The Annual Report

The leading contender was just launched (category: literary fiction)
A touch unorthodox perhaps, it's hard to keep up with the latest fashions
Today's fresh arrival in my mailbox was The Company's annual report
Would it be magical realism this year or the stream of consciousness of yore?

The most interesting section in The Company's 10-K statement
Outlined "the rationale for management's use of non-GAAP information
In the Compensation Discussion and Analysis and Proxy Statement"
A wonder of the world: dense bureaucratese and obfuscation

"The Company believes" that this fiction "provides increased transparency
And clarity into both the operational results of the business
And the performance of The Company's pension plans improves visibility
To management decisions and their impacts on operational performance"

The wholesale escapism, the whimsical mix of romance and fantasy
That The Company's writers have laid out, so striking and awkward
"Enables better comparison to peer companies; and allows The Company
To provide a long-term strategic view of the business going forward."

I'm not normally a fan of the fantasy genre but was quite shaken to the core
By this panoply of words hidden in plain sight that confounded and obscured
What with precious jewels of misdirection whose sole intent was to distort
I commend to the Pulitzer Prize committee The Company's annual report

Fantasy, a Playlist

A fictitious soundtrack for this note. (spotify version)

• Fantasy by Earth, Wind & Fire
• My Fantasy by Guy
• Fantasy by Mariah Carey and O.D.B)
• Fantasy by George Michael
• Bone Lies by Freddie MacGregor

Some things take away your breath and reading the company's annual report was revelatory.

...

Timing is everything
Observers are worried

File under: language, misdirection, shell game, humour, hatchet job, culture, observation, IBM, deception, finance, capitalism, Observers are worried, toli

Writing log. Concept March 28, 2020. August 19, 2021

The Lobby

It's one thing to avert the eye and go for benign neglect
It's another when the chairman of the board is affected
I recall that when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait
A furious response was simply not up for debate

With Kuwaiti elites, whether oligarchs or royal family, over a barrel
These major stockholders, the world over, were in mortal peril
Forget matters of sovereignty, it didn't need to be said
That it wouldn't be good for business, let alone US interests

Even today, western media, who would not normally exercise restraint about strangers
Suddenly become coy and sensitive about their coverage, and hew to their better angels
As India became a new epicenter, they initially started showing makeshift crematoriums
And the telegenic, albeit burning, funeral pyres; the utter collapse and dysfunction

But the tone quickly changed, even as things were getting worse
The reality is that Indians hold the power of the purse
It really comes down, in these things, to who pays the piper
Who has the loudest voice when it comes to the diaspora

For when, say, Google's CEO's close and extended family is affected,
You'd best believe there'll be outrage, and an almighty scramble
Suddenly those who would never otherwise spare a thought
Are seen to be urging solidarity for this catastrophe

And so I've been thinking about the power of the lobby
I wonder who, in extremis, would ever be coming for me
I have long studied the successful ones even if I disapprove of their sleaze
The Israeli, the Saudi and those others; smooth operators, well versed at advocacy

For when my countrymen were stranded in Libya, Lebanon, or what have you
Or even those unfortunate souls who were being trained by Nicolae Ceaușescu
When calamity struck, the lesson they quickly learned was rather sobering
Namely that not a scintilla of help was on the way, no one was coming

In the past, to hold a Ghana passport was to be a down-on-your-luck kind of person
Radioactive really, the kind of thing that attracts the worst sort of attention
The immigration agent would break out a broad smile as you made your arrival
Your ovaries or gonads, foreseeing their inspection, would start to shrivel

We always wished for a different passport, Liechtenstein, or, say, Luxembourg
Let's be frank here, of a Luxembourgian held for hostage, I have never heard
But it stands to reason, there is something quite apt, even if it's inequitable
To read a headline: "White contractors airlifted to safety before local Black people"

There is a great sorting hat at work, perhaps the gods have always played favorites
But it is rather tiresome for those of us who have to content ourselves with miseries
"The fellow with the fufu usually moves over to the man with the soup,
Never the other way around", goes that saying, and well known Nigerian truth

And so as I write my own stories, I realize that I too need a posse
That I need to build bridges, and help those on the lower rungs than me
In this liminal life in the glue layer, making connections is what matters
The head nod of appreciation, building up the lobby for my fellow travelers

The Loud Minority, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note, meditating on a lobby (spotify version)

• The Loud Minority by Donald Byrd
• The Loud Minority by United Future Organization
• The Loud Minority by Frank Foster
• The Loud Minority by Kero One

...

