to end with: industries don’t actually have to make a greener effort if they have the funds to pur-chase carbon credits from other greener companies. This, in turn, is irony, not compensation.

In retrospect; carbon credits con-tribute to the economy; eco-green does not equal success, unless it can be traded for money. Today’s hero of the tiny carbon footprint is still a virgin. Leo Dicaprio lied. He is not eco-friendly; he’s a big spender in a hybrid. The American Dream is still the favoured green. Eco-green may be more important at this moment in time, but it won’t last forever; people will always be bigger fans of Benjamin Franklyn than Al Gore. Al Gore was, after all only vice president.

Words: Georgia Munnik

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PAPER CASH MONEY

Photos: Xander Ferreira

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CONSSo there we were, at the home of the most industrious and delight-ful swindle of the 21st century – the Vitamin Water pop-up store in Parkhurst – when, under the most unexpected of circumstances, the iron armour of our anti-Western cynicism came to be penetrated by the words of two, bereaved, Italian soccer fans. In line with our jour-nalistic code (express unreserv-edly and never mask the ludicrous extent of your bias) we, Puddles and Patches, state outright that we are no die-hard soccer fanatics. Sure, we enjoy the match-drinking and can easily be absorbed by the general Ayobaness (albeit with a touch of skepticism and causticity) but we do not possess the natu-ral aptitude to blow the vuvuzela uninhibitedly, and our lives are not scheduled around the Fifa time-able. We put it down to smokers’ lungs and the rejection of con-sumer nationalism; it could also have something to do with limited dexterity and traumatic childhood ball-sport memories. But, hey, we dish out mad props to abafana

bethu and those who gooi the gees. So needless to say we sit on the proverbial fence about the whole World Cup event. It not that we don’t get it – we do – but the blind patriotism and excitement which requires us to simply gloss over the innate problems with the World Cup can really put some serious strain on one’s view of the whole affair.

Right, so it all began with the Two Italian Fans – the die-hard type, thoroughgoingly bleak, damaged even, by Italia’s knock out. A (pos-sibly) melodramatic and (defi-nitely) Mediterranean, emotion-infused engagement ensued and our ears pricked up as an element of political economy started to creep in. POL3026F teeth bared, we ravernously waited to see what these First World dullards (whose sense of melancholy seemed un-forgivingly disproportionate to the circumstances, especially when contrasted with, well, I dunno, world hunger and the like) would say to expose their ignorance and

intrinsic sense of Western superi-ority.

“Yes, I am very sad – but at least today America win.” Hmmm, so far not doing too well… “It is good America win. They bring the dollar here. The more win for America; they come in South Africa, they stay longer; they bring dollar.” Shoulders reluctantly ease with a mixture of warm submission and weary suspicion.

“Yes, I guess that’s true.” The more dollar the merrier.

“Yes, it’s not nice – you come here you see the so poor. It’s not nice. Now at least the dollar; it is all about the economic. And Fifa can come to build the more fields”.Now smiling and nodding. “Yes, Fifa has made some great prom-ises”.

“Ah, promises, promises…” Italian Fan 1 gestures a look of (mistrust) to Italian Fan 2, “el promesa” (cor-rect?)

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CONSCIOUSUMPTIONWords: Emily Vining and Lindiwe Malindi

Weary suspicion fades into a re-alisation that “blind patriotism and excitement” and “consumer na-tionalism” can be tempered with that very thing upon which forms the foundations of “green” philoso-phy – conscious consumption.

Soccer – like fashion, travel, rec-reational drugs and a host of other human consumerables – is one of those “fetish” commodities. Their use value is almost non-existent (something Marx could never quite get his head around) and yet they have the power, as commodities, to prompt unimaginable spending and command a dominant place in the economic system. The mis-placed value system of man needs no analysis here. Let us just agree that we are strange creatures with strange priorities and depart from that premise. Consumerism is inescapable (bar escaping into a rasta commune in the Knysna forest – or a flash Afrika Burns experience). A brief squiz at your environment will reveal that almost

everythig we use, utilise, consume these days is essentially a prod-uct. The question, then, has to do with the journey of that product into your life – with the nature of that journey.

