Honestly Speaking

First off, I want to apologize for abandoning this blog for a while now, I tried and tried to get at it, but it just seemed as though blogging had left my system for some reason. Anyways I'm back at it again...I hope.

Before my haitus, I was tagged by my dear Parakeet for an Honest Scrap Award (I'm truly honored :) ) Accepting the award means I have to list at least 10 honest things about me, but b4 I do that, let me brag about it as the rules require...I won the honest scrap award na na na na na...I won, not you yippee.....lol...And now presenting to you the Honest list of the defending Honest Scrapper on Blogville, weighing in at 170 pounds and flexing his writing muscles I give to you ladies and gentlemen of Blogville .....H2O and his honest list (crowd chanting...H2O, H2O, H2O...)...lmao.....Ok so enough with the bragging and down to buisness

1) I'm so so homesick...I miss my Nigeria (the people and experiences that make it special for me)...I also miss suya, forget all the wannabe suya I can get here, nothing beats Ikoyi Club suya...:)
2) I believe I am (and going to be) a very important contributor to the betterment of Nigeria even though I am miles away right now (Love knows no boundaries)
3) I have been job searching for about a year now, but I'm not easily broken...God, my family and my friends are my strength...I love them beyond measure.
4) I miss talking to two special pple on blogville... Buttercup and Parakeet...It's been a minute :)
5) Come rain or sunshine, come storm or calm, I'm an Arsenal FC fan....in ur face B'Cup :P
6) I am a Mercedes Benz kinda guy...I don't have one yet, but there is something about those machines that just screams out "segzy"...lol
7) I have a nickname giving sickness...lol...Buttercup can testify to that...I have given her countless nicknames
8) I am of the belief that pple are innately good, and it has blessed me thus far (If you hold your gaze on the good in someone long enough, they begin to see it too...if they didn't already)
9) I think it is safe to say I am a facebookholic...lol...but I use it for the right reasons, and while pple dislike the new changes to facebook, I actually like them, maybe it's because Im a technology person, I see it from a different perspective.
10) Phew...I thought I wud never get here...lol...I find it kinda weird talking about myself...but I love to listen, and love pple to listen to me when I talk...50 50 ain't so bad ei

Now the hard part, I cannot tag anyone on this partly because I haven't done blogrounds in a while to know who to tag and the bloggers I follow have already done this :(...But not to worry, I would make my blogrounds soonest and tag pple as I do. Until then if you feel worthy of the award, please accept it from me to you and follow its rules - which I did not entirely follow, but I think I should be pardoned because I doubt you have seen anybody on blogville brag about any award like I did above...lol

Anyways here are the rules:

1.You must brag about it

2.You must include the name of the blogger who bestowed the award on you and link back to the blogger

3.You must choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. 4.Show their names and links and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog.

5.List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself. Then pass it on!

Ciao
......H2O

Weeekend exeperience/Baby Shower Goof :)

Just when I thought my weekend was no fun, this happened!!!

So it's the final day of the weekend or the beginning of a new week for some, but regardless of all that, today I had the chance to smile and even blush sef...yes I was turning red in the face :) Anyways here is my story:

Today I woke up, feeling rather lazy and tired. I had had a long night (insomnia is a b**ch) so I woke up late, say about 12:30pm. Anyways I was doing my morning routine on my PC when Buttercup buzzed me on my IM, we got to chatting, a lot of meaningful somethings and meaningless nothings (actually I think there were more meaningful somethings....anyways I digress). I don't know whether B'cup has some random msg magnet on facebook, but she got another one of those msgs, but this time from some1 I know all too well, can u imagine? I'm so gonna brush that boy when next I see him, how dare he. I would have sworn before this incident that I would not know anyone that would do such, but I guess I am wrong.

This is what the idiot sent B'cup

"U gat d sexiest lips i hv eva sin.wanna get 2 knw u."

Can u pple imagine? Anyways, we continued chatting, then B'Cup asked how my weekend was, I told her I was dulling, but that I just got word from my bro that a friend was having a birthday party and another was having a baby shower so we would be attending both. B'Cup dear why didn't u catch that -- Baby Shower -- that na all women affair ooo, Im mad at you for that...lol........I don't know why my brain did not pick it up too, I guess I was too tired to think.

