Muthure's Place - Demons, Time and Second chances

Before the beginning and after the end,
Father Time did not exist.
The beginning was the end
And the end turned out to be the beginning;
Of something new.
Something unnamable.
For in a timeless vortex
Names prove irrelevant and purposeless.
The event was not in the past.
It is neither happening
Nor going to.
It is in a timeless sphere.
If you stand still you hear
The song of Silence
See godly Darkness
And feel the movement of Love and Tranquility.
In this unending abyss
Angels and demons coexist
Day and night seem to merge
Water and wind with no disparate difference
Good and evil essentially one.

Inevitably there was a fall.
An error.
One blunder in this near faultless realm.
The gates are closed
All accesses sealed
The fine line between in and out
Is suddenly magnified
And the difference is preposterously large.

The blinders fall to the ground
The bare truth like lead
A burden too heavy to bear.
Improvise-
Alter the truth.
Retreat-
Run away from the truth.
Ignore-
Disregard the truth.
Bury it until it fades into oblivion.
Teach the generations to come that there’s no truth
That it doesn’t exist.
Or make them fear it.

When dark sets in
And shadows are cast
Laughter becomes hollow
And conversation takes a life of its own.
Whispers carry clearly in the motionless air
And blackness reveals things otherwise veiled;
That under layers of intelligent foolishness
Falsified truths
Wicked morality
And tarnished purity,
Are our Thoughts searching,
Desperately, furiously, for a foothold
And the almost solid darkness provides none.

Demons need not look for ambiguity
In order to fool the (self-declared) intellectual.
They need only a solitary soul
One exploring the realm of “self-discovery”
And experimenting with independence.

The past and future point to the present
And because Time is concurrent,
All time is irredeemable.

The world is now in perpetual motion,
The song not to be heard.
Darkness conducive for only evil, thieves and witches.
Quietness confused for Peace,
Love phased out by Perversion.
Father Time -a ruthless dictator- controls everything.
The Present [the only compromise between Past and Future]
Remains forever unsatisfactory,
Time itself a worthless pit of nothingness.

The beginning was the end
And the end is just that
Preventing attempts at reparation for that one blunder,
Intolerant of second chances.
In a timeless vacuum lies the tapestry
Of the beautiful, imperfect patchwork
That forms the quilt that envelops us all.
We see nothing.
We feel nothing.
We cannot hear the playful whispers
Of the greatest story never told.

Joy Muthure

Muthure's Place - Superhero loving

We.. are..

Kissin’ ears, licking elbows, sucking face

And blowing each other off.

I taste you...

Breathe you in and smell your fingers.

I see stars and look for the sun,

Not realising that they’re both... light.

A friend told me to explore and discover my darks side with a flashlight,

But with the..

Ghosts under my bed, skeletons in my closet, monsters hidden under my pile of dirty laundry??

THAT doesn’t seem.. like such.. a good...

Idea.

Yet you manage to crawl into my secret places, private spaces, see my hidden faces.

I was.. holding out for a hero

but his underpants were too tight, not enough circulation.

He was rushed to the ER,

Just called.. to let me know.. that he wouldn’t make it.

But I wait.

Listening to you and hearing fate.

I... see the light above your left shoulder.

You... are.

Light.

Wind.

Earth....

Motion.

You.. turn my swag on.

I carry you in my eyes.

And on my shoulders and you help me lift that heavy burden up there sometimes

With your heavy luggage down THERE...

So i decide to put my phone off,

Don't need to be hearin' from false heroes and their recovering balls..

YOU do more for ME than the whole justice league ever could anyway.

Looking at you now my thoughts.... stumble.

Trippin over common sense and all things rational, freefallinandfinallylandinginthewarmembraceoflove...

And lust.

Make that a hot embrace.

I s-s-s-s-s-s-stutter over my words and your soft, silent, patient stare

Makes me find my tongue.

I whisper a truth.

What seem to be the only truth I know right now...

