March favourites
1. Red door cafe
With being stuck indoors for a year, my friends and I decided to find cool spots to spend some time together (when Uncle Cyril says it's safe to go outside). One of my friends recommended the Red door Cafe and guys it is an experience. With a boho rustic vibe, you get delicious food and hot chocolate that has actual chocolate in the cups with a marshmallow, I am in heaven.
They follow COVID protocol and everyone there is so nice. Once you are done with your meal, there is even a small shop where you can buy things such as clothing, accessories, beauty products and vegan snacks. You get a good meal and shop local while supporting a small business.
For more info check out their website
2. Coming 2 America
To get this out of the way, YOU WILL NOT LIKE THIS MOVIE UNTIL YOU HAVE SEEN THE FIRST ONE. Majority of the jokes and the content are based on the first movie. It was made for the OG fans. The first time I saw the first Coming to America, I was 13 years old and just interested in seeing movies that my parents watched when they were younger and Eddie Murphy always made me laugh. So when I heard they were making a sequel 30 years later, I thought "this can go either really good or bad." It went good.
It was the first movie I watched back in cinemas after a year (thanks COVID) and it was worth it for me. Seeing younger, new black talent as well as seeing South Africans like Nomzamo Mbatha and Trevor Noah, made me so proud. Just seeing Nomzamo introduce the movie before it started made me so happy to see SA talent going international. You feel like you seeing your big sister doing the most and you feel proud.
AGAIN if you have not see the first movie, you will not like it. Overall I enjoyed it and had a good time.
3. Dear girls by Ali Wong
For almost my whole life, in mainstream media (books, movies etc) I felt like the same stories
where made. Not that I didn't like them, it's just as I got older and seeing the world at a different lens, I wanted to see media reflect the world we live in. Whether it's through race, ethnicity, culture, religion/spirituality, sexual orientation, gender all that, I always want to learn about people and their experience to build a better understanding. Plus if you know me, representation in media especially in the eyes of a black girl you see things differently.
Ali Wong is an Asian American comedian, actress and writer. Some of her films you may know include 'Always be my maybe' (Netflix), 'Birds of prey' as well as the voice of Officer Gore in the Disney animated 'Onward'. Dear girls is a book she wrote for her daughters as almost a guide for them on how to do this thing called life. Honestly from reading it I felt like I was one of her daughters with all the things I learned like traveling, career, family, identity all of it.
At first with reading this, I came with the expectation to laugh, knowing how hilarious Wong is as well as to learn something about the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) community. Well I learnt alot interms of her having immigrant parents, being the youngest sibling, how she handles her career as an Asian American comdian as well as seeing some similarities within the Black and the Asian community. While reading this there were moment where I would say "you too" while laughing or pausing in the middle a sentence just to catch my breath from laughter. Plus with all the hate crime that is happening towards the AAPI community, you will learn a lot about them and especially see how Hollywood be doing Asians dirty (which is a topic for another time).
So not to take away her story or her experience, I highly, HIGHLY recommend this book. It is worth it.
4. Song exploder
Recently I have been on a hunt to find different things that can bring me some inspiration to create. One of the things that inspire me is seeing other creatives being creative. Examples like;
Painters explaining their techniques
Fashion designers sharing their inspiration and behind the scenes work for a new collection
Behind the scenes of a movie or series
Seeing things like that get me excited to make more stuff. Also seeing other creative people go through the same struggles like being stuck or nothing going to plan but in the end they end up with something beautiful.
Song exploder shows you that. It gives you a behind the scenes look on how famous singers/songwriters create a song. The first time I saw this was from a clip from Tik Tok where Lin Manuel Miranda ( a musical genius) was sharing his process on writing the song Wait for it for the hit musical (and my favourite) Hamilton. Other artist are included such as Alicia Keys and Dua Lipa.
The show is available on Netflix.
5. Canva
For anyone who has a small business, is a content creator or just loves being creative in general but doesn't have any experience on graphic design and can't use or afford Adobe , this one is for you.
For all my content that I think needs an extra oomph, I use Canva. It is so easy to use and it gets you excited to see your work come to life. It makes everything you create look like it was done by a professional. You can use it for free or pay for the premium. Personally I use it for free and it has helped me create beautiful graphics. I use Canva for;
Youtube thumbnails
Youtube video intros
Instagram stories
Instagram post
Creating a wallpaper for my phone
My CV and creative portfolio
Invoice
