Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from July, 2020

Hair Etiquette

I made the important decision to go back to my natural afro roots two years ago. I enjoyed having it straight , mixing with different styles but at some point I got too lazy and too tired of the rats nest of straight hair on my head that seemed to have an intense attitude problem with humidity or water as soon as I had straightened it.  For me, my afro reminds me of the secret super power within a black person. My hair looks like a microphone and it seems to bewitch people into wanting to touch it, which, unless you are family, is a serious no no. I've had to explain to people that it's rude to touch without asking the same way you wouldn't just grab some other part of someone's body. So far in Manchester I've had five people pat/touch my hair. All times I've been so shocked that I've been speechless for about 10 seconds. The fifth time I had warned the person before hand not to touch it (and they'd been drunk and done it anyway) I walked off before I co...

Fashion: Bare Ankles and British Weather

Adidas, Nike, Puma, Gucci, Moshino, Fendi, Prada, Versace, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Valentino, Ralph Lauren, Armani Anxiety, Depression, Bi-Polar, Bulimia, Alcohol, Drugs, Nicotine, Painkillers, Caffeine, Sleep....labels and addiction.   Fashion is another form of addiction. Genuine or fake, it's always a question about integrity but unless you're a label snob you're not going to admit where you got it unless it was on sale and you'd never admit you'd be starving in order to fit into it and pay for it because you've got to live up to the glamorously high Instagram standards. Charity finds and ebay bargains mixed in with granny's necklace and granddad's motorcycle jacket. Fashion is a form of unity and rebellion. When I see women and girls with long straight hair in pullover jumpers skinny jeans and white trainers and no socks, too much highlighter and false eyelashes I feel like I'm gazing at a barbie doll, if Barbie could frown while talking to her fr...

Inspiration

Forever Love sculpture by Lorenzo Quinn (Castle Fine Art Gallery) I took a shortcut on my way to a bus stop, turned the corner and found this sculpture. I'd researched Lorenzo's work earlier last year (while going down a Googlehole of Manchester art) and seeing it for myself doesn't quite compare. You can research all you can but sometimes seeing things with your own eyes makes you glad you pushed your mental health issues to the side and just got on with it.  Manchester is filled with indestructible hearts. Although slightly morbid, I do love the fact that long after I'm gone from this world (off on some other unknown adventure) this sculpture will still be around.  I find my own personal observation of art to be very private, this is a human (in cases of public art displays, sometimes a group of them) who strives for perfection in a material form, who's said what they wanted and left it on the table for the rest of the world to dissect and devour.  For...

Weekend Burnouts

This weekend the US is celebrating it's independence and the UK is celebrating the reopening of certain pubs, cinemas, theme parks and restaurants (with social distancing rules in place).   Domestic violence cases have gone up in the UK during lockdown and now with the pubs reopening it seems like there's only a matter of time before everywhere else is open. The Brits need their freedom from boredom. I never realised before how many people drink nor how much social drinking/ peer pressure drinking  is a part of the culture in both the US and the UK.  While in the US, July the 4th always meant to me, pool parties, barbecues, July the 4th sales in every store imaginable and fireworks. It also meant a land of a lot of broken dreams and I wondered if the forefathers of democracy would all be turning in their graves if they were to see the state of America now. The whole point of the birth of the US political system was for people (at that time, free Christian white men) to ha...