Thursday 22 August 2013

The Read

The Read is our latest feature on Da Stitch, through the contribution of a literature follower, debater, philosopher and Rhodes University BSocSci, LLB graduate Mduduzi Makhubu who will pick two fabulous books to review. The Read will appear every last Thursday of the Month.

Book Title: The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger

Author: Stephen King



“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” This is the beginning of King’s epic and magnum opusand the strange plot of the entire novel. King’s hero, known only as “the gunslinger” is an emotionless and solitary figure chasing the mysterious man in black through a seemingly endless desert.

The story is told in a series of flashbacks and contemplations as the gunslinger makes his way through a desolate world much like our own. We do not know why he follows this man only that there is knowledge he seeks and the gunslinger seems to leave only death behind him though he is capable of love as is witnessed through the boy he meets on his quest- Jake. Dark and cynical, it is a gripping read which leaves one frustrated and excited to discover the nature of the gunslinger’s quest and his goal.


Book Title: The Kite Runner

Author: KhaledHusseini



A tale set in ‘70s Afghanistan, of two boys and best friends: Amir and Hassan, growing up side by side with the gulf of religion and class between them, Amir betrays his friend at the age of twelve and the shame and guilt at this betrayal paints the book’s portrait of pain and sadness as Amir, twenty years later, returns to the homeland from which he fled to seek his redemption and make peace with his friend.

A novel, powerful in its ability to take you to the depths of Amir’s horror and agony at what he has done and agonizing in its mapping of the fall of Afghanistan and the depth of the scars left on Hassan, ever loyal whose first word was the name of his boy-master and best friend. A heart-wrenching read about humanity and redemption and the extent of our brutality and our capacity to love.

Mduduzi Makhubu


Wednesday 21 August 2013

Tech Bite: Free Wi-Fi project for Africa




Alan Knott-Craig Jnr is without any doubt emulating the success of his father, Alan Knott-Craig Snris the founding executive of Vodacom one of South Africa’s first licenced mobile operators.

After leaving his position in October of 2012 as chief executive of social media site Mxit Knott-Craig Jnr found himself in the same disturbing place as an unemployed youth of South Africa. The feeling felt by an unemployed youth helped Knott-Craig discover Project Isizwe which was born from the Stellenbosch free Wi-Fi project. 

Project Isizwe’s goal is to bring free internet to South Africa and the rest of the African continent and news of the organisation emerged at a media briefing held in his hometown, Pretoria. Should things turn out as expected and the project succeeds it will assist many of the continents youth  discover and realise their entrepreneurial spirit and who knows the next Silicon Valley might just pop out from the grey and rich Africa.

 Alan Knott-Craig
 
The metropolitan city of Pretoria will be the first city in Africa to roll out the Wi-Fi through Knott-Craig Jnr’s Isizwe Project with the aim to cater for citizen’s that cannot afford the luxury of internet. The success of the project will also see a new dawn emerge on the beautiful continent and will hopefully encourage young minds to also engage on a global scale and access information. 

The former head of Mxit and iBurst (Johannesburg based Broadband Company) like his father firmly believes in empowering African’s to ensure a better and competitive continent. 

Ashley Mokwena
@ashfonik

In social media space



Netflix scores exclusive deal for first-run Weinstein films (Cnet.com)

Vine grows 40 million Users in a period of 7 months despite rival Instagram’s challenge (Cnet.com)
 

Youtube for Android and iOS gets a facelift and accommodates app-within-app multitasking (Techcrunch.com)

Hacker exposes big Facebook security flaw by Posting on Mark Zuckerberg’s private wall (The Huffington Post)

Twitter: @DaStitchBlog
Facebook: Da Stitch

Tuesday 20 August 2013

Couture Corner: Influential urban youth lifestyle brands

Urban youth brands such as Ama Kip Kip and Galxboy are brands which complement the word “COOL” within urban streets of South Africa. Today on Da Stitch we briefly look at four cool brands that represent and speak the same language as the urban youth of South African. Not only are these brands cool, but they are also affordable and influential to the urban youth culture.

Butan wear
Known for its cool and affordable clothing Butan Wear was founded in 2001 by engineering graduate Julian Kubel. Since its inception the brand has grown to be one of the republics beloved street clothing and has also endorsed South African rapper, Kwesta.



