love love love reflections.

Had the pleasure of sharing a round of drinks with some great people.

a round of amstels

hey

that is all.

art is everywhere.

Saw this while walking down the street and thought of my friend Wade. Thanks again for having us at that show a few months ago.

Thanks Wade

I wasn’t sure what to make of this, but I like the color.

Revolutionary Road

So this film, they got it right and people might say it was dark or too heavy, but isn’t that what life is? I love life. Although, I work and have ambitions both personal and professionally the most important thing that I can ever do is to live, for without it there would be no life. I must get up every morning, because that is our number one priority while here… in this place. The amount of days that we will live is a variable, but the outcome is very specific, now if you consider that dark well that’s your opinion, the outcome still remains. I simply see it as truth.

Back to the film. On average, you could say that younger people have more lofty aspirations – perhaps because the world hasn’t told them yet that they couldn’t do a particular thing. Even if you told me I couldn’t do something I probably wouldn’t listen to you because if I haven’t tried, then I haven’t lived and you are not me nor am I you. If you live by the aspirations of another or better put, if you let the reasons for why another did or didn’t make a decision be a standard for your life… well then you will never be anything more than the sum of the opinions of others. Being humble is just as important as being self-centered, because if you fail to define life on your own terms, I’m not sure I can express the tragedy. I believe in you, I think you can, we both can break precedent and perhaps some of us wont, but I believe some will. Sadly, for all of us beautiful dreamers we have friends, relatives, associates who have allowed the rigors of life to determine the ceiling of their lives. The reason this film is authentic is simple: it was authentic. The balance between cast & directors – they weren’t afraid to show the fact that dreams don’t always come true. A majority of our lives is spent by us rationalizing our shortcomings in hopes that one day it will all work out. There are so many words that will remain unsaid because we are afraid to be wrong, I am failing everyday, but failure is never permanent for me because I will never cease to live life. Our investments in self are not always rewarded by financial, popular, and emotional standards this is why decisions about your life should be made in the interest of the most important person you know: YOU.

An excerpt from the film…

April Wheeler: Tell me the truth, Frank, remember that? We used to live by it. And you know what’s so good about the truth? Everyone knows what it is however long they’ve lived without it. No one forgets the truth, Frank, they just get better at lying.

Sincerely,

RAF

Guys roam the streets in Occada motorbikes, normally with one passenger, but quite often with two. Most rarely use their rearview mirrors, and almost everyone always honks to let you know they are near by.

The menu says Pina Collada, but they cant make a frozen one.

I haven’t seen a credit card in about 8 days.

A truck started leaking oil in front of my eyes on the highway, we were 10 feet away.

While Ramon was driving yesterday, I asked him, how do the mobile phone companies survive with all everyone selling sim cards etc in the street. He shed a little bit of light, the people selling sim cards & credit for prepaid phones in the streets are actually authorized retailers. They deal directly with the phone companies and are authorized to distribute the products. In Lagos, and I am assuming the greater part of Nigeria, the streets are mobile malls for people who have no time to shop for furniture, snacks, lighters, sim cards etc. I saw a man carrying a heavy looking white piece of wood, Ramon said, “Sir, that’s a dressing mirror, someone is definitely going to need that one.”

We were born into an era that soon became digital, its hard for me to imagine times like these, it’s difficult to find organization in things that to the uneducated eye seem so chaotic, but I guess that’s why we must say Lagos is Lagos, New York City is New York City, London is London and Hong Kong is Hong Kong. One must not spend hours trying to compare where one travels to home because no matter how much one tries it will never compare to home. Instead one should try their best to submerse oneself in that culture and experience it: fully.

I was on my way to Lekki Market to buy some gifts for friends back home. I searched for a few hours for a book of some substance for my good friend Kira. I think she might enjoy it.

retailers x lekki market x lagos

the green bus x lagos

just outside lekki market

vendors cntd.

vendors just outside lekki

Upon entry into the vehicle, I told Ramon that his name was very Latin, he replies, “You would know about such things because you are so fashionable.” I nearly bursted into tears, you had to hear him say it – hilarious! He asked my name, I said, “Well that’s tricky, because I have three (3) first names and people call me all of them sometimes in the same conversation… My name is Rrrrrrroberrrrrrto Allllfonso Fe-leee-pe, but most people call me all three: pick one.” I began to tell him about how his name is pronounced in my culture he said people often call him, “Raymond.” I said, “Which do you prefer,” he said, “Something to the extent of, You are the boss so you can call me as you please.” My tone got serious, Ramon, this is YOUR name and you can control who says it, how they say it, when they say it, remember that… client or not its YOUR NAME. He must have thought I was joking because he started to laugh and said, “Thank you sir.” I said, “I’m serious” as I began to pump Michael Jackson – Off the Wall: the fun was just beginning…

Just to give you a visual of how happy the guy is…

the happiest man in lagos: Ramon.

