Here, folks, is my favourite video of the year, for good reason: it is very hilarious. Nature strikes back. Enjoy. The comments on the video are even more hilarious. I can’t laugh hard enough.
Browsing the archives for the Fun category.
Those interested in new Nigerian writing will do well to check out the latest issue of Sentinel Nigeria magazine. It has a poem of mine among several refreshing works of Nigerians of different age and convictions. There are also some two poems from Peter Akinlabi whom I’d interviewed for the particular issue. All comments welcome. Enjoy.
Find it here.
There are very many memorable scenes in this movie which I was seeing for the very first time but these two stand out. One is the emotionally charged scene of utmost patriotism in the face of danger and oppression. The German soldiers were singing Die Wacht am Rhein and Victor Lazlo comes to overshadow it with the beautiful and heartfelt rendition of La Marseillaise that would make the head of anyone swell, French or not. A very defining scene in fact. I couldn’t get enough of it. (The irony of this scene to a viewer like me lies, of course, in the fact that both the German and the French folks were engaged in that phychological fight for superiority while occupying Morocco, a country that technically belonged to neither of them.)
The other is a very tender love scene full of nostalgia and affection. A black man (perhaps from America, having fleed from the discrimination of the South) played a moving slow rendition of a now favourite song. It was my pleasure to discover on iTunes today that the song As Time Goes By has been remade after the movie by greats like Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong among many others. Even Kenny G did an instrumental version. A great song by many standards, and the movie gives a very strong emotional background to its appreciation. Play it Sam.
Full of laughter, drama, intrigue, action, romance and bravery, with very superb acting by Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid Casablanca has suddenly become one of my most favourite movies of all time. A wonder I’m seeing it now just for the very first time.
On Sunday, we gathered for a picnic to welcome Turkish students from various departments. Amidst smoked sausages and other refreshments we played a football around the open park and got around to knowing each other.
It was a nice welcome into the new semester.
There is a place not far from St.Louis called Fairview Heights. Why they call it by that name is for now beyond me, but it has the same pulse as every other town in this area. We visited it yesterday. The eating spot we visited yesterday is called Hooters. Hooters has outlets in much of every state in the US but I’d never been there before. And the accomplices were Chris, Abdiel and Mafoya.
Hooters is distinct for it’s scantily-dressed waitresses and nothing much else. The fries, chicken or drinks are much like everywhere else. The waiters would all be younger than 22, for sure, working to add some change to their tuition fees or saving for a holiday somewhere. They were cheerful and lively. One of them allowed us to take a picture with her. I’m hoping it didn’t have anything to do with the lie Chris had told that I was an African prince. ;). The Nigerian outfit I was wearing might have helped too.
At a corner, one boy had turned 16 and was placed on the table with paper beaks in his mouth. All the waiters gathered around him and sang him a Hooters birthday song. I’m sure he enjoyed it. Pity my own birthday is still a month away. Who knows who gift I might have got from the Hooter girls. In any case, I’m doubtful that a perching on a table in the middle of a bar would have sufficed for a birthday for a quasi-adult like me. Who knows though, I might have enjoyed it too.
We have all now returned to our various hideouts to regroup as soon as the semester gets into full gear. America is up for exploration, and here we are as volunteers for the great cause. California, Texas, Connecticut, New York, Colorado, Minnesota, Seattle, and even Alaska, here we come, slowly.