According to 20th century folklore, the laws of aerodynamics prove that the bumblebee should be incapable of flight, as it does not have the capacity (in terms of wing size or beat per second) to achieve flight with the degree of wing loading necessary. Jokingly, not being aware of scientists proving it cannot fly, the bumblebee succeeds under "the power of its own arrogance" (McFadden et. al. 2007). The origin of this myth has been difficult to pin down with any certainty. John McMasters recounted an anecdote about an unnamed Swiss aerodynamicist at a dinner party who performed some rough calculations and concluded, presumably in jest, that according to the equations, bumblebees cannot fly.[4] In later years McMasters has backed away from this origin, suggesting that there could be multiple sources, and that the earliest he has found was a reference in the 1934 French book Le vol des insectes by M. Magnan. Magnan is reported to have written that he and a Mr. Saint-Lague had applied the equations of air resistance to insects and found that their flight was impossible, but that "One shouldn't be surprised that the results of the calculations don't square with reality".[5]
It is believed[citation needed] that the calculations which purported to show that bumblebees cannot fly are based upon a simplified linear treatment of oscillating aerofoils. The method assumes small amplitude oscillations without flow separation. This ignores the effect of dynamic stall, an airflow separation inducing a large vortex above the wing, which briefly produces several times the lift of the aerofoil in regular flight. More sophisticated aerodynamic analysis shows that the bumblebee can fly because its wings encounter dynamic stall in every oscillation cycle.
Source- Wikipedia
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Politics of Language
Besides the bullet monologues which have become daily occurences on the streets of Lagos in the past weeks, we are a witness to a new war of words that have marked Nigeria's politics as truly remarkable. And interesting.
We have seen the Parade of Dangerous Politicians et al.
Now, I have a leaflet in my hand which has as a headline, "Asiwaju of Criminals (AC)", plus a picture of the incumbent governor of Lagos state. This was distributed by the campaign train of the Lagos State PDP aspirant today.
We've heard of Penkelemes etc. Now its about Korosive, Fashy them et al.
Isn't all this far better than the dialogue of guns?
We have seen the Parade of Dangerous Politicians et al.
Now, I have a leaflet in my hand which has as a headline, "Asiwaju of Criminals (AC)", plus a picture of the incumbent governor of Lagos state. This was distributed by the campaign train of the Lagos State PDP aspirant today.
We've heard of Penkelemes etc. Now its about Korosive, Fashy them et al.
Isn't all this far better than the dialogue of guns?
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Nigeria Discussion - The New Naira
WAZOBIA WHAT?
I've b
een riled recently by the excuse that the wazobia texts on the news naira notes will serve in some way to engender nationalism or what not. I made the following comments to laspapi's blog last week on the matter. For me, it is useless trying to appease only three sections of the country with three texts on the Naira. There is nothing wrong with the arabic signs. Whatsoever.
Perhaps our greatest problem in Nigeria is in emphasising our differences/what makes us different (we don't even do it well) than stressing what makes us one. Arabic there doesn't help nationalism perhaps, but neither does it harm it. Read below.
"The CBN thinks it has removed the arabic signs, but I still see it there. The "Feudal Lords" don't see it there however. Neither do you laspapi.
What was the CBN thinking anyway, removing the arabic signs to replace it with wazobia phrases? Thanks Nilla. What do you want the Isoko man to read? Or a man who only speaks ghotuo.Anyway. Methinks cognition is what matters. The agbero, or the illiterate beggar will still recognise a "muri" from a "waso".The dollar has Latin afterall. Why not arabic, as long as it doesn't say "mohammed is..."
And again (refer to the first sentence), the numerals 20, 50, 100 etc are afterall arabic numerals and have not so far caused any pious pneumonia to any christian/secular spender of the money." Or should we remove those as well?
Photo from Laspapi's
I've b
een riled recently by the excuse that the wazobia texts on the news naira notes will serve in some way to engender nationalism or what not. I made the following comments to laspapi's blog last week on the matter. For me, it is useless trying to appease only three sections of the country with three texts on the Naira. There is nothing wrong with the arabic signs. Whatsoever.Perhaps our greatest problem in Nigeria is in emphasising our differences/what makes us different (we don't even do it well) than stressing what makes us one. Arabic there doesn't help nationalism perhaps, but neither does it harm it. Read below.
"The CBN thinks it has removed the arabic signs, but I still see it there. The "Feudal Lords" don't see it there however. Neither do you laspapi.
What was the CBN thinking anyway, removing the arabic signs to replace it with wazobia phrases? Thanks Nilla. What do you want the Isoko man to read? Or a man who only speaks ghotuo.Anyway. Methinks cognition is what matters. The agbero, or the illiterate beggar will still recognise a "muri" from a "waso".The dollar has Latin afterall. Why not arabic, as long as it doesn't say "mohammed is..."
And again (refer to the first sentence), the numerals 20, 50, 100 etc are afterall arabic numerals and have not so far caused any pious pneumonia to any christian/secular spender of the money." Or should we remove those as well?
Photo from Laspapi's
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Impossible to fail
Suggestion 1. Decide to be happy with yourself and accept you, as you are, pimples stretch marks and all. Make a habit of looking at the mirror, once a week, just to admire whom you see and say to the (wo) man in the mirror, “ You are OK”. (If symptoms persist more than three days a week, consult your shrink).Suggestion
2. Determine your personal vice and commit yourself to being faithful to it against all well meaning advise of friends, family, foes and free advise givers. You are human. You should not be perfect. You have a right to have a weakness to help you to be strong in the tough times ahead.Suggestion
3. Give freely anything that doesn’t cost you. Maybe, you have a ride, give someone going your way a lift once in a while. Maybe, you received several dairies; share. When strangers ask you for directions, be kind. Don’t deliberately send them on àródân. By so doing, you will not win a lottery, get a ministerial appointment or have angels visit you at home. But you will learn to give, which, I tell you, is in many ways eminently more fulfilling.