The Two Italian Fans consumed their football frenzy with a simul-taneous consciousness around the human issues and humanitar-ian concerns involved. They in-dulged their fetish without losing perspective of the wider system and their place within it – some-thing which can be pretty difficult. Our impact as consumers is both environmental and social, and the corresponding questions are both necessary and sometimes fucking inconvenient. How many toothless, Phillipino grannies were exploited in the making of these cashmere leg-warmers? Is this shit worth the deforestation which it requires? What is the gram-to-young-Brazilian-gangwar-victim ratio of this charlie? You mean the African continent is at the losing

end of the bargain which sees my delicious morning coffee reach me at this finger-snappingly reason-able price?

A deterioration into evangelism would be both boring and, dare I say, inevitably hypocritical. Some closing thoughts: The questions are heavy. The realities are un-pleasant. We operate within a hairy system. We should do what we can. Awareness is the first step towards structural change. The night draws to a close. We walk to the car (weighed down by the plentitude of “complimentary” Vitamin Water in our conveni-ently oversized handbags) and go home to indulge in some guilt-free, karma-compliant homegrown.emily sucks fanny for busfare. Un-believable scenes…

Illustration: Daniel Edwards

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THE GREEN ARCHITREND... THERE’S NO GOING BACK

Developments in archi-fashion tend to correspond to some breakthrough in the technological realm: some new material or construction method that allows one to design taller, with more complex geometries, and more comfortable spaces. These developments come with their own palette of construction methods and materials of which the basic aesthetic of architecture is composed; in the same way that the development plastic drastically changed the forms of food packag-ing.Our understanding of climate change and of how to remedy the issue is one of these developments and consequently we are in the midst of a total re-naissance in building form. Sounds dramatic but this change in architecture in favour of the green is far more important than any other stylistic development since the conception of reinforced concrete and steel structures because it’s redefined the parameters, and added new criteria to what a building should be. One realises the scale of a green shift when it’s estimated that the construction and running of buildings is re-

sponsible for 50% of the world’s energy consumption and 40% of its carbon footprint. Because the green movement is based on fact its principles will likely transcend its identity as a move-ment and become a requirement for all urbanity. In fact it’s already in the works elsewhere in the world with all new homes in the UK to be designed for net zero carbon emissions by 2016 – a testament to the practicality of totally clean-running buildings (Having commended this, a net zero carbon emission building leaves no carbon footprint in its day-to-day function-ing. More difficult areas to tackle, however, are emis-sions during construction and the embodied energy in building materials used).South Africa hasn’t made any such commitment, but retrofitted buildings, water conservation schemes, passive heating and cooling strategies and green roofs and walls are becoming commonplace in the aesthetic of contemporary South African architecture and we can expect to see more of it in the future. Social environments are considered too, and the incli-

Words:Simon TollmanImage: The Mills, Retrofit by Urban Solutions 2003

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nation is to promote human connections. With years of South African architecture behind us based on separation, the prevailing architectural partiality is to encourage social interaction and cultural sharing, lay-ing the foundations for a vibrant street culture with an emphasis on public space and pedestrian life. With many inner-city buildings in a state of disrepair yet structurally sound, the most prominent green trend to have emerged in SA is retrofitting. It’s an approach successfully used in the rejuvenation of Johannes-burg suburbs Newtown, Braamfontein, and more re-cently Doornfontein where buildings are upgraded and renovated to include more relevant programmes and energy efficient strategies, reusing the structural skeleton and - depending on the context - preserving Johannesburg’s architectural heritage. An architectural form based on green retrofitting and social and cultural sharing is likely the future of Johan-nesburg style and that of similar South African urban-ity too. The true success of the architecture being the relevance of its precedents.

