Wednesday, November 30, 2016
All-Time Top 10 Posts by Number of Pageviews on Mauri Yambo Blog, November 26, 2016
Click here to view the all-tme top ten posts ~ as of November 26, 2016
Just before this new post, there were 707 published posts on this blog, and 42 'drafts' awaiting completion or withdrawn from 'circulation' and/or wholly replaced. This new post changes those figures to 708 and 41, respectively. That's roughly six published posts per month on average, from the beginning. The pace has been growing 'some'. So there u r.
A click on any post (that is, any blog page) represents a Google-tracked pageview. Naturally, posts differ by 'volume' of clicks that they attract week by week, month by month, 'season' by 'season' -- and/or theme by theme. Certainly, all bloggers are interested in this kind of thing -- though their own "creator's"/parental sunga will give certain favorite posts a tweetin' lift. But in the end, if the favors turn out to be thinly spread, this doesn't amount to much, and the reader remains sovereign.
It's even a thrill to witness how the rankings and 'fortunes' of individual posts ebb and flow on their own over longish time, and how reader-interest asserts itself in the way gaps (here narrowing and there widening, or widening and widening) between certain pairs of posts play out. Indeed, in the way relative positions shift with time and, just when you're not looking, a post that seemed resilient falls back into that great chasm, that reverse-purgatory of sorts which lies treacherously between Blogger's Month and All Time, and is lost among 'upstarts' lying in wait for just that kind of chance to leap, roughshod over all them weary and fallen bodies, into the Big Time.
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
A Thought ~ 7: Social Capital
Networks -- even social networks (or "personal relationships") -- are not in themselves social capital, as one understands the latter term. They are instead the infrastructure of/for social capital. Indeed, they provide the channel(s) through which social capital, or any other shareable resource, may flow freely or with a mix of subtle and explicit impediments (some personal and some social-structural) -- and so be variably put in store.
Social capital itself is a resource painstakingly built up (alright, accumulated) over uncertain time, in the course of a protracted and multi-faceted social exchange -- via those very same networks. It is in that way akin to physical and financial capital, for example, though these latter are products of apparently and potentially more formal and ipso facto more regulated market exchanges.
But social capital is, more emphatically, the consequence at once of a specific pattern of participation in, and the operations of, a given form -- or forms or networks -- of social exchange. The wealth accumulated from such exchange assumes various forms and shapes in social space -- simultaneously fuzzy and tangible -- each of which is typically a continuum (rather than an either/or), but none of which can be quoted on the stock or currency exchange. Examples of these essentially qualitative and broadly synonymous 'forms' are, in alphabetical order: adulation/admiration, celebrity/popularity/reputation/renown, charisma, dignity, eminence/prominence, endearment, esteem, gratitude (of others), honor, influence, leadership, power, prestige, respect, status/standing/stature/approval, and trust(worthiness).
To reiterate: neither are the capital markets and associated lines and points of access in any way a substitute for the actual capital which the investor may gain, hold or lose while operating in or through them, nor are the social networks and related lines and nodes (or sets) of reciprocity the social capital which the savvy social actor (as opposed to the nonchalant or anti-social one) eufunctionally harvests. Social capital is precisely that which is reciprocated -- the content of the reciprocation -- and not the underlying reciprocal relations/networks as such, important as these are.
Updated: November 29-30, 2016
Social capital itself is a resource painstakingly built up (alright, accumulated) over uncertain time, in the course of a protracted and multi-faceted social exchange -- via those very same networks. It is in that way akin to physical and financial capital, for example, though these latter are products of apparently and potentially more formal and ipso facto more regulated market exchanges.
But social capital is, more emphatically, the consequence at once of a specific pattern of participation in, and the operations of, a given form -- or forms or networks -- of social exchange. The wealth accumulated from such exchange assumes various forms and shapes in social space -- simultaneously fuzzy and tangible -- each of which is typically a continuum (rather than an either/or), but none of which can be quoted on the stock or currency exchange. Examples of these essentially qualitative and broadly synonymous 'forms' are, in alphabetical order: adulation/admiration, celebrity/popularity/reputation/renown, charisma, dignity, eminence/prominence, endearment, esteem, gratitude (of others), honor, influence, leadership, power, prestige, respect, status/standing/stature/approval, and trust(worthiness).
