African indigenous spiritual traditions. The Ifa corpus. The Yoruba language. Humanitarian aid. HIV/AIDS education. Child soldiers and AIDS orphans in Uganda and Sudan. The truth in its many forms. My shoeboxes full of hundreds of old 4-track recordings, every single one off-key. Forging forward on the path. This good bottle of wine. Creating new recipes. Roasting the perfect chicken. Sushi bowls. August weddings. Oh, and swimming laps at the gym. You'll have to ask about the rest...
Anyone who wants to play the steel drums in Trinidad and Tobago. Anyone up for world travel. Kofi Annan and possibly a few new friends of either the male or female variety. You must be able to form complete sentences at least some of the time. Jeff Buckley and Elliot Smith, but will have to wait until the afterlife. Comandante Marcos. Yoko Ono. Condoleeza Rice so I can smack her upside the head. Ditto for Mel Gibson - he must be stopped. I have no interest in meeting the Pope, unless he brings those nifty wafers, but tea with the Dalai Lama would be most welcome.
SPECIAL NOTE TO MEN: I know, I know, you're interested in my mind.
SPECIAL NOTE TO WOMEN IN BIKINIS SENDING FRIEND REQUESTS: Eat a sandwich.
SPECIAL NOTE IN GENERAL: Please be reasonable. If you can't be reasonable, at least be funny.
Music in languages I don't understand, Appalachian, classical, jazz, traditional Yoruba praise songs and rhythms and anything real. Fiona Apple, Patty Griffin, Lucinda Williams. Wilco, Beck, Rufus Wainwright, Andrew Bird and Phillip Roebuck. Bebel Gilberto, Manu Chao, Francisco Aquabella, Ali Farka, Boubacar Traore, Habib Koite, Amadou and Miriam. Pretty much any sound that doesn't denigrate other human beings.
Marie Antoinette is my new favorite movie. And Clue, from the 1980's. I know every line - corny, but true.
No. Turn off the TV, people.
Culture and the Senses: Bodily ways of knowing in an African community by Kathryn Linn Guerts (really good). Anything David Sedaris. Anything Tom Robbins. Cheap yet entertaining novels about housewives solving murders and such. Folklorics and history.
Every day, another one.
Your Japanese Name Is...
Rei Matsuki
What's your Japanese Name?