A community-oriented art & graphic design collective. We make graphic apparel, hand-crafted accessories and produce events. And most importantly, spew randomness about important and non-important topics.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Holiday Ideas - Greeting Cards



If you love sending out greeting cards over the holidays and even better sending out unique and creative greeting cards, Anneli has some of her art available as greeting cards for $4.95 each. You can include a customized message and all cards ship within 48 hours.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Black Out Oakland on Friday


In The Black: Blackout Oakland by shopping local on Black Friday.

Friday, November 25, 2011, 11:00am - 6:00pm.

14th Street and Broadway, downtown Oakland.

(Oakland, CA) Oakland in the Black is a holiday shopping and community festival on Black Friday to support local business profitability by helping downtown businesses stay in the black.  By supporting our locally owned shops and restaurants we can make a difference.

Centered downtown, a wealth of stores, vendors, pop-up shops along with restaurants and local food vendors plus art, live performances, and a fantastic roster of local DJs and musicians will be participating in the festivities. We encourage all downtown businesses, and all local businesses throughout the city, to join in and host an event or activity.

We have all heard about the smashed windows at stores such as Oakollectiv, Tully's, Dryclean Time and art stolen from Refa Senay at the Cathedral Building. These downtown businesses have been significantly impacted, suffering decreased business and even theft and vandalism. They stood in solidarity during the general strike. Now it's time to support them. The Occupy movement is committed to ending the strangle hold big finance and those that act on their behalf have on our systems. These businesses are our friends, our neighbors, and the 99%.  The best way to dismantle the corporate power structure is to create a sustainable local economy where we support each other and take back our community by walking our dollars into local stores.

We, along with other great community groups and other organizations such as Plaid Friday and many others, support the boycott of large corporations on Black Friday, traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year. The best alternative to camping out at Target or Best Buy is to come have some fun in the heart of our downtown.

Take back the holiday season, enjoy good food and music, be kind, be peaceful, shop for family and friends by spending our money where our hearts are with the wonderful folks who bring us joy and laughter. Come out and celebrate. Come out and hella love Oakland!

We are a small group of local residents, community members and shop owners, not an organization, volunteering our time and talents as a labor of love for our community.

Contact:

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Sat. Nov 19 Catch Us If You Can

We will be at this awesome event TODAY. Stop by and say hello, and get some awesome gifts.
It’s here! The Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy Holiday Design Bazaar is SATURDAY, November 19, 2011, noon-6pm.

Join us at Harvey Milk for some excellent and unique gift ideas by local artisans and designers. You’ll find something for every budget and in a wide range of styles, AND you’ll be benefiting the arts programs at our school while you shop!

WHAT IT IS: Local artists and designers sell their wares and donate 25% of their sales for the day. (We will also have a ‘Harvey Milk’s Own’ table, with Spike’s Coffee, HMCRA t-shirts, and more)
PLUS: a booth on the value of arts education, DJs throughout the day, silent art auction, live drawing/sketch artists, activities for the kids (face painting, art projects, etc.), childcare, and yummy food!

WHY: The proceeds of the bazaar will go towards our developing visual and performing arts program. This event was created last year to provide Arts Education in every classroom. This year, a Visual Artist will provide 10 art classes to all 11 classrooms through SFArtsEd Artist in Residence program starting in January (http://sfartsed.squarespace.com/artists-in-residence/). Our dream is to raise enough money to not only fund our artist in residence, but also to bring back Performing Arts Workshop for creative movement and capoiera classes in the Spring.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Get 15% Off Fela Items In Our Store



Fela! will be in San Francisco tomorrow!! We are so excited we are having a sale on our Fela T-shirts Get 15% of all FELA T-shirts by using code FELAINSF. Also stop by Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, Holiday Bazaar on Saturday to get more exclusive colors and styles of Fela shirts; makes a perfect holiday gift! http://one3snapshot.bigcartel.com/category/fela-products

Thursday, November 10, 2011

The Jaguda.com Tee Pre-Sale




One3snapshot + Jaguda.com = some really Cool Shirts. Where my Naijas & Africans at? You know there's a little Jaguda in all of us...so rep it! And for the non-Africans...you too can REP this...because the phenomemon is global. Ask what it means...and I'm sure you'll agree! PRE-SALE on these shirts is happening right now... you can purchase at a lower price and have customized tee options before they go on sale for everyone!

