Foyin Og Online
Beauty, Life + Style

alt-j? alt-YAY

if you remember a current obsession post i did back in july (woah), you’ll remember that i was (and still am) obsessed with alt-j. i also mentioned that they’ll be playing in south africa at vodacom in the city in joburg and rocking the daisies in cape town, and i was extremely blessed to have gotten the opportunity to witness it go down last friday night at mary fitzgerald square in newtown. i didn’t bring my canon with me, so all the photos i took were either with my little sony camera or my iphone, and i didn’t mind at all – i was way too busy dancing.

al bairre was an incredible opener – a true showcase of local talent! shout-out to the twins playing the cello and violin (and keyboard and bass guitar): you girls are my heroes. epitome of awesome. and the hives after alt-j were seriously the biggest jam. i left the crowd after alt-j finished (curse you tiny bladder) but even in the midst of being in the courtyard, i danced my heart out. by myself. to go right ahead.

basically, i danced as hard as i could and nearly got my phone stolen by a very silly man who makes a horrible thief (if i can take my phone out of your hand after you steal it, chances are, you’re not doing it right.) but every time i think about hearing fitzpleasure live, it was completely worth it. besides, there are only a handful of places where i get to dress full-hipster so i indulged (you can see my full outfit here).

so lemme even discuss alt-j now. from intro into fitzpleasure (my favourite song, btw)… bloodflood, matilda, something good, taro, tesselate, buffalo, and then to end it off with breezeblocks. you’ve never heard me sing “PLEASE DON’T GO! I’LL EAT YOU WHOLE! I LOVE YOU SO! I LOVE YOU SO I LOVE YOU SO!” so loud – i might’ve broken the sound barrier. they were literally perfect. literally. it was like listening to the cd, except live, and so much better. they are one of those bands who are just incredible live. they work in perfect harmony.

i posted a few videos on my instagram if you want to see! (fun/sad fact: my phone memory filled up that night so i tried to delete other videos to make space, and accidentally deleted the fitzpleasure video. i nearly cried)

but above and beyond that, the biggest of thanks goes out to seed experiences and vodacom for making vodacom in the city possible for me and other music enthusiasts!

and thanks to my friends and everyone else who made it a fun night. thanks for dancing with me 🙂

Current Obsession: Lorde

Current Obsession: Lorde

Because I really don’t have time to blog but I promised myself that I wont neglect my blog, I came up with a little compromise: if I cant let you in on what I’m wearing or give any analyses/insights into my favourite trends right now (that post is coming, I promise. It’s been in my drafts for weeks, I just lack the concentration to actually sit down and write it. Oops), the least I can do is let you in on what I’m listening to.


Lorde is a 16 year old singer-songwriter from New Zealand who’s really blowing up at the moment and I’m really obsessed with her music – it has this alternative-pop-electronic-indie vibe and her music is a really easy listen. I embedded her EP above so take a listen 🙂 I still have her hit Royals on repeat, I love Tennis Courts and Million Dollar Bills is also amazing.


Wishing you all a really happy new month and to all of those in the southern hemisphere (like me), HAPPY SPRING DAY! 🙂 Feel free to let me know what you’re listening to at the moment, I’m always looking for some new music to indulge in.

Current Obsession: The Neighbourhood

Current Obsession: The Neighbourhood

Whilst recovering from my existential crisis, as seen in here, I needed something to listen to. I can only watch Harry Potter so many times or listen to the same playlist again before I realise I need something a little new in my life. Don’t get me wrong – I still watch Harry Potter every night and listen to the same playlist when I’m walking home from school, but a little change of music here and there while I do my trig homework is always good. And as always, it’s always hard to find something new, because everything you know sounds like everything you know, right? So I was listening to an 8tracks Radio playlist called Come To Conquer, and I stumbled across this amazing band: The Neighbourhood.

The American band has this amazing indie-rock/electronic vibe and I am shocked that I haven’t listened to them before. I just downloaded their album and I have Afraid, Female Robbery and Sweater Weather on repeat.

This time, I’m actually giving you a warning about my lack of posts for the upcoming week. I made it on my schools executive (prefects type system) and we’re going on camp from Tuesday and this weekend I am swamped with assignments, so yeah. But anywho, enjoy your week 🙂

The Lightning Strike – An Introspection.

The Lightning Strike – An Introspection.

Miniature blog hiatus again. It’s been a stressful week, and I got sick. so just… yeah. Thanks. This is just an amalgamation of an essay(s) and recent thoughts. This introspection had no point so apologies if it left you more confused than when you started it.

I’ve lost it all, I’m just a silhouette – a lifeless face that you’ll soon forget. – Youth


According to Newton’s First Law Of Motion, an object will remain in its state of motion or travelling with a constant velocity unless a resultant force acts on it, thus changing its path. But to apply that law to people is a completely different case, because although a human being can continue on their path until something changes it; humans are both blessed and cursed with a brain and a frontal lobe. You can change the course of a human being, but that doesn’t mean they forgot where they were going. That is what I feel can be my fatal flaw. The persistence of memory.