Anyways my bro got word of this baby shower from another guy friend who had received the invite, so it all seemed normal, although I was wondering why we did not get the invite too. My bro and I got ready and drove to the venue. When we arrived, we looked for the cars of our other guy friends but we did not see any, that was when it started ringing in our heads..lol, we spotted the car of a female friend, so we decided to call her just to confirm what was going on. We told her we heard from the grapevine that something was going on, and that we were in front of the house and all. She immediately came out and beckoned us in, only for us to get in, and have the host annouce to a house full of women that they had male guest visitors/crashers referring to me and my bro...chei...I wanted the ground to just swallow me, I was blushing so hard my cheeks were hurting. We just stood by the corner trying to make sure our presence was not felt, they offered us cake and soda, we did a quick number on the cake and just quietly exited the event...phew...but not before they took pictures of us as evidence that we crashed their party...lol.

As soon as we exited, we called this friend that told us about the shower, and told him our experience, we shared a good laugh, he had also been contemplating coming, but his wifey was too tired to make it, he was so lucky, he would have been just as embarassed as we were. Anyways, he re-read the invitation again, and it so happened that the invitation though sent to this our guy friend was meant for his newly wedded wife, since the organizers did not have her email address.

So that is my story oo...funny but definitely made my weekend :)

ciao
....H2O


PS: The whole thing got me thinking sha, why are Baby Showers all women affairs sef, me too I love children now....wetin...I think this issue needs to be revisited oo, I know we did not bear all the 9months but we love the babies regardless...

Mere Coincidence...stalker in sight...lol

There are coincidences and there are coincidences. Today I had the most absurd of coincidences. I was chatting with a friend of mine (Parakeet) whom I actually met on blogville and whose conversations either inspire my posts on blogville or give me ideas of what to write..yay Parakeet..lol..Anyways, while we were chatting, she stated with a rather puzzled uncertainty that my yahoo ID had showed up as [myyahooID01]...(u weren't really expecting me to reveal that here, were u? Nah...it still has commercial value..lol). Well I thought the remark was absurd given that we've been chatting for months using the yahoo ID in question, nonetheless I simply responded in the affirmative that it was indeed my ID. The next IM was a shocker, she revealed that she has another email ID very similar to mine - [myyahooID]. It might not be apparent to you, but the only difference in our IDs were the last two characters. weird huh?

It did not just end there ooo...my dear Parakeet went on to tell me that when she actually noticed the similarity about a month ago, she taught it was a stalker and it creeped her out...lol...so much so that she did not even know how to raise the topic. I guess she should be thanking God that I'm no stalker...lol...or maybe I should have played along with the stalker story...lol...that wud have been pretty hilarious (albeit mean.:))

Anyways that is my story for today, I thought it wud be fun to share with blogville since we first met here on blogville...Im sure Parakeet can tell the story much better since more of the reactions to this discovery was from her end...with that been said, y'all shud urge Parakeet to tell this story from her perspective...:)

ciao
....H2O

WOOD

[Background: On Sunday when I got to church, I sat towards the windows, the sun shining through and unto the beautiful pews, I could see the age rings of the wood, and it struck me that these furniture have been around for over 50years, it was like I could actually see the trees they came from, and it tingled something inside me that prompted me to record the feelings.

The aforementioned revelation and other personal situations inspired this piece, hope it blesses you as much as it did me while writing it.]

From the smallest of seeds your journey begins,
Buried in the dirt of the earth, you overcome death
And spring to life. Time passes by,
Your roots taste the dirt, your foliage leaves break the dirt
And your upward sprout begins.
At first you "go by" unnoticed, next our heights are equal,
In a few years your girth increases and you tower over me.
I become just another object relative to your elegance, beauty and poise,
But how can I complain when your branches brood over me
Like guarding wings - They shelter me from the pouring rain,
They give me shade in the scorching sun.
And when I need to see farther than my height affords,
A piggy back from you is all I need.
You are there for me and all who care to reach for you
Oh... what a selfless friend you are.
You clean my fumes and give me life's air,
Your generosity far exceeds your size.
When the gentle winds come by you whisper sounds of
Serenity, Peace, Love.
I look at you and remember the beauty of the simple things,
Such a beauty to behold - Mahogany!

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

That fateful day I walk on by and notice the void,
I look to you and you are gone.
Like your brothers and sisters you've fallen victim to the felling fellow -
Your bold beauty cut down by the lumberjack's saw
Ironically so, you've been cut down for your strength.
Now your afterlife begins. Your first stop - the timber processing center.
Your strength is translated into powerful sculpture or magnificent furniture.
Should sculpture be your fate,
You submit yourself to the nips and chips of the chisels
Day by day you give of yourself,
And day by day your new beauty is a made evident.
They call your new beauty art, but when I look closer,
I see your old self, always giving,
And now giving the aesthetic satisfaction of art.
You may not know it, but that satisfaction goes a long way,
It could even help mend a broken heart.
And should furniture be your fate,
You lie down and submit to the cutting and filing of the carpenter,
You take in those nails that hold your joints together
As you patiently wait to be a resting place for a person's glass of milk,
As in a table,
A storage place, as in a shelf or cupboard (dresser),
Or a place for one to sit and relax their tired legs,
As in a chair, a stool, a bench.
In whatever form your new life turns out to be,
You are always giving, blessing every heart.
You are a seed, you are a tree, you are mahogany,
You are sculpture, table, chair, wood,
But above all, you are a giving gift.