‘YOU, fallen angel, are MY superman.’

Joy Muthure

Muthure's Place - Depression

She tells me she’s depressed. 
She says life is a waste of time. 

She cries to me with tears in her eyes about the injustice of it all. 

She talks about her Struggle 

Her Fight 

Her… Demon. 

The one that has no horns 

No tail 

And is not red. 

He’s fly… with that effect. 

You know, the one that gets you high? 

Not the I-seriously-can’t-see-anything-clearly high, 

More like the Oh-my-goodness-I-never-thought-I-could-see-such-beauty-without-my-eyes high. 

He’s not the If-at-first-you-don’t-succeed-brush-yourself-off-and-try-again type of guy. 

More like the I’m-so-damn-smooth-and-I-know-you-know-it-so-why-pretend-you-don’t-love-it-ma? type. 

Lauryn’s Mr. Intentional 

The sweet-talking, confident-walking, not-into-stalking UNLESS he’s on the receiving end guy. 

That devil-on-your-shoulder-with-that-deep-voice-to-die-for-telling-you-to-just-eat-that-chocolate-only-just-after-you’ve-resolve-to-lose-those-hips 

Then-complain-about-your-‘60-kg-ass’-when-you-tell-him-you-can’t-fit-into-that-little-dress-he-likes-when-he-asks-why-you-aren’t-wearing-it. 

That demon. 

She says she’s depressed and doesn’t know why. 

She tells me she’s possessed 

By a demon 

That knows nothing and at the same time everything about her. 

A demon 

So small it could pass unnoticed if you didn’t know it existed 

But large enough to block out the sunlight filtering through the windows to her soul. 

She tells me she’s cold inside 

But that she’s got the hots for the Demon. 

She says she thinks the Demon is taking over her brain, 

Making her one of those cannot-be-seen-dead-in-one-of-those-sweaters ladies 

Or worse still, she says, one of those my-tiny-tiny-clothes-just-happen-to-have-a-higher-IQ-than-my-even-more-mini-brain type women. 

She says she doesn’t like it. 

She tells me she wants the Demon exorcised 

And says she’s heard about a good priest 

That doesn’t charge too much for that kind of thing, you know? 

Problem is; 

Apparently her Demon goes to church. 

She tells me she’s depressed 

And I tell her to shut it.

Joy Muthure

Muthure's Place - Poem to Self

I look into the mirror with you

Every morning.

I see the image;

Hard hair,

Face all nose and forehead,

Full, bushy eyebrows,

Only one dimpled cheek.

Tongue, pink and lovely.

You fold and curve and run it along

The inside of your mouth when in deep thought.

Firm imprint of your molars on its sides

From all the years of biting down on it in deep sleep.

You curse it sometimes

For being an instrument

In the orchestra of hurtful and selfish words,

Tumbling out and rolling over those lips.

Lips that turn upward ever-so-slightly only sometimes,

But more often than that

Open to reveal

The reason you refused to go to school one day

In nursery school if not ‘fixed’ immediately-

Inexplicable small dents on the four front lower teeth.

I take it in everyday,

I can draw it all blind-folded.

I know your body.

Birth mark below left knee,

Beauty spot on right foot,

Stretch-marked bottom,

Masculine hands,

Toned legs,

Short, fat toes,

Slight curve of belly,

Breasts larger than you desire.

And the scars…

Shadow of a few stitches on your right palm,

Tick-shaped scratch on your left shin,

And more.

As if your childhood memories,

Afraid of being forgotten,

Etched themselves in your flesh.

And it’s difficult to,

When they’ve left a playful map on your skin.

Skin that’s smooth for the most part,

Not chocolate but not quite toffee either.

Something in between perhaps.

I’m slowly learning to appreciate it all.

I know your dreams.

Outrageous.

Silly.

Lofty and impractical,

Delicately rooted in your every thought.

I want to let you know

That it’s okay to dream.