More at www.kiibaatimania.blogspot.com
2. Determine your personal vice and commit yourself to being faithful to it against all well meaning advise of friends, family, foes and free advise givers. You are human. You should not be perfect. You have a right to have a weakness to help you to be strong in the tough times ahead.Suggestion
3. Give freely anything that doesn’t cost you. Maybe, you have a ride, give someone going your way a lift once in a while. Maybe, you received several dairies; share. When strangers ask you for directions, be kind. Don’t deliberately send them on àródân. By so doing, you will not win a lottery, get a ministerial appointment or have angels visit you at home. But you will learn to give, which, I tell you, is in many ways eminently more fulfilling.
More at www.kiibaatimania.blogspot.com
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Four lines
I sometimes wish this were a ship, going somewhere
a cabin free, free dip to fall in the moving deep,
all alone across a time dial that still ticks, here
like a grain of sand in a drunken sleep.
a cabin free, free dip to fall in the moving deep,
all alone across a time dial that still ticks, here
like a grain of sand in a drunken sleep.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Some Babel Poetry
There sure was a reason why the gods confounded man at Babel. See below, what might likely happen if a sentence, phrase or poem as I tried below, is passed through these languages. English-French-German-English. Let's just assume that three bilingual people should meet and should have to converse. The Englishman speaks English to the Frenchman who repeats it in French to the German who in turn says back it in English.
Source:
Twinkle Twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky.
Result:
The sparkling sparkling hold less the first role, as I ask myself over, what you over the so high world than a diamond in the sky upward are.
Below are some random blog descriptions, and what Babel thinks of them:
ARACELI'S BLOG: A mummy and some other things. This blog once per week is brought up to date... it is, if he is not.
MAC'S BLOG: I. I am even my conscience. I am living me my conscience, breathing and consciously. * Now I stop understanding me * I am logical, and very systematically I am not a perfectionist. I am not special, but I am different. I endorse art car portrait control, and I remain a Wurzelschoessling for the free expression.
NILLA's BLOG: Place the patriotic Nigerier downward at the earth.
KIIBAATI'S BLOG: Proudly Naija with confidence liberally and evenly Creative. Thinking global, but actively humanly. And the assionémentglauben (that), from it it is impossible to fail...
WORDSBODY: I am of the Niger an author and an art journalist based in London. I write an art column in a newspaper of the Niger, and my work appears likewise in many other publications occasionally. This blog is a consequence from in former times on the culture and the arts. As the entrance hall on the scene of the art of Nigeria will be before, an author particularly of the Niger of the body of its ' word ' -. in the measure, as, we will likewise affect on a broader African writing exactly the same as the international literature. Briefly a saturation of the arts.
iGwatala's BLOG: By Nigeran, the large six of feet four, but fortunately made by the books more largely I did not read males. Thusly mentioned Milosz of the poles (no intended wordplay). First a linguist once a journalist and often poèt. A young strange man, who thinks it, is mostly just seen to him everything and written for the Exorzismus. Well, since, then he will not save the literature the world not also not me save could. But attempt I. This blog is a public intimate kind newspaper, an unloading, blog comme un livre dans progressent - from a vibrated soul. All reserved rights.
I sure as heck didn't say the above!
This experiment started here
Source:
Twinkle Twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky.
Result:
The sparkling sparkling hold less the first role, as I ask myself over, what you over the so high world than a diamond in the sky upward are.
Below are some random blog descriptions, and what Babel thinks of them:
ARACELI'S BLOG: A mummy and some other things. This blog once per week is brought up to date... it is, if he is not.
MAC'S BLOG: I. I am even my conscience. I am living me my conscience, breathing and consciously. * Now I stop understanding me * I am logical, and very systematically I am not a perfectionist. I am not special, but I am different. I endorse art car portrait control, and I remain a Wurzelschoessling for the free expression.
NILLA's BLOG: Place the patriotic Nigerier downward at the earth.
KIIBAATI'S BLOG: Proudly Naija with confidence liberally and evenly Creative. Thinking global, but actively humanly. And the assionémentglauben (that), from it it is impossible to fail...
WORDSBODY: I am of the Niger an author and an art journalist based in London. I write an art column in a newspaper of the Niger, and my work appears likewise in many other publications occasionally. This blog is a consequence from in former times on the culture and the arts. As the entrance hall on the scene of the art of Nigeria will be before, an author particularly of the Niger of the body of its ' word ' -. in the measure, as, we will likewise affect on a broader African writing exactly the same as the international literature. Briefly a saturation of the arts.
iGwatala's BLOG: By Nigeran, the large six of feet four, but fortunately made by the books more largely I did not read males. Thusly mentioned Milosz of the poles (no intended wordplay). First a linguist once a journalist and often poèt. A young strange man, who thinks it, is mostly just seen to him everything and written for the Exorzismus. Well, since, then he will not save the literature the world not also not me save could. But attempt I. This blog is a public intimate kind newspaper, an unloading, blog comme un livre dans progressent - from a vibrated soul. All reserved rights.
I sure as heck didn't say the above!
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Mack tagged me.
