ktravula - a travelogue! » Fun

The Impossible Brief

Kola — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:09:08 +0000

Are you creative?
Do you work in advertising or does it interest you?
Can you think outside the box?
Can you crack “the impossible brief”?

Will you save the world?

Click here.

First Words

Kola — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:46:41 +0000

“May in Ayemenem is a hot, brooding month. The days are long and humid. The river shrinks and black crows gorge on bright mangoes in still, dustgreen trees. Red bananas ripen. Jackfruits burst. Dissolute bluebottles hum vacuously in the fruity air. Then they stun themselves against clear windowpanes and die, flatly baffled in the sun.”

- Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small things (1997)

“Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I’ve alarmed you. Do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America. I noticed that you were looking for something; more than looking, in fact you seemed to be on a mission, and since I am both a native of this city and a speaker of your language, I thought I might offer you my services.”

- Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007)

“I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills. The Equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the north, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet. In the day-time you felt that you had got high up, near to the suun, but the early mornings and evenings were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold.”

- Karen Blixen’s Out of Africa (1937)

“The blow catches him from the right, sharp and surprising and painful, like a bolt of electricity, lifting him up off the bicycle. Relax! he tells himself as he flies through the air (flies through the air with the greatest of ease!), and indeed he can feel his limbs go obediently slack. Like a cat he tells himself: roll, then spring to your feet, ready for what comes next. The unusual word limber or limbre is on the horizon too.”

- J.M. Coetzee’s Slow Man ((2005)

Ife

Kola — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:53:09 +0000

These were taken in Ife on the 7th of July.

I remember feeling very inspired while watching the morning rehearsals of students of dance and theatre at the Faculty of Arts from afar while waiting for my other colleagues in nearby offices. The students were rehearsing for a performance, and there was an affecting charm in the energy they displayed while moving to the rhythm of the drum beats. So early in the morning, there they were grooving into the day’s dawning promise with all their spirit. It was charming.

I wrote a poem of the experience. I hope I can still find it.

Sand in My Socks

Kola — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:32:32 +0000

After attending the Bookjam @ Silverbird event that had in attendance writers from many corners of the world and catching up with friends and colleagues, I was talked into a visit to the Lagos Bar Beach a few about a kilometre down the road from the Galleria. We had some fun moments riding horses, picking sea shells, writing names in the sand, catching up on old times and generally being silly at the shore of the Atlantic Ocean.

One of us the Punch journalist and author of the NLNG shortlisted novel Under the Brown Rusted Roofs. It’s the girl, although the other guy seems through these pictures to love her more than I do .

Saturday: Bookjam at Silverbird

Kola — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:56:55 +0000

I attended the Bookjam at Silverbird event yesterday for the first time since it started. This was the seventh edition. In attendance was American based Nigerian author Unoma Azuah, author of Sky High Flames, Madeleine Thien author of Certainty, Helon Habila, Caine Prize-winning author of Measuring Time, and Tsitsi Dangarembga author of Nervous Conditions.

Here are some of the shots from there. The programme afforded me time to catch up with old friends and meet new ones too. Certainly a refreshing time.

Bookjam is an event that takes place at the Silverbird Lifestyle Bookstore every last Saturday of every month.

A Break

Kola — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 15:17:37 +0000

For some reasons beyond my control, I will be going offline for a few days (hopefully not weeks) from today. I won’t be able to update the blog until such a time until I get the issue resolved. Hopefully it won’t be for too long. If you need me, I’ll still be available to check my email occasionally so you may reach me at kt@ktravula.com. Please vote in my new poll to your right, and tell me what you think.

In the meantime, here are a few old picture posts. Enjoy.

Desertification June 1.

Time Lapse May 3

Defying Gravity November 23

Badagry June 8

Following Lincoln April 29

You should also check out Kiibaati.wordpress.com where a poet is taking new liberties with imagination.

10 Reasons to Love Books More than Movies

Kola — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:18:33 +0000

10. The silence needed to enjoy it.

9. You can rush it and still enjoy it.

8. The feel.

7. You can read it even in the desert

6. The imagination it elicits.

5. You can’t share it, at least not while reading.

4. Words entice

3. Epilogues and prologues.

2. The prefaces

1. More than images, imagination is the best of all.

10 Reasons to Love Movies More than Books

Kola — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:57:03 +0000

10. The soundtracks.

9. It’s over in two hours, or three at the most.

8. The dialogue.

7. You can have it play in your iPod while you walk, jog or play.

6. The visual effects.

5. You can watch and enjoy with several people at the same time.

4. It has enticing trailers

3. The credits.

2. Behind the scenes.

1. An image is worth a thousand words

Walking on Water

Kola — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 10:02:03 +0000

It’s the second resurection of Christ. Before the world ends he wants to take in some fishing. So he gets his friend Moses and they head up to the Cougar Lake to fish. They are about to rent a canoe when Moses says:
“Jesus, can’t you still walk on water? Why not just walk out there?” So Jesus takes his reel and tackle and steps onto the lake….and falls knee deep in water.