Get your presale Jaguda.com tee NOW! Offer ends Thursday 11/17

Monday, November 7, 2011

Marissa Arterberry: Superhero Style Goddess


This is major cool! My friend Marissa Arterbery who really lives up to her name got featured in nymag's look book. She's one of few people whom my first time meeting them is very memorable. I remember she came up to ask me if I'd be interested in doing something for a zine she was working on at the time and I was thrilled. She also one of few people who really inspire me as a black woman to stay strong pursuing my various artistic endeavors. It's a bummer that she's in NY now (again!) but I guess that just means I have to go visit. :) Check out her tumblr.

Peace!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

The Afro-Urban Dance Experience: First Class Down: Nov 1: Track List & Video Post

 For folks who don't know. I started teaching a workshop for Adults & Teens in San Francisco. I will be documenting and writing about some aspects of it. Join the fun!

The Afro-Urban Dance Experience: First Class Down: Nov 1: Track List & Video Post: I had the best time of my life teaching and dancing at the first class of the Afro-Urban Street & Club Dance workshop . I couldn't have ask...

Thursday, October 27, 2011

How to MOVE your Money To a Local Credit Union & Not Die Trying

By now everyone in the world knows that Oakland law enforcement went crazy with the tear gas, sand bags and baton smashing on non-violent citizens who were expressing their right to assemble and speak freely.   Two posts ago, I wrote about some action items that the regular average joe like me can take to make some change (or at least be part of making some change). If you know anything about me, I'm an action bunny. I can do my own share of talking any day but a lot of times, I feel helpless if there aren't any action items. I'm still working on my ten things we can do to make change in the 99% #Occupy Movement.   But I wanted to focus on one that folks are talking about and that is coming up pretty soon:
Change from a reg corporate Bank to a Credit Union and TWEET about it...
Now most folks (me included) have been trying to figure out how, where, when, can I make this happen. The facebook page BANK TRANSFER DAY has some resources and talking points around this. FYI Bank Transfer Day is coming up Saturday November 5th.

Here's the message from the Event page for November 5th with some steps you can take.
Together we can ensure that these banking institutions will ALWAYS remember the 5th of November!! If the 99% removes our funds from the major banking institutions to non-profit credit unions on or by this date, we will send a clear message to the 1% that conscious consumers won't support companies with unethical business practices.

• Research your local credit union options
• Open an account with the one that best suits your needs
• Cancel all automatic withdrawals & deposits
• Transfer your funds to the new account
• Follow your bank's procedures to close your account before 11/05
FIND A CREDIT UNION
USA: http://www.findacreditunion.com/
CANADA: http://locator.cucentral.com/
UK: http://www.findyourcreditunion.co.uk/



Peace!!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Holiday Design Bazaar Benefit for Harvey Milk Creative Arts Academy

One3snapshot will be here!! Stop by and begin your holiday shopping while supporting Artisan and education for youth

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Crawling the Art of the Twin Cities

I've been playing this game of: if not one in the Bay Area ...in what other cities could I see myself possibly living? I may have just added the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul), Minnesota to my short but growing list. I've had hints of an interesting arts/culture scene coming from this area but never was quite convinced and since I hadn't visited and explored it as an adult it was never really on my map. Hmm...

From the homey streets, nostalgia-inducing buildings to the menu boards at Golden's Deli, an eatery that boasts fresh, local and tasty all wrapped in pretty. I was mildly smitten.
(I have been intrigued with the mysterious-to-me art of Menu signage and this place has one of the best I have seen in the country/world?)

After my delicious garden omelet and fresh squeezed lemonade I was able to get a sneak peak of the St. Paul art crawl which I unfortunately didn't get to check out in all its glory because I had other engagements elsewhere, but the little I did see made my heart pitter patter, and maybe my love for this place became full blown.

I met two artists/artisans who had items that I adored and I'm sure you will too.

The first was Storm

I think Storm is my Mid-west Jewelry concept counterpart...I always wish that I had the patience or diligence to make necklaces but I may have just been inspired to actually do it.  love the found pieces put together to create something new and fresh. I started making earrings from using old/broken jewelry and random found object things so this is really cool to me. From a little e-birdie I've found out she's a May baby. Lightbulb! Of course she is... her work is fabulous (not that I'm biased or anything). She is definitely a May Fly!

The second was "Deli Girl"

I love the bright colors of her pieces, and her unique style. She had originals, prints and sketchbook and journals. I meant to purchase a journal book (addict that I am) but had a brain fart and planned to go back but ended up not having time.

Still as much as I crushed on Twin Cities..Cali trumps... Weather, Racial & Cultural diversity, unlimited fresh healthy food options at low prices. So I won't be moving to the Twin Cities any time soon. I'll be back to visit though!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

How Can the 99% Occupation Movement Actually Change Things?