Three things that scare me:
1. Change
2. Creativity
3. Adulations
Three people who make me laugh
1. Chris Rock/Sola Olorunyomi's Daughter
2. My niece of 13 (who by the way writes some poetry)
3. My dog
Three Things I love:
1.Water
2.Peace of mind
3. Wine
Three Things I hate
1. Heat
2.Mosquitos
3.The smell of Flit/Raid/any mosquito repellant
Three Things I don't understand
1. Change
2. Growing up/grown ups
3. Myself
Three things I’m doing right now
1. Typing
2. Thinking about home.
3. Drinking.
Three things I want to do before I die:
1. Publish a (collection of) plays (and probably short stories), and more poems.
2. Finish reading Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses
3. Save the world
Three things I can do
1. Get into trouble
2. Get lost
3. Stare/Play Chess
Three things you should listen to
1. Music (Lots of it)
2. Yo mama
3. Sola Olorunyomi on the Bass Guitar
Three things you should never listen to
1. Me on the Bass guitar
2. My opinion on the poem of whomever I do not particularly like
3. Tade Ipadeola's assessment of anyone's poem.
Three things I’d like to learn:
1. Patience
2. To sometimes keep my mouth shut.
3. How to sometimes just be invisible/How to say NO.
Three beverages I drink regularly:
1. Five alive
2. Vino Tinto Sangria
3. Ponche. (Did he say beverages?)
Three TV shows/Books I watched/read as a kid:
1. Stories my mother told me (book)
2. Arofo awon Omode (I know you don't know it. Go search online)
3. Alawiye(book)/Ifa Olokun (TV serial)
I still insist there's something sinister about the internet.
1. Change
2. Creativity
3. Adulations
Three people who make me laugh
1. Chris Rock/Sola Olorunyomi's Daughter
2. My niece of 13 (who by the way writes some poetry)
3. My dog
Three Things I love:
1.Water
2.Peace of mind
3. Wine
Three Things I hate
1. Heat
2.Mosquitos
3.The smell of Flit/Raid/any mosquito repellant
Three Things I don't understand
1. Change
2. Growing up/grown ups
3. Myself
Three things I’m doing right now
1. Typing
2. Thinking about home.
3. Drinking.
Three things I want to do before I die:
1. Publish a (collection of) plays (and probably short stories), and more poems.
2. Finish reading Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses
3. Save the world
Three things I can do
1. Get into trouble
2. Get lost
3. Stare/Play Chess
Three things you should listen to
1. Music (Lots of it)
2. Yo mama
3. Sola Olorunyomi on the Bass Guitar
Three things you should never listen to
1. Me on the Bass guitar
2. My opinion on the poem of whomever I do not particularly like
3. Tade Ipadeola's assessment of anyone's poem.
Three things I’d like to learn:
1. Patience
2. To sometimes keep my mouth shut.
3. How to sometimes just be invisible/How to say NO.
Three beverages I drink regularly:
1. Five alive
2. Vino Tinto Sangria
3. Ponche. (Did he say beverages?)
Three TV shows/Books I watched/read as a kid:
1. Stories my mother told me (book)
2. Arofo awon Omode (I know you don't know it. Go search online)
3. Alawiye(book)/Ifa Olokun (TV serial)
I still insist there's something sinister about the internet.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
BABEL IS CRAZY. But we know that already, right?
Here's my find this afternoon in some idleness. Keyed in the following text in English into Babel Fish asking for a French translation:
"What is worth doing at all is worth doing well"
I get the following translation back, which I suspect might be correct in French:
"Ce qui vaut la peine de faire du tout vaut la peine de faire bien".
Now, I translate that back into English, using the same software, I get the following:
"What is worth the sorrow to make whole is worth the sorrow to make well."
***
Curious, I tried for German.
English to German: Was wertIST, an allen zu tun,IST wert, gut zu tun
German back to English: "Which is to do at all is worth, to do well"
***
In all cases, the meanings had changed by the time it got back to the original language.
Last try. ENGLISH to FRENCH to GERMAN, then to ENGLISH
ENGLISH TO FRENCH ="Ce qui vaut la peine de faire du tout vaut la peine de faire bien".
FRENCH - GERMAN = Was das Leiden wert ist, vom Ganzen zu machen, ist das Leiden wert, gut zu machen
GERMAN - ENGLISH= "Which suffering is worth to make from the whole one to suffering is worth to make good"
Wits and Wisdom of the Computer!
Now, ASSIGNMENT. I hereby tag all of you who read this blog to make your own experiments, and make your findings known. Pick a short quote, and run it through languages, then let's see what you get in the end. Remember that childhood game we play in circles, when we pass a little phrase round a circle in whispers until it reaches the person that started it, most times in a mangled, humorous form? This looks like it. We can call it Stille Post E-nternational.
Thanks Somegirl, Chinese Whispers, was the English expression I was looking for.
"What is worth doing at all is worth doing well"
I get the following translation back, which I suspect might be correct in French:
"Ce qui vaut la peine de faire du tout vaut la peine de faire bien".
Now, I translate that back into English, using the same software, I get the following:
"What is worth the sorrow to make whole is worth the sorrow to make well."
***
Curious, I tried for German.
English to German: Was wertIST, an allen zu tun,IST wert, gut zu tun
German back to English: "Which is to do at all is worth, to do well"
***
In all cases, the meanings had changed by the time it got back to the original language.
Last try. ENGLISH to FRENCH to GERMAN, then to ENGLISH
ENGLISH TO FRENCH ="Ce qui vaut la peine de faire du tout vaut la peine de faire bien".
FRENCH - GERMAN = Was das Leiden wert ist, vom Ganzen zu machen, ist das Leiden wert, gut zu machen
GERMAN - ENGLISH= "Which suffering is worth to make from the whole one to suffering is worth to make good"
Wits and Wisdom of the Computer!
Now, ASSIGNMENT. I hereby tag all of you who read this blog to make your own experiments, and make your findings known. Pick a short quote, and run it through languages, then let's see what you get in the end. Remember that childhood game we play in circles, when we pass a little phrase round a circle in whispers until it reaches the person that started it, most times in a mangled, humorous form? This looks like it. We can call it Stille Post E-nternational.
Thanks Somegirl, Chinese Whispers, was the English expression I was looking for.
Okay, Okay.
Let us start today with this song from Eminem. Let me confess, he's actually one of the songwriters I relate to much lately. This track plays on the computer as I write from an author's office this midnight:
Sometimes I feel I'm crazy...
why am I here, am I just wasting my time?
But then I see my baby, suddenly I'm not crazy,
It all makes sense when I look into her eyes.
