Munich and Lagos Trips

2006-Munich

2006-Lagos, Nigeria

You couldn't pick two more disparate destinations:
the peacefulness of orderly Germany and the bustle of the most populous West African city.

There was certainly some mayhem in the gigantic beer tents of the Bavarian Oktoberfest. Just imagine 9000 happy drunken chanting revelers under one tent hoisting huge liter mugs of delicious oktoberfest beer. And the beaches and living compounds in Lagos were islands of tranquility.

But overall I was very impressed with the serenity of Munich, even though its metropolitan area is home to 2.7 million people. There are public parks and outstanding playgrounds everywhere. Fields of fruits, vegetables and flowers have unattented deposit boxes for payment after you've helped yourself. My brother and his wife feel that time goes by slower there.

Lagos on the other hand was an exhilarating ride. With all its internet phising scams and frequent alarming mentions in the news, Nigeria has an unfairly rotten reputation. I did see naked corpses by the side of the road, just lying there, ignored. And I also found a rich vibrant culture with friendly people. I picked up some priceless old 70's LPs from the heyday of the High Life Nigerian music scene. I got to witness legendary Afro Beat founder Fela Kuti's son, Femi, proudly carry his father's torch in twice weekly concerts at his New Africa Shrine nightclub. My sister took me through the mazes of colossal markets where we haggled over wonderful pieces of art and crafts.

A dear friend just did a tour of Togo, Burkina et Bénin. And she put it simply: "Bénin was the poorest and also the one with the most liveliness."

In Nigeria, arguably the world's most corrupt country, you always have to be savvy and on your guard. Which of course wasn't too hard when i had the privilege of an armed patrol car escort in the evenings. All in all it was a memorable trip and I very much look forward to getting back there and exploring the country and the culture beyond Lagos.

Click on the pix above for some narrated photos.
The picasaweb slideshow works great.

Didgeridoo Trumps Snores

In an sound and offbeat study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers have determined that regular playing of a didgeridoo can help alleviate chronic snoring and sleep apnea.

Spurred by anecdotal evidence that rocking out the didg reduced snoring in new students of the instrument, a Swiss team of doctors successfully tested out the resounding hypothesis.

They found that since playing the didgeridoo requires a controlled breathing pattern, practicing to play it strenghens the muscles of the upper airways which control airway dilation and wall stiffening. As a result, regular playing of a didgeridoo reduced daytime sleepiness and snoring in people with moderate obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome, not to mention improving the sleep quality of their bed partners.

Time to dust mine off and didg on!

Rafting the Youghiogheny at Ohiopyle

O so very much excitement was had rafting with the gang.
Even our friend chillin' out in the back eventually got
soaked in fun too. Admire his great poise and beer
holding technique.

Going Nuts for Maine

A couple of my buds dropped everything and moved to
Maine last summer much to the general puzzlement.

I finally got up there to check on their sanity and
these pictures should amply illustrate their utter nuttiness.
















Beer in Hand, Nuts in Lake
















Crazy Happy Smiles Over St George Lake
















Insane Jesus/Buddha Clouds
















Improvised PeaNutty Bobber
















Mad Swingin' Jesus Stuff

Bob Marley Roots Rock Reggae Festival

It was a glorious sun-kissed and reggae-soaked steamy
Washington summer afternoon on Sunday, August 27th.

The superb Wolf Trap was the perfect venue for witnessing
Bunny Wailer, the only surviving reggae legend from the
original Wailers trio with Bob and Peter Tosh.

The excellent funky latin fusion band Ozomatli got everyone
grooving early before Bunny commanded the stage in a great
all white get-up. At 59 years old, he was dancing and bouncing
all over like a true elder reggae statesman.


















Stephen kept it simple and succesfully channeled his father
while Ziggy mostly tried some of his own material which
cannot possibly clear the majestic shadow of his dad's legacy.

















So here's to hoping that the famously reclusive and spiritual Bunny
will be touring solo real soon.

Roots skankin'!

The evils of government

"The evils of government are directly proportional
to the tolerance of the people."
- Frank Kent

Hot Chili Jail Break

Here's a muy caliente! story:

       Eighteen selfish Sumatran prisoners stormed out of a
prison by spraying chili water in the guards' eyes;
thus unwittingly condemning the rest of the prisonners
to forever eating bland food. Now that's a harsh sentence.
       My lunch today was enlived by a few precious drops
of some fiery chili sauce, homegrown and homemade by
a coworker's mother-in-law from Trinidad.
       No more fiery hot chili!? That's hell.

Halloween in August

Only about 2
months till
HALLOWEEN.
It's never too
early to start
organizing and
thinking about
costumes.
I think I found
mine!

After serving
up shots all
night, some
might start to
see me like
in this picture...

Meet you in Zzyzx

Founded in the Mohave desert by some wacko in the mid 40's.
That'll score ya a minimum of 84 points in scrabble!