Yesterday I was at an amazing action.  The Foreclose on Wall Street West/ Shutdown of Wells Fargo Headquarters in SF (business at that site was paralyzed by protesters for the day). This was organized by a coalition of organizations in the Bay Area including but not limited to Causa Justa Just Cause, Chinese Progressive Association and East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy,
Groups and personalities like Naomi Klein, SF Supervisor and Mayoral Candidate John Avalos,  Brass Liberation Orchestra and Homoeconomixx were around to help fire up the movement with speeches, live music and remixed renditions of Shaggy's 'It wasn't me' with lyrics like "(the) Federal Reserve... were all buck naked banging on the trading room floor".

I went to this action filled with an arm-load of criticism that I will not go into in this post, and a feeling of 'here we go again'.. oh I also had my good ol' camera with me

I left with tears in my eyes, butterflies in my stomach and a bounce in my feet.

Check out the photos I took and please keep reading, because I have a question I need answered

So maybe I'm not as plugged in as I could, and haven't done my research. Although I think what is going on right now in the US is powerful I've been also having this feeling that is typical for me... that of being overwhelmed. stuck. hopeless. What next?

These days I shy away from waxing politics/activism that much and frankly my rhetoric is not sophisticated when it comes to political and social discourse, so I typically save my thoughts to conversations with close friends and my various alter-egos.

What I do mildly well though is try to walk part of the walk.  So that's what I'm asking for.

What do we do? How can we play a part in making ACTUAL change. What are the action items? What are the small and big things we can do? Short & Long term goals. The occupy movement as it stands is not sustainable (in my opinion) so I would like to see some sort of 10 commandment list.... what the 99% can do now to walk the walk.

I've started the list...I need help
  1. Take it to the streets and pose for pictures while looking and acting rad. Make sure the News talks about it. Check!
  2. Change from a reg corporate Bank to a Credit Union and TWEET about it... getting ready to do that 
  3.  ?? 
  4. ??
  5. ??
  6. ??
  7. ??
  8. ??
  9. ??
  10. ??

I'm calling all all my organizers, youth, parents, teachers, writers, workers. Let's get this going!



Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy looking for Artists to Donate Art & do Live Demos

Dear Artist,

Would you be willing to donate a piece of your artwork or an hour or two of your time to host an art demo to help raise money for arts education?

The Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy is organizing a Holiday Design Bazaar that will be held on Saturday, November 19, 2011 from 12-6 PM at the school, located at 4235 19th Street (one block up from Castro). The proceeds of this bazaar will go towards our developing visual and performing arts program. The event will have 30+ local vendors selling their handmade art-wares. In addition, we plan to host an ART AUCTION. We also want to have live ART DEMOS throughout the day celebrating what the arts is all about.

In 2010, this event grossed roughly $10,000 and with the donations received, we were able to partially fund the school's Visual Arts Program. We are raising money specifically to fund 10 art classes per year in each of our classrooms.
Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy is a small, public school located in the Castro District of San Francisco. Our mission is to empower student learning by teaching acceptance and non-violence, celebrating our diversity, achieving academic excellence, and fostering strong family-school-community connections. Our kids need art, and the San Francisco Unified School District has virtually eliminated arts funding. This is why we are asking you, our San Francisco art community, for your help. Young children are our investment. What we give them now sets the foundation for the future. We hope you will consider our request and take this opportunity to help fund an innovative, urban public school arts program.
We will feature gorgeous, hand-made crafts, yummy food, art auction, live art demos, childcare, a presentation on the value of arts education, and more! This is a beautiful event and a real community builder, plus a great opportunity to support our little school!


If you are interested in participating please let us know by replying to this email, or contacting us at <artsdesignbazaar@rocketmail.com>.
Thank you so much for considering our request,

Design Bazaar Committee
artsdesignbazaar@rocketmail.com

 http://harveymilk.com/

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

the 99% ignored in Arts Funding #Occupy

REUTERS/Mike Segar
 Even if you were living under a rock. You know about the occupations happening around various cities in the US. What we're also talking about is the various ways this crazy 1% plays out. This Washington Post article talk about how Foundations basically pretty much fund more wealthy-white serving institutions than it does diverse communities. This funding trend does not match up with the growing population of said diverse communities.

“It is a problem because it means that — in the arts — philanthropy is using its tax-exempt status primarily to benefit wealthier, more privileged institutions and populations,” wrote the report’s author, Holly Sidford.

Talk about keeping it in the family.

Of course it's not telling me anything that I don't know. The money just circles around and 'philanthropy' is just a guise that rich people use to keep the things that entertain them alive.

Even though seemed like an ad for the Ford Foundation (which hopefully may encourage them and others to continue diverse funding) at the end, the point of the article is still something to that can be paid attention.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Visual Inspiration: Nobel Ladies


2011 Nobel Peace Prize winners: Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee; and Tawakkul Karman, a Yemeni opposition leader and mother of three.