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GUERRILLAGARDENING

Words: MC & RCIllustration: Daniel Edwards

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Gardening is simple; all you need is patience, a little dedication, wa-ter and big love. In a few months a tiny seed can become a bloom-ing – booming – tree. This is our four month experience of growing our own.

Month One: “A little side project”

It all began as with the random ger-mination of a seed we had collect-ed in the past, the way it’s done in high school bio class. After a few days the seed sprouted a tap-root; it was looking healthy and the situ-ation promising so we decided we may as well plant it and see what happens. Our initial lack of excite-ment for the new sprout was due to its uncertain future. Firstly, there was no guarantee it would grow or yield anything worthwhile. Sec-ondly and more importantly, we didn’t know how our mother would react to our newfound hobby (we lived at home with a mother who is less than open to the idea of smok-ing, never mind growing). Never-theless, we planted it and by the end of the first month our sprout had reached toddler-height.

Month Two: “The new topic of con-versation”

Our plant continued to grow and we continued to nurture it with reserved excitement. The plant was strong, healthy and, most importantly, a girl - so it would produce “bud” – technically the flower of the plant. By mid-month it was around waist height; sport-ing several tiers of branches; hold-ing leaves the size of an average open hand. These iconic leaves were the dead give-away and our

conspicuous plant found its

way into conversation between our mother and us. Mommy was our biggest concern; the course of our plant’s future would be de-termined by her feelings towards it. But the more we chatted about the plant the more we realised that she was easing into the idea, becoming surprisingly open and chilled about the whole situation. Once we knew for certain that see-ing the process through to the end was a real possibility we became emotionally invested and solidly committed to caring for it. Our baby was growing up.

Month Three: “Paranoia sets in”

A week into month 3 the plant was a meter and a half tall, blocking the door it was in front of. Flowers sprung up all over the plant and a strong smell hung thick in the air. This was a sign of great things to come; it meant we were growing something dank – sticky – dense and potent. But as much as this was a good thing, we couldn’t help begin to feel the paranoia sink in. We had a massive plant on our hands, a keen grower that showed no sign of slowing down and would, in time, yield a shit tonne. Sensational thoughts of espio-nage, helicopters and (DEA) raids ran through our heads. The idea of strangers coming into our home and scoping it was a stressful one. By the end of the third month the sheer size of the plant had forced us to prune it down to almost half its original size – a process which also yielded a few sample branch-es – you know, for quality control. We waited a few days for the sam-ples to dry and then smoked our own for the first time. Amazing. We were both proud and surprised

with our creation; it was love at first toke and in the words of a Rasta; “Jah had blessed”.

Month Four “A labour of love”

The last stage of the process is manicuring or cleaning; cutting off all the leaves so that only the bud is left. This is the most time consuming step of the growing process. In our case took it days to complete, not to say it was the hardest of labours, we found it rather a therapeutic labour of love. Throughout this month we har-vested branch-by-branch; cutting off the branches as they became ripe and ready. The entire process from plant, to manicuring, to drying and finally to the jar took roughly the month. We were left with several, large, action-packed jars and, where our plant once stood, a massive void in our garden and our hearts. We had raised a child and we were sad to see it all grown up, but just as relieved. In retrospect the plant was a lot more work then we had first anticipated but, needless to say, totally worth it. Someone once said that your own-grown will always be your fa-vourite and it’s most definitely true for us too. It’s the nicest, best tast-ing, most enjoyable smoke; and it’ll be a long while before we have to make sketchy missions and pay exorbitant prices for some nice section.

Our experience was pleasant, one we had not anticipated… and the fruits of our labour – a lot of dank chron

Bless.

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Photography: Brett Rubin. styling and art direction: Nicole van Heerden, Garreth van Niekerk. Make-Up and Hair: Simone Zandstra. Illustration: Nicole van Heerden and Vincent Truter.

