Motley Kamuka

5/21/21.I woke up early and started reading The Sun Also Rises.  What an anti-semitic novel, I forgot that. I guess it was before WW2, so antisemitism was in the air. Hemingway doesn't transcend it, he uses it. Unfortunate. I haven't watched the PBS documentary because I'm pretty familiar with the dark side, the myth has worn off on Hemingway for me. The joys of middle age disillusionment. I'm not canceling him, I've read his books so many times. I'm just probably not going to read anything after this last reading. I've been to the Hemingway museum in Chicago, and the Hemingway house in Key West. I've been to the cafes in Paris he went to. I've read all his books, except the postumus one. Maybe I'll read that. I liked The Left Hand of Darkness , so I can handle androgyny. I could see teaching a short story or Farewell To Arms or For Whom The Bell Tolls. I tried to read a mystery set in an English department in Amherst, that was sort of about Dic...

"Righteousness porn is such a good phrase. I think there’s also an unfortunate counter-tendency any time certain subjects come up that people want to talk critically about, racism or sexuality or gender or feminism. The sirens go off and people start talking about “cancel culture,” which always seems to me a reason to tune out talking about any of those things that make us uncomfortable." A.O. Scott From " How a Review Changed Both Sarah Silverman and Our Critic " NY Times Later: "Well, adjectives are the terrible crutch of criticism. I try to teach students, don’t throw a bunch of adjectives at something and think that that’s a review."

I'm reading a novel set in the future in Nigeria, and thought I would travel to Lagos . I've been listening to some Nigerian music . I thought to travel to Africa, the birthplace of humanity. Lagos is Portuguese for Lagoon. Lagos is the second largest city in Africa. Kinshasa is the biggest, Cairo is the largest. Don't ask me the difference between biggest and largest. There is an island, and then the city has spread out as it has grown. Lagos Lagoon leads to the Atlantic Ocean. It overlooks southwards the Gulf of Guinea . Nigeria is bordered by the African countries of Benin, Niger, Chad and Cameroon. The coldest month is August, but since it is near the equator the temperature does not vary as much. June is the rainy month, with January the driest month. As a Knicks fan, I hate in a sporting way, Hakeem Olajuwon , who was born in Lagos. Writers Buchi Emecheta  (1944-2017) "In 1960, she married Sylvester Onwordi,[5][7] a schoolboy to whom she had been engaged sinc...

I've been going to places via the internet, by looking at videos  (lots of ads, hope he makes money), listening to music ( Fairuz , Spotify ), and reading Wikipedia pages ( Beirut ). When I first googled Beirut, the videos were either songs or protests, it took me a while to find a walking tour.  My idea that there has been conflict there is from the civil war that was there 1975-1990, which the Taif Agreement began to end. "...the United States, have frequently placed Lebanon, and Beirut in particular, on their travel warnings lists due to the many car bombings and orchestrated acts of political violence." Eight percent of the tourists are from the USA.  "In Travel + Leisure magazine's World Best Awards 2006, it was ranked the 9th best city in the world." Then the  2006 Lebanon War broke out, a 34 day military conflict. "Cosmetic surgery is a major component of medical tourism in Lebanon." In 2020 a ship blew up. I'm listening to Fairuz: ...

 There’s a bee In the honeysuckle  Flies off I hope I don’t  Unready myself

Tade Thompson is a person with  Yoruba heritage, living in London. I may have gotten points from my Nigerian neighbor for reading a novel set in Nigeria. I don't think my friend is Yoruba though. The novel is competent. The narrator is interesting and the others around him are interesting. The plot skips around time. Is that more interesting? Nobody writes a linear story any more.  I love learning culture, and I hope I'm getting some cultural knowledge about Nigeria and Yoruba culture. Culture is funny because a stereotype has information, it's just not that rigid, and doesn't really tell me how tightly people cling to those stereotypes. A person from that culture hopefully provides neutral information with some negatives and some positives. When I was a social worker everything was culture culture culture, and I miss that. I ask people at the park, but it turns out it's not easy to talk about for most people. Culture is something hidden in the background, like Ka...

After reading the first canto, I wasn't really grooving to the Ciardi translation I had of Purgatorio . I missed the immediacy of footnotes at the bottom of the page. I didn't like the introduction blending into the text, unlike the Nichols translation of the Inferno.  I found this introduction to the first canto of Paradiso on YouTube . Patrick Boyde (University of Cambridge) in conversation with John Bruce-Jones (StantonMarris)

  Learning about the questions about his life and the ambiguous evidence. How many children? What was he like? What do we know about the other people in his life? Shakespeare the person is mostly lost to us through the mist of time. So 3 centuries earlier aren't going to have a lot of info.  I like this list of creatures in Canto XXIV: Jaculi : Jaculis were capable of camouflaging themselves, comparable to the famed ability of a chameleon, changing the color of their skin to match their surroundings. They were also known to be talented climbers and swimmers. Some described them as being capable of launching themselves with a force and accuracy comparable to that of javelins. ( Wikipedia ) Amphisboenae : Head at each end. According to Greek mythology, the amphisbaena was spawned from the blood that dripped from the Gorgon Medusa's head as Perseus flew over the Libyan Desert with her head in his hand, after which Cato's army then encountered it along with other serpent...

This animation movie  was based on a video game . I think I'd like to play this video game. The way our world has evolved people are more likely to be exposed to Dante's ideas through a video game than through reading his text, or in my case, a translation of the text. The voice of Graham McTavish is perfect. Dante has lost his way. That got me thinking that it's not often talked about that when you are ethical, you have the gladdening. Life is good because you don't feel guilty all the time. Also when you lose your path, you have this kind of lost sick feeling. That is the feeling that the movie conveys. This movie makes Beatrice an active lover (instead of the real Dante who met her twice, and fantasized about here), and Dante has gone off to war. I makes Dante a warrior instead of a poet. And Beatrice betrays him by betting against the devil that he will betray her going off to war. He does not and the Devil claims her, and he goes off to get her from hell. I can se...

Smalls is a lovely jazz club I've been to many times. Like many businesses, they give out free content, and hope you donate. Go donate to Smalls, if you enjoy the amazing jazz they provide. Tonight I'm listening to: Melissa Aldana / Tenor Sax Charles Altura / Guitar Sullivan Fortner / Piano Pablo Menares / Bass Kush Abadey / Drums Amazing.

My sons loved the movies, but my daughter isn't into movies in general, but I want to get her into these. Hayao Miyazaki's Films: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) I watched Nausicaa today. I love how living in harmony with nature is such a strong theme. I love the visuals, the crazy mustaches, the princess as heroine.  Castle in the Sky (1986) My Neighbor Totoro (1988) Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) Porco Rosso (1992) Princess Mononoke (1997) Spirited Away (2001) Howl's Moving Castle (2004) Ponyo (2008) The Wind Rises (2013) How Do You Live? (TBA)

I read about bongcloud opening  in a Guardian article about the double bongcloud open between two grandmasters. So I went to Chess.com and played a game with the bongcloud opening. And I won with 4 seconds left in a 5 minute! The idea is you do the most stupid opening and that throws your opponent off. Hilarious. Sometimes when I play people who don't know how to play it's quite complicated because all the patterns are thrown off.