The struggle continues

Greetings,

Here are some things I found interesting this week. I’ve been listening to and reading a bit about music so mainly music related.

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1

Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti’s records used to be on high rotation in my home growing up. As did the music of Roy Ayers. Yet, somehow, I missed the album Music of Many Colours that they recorded together when Ayers toured Nigeria on the late 1970s. Made up of two side-length songs, the music has aged well probably because, as John Morrison writes, “Roy Ayers and Fela Kuti each explored Pan-Africanism and diasporic solidarity their own way before their meeting in 1979, which represented a crystallisation of ideas.” 

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2

Sade, the band, and Sade Adu, the musician, hold a very special place in the life soundtrack of many. They seem to create music on their own timeline and have carved a lane that is uniquely theirs. Amazingly, Sade herself had no vocal training and Sade’s “Smooth Operator” is a demo recording.

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3

Early in the lockdown last year, I wrote How are you planning for an uncertain future? I suspect it was as much for me as for the people that read it. Christine Carter’s 7 strategies to help you live with uncertainty articulates it much better than I could. I love this quote she shares from mathematician John Allen Paulos, “Uncertainty is the only certainty there is. Knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.”

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4

Why are pop songs getting sadder than they used to be feels like a ‘which came first, the chicken or the egg’ question. What popped into my mind was does the resulting negativity have a subliminal impact on our psyches? The more we engage with negativity, the more negative we become … see social media. I try not to log onto any social media before 9am because I found that the never-ending negativity affects my mood for the day.

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5

A rare instrumental Marvin Gaye album has surfaced and is available to stream.

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6

It has taken me a while to get into the writing of Terry Pratchett. To be honest, what prompted me to dip into his work was Neil Gaiman, who is one of my favourite authors. He was friends with Pratchett, co-wrote Good Omens with him and, in his collection of essays, introductions and speeches, View From The Cheap Seats, he wrote so warmly about Pratchett that I had to give it a shot. I started with the first book in the Discworld series, which consists of 41 books. I struggled through the first two books and finally understood in book 3. I am about to start book 5, having decided to read the series chronologically, but have since discovered that there are different ways of reading Discworld. I reckon, once I am done, I will start again, reading thematically.

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7

Some moons ago, when I still had a radio show, I interviewed Dillon S. Phiri from creative nestlings around the challenges faced by creative entrepreneurs in South Africa. He has since directed, with Dinika Govender, Zero To A Hundred, a documentary that explores the ‘state of creativity and entrepreneurship in South African cities’.

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That’s it for this week. If you enjoyed, please share. If it was shared with you, please subscribe.

Easy

Kojo