The price of rice ...

I just got off the phone with Princess, a 'kongo' of 'aroso' rice is now N500 up 150%.

I like it!

So as usual iTunes prompted me to install its latest version this evening and as usual I made to ignore the prompt (nothing against iTunes, everything against doing anything that will require a reboot of my computer; I HATE rebooting my computer). Then I noticed something, this prompt listed Safari 3.1. A Windows version of the Apple browser? (I am so last year, I know) this I have got to see. The required reboot afterwards aside, I am loving the browser so far.

It turns out ...

... Moses was high on drugs! (according to an Israeli researcher) news.yahoo.com

Subliminal Learning?

I woke up yesterday to the news of this New York Times article. Apparently McCain may or may not have had a romantic relationship with a lobbyist. He may or may not have written letters to the govt on behalf of the lobbyists client as a result of the alleged romantic involvement. The alleged relationship may or may not have occurred some 10 years ago while McCain was 61 and she 30. Apparently the NYT had been investigating this report for awhile and had agonized internally as to whether or not to publish the 'facts'. Eventually the fear of being out-scooped forced their hand. I found it interesting, the whole article I mean especially since the very same NYT endorsed McCain just before the New York Primaries. However, delving into the whole endorsement/expose angle is out of the scope of this post. Watching the McCain press conference from Toledo yesterday was like de ja vu; a red faced McCain denied allegations at a press conference as his stoic wife 'stood' by her man. Of course there was no escaping this 'breaking news' and at some time during they day there was a discussion about it on NPR. I listened with half an ear and heard the phrase 'The Keating Five' more than once. Hmm ... I wonder what that is I should Google that. I had hardly formed the thought when it was quickly filed under 'investigate when I have grown a 3rd arm'. My mind quickly wandered on to other things.

I am currently reading "The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else" by Hernando de Soto, and decided to update the "Currently Reading" section of my blog (No it didn't take me a year to finish "Half of a Yellow Sun", I have just been lazy, hiss!). Since I am updating why not add a "What I will be reading next" section? (Who cares?) I currently have "God is not Great" in the queue so I went to amazon to check I had the right title, right author, spelling etc. Amazon has a "others who bought this also bought this" section which I glanced at and noted that Chris had also written a book about Mother Theresa titled "The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice" which I clicked on with a straight face. I learned from the review that she had received $1.25 M in charitable donations from a certain Charles Keating in the 80's and when Keating faced embezzlement charges in the 90's had written a letter to Judge Lance Ito asking him to temper justice with mercy. (I loved the response of the LA DA, but that is also out of the scope of this post). Hmm ... I wonder if these letters are in the public domain ... let me rephrase that, I wonder if these letters are on the Internet. I quickly googled Mother Theresa and learned a little about Charles Keating. Keating (why is this name familiar?) was the CEO of some real estate firm which then bought some savings and loans company and then went bankrupt with investors losing about $285 million. Hang on, shouldn't these funds have been federally insured? Yes they should have but the depositors held securities backed by the parent company of the savings and loans not the savings and loans itself ergo 21,000 elderly depositors are royally screwed out of their life savings. Keating blamed the federal regulators for the collapse of the bank. The govt in turn looked inward and accused five senators of improperly aiding Keating. How could Mother Theresa (with a steady hand and a clear eye) write a letter asking for leniency on behalf of this man? Sigh. I guess this is why I am me and she is on the fast track to canonization. Who are these five senators anyway? Well what do you know, John McCain is one of them. Wait a minute haven't I heard the name Keating today ... OMG! Keating Five!!! Thankfully I have not grown a third arm and since I am not preparing for a Sports Illustrated photo shoot a la Mrs Clemens and the ongoing Clemens-HGH soap opera, I am not in any immediate danger of growing one.

On campaign theme songs ...

If one more person sends me the link to the Will.I.Am "Yes We Can" song, I am going to go to amazon.com and buy this! The first (and only time) I listened to the song, I felt the idea to set Obama's New Hampshire(?) speech to music was a nice one. Although I found the 'We are the World' thing a bit chaotic, I felt the effort deserved an 'A' for achieving its (perceived) goal; tug at your heart strings ,(for those people equipped with working ones) make you get out and vote for Obama. I wondered if this song would be played at Obama events going forward. I am thinking so, judging from this picture ...