This time for Africa!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Gollywood Takeover?

I'm a big fan of Nollywood movies. I haven't watched them in a while because these days, I can't sit still to watch anything that lasts two hours or more. Before I got to my 2-hour breaking point, I slowly got tired of trying to sort through good Nollywood movies to watch. For every good one it seemed like there were six bad ones I had to weed through. I don't really mind production quality, it's the storyline that gets me going. Enter Gollywood (Ghanian Hollywood), specifically producer Shirley Frimpong-Manso whose work is putting majority of our movies to shame.

Exhibit A: Adam's Apple (Ghana)


Exhibit B: Blackberry Babes (Nigeria)


I think Emem Isong may be Nollywood's only hope, looking forward to watching her latest effort. I really do wish the good movies will be made more accessible. There is great PR for awesome Nollywood movies but they can only be watched in Silverbird Cinemas. haba!
Update: Just learned that a new movie, Damage, starring Uche Jombo is being screened in select U.K, U.S. and Canadian cities. I hope more will follow suit. Indian movies have been doing this for a long time.

Friday, September 30, 2011

BouGhettaDiaries: N'Kale's Slawlad

For years I've been gently (and life-threateningly) coerced to post recipes of food and drinks that I make. This is hard because I'm a little bit of a careless mad scientist; I generally just go with my intuition, use whatever is available and most times things come out delicious, other times an acquired taste and the a few time just downright meehhh. But usually I generally find it hard to document and then subsequently share my recipes because I make them up as I go along.

This post is dedicated to my cousin who recently requested a recipe. I have some recipes that I've managed to somewhat document but I have only shared with close friends who ask. And now I'm sharing with the world!! mauahahaha. By the way these recipes are written in a not very precise manner...you have to guess some things and do it your own way. No rigid cups or teaspoons or western-culinary-correct terms of measurement or food preparation (okay maybe a few).

No promises or anything but maybe I'll do this regularly. We'll call it the Chef BouGhetta Diaries:
Recipes from a struggling health-conscious African with a hint of Hippie and broke. Never purist. My mantra: eat more veggies, some fruit, lean proteins and whole grains and never compromise on flavor.

And here we go

nKale's Slawlad
Ingredients
  • 1 big bunch of fresh Greens (Kale or Chards work better than Mustard or Collard because these have strong tastes)
  • 1-3 fresh carrots
  • Raisins
  • almonds (or any nuts you like)
  • 1-2 each Plums, Apricots, Nectarines (firm)
  • Apples if you want or have (can be used in place of stone fruits or in addition)
Dressing
Fresh lemon juice (1 lemon)
Olive Oil (about 1-2 tablespoons)
apple cider (or any fruit based) vinegar (about same amount as lemon) (you can substitute vinegar for a fruit juice that is sweet but a bit acidic i.e. pineapple/orange)
honey (about a table spoon to sweeten)
Black pepper (pinch)
Salt (pinch)

How to prepare
Julienne/Shred all the vegetables and fruits and mix in bowl
Chop nuts and add in; add in raisins
Douse with the dressing and let it sit for at least 30mins to 'cook' (longer is fine...)
It is ready when all the ingredients seem mixed in and relaxed...or the flavor of the greens is way strong


Send me a photo of you enjoying it!

-n

Friday, September 23, 2011

Thelonius Monk’s advice to saxophonist Steve Lacy (1960)

This is old (duh) but the music and design hag in me has a doublemint appreciation for it. My pleasure is definitely doubled. It's on the list of Top things that can make my day.

 

Friday, September 16, 2011

Visual Inspiration: Art by Anneli Akinde




I'm constantly amazed by the artwork our resident artist, Anneli Akinde creates. I don't care if she ever tires of me saying: Anneli, your work is amazing! I will still say so anyway because it really is. Check out some of her print work available for sale at anneli.one3snapshot.com

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Chinua Achebe forces 50 Cent to rename movie

"You know, sometimes it's not the actual story/publication but the comment box that tells you what's really going on in the world"-N


Things fall apart for rapper as Nigerian writer makes him change forthcoming film title to avoid conflict with 1958 novel

50 Cent has been undone by one of Africa's greatest novelists, Chinua Achebe. The rapper's latest movie has been renamed ahead of its release, due to a conflict with Achebe's most famous work.
Things Fall Apart, published by Achebe in 1958, is Nigeria's most famous English-language novel. It has sold more than 8m copies worldwide. Unfortunately, 50 Cent was not aware of this. He spent much of 2010 shooting a film of the same name, the story of an American football player diagnosed with cancer. "It's a project that I wrote, produced and financed myself," he explained last year. Directed by Mario Van Peebles, it premiered at the Miami film festival in March and is expected to be released soon.
Read More..