Purchase items online or locate stockist: www.butanstore.com
Twitter: @ButanWear

GALXBOY
This is a brand I first saw wore on the busy bodies of the East Rand based Pro Twerkers, doing what they do best twerking. The brand was founded in 2008 by young design Thatiso “Vuittots” Dube with a vision to conquer the South African fashion and street style wear industry. GALXBOY caters for both men and women of all races who are into looking fashionable.



Purchase items online or locate a stockist: www.galxboy.com
Twitter: @GALXBOY

Head Honcho
As the brands slogan goes “Live Progressively”, the clothing brand from the Mother City was inspired by forwarding thinking young South Africans with the aim to influence the urban youth culture across metropolitan city such as Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban.  The brands clothing is one of the coolest to emerge from the streets of South Africa and also hosts lifestyle events as a way to market the street wear label.



Purchase items online or locate a stockist: www.headhoncho.co.za
Twitter: @HeadhonchoSA 

Ama Kip Kip
Fashionistas might disapprove with my opinion that Ama Kip Kip played a major role in influencing the street wear culture not only in South Africa, but across the continent of Africa. Founded in 2006 by SiyabongaNgwekazi, NgoriTakawira and NkosanaModise, who together built a clothing label loved and worn by many.Ama Kip Kip endorsed South African talents such as aware winning hip hop group Teargas and Jozi’ band member Da L.E.S.





Flagship store: Rosebank Mall
Twitter: @AmaKipKipSA

Ashley Mokwena

@ashfonik

Monday 19 August 2013

Sounds of the moment


“Brown Eyes” – Danny K


“Hood Pope” – A$AP Ferg


“Hawaai” – Big Nuz


“Heaven” – Da L.E.S FT AKA and Maggz


“Rider” – Ace Hood FT Chris Brown


@DaStitchBlog

Beat Box: Kendrick Lamar heats up hip hop

Kendrick Lamar performing at the Governors Ball, held at New York City

Jermaine Cole, Big KRIT, Wale, Pusha T, Meek Mill, A$AP Rocky, Drake, Big Sean, Tyler and Mac Miller, all prolific “new n_ggers” whose hip hop talents shouldn’t be underrated by anybody, unless the critic is some kinder hip hop genius.

Last week hip hop fans took to social media sites to express their views on the controversial new song “Control” by Good Music rapper Big Sean which features Kendrick Lamar and Jay Electronica. Fans shared divided views and some expressed the same opinion regarding the lyrics from Kendrick Lamar’s verse. Lamar’s verse carried an insulting message calling out his peers and uttering that he is the “KING OF NEW YORK”.

While having a conversation with a hip hop lover and a mate of mine on “Control”, he expressed that “to a certain degree Kendrick Lamar could have been quoted out of context”, conversing further on my hip hop loving mate later mentioned that “maybe it’s a good thing that he (Lamar) heats up the rap game a bit and it might also up the standard which has dropped and competition of the rap game”.

The controversial song reminds is a little reminiscent of 50 Cent’s“Piggy Bank”which to a certain level hit the likes of J Rule, Nas, Jadakiss and Fat Joe. One thing for sure “Control” will lead to some “new n_ggers” who were mentioned on the song to retaliate and one can expect harsh verbs.

Thanks to the Compton born rapper a characteristic that I cannot even describe which has been missing within the game of hip hop seems to have reappeared, and my own opinion the interesting phase of new school hip hop has emerged.

Kendrick is a talented rapper, but knighting himself as the “King of NEW YORK” that was a little extreme!

Ashley Mokwena
@ashfonik


Friday 9 August 2013

Box Office: Action packed laughter


Babalas

 
Cast: Ian Roberts, Norman Anstey, Jack Parow, Tammy-Anne Fortuin

Directed By: Peter Scott, Frederick Hamman

Genre: Comedy

Running Time: 1 hr. 42 min

This local comedy starts with Mia Moolman (a girl who works for an events company) who is tasked by her boss to create an event for SA’s most successful ad campaigns. She decides to bring together three men who starred in Castrol ads and in so doing has to travel to the Kalahari to bring them back in time for the event at Emperor’s Palace. She finds the men in a questionable state indeed which proves entertaining as she races back against the clock for her event.

