My Girl

1918 - 2014

Oh how much you loved to sew

Your handcraft so perfect

Your hand so strong

You always seemed to know

Where everything belonged

Oh how much you loved to sew

You sewed our childhoods to perfection

You made our fibre strong

You are the epitome of a matriarch

Your name should be carried in songs

Oh how much you loved to sew

You sewed our hearts together

Beaded our hands to hold each other

You added more fabric over

By sewing a community together

If any of us could be a stitch to everything you were…

We’d surely make the cut.

Everyone here is joined seam to seam by one thread…

That thread will always be you

Oh how much you loved to sew

And how much we love you.

Sizo Vena

11 Oct 2014

TRIBUTE TO OUR LATE GRANDMOTHER

So say this of me... on the 11th of Oct, I stood in front of over a thousand people as we all said goodbye to the "girl of all my days". 

Two years go we started a pillow company, you know. She'd sew the pillow cases, I'd stuff them, they'd be too soft or too hard and she'd throw shade at me. Oh and then she'd make it overcast on anyone who came to see her, asking why they were sleeping on folded towels when they could buy our pillows. What a team!

Now who am I gonna make up words with?

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Did ya'll miss me? I don't care. I did and if you have any other feelings about that put them in your own blog!!!!

 

 

                                                      I'm Blonde Bitcheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees

So once in a while I steal a little moment to remind myself how much I miss my little self indulgence called "This Blog". But besides getting my laptop stolen, blatant laziness and the occasional "I'm Kinda Busy", here I am back.

Back to spell like I never went to school, break all sorts of grammatical rules and, if chance permits, leave a bit of my cold/warm heart on this dirty rug (read the interwebs).

Blue Ivy (my blue Nokia Asha 210) was stolen out of my pocket this past Wednesday while I was bopping to Meghan Trainor's "I'm All About That Bass", the worst piece of news I could've received all year came Sunday and basically life has just been everything but peachy. And that's ok. There's no sudden life lesson in this or a young #MasterClass interpretation, but the mere shake of the boat to signal that my life is still going on.

I'm grateful for all the people in my life, those who continue to give me a chance, my family, friends, thumbs-uppers, colleagues, bosses (DISCLAIMER: If you feel you should be here, then you are) for everything you've done for (to) me and everything about each and every one of ya'll that warms my left armpit.

Growing up is overrated, toughening up will give me a hernia and waking up will allow reality to let me down once again (Because my imagination and I know otherwise).

If your big ass mouth is to say anything, say this of me.

"They just could never keep him down, could they"


.

Its been a MINUTE!!!

Hey there all. I don't know what drove me to decide to, once again, add my thoughts and life's journey to a blog I haven't touched in years... Maybe I just missed it.

Life has moved so fast since the last time I posted and I just didn't have the strength or the 'pics' to display this journey in an appropriate way. Whatever, here I am now. It's 3am, I have a 7am call time hanging over my head and the worst flu in the entirety of God's effin green earth. #StillIWrite #StillILive

Well I've been fine, actually more than it. I've been having a blast. I've done quite a bit of television in the past 2/3years (Generations, Mzansi Love, eKasi Our Stories, Single Galz etc) 

#Generations

#Ekasi Our Stories: uMakoti Nomkhwenyane

#SingleGalz

                                                             #AreYouAsCreepedOutAsIAm?

.... And now i'm back in production doing music co-ordination for #COTCSA II and some research for #KIWK2 with the real Mizz Khanyi Mbau of course... fun times I tell ya.

Still single as shit and bitter as hell but hey, I'm better on weekends!!!

My cab driver is over 3 hours late and I just have too much goddamn time on my hands hence I'm here. Sorry if my return back to MY blog was not fucking poetic enough for yall... #DZEAL!!!

Back in JHB, and loving every day of it, I cant imagine living anywhere else... (I've just realised I will not get any sleep tonight so I might as well type the fuck away)

I'm glad to be back... This will help a lot actually... Thank God its here!!!

Night world.

And if you're gonna say anything of me... say he got bored and decided to start blogging again!!! #lets #2014

The end... the beginning... Us!

We love cast parties... We love dresses for boys #AboutUs

It is not that we are tired; it’s the false safety the word itself affords us. How human we feel when we need, want and ask for help. It is not that we are weak... it’s almost a blatant refusal to get the fuck up and move on! Don't save me, ask me when the fuck am I going to get up! 

 I love how I’m always alive to realise it’s time to move on… one day, I also realise, I won’t be so lucky.

So my little stint in P.E is almost over, November looks a little bleak. A lot of thinking and a lot of plans need to be made but most importantly stock needs to be taken. I’m better off than I was 4 months ago and this I cherish more than I fear the road ahead…

So much is happening, I feel I haven’t delivered as promised on this here blog of mine… but hey how self-indulgent is changing my mind as I go along… (don’t say I never told yall).