Production Assist: Rudy Leisegang. Model: Geraldine from Star ModelsShot on Location at Melville Koppies, Johannesburg

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Face dress: Clive Rundle

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Lesotho Blanket Leotard:Suzaan Heyns

Gold Flower Headpiece:SuperElla

Thigh Highs:Clive Rundle

Body Suit and Fringed Cape: Clive Rundle

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Mohair dress: Clive Rundle

Leather Sleeves: Suzaan Heyns

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Lesotho Blanket Gown: Suzaan Heyns

Blue tights, Lunar Cape: Clive Rundle Scood: Suzaan Heyns

Dress:Tiaan Nagel

Headpiece:Clive Rundle

Heni

Perspectives on: going green?

I think its bull. I do think there’s some merit in it but we can say the human race has survived for so long, we’ll be fine. It’s the same thing with fash-ion – if it’s in Vogue like avocado oil – you’ll live longer. I think people should just be, live your life. I do try my own way, I recycle but I don’t go out of my way to do it all, I find it’s a bit jarring there’s so many things and opinions going on right now.Lisa (textile designer): as a textile designer – it’s important to go organic because of pollution and stuff like that. I use organic fabrics, without pes-ticides’.When it comes to clothing and stuff certainly, we have a responsibility with that. I love natural fab-rics and natural fibres and it’s not just because everyone’s doing it. If you’re talking to designer you often find that there are things you absolutely love, and you know you shouldn’t but you do and in terms of expression, being who you are, you find you’ll just use those things – you do what you

Thula Sindi

Would you ever consider doing a green col-lection?

“This is a very difficult one, its very complex, if it takes 1000 litres of bleach to make bamboo or-ganic fabric, am I hurting the environment more than I could of? What I believe in is just re- us-ing what we already have and just using less in general.”

PEOPLEGREEN

Heni

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Suzaan Heyns

How would you feel about doing a green col-lection?

“Its such a fuss these days over what constitutes being green or not. With this recent collection the use of the Lesotho Blankets, although not “eco-friendly” , is green in its own way because its sus-tainable and local, also designing classic pieces goes a long way. It’s not an easy task for a South African Designer because of the availability of textiles, but I do try as much as I can.”

David tlale

Last year you released your green collection, what encouraged you to do it? What textiles did you make use of?

“My Green Collection was really inspired by my clients, they are very important to me and they are the core of my business, I love dressing fuller figured women, and making them feel beautiful so the essence of the Green collection was my clients and “Green” really means life, it was not an eco-friendly collection.”

PEOPLE

Heni

Photography: Jono Woods

Art Direction: Garreth van Niekerk

Production Assist: Rudy Leisegang

Words : Carmen Lambrianos and Monique Commandeur

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SPROUTSAt the form we keep our eyes open for the newhotshit and these new-

bies are it. All on the verge of stardom we caught them before their egos got too big to fit into this little magazine. Words: Nicole da Silva and Monique Commandeur

Illustration: Daniel Edwards

SPROUTSAt the form we keep our eyes open for the newhotshit and these new-

bies are it. All on the verge of stardom we caught them before their egos got too big to fit into this little magazine. Words: Nicole da Silva and Monique Commandeur

Illustration: Daniel Edwards

ISOCHRONOUS

ISOCHRONOUS

Music is all about manipulating time into sound waves and for this dynamic, progressive synth-rock band that was the meaning behind the name Isochronous, getting in sync with their own sound at their own time.

This collection of musical talent was formed when Richard and Marko started jamming together in late 2006, soon after they recruit-ed Franco and Alex , the common denominator with all these guys lay in the fact that they were all in-terested in a diverse range of mu-sic and wanted to explore different channels through music together.