Sometimes it feels like the world's on my shoulder
Everyone leaning on me
Sometimes it feels like the world's almost over
but then she comes back to me
...
Okay, so much about retiring from blogging. It wasn't meant to be, as you must have guessed, but sometimes you wonder if the world was going to end, and you try to speak, say something out before you go, instead of leaving the world to complain of your impromptu exit. You know; that... let me speak before they try to insinuate that the exiting was not prethought of...
Back to songs, I also remember this from the movie "Bringing down the House". Queen Lateefah had sung:
Life aint going nowhere
slow down
I'm just taking my time
until you show me some time
that you're better than the rest...
The advice here often becomes the hardest to adhere to. But it's true, right? Life's going nowhere.
So, so much for philosophy. Blogging will remain. Maybe it's the new reality. "Google is the new Godot". Flash drive is the new trinket. Everyone is wearing it now. We will remain here, it seems, and what we MUST do, is to keep on speaking to one another. I may not be able to transmit my thoughts through words however. I may not successfully transmit my amazements, fears and hopes. My knowledge fail me when I face stark reality. Like Milosz described, it is like a housefly's amazement on the waxed glass of a vehicle, how does it understand the concept of solid air? And how much innocence must remain in a man until he is genuinely flawed? Isn't innocence itself overrated? Useless questions really, but not useless, the acts of questioning.
Welcome me back? There's so much to learn from each other.
NB: If you would be in Ibadan in March, you could drop by at the Osundare at 6o Literary Fete at venues in Ibadan, Ikere, and Lagos. See ya there!
Sometimes I feel I'm crazy...
why am I here, am I just wasting my time?
But then I see my baby, suddenly I'm not crazy,
It all makes sense when I look into her eyes.
Sometimes it feels like the world's on my shoulder
Everyone leaning on me
Sometimes it feels like the world's almost over
but then she comes back to me
...
Okay, so much about retiring from blogging. It wasn't meant to be, as you must have guessed, but sometimes you wonder if the world was going to end, and you try to speak, say something out before you go, instead of leaving the world to complain of your impromptu exit. You know; that... let me speak before they try to insinuate that the exiting was not prethought of...
Back to songs, I also remember this from the movie "Bringing down the House". Queen Lateefah had sung:
Life aint going nowhere
slow down
I'm just taking my time
until you show me some time
that you're better than the rest...
The advice here often becomes the hardest to adhere to. But it's true, right? Life's going nowhere.
So, so much for philosophy. Blogging will remain. Maybe it's the new reality. "Google is the new Godot". Flash drive is the new trinket. Everyone is wearing it now. We will remain here, it seems, and what we MUST do, is to keep on speaking to one another. I may not be able to transmit my thoughts through words however. I may not successfully transmit my amazements, fears and hopes. My knowledge fail me when I face stark reality. Like Milosz described, it is like a housefly's amazement on the waxed glass of a vehicle, how does it understand the concept of solid air? And how much innocence must remain in a man until he is genuinely flawed? Isn't innocence itself overrated? Useless questions really, but not useless, the acts of questioning.
Welcome me back? There's so much to learn from each other.
NB: If you would be in Ibadan in March, you could drop by at the Osundare at 6o Literary Fete at venues in Ibadan, Ikere, and Lagos. See ya there!
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
The blog stops here.
Or maybe not. Twice, I have tried to get out of the internet. Twice I have failed. The first was at Yahoo 360 just after my return from NYSC, when blogging began to seem a far less comforting alternative to tangible social consciousness, and day jobs. Now last week it hit me again - the devil, and I turned the blog off to only allow private viewership. The peace of mind I envisaged therefrom however did not last. And here I am again. Apologies to all while I still contemplate a final solution. Till then, here we are.
So, meanwhile, let me recommend the following (new?) blogs: Kiibaati, Nilla, and Mack. That is if you have read OWNB, and Noni Moss. Also BlogAfrica and NigerianBloggers where this blog will continue to be aggregated even if it ever get's taken off the public.
The world around me is changing.
I must too, again and again.
Hope the light at the end of the tunnel
is not that of a coming train!
"Our greatest fears is not that we are inadequate... but that we are powerful beyond measure..." Williamson
iGwatala!
So, meanwhile, let me recommend the following (new?) blogs: Kiibaati, Nilla, and Mack. That is if you have read OWNB, and Noni Moss. Also BlogAfrica and NigerianBloggers where this blog will continue to be aggregated even if it ever get's taken off the public.
The world around me is changing.
I must too, again and again.
Hope the light at the end of the tunnel
is not that of a coming train!
"Our greatest fears is not that we are inadequate... but that we are powerful beyond measure..." Williamson
iGwatala!
Monday, January 08, 2007
Two poems, mine
MACEDONIA
Lagos again, December
Speak you must, muse, in taps, raps -
Drum, tat-a, rolls of a furious key.
The tongue to rile a fog of blabbing naps.
As with a lost wing, flap on white winds -
Serrated dots of letters, dice dials of thought
Move the night with mares of omen rinds.
Why do you forget yourself so? Soul-
Journer of a sea of words and flaming fate?
It is I who call. Grant the bearing role.
Speak you must, muse, in raps, taps -
Drum, tat-a, rolls on a furious key.
From this fringe of meagre dream of wraps
IF THESE WERE WRITTEN IN TIMES PAST
They would smell of rum, maybe wine
Of a pristine dance on brown keys that tapped,
Rasped in echoes across father's dusty lounge.
They would reek of innocence, shy lines
Of the toddler whose eyes lay only in the silence,
laden trivia of books, and old record sleeves.
They might show relics of a hopeful child lie
Within a bulwark of rage in the silence of night,
Quiet when adults slept with ears apart, dead to the world.
They would try to hide the author's disgust
for past bustles, home noise and day jobs,
Useless rants that mainly deter than fuel a budding muse.
But it wasn't written then, and so the past remains
Bilked in bits of old rum in even older flasks, and pains.
(c) All rights reserved. 2007.