UPDATES:

Please go vote for my friend Mlilo Mpondo over hurrrr (you can also win yourself a Blackberry 9360 handset if you do)
  
http://www.elle.co.za/the-heat-is-on/

She’s one the Elle StyleReporter finalists and already the winner in my eyes but ke the world does not dance to my tune so let’s help it along.

Also check out her ‘so about us’ piece as I’ve fondly named it: 

http://lifestayela.blogspot.com/2012/10/when-we-became-felanation.html
 

On the subject of blogs that are about us, a lovely talented spirit here in Algoa Bay saw me worthy of a little love on her blog, BlackBoldVoice : 

http://www.blackboldvoice.blogspot.com/2012/10/fashion-focus-sizo-vena.html
 

Do check all of this out dahlingsss…

If bitches gon' be talking, yall better say this of me : He believed that friends are there to be pimped and the same is expected in return 

 

Each one, pimp one...

LIGHTS, CAMERA... MASCARA!!!

My career so far...

"When I grows up momma... I wanna be in pitchers!!!" *in a heavy southern accent please*

Also during this birthday week of mine, the episodes I shot for Etv soap, Scandal! played. One episode played on the eve, another on the night of my special day and then another four days later. Was that serendipitous or was that serendipitous? Truth is I enjoyed shooting these episodes more than i actually enjoyed watching them.

During the viewing's there was so much looking away and self questioning and major "Oh no, I didn't just do that" outbursts.

I'd still  like to stretch out a grateful hand to the entire team at Scandal!, their producers, and my agent for this ever so amazing opportunity. Hopefully it was the first of many.

For the cameo it is... its my first TV acting role (okay well not really the first ever... Does everyone remember this? 

I smell a typecasting coming my way here... but eish but what can I say ijob yijob sbali. Both of these were much different to presenting a kiddies show about all things fast and (Supersonic).... much different.

AN S/O the amazing peeps at Birthmark

Dre, Francois, Nqobz and Brett De Vos whose names are to be screamed in three chants each for the legends they all are. All your names are written in stars my good peeps!!!

Slaving away on the set of a kiddies show all the way in Port Elizabeth as part of the second season of the first ever SABC kiddies show to be fully produced in the Eastern Cape (fist pump) really helps one put things in perspective. But I really cant wait to get back to the rat race that is the auditioning process.

I look forward to my journey *sprinkles umoya omuhle all over my future* Lets go get!!!
 
Move back bitches and give me my elbow room asb... I'd rather be doing nothing else with my life shemmm.

*forwards this blog post to my mother*

Want something to say? Say this of me... he fell and wet his knickers when he walked onto the Scandal set and found out that Hlomla Dandala was to be his director. Strusbob! (spread the word)

What I Know For Sure...

(Cues O Magazine editor to open this Woman’s day event, as the treats and champers flow freely… jokes… it aint that kinda party.)

Follow Me... @SizoVena

I recently turned 27 and thought maybe I should do a "What I Know For Sure" piece that could possibly open the world to who this person is and why he is the way he is. You know, a little personal checklist, as I was also inspired by Anele Mdoda’s recent book "It Feels Wrong to Laugh, but...", when she makes a checklist of things she's learnt along her journey.

On the rocky path to any form of discovery or recovery (where I'm at), taking stock is always a very tricky (very scary) yet necessary process... (I'm failing in trying to give this piece an intellectual intro and turn myself into overnight Pulitzer winner so let’s get on with the show… the list.) Today was just one of those days I felt I really needed to take some stock.

What I Know (#AboutMe) For Sure!

1.      I actually, really enjoy tennis (especially after the London Olympics). Can’t wait to start playing it.

2.      I suck at organising anything. (The word itself is a demon, one that appears in many forms). Organise, organisational, organiser… you name it. I can hook shit up, don’t ask me to organise.

3.      I’m not as good with children as I make people believe. (Yikes and I’m currently working on the set of a kiddies show). But then again I’m an actor, so I don't think people have picked it up.

4.      I have no interest in office work of any sort. Don’t!!!

5.      I have an attention disorder… Serious… I must have, there’s no way I don’t have one. Prove I don't have one, I dare you.

6.      I really enjoy walking (alone so I can have an entire performance at Madison Square with myself in the role of Beyonce or Britney).

7.      I talk to myself more than it should be considered normal.

8.      I enact entire, newly created scenes of myself in already existing S.A television roles when no one is looking. Sometimes we go international.

9.      I still dream of winning the Lotto (this one’s bad!)

10.  I never know as much as I always think I do… or sometimes even say I do. (But then again does anyone really?)

11.  I fail to remember certain (whole) years of my childhood life. Hence I’m really freaked out when people quote their four year old selves.

