What inspires me to brilliance? The answer is pretty simple: Beauty. A thing of eternal beauty. I am talking about excellence, elegance, and simplicity.
January this year, Toni Kan, introduced me to Vanity Fair. I had always known about this US monthly, my parents subscribed to it back in the early 80s. I always thought it was a photo album kind of magazine, like Hello and Ovation. So, I never gave it a chance to make it to my library. Toni recommended Vanity Fair as the best magazine in the world today. My interest was spiked, if anyone should know, this imposing international award winning poet and author should. When I picked up my first copy of Vanity Fair, I was completely taken. In every way possible, Vanity Fair, is simply the best. Its artistry is bold and vivid. Its writers are courageous and fearless. Its journalists drive their readers to the brink of an intellectual abyss, where I imagine they live. They do this with their sharp-shooting, straight-to-the-point style of writing. For four years, its editor-in-chief, Graydon Carter has been villain struck on George W. Bush, and he won’t let go any time soon. Mr. Carter is a classic; a man on a mission.
Vanity Fair is a total package, in no other magazine do you see beautiful (and almost nude) men and woman, a rock star pouring out his heart about poverty, disease, and despair in Africa, a world renowned Bishop, America’s most powerful woman, the world’s most beautiful queen, one of the world’s funniest, and the world’s most respected, the world’s most hated, the world’s greatest, and the world's most inspiring in one issue (Models, Bono, Desmond Tutu, Oprah, Queen Rania, Chris Rock, Nelson Mandela, George Bush, Muhammad Ali, and Barack Obama). All these, weft together in a masterful work of artistry and journalistic caviar. Vanity Fair: A thing of beauty!
Music. The universal language. Good music. Melody. Symphony. Harmony of sound. I love music. Music is my first love. My second is the written word. A masterful compilation of lyrics and sound, a thing of beauty. Music sooths, it inspires, it brings alive. Music is therapeutic. Music gives life. Music is life. In the movie, Equilibrium starring Christian Bale, a science fiction movie set in the future, the government of the day has eliminated all art from human community. For me, the movie is the most horrific I have watched. Just the thought of life without music sends chills through my body, soul, and spirit. I cannot imagine how life would be without music. Something like hades, just worse, hotter and darker than hell.
Without Wilson Pickett, Joe Cocker, Otis Redding, Eric Clapton, Nina Simone, Curtis Mayfield, Al Green. Without Marvin Gaye, without Luther Vandross, Barry White, without Maxwell, Cool and the Gang, Gladys Knight and the Pips, George Benson, Phil Collins, The Temptations, Bruce Springston, Rod Stewart, Eddie Grant, Marvin Gaye, Lucky Dube, Sade, Shirley Bassey, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, Tina Turner, Garou, Eros Ramazotti, without Lionel Ritchie, what a drab my childhood and adolescent years would have been.
I cannot imagine my salad days with the companionship of Lauren Hill, Wyclef, 2Pac (of blessed memory), Mary J Blije, Sisco, KC and Jojo, Whitney Houston, Seal, Anita Baker, Toni Braxton, Marc Anthony, Celine Dion. In them, I found voices that spoke to my soul, encouraging me to search the deepest part of me and bring out my best. They made me believe that there is genius in me and in every one of God’s creation.
The music of Huge Masekela, Kenny G, Gerald Albright, Bob James, Miles Davis, Enya, Yanni, Andrew Lloyd Webber; a thing of eternal beauty. I thank God for the people in music who followed their gut and their talent. I thank God for Berry Gordy, Jr. of Motown, for Little Richard for breaking the colour barrier in music and opening the way for every black artiste after him. For following their dreams and allowing their dreams to lead them and not the other way, for remaining true to their art and their hearts, I have nothing but a pure respect for these legends of music.
I am inspired to brilliance by the young people in music today who are taking their craft seriously; Lemar, Eryka Badu, Michael Buble, India.Arie, Fadabasi, Alica Keys, John Legend, Djinee, Maroon 5, Green Day, Elliot Yamin, Clay Aiken. The greatest of these, is a young man from the creeks of the Niger Delta, Timi Dakolo. Timi is a perfect blend of the wickedness of the old generation and what makes the young generation so cool and hip. With the meekness of a lamb, a strength of vocals that moves mountains, crystal clear musical purity, Timi personifies what is best in music and what inspires me to brilliance day after day. Music; a thing of beauty!