Back to Michael…

So Off the Wall comes on and we both randomly start to sing, looked at each other in shock: we both knew the mainstream portion of the song, but hummed the trickier parts – it was like a deleted scene from White Chicks. After a few commercials, Lady Gaga comes on, I know the words, I asked him if he knew who this is, when the hook drops he shouts, “Lady Gaga!” The guy brought a few smiles to my day which helped make me more comfortable driving everywhere with him. It was certainly helpful to hear from someone who grew up here about the culture and how things have been changing. Sadly, for you, this place is painted in the wrong light too often, but that’s society. Sometimes you have to see things for yourself.

On to the subject of this post which is sharing, my very good friend J. Matthew was so kind to give me a parting gift before my trip: worth more than money or any night club owners bbm, it was a book: Food Rules by Michael Pollan.

Transatlantic Sharing

Earlier this morning, over breakfast I actually I read the book. The day’s developments made me feel like I needed to give and decided to share it with Ramon today to see how he felt about it given that we come from two opposite sides of the world, I wanted to see how he felt about it. I know how I feel about it, but maybe sharing it with him can help give both of us a better reaction to it. Maybe it wont, but it doesn’t hurt to share. I had an errand to run at a friends place and while I was gone Ramon might have read 40-50 pages in the book and he loved it. He handed it back to me and thanked me for sharing. It was at this point that I realized that I should let him have it. I never saw someone so happy to receive a book, he said, “he wanted to change his diet and be more aware of the things he puts into his body.” I had no comment, all I said was, “If you give me your email and address I will send you some books my friend and when you are done share them with your closet friends. He couldn’t believe it..

I am just one person and I am no better than the next man, but if I can make a difference in the life of another so can you.

xx

RAF

moi x leye x new friend

beach club x lagos

ripples in the water

converse all star x lagos

corona x center of the world

chin x water on sand x lagos

new friend x dock on water x lagos

moi x water in the background

sun over looking water

chin x moi x sand x lagos

happy monday

xx

RAF

The local time here was 5.30AM – here is Nigeria, love is everywhere and all the things they say about the place could be true, but it very well could be a lie. I have never been, but it ain’t so bad. I added the international data plan on my AT&T Blackberry, no luck dialing out when I landed though. I waltzed through customs like a summer ballad with my newly named wife under a bungalow with just enough oning to keep us from being wet. Security asked me about my luggage, I told him, “man, I always overpack, because I will never allow myself to be underdressed.” He smiled to me and said, “where are my clothes?” I said, “Come to New York, I’ll take care of you.” I dragged my suitcases through and walked out into a sea of men, mostly middle-aged, a lot of young boys all shouting, “TAXI, TAXI, TAXI!” I took a step back, put my hand out and said, “No thanks, I’m okay” in a firm, but respectful tone. I was trying to ring my very good friend: Chin, but my calls kept dropping. A teenager walked towards me and motioned at his phone, I told him I needed to make a call and I did. I was finally able to reach my friend, I gave the teenager 4 GBP (apologies, I’m not sure how to get the signal on my MAC).

Chin rolls downstairs in a button down and shorts, drunk as he should be given that it was his birthday that night and he still has the sense to grab me at the airport – what a player! We walked through an almost endless sea of men, it almost sounded like chanting, but they kept saying, “taxi, taxi, taxi.” We arrived at a pickup truck that had a group of soldiers in it: our escorts…how fitting. I introduced myself, I always introduce myself to people, so that they know my name and I’m not just another, “JOB.” They grabbed my bags, we jumped in another car and the race began. We were in an SUV, the mobile police behind us with their sirens, its 6AM in Nigeria, 12AM in New York City, 5AM in London, and I feel the pulse of all three cities, continents in me as we race at about 70MPH. Everyone moves out of our way and if they don’t the driver is honking – shit, even if they aren’t in our way they are honking. The streets are a mixture of dirt roads, highways, and I don’t know what else to describe it.

