HETEROBORIA – My Neologism

I am not even going to pretend that I am not weird, or a little of an oddball.

As emotionally exhausting, and alienating as that can be a lot of the time, it also gives me wonderful insights into things and allows me to look at situations from a different perspective.

A random strand of this is that I am a very creative person.

A unusual thing happened when I was on social media recently, and I came across someone’s twitter account. I instantly found myself developing a little online crush on someone (which is not the first time this happened) and so I scrolled through their account.

The more I scrolled the more the journalist in me was unleashed, trying to figure out if this person batted for my team - using their pictures and tweets to decide if there was a homosexual undertone to anything they put out.

I instantly became uninterested in this person when my research showed me they were heterosexual.

In my mind, their opinions on an array of subjects was no longer interesting. It lost that dynamic and complex layer of thinking that I had interpreted as being there.

The person just became another cisgender heterosexual male, who I am sure is intelligent, cool and has something that makes them idiosyncratic, but whatever that was I could no longer see it.

Something that made them stand out in my mind, vanished.

It was in that moment this new word pop into my mind – HETEROBORIA.

The word would come from putting the roots of heterosexual (hetero) and bored (bor) together to come up with this word –heteroboria.

Sometime passed and I still thought about this experience. The more I would come across someone on social media who I thought was interesting, would then become less so once I saw that they were heterosexual.

I was being a little tongue-in-cheek and made a picture of this Theo-ism (a theo-ism because my name is Theo and it is something I made up).

Once I did this, I spammed all my friends with my creativity saying “Look at how genius I am at coming up with this NEW word”. 

My friends indulged me, and appreciated how weird I was being, but while chatting with a fellow gay friend, he pointed out that a few days before he had experienced the same type of feeling.

He was having a chat with someone else and in this conversation he had ended up describing the feeling of heteroboria.

Besides feeling validated, I could only just laugh about it.

While this word is probably not going to redefine the use of the English language, and I will probably not receive any awards for it, I can at least appreciate the fact that my unique perspective on this allows me to come up with such eclectic things.

If nothing else comes from this, I can rest contently knowing that I created a word that entertained the loved ones in my life, and made someone smile.

Yours Sincerely,

The Lion Mutters

PS – While I can admit to not have the best grammar, and my spelling isn’t always flawless, it is trippy seeing the number of times the word heterboria was underlined as I typed this. Lol.

Reaching The Ceiling

I’ve had a very busy week/end...

It was exciting and fun but exhausting.

I was so out of fumes that when I got invited to the Nicky Romero gig at Shimmy Beach on Saturday, I declined it, never mind that I also had plans to attend the Magents SA Menswear Week after party.

Again, crazy hey? How much fun would I have had just chilling, dancing and enjoying the cool exclusivity and access that my job affords me?

BUT, I was autopiloting because I hadn't been sleeping properly, I have been stressing about working on graphics for my work’s anti-racism campaign while still doing my usual day-to-day work routine, and covering SA Menswear Week
.

Granted the last bit, I brought on myself because I wanted to do the show again this year and also as a gay man, I love staring and talking to hot guys.

He was in the local production of Rocky Horror. His name is Shaun Chad Smit.

SA Menswear Week was a fish-out-of-water experience for me the last time, the second time around, it was the same except that I felt more comfortable in my odd-man-out role which made me enjoy the experience all the more.

I went to university with the lovely gentleman. Find him: @Brat_M_

It was a lot of fun just experiencing everything that goes into a fashion week and the crazy outfits you see, the amazing designers you witness, and the models you fall in lust with. 

Boy did I fall in lust. Haha.

Eden Classens

My only regret from the experience was that I wasn’t brave enough to ask the number of the guy I was attracted to, regardless of whether he was team homo or not, asking him would have hurt no one...but I didn’t because well duh, he was a model and I’m a awkward, guy who gets shy and flustered.

It was a miracle in and of itself that I was able to get selfies with the hot boys.

My job is fun, I get to meet cool people and do cool things that I typically wouldn’t like interview Jean de Villiers and Nicky Romero, meet F.W de Klerk, the J&B Met and the colour run. It is all experiences that I am grateful for but sometimes it can be exhausting.

I think the most important thing I learned this week was to know my limit.

I am glad that while I got to have invites and experience all these things, I know when I have reached my limit and that is a big thing for me. I would like to think that I work hard, sometimes it doesn’t feel that way, but I do try my best. 

Knowing when I have reached my ceiling is important thing for me to realise because everything I work on at that point is just without love and I am just running on autopilot – there is no desire to do my best, only to get it done.

