Category: mapenzi

The owls are not what they seem.

“I love Twin Peaks and it’s world.” (David Lynch )

I remember way back in 1991, my sister had this sudden affection for Twin Peaks – the more or less famous mystery serial drama by David Lynch/Mark Frost.

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The Log Lady

While growing up in Nairobi, living more or less under a rock when it came to video entertainment (which, by that time, consisted of a) renting videos from the various video libraries in Nairobi as well as b) asking visitors from abroad to record MTV’s Alternative Nation for my special music needs), I never really got into this Twin Peaks thingy back in 1991 & 1992 during a holiday trip to Germany.

Years later on I watched with great pleasures his other works such as Mulholland Drive or Blue Velvet . Little did I know by that time that I would one day engage to a woman who is some sort of a REAL fan of David Lynch’s work.

[edit: video removed!]

My fiancée LOVES Twin Peaks, has all of it on DVDs and VHS, heck she even has this special Dale Cooper diary on tape. Needless to mention she initially fell for me because I apparently reminded her of (the main character) FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (14yrs ago, maybe).

So, after about 20 years of its creation, I eventually spoiled my Twin Peaks virginity and started my video trip into the world of Twin Peaks and its characters about a week ago. And although I’ve so far only enjoyed 22 of the available 29 episodes (+ the prequel film called “Twin Peaks – Fire Walk With Me” ), I can already tell you that Twin Peaks really is some of the finest mystery/drama stories on film.

In 2007 Twin Peaks was listed as one of Time magazine’s “100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME.” (src)

Sure, we’re in 2010 now and there may be other – also popular – mystery series available on TV, and Twin Peaks may have started this off back in the days, but as opposed to Fringe, Lost or even the X-Files, there’s already sooooo much more to Twin Peaks a fan will love about it that imo will never happen to most other series:

Damn good acting, coupled with a timeless beauty and some weird stuff only a freak like David Lynch can make up (and find a producer who secures the funding for it).

“The owls are not what they seem.” is a quote from Twin Peaks – and much like most other characters, sceneries and items mentioned on Twin Peaks, everyone and everything has at least two different sides. I like that because there’s no single truth out there. Something like that makes you think about it – and lets you compile a blog post on it 20 years after it was first mentioned on TV.

The internet seems to be full of tributes to Twin Peaks. The following may be a bit different. Enjoy!

I’ll Be There in Twin Peaks from Mashed in Plastic on Vimeo.

Alle Jahre wieder…

“Ich möcht Dich mal sehen wie Du drei Tage lange im Altersheim hockst und Händchen hältst….aber einen Tag lang können wir das gerne mal machen.”

Das Fest der Liebe, das (christliche) Weihnachtsfest steht vor der Tür und schon jetzt im November wurde ich mit der Frage konfrontiert, “was wir eigentlich an Weihnachten machen”.

Meistens weiß man ja nicht was man möchte – sondern nur das, was man nicht möchte.

Was ich nicht möchte:

  • zu Hause doof rumsitzen und Kalorien bunkern
  • mir über den materiellen Wert von Geschenken Gedanken machen (müssen)
  • etwas Feiern, dass ich lieber das ganze Jahr über (er)leben würde: eine gerechte Welt und ein liebevolles und ehrliches Miteinander

Abgesehen von der Möglichkeit, im Kreis der verbliebenen Familie gemeinsam die Zeit totzuschlagen und damit die Nähe nachzuholen, die ich das ganze Jahr über ob des Wechsels in eine andere Stadt sträflichst vernachlässigt habe, verkommt das Weihnachtsfest als Solches für mich immer mehr zu einem Ritual wie Ostern oder – noch schlimmer – Karneval.

Statt sich über all diesen Frust zu ärgern, würde ich gerne etwas von meiner Energie abgeben und diejenigen beglücken, die damit am Wenigsten rechnen. Nur: wo?

