Marisa Girardi Presents

Our car radio has been slowly falling apart for the last few  months. On a road trip to Wilderness (Garden Route SA) in June, our primary form of entertainment was trying to wangle ways to keep it going, taking turns at tweaking, prodding and pushing, followed by bashing, shaking and dismembering. Only on the return trip did we manage to get it going well enough to last a while. But recently it went totally schizo and it was clear that  more serious attention was needed. Out came my jewellery wire and pliers, followed by prestik (sticky tack), superglue and a match (which turned out to be the magic ingredient).

I really prefer our lo fi hi fi to tell the truth - it seems to have more integrity without all the plastic,  streamlined shininess. But I am also really fed up with how appliances (and pretty much everything else) are made so crappily these days. It amazes me how I am happily using a sewing machine that was manufactured in the 1950s and is still going strong, but the hairdryer I bought last year breathed it’s last sigh a few days ago. And now it’s most likely going to be a piece of rubbish in a landfill. To get more than a few years of life out of any electric or electronic device in this Age of New is unlikely. If your toaster goes on the fritz, just get a new one!  Can you imagine the amount of this stuff that is thrown away every day?

Here is a comparison between some of the devices that feature in my life:

Item: Sansui car radio/cd player
Age: approx 2 years old
Status: not functioning without assistance

Item: Blaupunkt stereo receiver
Age: at least 3 decades old
Status: streaming audio

Item: Image hair dryer
Age: approx 1.5 years old
Status: kaput

Item: Jones sewing machine
Age: 1950s
Status: steamin like a demon

Item: Canon digital camera
Age: bought 2004
Status: does not compute

Item: Pioneer turntable
Age: 70s or early 80s
Status: spinning like a record baby right round round round

Item: Samsung digital camera
Age: bought last year when the Canon bit the dust
Status: periodically malfunctioning

Item: Wahl hair clipper
Age: At least 50 years old
Status: Trim anyone?

Conclusion: Old is the new new

Recommendation: Lo Fi Revolution!!!

Coming soon: Guidelines for a lo fi lifestyle.

Forgot to mention before that Hello Again in Bloem Street, Cape Town, now stocks MGP Couchies and brooches.
They also sell t-shirts with great designs as well as other designer and vintage clothing. Definitely worth a visit.

Though you would swear it hadn’t, it has in fact. I have never made it out to see the carpets of flowers that appear only for a couple of weeks every year in Namaqualand. But out on a walk near Kommetjie to a derelict WWII radar station last weekend, we did see plenty of sweet little pop-ups (spring blossoms) and that was good enough for me.

Preparing for upcoming CY Market happening 30 Sept - 4 Oct in Durbanville.

Yes, believe it! I have seen it with my own eyes. Not only that, I was also instrumental in the actual process. If you are still skeptical, this is how it’s done:

1. Take one t-shirt that used to be kindof sexy when your stomach didn’t bulge out at the bottom, but otherwise is still quite pretty.

2.Scrounge out of a cardboard box one strange skirt that you got at a 2nd-hand shop ages ago and have almost thrown away several times, but somehow knew it would be put to use one day.

3. Unpick top of skirt, cursing every few seconds because the thread just won’t pull out.

4. Put t-shirt on without looking in the mirror.

5. Pull skirt over and roughly pin together in as straight a line as you can manage.

6. Remove pinned garment without pins falling out or impailing themselves in your flesh.

7. Ask someone to draw a straight line with disappearing ink all around the t-shirt while it is still on you.

8. Remove and re-pin.

9. Turn inside out and sew together, pausing to hiss and spit at the sewing machine every few stitches.

10. After an indefinite amount of time, the 2 items will somehow be fused together and you will be so delighted with the result, that you will forget the cursing, spitting and endless repeating of  “oh woe! oh woe is me!” and think that you will try it out with another 2 items from the back of your cupboard very soon.

The most meditative craft form I’ve come across so far has to be embroidery. And when you use an embroidery hoop it is easy to imagine yourself a maiden in a century long past sitting around a fire and listening to stories and the sound of your thread passing through the tautened fabric. I have been loving it and hope to make more of these encircled beauties soon.

One of them isn’t quite finished, but when it was time to take these photos and post them, it was time.

Brother and sister since they were born, these two Fooniks have appeared all over the universal globe. Not each of them can remember the performance of their first acrobatic stunt, but it is true that they have never looked back, performing with one circus troupe and then another. They are currently with the Amazing Takayama Circus and are enjoying the benefits of fame and glory in Japan and other remarkable Asian countries. Their most famous act is the High Trapeze Falling Ball which features much incredibleness and danger.

Rixi is the young Foonik, always eating lollipops.

Comma has the daring of a tiger, but is sometimes too brave, resulting in hilarious outcomes.

Please enjoy the variety of pose.

Rixi and Comma are now in the shop, along with other new additions Orion Snootpik and Linus Le Touid Mulderberry.

It’s always such a treat to find out that you were on the front page. Even if you didn’t catch it while it was there, thanks to Craft Cult and a Flickr group dedicated to the task, you can always sleuth it out later.

I’ve only been featured twice before and this time it was my sea fan painting that I’m becoming quite accustomed to having on my own wall.

They are related to the Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti and Wookie families and their lineage is virtually prehistoric. They like trees and mountains - a lot.

Very few Hairrison Couchies have ever been seen, although it’s not for lack of trying. Though they are by nature reclusive, they can’t resist a photo opportunity and will strike an outlandish pose whenever a camera is pointing in their direction. They are thought to excrete a unique vapour (some would call it a stink) that spreads at remarkable speeds and has a corrosive effect on metal and plastic, which could account for the lack of photographic documentation.

We managed to get these photos of Argewabli the hairiest Hairrison Couchie with a camera made of wood. He won this year’s hotly contested “Who’s the Hairiest” competition.

Argewabli is a young Hairrison who still finds it very amusing to hide around corners and shout “Haaar!” when someone approaches all unsuspecting. But don’t be fooled - he is a very sensitive creature who cries easily. And he isn’t really squint - he just does it for effect.

Featured on Miss Moss, lovely blog by the Stellenboschian Diana Moss, is Ferdinand Mulderberry.

And on Beatnik Bazaar (a shop in stanford, cape town, selling kooky, quirky and whimsical locally crafted designer goods and decor, retro trinkets and furniture) is Frosti Mulderberry.

Hooray!