I have never been to an Obama event so I don't know what type of music is played. I do recall reading somewhere that he said he liked rap music. I guess this explains why he walked out to Jay-Z's "99 Problems" after winning the Iowa caucuses. I would like to suggest another song (in case anyone is reading this) That one time I saw/listened to the Will.i.am song, the "Yes We Can" punctuation used by Obama seemed so familiar, where have I heard this phrase before o ... Aha! The Pointer Sisters had a hit with "Yes We Can" on the their self titled debut album in 1973 and the lyrics are much better than those of "99 Problems" ...

Now's the time for all good men
to get together with one another.
We got to iron out our problems
and iron out our quarrels
and try to live as brothers.
And try to find a piece of land
without stepping on one another.
And do respect the women of the world.
Remember you all have mothers.
We got to make this land a better land
than the world in which we live.
And we got to help each man be a better man
with the kindness that we give.
I know we can make it.
I know darn well we can work it out.
Oh yes we can, I know we can can
Yes we can can, why can't we?
If we wanna get together we can work it out.

And we gotta take care of all the children,
the little children of the world.
'cause they're our strongest hope for the future,
the little bitty boys and girls.

We got to make this land a better land
than the world in which we live.
And we got to help each man be a better man
with the kindness that we give.
I know we can make it.
I know darn well we can work it out.
Oh yes we can, I know we can can
yes we can can, why can't we?
If we wanna, yes we can can.

P.S. Harry Connick Jr also covered this song on his 2007 album 'Oh , My Nola' his tribute to New Orleans in the wake of Katrina. I wondered why the song was on the album, after all The Pointer Sisters were not from New Orleans (Oakland California is where they hail from). I assumed it was because of the lyrics, then while researching the post (yes, yes) I found out the song was written by Allen Toussaint. A very influential figure in the New Orleans R&B scene. There you go!

2008 Endorsement

I do not know when it happened, well thats a lie, I recall the exact moment. It was a Time magazine cover (I believe) it had the picture of Dukakis and Bush Snr in '88 both running for the office of the president of the United States. I took one look at Bush Snr and elected to side with the less creased, dark-haired, bushy-browed Dukakis. I will admit that I have employed this method ever since without fail except for 2004 when I rooted for Kerry. Bush Jnr in my opinion was the better looking of the pair but I couldn't stand his accent, and I felt he had made a mess of the whole Iraq situation. Plus I was still smarting from the 2000 elections. I began to worry (when launching presidential exploratory committees became all the rage last year) that my endorsement strategy might not hold up. After the dust settled, I was glad to see that a couple of good looking candidates emerged notable among them are John Edwards and Mitt Romney (who strangly evokes for me memories of Roger Ramjet). Truth be told if Edwards had emerged the Democratic nominee and Romney the Republican nominee I don't know what I would have done (there is a God!) Now that the candidates remaining in the race on the Democratic side are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (listed in order of last names) and on the Republican side Mike Hukabee, Ron Paul and John McCain (listed in descending order of 'fineness') I think it is safe to say that I will be endorsing the democratic candidate in 2008. A tall thin man can either be nerdy or sexy. Obama swings the pendulum in the sexy direction, with his loose limbed gait and his smokers lips which add just the right touch now if only I could determine if he was bow-legged ... For Hillary, the Republicans would have to come up to her level and even in that bumble bee-esque outfit she wore in New Hampshire(?) none of them can hold a candle to her (even if they hired Giuliani's stylist!)

Spanish, Kennedy style

Ted Kennedy 'speaking' Spanish at a rally for Obama in East LA



It is interesting to note that Ted Kennedy was kicked out of Harvard in 1951 for cheating on his Spanish exam. Listening to this ... speech, I can understand why!

Grammy Nominations

Interesting, I just realised that Barack Obama is up for his second grammy in the "Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Story Telling)" category for his book "The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream". In the same category Bill Clinton is up for his third (I think) grammy for his book "Giving: How Each Of Us Can Change The World". I can't wait to read the blogs on Monday!

Grammy Nominees - Category 79 grammy.com

Happy New Year!

Borrowing from the lyrics of the very popular old school song 'Odun nlo sopin' by the C.A.C Good Women Choir, "Odun a ya abo fun wa" ( the year will be fruitful for us)

What a way to start the new year, a 2 - 0 win over Westham at the Emirates.

