Tag Archives: art

At Charly’s Bakery, even recycling is pretty

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Recycling station at Charlys Bakery

In yesterday's post I mentioned Charly's Bakery, and how you should definitely not look at their cupcake gallery page.

Today's photo (as you may notice) is of a "recycling station" found on the corner of their premises... and this got me wondering about the recycling project that started in Cape Town a while back.

On Tuesday mornings I roll my large, black, dirtbin out onto the curb. A little while later a huge truck comes past to collect the contents. Unlike many other cities however, we don't have a convenient way of disposing of recyclable (or environmentally-damaging) waste. To recycle our waste we have to separate bottles, paper, and plastics into separate containers. Once the containers are full we then have to deliver the contents to a local collection point... which is far too inconvenient for most.

To assist with this (and to reduce the impact on our environment) the City of Cape Town entered into a partnership with a company called Waste Plan a while back. Under the arrangement, residents are provided with special plastic bags into which recyclable waste should be separated. The full bags are placed into the municipal bins (the same one that I wheel out on Tuesdays) and Waste Plan collects the contents for recycling. Unfortunately this arrangement hasn't yet extended into our suburb, but we're hoping that it soon will!

Charly’s Bakery, don’t you think we deserve cake?

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Charly's Bakery - new building
The legendary Charly's Bakery in Canterbury Street is what you behold in this photo. The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-like building accurately reflects the childlike manner in which one should enter the premises. Charly's Bakery is the place to go if you'd like to buy awesome-tasting-and-fantastically-decorated cakes. Just take a look at some of the wedding cakes in their gallery, but be careful not to even look at their cupcakes - as I fear that you could become an addict with just one glance!

One or two of our visitors recently alluded to the fact that there has been some irregularity with our daily posts. It's not your eyes deceiving you, or your RSS reader acting up; it's indeed Cape Town Daily Photo that's been in a little bit of turmoil for about a week.

Last week we had an incident with our hosting provider, with the result that I spent a large part of the week sourcing an alternative provider, setting up a brand new server, and migrating Cape Town Daily Photo away from the previous provider. Over this time, I have to admit that we slipped on posting for a few days, and so we're currently trying to catch up the lost days (which is almost like trying to catch up on last week's school homework!).

So, we've now found a new home in the Rackspace cloud and so far, so good. And, to be honest, it seems as though the site is just a tiny bit faster on our new server. Now, don't you think some kind of celebratory cake is in order? ;)

Seems someone doesn’t like Hake…

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Kill Hake graffiti

A week or two back we posted a photo of a rather creative piece of street art in Green Point, bearing the name "Hake". One of our readers, Michelle, commented that she'd seen a number of his tags around the southern suburbs too, so presumably he's fairly prolific.

It seems he has an enemy, though (look at me, being all sexist and assuming that Hake is a boy... tsk tsk), if the writing in this photo is anything to go by. I spotted this as we were driving around Vredehoek, and made Paul screech to a halt so that he could get out and grab a photo. By a happy co-incidence the man in the background entered the frame just as Paul was busy composing his shot - I think he adds an extra bit of interest to the photo, don't you?

Umshini wami, umshini wakho

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Umshini wakho campaign posters
I doubt that there's a South African alive right now who is not familiar with the phrase "Umshini Wami". It's the name of an old struggle song sung by Umkhonto we Sizwe during the apartheid years. More recently it's become famous (or notorious, depending on your perspective) as the song sung by president-elect Jacob Zuma and his supporters at ANC rallies. The main phrase repeated throughout the song is "Khawuleth'umshini wami", which is Zulu for "Bring me my machine-gun". This probably goes some way towards explaining my use of the word "notorious" in the previous sentence...

The posters you can see on the wall here, designed by advertising agency Young and Rubicam, are a clever twist on this piece of South African culture. They read "Awuleth'umshini wakho", which means "Bring me your machine gun". The posters were put up in February as part of a campaign to persuade citizens to hand in their unlicensed firearms. I have no idea whether they've been effective or not, but they're certainly eye-catching.

You can read more about the campaign and see a photo of the full poster on Marklives!com.

Ancient relic or graffiti with a difference?

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Bushman rock art

Some time ago we hid a geocache in a super-special extra-clever hiding place right in the middle of a quiet suburb. To be a little more specific, the cache is hidden very close to a dam in the Durbanville area. We go and check on it every once in a while to make sure that it's still there, and still in good condition. While we were trying to find its exact hiding spot again (because it's extra-clever, you see), Paul noticed this little piece of art.

Before you get all excited, I'm pretty sure that this is not the handiwork of real Khoisan artists, miraculously preserved in the middle of a suburban park. I think it's a whole lot more likely that this is the work of a group of high school students from the school up the road. Still, not too shabby, is it?

Keep me safe?

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Keep me safe

Why do you imagine someone would draw a bird on an old LP, write the words "keep me safe <3 hake" at the bottom, and then stick it on the side of a building in Green Point? I have no clue myself. I googled the words, and found nothing at all except this rather odd poem by someone called George Hake, which contains the words "keep me safe". Somehow I don't think it's connected. :-/

If you have any idea what it's about, or if you'd like to take a flying guess, please help us with this little mystery by leaving a comment.

Obama in Cape Town

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Obama on a pillow

Now that he's spent a few weeks in the President's seat, I'd be interested to know how the American people feel about President Obama, and whether or not his presidency has already started to have a positive and tangible effect on the American spirit.

Keen-eyed Kerry-Anne spotted this pillow in a shop window just a little way from St. George's Mall in Cape Town. What are the chances of finding an Obama pillow in Cape Town? I mean, the chance that one would find a pillow with a photo of any other American president in Cape Town would be fairly slim...

Wherever you walk in Cape Town, there's a huge chance that at some or other point you'll see a statue, photo, painting, or some other work of art as a tribute to Nelson Mandela. This store might be aiming to sell this pillow to an American visitor, but I think it says something about our country's perception of the significance of President Obama's election.

PS. Oh, and President Obama, when you discover this post some day, know that I think I speak for most of Cape Town when I say that you and your family are welcome to stop over any time. :)