Don’ run on autopilot, it’s important to take care of yourself. I don’t always take care of myself, but I am learning. 

You only have one you, so try not ruining yourself.

Theo. Over and Out.

What I love about this picture was that I started pulling some crazy eyes, and he played along....

PS – To the super hot Eden Classens, you are so sweet and seem like a cool guy, I know you’re probably like super busy, dating other models, but if you ever want to go for coffee  with a shy-ish awkward guy who will make you laugh (I at least have that going for me) and then hit me up.

The Lion’s Tunes #2

Welcome to another edition of The Lion’s Tunes.

At the suggestion of a close friend, I decided to put my love of music to good use.

She pointed out to me that since I love music and listen to so much of it, I should share what songs I’m currently jamming to at the moment.

If you follow me on twitter then you’d know I usually tweet about what music has got me all caught up and catching feelings.

If I can sum up this week’s music selection it would be – Soulful, Truth Bombs and Sassy Funk.

I’m by no means a music expert and I won’t pretend to be. Most of what will be written here is information I’ve learned on the net and just my personal opinions on the songs. So have at it...

·         Song: Gold Dust

Artist: Galantis

Album:

Description:

After hearing their hit song “You & I (Runaway)” I knew that I wanted to hear more from this group. There was something about the song that just couldn’t get me to leave it alone. Sometimes with some EDM songs you don’t know whether they a momentary flash in the pans or something you will be able to hear on your playlist without skipping- “You and I (Runaway)” is a song like that for me.

 After a quick search, I discovered their follow up single “Gold Dust” and boy was I not disappointed. Staying in tune with their sound they deliver a track with emotion and beat. I really enjoy this track; it’s quieter but no less potent. I highly recommended it.

Additional Mention: Smile.

Interesting to note that Galantis is a Swedish duo composed of one of the Miike Snow members, Christian “Bloodshy” Karlsson and Linus Eklӧw. If you’ve heard of Miike Snow you’d know their sound is quirky given that it’s within the EDM genre but it works for them. Anyways someone on Twitter suggested I hear their song “Smile”, and as nice as it is, for me I find it somewhat generic. It’s like that song on an album that’s nice but it’ll never stand out for you.  That being said, not every song can be a superb hit so a few duds are to be expected. All in all I’d suggest giving more of their music a listen and find out if you like what they are selling because I certainly do.

·         Song:  Twisted Tongue

Artist: Misterwives

Album: Our Own House

Description:

When I was pondering about this particular song from the band, the words that came to me were “Sassy Jazzy Rock” and in some ways that perfect encapsulates their vibe. I picture myself in a vibey New York City bar, or something like the one in the movie “Going the Distance”, where you just reveal in the sound of a band and groove the night away. The band definitely knows their sound and who can deny it because it works. “Twisted Tongue” has that sass and also there’s a lovely section in the song where they get funky which just works so well. I think “Twisted Tongue” should be playing in movie scenes and credits.

I’m listening to this song now and it made me think of Duffy is some ways. With music it is only common to compare artists and the sound of Misterwives reminds me of Duffy, but I think that is just because of the lead singer’s voice. I wouldn’t automatically dismiss them if you dislike Duffy though. There is something so catchy about the song. You might not hear it on the first listen (I didn’t) but this song is soo funky. I bet you that you’ll be singing the tune or lyrics of “...you just managed to mask what’s now clear as glass, and that is – you’re an ASS-HOLE.”

Additional Mention: Reflections

Their funky side becomes clearer in this song. I really don’t have much further to add other than the above. All I want to do is just stop typing and groove along to the song. Reflections grew on me.

·         Song: Hard Time

Artist: Seinabo Sey

EP: For Madeleine

Description:

This song fits into my own made genre of what I like to call “Truth Bomb EDM”. It's the type of song you dance to in your room at night with your eyes closed and just shutting yourself off from the rest of the world. Having some de-stress alone time. The drum beat gives me that Amazonian Marching Band vibe. Please please please go and give this song a listen because the voice of this Swedish-Gambian singer should be heard.

“Hard time forgiving, even harder forgetting; before you do somethin’, you might regret...”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/who-is-seinabo-sey-introducing-the-swedishgambian-singer-inspired-by-her-dual-identity-9600349.html

Additional Mention: Younger

This song was released before their song “Hard Time”, and I didn’t like it. I thought that the potential was there but the song didn’t really do much. As what often happens with me is that I sometimes judge songs too quickly, and not all songs make a home in your heart immediately. This one grew on me and while I never seek it on my playlist, when it does come on it just makes me stop and I don’t skip it. You feel the hairs on your arm raise because it just has that truth bomb factor. You just have to listen. There is something haunting but thought provoking about the song and it just makes me like it all the more for what it is.