Hamza El Din 1929 - 2006

Hamza El Din passed away a
few weeks ago.

He was a grand master of
subtlety, understatement,
and quiet intensity.

Witnessing him perform
live was a spiritual blessing
I feel immensely fortunate
to have seen him twice.

He lives on in our memories
and through his marvellous
recordings. "A Wish" is a
quintessential world music
testament.

Like Miles Davis or great bluesmen, Hamza's gift to the world
was hypnoticly heartfelt music: simple, eloquent proof that
less can be so much more.

The comfort that we'll always have his music to accompany us
helps alleviate the great sadness of his passing.

Here's to Hamza.
Let the notes speak for themselves.



Obituaries: Guardian, NYTimes

Summer Grillin'

"i loves meself some barbecue,
and don't forget that coleslaw too"

Answer to the Simmah

There once was a prankster
by the name SimSimmah.
Cobwebs ailed the poor sir
but he loved a wee snigger.




His peers he liked to diss
spewing quips of a cur.
The meat of his last slur:
scrotum elephantiasis

Photos of a grand hunk
he flashed, the gadfly.
Here lays plain my reply:
SimSinnah, eat my trunk

HP Memory Spot Chip

This itsy bitsy speck is a chip from HP which contains memory,
a modem, an antenna and also a microprocessor for kicks.

It measures 2-4mm square and currently holds up to 512k of data.
Wireless data transfert rates are up to 10 megabits/sec,
mucho faster than the current standards for Bluetooth or RFID tags.
And best of all, no battery is required since devices communicating
with the chip can provide power by induction.

A Recovery Day

It was fairly flat day today for the 18th stage of Le Tour de France.
And FLandis said it was a nice little "recovery day" for him
after his crazy victory yesterday, 5"42 ahead of anyone else.
Just a little 197km stroll at an average of 28 mph to relax the legs, ya know.

Wait for it....

Hmmmm.... 5 gallons of
homebrew slowly
fermenting and
macerating.....
That's close to 20 gallons
of beer that i loaded with
sour cherry juice, fresh
sour cherries, jars of sour
cherries and dried sour
cherries. Can you guess
the flavor? Should be
ready for bottling in a
couple months then
maybe another month
at least of maturing.
Waiting is the hardest part.

Fun with Maps

hmmm... thirsty...

Saluting a Living Legend

You can choose to click away to give the Zizou
to the foul-mouthed Materazzis or let them slide...

Jah Foreign Accent Syndrome, mon

A 60-year-old woman wakes up
after a stroke speaking with a
Jamaican accent.

After a brain injury, her
distinctive Newcastle accent has
been replaced by a mixture of
Jamaican, French Canadian and
Slovakian accents.

Dat poo' ooman, har inna wan jam mon.

"Researchers at Oxford University have found that patients
with Foreign Accent Syndrome have suffered damage to tiny
areas of the brain that affect speech.

The result is often a drawing out or clipping of the vowels that
mimic the accent of a particular country, such as Spain or France,
even though the sufferer has limited exposure to that accent.

The syndrome was first identified during World War II, when
a Norwegian woman suffered shrapnel damage to her brain.
She developed a strong German accent, which led to her being
ostracised by her community." BBC News

Ants Use Internal Pedometer to Measure Distance

For my first college presentation, I learned about
desert ants using the sun's polarized light to keep their bearings.

When they leave their nest, they wander all over the place
to look for food, then they amazingly head back home
in the most direct straight line.












The sky can help them keep track of direction
but not of distance. According to a new study,
involving eeeeksperiments where their legs
were lenghened or amputated, these ants keep
track of distance by counting the number of steps
they took. impressive.

Here's the full BBC story.

Oxymoronic

On my way back from lunch carpooling with a coworker
yesterday - yes i should have packed a lunch -
I saw this puzzling spectacle:
an Escalade carrying two bicycles.

The 2005 Cadillac Escalade AWD retails for more than
50K and has a V8 engine delivering 345 hp that are really
vital in this ruthless urban jungle that the DC area is.
Its optimistic EPA mileage estimate is 13/17 mpg.
Even driving like I do, i get 28mpg in my 1.7l 170hp
13 year old 3 door coupe.

Last week there was sobering report from an environmental
group which has worked with McDonald's and FedEx.
A study by Environmental Defense has
determined that American automobiles are responsible for
nearly half of the greenhouse gases emitted by cars globally
although they constitute only 30 percent of the world’s autos.
The authors argued that cars in the U.S. are driven
more miles, have lower fuel economy requirements and use
fuel with more carbon than in most other countries.

As individuals, we can at least address 2 of these factors.
-drive less and smarter
-buy more fuel efficient vehicules.

And if you're not rich enough to buy a new hybrid car
and love your old trusty reasonably efficient and fun wheels,
just bitch about it like me, there'll be enough of us eventually.