The Original Zengela Band (Kenya)

Pamela by the Original Zengela Band

While going through my CD shelf (yes, I still have tons of CDs), I rediscovered an old treasure I hadn't listened to in years - an album by the East African Original Zengela Band I'd bought on eBay in 2003. The album itself dates from 1997 and was distributed by a German company named p&g media service gmbh in Staufen im Breisgau. 

Nothing much can be found about this band on the Internet - it looks like the CD I have is about the only release there is, even though it seems to have been released several times with different covers.

Anyway - it's great music, and I've been listening to the CD over and over again, particularly while running on the treadmill. There's nothing better to make this rather boring act more exciting than the swinging rhythm produced by this marvelous band. Highly recommendable!

Seems like a repeat

Dogs barking in the back alley
for invisible reasons (as if they
ever needed any),

fan whirring, installing a semblance of cool
in here while the immense summer heat
drags on into September.

While I’m trying to keep my cool
as I’m going through rows and rows
of written materials that would most likely
not be missed had they not been written.

But that’s what ya get paid for, me boy.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2024)

Note
This should be blunt enough not to require any explanation.

Part of Weary Outpourings of a Grump Ground Down by Life and Other Things.

Lonely, strong, nearly symmetrical

 

Thinking back to the days when kids
were running around here,
when cows were mooing, roosters
crowing, dogs barking and cats
meowing – life.

Unlike now when there’s only
mechanical clatter of machines – 
sometimes.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2024)

Note
This was written to accompany the photo, which shows a tree next to the remains of what used to be a farm (Lazio, Italy, southeast of Rome).

Momentary account

   

Rome, July 31, 2024

Burning heat, sometimes
crying of children, howling
of dogs, power cuts.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2024)

Note
Razor-edge-of-time reporting from the climate change front.

No respect, no tears good-bye

 

Discarded technology

Title chosen in variation of lyrics by Tom Rush ("no regrets / no tears good-bye").

Once a means of communication, now a piece of high-tech trash carelessly thrown away. Photographed in Rome, but this could be just about anywhere on the planet.

Mrs. A’s sweet dilemma

“Today I have a slight headache – probably overdid it at the Tutta birthday party ... hmmm ... I think the Lamborghini might be the cure for that. Or not? 
Maybe the Rolls because of its softer springing? 
Where do I have to go anyway? – Ah yes, the golf course to meet hubby. 
It’s going to be so hot there! Thank God there’s a highly effective AC in the clubhouse. 
Which one reflects our status more accurately? – Tell me, dear Sher Singh – Italian or British?”

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2024)

Photo credit
AI - no real people or cars are shown here.

Tiger Shroff in Bade Miyan Chote Miyan

Indian actor Tiger Shroff in a film still from the action movie Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (2024).

Taken from the screen with an ancient Sony Ericsson cell phone from around 2004 and subjected to some retro editing.

Haven't finished watching, so no words on the film for now.

What is the title of this poem?

 But, more importantly, what is its content?

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2024)

Note
Inspired by a similarly titled poem by Kathryn Bevis, which has lots of detailed content, I came across at the Poetry Society UK site. I decided to not only question the title of the poem but also the content, thus taking it up one notch.

A Man Needs A Maid

 

That was one particular April in 2014, when it had been drizzling, raining cats and dogs and hailing in turn and I was working at this farm somewhere in the boonies of southern Germany, where the rough charm and ruddy looks of one Mr. Rolf Pralad had brought me. One of his favorite songs was Neil Young’s “A man needs a maid” – he’d told me that before I arrived there, but I had no idea how literally he understood the title. 

I learned to get up early, feed the animals, milk the cows, make breakfast, clean the place, etc. In turn I initially got some loving, but that faded after a short time. 

It was towards the end of April, and it was still raining, I kid you not, when he tossed me out because his old girlfriend had come back. 

“I don’t deserve this, Rolf!”
“A matter of opinion.”
“What has she got that makes her better than me?”
“Well, for one she is blonde, and I prefer blondes, and then –”
“Then what?”
“I don’t want to insult you, Karo.”
“Well, you’ve done plenty of that already, Rolf. I deserve better.”
“You don’t. Get lost!”

Upon which he threw out my suitcase, pushed me out the door and slammed it shut in my face.

But his dog Pummel followed me, and now, ten years later, I still have that dog – a heavenly creature compared to his former master.

– Kathleen Mulholland (© 2024)

Author's note: Story not my own. Loosely based on a video game (see lo-fi clip above).

The drab streets haiku

 

Read today we should
all be grateful for any-
thing and everything

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2024)

Note
I really did read that today somewhere on the oh so social media. “Anything and everything” would include drab streets, right? Like the Roman street with its crumbling brutalist architecture eternalized in the photo above.

PS:
Anyone interested in drab street photos like the one shown here please get in touch!