Giant peach. I like this picture. I think it's very good. James is a good artist. There were a number youtube videos he made with an old iPhone which were very good.
I write about him singing Can's "Mushroom" below. I once started singing Robert Johnson's "Come on in my kitchen" and he joined in too. Great start I think.
I look at what I wrote six years ago, there's been a bit of editing, afterall these are my words and was my blog. He's the same still. Extremely passionate and obsessed. Still very popular and has retained a very strong relationship with Max. I thought he and Arno would be friends for life, but they've both moved on.
November 23, 2019
Blink
and you discover that your little boy has been on this planet for eight
years. How on earth did that happen, it was perhaps yesterday that I
was walking him to nursery school – that yesterday was two years ago. My little boy has been in big school for two years and finishing off
his grade one year. Grade one requires a school uniform and school shoes
and writing and reading and all that stuff. And he is doing all that
stuff.
It was an interesting process dressing him up in his school uniform and getting him to school at 7:30, vs the 8 o clock start that he had for his first four years at school (I do need to stress that this is done mostly by Thuli, aka the Magic Black Woman). It's not been too much of stretch because his brother has to be at school at a similar time. It's now school bags and bubble bags, readers and languages.
There is a loyalty to his friends that sets James apart from others. His big mates are Arno, Max and Fred, they were all in the same class last year but now have been moved into separate classes. This has not prevented James from meeting them on the playground most days and playing with them. They are his core group of friends and they have regular sleepovers at his house (chaos) and he often goes to their houses for sleepovers (other peoples' chaos).
My youngest has adapted well to school life. He has no issues wearing the uniform and respects his teachers. A very rule bound boy, James probably enjoys the structure and the discipline that schools tend to insist upon. It's early in his school career, there is no structured sport other than athletics and swimming. Athletics hasn't quite captured his imagination but swimming has and with a gala coming up in the next week, I expect to see a competitive boy in the pool. He won't be coming into sport as a novice when it formally starts in the next year or so, he has received intense and expert coaching from his football-mad older brother. If you want to play with your older brother then you had better play soccer and so James plays soccer and there is a steady improvement in his game, he's enjoying it too.
James is the creative one in the house, there are LEGO sculptures and paper animals everywhere. There is enough LEGO to build a mansion in the Karoo. I haven't suggested this to James because he might actually build it. His reading is good enough now to consult architecture manuals for the build. It's been wonderful watching him learn to read, everything that can be read is read, he reads road signs, notice boards – anything with words on it. I'm still reading him a chapter out of any of the Walliams books every night, but I expect that he will become more self sufficient in the next few months and take himself off to bed with a book. He's also quite proficient with languages, he listens to what he learns at school and what he picks up at home and is happy to throw in the occasional sentence.
James is still my little boy. He's a sensitive child who is still susceptible to monsters after watching shows on TV. He's still the worst bedmate I have ever come across, which results in one of us leaving the bed (which is as big as Texas) when he runs through to join us. He's a little brother that needs to find his space with a sport obsessed older brother. And because he hasn't started formal sport yet he finds himself dragged to watch his older brother on multiple sports fields. He was spared from watching his brother performing at his Suarez (soiree) though.
He has found his own interests. Taken up the violin, mostly because his best mates are also playing the instrument. He's stuck at it and has performed at his first concert, which he delivered with aplomb. He should practice more but he's young and still finding what works and doesn't work for him, I expect he'll go through a multitude of instruments before the end of primary school.
Happy eighth birthday JimJam. These have been very rewarding years for me, I revel in your enthusiasm and wild theories and stories that might be slightly (if not completely) devoid of truth, told with a deadpan face. I love how you are actually able to entertain yourself. I love your artwork, I love your imagination and I love you forever. You are the finest youngest son any parent could wish for. Next year is grade 2 and more adventures.
The picture is one of James' artworks. It's a llama, not a drama llama like his brother was in his school play.
And so we come to the music.
03 - Bernoldus Niemand - Marie Ferrari
James' designated musician is James Phillips, who just becomes more relevant as the new government reverts back to the methods that their oppressors taught them. This track is taken off the "Wie is Bernoldus Niemand" album. I probably have said this before and will say for the rest of time. This album is the most significant album ever released by a South African artist. This is not to decry the significant contributions made by artists like Johnny Clegg or National Wake. Its significance lies in the fact that it was the precursor to the Voelvry movement that played a core role in the dismantling of apartheid. When the likes of Johannes Kerkorrel and Andre Letoit (as he was known then) went on their tour of the country they dragged James Phillips along – the album was already five years old by then. It was that tour that forced the apartheid government to take notice of the once compliant Afrikaans youth who were now happily writing songs that spoke out against the apartheid system. What was more alarming to the apartheid state was the fact that the white youth were listening to this music and attending the concerts. Apartheid fell soon after that.
The track is about a young lady called Marie Ferrari who aspires to marry well and live in Waterkloof with all the trappings of wealth. She ends up falling for a skollie with a volksie. A wonderful song and a great lesson for everyone. I have put the link up there where you can buy the track, and I would encourage you to buy the whole album. But seeing that this post is supposed to be there forever, I've chosen to put up the song for download. I do want my children to listen to my dubious music for many years to come.
CAN – Mushroom. The first time I heard this song I was transfixed. This was real music to my ears. CAN belonged to a musical movement known as Krautrock. The movement arose when young German musicians were looking for an identity that they could call German. They justifiably detested Schlager (which is what Kurt Darren has modelled his insipid career on) and related to the English hardrock of the time – Purple and Sabbath were two examples. But they wanted something German so they created this. What I love the most about this track is that you have four German musicians and a Japanese singer singing in English. How on earth can this not be great. I heard James singing this song to himself and I swelled with pride. I did ask Chris Daffy of LMRadio to play it but he declined – so I'm putting it up for you poor people who thought German music was Beethoven, Mozart and Howard Carpendale.
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