  • Im Kinderheim in Kenia – wäre super, aber zu teuer wg Flug, Unterkunft, usw.
  • Im lokalen Alters-/Pflegeheim? – habe ich schon mal gemacht, und kommt für mich auch ganz auf die Gemeinde an.
  • Im Bahnhofsviertel in FFM bei den Drogenabhängigen?
  • ???

Ich könnte das Weihnachtsfest dieses Jahr auch einfach ignorieren und irgendwo als Hilfskraft arbeiten. Natürlich kann ich so etwas nur deswegen sagen, weil ich den 9-5 job an den Nagel gehängt, mich selbstständig gemacht habe und wir z.Zt. noch kinderlos sind. Für alle anderen bedeutet das Fest wohl vor allem 2-3 Tage bezahlter Urlaub.

Aber ganz abgesehen davon, welchen Stellenwert dieses Fest für jeden Einzelnen hat – wie werdet Ihr Euer Weihnachtsfest verbringen? Und was werdet Ihr dazu beitragen?

Bauchentscheidungen

Wann weiß man(n) eigentlich, wann man die Richtige (Lebensabschnittsgefährtin) gefunden hat?

Wird das dann irgendwo angezeigt oder bekommt man es gesagt?

Neulich stand ich in einem Laden und sah eine sehr schöne Lederjacke. “Boah, die isset…”, dachte ich mir, “…aber der Preis…naa…kann ich mir nicht wirklich leisten”. Angezogen sah sie aber wirklich gut aus und war genau (!) das wonach ich geschaut hatte.

1 Woche später habe ich sie mir dann gekauft und bin seitdem glücklich damit.

Geht das auch so leicht mit Beziehungen? Wann weiß man, ob es die richtige Partnerin ist? Wenn man sie mit den Exen vergleicht? Oder mit der erstellten Liste der Traumfraumerkmale? Und was ist mit den christlichen Freunden, die irgendwie alle schon so (gefühlt)vorzeitig heiraten? Haben die ihre Wahl jemals bereut?

Not that I haven’t made up my mind on this. Ich glaube aber im Leben eines Mannes gibt es diese “George Clooney-ich-will-mich-nicht-festlegen” Momente. Ob das gut ist? Keine Ahnung.

Die Erkenntnis jedoch, dass man mit einer Person wirklich bis zum Ende zusammen sein und alles teilen möchte – das ist meiner Meinung nach genauso wichtig wie über evtl. Zweifel zu diskutieren. Daher die Frage: inweit darf, kann oder muss eine Entscheidung zur Partnerschaft eine Bauchentscheidung sein?

Oder anders gefragt: welcher Maßstab muss zur Beurteilung des eigenen Befindlichkeitzustandes angelegt werden? – Wie weiß man, wann es einem gut geht?

Après l’amour, le repentir.

Is this already mainstream cinema?

2 Days in Paris – a wonderful movie on sex, food and relationships.? And this although it beautifully covers the cliché of both the French & American’s inability to communicate in any other language then their own, the cliché of the French(wo)men always talking about sex & food, racist tendencies in a multicultural Paris (~ taxi driver scenes), the freedom of soixante-huitards and all of this embedded into never-ending neurotic conversations between all actors.

If you already liked Before Sunrise & Before Sunset, you’ll definitely like this one.

Here’s the final scene:

I especially liked it being in both French & English, even the German version is in German and a subtitled French (that’s btw one thing I will never understand about Germany: dubbed movies. They usually dub all of them – which is also why most Germans have such a bad pronounciation of English words. If you never get to hear the original version, there’s no real comparison possible…sigh).

Ndanka ndanka mooy japa golo chi nyaay

Ndanka ndanka mooy japa golo chi nyaay is a Wolof proverb meaning “slowly slowly (it) catches the monkey in the bush” (~ no hurry in Africa).