Friday, December 29, 2006
My Books of 2006
The following are a few of the books I came across, and read, during the past year (mainly towards the end). I composed the first draft of this post in November, in response to Molara Wood's annual call to authors to send their favourite reads of the year. Her online list is published in Farafina Magazine. The print list is forthcoming - in some Nigerian dailies, I presume. (Apologies for earlier misposturing). Here, anyway, are a few of my engaging reads, with reasons.
NO SENSE OF LIMITS, by Araceli Aipoh
Why I like this book, I don't know. Maybe it's because I didn't expect much when I picked it up, yet I was pleasantly surprised when I finished with it - I'm finicky with cover designs - and I had not heard of the name much. "She's a foreigner who works at an Embassy in Lagos." My host had said. "You'll like her portrayal of Lagos. Take a look." I said OK and picked it up for the night. When I completed it the next day, it felt like watching an entertaining (and well made) Nollywood movie. I think I almost cried at one part even. Seriously. It must be towards the end when a relatively unknown grave-digging character found something familiar in a grave... (No spoilers here). Soon, I hope, the author would have the work at Amazon. I recommend it for reading. The story might not be so particularly Nigerian (as many reviewers have said.) You could change the names of people and places and still find it nice, equally as beautiful. The telling however is great.
ABOUT: I have said that it read at times like Soyinka's You Must Set Forth at Dawn and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code both books which I read only days before, where all/most the action takes place within the course of the persona's journey through flashbacks and gradual disclosures. In Soyinka's case, it was a flight back from Exile while in No Sense of Limits, it was the femme fatale's drive through Lagos on a course of revenge.
THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES by Eve Ensler
Having heard so much hype about this book, I finally got a copy, and read it in a night. I must say that I did not get much impressed to equal the hype raised by critics. I am not a feminist. I read the book for information, and pleasure. And I wasn't disappointed. It is a nice book, though it could be kinda wierd holding it in your hand with the title sticking out so boldly in the presence of your parents and their church guests. You would save yourself the trouble of explaining if you would just put a paper wrap around the cover. My best part of the narrations was the funny/sad narration of a woman whose husband slept around ostensibly because the wife would not shave her pubis. If you would not read the book, you could watch Sex and the City instead. You wouldn't miss so much...!
My friends joke about a riposte, in form of the Penis Diatrible, (and maybe later, The Genital Dialogues) but, mischief and humour apart, it's always nice to read literature that seeks to defy conventions, and to shock. Great work.
ABOUT: A series of narrations by women, about their vaginas, and its influences on their lives.
YOU MUST SET FORTH AT DAWN by Wole Soyinka
Also so much hyped, this lives up to some expectation as a record of history from the view/angle of one man who should know because he has been there. So what can I say on this that has not been said before? I guess it's that it's another result of an incurable restlessness of the author, slamming us with a work of prose (the third, I think) in the series of his memoirs with the size of the complete works of Shakespeare. It is however engaging enough not to be boring, except the bits about Nigerian history, for those foreigners more enchanted with the mystery of the man than perhaps his political motivations. Towards the end, however, I was stuck by his continuous use of one word, "chagrin", and not for want of more suitable synonyms. The professor also gets the "block" sometimes.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT: Because why not? This is an account from a man who has lived life to the full, over and over, and his telling is, characteristically, entertaining. You'll know why the Ori Olokun in Ife is a clone of a lost original now in the British Museum.
NO SENSE OF LIMITS, by Araceli Aipoh
Why I like this book, I don't know. Maybe it's because I didn't expect much when I picked it up, yet I was pleasantly surprised when I finished with it - I'm finicky with cover designs - and I had not heard of the name much. "She's a foreigner who works at an Embassy in Lagos." My host had said. "You'll like her portrayal of Lagos. Take a look." I said OK and picked it up for the night. When I completed it the next day, it felt like watching an entertaining (and well made) Nollywood movie. I think I almost cried at one part even. Seriously. It must be towards the end when a relatively unknown grave-digging character found something familiar in a grave... (No spoilers here). Soon, I hope, the author would have the work at Amazon. I recommend it for reading. The story might not be so particularly Nigerian (as many reviewers have said.) You could change the names of people and places and still find it nice, equally as beautiful. The telling however is great.
ABOUT: I have said that it read at times like Soyinka's You Must Set Forth at Dawn and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code both books which I read only days before, where all/most the action takes place within the course of the persona's journey through flashbacks and gradual disclosures. In Soyinka's case, it was a flight back from Exile while in No Sense of Limits, it was the femme fatale's drive through Lagos on a course of revenge.
THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES by Eve Ensler
Having heard so much hype about this book, I finally got a copy, and read it in a night. I must say that I did not get much impressed to equal the hype raised by critics. I am not a feminist. I read the book for information, and pleasure. And I wasn't disappointed. It is a nice book, though it could be kinda wierd holding it in your hand with the title sticking out so boldly in the presence of your parents and their church guests. You would save yourself the trouble of explaining if you would just put a paper wrap around the cover. My best part of the narrations was the funny/sad narration of a woman whose husband slept around ostensibly because the wife would not shave her pubis. If you would not read the book, you could watch Sex and the City instead. You wouldn't miss so much...!
My friends joke about a riposte, in form of the Penis Diatrible, (and maybe later, The Genital Dialogues) but, mischief and humour apart, it's always nice to read literature that seeks to defy conventions, and to shock. Great work.
ABOUT: A series of narrations by women, about their vaginas, and its influences on their lives.
