Get Up and Dance!

I listen to music when I write, or read or cook – especially while cooking, takes my mind off the tedium. This evening I’m reviewing a manuscript and set my playlist on random because I need the jolt of strange songs so I wouldn’t fall asleep. I rarely do that. I like to control what I listen to.

Till You Turn To Wanderer.

One of the easiest and surest ways to annoy me is by making sweeping, derogatory statements about ‘Nigerian Youths’ around my space. Nigerian youths are lazy, unemployable, unmotivated, unserious or whatever other adjective you want to use, keep it to yourself.

Overjoyed In A Square Circle.

The title of this post is taken from the title of one of my favourite songs and the album it’s from. Stevie Wonder the aptly named Miracle, penned and sang the song in 1985 – a couple of years before I was born. I listened to the song as I typed the bulk of this post and I’m just discovering on Wikipedia that Earl Klugh strummed the guitar for this song.

Trust the Process.

Two days ago while I worked on a photo from a writing workshop organized by my friend, I had a conversation with my brother on the process of getting the image I wanted from the raw photo which was dark and nearly useless. The picture went from drab to fab in a few minutes. Yesterday morning, I woke up with the thought that the process of getting that picture ready was a lot like life and how God arranges our lives.

What Went Wrong Majek?

So Abiodun reminded me about Majek Fashek this evening and I’m listening to him right now. I have been a hardcore fan of Majek for as long as I’ve been alive, maybe even before I was born. I have Majek songs that he’s forgotten he sang and that man has no bad song, all of them are amazing. I don’t have a favourite song of his but Mother always makes me smile.

Fela, My Fela

I hated Fela’s music as a child, maybe hate isn’t the right word. I think it was annoyance and irritation, a strong irritation at how long the instrumental bit ran before I could hear my Fela’s voice. You see, I loved Fela.

Marley’s Ghost.

May 11, 1995.

The girl was bouncing on her grandmother’s four-poster bed as she listened to the radio, she loved jumping on the bed and having the bed throw her further in the air than with the other boring beds everywhere else. The radio was on, Bob Marley’s songs were on rotation and she bounced in rhythm to them even though she wished it were Lucky Dube instead. She preferred Lucky Dube’s songs to Bob Marley’s because at her mother’s birthday party when she was four, Lucky Dube’s music was the backdrop and that was one of the most exciting moments of her young life.