The Best Laid Plans...

Short Stories, Humour, Music and Entertainment! Occasional HOT TOPICs with a unique perspective..

It's Christmas!

When a man politely opens the door of the car for his wife,  you can be sure of one thing:

Either the car is new or the wife is!

What's the difference between stress, tension and panic?

Stress is when wife is pregnant;

Tension is when girlfriend is pregnant;

Panic is when both are pregnant!

Grammar Teacher: Do you know the importance of a period?

Kid: "Yeah, once my sister said she had missed one, my mom fainted, dad got a heart attack and our driver ran away!"

A young boy asks his Dad: "What is the difference between confident and confidential?

Dad says: "You are my son, ..I'm confident about that. Your friend over there,  is also my son,  that, is confidential!"

A bookseller conducting a market survey asked a woman:
“Which book has helped you most in your life?”

The woman replied , “My husband’s cheque book!"

A prospective husband in a book store, Do you have a book called, "Husband the Master of the House?" 

Sales Girl : “Sir, Fiction and Comics are on the 1st floor!"

Someone asked an old man : “Even after 70 years, you still call your wife Darling, Honey,  and Love." What’s your secret?"

Old man : "I forgot her name and I’m scared to ask her!"

Wife : "I wish I was a newspaper. So I’d be in your hands all day."

Husband : "I too wish that you were a newspaper. So I could have a new one every day!"

MusicArtinDesign

7 Cool Ways To Start A Business...

Without Quitting Your Day Job!

You think making money online sounds like a daydream? Well, think again!

There are plenty of ways to turn your skills and interest into cold hard cash.

Starting a business of any kind is hard work, but the fact remains that countless people have done it and are currently thriving. Chances are, you can too!

Whether you're looking to escape the daily grind, or you just want to earn some money on the side,
here are some simple ideas you can use to start a real business without quitting your day job (unless you want to).

1. Build A Drop-Shipping Empire by sourcing a pre-existing product from a supplier and have them take care of everything else, including packaging and delivery.
2. Start A Clothing Line - If you already own an online store, you can set up your very own clothing line using plugins. Printify, Printful and Merchify can automatically link your store to apparel printers.
3. Selling Your Art Online by turning your latest set of masterpieces into a stable revenue stream by having a beautifully designed ecommerce website. A great idea, if you're in the printing trade, are a photographer or a musician.
4. Become A Freelance Writer, Designer or Developer by putting your talents to good use by helping people across the world with their projects (while making some quick money on the side).
5. Teaching An Online Course - Put together a video walkthrough explaining a subject that you're familiar with and host it on your own personal website!
6. Flipping Your Thrift Store Finds - If you love hunting down great deals hitting up thrift stores, then opening up an online boutique to sell your second hand treasures is a natural next step.
7. Publish Your Own Book - It doesn't matter if it's a science fiction novel, a marketing guide or a children's picture book. There are now plenty of options to successfully self publish your work.

Read on for more information on how to start and scale these 7 online business ideas. They're simple, practical and effective.

You can take your first step by getting started for free today. The only thing you'll need to spend, is just the time it'll take to get the business off the ground!

Good Luck!

'Bodederek

Shopify.com

MusicArtinDesign

Meeting Prince

Short Stories, Humour, Music and Entertainment. Just Good Fun. If there's anything to worry about, it's about not having fun!

A Short Story

With Some Reviews

Stories are all works of fiction. Names, characters, place and events are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events and places is totally coincidental

Camden

It was around that time in the early evening when the sun was just about to disappear beneath the horizon. The sky had that fading orange hue. I'd missed several buses going home. Now that I was in my neighbourhood of Camden town, I wasn't in any particular hurry to get to my house.

I was looking across the road, checking to see if the musical instrument shop on Chalk Farm Road was still open. Without paying attention to where I was going, I walked into what seemed to be a brick wall. In fact, I'd bumped into a man. My face was inches from his lower chest. The guy was huge.

I looked up at a stern looking face with bushy eyebrows,  his thin lips rested on a square jaw. He was wearing a tuxedo that looked a couple of sizes too small. His biceps were about twice the size of my thighs and he didn't look amused.

Behind him was a little guy wearing a dark designer suit that fit perfectly. He had on a purplish shirt with oversized collars. He looked amused. The big guy hesitated, I hesitated before I said my inevitable sorry. "Hey, how you doing?" the small statured guy asked. "I'm okay," I answered. "You didn't hurt your nose or anything bumping into Roland here?" "No!" I said.

Roland relaxed, I relaxed. There was something familiar about the smaller guy, but I couldn't place the face hidden behind the oversized glasses. I could just about see the dark straight hair under the wide brimmed hat that he wore. The conspiratorial look on his face gave the impression that he'd expected me to recognise him. Personally, I couldn't have cared less. I see familiar faces all over Camden on a regular basis.

Camden High Street

My nonchalance must have impressed him and we had an interesting conversation which I promised not to reveal to anyone. They were on a mission scouting out Camden venues. I gave them a few insights about the neighbourhood and the clubs and we said our goodbyes.

Two days later, Prince performed at The Electric Ballroom in Camden. I wasn't in the audience. I didn't even know about it until it came out on the news. Our conversation that evening will remain confidential for now. I will try to keep my promise, although it gets harder every day not telling anyone.

There's more and someday, I'll spill my guts. But not quite yet!

MusicArtinDesign

A tribute...In Fiction.

Reviews:

First Peer Review ~ 

How was the central character portrayed and was this portrayal clear and interesting?
First good choice of material. I would have liked to have the main character fleshed out more. The description of Roland and Prince was spot on. 