People are EVERYWHERE, again its 6AM and people are everywhere. Kids walking in the middle of the highway, running across lanes, men standing in the woods doing… Lord knows what. They are building an Intercontinental Hotel here and as my friend says, “That’s big for Nigeria.” For the most part everyone has been a pleasure. The class distinction is a bit off-putting – to give you an example, we rode to a private beach earlier, on a private yacht, and drank mostly American alcohol and were taken care of my teenage boys who live in villages and maintain their houses by catering to these westernized natives. Society needs rich and poor, or so they say, but I guess for me its rare to see it on this level: in America it seems or at least it feels that the poverty is so masked. The projects that I see around town are nothing compared to this.

People will do a lot of things for $1,000 Naira which is the equivalent of 0.006651 U.S. dollars

To coin a phrase from Louis Armstrong, “Give me a kiss to build a dream on and my imagination will feed my hungry heart.”

miss you mom!

RAF

On the surface, not much has changed here, the accents are still very attractive and the people are still cold, but that’s okay, no quarrels on my end… After lugging around my three (3) pieces of luggage (I always over pack) I finally made my way to terminal four (4) I thought I might be able to check my bags early as opposed to dragging them with me to the complimentary hotel they setup for me since I had this rediculously long layover. Unfortunately, the counter doesn’t open until four (4) hours before departure so I hung my head for two (2) minutes and dragged my stuff to the ground floor. I wasn’t upset, but my arm was pretty tired from lugging this thing around I switched terminals because Virgin Atlantic comes in at terminal three (3) and my departure was out of terminal four (4). Anyway, I found a black taxi and jumped in the driver starts to load my luggage and I hear him mumble, “My job is to drive not load luggage” I began to frown because I wasn’t aware that it wasn’t his job. Normally when I jump into a taxi with bags they help me load them, I thought it was a part of the service, I thought that was going above and beyond and was normally rewarded with a tip! Nonetheless, I smiled again as I turned on Anthem – Let it go (Anthem is gearing up to launch his EP in the next month & did I mention he is opening up for Lupe Fiasco in LA this week? More on this in its own post.)

so good.

i'm not in a rush

We arrive at the destination a hotel setup by the airline as a courtesy because of the layover. The driver had added an additional gratuity for helping me with the bags, I wasn’t offended, I tipped him on top of that and said, “thank you for your help sir.” I approach the check-in desk, “Hey, how are you doing today? I’m checking in…” She searches for my reservation, unfortunately to no avail, which was weird, so she sends me down this long corridor to speak to the manager who is sitting at a table, very nice guy. After speaking with him and an affiliate of the airline they were able to find the request, but the manager needed to approve the complimentary room was no where to be found. Time was running late, it was now 2PM and my flight out was at 10PM. I knew that if I actually got the room I would probably fall asleep, so I said thank you, smiled, walked away and called another taxi.

Before leaving the hotel I jumped on Skype with one of my first friends from college who is doing a masters in Paris, it was great to catch up and it looks like she will be interning in the city this summer which I’m very excited about…

My second cab driver of the day was much more happier. He was super talkative and gave me a little info about my destination: Notting Hill. I wasn’t upset that things didn’t work out to plan, but that’s life, it doesn’t always work out your way, but you have to roll with it. To be honest, I’m just happy to not be stuck in New York in the midst of that snow storm. This was what I was up against last night…

semak x snow x nyc

I didn’t think I would make it out, but guess I got lucky with this one. As I stated prior the first flight was cancelled so I had to jump on VS10 which didn’t take off till about 1.30AM. We sat on that runway for at least 2hrs, first it was, “defrosting” then it was the traffic, they were trying my patience, but I remained chill about it – if you let little things ruffle your feathers you’ll never get to get upset about the big things.

notting hill x g x yay!

pay here x don't litter x notting hill

Anyway back to Notting Hill, London, and the other side of the Atlantic Ocean… Arrived at my friends house gave a few hugs, left my bags and ran outside for some brunch, champagne, and some very fabulous croissants.

look left

look right

Saw Notting Hill properly and loved it.

love this alley

Boarding to Africa which will put me at 6,570 Miles in roughly a little over 24hrs.

Hugs given – 15

I need to give more in Africa!

Lots of love.