NB: Good is deathless, we all just need to look closer and see that it is right there with us,
blessing us and all mankind.

Ciao
......H2O

Nigerian Music Versus ...

[This should have been up like 2 weeks ago -- Apologies to SolomonSydelle for the delay. This post is actually my response to a post on SolomonSydelle's Nigerian Curiousity blog about the state of the Nigerian music industry. Albeit 2 years late..lol...it is still a perspective I wanna share with you all. You might wanna read her post first (if you like) because I make some references to her arguments, although I think this post reads fine on its own. If you do read her post, please note that her point of view has definately changed.]

*** Sorry for any typos/error -- had to rush my way around this***



First off I see your point as to why you might think that our music lacks identity, but what you must realize is that of all the African artists you mentioned (Salif Keita, Cesaria Evora, or even Awilo Longomba or Djouna Mumbafu) few of them have English as their Lingua Franca. Language plays a great role in what you hear from these artists (Salif Keita for example). I love his music but if you take a close listen you will see that the music is constructed inevitably to support the language giving it its "unique" flavor, that is to say that if you remove his voice, it is not too far from something that Hans Zimmer, Klaus Badelt or even any renowned jazz artist could put together should they choose to use the instruments.

Language and message is the same reason King Sunny Ade, Sir Shina Peters and the likes could go on singing to the repeatitious (sometimes monotonous) melodies from their bands and we would love it. If you even listen to Onyeka Onwenu (take Bia Nulu for instance, the "Nigerianess" of that song comes from the language, besides that the music behind is jazz). The next thing would be to ask why our artists did not continue singing in this fashion (with their various languages and instrumentation). Well Nigeria is very diverse (probably the most diverse African Nation) and we communicate across the board in English, if you even look at our most popular artist export in Africa and the western world - FELA, you will notice that he sang most of his songs in English, well its derivative 'pidgin', and his pioneered Afro-beat has a big jazz influence hence his worldwide appeal. Needless to say we still have artists singing in our various languages, and they are doing well if I must mention.

As you might have noticed, Africa's greats have some element of jazz in their music, mixed with our wonderful sounding African drums and accompanying instruments, and where this is lacking, language takes over. That "jazzified" sound also comes with the age/maturity factor, in that it is mostly the older or more mature individuals that would truly enjoy the "jazz-ness", hence partly the reason our "greats" are of the older age bracket.

So moving along to the younger generation. In this category, I believe we own the show (we don't just steal it). Our musicality comes out clean, and yes it is somewhat hip-hop/R 'n' B oriented, that inevitably comes with the age category, but still you can differentiate it from it's Western counterparts. Take a listen to the instrumentals of P-Square's "No One Like You" we own that, I don't think I can fathom it coming from anywhere else. I even have Non-Nigerian African friends who can identity a tune as Nigerian just by the instrumentals. Initially I used to get taken aback by this (because if felt like they were labelling it as commonplace), but now I realize that it is because we have a uniqueness to our sound and that gives us presence. Even in our rap/hip-hop/Afro-pop we rule (no offense to my non-Nigerians). Take for example the hottest hip-hop album of 2008 in my opinion - M.I's "Talk About It" If you haven't heard it already you should try to get a copy, even if you do not enjoy rap, he still gets to you, and not with a Western flavor, but one that is uniquely Nigerian/African, in beat and delivery, the lyrics are just sweet like bananas...lol. If only the Western world (mainly America) can listen to and accept something that is different and not from them. They always wanna recycle you before they accept you, it is still the reason why they only wanna recognize our music as African only when it is not sang in English, and when/if they eventually recognize it, they would dub the artist as either American...sorry African-American, British or European with African heritage (aren't they all), as if to say the person is African is a crime. If at all they even take notice of an artist, they classify it as world music, not Jazz, Hip-hop or R 'n' B. Anyways we are making ourselves heard, and one day the world would be forced to listen.

PS: I'll like to mention that we have a new blogger in da house, Shantell (don't mind the name, she's 100% naija..lol). Please head over to her blog and give her some blogville love.


ciao
.....H2O