Match Report soccernet.com

Introduction to Kenya Airways

Finally, the day arrived. It was the 8th of December and at 11:20 am we were scheduled to be on a Kenya Airways flight en route Tanzania. Ore and I were really excited to be making this trip. We got up bright and early and were at the airport in good time to check in and all that good stuff. Imagine our disappointment when we learned that our flight would be delayed by 3 hrs! What the ... We shared a pot of tea as we patiently passed the time. I had a muffin which was had been microwaved and as a result fossilized as it cooled. Ore had marble cake. Finally like some 4 plus hrs later it was time to board. It was an uneventful flight thankfully, and save for a little mix-up with information regarding our connecting flight from Nairobi to Tanzania we arrived Tanzania a little past midnight local time. As we drove to the hotel I couldn't help but notice how familiar everything seemed even at 1 am in the morning and if not that we were driving on the 'wrong' side of the road, I could have been driving through Ikeja. We were barely asleep before we had to get up to catch the ferry to Zanzibar. Its a beautiful island, we had loads of fun, I will blog about that later. All of a sudden it was Friday morning and it was time to leave! :-( This time we assumed since we would be catching the first flight out of Tanzania all would be well, boy weren't we wrong. The flight was short (about an hour) and we got to see Mount Kilimanjaro which was nice. We arrived Nairobi on time and quickly got in line for our departing gate only to overhear some folks lamenting in Yoruba, the flight had been delayed! WTF?! Damn those Dubai passengers! I couldn't understand though why our trip had to be affected by the Dubai passengers, the last time I checked I had a ticket for a seat on an airplane, not on a Molue bus ... maybe herein lies the real problem. As an old school mate (whom I bumped into while passing the time) said this is Africa, nothing works as you would expect it. I had never traveled by air in Africa and my friend was quick to assure me this was the norm. Flights arriving and departing according to schedule now that was the exception. Sad. We arrived without incident, thankfully. I did get to witness a fellow passenger finagle whisky from the flight attendant with the help of a fellow Indian traveler, Nigerians!

Everton 1 - 4 Arsenal (and other gist)

Its been awhile, a lot has happened since we lost that game to Sevilla. We drew our game in hand against Newcastle, and hot on the heels of that lost to Middlesbrough. We did beat Chelsea against all odds which was nice. We drew against Portsmouth last week and relinquished leadership of the Premiership to ManU. Needless to say December has not really been our month but somehow the gods of soccer have been on our side, we head into the new year back at the top of the tables, 2 points ahead of ManU.

Da Silva Eduardo (47)
Da Silva Eduardo (58)
Emmanuel Adebayor (78)
Tomas Rosicky (90)

It was quite the strange win. Everton went ahead in 19 min from a corner which seems like Bendtner cleared right onto Yakubu's head or Cahill's boots. Our play was quite frustrating in the first half, our passes fell short and it seemed like the players were unaware of each other. I found myself breathing a sigh of relief when it was half time.

I don't now what happened in the dressing room at half time but the boys came out and in the 47th minute a Eduardo controlled a long ball (!) from Clichy, turned and slotted the ball in past Tim Howard. We were level. He scored the exact same goal again in the 58th minute and we went ahead. Just as I was wondering why Arsene hadn't made any changes (we were well past the 70th minute mark), Bendtner got a second yellow card and got sent off. Oh no! It was all the more sad because apparently Adebayor was waiting on th sidelines to come on for him! Bummer. He came on for Eduardo instead and 4 mins later a 'comedy of errors' occured. A goal kick from Almunia landed in the Everton half, Yobo for some strange reason decides to let Howard deal with it, Adebayor kicks the ball at Howard who fails to catch it, the rebound drops for Adebayor who has left the keeper behind and he scoes our 3rd goal. So much for my fears that being one man down might cost us the match. In the 84th minute Arteta was awarded a red card for his well placed elbow in Fabregas' face. Unfortunately the Oscar went to someone else but Fabregas deserved the nomination, for a second there I thought his eye had popped out or something. He did get booked for an unrelated infarction and was quickly replaced by Rosicky who scored our 4th in injury time. With ManU's suprising loss to West Ham (Imagine, they were a goal up, a missed penalty, and an eventual 1 - 2 loss) we once again moved to the top of the tables. We will be meeting a decidedly chuffed West Ham on New Years day.

My Chistmas Present

Aren't they cute, my toe warmers? I opened my door late yesterday afternoon to find two packages; one from adorama.com (yipee my memory cards have arrived) the other gaily wrapped and soft. Who could it be from, no stamps so its from someone within my building ... You guessed it, its from my neighbor of the Valentines Day chocolates fame. Did I mention that he also gave me chocolates at Easter? Yup he did, they are still on my refrigerator, I keep forgetting to throw them out. Anyways I tried them on (wearing socks with individual toes takes some getting used to) and I fell in love. For a person like me whose extremities are always freezing I couldn't have received a more thoughtful gift, thanks Bruce.

