Explaining an Unexplained Absence

Special thanks to everyone who wrote enquiring about my sudden disapperance from the blogging world. The last few weeks have been very difficult for me as I am coming to terms with the loss of my mother. I finally went home to Lagos after being away for eight years! It was not a rude shock but it was a reminder to me that there are many things I seem to take for granted in my daily life.

Sadly, I did not get together with any of the Lagos-based bloggers, much as I would have loved to…I had only four days to spare in Lagos and I had mentally over-extended myself…thinking I would even be able to attend Theatre@Terra…alas it was not meant to be. The good news is that next time, I absolutely have to make it a top priority to get together with everyone.

I have loads of blogging material from my trip…but I’ll make this a really short update just to let anyone who still has faith in this blog know what I am up to these days.

In the world of books – I started reading Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss…and I recommend it…but top on my reading list is Wole Soyinka’s You Must Set Forth at Dawn – as is typical of the Literary Lion, it is heavy on the grammar which means yours truly always has to have a notepad handy to jot down some of the words I have never come across in my life but which our beloved laureate weaves so nicely into his writing. I am also looking forward to feasting my eyes on Lyrics by Sting.

In the world of music – I picked up a copy of Ty Bello’s Greenland in Lagos and I absolutely adore it. I am so proud of her — while the whole album is brilliant…I have a soft spot for the tracks – Ekundayo and Supernatural and have overdosed on both in so many days. I am also looking forward to listening to the Alison Krauss/Robert Plant collaboration – I understand that the album called Raising Sand is a genre and generational cross-cutting album, I have heard snippets and I love it.

In the world of movies – I saw The Namesake on the flight into Lagos…loved it but would recommend anyone who is interested in the story to read the book first. Nothing equals Ms Lahiri’s narrative style. Due to popular demand, I had planned a follow-up to the Summer Movie previews with a Fall Movie preview, but sadly that fell through the cracks but better late than never so please watch this space for something of that nature. So far, a few previews that have caught my fancy –

Feast of Love ~Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear, Radha Mitchell, Billy Burke, Selma Blair, Alexa Davlos
In the Valley of Elah ~ Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Frances Fisher, Susan Sarandon, Jason Patric, James Franco
King of California ~ Michael Douglas, Evan Rachel Wood
The Jane Austen Book Club ~ Kathy Baker, Maria Bello, Marc Blucas, Emily Blunt, Amy Brenneman, Hugh Dancy, Jimmy Smits
December Boys ~ Daniel Radcliffe, Lee Cormie, Christian Byers, James Fraser, Jack Thompson
Things We Lost in the Fire ~ Halle Berry, Benicio Del Toro
Rendition ~Jake Gyllenhall, Reese Witherspoon

For those who still read La Racontrice, there will be no story for the month of October…I am working on something which I hope should be ready to share sometime in November. I’ll probably make it a birthday present to myself… we’ll see

Big shout-outs to laspapi and Omohemi…sorry I did not get a chance to get together with both of you but it was really nice speaking with you.

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