To reiterate: neither are the capital markets and associated lines and points of access in any way a substitute for the actual capital which the investor may gain, hold or lose while operating in or through them, nor are the social networks and related lines and nodes (or sets) of reciprocity the social capital which the savvy social actor (as opposed to the nonchalant or anti-social one) eufunctionally harvests. Social capital is precisely that which is reciprocated -- the content of the reciprocation -- and not the underlying reciprocal relations/networks as such, important as these are.
Updated: November 29-30, 2016
Monday, November 28, 2016
A Thought ~ 6: Playing Your Song
People shouldn't (be expected to) play your song -- and won't want it played for them -- out of a misplaced empathy with poor you (though parents and family and some friends may show such blind love and mean it, at least for a while). And you shouldn't help anyone along that dreary path any longer than love can bear. They should play it because they honestly like it, or want to hear it -- again and again, even.
To like it, they must first know it -- having heard it. They might of course like it in anticipation, having heard of it from people whose tastes, and perhaps sentiments, they trust; and even from you.
Better to hear it directly, though, so as to be certain about what is to like about it. And so it must fit into a genre that appeals to them -- though the ear, whose twin is the more judgmental eye, is the abode of a more generous and accommodating sense. Generally, then: to hear it, one must know where and how to get it; and one must have the means and the inclination, and peace of mind, to do so.
To like it, they must first know it -- having heard it. They might of course like it in anticipation, having heard of it from people whose tastes, and perhaps sentiments, they trust; and even from you.
Better to hear it directly, though, so as to be certain about what is to like about it. And so it must fit into a genre that appeals to them -- though the ear, whose twin is the more judgmental eye, is the abode of a more generous and accommodating sense. Generally, then: to hear it, one must know where and how to get it; and one must have the means and the inclination, and peace of mind, to do so.
Sunday, November 27, 2016
MUSIC: Awilo Longomba is Back in Nairobi After a 13-Year Absence
Maestro Awilo Longomba is back in Nairobi this weekend, after an absence of thirteen years. His visit gives us the excuse to do at least two things:
The first is to have a glance at the Congolese legacy in African music today, and at Awilo's life and times (concerning both which watch Madowo's video interview below, and click on this link: Patoranking's Make Am and the Congolese legacy in African music).
WATCH: Longomba's conversation with NTV's Larry Madowo
The second thing we can do is look again at a selection of his own blockbusters -- this humble, enigmatic man with a towering stage presence -- in order to renew our appreciation of his massive contribution to both African music and African performative arts (see links i - v below):
i. Longomba's Karolina (2006)
ii. Longomba's Enemy Solo (ft. PSquare) was one of Africa's Top 5 Happiest Songs of the Year, 2015 ~ Yambo Selection 2015
iii. Dansi Tu: Bundelele by Awilo Longomba + Azinne Asinugo
iv. Awilo Longomba - Cache Cache (2015)
v. Awilo Longomba - Coupé Bibamba (2014)
UPDATED: Evening of Sunday, November 27, 2016
The first is to have a glance at the Congolese legacy in African music today, and at Awilo's life and times (concerning both which watch Madowo's video interview below, and click on this link: Patoranking's Make Am and the Congolese legacy in African music).
WATCH: Longomba's conversation with NTV's Larry Madowo
The second thing we can do is look again at a selection of his own blockbusters -- this humble, enigmatic man with a towering stage presence -- in order to renew our appreciation of his massive contribution to both African music and African performative arts (see links i - v below):
i. Longomba's Karolina (2006)
ii. Longomba's Enemy Solo (ft. PSquare) was one of Africa's Top 5 Happiest Songs of the Year, 2015 ~ Yambo Selection 2015
iii. Dansi Tu: Bundelele by Awilo Longomba + Azinne Asinugo
iv. Awilo Longomba - Cache Cache (2015)
v. Awilo Longomba - Coupé Bibamba (2014)
UPDATED: Evening of Sunday, November 27, 2016
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