Digesting Singularity

It's been a couple of months since I left my new home. Singularity was an amazing, life changing experience - one I wish for everybody alive.

In digesting what I've seen and heard a parting piece of advice from our GSP coordinator, David Roberts, stuck in my head.

"on arriving," he wrote "focus all your attention to understand their summer experience -- and resist the temptation to arrive home, bust in the door, and start first talking about how amazing YOUR summer was -- without them"

So I did, or rather tried to do. As a result I'm only just trying to publicly digest what I've gone through. My first attempt last night was targeted at some wonderful friends we meet with on Wednesday's to discuss things people are involved in. The presentation* was a partial success - I forgot how scared people (including me) are when they first hear about these innovations. So my plan - to make up for Singularity's biggest flaw, and to explore how these great new technologies can be applied to where they are needed most, didn't really work out. Instead we spent most of the time digesting what has happened.

Maybe that's where it's at though now. Shows what a seminal experience Singularity was that now, 2 months later, i still have no clue how to talk about it.




*(watch out, its meant for private consumption so I haven't sorted out the copyright issues)

Peju Alatise - Material Witness

Miss this at your peril!

Moving

I started posting in the Our Lagos series only a month or so back, but the feedback has been phenomenal. There's clearly demand for positive stories coming out of Lagos. And yet, I'm not the only one living on the Lagos bright side. Thus, I've decided to move Our Lagos stories to a different website (our-lagos.com) and open it up to other contributors. If you or anybody you know wants to contribute, just hit me up. In the meantime I've  removed the relevant posts from this blog and will continue to post intermittently on other interesting stuff I've come across.

Hope you enjoy it.

Religious Masses

I've been looking for this video for ages... The video says it shows 2mn people in an open air church service in Lagos at one time. The way the video looks I believe it.

Massive, outdoor services are happen regularly here. One, at the Redeemed Camp, is organized by the largest evangelical church movement in Nigeria, and happens monthly. People joke that if Redeemed did an IPO it would be the one share they buy. But more on the church later, first of all one has to admire the sheer scale of the movements...

Star Commercial

Star is Nigeria's national beer. Even though it's now owned by Heineken it still comes straight to mind when people think of beer in the country. As in, "Let's go have some Star and Suya".

The brand came out with a pretty cool commercial recently (well maybe year ago but I've never seen it!). It evokes the "good old times" (if ever they existed), playing a popular highlife tune and shows a bit of the colourful reality of the country today. A proud, spirited, happy people living in a beautiful country too often ignored. Our Lagos.

Our Lagos

OUR Lagos is beautiful and positive. I've thought a lot about how to put it in words: The energy, the culture, the reality of love and happiness and excitement all intensified by the contrast to the harsh realities of the city. The unending tiredness that comes from a overly hectic life, and the tranquility of a beautiful garden in the middle of the city. It makes me warm and fuzzy inside.

I want to scream it out to the world, but as you can see I'm not very good at that. I want to show everybody that our Lagos is not one giant squalor or full of playroom extravagance. Hanna, a friend that has just left did this in her own special way. We need more Hanna's. So from today, I'm going to start a new series of posts as an ode to Lagos, Our Lagos.

We don't ignore the hard parts of life in the city, but they get enough attention. There may be a rant from time to time. If there is, please ignore. Lagos' beauty comes in a thousand pieces; I hope I can piece them together for you.

PS: This mini-series has outgrown my blog, and I wanted to invite others to join the fray. As a result we've started a new site and posted all the posts there. Have a look.

Juju in Lagos

Favorite story of the week...

 

published in Business Day, today

Trips from Lagos

In the process of trying to persuade my family to come out here later this year, I was writing an email about where they should go when I figured I could do this in Google Maps. I'd seen it done but never been geeky enough myself. Well now I have: Quite easy really!

Below is the map, with highlighted descriptions of Lagos, Osogbo, Kano and Katsina Durbars, Calabar Area, Benin (country), and Ghana.

Given the limited guidebooks for the area (to my knowledge there's only one of any use), this might be quite an interesting project to continue. If you want to help de-personalize, detail and increase the list of places to go, let me know and I'll invite you.


View Trips from Lagos in a larger map

Sangodare

The Adunni Olorisha Trust, the organization that is trying to maintain and promote the legacy of Suzanne Wenger, and in doing so protect the Sacred Groves of Osogbo (one of only two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Nigeria), is at work. We've organized an exhibition of Sangodare's work - one of the adopted children of Suzanne and the most promising artist amongst the New Sacred Art movement. The event's on Saturday in Lagos - email me if you want to come.

I help the Trust out as much as I can and am up there quite often as a result. If you're in Lagos and would like to come to Osogbo sometime, let me know.

Femi

High time I let Femi Kuti leave his mark on this site. I've been to the New Shrine a couple of times now (the dancers have got to be seen to be believed), and his latest grammy-nominated album has been on repeat in the car for a while. Gotta say that I though Seun, his younger half-brother, was stronger but he's blown it of late with poor performances, empty words and an arrogant attitude. Plus, Let's Make History (called Day by Day elsewhere) has really pulled through for me. Check out the intro on this:


(Artist: Femi Kuti; Title: Tell me; Album: Let's Make History [Nigeria])

Finally Digging, or: Mr. T's magical musical wonderland

Finally got to hang out with Mr. T, a record collecting legend in Lagos. Tony has been collecting records around Lagos for decades, and has built a massive collection. Scavengers like me have been to his Afrobeat section before me, so there's only a couple of hundred left, but that's still pure gold. As are his high-life, jazz, funk and "sentimental" sections.

Tony's business has seen better times. Formerly a DJ, he now sells rips of his records after leaving the party business to one of his apprentices because, he says, the young guys don't understand music and he doesn't have the time for the new stuff. After being kicked out as a resident DJ at an Ikoyi hotel that's now been replaced by the Southern Sun, he set up shop in a central market. Now his landlady there has kicked him out he's back to the "ghetto" (his words), the village on the outskirts of Lagos where he's been building a house for the last 20 years. I think the house may need another 10 or so, but he's got an amazing garden, and more than enough room to stack all the music (see photo, with Mr. T).

Spent a good couple of hours digging around, and as a start I've asked him to make a list of what he's got. The good man doesn't even know how many records he has (I reckon 6 to 10 thousand). He's also given me the names, numbers and addresses of most of the other big music oga's in Lagos, so I should be set digging wise for the next few months. Amazing!

Carried Away

I'm not sure art auctions and champagne are a good mix. Never mind, it was fun and I ended up in with a rather good deal, me thinks. Though where to put it is quite a different question.

Ben Osaghae

Repeat Offenders

2005

Oil on Canvas

124.5 x 101.6 (49 x 40 in.)