 -p.s. I stole the title of the blog post

Friday, September 9, 2011

How Facebook Ruined My Life

If I didn't suspect that my mom, family members and possibly impressionable youth that I work with read this blog, this post might have been titled 'Fuck Facebook!'. But as they probably all do it has the above title.

Side note: Between griping about Facebook and Beyonce I can't possibly think of what else to write about. I need to reel it in. Or else by the time I die that's all I'll have to my name.
"Our beloved N, she spent her life hating Facebook and Beyonce."
But in the spirit of my originally intended title I shall now I proceed.

Many or (one) of you may remember my TGFF (Thank God for Facebook) post. Where I described the conflict between members of the TGFF and FGRM Facebook ga a raputa mmadu (Igbo for Facebook will destroy a person). Well I'm pleased to announce to you that the FGRM has now split and a  2nd generationer: the 'Fuck Facebook Fam' (very hip) has now formed.

Another thing you may need to know is that I'm considering joining this group, although I was one of the original founding members of the TGFF group and aslo the FGRM group as well (don't ask me how, I just got it like that).

You want to know why I am thinking of joining the FFF?

Okay sure I don't have to be on Facebook. I know. I don't know why I still am. I don't really want to go into any of the reasons personally, professionally or otherwise that I am but that's just the case. Using Facebook is like doing every sin. You feel dirty, nasty, you swear never to do it again. The next day, hour okay minute you find yourself doing it again. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

EVERYTIME Facebook introduces a new 'Privacy' setting method, all they are saying is that they have 'removed' some privacy features that you possibly took comfort in by fooling yourself that you were keeping things private. Yes. There are two ways I could go with this I could go the STIMW (semi-techno-intellectual modern woman) route and actually write down concrete things about what I mean, or I could go the ABG (Angry, not Awkward, Black Girl) route and just ramble about how wack Facebook is.
Basically here's the deal according to an FFF representative that I interviewed the other day.
"Facebook is wack. It will steal your money. Get you fired. Cheat on you. Dump you. Get you arrested. And take all your friends. Everyone will know your business, some business that you don't know they know and some that you didn't even know yourself.

Before you could just hide your page and only add friends if you wanted and only the people you wanted could see things (not really but let's just say). Now as they 'update' their privacy options they take each of those things out one at a time.

So yes what I'm trying to say is, the only way to not have your business out is to leave Facebook Actually that's a lie. It's too late sucker, your business is already out there. It knows where you live and it will come and sleep with your wife and then post the pictures on Facebook and then tag you but hide it from you so that all your friends will see and tumblr tweet it and then you will finally find out and get depressed and then call in sick. But because you checked into 'places' it will know what you're not really sick so it will call your boss and tell your boss that you were not sick but that you were at the mall, so you get fired. And then you can't pay your rent so you get evicted and now you have to crash on your friends couch, you're hungry and broke so you 'borrow' your friends EBT card and get some popeyes and the police finds out and they arrest you. On Friday. And now everyone has tweeted that you're a thief so your friends won't talk to you anymore.

See? I told you Facebook will ruin your life.

So yeah FF!!"

Wow. Well that was a mouthful!

Until next time

N
(Founder TGFF & TGRM and newest inductee of FFF)

Sunday, September 4, 2011

The Murmur of Oakland...A Place to Be

First Friday of the month just went by and I can't believe it has been a month since I went on my first First Friday Red Bike & Green ride.  This post could be very long but I'm not able to do that these days, but I just want to say that some of my thoughts and feelings that color this post are very well written by Chinaka Hodge in this blog post. Where she talks about Red Bike and Green and some of the things it opens up for her.

Well last night I went out on my first Oakland Art Murmur stroll (*collective gasp* from the people). I love living in Oakland and for the past few years have been internally passionate about creating a social connection here mostly in the form of trying to get my SF friends to come out this side of town to party, and hosting parties and other events in Oakland. I still am not up to par as far as really being immersed in the political, youth development, and art world that is unique to Oakland. I wish I was...but as a lot of my work and connections are in SF right now...well that's the way it is.
Artwork by Scott La Rockwell from the Smashbox Contemporary 1st Year Anniversary
ANYWAY so I went to Art Murmur because ms Tossie called and made me aware that it's possible to actually get dressed and go out and be involved, and see, and talk. Gosh. Sometimes I forget that. I am really such a homebody it's ridiculous.
 Oakland is changing y'all...or trying at least. And I'm still in the 'I don't know how I feel about it' phase. I'm not a native, nor have I lived here long enough to say 'I am Oakland'. But for the past four going on five years I've paid rent here, partied, thrown parties, have a lot of friends and 'community members' that also live here, and more recently ride my bike to the BART station. The look and feel of it has radically changed even in just the past 2 years.
Can't wait to get my Los Rakas Cd!
 Art Murmur was awesome, the persuasion being the inclusion or increase in display of Art from Black people and other people of color, hence increase of color in the stroll.