YOU MUST SET FORTH AT DAWN by Wole Soyinka
Also so much hyped, this lives up to some expectation as a record of history from the view/angle of one man who should know because he has been there. So what can I say on this that has not been said before? I guess it's that it's another result of an incurable restlessness of the author, slamming us with a work of prose (the third, I think) in the series of his memoirs with the size of the complete works of Shakespeare. It is however engaging enough not to be boring, except the bits about Nigerian history, for those foreigners more enchanted with the mystery of the man than perhaps his political motivations. Towards the end, however, I was stuck by his continuous use of one word, "chagrin", and not for want of more suitable synonyms. The professor also gets the "block" sometimes.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT: Because why not? This is an account from a man who has lived life to the full, over and over, and his telling is, characteristically, entertaining. You'll know why the Ori Olokun in Ife is a clone of a lost original now in the British Museum.
Oh Paulo! And some other funny thoughts...
Oh Paulo!
"There was not anything that was not made without him." Paul Adefarasin 24/12/2006.
Tuface's Grass2Grace
His recent album has some really nice tracks. (I like about three: 5,9 and 12. Finito) But somewhere between justifying my likeness for his style and blaming myself for buying it, I was struck by his use of "Nigger" in a line. He said "Don't wanna come across to you like just another Nigger" in track 5. My mind immediately raced back to his first album Face2Face in which he sang "Just because... I no finish school/ some people take me for a fool..." and I thought, "OK, Maybe this is why!" Let's look forward to his next: Crass2Craze? Just kidding.
PDP
My brother sent me a list of meanings for the above abbreviation. I couldn't help but agree with a lot of them. Look below:
Perpetually Destructive Pestilence… Primitively Dignified Pigs… Professors of Devilish Policies… Permanently Delivering Poverty… Preferring Disease for the People…Pharaoh + Deceit = President… Plainly Dishonest Pack… Penchant for Detrimental Practices…Playing Dangerous Pranks… Possibilities of Disasters Persist… People Demanding Psychiatrists… Pioneers of Decadent Politics. Poisonously Decimating Policies…
and many more...
Disclaimer: I'm not a politician, but only a direct recipient of many indiscretions of the ruling party. The above does not represent the opinions of Headfirst into the Meddle and Bloggers. Use them at your own risk, and you are free to form some more.
"There was not anything that was not made without him." Paul Adefarasin 24/12/2006.
Tuface's Grass2Grace
His recent album has some really nice tracks. (I like about three: 5,9 and 12. Finito) But somewhere between justifying my likeness for his style and blaming myself for buying it, I was struck by his use of "Nigger" in a line. He said "Don't wanna come across to you like just another Nigger" in track 5. My mind immediately raced back to his first album Face2Face in which he sang "Just because... I no finish school/ some people take me for a fool..." and I thought, "OK, Maybe this is why!" Let's look forward to his next: Crass2Craze? Just kidding.
PDP
My brother sent me a list of meanings for the above abbreviation. I couldn't help but agree with a lot of them. Look below:
Perpetually Destructive Pestilence… Primitively Dignified Pigs… Professors of Devilish Policies… Permanently Delivering Poverty… Preferring Disease for the People…Pharaoh + Deceit = President… Plainly Dishonest Pack… Penchant for Detrimental Practices…Playing Dangerous Pranks… Possibilities of Disasters Persist… People Demanding Psychiatrists… Pioneers of Decadent Politics. Poisonously Decimating Policies…
and many more...
Disclaimer: I'm not a politician, but only a direct recipient of many indiscretions of the ruling party. The above does not represent the opinions of Headfirst into the Meddle and Bloggers. Use them at your own risk, and you are free to form some more.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Merry Christmas
To Everyone
KT
Here is wishing you a very merry Christmas and all the best joys of the season. May all your (good, sweet) dreams come true soon.
--KT
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Some Quote
"The secret of genius lies in the clear and impartial perception of the objective, the essential and the universal. By seeing so far, he doesn't see what is near. He is imprudent and queer; and while his vision is hitched to a star, he falls into a well"
- Arthur Schopenhauer
German Philosopher (1788-1860)
- Arthur Schopenhauer
German Philosopher (1788-1860)
2006 Nobel Banquet Speech
By Orhan Pamuk. 2006 Winner of Nobel Prize in Literature.
Why do you write? This is the question I've been asked most often in my writing career. Most of the time they mean this: What is the point, why do you give your time to this strange and impossible activity? Why do you write... You have to give an excuse, an apology for writing... This is how I have felt every time I've heard this question. But every time I give a different answer... Sometimes I say: I do not know why I write, but it definitely makes me feel good. I hope you feel the same when you read me! Sometimes I say that I am angry, and that is why I write. Most of the time the urge is to be alone in a room, so that is why I write. In my childhood I wanted to be a painter. I painted every day. I still have that childish feeling of joy and happiness whenever I write. I write to pursue that old childish happiness and that is why for me literature and writing are inextricably linked with happiness, or the lack of it... unhappiness. In my childhood, I felt happy, painted a lot, and all the grown ups were constantly smiling at me. Everybody was gentle, polite and tender. I wrote all about this in my autobiographical book, Istanbul. After the publication of Istanbul, some people asked me this question: Aren't you a bit young to write your autobiography? I kept my silence. Literature is about happiness, I wanted to say, about preserving your childishness all your life, keeping the child in you alive... Now, some years later, I've received this great prize. This time the same people begin asking another question: Aren't you a bit young to get the Nobel Prize? Actually the question I've heard most often since the news of this prize reached me is: How does it feel to get the Nobel Prize? I say, oh! It feels good. All the grown ups are constantly smiling at me. Suddenly everybody is again gentle, polite and tender. In fact, I almost feel like a prince. I feel like a child. Then for a moment, I realize why sometimes I have felt so angry. This prize, which brought back to me the tender smiles of my childhood and the kindness of the strangers, should have been given to me not at this age (54) which some think is too young, but much much earlier, even earlier than my childhood, perhaps two weeks after I was born, so that I could have enjoyed the princely feeling of being a child all my life. In fact now... come to think of it... That is why I write and why I will continue to write.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 2006
Monday, December 11, 2006
Another Mail From My Inbox
From Mr.Lisa Jones.
Bank Of Scotland Ltd,
11-16 Cockspur Street,
London ,
SW1Y 5BL.
