Niafunke - Ali Furka Toure - Most Enjoyed Music

Niafunke
Ali Furka Toure (1999)

I sometimes get nostalgic for places I haven't even been to. I listened to this album for the first time, read the CD liner notes, looked at the sepia-toned pictures and it happened again.

That was enough to make me want to hop on a flight to Bamako, (that'd be 3 flights from here really) then rent a Jeep and drive into the Mali shrubs looking for the village of Niafunke and this brick "studio." Instead, I listened to the wonderful music that Ali Furka produces.

Powerful, considering that this CD is my introduction to Toure's music, though I have heard his name and a song or two in NPR's Passport or similar programs. From the CD notes, I learned that Toure toured the West and then went back to his village to cultivate rice.

I loved the music and hope to learn to appreciate it more with repeated listenings. I admit that I am no music expert. When I listen to this collection, especially at the start of many songs, there are evocations reminiscent to me of Indian music (echoes of his Islamic influence perhaps). If you get a chance, do try this CD.

Ali Furka Toure, Niafunke

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut

After reading about Vonnegut for so many years, and dipping into essays by him, I finally decided to read one and picked this one.

Slaughterhouse-Five (S5) had made it to a few people's "one book to read list" so I decided that it was time. I think what surprised me the most was the sheer ease with which the book flows, the conversationality. I guess I had an unconscious image of having to plod through an 'anti-war' tome, but S5 is everything that a tome is not.

Vonnegut has used numerous literary devices to great effect, and writers may want to pay attention.

I especially liked his 'So it goes' chorus as I believe the literary device is called, the phrase follows almost every mention of death. It serves to underline the fact that death is such an integral part not only in war but also in daily life.

Been a long time fan of self-reference, and therefore I really enjoyed Vonnegut's 'meta-fiction.' He writes about this book in this book itself, writes about his trying to write it etc. (Vonnegut has done things which I mistakenly assumed that only Andy Kaufmann had tried in the movie 'Adaptation.')

Finally, I absolutely loved the way the author fragments a linear flow of time. All his seamless riffs on the present, past and the future and also to the planet Tralfamadore serve to create a great texture. (Again, I had mistakenly assumed that Tarantino's Pulp Fiction movie was the first to play with non-sequential narrative, but Kurt has done it a long time ago in this book.)

A word of caution: This book does contain harsh language, and I later found out that it has been on several 'banned books' lists. I understand that parents of young children may not want this book in their kids' hands, but I highly recommend it for everyone else.

Slaughterhouse fiveslaughterhouse funf,vonnegut, tralfamadore,meta-fiction, literary chorus

Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis

Liar's Poker
Michael Lewis

Very few of us are going to actually get to be traders in Wall Street. And very few writers get to be insiders in a Bond trading firm and possess the ability to write as well as Mike Lewis can. Most important of all, the writer is not overly caught up in the self-importance that might have accompanied being a trader. These are just a few reasons to seek out this book.

I like Michael Lewis' books, and can especially recommend MoneyBall for those who like statistics and attempts to quantify subjective things (baseball, in this case).

Liar's Poker is a great read for anyone even remotely interested in life on the Street. With all the fanfare that accompanies anything to do with stocks, this book about what it was like for a bond trader, right from getting interviewed, to training to be a training, all the floor politics -- petty or otherwise -- and finally emerging as a full fledged trader make for fascinating reading.


bond trading, wall street, trader, michael lewis