Timing is everything
Observers are worried

File under: power, politics, immigration, identity, strategy, lobby, communities, advocacy, Great Game, humour, Ghana, Africa, culture, social, observation, perception, Observers are worried, Buyer's Remorse, poetry, toli

Writing log: May 14, 2021

Onomatopoeia, a Playlist

I give you a playlist full of vocal incantations. With poetic license, I've named it onomatopoeia rather than vocable which arguably better captures the sound effects I have in mind, the la las, the ding dongs and the sho-be-doos. We hum, we sing and we chant; the words are immaterial, it is the sound that enthralls. Listen without prejudice

Onomatopoeia, a playlist (spotify)

• Doobie Doobie Do by Omar
  The very definition of infectious, a celebration. I find myself nodding my head and singing along, Doobie Doobie Do. Effortless soul
• Shoop by Salt-N-Pepa
  Shuffling and sexy rhythms
• Ooo La La La by Teena Marie
  Slowly and langorously, the golden voice delivers a hook with staying power
• Zungguzungguzungguzeng by Yellowman
  The endless inventiveness of the Dancehall master, no one could toast quite like him, he rode any riddim relentlessly
• Din Daa Daa by George Kranz
  The vicious drums and the sum total of the lyrics:

  Din Daa Daa / Don Doon Doon.

  Onomatopoeic perfection
• Tutti Frutti by Little Richard
  Rock and roll was changed by the immortal chorus:

  A wop bop ba lu ba a wop bam boom.

• Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check by Busta Rhymes
  Even a subdued Busta Rhymes is action packed. Vocal gesticulation at its finest
• Yabadabadoo by Chubb Rock
  Simply Authoritative.

  The fat lady sang, I crushed her / Word up the Chubbster / Yabadabadoo

• Rub a Dub by Mikey Dread
  Nursery rhymes reinvented with a reggae vibe
• Oops Outside Your Head by Gap Band
  Charlie Wilson and the boys, Oklahoma's finest funkateers delivered bonafide party jams, perfect for barbecues and family reunions. Note the disingenous title: I don't believe you want to get up and dance
• Na Na Hey Hey by Donna Summer
  Dance with the disco queen, unarguable fun
• Da Da Da by Trio
  There's repetition and there's radical simplicity in structure in this piece of German pop. Da Da Da
• Poom Poom by Prince
  The chorus must be at least twenty poom pooms, vocal percussion in this vault track. From the man who sang about joy in repetion we get hundreds of poom pooms by song's end
• Bam Bam by Sister Nancy
  This is a hit. Sister Nancy may have never got paid for this lethal track inspired as she was by Yellowman and other toasters at the time, dancehall at its finest.
• Beng Beng Beng by Femi Kuti
  Dionysian and ferocious, no wonder it was banned in Nigeria, a song guranteed to cause commotion on dancefloors
• Boom by The Roots
  Adrenaline from a lethal lyricist

• Eeni Meeni Myni Mo by Omar
  We start the b-side with another nursery rhyme to punctuate some soul. Omar always delivers
• Rub a Dub All the Time by Dennis Brown
  The crown prince of reggae had so many hits, rub-a-dub style.
• La La La He He He by Prince
  Challenged to write a song to this title, our man came up with this slice of funk.
• Sho-Be-Do-Sho by Beres Hammond
  A consumate showman, Beres has to be experienced live
• Da Da Da by Prince
  The kind of song you can do when you get control of your masters, emancipation was the album
• Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Dey by Stevie Wonder
  A preview of the exuberance that was about to let loose in his virtuoso run in the seventies
• La-La Means I love you by The Delfonics
  The ultimate ballad
• Don Dada by Super Cat
  For a few years, Super Cat was inescable.
• Ding-Dong The Witch is Dead by Ella Fitzgerald
  No one has ever objected to Ella Fitzgerald, she could sing anything.
• Fu-Gee-La by Fugees
  Harkening back to Teena Marie on the hook, this was the album that would take them to the stratosphere
• Na Na Hey Hey by Bananarama
  Their brand of 80s pop might have been lightweight but you still had to dance to it
• They Want EFX by Das EFX
  The heart of this playlist is probably the effusive piece of vocal gymnastics. The intricacies of their rhyming in unparalleled.
• Din Da Da by The Roots
  Questlove and Black Thought took on the challenge of revisiting George Kranz'a masterpiece on the Tipping Point
• Ting-a-ling by Shabba Ranks
  The master of the dancehall
• Shing a Ling by Desmond Dekker
  Reggae greatness
• Ha! by Dianne Reeves
  Scat and vocalese virtuosity
• Sho Be Do Be by The Clarendonians
  The early reggae bands harkened to the doo bop bands
• Woo by Erykah Badu
  Apparently this album came after a bout of writer's block. Woo is all you need to get back to work
• Ding-Dong the witch is dead by Glenn Miller
  I'm always minded that this was the song that was sang in the streets when Margaret Thatcher died.
• Bam Bam by Byron Lee and the Dragonaires and Toots and the Maytals
  What a Bam Bam, Toots is sorely missed
• Doo wa Ditty by Zapp
  Zapp and Roger always deliver dancefloor bangers