·         Song: Say You Love Me

Artist: Jessie Ware

Album: Tough Love (Delux Edition)

I came across this saying that I just felt was so perfect; it went something to the effect of -“The right song will find you at the right time”. This song happened that way to me. I was on tumblr, browsing someone’s account when suddenly my earphones were playing this song. I immediately fell in love and went to search it. This is a song I became so obsessed with, as I was writing this week’s blog post, I found this and I had to add it.

I love this song for many reasons because it speaks to that moment when all you want from the person you have feelings is just for them to say they love you (see what I did there?). I even used it as a chapter title for my online story; this song is just pure bliss. Don’t mind me while I quote the whole Second Verse and Chorus:

“Just say you love me, just for today.

And don’t give me time, ‘cause that’s not the same

Mmm... want to feel burning flames when you say my name

Want to feel passion flow into my bones like blood through my veins.

Cause I don’t want to fall in love

If you don’t want to try

But all that I’ve been thinking of is maybe that you might

And babe it looks as though we’re running out of words to say and love’s floating away.”

Additional Mention:  Tough Love

I only heard this in the past few days and I get why it’s the title track for the album. More people really need to know about Jessie Ware. Her musicality really shines through, and she knows exactly how to use her voice. Wispy and gentle when it needs to be as witnessed in “Tough Love” and uses the power of her voice when she needs to.

Hot Pick of the Week:

·        Artist: Kwabs

EP: Walk

Soulful. Fresh. Silky.

Those are the three words I’d use describe Kwabs. There is something special about this guy, and when his album gets released in May this year, it will be a must have. As what often happens within the music industry (from my little understanding) is that these artists often release EP’s to give people a taste of their sound and then if people bite these artists are rushed into the studio to produce a full length album.

Do yourself a favour and purchase his EP (a quick Google search confirms that it’s on iTunes) because I promise you won’t be disappointed. The title track, “Walk” has been playlisted on radio stations so I’m certain you’ve heard but still, there are so many gems.  It was released in October last year but my word it’s great. As I’m typing this, I’m currently obsessing over “Into You” *dance breakdown*, getting goosebumps from “Pray For Love” and just treating my soul to some good music with “Saved”, “Last Stand”, “Wrong or Right” and “Spirit Fade”.

If all is right in the world then this talented man from Ghana will hopefully blow up in a huge way.

http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/nme-exclusive-listen-to-kwabs-stunning-and-soulful-new-ep-walk

The “Oud maar nog nie Koud nie”:

There might not always be this section within future posts but I thought I would add it in this one nonetheless. These songs aren’t new (and may or may not exactly be well known) but yet are still banging. The section title is in Afrikaans which in English means “The old but not yet cold”.

·        Song: Woods

Artist: Bon Iver  

I came across Bon Iver after they won the Grammy actually, famously beating out Justin Bieber in some category or other. I was like well let me go give a listen to their music. I will admit that I’m still not sure if Bon Iver is one person/ duo or group because from my understanding it seems like there is the lead singer and recurring members. Getting back this song however, it gave me chills; haunting and eerie but it works. I loved how the song was describing that feeling of being lost within life by using woods as a metaphor.  We’re all just stumbling through the woods of our lives not knowing where we are going but feeling out way through it.

Additional Mention: Lost in the World (Kanye West’s version/remix of Woods).

When I first heard about this, I thought “great Kanye probably butchered the song” but when I saw the video of Kanye and the lead singer of Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) performing this together at the Coachella music festival, boy did I fall in love with it. Kanye West is one of those artists who can create pure music magic once he lets his ego get out of the way and let music take over- this is such an occasion. When Kanye came on and remixed it, keeping Justin’s vocals and, adding his own hip hop flavour, it just gelled so well together. I sometimes search for this song if I hadn’t heard it in a while because it is just one of those songs you need to hear every so often.

·         Song: No One’s Here To Sleep

Artist: Naughty Boy ft Bastille

If you don’t know of Naughty Boy then where have you been? He did the super catchy “Lala” song featuring Sam Smith on the vocals and also “Home” with Sam Romans. However there is a lesser known and older song from Naughty Boy that actually features the talents of Bastille (who’s lead Singer Dan Smith is actually from South Africa yay!). I came across this song is an episode of one my favourite shows – Teen Wolf (judge away, I know it is bad) but the song just captured my attention. It’s moody and dark but so great.

