Mosquitoes and other things

Hurray, its world malaria day again and the organisation which i work for in their usual sense of social responsibility have once again rolled out the banners and organised seminars to warn us about those pesky insects. I joked with a colleague that i didn't make the seminar since i already had more than bites to teach me the harms of the things. After ignoring the warning signs for some weeks i finally bowed to reason and started myself on some malaria treatment (self medication again). But come to think of it i cant imagine malaria being wiped out of my street talkless of Lagos with the various piles of trash waiting for LAWMAs pickup, stagnant pools of water and poor hygiene by people who are more worried about getting a next meal than basic sanitation(not on my street though). For me i am trying not to watch TV and get the latest installment in Nigerian political tomfoolery - Ekiti 2, and also the usual dose of the ironic and comedic from the great SAN Ando.... who's tripping around in the hunt for buried treasure in Switzerland and the Americas. And to make matters more interesting after the reappearance of the V-brothers years after their initial persecution they've been expelled from Naija on tax issues midway into a trial on related events. As if we did not have enough to deal with Malaria

Back again and underayted

Whenever i don't blog for a while, the feeling i get is that there goes another dead blog. Its not that my life is incredibly boring (just a bit), or i have nothing else to blog about, its just that i am honestly lazy about it. True i have work and all, to deal with but it only takes a short while to get the thoughts of my head to this page.

Underayted
Ever since i heard the 'carry dey go' track sometime last year i have been looking out to hear the new Darey album and 'not that girl' didn't do much to quell my impatience for the entire package.
For some weeks now, i have been chasing around street hawkers and my personal CD suppliers, (Previously i used to go to the New metro stores before they disappeared and silverbird took over) trying to get the CD , and this picked up added importance when i heard the album had finally been released. I managed to get a copy from some road side hawker on Allen and rushed home to listen to it. After listening to the CD, i felt like an addict who didn't purchase enough crack to get a high (i am a Darey fan) . I don't think the album measures up to the pre- release hype and about from the earlier mentioned songs only two others met the same standards.
Not to take away from the other songs but they didn't have the wow effect and they reminded me of a comment made about Darey some years ago on the Project fame competition by some judge, about him sounding like a bar/lounge singer and him having to do a lot more to move his talent to that A-level.I agreed with part of the comment then, but i thought it was just a matter of time. In some of the song(carry dey go for instance) he portrays his extensive vocal range and musical talents- highs, lows, musicals which puts him miles ahead of most artistes locally and internationally, but i didn't this this is successfully replicated throughout the album.
I really think he needs to find a balance between the R&B/soul flavour and hip-hop to hit that album of the year levels and be a bit more adventurous with his choice of artistes for collaborations.

Ahhhhh....

The days not over yet, but i already feel a sense of despondency and loss.Don't worry, its not human life, its only football. I actually had another theme up for discussion for today but after the game, i am all worn out and dumpy like a used up tea bag. I am already beginning to feel the heat as my phone hasn't stopped buzzing since the referee ending 90+minutes of torture. I am probably going to use the opportunity to wash my Jerseys as for once i cant find the courage to wear them out. It's just like someone put a buzzer to my joy when i saw the scoreboard Manutd1- Liverpool4.

“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.”- Bill Shankly

Remember the movie with Mel Gibson about what do women really want and a guy who could hear the thoughts of people with a flair for women. Some times,i really wish i was that gifted. I've had my share of misses and near misses, chicks i liked that i didn't have, chicks who liked me but didn't tell, chicks who liked me and expected i liked them back as well as all sorts of relationship crap. It's a test of skill trying to keep this up as well as an emotional quagmire as it seems to get more complex with each dip. I can only think of dont's while the do's,don't ever seem to walk. You want them to be interested but not too interested. you want them to show some care but not overwhelm you with it and all that.
Then there's that stupid question part even when you are not dating them 'where are you?' . Like its any of their business. It's not the question itself, but the tone in which it is delivered, as if you own them some explanation or had some prior engagement with them. Its a mix of a guilt trip and trick question. Then there comes the lack of communication.They assume you are generally clairvoyant and you are forever tuned to their channel, meanwhile they have a bunch of back up plans. Its just plain confusing. The really pitiful part is that it adds some variety to life

Music and me....verse 2 (or something else)

One of the beautiful things about working in Lagos , is how time goes by quickly especially when you spend a chunk of it in traffic commuting from the Island to the mainland and even within the island. The flip side is that if you are like me who uses the staff bus or catches a ride with colleagues occasionally you do not have a choice than to listen to some program or the other on the radio. A popular choice these days is the Lagos Wazobia fm . I have to confess that though it is fun to listen to i tend to worry about some of the flipsides of an all pidgin radio station. For one while it's nobodies business apart from your own when adults spend the entire day listen to bad/pidgin English, for a primary/secondary school student it would have its repercussions in a society that has accepted English as its lingua franca.
My other major concern with this station and some others is that it encourages some mediocrity within the music industry. While i have enjoyed listening to music which would not have gotten airplay on conventional radio stations,the majority of the local content music is especially on the chart show (this has a particularly unique concept- There's no climbing, you can only be on it once and then you're out) is characterised by poor production, poor lyrics and poor content.
While understanding that these happens everywhere on the face of the earth, i would hope that local musicians aspire for more than the underground beat and do something that just wows everybody.