It’s okay to be ambitious.

And that sometimes

You should speak them aloud

Because not everyone will ridicule you,

And that you’ll be braver for it.

I’ve touched your heart.

I alone know its temperatures.

Its intentions.

All its different colours.

I’ve watched you try walk away from it,

And in turn felt it go cold,

The only sign

That lets me know

We’re expecting some sort of blow soon.

Sometimes it opens up wide though

And I’m left in awe.

I watch it smile occasionally,

The sight of which has never failed to move me

All these years later.

Once in a while I feel a deep tremble,

The definition of a hearty laugh.

And it’s then you really let go.

I’ve felt it love.

I’ve seen it shatter.

I held it up for you when you couldn’t bring yourself to.

I’m here to tell you all this will happen again.

I want you to understand.

That you will love again.

And you will break again.

And that it’s okay.

I must say,

I don’t quite like

This strange tenant in your cartilage and tissue,

Making your joints creak so loud sometimes

It jolts me.

Crook of elbow;

Fit to hold a child,

Mind and body not ready to believe

You’ll ever hold one of your own.

Bend of knee;

Moving with every step you take,

Walking towards destruction at times,

Running from the world at others,

Once in a while just managing crawling to safety,

But always moving all the same.

Crack of knuckles;

Perpetually trying to find... ways,

Words to put down

To try keep track of marathon-running thoughts.

Spinning ideas.

And never quite catching up.

Many long, wakeful and restless nights have past,

And I’ve been your only company.

The only one you told your nightmares.

I’m the interpreter of them all,

And sometimes I may have been wrong.

I apologise.

I do my best though, to let them not haunt you.

I try to make your dreams nice.

Make them wonderful,

Just to have you wake up with a smile so subtle,

Even you don’t know about it.

But you feel it.

That distinct tiny little warm glow you can’t explain,

Making you want to listen to that specific playlist.

I know most of the songs off the top of my head..

Let’s just say

I’ve studied you.

That I know you.

And I realise that I’ll still never know enough.

This isn’t to inform you of anything really,

Because you know just as much as I do.

It’s to remind you of things you forget.

It’s to try to calm your sometimes too impatient soul,

To make you take time to look and not just see.

It’s to touch you in places you’ve neglected in a while.

It’s to kiss you.

It’s to converse with you,

We hadn’t spoken in a while.

It’s to try make you understand,

That I quite simply... love you.

Sometimes without good reason,

But I love you all the same.

And to let you know that I’ll be watching you...

Joy Muthure

_________________________________________________________________________________

I am female and in my mid-20s. Sometimes I dabble in writing, from prose to pieces penned to be spoken out loud. A few of my other interests include: [reading] literature, music, laughing, listening, loving and living (I am a big fan of life in general). I am intrigued by animals -ourselves included- thus my background in Zoology. Some of my “lofty” dreams consist of trying to bring ecosystem health to a balance, through improving the health of humans, animals and the environment they share. To this end I studied One Health (do look it up, you [probably] won’t be disappointed that you did!). I am an East African local with what I hope to be the mentality of a global citizen. I’m all about connectivity, and tend not to see things in isolation so feel free to connect with me!

Joy Muthure

_________________________________________________________________________________

Miss Joy Muthure will share with us her writings and thoughts regularly on Muthure’s Place, every month, here at Opina. Hope you enJoy!

Opina

10.000 Views!!!

On the 14th of July, this last Tuesday, we reached the 10.000 views milestone!

Pic. 1: Not even Vegeta can stop us. We are over 10.000!

We, from the Opina team want to thank deeply all our readers, who follow us weekly to read a new poem, to know who’s playing the concert next door, a good book, a opera spectacle or the new movie on the cinema.

We are especially thankful to the ones who left us their comments and opinions, to the ones who share our work, to the ones that bring us their amazing projects, ideas and worthwhile causes, which we have the upmost pleasure to divulgate, and most of all to the ones that, as readers or as content creators, actively promote the cultural identity of their communities in any of the countless forms that culture can take.