Additional Mention:  Wonder

This song is one banger. It just gets you grooving and dancing. Also it’s Naughty Boy featuring the talents of Emeli Sandé. I love seat dancing to it.

Extra:

Songs on the radio that I’m currently obsessed with –

1.       Goldfish – Away Game (Deepfish Mix)

2.       TiMo ODV ft Sarah Jackson – Save Me (Radio Edit) ←This song is amazing

3.       Zebra and Giraffe – Goodbye

4.       Kelly Clarkson – Heartbeat Song

All tracks should be available on iTunes.

I’m aware that the tunes aren’t exactly big club dance tracks but I’ll promise to keep an ear out for anything. What usually happens though is that the songs are always picked up by radio stations and killed to death on repeat so I tend to go for the smaller songs here.

If you have any suggestions don’t be scared to let me know in the comments below.

Theo. Over and Out.

Race Representation within Sci-fi Movies

Tales of white characters who have to fight against a particular evil or endure hardships because they are different is a story that nearly every science fiction movie is based on.

Their narrative is often one of angst and hardship that has to be overcome. You are meant to sympathise with these characters and root for them as they go on a journey of self-discovery, accepting their uniqueness and going onto killing the bad guy. Science fiction movies have always been known for their inclusion of the other, or that which is different, and while that may be true, the question still remains: Where are all the black characters though?

 I doubt this is the first time that someone asked this question, or the last time it will be asked because this is a issue that not only science fiction films struggle with, but many mainstream movies too. The reason why I singled out science fiction movies in its struggle for diverse racial representation is because the genre is one that is set in a futuristic, often utopia like, world where everyone is accepting of others and that the colour of your skin should not matter. 

When researching race in science-fiction films, it was one of the first times that I found Google to have an inadequate answer. It gave me a constant repetition of sources that spoke about this issue, giving their opinion, but no evidence of a concerted effort being made. It seems like we’ve become accustomed to having predominantly white people as the lead of science-fiction films that we don’t really question it.

Often when watching a sci-fi movie you never really notice such things because you get so absorbed into the story. It is only later upon further reflection that you will notice if there was a person of colour in the film. Just to clarify, I am aware that those of other races are also underrepresented, but I am primarily focusing on black and brown people because there is such a large number of us in the world but still so few of them appear on screen.

In recent years however, people of colour have at least been making appearances in the genre but they are still grossly underrepresented in general. There have been a plethora of science-fiction films that has given us great stories to engage with and but yet somehow characters of colour are still lacking majorly; In Time, Total Recall, Cloud Atlas, and most recently Interstellar are a few of the movies that I can recall where we clearly see one or two people of colour within the films. The recent release of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar which was a great movie even had more robotic characters than it did have characters of colour. Previous Nolan efforts such as Inception and the Dark Knight Trilogy had also at least one token diverse cast member, which is commendable for the director to have done but overall there needs to be more than one person of colour in movies. In In Time with Justin Timberlake we only see black people within the working class sector where one black character is the girlfriend to the protagonist’s best friend, or within the police force keeping order; when Timberlake’s character enters the upper class sector there is no black character that can be seen.  This is another issue in itself that when black people are represented they are still shown to be within the lower classes and slums but I digress.

Science-fiction is supposed to be the genre where everyone is accepted and race doesn’t matter but more often than not, these films fail to promote true inclusivity. They deliver the subliminal message that those who do not fit the mould of a white character will be unable to realise their full potential or have the same success of white characters. This creates a problem as it leaves children of colour with the impression that there are certain things they will be unable to accomplish just because they are not white; this is a frightening idea to pass on to younger generations.

Representation for people of colour has always been lacking in such a way that people are unaware of the fact that they keep seeing the same type of character lead a science-fiction film or even just have the character have a homogenised look. If we use Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games as an example we can see that this also applies. Recently within the adaption of the first book there was an online disagreement that erupted with some of the readers because a character called Rue, who heroically died in the movies, was black. More than a few people were on the social media platform Twitter sharing their disdain at the news that the character in the book that they had formed an emotional connection too was portrayed by a black actor in the movie. While online platforms like Twitter does allow for those of an ignorant nature to cause a louder raucous, it does not dismiss the fact that people have become so comfortable to characters within science-fiction movies being white, that they are surprised when a character turns out to be non-white. Clearly this shows that somewhere there is an issue with the lack of appropriate representation of non-white characters.