I went late (haha), and I'm still so shy with taking pics so there are not a lot of photos but I connected with some old and newly acquainted folks doing 'things'.
Anyka of www.bettiono.com celebrated the one year anniversary of Smashbox

Tossie and I ran into Alanna of www.uptownrunway.com who is hosting an event at Mosswood Park on Monday Sep 5.
 All in all it was a lovely time out. I didn't do the First Friday ride but I did bike to the Art Murmur...
Check out the rest of the photos on good ol' fb

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Put this on your Tongue... Okay how about this?

It's summer time (okay the end of it) and my newest obsession is mixing some shites.


I always have one of these...phases. God help me. The problem with me is that I lack patience, dilligence and time to pursue it.

Well so yeah if I wasn't lacking those things I would be one of those people with a fancy blog and I would put up a recipe a day, take pictures of the products and write interesting narratives describing my process. But as I'm well-versed on the fact that I don't follow through, here's all you will get.

I'll just let you know, for this transient phase I'm into using my food processor to create homemade salad dressing using fresh herbs, oils and fresh produce, and using my measuring spoon to come up with seasonings from current spices on my rack and dried & fresh herbs from the garden out here.

I always have ideas and fixations going on in my head but also wary that I need to try to not do and be EVERYTHING!

Anyhoo, my friend Tossie was over the other day and requested (coerced me into making) some seasonings, so I was motivated and whipped her up some stuff.  The names and mixes are inspired by different types of 'sensibilities' and cultures of cooking food... from the Oregon coast hippies to Mama Iyabo on the streets of Lagos. I also listed what kinds of 'proteins' they will be good on. A lot of them are generally good for cooked vegetables & salad dressings as well.

We did some raw finger dip taste test and seems like it will be good. But I'll wait for more meals and experiments from her so we'll see. Here are a few of photos she took, after my custom seasoning mixing session for her (I took the one above)





Saturday, August 27, 2011

*Pouts*

I feel so sad...the whole world is clearly and completely falling apart around us and we're just going on as if. Makes me want run around screaming at the top of my lungs: "Everybody shut the fk up, and stop anything you're doing, because nothing we are doing right now matters!!!" But then I decided I'd just update by Facebook instead before going shopping...
 

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Red, Bike & Green First Friday (August 2011)

I adore my bike. I do I do.


Oh gosh. I can't believe I'm writing a freaking blog post about my bike. This may be worse than posting pictures of food (lol I'll need to check with my sister).

Anyway back to my bike. One thing I love more than my bike.
Oakland.
One thing I love more than Oakland
Black folks.
One thing I love more than Black folks
My friends.

So...
My Bike + Oakland + Black Folks + My Friends = Hella Love!

So I just want to give a shout out to Red Bike & Green and myself and my friends for finally doing our first ride with that crew!
Red, Bike and Green is a community-building collective of Black urban cyclists seeking to improve the physical and mental health, economy and local environment of African Americans by creating a relevant and sustainable Black bike culture. (Learn more)
Almost 11miles in Oakland. It was so delicious. Took some photos throughout the ride (look ma no hands). There were a few hiccups in my ride...i.e. my gears being messed up so that 1st gear the easy gear is as hard as my 3rd gear, and my bike is the heaviest bike on the planet, so when I tried to go up that steep uphill freeway overpass...it was a wrap. But thanks to the guy who was sweet enough to trade bikes so I could make it over...lol even though that was a disaster because then I was so used to riding on this hard gear that his easy gear was like flipping me out...

all in all it was the best time ever. check out the rest of the photos on good ol' facebook.





Speaking of Bikes

This is FREAKIN Hilarious. Because it's SOOOOO True. This may be only funny to people really familiar with SF or from the Bay Area...but I'm dying laughing here.

Lol @ the Haight and the Castro. Financial District is sooo on point because I always see them fools with their fold up bikes getting on the Bart, and I curse the fact that Bart hasn't somehow considered bikes and commuting... *sigh*

And damn why did they have to play Tenderloin like that?

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Panic on the streets of London.

If I could write; I would write this. Basically what I'm trying to say is...

Penny Red: Panic on the streets of London.: "I’m huddled in the front room with some shell-shocked friends, watching my city burn. The BBC is interchanging footage of blazing cars and..."