A big THANKS to all of you!

Below, we leave you a few posts that helped us reach this fantastic milestone. Give us your opinion! ;)

Jurassic World on IMAX

Jane Goodall at Woburn Safari Park

 

La Bohème

The Imitation Game

 

Lunchtime Concert

Opina

Jurassic World

When I was a kid (back in the 80’s and 90’s) I was a big fan of dinosaurs. I remember watching the animated film “The Land Before Time” on my VHS player and analog TV several times a week. I remember fighting and arguing with my classmates in recess time over which dinosaur would win in a fight, the t-rex or the triceratops? A brontosaurus or a pack of velociraptors? I always wondered how it would be like to see these animals in real life (even though I was terrified of all the carnivorous ones) and constantly nagged my parents to take me to a museum with dinosaur fossils. Unfortunately, my parents never took me to see dinosaur fossils but they did take me to the cinema to watch a movie called “Jurassic Park” and my obsession with dinosaurs  has prevailed ever since.

Although twenty-two years have passed since the first Jurassic Park movie was released and fourteen-years since the release of Jurassic Park III (which honestly everyone thought was going to be the last one) Hollywood decided to exploit one more sequel and challenge the high expectations from fans with the 2015 movie “Jurassic World”.  When I first heard of this “controversial news” and saw the official movie trailer I was very sceptical, but my inner kid was nagging me with such an excitement that I could not ignore and so I bought 2 tickets for Jurassic World in Britain’s largest cinema screen, BFI London IMAX. Some may ask why didn’t I just watch it on a regular screen? Well, as an adult I did consider the financial benefit of watching the movie on a regular screen but then my inner kid explained to me the opportunity that I would be missing out on “3D dinosaurs on Britain’s largest cinema screen!” and so I decided to ignore my boring adult logical thinking and be a proper kid again (a kid with a credit-card).

The storyline of Jurassic World is extremely similar (if not the same) as the first movie. Large corporations have practically re-invested and reconstructed Jurassic Park (now called Jurassic World) with a few new attractions such as a gigantic water tank ( that resembles Sea World) were they keep a marine dinosaur that eats everything it sees. Dinosaurs are now treated and trained like zoo animals and the scientists are genetically engineering “super dinosaurs” for commercial and military reasons. As it is to be expected, the ego-maniac entrepreneur that believes money can play the role of “god” is proven wrong when a genetically modified super dinosaur escapes from the enclosure and starts killing everything in its path.

As it turns out, my inner kid was right and the only thing that was amazing from this movie was the “3D dinosaurs on Britain’s largest cinema screen!”. The special effects and design of the dinosaurs is really well done. The realism that the director was able to create was beyond my expectations and considering that dinosaurs have always been about the view and the action, watching it on 3D IMAX helps you capture the real experience that the movie has to offer. I believe that if another fourteen years pass until another remake of the movie is done I will be happy to see it, not for the storyline but for the feeling that I get from being as close as possible to live dinosaurs.

Raul Robles

The Imitation Game

The Imitation Game is the latest biographic movie of the 20^th century British mathematician, Alan Turing, who was of major importance to decode the enigma machine, responsible for the encryption of German communications during World War II.   

Pic 1: Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch)

The movie starts in 1952 in a police interrogation room, where an under investigation (charged for homosexuality) Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch), leads the audience through a flashback to the war years. Turing hold nothing from the detectives, and soon we are in the early Second World War, the allies losing badly, the United Kingdom facing a severe supply problem and a total incapability to crack the, otherwise easily intercepted, German radio communications.

Moved by the challenge of a unsolved and apparently, impossible to solve, problem, Turing left his academic life in Cambridge to join the cryptography team under the direction of commander Alastair Denniston (Charles Dance), in charge of decoding the enemy messages. Soon both the genius and the very particular personality of Turing take over the scene, fuelling a riot between his co-workers.

