Showing posts with label Poesy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poesy. Show all posts
Monday, December 14, 2015
ART: Regarding George Bellows' Cliff Dwellers
Here's contemplating George Bellows' Cliff Dwellers of NYC's Lower East Side: A steeper, more sheer and more austere cliff-side dwelling is hard to come by. This is totally unlike the Bonde Cliff I know. And yet there's an unmistakable poesy in this sweeping visual menagerie, a sunny ambience of a kind. Some sort of pent-up communal energy all over the air, and all the place. Tell-tale pixels of premature decay amid all that optimistic acceptance of things; of things as they appear to be right now. Of an invisible time-piece which routes and re-routes every desire, 'watches' all movement. Not visible, though, is any amount of sticky raw earth. Nor the hand of the glass-maker. Nor Batman's cape.
Wednesday, December 09, 2015
Take it Slow by Zikki ft. Jaguar: MUSIC
Zikki and Jaguar outperform in their new 'drop': Take it Slow. This particular M/V rendition came out on November 20, 2015, and already has 55,546 views.
Take it Slow is a tuneful song, sung at a super-high level of vocal refinement by Zikki. Nor does Jaguar disappoint here. He's in full control of his singular talent. I personally don't remember him at all at this rarefied level of performance.
The band elevates -- in every which (and sort of) way!
Mellow's the singing, yes. Cool passion is the mode here. My goodness, the lyrics, mostly in Swahili, are pure poesy. Pure lyricism! What a choice of words and phrases! What a vocal ensemble, what instrumental harmony, with which to move it all, all of it, forth! A seamless flow of musicality without a tinge of self-doubt, then. Indeed, a fullness of self-belief.
I spy no second-fiddling here. Not to the non-stop scores of Nigerian performers who continue to dominate sub-Saharan airwaves with grit and number and verve; nor to those inspired Tanzanians we've come to greatly admire. I think Zikki and Jaguar know that they have come a long, long way. And I think they know that this is the way, that this is how one arrives at the pinnacle: Blazing, tearing (nicely), away without a ruffle. With blinkers -- as someone (thinking about the lessons to all of us from race horses) has suggested -- and not side-winding, or looking back.
And the girls (from nouveau Runda, one supposes), the girls, do dance; a fine sort of dancing. None too self-consciously; and none too weighed down with the track records of others, or past narratives they're really not in tune with. Choreographed in a spartan sort of way, which works. And so it's not just the looks that drive them here, or will endear them (wherever) there. Where ever this vessel may take 'em.
Contrary to rumours then, the route from Dandora to Runda is paved with desire, methinks. The guy from the slums of Dandora just has to Take it Slow. That's "pole poooleee"
Here's to pure goodness, from start to end: the vibes, the vocals, the visuals!
So very proudly Kenyan!
Click here to watch the video
Take it Slow is a tuneful song, sung at a super-high level of vocal refinement by Zikki. Nor does Jaguar disappoint here. He's in full control of his singular talent. I personally don't remember him at all at this rarefied level of performance.
The band elevates -- in every which (and sort of) way!
Mellow's the singing, yes. Cool passion is the mode here. My goodness, the lyrics, mostly in Swahili, are pure poesy. Pure lyricism! What a choice of words and phrases! What a vocal ensemble, what instrumental harmony, with which to move it all, all of it, forth! A seamless flow of musicality without a tinge of self-doubt, then. Indeed, a fullness of self-belief.
I spy no second-fiddling here. Not to the non-stop scores of Nigerian performers who continue to dominate sub-Saharan airwaves with grit and number and verve; nor to those inspired Tanzanians we've come to greatly admire. I think Zikki and Jaguar know that they have come a long, long way. And I think they know that this is the way, that this is how one arrives at the pinnacle: Blazing, tearing (nicely), away without a ruffle. With blinkers -- as someone (thinking about the lessons to all of us from race horses) has suggested -- and not side-winding, or looking back.
And the girls (from nouveau Runda, one supposes), the girls, do dance; a fine sort of dancing. None too self-consciously; and none too weighed down with the track records of others, or past narratives they're really not in tune with. Choreographed in a spartan sort of way, which works. And so it's not just the looks that drive them here, or will endear them (wherever) there. Where ever this vessel may take 'em.
Contrary to rumours then, the route from Dandora to Runda is paved with desire, methinks. The guy from the slums of Dandora just has to Take it Slow. That's "pole poooleee"
Here's to pure goodness, from start to end: the vibes, the vocals, the visuals!
So very proudly Kenyan!
Click here to watch the video
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