 

The Wolverine

 
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada
Directed By: James Mangold
Genre: Action and Adventure

Running Time: 2 hr. 16 min

As inspired by the original television series, the sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine finds a very dishevelled-looking Wolverine wandering around Japan. He is, however, thrown into a battle that forces him to regain his wolfish ways in order to survive. Pushing himself to the limits and going through a journey of enlightenment – the Wolverine kind he deals with his personal issues, learns the art of samurai-fighting, battles ninjas and moves forth in his quest as the man with the steel claws.

Adhiti Naidoo

@ashfonik

 

Wednesday 7 August 2013

In social media space


Facebook to tweak your news feeds – CNN International


Twitter buzz helps up TV show ratings, Nielson finds – Bloomberg


Music publishers to sue Youtube network Fullscreen over unlicensed songs – Techcrunch


Vine climbs to top of App Store - CNET

Twitter: @DaStitchBlog

Facebook: Da Stitch

Tech Bite: TheDot Com Faces

When the creator of the World Wide Web Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee created this great information system that one can classify as a great invention, did he actually envisage the possibilities of other inventors utilizing his creation?  Today on Da Stitch we briefly take a look at inventors who have embraced and harnessed the wonders of the World Wide Web. Through their creations they have emerged as leaders of the information technology and communication industry.

Jeff Bezos

After graduating at Princeton University Bezos landed a job as computer scientist at Wall Street and later led a Hedge Fund firm. The experience gained while working at the Wall Street gifted the ambitious Bezos with an opportunity to play an important in the e-commerce industry as founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com, an online merchant for books and later to sell a variety of products online.  Under his leadership Amazon.com become the largest retailer on the World Wide Web and top model for internet sales. To further add on his entrepreneur edge he recently acquired media publication The Washington Post from The Washington Post Company for a reported estimate of $250 million (R2.5bn).  

Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Stanford University graduates Larry Page and Sergey Brin co-founded Google Inc. in 1998 with the vision of creating an easily accessible and informative search engine platform. Together they invented a champion tool that would influence how people search for information on the net. After firmly positioning their idea to number one spot, Page and co-partner Brin expanded their invention and added products such as Gmail, Youtube, Blogger, Google+, Google Earth and mobile device operating system Android to mention a few. 

Mark Zuckerberg

The co-founder of the world’s most popular social networking site Facebook and Harvard University dropout Mark Zuckerberg founded the site with his friend Eduardo Saverin. From making a presence on Harvard, Facebook spread across the US and then took the world by surprise being the most used platform to share one’s life and daily experiences with friends online. Not only did Facebook earn Mark Zuckerberg global recognition, but it also bank rolled his finances making him the youngest billionaire.

Pete Cashmore

Scotsman Pete Cashmore is founder and Chief Executive Officer of popular technology and social media blog Mashable which is based in New York City. Cashmore founded Mashable at the age of 19 and his creation rewarded him dearly with millions and landed up with a weekly column on CNN writing on technology and social media developments.

The mentioned and many other dot com inventors turned entrepreneurs have put together reliable products that have one way or the other required the influence of Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web invention.

Ashley Mokwena
@ashfonik


Tuesday 6 August 2013

More than just a sports wear shoe


The athletic apparel designed Air Jordans were first made for NBA rookie Michael Jordan in 1984, and released in 1985 for consumers by sportswear brand and manufacturer Nike. Since the shoe’s introduction in the sports market the brand has evolved from just been a sports shoe to street gear influencer.

Air Jordan currently sponsors 19 active NBA players, including the likes of Chris Paul, Ray Allen and Carmelo Anthony.  The controversial history of the sneaker is subject to what the Air Jordan brand is and what it stands for today.

Something I fail to understand is how does a shoe with a controversial history such as the Air Jordan be wildly admired across the face of the planet? Is it because of its association with sports stars or sports codes which have an impact within the American society?

Recently a mate of mine posted on popular photo-sharing site Instagram his new sneaker acquisition the Air Jordan which he purchased for over a R1000, which he wore at the Durban July.While on the basketball court a week ago, two teenage amateur ball players came through on court stylishly wearing their Air Jordan sneakers reflecting some sense of swag. Asking them why Air Jordans? The one young oke reluctantly replied, “why not Jordans?”

A day doesn’t go by without seeing the controversial sneaker, perhaps it’s time my black arse hopped into a retail store and purchased a pair of Air JORDANS.

Ashley Mokwena

@ashfonik