The complex and hauntingly beau-tiful sound that this band emits is achieved by Richard Brokensha on Vocals and Guitar, Alex Parker on Keyboards and Vocals, Marko Benini on Drums and Vocals and

Franco Schoeman on Bass and Vocals. They have been compared to everyone from Muse to Hanz Zimmer but the truth is they are better than anything else out there in the South African Music scene at the moment and they cannot be pigeon-holed or compared to anyone as their sound is unique and in their words “Inspirational”. Interestingly enough some of the bands major creative influences are Mew, m83. Debussy and Trilok Gurtu but there resonance, in my opinion is made for those who ac-tually love to listen to good music, it can be played for any moment in life- ominous and content simulta-neously, it can be likened to being on a controlled acid trip.

Career highlights for Isochronous have been there continuous ap-pearances at epic music festivals such as Oppikoppi, Ramfest and

Earthdance as well as the record-ing of their two audibly decadent albums.

As this is our Green issue I thought it would be appropriate to end the interview with a green question and when asked Green?, they sol-emnly replied with “Richard’s car-bon- emission abuse!! He charges his phone all day.” What an incred-ibly stirring answer and quirky end to the profile of South Africa’s next key musical act. Isochronous is clearly no flash in the pan.

www.myspace.com/isochronousband

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Yesterdayspupil

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YesterdaysHow would you personally de-scribe your sound?

“ A lot of people have said that it is a mixture between Electro and Rock but for me, especially now in the future I’m not going to stay bound to one type of music but rather just do whatever feels natu-ral for the song at the time.”

What is your stance on the whole Johannesburg, Cape Town, Preto-ria differentiating music scenes because as you know there is quite a bit of controversy sur-rounding that?

“ Cape Town has the business side of South African music down, they know how to write the big hits without being to ‘commercial’ as it were and still keep their integrity. The Bellville scene is like one big hit machine and all the guys there look out for one another. Whereas Pretoria is a more creative city, everything is so different, there is no specific Pretoria sound as there is a Cape Town sound, eve-ryone kind of does their own thing and while they might not have the huge success that Cape Town has they have massive cult followings. Johannesburg is the most diverse city as they have a huge dance, rave and metal scene.”

Do you believe there are enough Platforms for the musical talent in this country?

“I’m happy with what we’ve got but we could definitely use more, I mean MK is really the only thing we have but they are largely more Afrikaans and it would be nice for us to maybe have a focused plat-form that pays more attention to the alternative scene. Something kind of like MTV 2”

According to you, how many guys got into the industry based on hype and connections?

“it is about who you know but if u get hooked up and you don’t have talent then it wont work, the ideal thing would be to have talent and know 1 or 2 people in the industry”

What inspires you to write music?“Well you have to have some source of inspiration, sometimes I will sit for 3 or 4 days and come up with nothing and other times I will churn out an exponential amount in an hour, one of the most popu-lar songs on the album ‘lines and colours’ was the quickest to write and is the one that most people still remember me for. I think any-thing that sparks something. Don’t look for inspiration. Bands- From Radio head E.L.O and Led Zeppe-lin, 80’S bands like Dépêche Mode and A Ha. Anything that moves or triggers something in people. “What have been some of your ca-reer highlights since your prologue to this industry?

“ one of them would be touring in Argentina, that was amazing I al-most wanted to stay, playing at the world cup concert and just every-thing het, being able to playlist mu-sic videos and record an album, its all so fantastic but comes with a lot of hard work.”

Green?

“Well I have always liked the col-our green, it represents life and growth. There is nothing as nice to look out the window and just see green…green is life and no other colour has that effect on me.”

What has been the most difficult part for you, making it as a suc-cessful ‘one man band’- multi-in-strumentalist?

“there is a lot of criticism and peo-ple like to talk and screw each oth-er over, take it with a pinch of salt if you want to make it. You will never make everyone happy and you need to know when to rake criti-cism and when to not listen at all.”Where do you see yourself in the future? Is moving out the country an option for you?“Well anything is an option really, I would however like to start do-ing more work out of the country though, I might move out the coun-try for a while but South Africa will always be home.”

www.myspace.com/yesterdayspupil

pupil

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THIEVE

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THIEVESometimes you hear songs that invoke a little bit of euphoria deep within your soul, those rich melo-dies and deep lyrics take you back to summer afternoons driving along the coast. As much of a cli-ché as this may seem, it does ex-ist, and it comes in the form of the Indie pop rock trio Thieve.