No Country for Old Men

Upon careful examination of my apartment, I have been able to convince myself that Anton Chigurh is not lying in wait for me with a cattle gun. Now why I would think anybody would be waiting on my behind to dispatch me to the great beyond I don't know. I blame the Coen Brothers, my over-active imagination and Javier Bardem. Gosh wasn't he just the model psychopathic killer, all action no talk. And that haircut, and his face ... Tommy Lee Jones was great in the role of the last in a long line of small time sheriffs, confronted with the fact that times are a-changing. Josh Brolin was also quite convincing in his role, giving 'finders keepers' a whole new meaning. I found the Sheriff's deputy to be great eye candy, if a little too slim. The scene between him and Tommy Lee in the diner with Tommy Lee reading the paper was just too funny. I must say the golden globe nod for screenplay is very much deserved, the dialogue in the movie was truly amazing. Overall a really good film, I was immersed in it from the minute it started till the cameras cut to black 2hrs and 2 mins after despite all attempts by the guy sitting like 5 seats away from me with his non-stop commentary to spoil the movie, gosh how I wished I had a cattle gun ...

Deamgirls

I woke up starving and craving pancakes. 3 eggs, 1 hash brown, 4 rasher of bacon, 2 cups of very sweet green tea and 2 orange crepes later, I am sitting on my couch as helpless as a beached whale, captive audience for 'Dreamgirls' on HBO. It was an okay movie. I did see 'Hello Dolly' just last night so that might be clouding my judgment. A word of advice to Jennifer Hudson, move to New York and find a vehicle on or off Broadway, the Oscar and the Golden Globe would only keep doors open for so long.

Sevilla 3 - 1 Arsenal

Da Silva Eduardo (11)

Whats in the water? First Fergie, now Wenger gets sent off! One can only pray that whatever it is stays across the pond! Quite the lack-luster performance from Arsenal who seem set to finish second behind Sevilla in group H. The interesting thing is when the group draws were initially held, I was of the opinion that the only team to worry about would be Sevilla in this case I can hate to be right. On the bright side though, we are theoretically through to the next stages and I am thinking seeding doesn't matter going into the draws for the next round.

So it has happened, we have finally suffered a defeat. Better here than in the Premiership though, I tell you. I expect every newspaper, radio program, tv program and sports website to make a song and dance about the loss, I hope the lads find a way to blot out the impending brouhaha and just concentrate on the task at hand, with 7 premiership games in December, notable among which is the away game to Chelsea on the 16th a CL and Carling cup engagement each, we need to be focused and ensure this performance does not mark the beginning of the end (I shudder as I type that, picture me snapping my finger over my head 3 times).

Next up we face Aston Villa away on Saturday, and our game in hand comes up on Wednesday the 5th against Newcastle.

Match Report soccernet.com

Correction: We are home to Chelsea on the 16th. Thanks anon.

Haba!

Animal Planet get your facts right, Porcupine are found in Africa, and the meat (aka bush meat in Nigeria) is very tasty especially when smoked.

American Gangster

I saw American Gangster yesterday, first I hardly noticed the length of the movie (157 min) second just as with Alonze in Training Day I was in love with Frank Lucas (the character) by the time the end credits rolled. I can love Denzels bow legs ehn, so this movie was a treat for me; enough full shots of him walking with his posse down 116th street, escorting his mother to church, walking down the aisle on his wedding day, entering/exiting his club with his wife, just generally looking dapper. As I watched the movie, I could not help but notice a marked resemblance between Frank Lucas of New York in the late 60's early 70's and Stringer Bell of Maryland in the early 2000. It was a nice movie with a lot of lessons to be learned; never let the enemy/opposition see you coming, generosity practically guarantees loyalty, never mix business with pleasure that is a sure recipe for disaster.

I didn't pay much attention to the soundtrack (which has sold 556,400 copies in 2 weeks of which 250,000 was reportedly bought by def jam) I googled the real Frank Lucas and I can see why Jay-Z was suffering under the illusion that he should play him, the resemblance is quite striking. I have never seen Jay-Z act, but I doubt he could have done a better job than Denzel, no bias.

I am not there and my very first traffic ticket.

