Marsha Ambrosius
Words can’t describe how Marsha Ambrosius’ music makes one feel. Once the other half of the British Neosoul duo Floetry she and Natalie Stewart birthed songs like Say Yes, Getting Late, an intricate combination of spoken word and music. Since going solo right from Late Nights & Early Mornings to Friends & Lovers albums Marsha pours sensuality and essence into her music.
Her songs breathe of bliss, velvet against soft skin, strawberries dipped in chocolate, setting the right theme to seduce your man (or woman) throwing them into an abyss of passion. Also known as The Songstress Marsha’s sultry soulful vocals give symmetry between sexy, indulgence in love’s pleasures and pangs and life with just a hint of raunchiness. She coos, what my friend likes to call, the perfect baby making music.
Marsha inspires fantasies of drawing a vanilla strawberry scented bubble bath, pouring a glass of white wine, grabbing a historical romance (tales of an Earl and his wayward wench), leaning back in the tub and enjoying the gentle assault on sensation. She is the perfect way to wind down on those blue days or hectic weekend where you just want your spirit to swim in calm water.
Make sure to listen to Far Away, With You, The Break Song (this will probably make you cry), I Hope She Cheats on You (With a Basketball Player), Butterflies from the Late Nights & Early Mornings Album. Currently listening to the 2014 Friends & Lovers album for probably the 10th time my fast favorites are Run, Shoes, Without You (ft NeYo), Shoes and Spend All My Time(with Charlie Wilson). As (a song with Anthony Hamilton for the movie The Best Man Holiday) is a faultless addition to your collection.
PS: You can download all her songs from mp3clan.com
Black Forest Gateau
Sounds so French doesn’t it? However the Black Forest cake is of German origin claimed to have been created by confectioner Josef Keller. The Black Forest gateau has multiple layers of chocolate cake with whipped cream and cherries betwixt each layer, topped off with more whipped cream, maraschino berries (would be a perfect name for rum) and chocolate shavings.
Despite my phobia for dentists and the evidence of several cemented teeth in my mouth I am addicted to Black forest. I would probably get sick of it if I consumed everyday but until the day I do I am happy to treat myself to a slice on my diet cheat day.
Hmmm…..nothing beats the explosion of senses on taste buds when the moist chocolate cake, whipped cream and cherries twirl and combine. It is a beautiful moment worthy of time standing still.
Usually the main subject for my food porn addiction, you will me find scrolling through pages of black forest pictures and recipes when ravenous, hoping the optical illusion abates my hunger pains until Mama Shona (our food lady) summons me for lunch. Raise your hand if viewing food while famished only exacerbate your stomach‘s protesting growls. Everybody? Pretty much guessed that outcome. However you will still find me sending cake picture messages to my boo, hinting of my cravings which usually gets his going and lucky for me the evening will find us pampered with a cup of Mocha and slice of black forest cake.
Food porn!!!! For those sweet toothers like me, I would recommend Café Javas and Sheraton’s Temptations Cake Shop for a quick fix and the discovery of a variety of other exquisite cakes (yummy red velvet & white chocolate strawberry cake). Bakeries and home bakers can make it on order while supermarkets like Shoprite (yeey for cake Fridays every week) offer it at a reasonable price.
Go on then, have your cake and damn the consequences (although if you are not big on dental hygiene, it is probably for the best that you have your dentist on speed dial).
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
It has long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things. Leonardo Da Vinci
If you browse through my Facebook profile you will find a few quotes by Da Vinci and if you happen to stumble upon my Twitter account you will be greeted by a giant image of the Vitruvian Man. To say that I am infatuated with Leonardo Da Vinci would be an absolute lie. I am absolutely obsessed with this Florentine vegetarian, poly math, dyslexic, ambidextrous, rumoured homosexual who was the epitome of the Renaissance Man. Born Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (translated Leonardo son of Piero da Vinci) out of wedlock to a lawyer Piero da Vinci and peasant woman Caterina in 1452, Leonardo’s father noticed his son’s brilliance and had him apprenticed to the Florentine sculptor Andre del Verrocchio. Although a chronic procrastinator, Leonardo is famous for his paintings of the Mona Lisa, Vitruvian Man, The Last Supper, Lady with an Ermine and Madonna of the Rocks; he was also an architect, musician, cartographer, writer, anatomist, geologist, mathematician to mention but a few.
Inspite of being homeschooled and receiving an informal education in languages (Latin), geometry and arithmetic, Leonardo da Vinci was a great thinker with a curious mind and inventive imagination whose fields of expertise were mostly self taught. As part of advancing his anatomy knowledge Leonardo was rumoured to dig into graveyards to steal corpses and dissect them to make detailed sketches case in point ‘Embryo in the Womb’ although it was later revealed that he was given permission to use the cadavers at Hospital of Santa Nuova in Florence. Leonardo later merged art, anatomy and mathematics to paint the Vitruvian Man.
As part of his quirks Da Vinci used to wear clothes of bright colours especially pink to freshen up his complexion. Leonardo never married or had children (too bad, he would have sired geniuses), he wrote most of his notes in mirror-image script to prevent others stealing his work, he was imprisoned in 1476 for 2 months on charges of sodomy with a male prostitute but was later acquitted, he had a raging rivalry with Michelangelo and enjoyed a friendship with Niccolo Machiavelli (Michelangelo & Machiavelli were also both Renaissance men). Leonardo had an avid love for fauna that he purchased caged animals and birds just so he could set them free. His fascination for the possibility of flight had him observing birds in motion resulting into conceptualized sketches for aerodynamic inventions resembling helicopters, parachutes, airplanes and hang gliders
He is attributed to have developed designs for inventions like motor cars, bicycles, armored tank, weapons, swinging bridges, mechanical robots, steam cannon.
Da Vinci’s notes on his construction of the first humanoid robot are currently used by NASA to design the planetary exploration robots. In 2001 a bridge was constructed in Norway based on Leonardo’s 1502 single span bridge sketch. In 1995 Bill Gates bought Da Vinci’s Codex Leicester for $30 million which contains his observations on hydraulics and water movement. Plus the man was a sucker for word plays and puzzles.
Anyone who has read Dan Brown ‘s Da Vinci Code would know that Leonardo Da Vinci was also an alleged grandmaster of the debated Priory Of Sion formed to guard the race of Jesus Christ. While this topic is full of controversy it is an excellent argument subject matter for the conspiracy theory buffs.
Leonardo da Vinci died at Clos-Luce in France and was buried in the Palace church of St.Florentin (is this coincidence? Florentina). The French revolution ruined most of the church and because of that the exact resting place of Da Vinci’s final resting is unknown.
For all the series fans, I would recommend Da Vinci’s Demons. Although it is fictional and made mostly for entertainment, there are some throw-ins of factual information on the maestro that will fascinate you.