The release of their debut album Gold has set them apart from those riding the crest of Bellville’s supernatural success wave and I believe this is due to the fact that these guys are three exponentially talented musicians. All the lyrics are extremely literate, opinionated and ridiculously catchy, this paired with the effortless yet complex melodies make for extremely easy listening, it’s like squirting mor-phine in your ears.

Having gained preposterous at-tention from the success of The Bellville Rock City Compilation all three of the band members have derived from very strong suited previous musical relationships, Andrew Justin Davenport; the lead vocalist hails previously from

Ashtray Electric. Frederick Den Hartog; Guitarist come multi-in-strumentalist has roots from Stel-lenbosch based band Die Helde and finally Philip Erasmus, Drum-mer/ resident comedian was previ-ously in The New Loud Rockets. Having met and partied hard with these guys, I can honestly say that they truly do have all the talent without any of the pretention that ubiquitously plagues the industry. Conceptually this band is all about embracing influences and not cloaking them behind re-worked riffs and lyrics, they all fell free to do whatever they want creatively amalgamating into one impres-sionable, coming of age compila-tion.

Even after far too many jager-meisters and A little friend called white widow they can still set the stage alight with mood altering songs like “Unless I’m Leaving” and “Feet on the Table” which is a shocker for me because at this point I can barely stand.( I literally spent the rest of the evening casu-ally swaying in the crowd trying my best not to fall.) Thieve states that

the reason for going commercial is to make money as musicians and formulate a way for their music to be more accessible to the mass-es. This ploy has worked, injecting some radio-active oil into the ma-chine of South African Rock.

The last song to be played was the song that gave birth to their fame “Last Day December” is so unique in the way that its sound is so Af-rican, Affluent and sophisticated it makes grown men cry. That mo-ment was bitter sweet for me for I have an unconditional personal obsession with “Heart of Gold” a strange paradoxical track that combines sheer happiness with an eerie, strange political twist, its au-dibly edible and as the crowd natu-rally called for an encore, my wish was granted. Bliss is to amazing to describe in words. “Take what you want, nothing is original” and go for Gold baby! Thieve stole my heart.

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BLACK PORCELAIN

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BLACK PORCELAINWhat made you decide that you wanted to enter the music indus-try and please don’t say it had anything to do with Idols?

I’ve always loved the arts. It has always been where I was most comfortable and happy. I only went to school so I could partici-pate in drama and the choir after school. It was only when I was totally miserable with 9 - 5 living (at an advertising agency) that I realised that I had to make music, for my own sanity.

What’s been the most difficult part for you of becoming an artist?

I couldn’t read or write music and had no idea how to even write a song. Finding people who were willing to help me ‘start up’ was hard, but eventually I found great people who taught both me and my manager a lot about this in-dustry. It was really tough starting out when nobody knows or cares who you are.

As a solo female South African artist do you find there are moresocietal obstacles to overcome then an all male group might encounter?

No. All our journeys are so dif-

ferent and we all have to face various obstacles. I do think most people are surprised when they hear my music. One person told me that he expected to hear smooth sultry R&B lol. I don’t focus on things like that, so there may very well be, but I’m keeping my eye on the ball.

The process of creating a track is a lot more complicated then somepeople realise, can you tell us what your process is from start tofinish?

I learned how to play the piano about 4 years ago, to help with my songwriting. So it all starts with a few chords and almost immediately a few words come to me. And then I work out the songs structure and rough lyrics. I then take this skeleton to my producer and we flesh it out together. Othertimes somebody sends me a beat and I find a melody and lyrics to go with it and then my producer and I find a way to add our own special something to it.