In the Snow Patrol song, The Lightning Strike, the first few lyrics always seem to have me encapsulated: “What if this storm ends and I don’t see you as you are now ever again?” Further expanding on my initial statement, I am one of those people who are ever so ‘blessed’ with a memory that retains, often, the silliest of details, such as concert set-lists, the song you were listening to on a plane to New York when you were ten years old, the date someone sent you a life altering message or your mom’s first ever cell phone number, yet can’t remember details like your cousin’s birthday, your mom’s current cell phone number or what day it is. 

But now, thinking on those lyrics again… I can always see you as you were when we first met. That is the strangest thing about memory, isn’t it? It has the most inexorable way of retaining information and the emotions or sensory triggers attached with it. Memories are so persistent, yet equally inconsistent. Think about it: how easy is it to manipulate a memory? For such a clever computer, your brain tends to accept a lie as the truth if it’s presented with the unfaltering information enough times. Your brain isn’t stupid, though, no, no. I can’t convince myself that when I was 12, I went to Japan for a week. Yes, maybe on a virtual online game I might have, but my brain can discern the difference. But I can convince myself that on the 12th of May 2013 when I was waiting outside Soccer City to see Justin Bieber perform live and he drove past me in his Rolls Royce, he looked at me and possibly smiled. And why can I do that? Because my brain is so smart and stupid at the same time. If I have the authentic visuals, I can slip in a bit of false information and repeat it until my brain accepts this as the truth. Kind of like a watered down version of inception.

I sometimes still grapple with the thought that every moment that passes is just a memory. As I type, the ‘t’ I just put down is already in the past. Not so distant in the past, but the past nonetheless – as John Green wrote, ‘Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.‘ There is an infinite amount of microseconds in a second, but there is a larger infinite amount of microseconds in an hour, if you gist. But just like our brain perceives time (which is, after all, a man made invention susceptible to manipulation) differently, so it perceives emotions. 

I have this theory that our minds have a way of amplifying the bad in order for our subconscious to feel like the emotional pain we feel is warranted. In truth, emotional pain only lasts for twelve minutes, thereafter, it is all self-inflicted, but we subconsciously choose to dwell on our short-comings and pity ourselves. We choose to replay the tormenting images of what was and what could have been. We choose to remind ourselves of our pain because we feel like we don’t deserve to be happy. But in order for us to do this for so long, we need to feel like our pain is bad enough. Like the burden is big enough. Like the struggle was painful enough. Because once we realise that we owe it to ourselves to move on with our lives, we feel guilty. As if we don’t deserve good things and happiness while someone else is suffering. Or even worse, once we’ve achieved emotional equilibrium and we see someone else enduring something emotionally scarring, we feel as though we need to rehash our past in order to identify with them. Sometimes, empathy can be a bad thing. This sense of ‘survivors guilt’ is what I believe to be the one thing coming between us and happiness. 
But more-so, the ‘survivors guilt’ isn’t the only thing that debilitates us. Tying in with the concept of The Lightning Strike (the overwhelming feeling of nostalgia and regret over memories that can’t be forgotten in fear of the present changing; the need for someone to be “the lightning in me that strikes relentless.”), regret is probably worse. Why do we regret? Because: 1) our actions allowed free choice without a second thought (YOLO). 2) the outcome didn’t meet expectations because we didn’t think it through. 3) we recall the experience by amplifying the bad and watering down the good. Our mind repeats it over and over again, and can even manifest this emotional duress physically while it distorts the original memory beyond the point of recollection. It distorts time, because “time doesn’t exist, clocks exist.” To even paraphrase Stephen Chbosky, “We accept the time we think we deserve.” So if time isn’t real, are our memories even real? Are they as large a part of our imagination as our dreams are? Are we dreaming now? Are we even real? Perception is reality, but are we all perceiving a different reality? Is this moment even real?
Am I having an existential crisis?

Love Poems

Love Poems

Once again, I changed up the blog a bit. It seems like the only consistent thing about me is change. Oh, the paradox that is life. Moving on.

Love Another

Meet Rudy Francisco. His hobbies include editing his life story, hiding behind metaphors and trying to convince his shadow that he is someone worth following – all of which he does when he’s not too busy performing his poetry and making a seventeen year old girl blush (figuratively) and ache for a boyfriend who loves her so much that a poem like this would be written in her honor *swoons*. This poem reawakened my bitter and hardened inner romantic and I just need somebody to feel like I do/did when I heard this. Enjoy.

Love Yourself

Now, meet Sarah Kay. She needs no introduction or back story because her spoken word poetry speaks for her and she gives her own poetic back story in the video. It may be long, but I can guarantee you, it is worth it. I did her little exercise and here’s what I came up with:
3 Things I Know To Be True:
1) There is the sky above me.
2) There is the earth below me.
3) Although sometimes dim, there is a fire within me.

Love The Fact That It’s Not A Poem But It’s Erykah So

The title of the blog is ‘Love Poems’ but I got caught in a YouTube hole and found one of my favourite Badu songs. Music and poetry are both an art form, so I was basically on target.
You don’t have to believe everything you think – we’ve been programmed, wake up, we miss you.

^ that is also new. just seeing how it goes.

Where to next?