Hello Dear,
Best of the season! I was reading through your profile on the internet and found it interesting.Be so kind to contact me at your earliest convenient for a possible business deal involving money transfer of about £15 Million.I ampresently in London working as an investment consultant with the above bank at their London office. I am poised to work this deal out if we cando business.As at this moment, I am constrained to issue more details about this business until your response is received.As we have not met before, I will give you every details you need to know about me as weprogress with the business.I thank you for spearing moments of your very busy schedules to read my proposal.
Send your response to my email address. Thank you for your time and attention.
Warmest regards,
Mr.Lisa Jones.
MY COMMENTS: Do you Yahoo?
Bank Of Scotland Ltd,
11-16 Cockspur Street,
London ,
SW1Y 5BL.
Hello Dear,
Best of the season! I was reading through your profile on the internet and found it interesting.Be so kind to contact me at your earliest convenient for a possible business deal involving money transfer of about £15 Million.I ampresently in London working as an investment consultant with the above bank at their London office. I am poised to work this deal out if we cando business.As at this moment, I am constrained to issue more details about this business until your response is received.As we have not met before, I will give you every details you need to know about me as weprogress with the business.I thank you for spearing moments of your very busy schedules to read my proposal.
Send your response to my email address. Thank you for your time and attention.
Warmest regards,
Mr.Lisa Jones.
MY COMMENTS: Do you Yahoo?
The Kwansaba
You can call this a sub-post. It is culled from the mail I received from Eugene Redmond, the Poet Laureate of East St. Louis.
"The kwansaba, a 49-word poetic form invented during the Writers Club’s 1995 workshop season (in East St. Louis), consists of seven lines of seven words each; each word must contain between one and seven letters. Exceptions to the seven-letter rule are proper nouns and some foreign terms. Previous issues of Drumvoices have featured kwansabas for Katherine Dunham (2004), Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez (2005), and Jayne Cortez (2006).
Following is an example ofa kwansaba from Drumvoices #13:
Neo Kwansaba in Barakan Verse(Mali Newman)
Poetree grown from stanzas tongues my ears
Don’t play Dough Ray Mi Vaso Latte
Unless Dada Doowop Dadaism is dead, unless
Trans (it) Blues in C, major or minor
Died by volumes twenty one times, don’t
Play scale up/scale down, while Baraka
Breaks off a piece of his mind.
My comments: You are free to choose your style. You don't have to write as complex as above.
Kwansaba submissions should be sent by Jan. 1, 2007, to Drumvoices Revue,English Department Box 1431, SIUE, Edwardsville, IL 62026-1431. Submissions should be in hard copies as well as on Microsoft Word disk.
For more information, send email to eredmon@siue.edu, fax 618 650-3509, or write EBRWC @ P.O. Box 6165, East St. Louis, IL 62202.Founded in 1986 and named after East St. Louis Poet Laureate Eugene B.Redmond, Writers Club trustees include Amiri Baraka, Angelou, Walter Mosley,Barbara Ann Teer, Troupe, Dr. Lena Weathers, and Avery Brooks. Trustees alsoserve on the editorial board of Drumvoices Revue. Deceased Trustees includeMargaret Walker Alexander (1915-1998), Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000), andRaymond R. Patterson (1929-2001).The Club is currently celebrating its 20th year of twice-monthly meetings(first/third Tuesday), 6:00-8:00 p.m., in the Library (Building B) of the East St. Louis Higher Education Center, 601 J. R. Thompson Drive. Meetings are held September through May. All writers, from beginners to professionals, are welcome.
You can also send your Kwansabas by email to eredmon@siue.edu. Deadline is January 1, 2007
"The kwansaba, a 49-word poetic form invented during the Writers Club’s 1995 workshop season (in East St. Louis), consists of seven lines of seven words each; each word must contain between one and seven letters. Exceptions to the seven-letter rule are proper nouns and some foreign terms. Previous issues of Drumvoices have featured kwansabas for Katherine Dunham (2004), Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez (2005), and Jayne Cortez (2006).
Following is an example ofa kwansaba from Drumvoices #13:
Neo Kwansaba in Barakan Verse(Mali Newman)
Poetree grown from stanzas tongues my ears
Don’t play Dough Ray Mi Vaso Latte
Unless Dada Doowop Dadaism is dead, unless
Trans (it) Blues in C, major or minor
Died by volumes twenty one times, don’t
Play scale up/scale down, while Baraka
Breaks off a piece of his mind.
My comments: You are free to choose your style. You don't have to write as complex as above.
Kwansaba submissions should be sent by Jan. 1, 2007, to Drumvoices Revue,English Department Box 1431, SIUE, Edwardsville, IL 62026-1431. Submissions should be in hard copies as well as on Microsoft Word disk.
For more information, send email to eredmon@siue.edu, fax 618 650-3509, or write EBRWC @ P.O. Box 6165, East St. Louis, IL 62202.Founded in 1986 and named after East St. Louis Poet Laureate Eugene B.Redmond, Writers Club trustees include Amiri Baraka, Angelou, Walter Mosley,Barbara Ann Teer, Troupe, Dr. Lena Weathers, and Avery Brooks. Trustees alsoserve on the editorial board of Drumvoices Revue. Deceased Trustees includeMargaret Walker Alexander (1915-1998), Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000), andRaymond R. Patterson (1929-2001).The Club is currently celebrating its 20th year of twice-monthly meetings(first/third Tuesday), 6:00-8:00 p.m., in the Library (Building B) of the East St. Louis Higher Education Center, 601 J. R. Thompson Drive. Meetings are held September through May. All writers, from beginners to professionals, are welcome.
You can also send your Kwansabas by email to eredmon@siue.edu. Deadline is January 1, 2007
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
White Christmas Dreams
Written just now, to wear off the boredom on my hands
I am dreaming of a white christmas
whether of dust or biting fog or snow.