What are a few of your career highlights so far?

One of the first songs I had ever written on the piano (Teacup) making it to the top of the UCT

Radio charts. Right up there with Beyonce and Katy Perry lol. Be-ing a supporting act for interna-tional ‘Dub Poet’ Linton KwesiJohnson. Performing to an audi-ence that actually knew the lyrics to my song (I was in SHOCK). Making it on the cover of a local-gig guide and having an American painter make a painting out my EP cover and selling it an exhibi-tion (he also likes my music heee hee hee). Releasing my EP andgetting 80% of the songs play-listed nationwide. Realising that I have some kind of underground following :) And working on my debut album, I am so proud of how it is sounding, I cant wait to release it.

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So I´m looking at my bouge im-itation-leather handbag and I´m thinking, “Fuck this may be a `lil bit kitsch. Am I being ironic enough to pull it off?” when the voice of lu-dicrous-justification replies “Yeah well you are a fucking laanie but at least you earn animal-rights-watching-bunny-caressing-beet-munching props! Got ya Bitch, pleather is ethical leather ...”Or so she thought...

After some reflection and sincere consideration; is it really better for our world to make pleather commodities rather than leather ones? Here I totally acknowledge the full risk of coming off like that puppy-skin fiend Ms Deville, but skin might be the future or rather a re-appropriation of the old; a re-invention. Yes you Indie trendoids I am talking to you wena! That old leather slouch-bag heirloom, that tan belty; that pair of distressed leather boots you´ve coughed up mad papers for in the name of in-vestment and longevity. Leather really just lasts longer and - what a winner - the older it gets the more street-credential you get; oh how we yearn for that fashionista demi-god praise! But with a little con-sciousness this counter-cultural recycling might actually curb con-sumer necessity and duh duuh... there we have it: RE-USE, RECY-CLE, REDUCE!!

Now merely chatting from the depths of my wardrobe, I have three leather items (in total) that have seriously saved lives. My

wide tan 70s belt inherited from Mamma, my six year old Vellies and the newly acquired brown jacket from Mamma’s Pappa. Sho, the things they have seen and the places they’ve been. My Vellies are one of three pairs of shoes that I own at any given time; when that “converse” high-top finally needs to be bronzed or burnt, the Vel-lies save the day. Festival bush-whacking, the Vellies, fashion

shows, YES the fucking FAB VEL-LIES. So leather in its versatility and ‘wear-well’ has not only saved me The Cash Money but I find that

I just don’t need so much kak. Ooh I’d way prefer to be streamline inthe universe – sans the baggage – if you get my drift bra.

The bouge bag on the other hand well it’s famdamily tree would pos-sibly show an ancestry of the good ol’ oil industry. Yes humans, I have it on good authority – Nerdboff, Chris Harrison authority – that if I had grasped my matric organic chemistry, I would know that plas-tics are made from crude oil. Just an extra hydrogen bondie-thingy or two et voila... PLASTIC. So without even entering the “impact of plastics on our environment” debate, Plastic had its enviro-sus-tainability -cred revoked inutero, when it was a wee glint in the sky. I ‘spose that’s just the paradox of “Green” really: it´s really difficult to fight for something, like our entire biodiverse ecosystem for exam-ple, when we work off imperfect in-formation; and even if we get that knowledge-power what do you fight for and against? Animal rights and the meat industry? Or do we abide by the mantra of reduce, re-cycle and reuse? And is there not a way to bypass the contradiction of fighting for one thing while ex-cluding another? Well my young Padawans now isn’t that the ques-tion we should be asking and solu-tions we should be finding?

So please excuse me while I go ingest some organically grown fungus... from this budding eco-warrior its defs over and out.

The Clash of the CausesIts mortal combat when global-eco-warriors are dealt that power punch from Conflict-ing Consciousness... Amelia Rate reckons its time to step up her training.

Words: Amelia Rait Illustration: Daniel Edwards

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