Rioting in London: Police vs. Black Man

 This is basically a bit of a stream of consciousness surrounding the recent London riot after police shot a Black man (London riot you say? What pray tell is it?) Colorlines has a "short and sweet" report about it.

Photo from Colorlines

I'm way past sick of this police vs. black man; colonist vs. black lands phenomenon. It makes me want to throw up and I feel I'm simply so over this human 'race'. And the news around the after-effects drives me crazy, aren't people tired of sick of just narrowing it down to something done by those savage-black-gang-involved-tennis-shoe-stealing youth? We're such a lazy group of people who never will actually fight for change because our lives are really just great, so we pass the blame. And so the media goes ahead and puts up their template news and we go deeper into our discrimination. But sometimes I wonder maybe that's just what we need, for everything to really go to complete shit, and for people to become REALLY uncomfortable so they can pay attention.

Here's one article that begins some exploration of the causes and effect of blaming the youth, it's not that deep (neither is this blog post) but a lot of this is very emotional for me, the comments to the article make me angry and illustrate what is messed up about our societies and how far we have to go in terms of regard for humanity.

This article is particularly interesting to me. I've been intrigued out how much the blackberry is a huge thing especially from the point of Nigerians in Nigeria and the Diaspora. If you know the half of it, you know that blackberries are now getting something akin to a human right.

Because these days twitter and facebook can get you in big shit, and BBMs are less traceable by the authorities (for now), Blackberry is saying that they would give information to the police about people's BBM messages to help aid the arrest of folks who are passing on info about the London riots. So these hackers threaten Blackberry... i.e.
"You Will _NOT_ assist the UK Police because if u do innocent members of the public who were at the wrong place at the wrong time and owned a blackberry will get charged for no reason at all,"
"If you make the wrong choice your database will be made public, save yourself the embarrassment and make the right choice. Don't be a puppet," 
(read the article for more)

Like I said most or all even of the people I know who have Blackberries are Nigerian/African/Caribbean. We support Blackberry, one (too many) of us gets killed, we up-rise, the company that we fish over our moola to fecks us in the ass.

dog eat dog sucka.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

the Pencil vs. the Gun

On this past weekend the SOS Rally/March happened in Washington D.C. Lots of things were said. Lots of things happened. Below are two videos I've selected to highlight.

Okay see now the problem is. Goodness! Okay I'm glad that the people in this video are the ones who are doing it, because if that was me, there would have been some weave pulling and butt kicking. I know I know, not a good example for the kids. sigh. woosah. meditate. visualize.
If you know half of anything about me, you know that I don't joke with providing the best and equal opportunities for all! But I'll just let you watch the video.



Jose Vilson (click to visit his blog) who is one of my favorite educators and activist that keep me going from afar had this to say:



p.s. Jose you need a "Teacher  Don't Teach Me Nonsense" tee

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

I Hella Heart Las Gidi (Video Post)

I always said that if I even move back to live in Nigeria, I CAN'T live in Lagos again. But this video & song "Ijo" by SIJI makes me want to move back with the caveat that I create a utopia where most days are like this.  I'm a proud Igbo but I rep Lag, and this video makes me lightweight wanna jock my inner Yoruba hard! Lol


SIJI - 'Ijo'(Official Video) from SIJI on Vimeo.


P.S. There are 12 dance signs in this vid...I can do 7 of them...I need to get to work on the 5 and a few that are a bit rusty. Until then...back to my summer romance...

novel.

and framing art work

and watching Instant Star on netflix

and drinking my 32oz

of water

and planning

world domination.

yes i'm all that awesome. multi-tasking queen

-n

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Art + Social Change: Turf Feinz for Oscar Grant

When people ask me what we (one3snapshot.com) are about; I can show them this video. Sometimes I get crippled with feeling like I can't do anything about the fkd up state of the world we live in. This is the kind of thing that keeps me going...

Monday, July 25, 2011

What Would the Heroine of my Summer Romance do?

I was just reading this harlequin romance novel of a woman who is as an exec of an ad/design agency that her father owns. She falls asleep on a late night at the office and dreams (time travels) herself back into the sixties to an ad agency where the women where 'horse corralled' in the typing pool; their only purpose to type and serve coffee to the men while dealing with taunts, jabs and lewd comments (being that they are subordinates) from the men. I'm not sure... because I don't watch it but I imagine it looked something like Mad Men? Anyway...the dream follows her as a love interest of the main boss of the ad agency while she 'fights' to increase the significance and relevance of the women in the ad agency.

I wonder what she would think about this ad...