About 3-4 years ago, a friend of mine bought some tickets to a comedy concert where a dreadlocked Nigerian female guitar playing musician graced the audience as one of several artistes sidelining the show. The audience was largely non-committal on the music and my friend wasn't left with much of an impression. Fast forward 2 years and the artiste is revealed as Asa, one of Nigeria's better known musical exports.I must confess that i am a FAN, and that i had to chase up some Alaba based sales people to monitor the market for a copy of her CD, which i finally got one lucky sunday morning. At my last check Asa has two CDs in the market one released by her former Nigerian label- Questionmark (There's a story to her exit) and the other by her current label( remarkably both contain some of the same tracks). I must confess i have both locked on in my ipod and have spent hours listening to them side by side. While the Questionmark effort is gritty and could pass for a pseudo acoustic recording with attempts to sell Asa as a reggae com artiste, the other one is more refined and has it's great sides with the studio feel, all the instruments in shape and all that for me its been challenging picking a winner between both efforts. The telling point for me is that even the locally made first effort by an almost defunct label was good because of the lyrics, attention to detail, rhythms as opposed to the largely video generation.

PS: The nominations for the hip hop awards 2009 are out you can catch it on http://www.bellanaija.com/2009/03/10/hiphop-world-awards-2009-nominees-announced/

Music and me, Verse 1

For as long as i can remember, i have spent all my life listening and enjoying music. Music of all languages rhythm's and genres. Without a doubt, i think Man's ability to capture life's experiences, ambitions and hopes in the form of lyrics and sound is one of his defining factors.
I live in Lagos which is definitely one of the busiest cities you can come by in the world, and daily i get replenished and assaulted in due measure by various sounds recognised by its inhabitants as music. But i always ask the question which has defined a unanimous answer; 'what passes as good music?'.
In some fashion, i have followed the music industry in Nigeria and have noticed what appears to be a growth in the last 5 years. We now have the multi-millionaire artistes with the bling, expensive vehicles, beautiful chicks and all the other trappings, but the musical content in itself has remained a mixed bag, In the early to mid 90's and before we generally had poor videos, poor studio quality but good/ great lyrics and good artistry, now we largely have good videos (lots of soft/hard porn), better studio quality, poorer lyrics and poorer artistry.
While this is not a comment on the entire industry, it is what prevails as how can you defend a song like 'fokasibe','konga', 'enter the place' and the likes in comparison to 'rat race', send down the rain','one love', 'ozigizaga' etc. While some of these songs were made by the artistes who defined the era the comparisons with some of the present day chart busters is just to highlight that indeed it is not so much that the music of today is bad, but songs of that type would not have made airplay then as they do today. Which begs the question is it us the listeners or them the artistes who have declined in quality. Do we prefer the lewd/empty and non-artistic 'fokasibes' or do we want to be transported to a level close to perfection when we search and listen to artistes who will attempt that journey too.

2009 and counting

Its officially my first post this year and its born put of a wish to scream and yap at someone.
I've officially become a movie goer and its become the highlight of my personal social calender. I have also started frequenting one of the movie theatres in Lagos, close home and it doubles (almost literally) as an entertainment center.
I had a go at the movie 'Notorious' today. Its a biography of the late Christopher"Biggie" Wallace and is supposed to show his life (all 24 years of it), his love(s), music and death.
The producer did great work, kept it short, emotionally transfixing, funny as well as revealling the late biggy as a mix between a victim of events and an unwilling bystander to events. The movie brought back pictures of the mid to late 90's when the east-west rap wars where alive and the stars of the wars both brutally lost their lives at the ages of 25 and 24 right in the middle of it, leaving loved ones behind and ,making a lot of money for producers and label owners as well as their heirs.
A catching part for me was the clash in trying to be a responsible man as well as being overwhelmed by trappings of fame and wealth as experienced by Biggie and how his friendship with Tupac was ruined by an unfortunate series of events. Its a nice one to see, especially if you listened to the music.

PS: My enjoyment of this movie was almost ruined by the sight of several kids in the hall, for a movie with several adult scenes. I think parents should take responsibility to check the ratings of movies to prevent their kids from viewing this type of content and cinema owners should state the ratings clearing close to the purchase points to help