experience[turns white] …I hate when I do that. You terrestrials don’t have to worry about that condition. Sure, I hear you might stutter occasionally, or slip in the Freud, or insert the pause of um, like, uh…. but at least you don’t have to worry about inking yourself. It’s kind of like an underwater Turret’s [...]
Oops… I inked myself
[turns white] …I hate when I do that. You terrestrials don’t have to worry about that condition. Sure, I hear you might stutter occasionally, or slip in the Freud, or insert the pause of um, like, uh…. but at least you don’t have to worry about inking yourself. It’s kind of like an underwater Turret’s [...]
Accelerating With My Eyes Closed
We move through life in chapters, as we learn to read them. Every lesson is not understood, Before we turn the page. As youth we move briskly through the book of life, Only skimming the text. Rushing to the next happenstance. Decreasingly illiterate, Nonetheless, remarkably unwise. Hastily making choices, Re-sculpting the pre-sent, before our eyes, [...]
R. I. P Carlos!
Mexican novelist, Carlos Fuentes, died yesterday. He was 83. It’s sad when you hear about a novelist for the first time on the occasion of their death. I took a quick survey of his novels, and I’m adding his novel, Diana, The Goddess Who Hunts Alone, to a summer reading list that I’ve kicked off with the [...]
New Blog at The New Yorker
The New Yorker unveiled The Page-Turner today. As if there aren’t enough blogs about lit things. They say the essays featured are “elaborations” on lit chit chat. What you do when you fight about or gush over a certain piece of writing with friends and colleagues and perhaps the stranger you meet at the bus [...]
I Heart Chicago
After a good day of novel reading and cafe lounging, I ended up at the Salvation Army not far from my house. At the thrift shop, anything can happen. You could find the first artist print of a fairly popular American painter. Or you could spend a couple hours sniffing dust and Febreeze and find [...]
Coldplay and the Kungfu Princess
When the behind-the-scene video is cool enough to be an official video, you know it’s all going to be worth the wait. “Princess of China” is a song from Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto album. I’ve read enough fairytales to expect princesses to have their castles, ball gowns, and enchanted rings. But it’s Rihanna and she’s the Princess [...]
Leftover Egusi Soup
Songs of Solomon. Isoken did not leave the staff room of Patricia Primary School when the closing bell rang. Everyone else did. It would appear that she was inspecting the attendance booklet on her desk. Actually, her mind had taken her elsewhere, perhaps, to the room she was renting at no. 15 Furniture Rd. The [...]
Listening, Among Others
“Graylen Epicenter” by David Binney (please listen while you read the post) I click on my iPod immediately when I step out of the building. The force of the wind tunnel barreling down the street slams into my face as the first sounds emerge. Lately, I’ve been listening to Dave Binney’s 2011 album Graylen Epicenter [...]
Meeting Nourbese
Marlene Nourbese was already in the room when I arrived. To call the Gothic Room a room does it so much disservice. The interior of an Edwardian chapel maybe or something close to it but certainly not a room. Chairs were lined up semicircular in front of a podium. She sat to the left of [...]
Husbands and Other Answers
On Perusing the Comments on Bellanaija Wedding Features To The August Society for All Things Matrimonial, Those who know philosophy are familiar with Occam’s Razor: the simplest solution to a problem is always the best solution. Once a Nigerian woman hits a certain age, 20-somethings and above, most things about her begin to make sense [...]