Ndanka ndanka…also is a running gag between my colleague Abdoulaye and me – and it somehow describes my pleasant anticipation for the really good stuff out there on the internet: passionate music collectors (aka connaisseur de l’art) that have somehow managed to share their secret passion for the good old & rare tunes with a much bigger audience through regularly updated blogs & even full documentaries. Actually, this is what collecting music is all about. Sharing and enjoying all those stories behind artists who never really made it to the *official* (mainstream?) Hall of Fame.

(via)

Frank actually reminds me of Duncan Brooker – another crazy DJs who spends his life chasing old “plates”. If you like sites like VoodooFunk, AwesomeTapes from Africa, Benn loxo du taccu, AfroFunkForum, Akwaaba Sound System and Analoge Africa (to name just a few popular ones) and if music ethnology is part of your various interests, then these films are just for you. Enjoy!

“In some cases I’m the first person to talk to these guys about their music in thirty years … I’ve seen incredible things, heard extraordinary stories. In one instance I heard about people looking for a place to live be cause things have gotten so shitty in some of these places , that they would just go into the vaults of recording studios and just grab all the tapes, and pressing plates and old acetates and just burn it all just to make room for a place to sleep. It began to dawn on me that if I didn’t try to save this music no one would. I decided to build an archive and rather that just bootleg the music, like others often do, I’d start trying to get the license and see what more I could discover.”
– Duncan Brooker

THANK YOU, FRANK & DUNCAN!

(I’ve mentioned Legends of Afrobeat three years ago and am still hoping for a release soon. Ndanka ndanka…)

And finally, another interesting documentary, this time on (contemporary) musicians in Kinshasa:

“It’s all here…this (cultural) wealth”. – But do I say? :-)

Kichango kuchangizana (part 2)

It just took me less than 2 minutes to donate some mbeca to the Red Cross Society in Kenya – online, via mamamikes.com.

mama mikes peace logo

With your support we will buy food, slippers, blankets, clothes, sanitary products, etc. All these items are going to the Kenya Red Cross Society. Who are distributing them to Kenyans in need.

Your action will make a difference. The more help, the bigger the difference. Please act.

If you have some money left to share with those who will make good use of it and are willing to use an online payment service, please feel free to contribute via a service such as mamamikes.com.

If anything, we can only rely on Kenyans helping each other.

w00t!

Dear Colleagues,

in case I happen to be out of office during the next few weeks – here’s why:

SANY0651

Seriously, after 1hour of playing with this awesome gadget, figuring out all important shortcuts & testing various applications like surfing & phoning via WLAN (VoIP…sweet!) or the internal GPS, I realized that this new phone really is a kick-ass gadgetimoja. In fact, it is the best Nokia I’ve ever used.
Especially since I am migrating from a Nokia 6230i which runs on the S40/2nd edition operating system, whereas the Nokia N95 comes with a cool S60/3rd edition OS.

For my non-techie readers:

  • S40/2nd = driving to Mombasa in a Toyota Corolla
  • S60/3rd = being driven to Mombasa in a luxurious Mercedes Viano mini bus, with nice music, a great video system, a playstation on board as well as a broadband internet connection all the way from downtown Nbo to Likoni ferry.
  • (this phone with an external wireless keyboard, available as an optional extension = flying to Mombasa)

N.B.:
1. The Ministry of Finance has not been informed on this purchase.
2. Financing for this device has been secured through external fundings, with lots of donors support and a fair interest rate.
3. WTx is an iPhone? :-)

Awesome Tapes from Africa

For those of you who love this particular tape culture from the continent, pls head over to “Awesome Tapes from Africa“, activate your delicious playtagger javascript bookmark/Browser button and tune into lots of fine songs.

Thank you, Brian!

It really makes me happy to see how blogs have actually caught up and started providing it’s readers & listeners with some fine mp3 which otherwise would have been forgotten as these tunes from the continent from ~1950 – 1990 are a bit lost sometimes. Musicblogs and pop-archives such as youtube that cover this era are some of the sweetest things for me on the internet.

[via Andreas]