I leave you singing Doobie Doobie Do

File under: music, language, whimsy, culture, fun, Comfort Suite, toli

Writing log: July 7, 2022

Such Is My Asylum (Soul Insurance)

I turned to the economics of whimsy in humanity's curriculum
To summon the poetry of cultural memory, for such is my asylum

To wit: belly laughs are most exhilarating when it is darkest
Bound, as I was, by a mandate to bear witness

Contra despair, the searcher readies a comfort suite
Charting a new narrative, protection by way of a stare

Soul insurance then as a safe harbor
A balm for the spirit's rhythm of loss

See previously: Such is my Asylum

Such is my Asylum, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note. Angie Stone adds soul insurance to the poetry playlist.

• Soul Insurance by Angie Stone
• Poetry Man by Phoebe Snow
  Her delicate voice is everything
• Poetry by Roy Hargrove (featuring Q-Tip and Erykah Badu)
  The late Roy Hargrove is sorely missed.
• This is My Story, This is My Song by Thelonious Monk

...

The book is done.

This note concludes concludes another collection of toli, my third collection of poems, written in a fever in five weeks in spring 2021. Hopefully it will escape hypertext into physical form sometime soon... It all started with a covidious folktale; I call it Soul Insurance.

...

This note is part of a series: In a covidious time.

File under: humour, satire, culture, observation, folktale, Ghana, Africa, storytelling, whimsy, myth, coronavirus, pandemic, Social Living, Things Fall Apart, Observers are worried, Buyer's Remorse, covidious, poetry, toli

Writing log. May 1, 2021

In the Vein of Whimsy

After chasing a phantom thread of dislocation,
It's safe to say that I needed a palate cleanser
Thus, it was in the vein of whimsy,
That I came to the claims adjuster

What with a surfeit of grim reality and daily grief
I needed a berth, soul insurance was my port of relief
The tale of the lost stories, I would write further chapters
Now that I had in mind the requisite political actors

Render unto Caesar and all that, to quote the son of man,
Thus I'm not one to begrudge humanity's tax collector
Moreover I pay my dues promptly, and keep current on all accounts
Treating any lingering debt as if it was a test of character

For my family's history is so replete with close encounters
That adversity has almost become a confidant or family member
The second cousin who acts as a companion when fortune calls
And stiffens the spine, giving support when regret is all

Internal displacement is the lot of exiled souls
Prone to leading liminal lives in the torrid zone
Maroons roaming the borderlands and interstitials
Strays that walk alone, consigned to internal exile

I crave connection, made, in this life, in the glue layer
My networks meshed with the irreverence of the soothsayer
Solace is to be found in the search for community
And lasting insight comes in the vein of whimsy

In the Vein of Whimsy, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note. (spotify version)

• I found my smile again by D'Angelo
• A tear to a smile by Roy Ayers
• Until a tear becomes a rose by Loose Ends
• I'm gonna laugh you right out of my life by Kenny Burrell
• Only a smile by Dennis Brown
• Laugh, Clown, Laugh by Abbey Lincoln
  The masks of civility that we wear.
• A tear and a smile by Meshell NdegeOcello
• I'm gonna laugh you right out of my life by Nancy Wilson
• Whimsy by Kyoga

See previously: The Economics of Whimsy and The Joy of Small Things.

Yours irreverently, chief toli monger

Consider this a coda to my covidious folktale: Soul Insurance

This note is part of a series: In a covidious time.

File under: humour, satire, culture, observation, folktale, storytelling, whimsy, pandemic, Social Living, Observers are worried, covidious, poetry, toli

Writing log. April 28, 2021