Pic 2: Turing with his machine

The next couple of years are an interesting mix of sweat, blood and tears, in their desperation to achieve a result that keeps eluding them even after the changes in the team, made by Turing, in which he recruited is wife-to-be Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley) and the development of Turing machine, a proto-computer that, in Turing’s view, was the only possibility to break enigma coding capabilities.

Drama, tension, treason, tragedy but also joy, friendship, achievement and an almost love story, fill the searching years for a solution that was eventually achieved and which changed the course of the war. During this process we sporadically go even further back in time, to Turing’s childhood, where we are introduced to a badly adapted but brilliant Alan Turing, with a strong but tragic friendship and the building up of Alan’s strong although eccentric personality.

Pic 3: With Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley)

Some took offense in the cinematographic liberties taken by the Norwegian director Morten Tyldum and accused him to distort history, but the majority of the critics were pretty receptive and the movie received high ratings in the speciality sites as IMBd (8.2/10), Rotten Tomatoes (7.7/10) and Metacritic (73/100) among other reviewers both on and offline. The gross income was also impressively high reaching recently the mark of 180 million dollars worldwide (to cover production cost around 14 million dollars) what makes The Imitation Game the most profitable independent movie in 2014. It was also nominated for several prizes including 5 Golden Globe Awards and 9 British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominations, including “Best Film” and “Best Director”.

I’ve found it a very interesting movie, both for the veridical (even if adulterated) story of an, at least, unique character and for the entertaining experience of the movie itself. Tyldum and his team were able to make a fluid and entertaining movie, with content and some deepness, with emotion and drama without excessive sadness or melancholy. Probably due to the amazing performance of Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing a, not easy life in a not pretty tale, was able to preserve a colourful and dynamic atmosphere that never brings the movie to a standstill swamp of boredom, keeping the things interesting from beginning to the very end. The movie brings also space for reflection about how society treated and still treats, incomparably bright, although maladapted or different in any way, individuals like Alan Turing.

Rating:

Readers Rating - Entertaining - 


Thank you to all for rating this movie!

Nuno Soares

Lunchtime Concert - Bartholomew LaFollete & Caroline Palmer

It was on the 19th of February in one of the “Lunchtime Concerts” promoted by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) that cello and piano filled the Shaw library with harmony and talent.

The duo was composed by Bartholomew LaFollete, violoncellist born across the sea, in Philadelphia, USA, but rewarded and highly regarded in Britain where he won the Classical Music Award from The Arts Club’s and Decca Records, in 2013, and the Singapore-born English pianist, Caroline Palmer, piano professor at the Guildhall since 1990 who has a long career as a chamber musician and soloist, counting performances in a hand full of countries both in Europe and America.

Fig 1: Bartholomew LaFollete

In a concert just under a hour, the two musicians guided the audience through the genius work of Nadia Boulanger, full of emotion and contrast, impressed in a fluid and intense interpretation of Gabriel Faure’s Cello Sonata Nº1 in D minor Op.109, and finished with the revolutionary composition work of Francis Poulenc with his Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op.143.

A humble, though of high quality, spectacle, part of the public events promoted by the LSE which includes, beside the concerts, public lectures, discussions and exhibitions on a high diversity of topics.

Highly recommended!

Bartholomew LaFollete website: http://www.bartholomew-lafollette.com/

LSE Events: http://www.lse.ac.uk/publicEvents/eventsHome.aspx

Rating:

Nuno Soares

La Bohème

It came to life in the 29^th of October in the gorgeous stage of London Coliseum and will make you drop tears of joy and sorrow until December 6^th, by the experienced hand of the English National Opera (ENO).

ENO made another revival of this classical play written by Italian librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa and composed by their countryman Giacomo Puccini. Not taking the risk to fall on boredom ENO made some cast changes providing Angel Blue, the Californian former model and beauty queen, debut as Mimi, the main female character of this opera.