12.  I always blame someone else for shit. Then myself (and the shitty part is it stays there)

13.  I have knock knees and serious minger feet. I’m nowhere near accepting this as my fate. I eagerly await that one surgery that will make me whole again. (Amen)

14.  I’m busy working on my relationship with my little sister. It’s nowhere near where I want it to be. I want her to meet a cute boy and immediately call… no wait… run up to him with my business card. (Ja, much better and I will have business cards by then)

15.  I have a fat girl inside of me begging to come out, sometimes she gets a little sun break.

16.  Growing up, I  used to draw little comic strips that read and played out like actual movies… and I’ve never really figured out how I got them to make sense but they did. I really miss that.

17.  Idris Elba (shut up Lesedi), Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jamie Bartlett, Vusi Kunene and Thabo Mbeki will always be the top 5 (I don’t care what year it is)

18.   I also miss writing poetry (haven’t in almost a year). Losing my poetry books over and over again really kicked the (emotional) crap outta me.

19.  I was deputy head boy of a Christian high school ( I also played for their soccer team but I guess no one really needs to know that)

20.  I’m a pro party starter… I swear I need the fewest of resources to kick shit into gear (Honestly urging everyone to try me out on this one)

21.  I need to make it an everyday decision to take interest in my friend's and family's lives. I genuinely forget... (blames the attention disorder for this…) But I’m getting better at this.

22.  I love singing. Mind you I can’t even identify a note, let alone hit it… but still I soldier on (…a hundred motherfu*kers can’t tell me nothing)

23.  I stalk celebrities, hotties and girls I don't like. A lot. I’m a pro. I can find someone from just a first name and nothing much to go on.

24.  I think my acting is crap most of the time, but we soldier on. As much as this hurts me sometimes… I’m always trying to get better.

25.  I feel awkward when people don’t say anything (negative) about me when I walk past them or into a room… I almost want us to go for another take.

26.  I enjoy peeing more than crapping (apparently most people prefer the latter… I’ve never gotten that)

27.  I’m AH -MAZE-IIIIING... (ask my friends they're really smart)

Really looking forward to adding to this list as my life rides this wave of awesome that it is on… I have no qualms with my journey. Tough times or happy small victories, I can’t fight the feeling that I’m always where I’m meant to be. Okay let’s all puke now… so I can wrap this up.

If ever you shall speak of me. Please, oh please say this of… he was an advocate for loving and being one with the lesser parts of ourselves. Hulle’s ok important!

The Real Sprinters of Olympia

Oh the tales from the 100m starting line. (you know mos that introductory camera pan on all the players just before they race, as they warm up and focus on the race ahead... the flexing, stretching and feather fluffing)

Olympics' Queen B* - "I told ya'll... Whowwww bitch I'm fierce"

Am I the only one who enjoyed the show that was put on by the world’s finest 100m sprinters just before that Olympic final last night? I promise you, it’s like those boys were on script and the assistant director had just clapped the clapper board. It reminded me of an intro sequence to some F-grade telenovella about the lives and loves of Caribbean sprinters that I’ve never seen. Think Sunset Beach, Miami Sands et al.

It began with the delicious Yohan Blake, who gave us his “ladies-lov-me” poses as he licked the black off his own lips. You could’ve sworn that he was getting ready to sprint towards the coach’s son (who, for this telenovella’s sake, is the love interest). We then moved on to receive a cringe-worthy “I’m too sexy for this track, this gold or this silver” dance from Justin Gatlin (this was a killer).  

Hayi ke, without fail, your boy B* (Usain Bolt) was the nights biggest performer, before and after the actual race (like this is even news). I love this man’s confidence; he really does have that “Making-It-Rain-on-Them-Hoes” savoir faire. You know maan! That “If I beat you once, I beat you twice” je ne sais quois. Asafa Powell is not much of a show off I gathered, but coming in at number 8 (or last) out of the bunch I also wouldn’t be. That being said, I’d still tap that. (Oh don’t judge me, you know you would too)

One man whose performance was very subtle and unnoticeable, even after the race, was America’s hot-mess deluxe, eye candy supreme, Ryan Bailey (wipes brow). After a little conversation with a friend of mine this morning (@onefumi), we’ve come up with a few situations we’d like to find ourselves stuck in (with these few of course), and they have nothing to do with athletics. Or do they? I don’t know. You figure that out.

In closing, I’d like to disclaim that I know nothing about the 100m sprint, its rules, the protocol followed or its antics, but that I’m merely commentating on them in my own personal capacity as a person who found himself with no plans for the evening, on a couch, in front of a television set.

No expert opinion.

That being said all views expressed in this post are that of my own (and hopefully a few other wack heads out there).

I pray none of the sprinters’, Bolt fans’ or peanut gallerinas’ egos are hurt by the views expressed in this post. 

So the next time you sit down to catch a sporting event on TV, grab a bottle of wine and a paper cup and say this of me… Sizo would’ve been the best companion to watch this with. (Ya dig!)