A couple of months ago a friend sent this link to me. It was a scene from a yet to be released Bob Dylan biopic. I am not the biggest fan of Dylan's, I know he is quite the American icon and prior to him beating Sting to win the Oscar for best original song ('Things Have Changed' from Wonder Boys) in 2000 I had no opinions about him (after that win I hated him just a little bit). The first thing that caught my attention was the fact that the actor playing Dylan in the scene I saw was Cate Blanchett. Huh!? I must say she bore a striking resemblance to him and had I not been told before hand would have mistaken her for some male actor. I filed the clip away under 'interesting, try to see this when it opens' and promptly forgot about it. I recently discovered NPR and I am totally hooked. Wednesday last week Todd Haynes was on 'Fresh Air' talking about the movie and I learned not 1 but 6 different actors played Dylan representing 7 phases in his life. A quick call to my dear friend confirmed that she had received an invite to a screening for the movie in the upcoming weekend but she was unsure if she would be able to go see it. My fingers are crossed. Saturday rolls along and she rings me, yes she was available after all for the screening. Goody! I nearly missed seeing the movie, I lay down for a 30 min nap and woke up an hr and 45 mins before the screening was to begin, unwashed and an hr to an hr and a half away (depending on how LA traffic was faring). I made it on time though and found street parking (25 cents per hr). Halls on hand to help soothe my throat and reduce my coughing I settled down to enjoy the movie. It opened with mugshots (if you will) of the different Dylans, OMG! Christain Bale!!! I can love Christian Bale ehn ... please go see American Psycho if you haven't. I didn't know 2hrs 15 mins could fly by so quickly, I was hardly aware of the time, so intense were the performances of the actors, so complex the subject matter.

I was very impressed with Marcus Carl Franklin's performance, ( I am told he was really good in 'Lakawanna Blues', I must see that) he played a young Dylan named Woodie Guthrie (Woodie Guthrie was a huge inspiration for Dylan in his earlier years) who seemed keen, desperate even to escape who he was, indeed he was always on the move, on the run if you will. Having an african-american play Dylan set in a time when everyone understood the need to 'pass' was genius in my opinion. Christian Bale played both the activist and born-again Dylan with Julianne Moore playing Joan Baez (I think). The activist Dylan came across as heavily burdened, the born-again Dylan simple and free. Cate Blanchett played the Electric Dylan very convincingly (recall it was her performance that brought me here in the first place). Her physical embodiment of Dylan was so on point, it was quite eerie watching this thin ... thing with the thin face and mass of curly hair. I think it was quite clever to introduce a hint of androgyny to the electric Dylan, lord knows a lot of his fans didn't know exactly what to make of him 'going electric' and all. Michelle Williams played Coco Rivington (who I am thinking is Edie Sedgwick whom he dated in the period). Heath Ledger played the rock star Dylan endlessly touring and womanizing with Charlotte Gainsbourg playing his wife. Richard Gere played a Billy the Kid-esque Dylan with Bruce Greenwood once again playing 'the establishment' ( He played that role beautifully as the reporter interviewing the electric Dylan).

There was a Q&A session after the screening and Todd Haynes was on hand to answer questions. Apparently Marcus Carl franklin was the only actor do do his own singing (and apparently his own guitar playing as well), not bad. When asked Haynes did not know if Dylan had seen the movie although he did know he (Dylan) had a copy of it on dvd with him on tour. As a story teller himself, I am thinking Todd need not worry, Dylan would give it the thumbs up.

Warm from the glow of a Saturday evening well spent, I ambled over to my car with my friends to find - shock, horror, parking ticket! Apparently parking on that particular side street requires a residential permit after 6 pm :-( bloody wankers! On the other hand I really must learn to read those signs ...

Cookery Lesson of yesteryear

I just got off the phone with an old friend. In the middle of catching up (he had recently totaled his car and walked away unscathed with his daughter who has learned a valuable lesson; speed can be fun and also very costly) he was like ' ah, I need to thank you, you might not remember, its been a while' I am racking my brain wondering what it was exactly I did seeing that I hadn't seen this friend in like 5 yrs 'ehen, wetin be dat?' I asked 'I just finished cooking chicken stew' I started laughing. Apparently many (many) years ago I taught him to cook stew and he has not wanted for a home cooked meal every since. Please find 'attached' photographic evidence as received via text.

Senate admits awarding N500m broadcast contract

I am little confused, did the Senate really need to pay media outlets to cover the senate confirmation hearings? What is the work of the NTA? I can understand that it will not make sense financially for a private media outlet to devote hours broadcasting the hearings for free, the hope of another 'please sing the national anthem' moment isn't really worth that much. As the propaganda machine for the FG I would have thought broadcasting the hearings would fall perfectly with the purview of the NTA. Perhaps this is the exact reason why private media had to be used, to let the public know that no 'magomago' was involved. I am sure there is a more cost effective way to have gotten the job done though, even after factoring in the 'ghana must go' bags.

Senate admits awarding N500m broadcast contract punchng.com