Moses says, “Well….maybe you need a head start or something, why not go to the end of the dock and try.”

So Jesus takes his reel and tackle and steps off the end of the dock and falls up to his waist.

Moses says, ” Well why not rent the boat, go out to the center of the lake and try there.”

So they rent the boat and go to the middle of the lake, Jesus is about to step off and try again when…

Moses says, “Wait. Just to be safe, why not get yourself into the state of mind you were in the first time you did it.”

So Jesus sets down, meditates for a few minutes, and finally he’s all psyched up, and steps out of the canoe…. ..and precedes to drown. So Moses does the water parting thing, and pulls Jesus up into the boat.
Jesus is just beating himself up over this. He just doesn’t see what’s going wrong here. Moses just stares down at the bottom of the boat.

Suddenly, Moses says, “I got it! I know what’s wrong! Did you have those holes in your feet last time?!?!”
__________
Culled

Oh Shoes!

Kola — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:45:13 +0000

I do love my shoes. I wish I could simply say “I love shoes”, but that would mean competing with at least two people in my life that I know too well. (Stop looking around Yemi). I don’t love shoes that much, but the few ones I have, I love them very much, and would do anything to keep them looking good. Well, not everything really, but if they get good polishing and get prevented from submerging in mud, I would be grateful indeed. And there lies the problem. It is raining season here in much of Nigeria and the consequence of that is plenty street puddles after every rain. It doesn’t help having to ride on bikes around town. No matter how shiny the shoe is in the morning, by evening, it is dusty when there is no rain and muddy when there is.

There was this joke about a guy who met someone who wouldn’t stop showing off his new wristwatch. The wristwatch guy comes in with all confidence looking at his watch once every two seconds, pretending to be pressed for time. “I’m in a hurry,” he said, “Do you know the way to…” let’s call it… “Miguel Street? I have to be there in less than ten minutes.” The other guy who had also just got a new shoe stretched forth his leg and tried to describe the way to the former’s destination. “You want to go to Miguel Street? Just go forward like this,” he said, pointing with his feet, “and then turn right, and left, and right again…” I have sometimes felt like the other guy. ”Oh Kola, you look so tall,” people would say, and I’d respond in the now typical way, “Oh no, it’s the shoes I’m wearing.” They would look down at them, then at me, shake their heads, “No way man”, smile and go their way. It works only when my shoes are shiny and well polished. Otherwise, I am the one who is left feeling silly.

There is another joke I always remembered. It goes like this, that women remember the shape, colour, and size of a man’s shoes on a first date than anything else. Why? Because whenever they avoid eye contact, their eyes would inevitably rest on the man’s foot. I have never dared to keep my shoes unpolished since I first heard the quasi-sexist joke. I may wear a shirt not well ironed, or a pair of jeans that I’ve worn for a few days already, but my shoes will always be polished. Yesterday, things changed. Badly.

My polish can was nowhere to be found and I had to get out of the house on time, so I planned to meet with my reliable cobbler right in front of the University gate to do what he always did. But by the time I got there and he wasn’t there. In his place were a dozen law enforcement agencies clearing his and other shops illegally erected along the fence of the shopping complex opposite the University. Whether they had given advance warning of the raid to those shop owners or not is not the question here, but that my favourite cobbler was nowhere to be found, and his stall had been levelled and removed. And my shoe has remain muddied, or at best ugly ever since. I’ve not been able to retort to the now many people asking “Oh Kola, you have grown taller since I last saw you.” Yeah right. It must be all the pizza I’ve been eating. It’s two days now without a shoe polish, and I’m about to lose it.

Okay, I’ll buy a new Kiwi polish tonight, but why should I take the fall for the state government’s late discovery of how best to make the city beautiful? No, they don’t get my sympathy now for finally waking up to their duties to clear the fence of the shopping complex of its many illegal squatters after all this years. I’m not asking for much. All I want is my cobbler back in his famous spot. Yes, the government’s action might be in the public service, I know. I would just love to say, ”public service my foot!” if only for once, although I know that that the pun might get lost in the translation.

Caveat: This post should not be taken too seriously. The government policy to clean up the Shopping Complex at Agbowo is a very laudable project. You need to see how nice the place looks now.

ktravula - a travelogue! » Fun

The Impossible Brief

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First Words

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Ife

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Sand in My Socks

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Saturday: Bookjam at Silverbird

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A Break

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10 Reasons to Love Books More than Movies

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Walking on Water

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Oh Shoes!

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