Monday, July 18, 2011

I got Freshlyground (Video Post)

Okay I have to officially say that I LOVE summer! And this love has been growing slowly over the past couple of years as I get older. Sure when I was younger I loved school being out and having summer off to travel, but now as an adult I really APPRECIATE it. I feel so free and fearless and welcome the change in life that summer typically brings for me.

I'm not a fan of hot hot weather; so being in the Bay (although it's seemingly gloomy at the time) is perfect for me haha! One thing really exciting in the Bay in the summer is MUSIC. My appreciation for live music is becoming akin to an obsession (okay maybe not yet).  I really don't like big mainstream artist concerts where I-watch-a-screen-projector-and-imagine-that-the-artist/- is/are-actually-on-stage.

I love smaller venues: i.e. Brick & Mortar in SF especially when coupled with bands like the South African group Freshlyground. Thanks to my friend Eboni Senai for alerting me to this show. It was awesome! I remember them from 2003/2004 and was into them, then kinda just fell off the tracks, but seeing them got me juiced again. I knew they would be the kind of group I would love seeing live and they did not disappoint.
The sound at B&M was kinda shit that night, but FG pulled through and still rocked out! That combined with the fact that I went with some pretty cool people I adore...ah!

So sadly no pictures...like a dumb butt I didn't charge my camera battery and lost my spare so even though I ran into Zolani the lead vocalist and Kyla Rose, violinist in the bathroom...all I could do was be like 8yqygf98haaivbeuabvefrack!! I was so heated over how stupid I was not being prepared for a night out of music...

But on the flip side, sometimes it's better to just live the moment and not document it all the time. Hehe...

Exhibit A: @ 3:45

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Summer Time!

We've been so busy enjoying the sunny sunny days of summer, this blog has been neglected. Check out some pictures from events we've participated in this summer. It isn't nearly half of what we've gotten into this summer because even though taking pictures are great, it's so easy to forget to enjoy living in the moment. Have a great summer...promise not to let the dust settle much longer around these parts!

Friday, June 10, 2011

Watch: A Tribe Called Quest Documentary

I was a latecomer to the awesomeness of ATCQ, I found out about them after they went their separate ways. 10+ years later they released a new documentary (thank goodness it's not a reality show) which from the trailer and reviews is going to be amazing.


It's in limited theatrical release but look for it on DVD and Netflix in the near future.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Urban Arts and Design Youth Competition

My friend Christina sent me this link, and I'm loving it. Definitely want to let as many visual and graphic artists as possible know about it.
  UN-HABITAT is inviting youth worldwide to submit original artworks, digital designs and imagery envisioning their future cities. The artistic artworks will be under the theme “My Vision of an Ideal City”. The competition will showcase the diversity of future cities as envisioned by young people.
Aspects of Sustainable cities include Employment, Safety, sports, culture and public places, Social Services such as health and education, Housing, Infrastructure (water, sanitation & transportation and Environment.

The Competition is open to youth from around the world under two categories:
  • Category 1 is open to individuals aged 15-24
  • Category 2 is open to individuals aged 25-34

Four winners, two from the global north and two from the global south, will be awarded a cash prize of USD 500 each Eight runners-up will be presented with a USD250 cash prize each  
June 28 2011 is the closing date for submissions

Monday, May 23, 2011

MAY FLY BALL house party 4 Report Back

Wow. Can't believe it's been over a week since this quote epic unquote event went down. That was one of the most common words used to define it. I say it was great kicking it with fam and some of my closest friends from out of town. I ran around crazy but  had a few good solid neighbors and family who held it down and made it happen. Front painting wood panels to constructing disco ball twirling apparatuses, to sioux chef duty'ing. It was a lot of work before and after but a lot of fun. I think it will take us a year to recover. Happy May Fly suckas!!



Also here's a blog feature of the party on The2econdFloor.com

Friday, May 20, 2011

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Oakland # Water Writes Mural Unveiling!!!!

In the spirit of color, culture & community. I have to say something about this event
Although I wasn't involved as much as I'd like, lots of folks in my community picked up a paint brush as least once, and Nancy Pili is one of my community organizing artist super heroes.

Obviously this is a one3snapshot certified project. Art. Health. Social Justice all boo'd and sturvs!

If you're in the area check it out, if you ever come to the area make sure you look for it!

Check out the Video

DJ Agana. DJ Baby Tiger. DJ Mixtek.
BRWN BFLO.
HOPIE.
Arts and Crafts with Recycled Materials.
Photo Booth with finished Mural.
Performers and lots of Love.

Free Event! All Ages!

If you post on Twitter, please use #WaterWrites

Feel free to add your photos to our Flickr #WaterWrites group:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1621370@N20/