I am dreaming of a white christmas
Just like the one I used to know
I am dreaming of a white christmas
whether of flour, grits or corn flour
Or elubo, with all nutri-flakes of white
and the long grins of Santa's borrowed beards.
* This year, no one in my compound will visit Father Christmas, having all finally grown. And I live in a very large compound.
I am dreaming of a white christmas
whether of dust or biting fog or snow.
I am dreaming of a white christmas
Just like the one I used to know
I am dreaming of a white christmas
whether of flour, grits or corn flour
Or elubo, with all nutri-flakes of white
and the long grins of Santa's borrowed beards.
* This year, no one in my compound will visit Father Christmas, having all finally grown. And I live in a very large compound.
The Many Sense of Ogunlesi's Post
Let us for this moment ignore the correctness or otherwise of my English in the subject, and look below with a little patience. It is an extract from Tolu Ogunlesi's post to Krazitivity on the denigratory remarks the new generation of Nigerian writers have suffered from the many mouths of the older poets. I have read posts after posts of young/er and new writers in response to the many challenges of the denigration they often suffer from the mouths of their elders, the most recent being from the eminent Professor of Literature, Ben Obumselu (of the Imo State University) who many have accused of not having even read any of the works he so easily disparages: He is quoted as saying of new Nigerian poems: “boring, totally uninspiring, empty and without a story”, blaming the emerging Nigerian poets for their inability to create popular poetry that will stand the test of time.
No doubt an ignorant generalisation, arising from a general unavailability of the new works for the critics to make available in the forms understandable to the likes of Prof. Obunselu.
Here's Tolu, in part*:
"Chiedu Ezeanah is sometimes said to be the "best poet of his generation". What is the likelihood of Obumselu "stumbling" upon a copy of Twilight Trilogy anywhere that goes by the name of bookshop. I have never seen The Oil Lamp or Madiba in any bookstore in Nigeria, other than the copies that I saw when Ogaga was in town for a reading at Jazzhole in October. I think that maybe we need a non-profit specialist bookstore (in Lagos, in the first instance) devoted to the work of Nigerian writers. Such that you are sure that if I go to [whatever name it is called] I will find every work ever published by Helon Habila (the pre-Caine non-fiction book for example), or Voices From the Fringe, or Nnorom's Letter To God & Other Poems, or Oguibe's A Gathering Fear, or Chika Unigwe's Tear Drops."
And here's mine though not much on the challenge as on the solutions to create accessibility for our much "invisible" works:
We need more than a bookshop. Call it a resource centre. What is ANA if it does not have a record of ALL books published by authors in Nigeria? Like an equivalent of the United States Library of Congress? What of an online resource? Something managed by custodians of art's growth (this falls back towards ANA or whomever will assume the responsibilities) that has first of all a list of ALL published works by Nigerian Authors (those living in and those living outside). I am not in doubt that Macarthur Foundation or equivalent grant making international bodies will be interested in funding such projects as this.
The sense in the above, among others, is to call attention to the absence of a place (on earth) where works of all writers in the country can be obtained. But we should be able to get the works of ALL writers, from Acbebe to Adichie, Okigbo to Ogunlesi, from Soyinka to Shehu without sweat... It may be the very first step in making New Literature available to all, including those who wish to speak authoritiatively on the aquality of the issues we engage.
On the other hand, I think it will also become an index of our creative/literary development/advancement.
* Tolu Ogunlesi is one of the new generation's prolific voices in poetry. His letter is used by permission.
** My first book "Headfirst into the Meddle" is not available on bookstands for reasons not far from the issues above, and is not just "forthcoming" as published in my latest profile on Sentinel Poetry, and I am myself interested in any such initiative as can help the above cause.
No doubt an ignorant generalisation, arising from a general unavailability of the new works for the critics to make available in the forms understandable to the likes of Prof. Obunselu.
Here's Tolu, in part*:
"Chiedu Ezeanah is sometimes said to be the "best poet of his generation". What is the likelihood of Obumselu "stumbling" upon a copy of Twilight Trilogy anywhere that goes by the name of bookshop. I have never seen The Oil Lamp or Madiba in any bookstore in Nigeria, other than the copies that I saw when Ogaga was in town for a reading at Jazzhole in October. I think that maybe we need a non-profit specialist bookstore (in Lagos, in the first instance) devoted to the work of Nigerian writers. Such that you are sure that if I go to [whatever name it is called] I will find every work ever published by Helon Habila (the pre-Caine non-fiction book for example), or Voices From the Fringe, or Nnorom's Letter To God & Other Poems, or Oguibe's A Gathering Fear, or Chika Unigwe's Tear Drops."
And here's mine though not much on the challenge as on the solutions to create accessibility for our much "invisible" works:
We need more than a bookshop. Call it a resource centre. What is ANA if it does not have a record of ALL books published by authors in Nigeria? Like an equivalent of the United States Library of Congress? What of an online resource? Something managed by custodians of art's growth (this falls back towards ANA or whomever will assume the responsibilities) that has first of all a list of ALL published works by Nigerian Authors (those living in and those living outside). I am not in doubt that Macarthur Foundation or equivalent grant making international bodies will be interested in funding such projects as this.
The sense in the above, among others, is to call attention to the absence of a place (on earth) where works of all writers in the country can be obtained. But we should be able to get the works of ALL writers, from Acbebe to Adichie, Okigbo to Ogunlesi, from Soyinka to Shehu without sweat... It may be the very first step in making New Literature available to all, including those who wish to speak authoritiatively on the aquality of the issues we engage.
On the other hand, I think it will also become an index of our creative/literary development/advancement.
* Tolu Ogunlesi is one of the new generation's prolific voices in poetry. His letter is used by permission.
** My first book "Headfirst into the Meddle" is not available on bookstands for reasons not far from the issues above, and is not just "forthcoming" as published in my latest profile on Sentinel Poetry, and I am myself interested in any such initiative as can help the above cause.
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