For 2h 15m ENO provides a really good spectacle that takes us back to early XIX century Paris and presents us to the tempestuous romance between Rodolfo, a broke poet and Mimi a seamstress with failing health. The emotional balance of the play lies between a cheerful and bohemian atmosphere in Rodolfo’s rented house, which he shares with the equally financial depressed painter, Marcello, the penniless musician, Schaunard, and the insolvent philosopher Colline, and his love affair, at the beginning lovely and passionate and then cold and bitter as jealousy and jaundice take over Rodolfo’s heart and mind.

  

The fabulous music and scenario plays a huge role on this dynamic that often swifts between a melancholic mood of a dying muse and the vibrant energy of Café Momus where Musetta, the sweetheart of Marcello, delights the Parisians with her voice, among other attributes. These turbulent affairs go on and off with a slow but steady rise of drama with the worsening of Mimi’s disease and the return of the winter.

George von Bergen, as Marcello and Jennifer Holloway, as Musetta play an amazing role, either alone or as a couple, often raising the spirits and most of the time making an essential, quite genius and most certainly funny complement to the main couple played by David Butt Philip, as Rodolfo and Angel Blue as Mimi. It’s relevant to say that the cast members are extremely gifted singers that remarkably sang their way into an admirable performance.

A minor room for improvement in the show can be considered Angel Blue’s inherent and effulgent vitality that refuses to disappear or even diminish from her voice even as her character health is fading, although this would hardly be enough to upset the overall experience.

An amazing play, an awesome representation and a spectacle that brightens both the cast and the English National Opera.

Excellent evening program!

Rating:

Nuno Soares

Jane Goodall at Woburn Safari Park

It was last Saturday, 27th of September, that the famous biologist, archeologist and human rights activist, Jane Goodall gathered around 200 souls to hear her talk about her professional and personal path, in Woburn Safari Park, outskirts of London.

The motto was “Gombe and Beyond” referring to the Gombe Stream National Park, in Tanzania, where Goodall spent her last 55 years studying chimps. But, back to the beginning, this narrative started at Jane’s youth when she went back to the 40’s and explained how quite simple gestures would nurse in young Jane this deep love and interest for animals. How with their low economical conditions, her and her mother tackled the big obstacles and make Jane able to, not only, further her knowledge in the matter, but also study and hope for a job that could actually lead her to Africa.

She found herself a job as a secretary in Oxford University and was actually for this function that she was hired, a few years later, by Louis Leakey, a British archeologist that was doing research about hominids in Kenya. Leakey was her first contact to scientific research and as well as to chimpanzees, and a long lasting friendship and work partnership allowed Jane to give her first steps as a primatologist. 

Pic 1: Jane Goodall with some natives from Gombe Natural Park

Still, from arriving to Africa to secure funding to study all this years the chimp population of Gombe, was a tough, continuous and ever-lasting war, that lead Jane back to the UK to take her PhD (without having any kind of academic studies before), which she remember as a quite difficult time for her, grab funding for a six months project and therefore putting her under the obligation of find something amazing in that short period that make her able to receive further funding.

That trigger as was wonderfully described was her discovery of the use of tools by the chimpanzees what also lead to a great revolution in scientific community, who then faced the need to contest and redefine biological and behavioral concepts and definitions about men, other animals and what tells us apart from each other.

This one hour talk went on eventually reaching Jane’s work as a human rights activist with the NGO Jane Goodall Institute, founded by her in 1977 and working since to promote sustainability in the usage of natural resources, protection of endangered species and environmental education, a project already spread out to a few dozen countries all around the world. She also spoke about her Roots&Shoots program that already reached 8000 youth groups and aided them to work in the promotion of environmental and social development in their own communities.

Pic 2: Jane Goodall and Mr H (from Hope)

This really enjoyable conversation was followed by a question and answers session and a book signing.

A very special event, an amazing woman and example and a moment to remember.

Nuno Soares