What made you think this piece was a story and did you want to read on?
It was a light-hearted and a good description of Camden. 

What were the most, and least, successful aspects of the writing?
I thought it could have gone places, after all he's met Prince! We could have been introduced to his jet set life. 

Second Peer Review ~

How was the central character portrayed and was this portrayal clear and interesting?
I enjoyed reading the descriptions, the characters came out vividly and quite mysterious. 

What made you think this piece was a story and did you want to read on?
The narrative gave me the impression that a story was about to unfold; the fact that there were these mysterious two people and they seemed to want something from the narrator was the reason why I read on; and the revelation in the end was quite interesting as well. 

What were the most, and least, successful aspects of the writing?
I think the most successful aspect of the writing was the description. The characters were normally but vividly described, fact which left me with an image from the story. However, the author exceeded the word limit (not much though), and it doesn't really seem like an introductory paragraph. I also think the description of the sky wasn't quite linked to what followed. The introduction could have been a bit more gripping. 

Third Peer Review ~

How was the central character portrayed and was this portrayal clear and interesting?
The main character in this piece of writing is the teller of the story. He is clearly portrayed as nonchalant, cool, casual. particularly through his manner of speech in the genre of 1930's private eye, Marlowe type and in the way he responds to his surroundings and others e,g, He is not phased when he bumps into Ronald. It was entertaining and I enjoyed the interplay between the characters 

What made you think this piece was a story and did you want to read on?
It was a story in that it set the scene and there was a moment of tension when the main character met Roland and the small guy. However we are not led towards the development of a plot because the character keeps his promises! 

What were the most, and least, successful aspects of the writing?
I was drawn to the characters, found them amusing. Thought there was potential to further the plot; set up some kind of dodgy deal between them. The promise thing was disappointing, seemed a bit of a cop out maybe. The last two paragraphs seemed to change style and felt a bit of an after thought. (All respects to Prince though) 

Afro-beat. What Next? Part 2

Fela Bandwagon contd...

The world is watching and waiting for hits that will enhance and give the afro-beat genre a stronger foothold, keep it interesting until it gets passed on to the next generation. It's what Fela Kuti would have wanted. 

I mentioned JK Brimah because Fela Kuti's personal and musical development wouldn't have been complete without the influence of JK. (A chapter is dedicated to JK in Fela's autobiography "This Bitch of A Life" written by Carlos Moore), the story is even more interesting when JK tells it. It annoys me that today's practitioners see JK (who is still alive and well) as an irrelevance, only good in their eyes when they want their undeserved validation.

JK at a Party

Other individuals who supported and encouraged Fela's musicality but today are given no credit, (especially during the years of strife and turmoil), were individuals like Tunde Kuboye, who ran The Jazz Club of Nigeria, promoted African and Jazz music at the Museum Kitchen every Friday evening, and organised an African Music Festival once a year. His late wife Frances, Fela's cousin, a dentist by profession. A lady who could easily have made it as a professional singer, if she'd decided to leave Nigeria and settle anywhere in the western world. Some others were Fela's contemporaries who played Jazz at the floating Buka on the Marina in Lagos, guys like my ex-boss at Japan Petroleum, Femi Asekun (Skipper), his friend Femi Adeniyi-Williams and uncle Art Alade. These were the people Fela would rush to jam with, whenever he could break away from the madness at Kalakuta.

Fela developed Afro-beat because he wouldn't have been able to make a living playing jazz. Not in Nigeria anyway. So he developed his genre, using a core of local musicians like Tony Allen, the amazing drummer, Henry Kofi (Pedido), Igo Chiko and a couple more talented instrumentalist, who remained a constant part of the Nigeria 70 band, later to become the Africa 70. The commercial music played by the band during those heady days, has stood the test of time. The compositions were unsurprisingly popular and accepted by everyone because of the satire and social commentary in those compositions. Songs like "Na Fight", "No Bread", "JJD", "Buy Africa", "Don't Gag Me", "Lady", "Shakara", "Yellow Fever" etc., amused and entertained, but didn't stray into the political minefield that would bring the wrath of military governments down on Fela's head in the later years.

Fela Album Cover

What I'm trying to say here is, even when Afro-beat went political, there was always a theme to the compositions. A message that made every song unique and identifiable to the listener. That element is missing within the genre today. The message and point to Afro-beat as a sound, is in danger of being swallowed up and lost forever, if the diluted and watered down modern compositions continue. After all is said and done, what would be the point of it all?

S.T.B. and J.J.D.

I think Fela would have wanted Afro-beat to grow as a satirical vehicle for social commentary, more than he would have wanted to be regarded as an icon. He was after all a man like anyone else and not the caricature two dimensional image that is being planted unto the public consciousness today. It would be better if practitioners of Afro-beat drop the hype and get back to basics, there is plenty more work to do because that man, Fela was a tough act to follow when he was alive. It makes it even tougher, that he is now regarded a legend and an icon.

Tony Allen and I

I would urge any artist interested in venturing into afro-beat, to disregard what is presented at the moment. Ignore the half baked presentation of cover songs that could never compare to the original songs. Study the philosophy behind Fela's tunes and if possible, imprint their own personality into their compositions. This would be the ideal way to excel at making a great and unique afro-beat standard. In short, being original is the most important thing, and believe me, the genre needs this, more than anything else.

...More later


'Bodederek


Interesting blog at www.MusicArtinDesign.co.uk tomorrow!