Star Trek movies are based on the TV show has a corporation that is meant to include various type of species in the film but still the film has Uhura, Zoe Zaldana, and John Cho’s Sulu, along with a Tyler Perry’s cameo, as the only diverse cast members in the film. Within the Star Trek Universe, Khan Noonien Singh is known to be one of the show’s most iconic villains. Whenever a discussion about the series is spoken about, his name is bound to come up. His character is part of a genetically engineered super-human group, bred to be advance in every way; they are free of the usual human mental and physical limitations. What the series did was represent him as a person of colour which, particular for a series in the 1960’s was still a major coup, and they were giving the suggestion that the ultimate form of being a human could perhaps be a person of colour with superhuman abilities. In the 2013 film reboot “Star Trek: Into Darkness” whitewashed the character as he was portrayed by Caucasian British actor Benedict Cumberbatch. There has been a criticism for the film because they took a character that was known to be of colour and transformed him into another white character. Already people of colour are underrepresented but to then still whitewash them, it is highly problematic. The film’s co-producer and co-screenwriter did address this issue however by stating:

“Basically, as we went through the casting process and we began honing in on the themes of the movie, it became uncomfortable for me to support demonizing anyone of color, particularly any one of Middle Eastern descent or anyone evoking that.”

The film does have the female character of colour Uhura, who plays a love interest to the character of Spock, which does show a positive representation and having another character of colour playing the role of the villain, would have in actuality be stating that people of colour fall into different types of categories where some are good and some are bad. Unfortunately they still chose not to have the character portrayed as black.

One of the most notable science-fiction films to get the portrayal of people of colour correctly was The Matrix Trilogy. In the start, we are presented with Morpheus, Lawrence Fishburne, who it could be argued is actually calling the shots; he was the one who was coaching the protagonist, Neo, through it. He trained him and he was the one who took Neo to visit the Oracle, who also happened to be black, to find out if he was “The One” just like he had done with the people before whom he hoped would be the one to save their people. Naomi, a fellow ship commander, and Link the computer technician of Morpheus’ ship are examples of a few other characters of colour were portrayed in the films. The films’ representation of people of colour has to my knowledge not been matched by any other science-fiction film since.

Representation of minority racial groups and people of colour have been greatly underrepresented within the science-fiction film genre and it is problematic that a genre which sets out to be inclusive is not as inclusive as it should be. In the movie business money talks, it will take the use of paying moviegoers drawing more attention to this issue for the movie executives to take notice. Who knows maybe in 10 years time this will be a non-issue and opinion articles like this will fade from memory? If so, then that will be a day I gladly look forward to.

Online versus Offline

Online platforms like Facebook, Twitter and numerous other online communities have allowed us to communicate with other users in such a way that we have been able to develop a rapport with total strangers. It has afforded us the opportunity of expanding our social circles and establishing new friendships in the process.

Once we have gained enough understanding of a person’s online personality, we are able to engage with them about shared interests or even differences that we are interested in learning more about. We comment, instant message or favourite their posts because we’ve taken an interest in what they are doing and want to get to know them better.

While everything might be going great in the confines of the online world, it is extremely difficult to gauge whether these online interactions are truly worth moving offline until we decide take the chance, which does come with danger of putting those online friendships in jeopardy.

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for example have become known for bringing strangers together online; it only takes a quick Google search to find numerous articles documenting how relationships which started online as friendships, have flourished once these people took the chance to meet in real life.

Guaranteed that everyone reading this knows or has heard of people who met online and after taking a chance, they have ended up being one of the most in love couples you know.

Unfortunately not everyone can have such successful stories, sometimes online friendships meaning nothing more than just strangers being nice. There are also numerous instances of catfishing taking place because the internet has allowed us anonymity to do such things where you can create your own identity. 

When it comes to the internet there is an inherent difference between our offline and online lives. Depending on which online platform you favourite, there can certainly be total separation between our online and offline lives.

With platforms, especially twitter and Instagram you may only know the person online and this does not require you to engage with them in day-to-day activity. You may have certain aspects of your personality that are more exaggerated online in comparison to how you are in your day-to-day social interactions.

Someone who may be outspoken online could be demure and introverted in their day-to-day lives because of how the internet gives us exposure to their views and thoughts without them feeling the need to keep to themselves.

There is a juxtaposition of identity that is created.

Even if you are not an introvert, there is still a difference between your online personality and that in your daily life. You interact with such a wide variety of people that sometimes it can often lead to unexpected friendships or connection with people who you may never have gotten to know and people you may have never expected to interact with.

The internet is wild and mysterious place.

Sometimes online friends are nothing more than friendly strangers, while other times they could in fact go onto become a good friend or, in some cases, your spouse. Think about that the next time you click your mouse.