Victor Olaiya + Labalaba

Quite a few people have mentioned how much they enjoy the catchy soundtrack to the trailer for our SpeakYoruba App. I spent countless hours scouring Yoruba highlife, juju and fuji songs before finding Baba Ken Okulolo‘s wonderful rendition of Yoruba folk song, Labalaba, about a butterfly trying to be a bird (and the folly therein).

I could (and pretty much have) listened to Baba Ken’s version 1 million times. For this lazy, hazy, Queen’s Jubilee Sunday, here’s a jazzier more laid back version of the song performed by high-life legend Victor Olaiya. Have a listen to Baba Ken’s version and Victor Olaiya’s and let us know what you think!

 

SpeakYoruba Mobile App Trailer

After a good year or so on WordPress, we’re slowly moving all Comfort & Samuel blogging over to our Tumblr. We’ve had some good times here on WordPress (our post on Kanye West and the chair from the Duck Sauce video has drawn fans the world over), but the time has come to move on. There will be fewer and fewer posts here, but feel free to get in touch via our Twitter (@ComfortEtSamuel) or good ol’ fashioned e-mail. Before we say goodbye, I wanted to put up the video for the trailer of our forthcoming app SpeakYoruba. We’ve been harping on and on (or so it seems!) about this all year and finally the time is nigh; the app will debut in the app store in June.

SpeakYoruba combines beautifully animated flashcards with the iPhone/iPad touch interface for a fun and easy way to learn to speak Yoruba, one of Africa’s most widely spoken languages. The app will initially be available on Apple OS with dedicated versions for iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad (which will include additional games).  To give a taste of what’s to come, watch the video below and let us know what you think!

Emotan – A Woman’s Bimonthly

Vintage Africana

Emotan was a Nigerian women’s magazine published in the late 70s/early 80s with fashion spreads that mixed local prints with Western designers (Tahari, Lanvin, etc.) and articles on politics, beauty, interiors and design, etc. This photo is from our catalog. Isn’t the titular font the coolest?

Photography by Keiko Oikawa

Spring is in the Air!

I CAN SPEAK YORUBA

Coming soon to the Apple App Store

SpeakYoruba – The mobile app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

SpeakYoruba – Learning Yoruba One Word at A Time.

PhotoShop is my buddy

Ololufe mi + Fela

A favourite Fela recording that is a bit more ‘off-the-beaten-path’ than his super-popular hits. Some sedate Fela for anyone so inclined.

Wild Life

I’ve found myself in the (enviable) position of having to watch several animated shorts…all in the name of research, you see. While making the most of what YouTube and Google have to offer, I came across Wild Life (2011), an animated short by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Trilby. The short is beautiful and amazing in several respects: the entire thing (every single frame) was hand painted (no Flash animation here), the colour scheme is, in turns, bright and beautiful and lush and evocative; each frame could easily stand alone as a piece of art with a story all its own. There’s also the dialogue, smart and funny in equal measure, and the story, of an English remittance man sent to the Canada’s Wild West to become…a rancher.

After a little more digging, I wasn’t surprised to learn the short was nominated for an Oscar this year. The style here is completely different to the Cuban/jazz love story Chico & Rita, also nominated, which is, in many respects, much more stripped down.  Good luck to both films on Sunday!

Neon Africa + Helmets

Via Clutch Magazine.…I love this photo

Reminds me of the Ankara print helmets from Nigerian designer, Ituen Basi‘s collection at the Arise Magazine Fashion week in Lagos last year. My upcoming trip to Nigeria will be just after the fashion week, so I’m going to miss out on this year’s festivities

Source - Pop'Africana

SpeakYoruba Tumblr Love

THIS!!!!! Thus far, my treatment of the Comfort & Samuel Tumblr has been almost unforgivably negligent. My schedule loosened up a bit over the past couple of days and I put up a quick note about our forthcoming Yoruba language app, SpeakYoruba. The response so far can only be described as Awesome… stuff like this makes all my sleepless nights, all the stress, all hard work so many people are putting in to this project worth it! Actually, having everyone download it when it hits the app store will make it reaaally worth it

Please sign up to the mailing list and check back at www.SpeakYorubaApp.com for updates and more. This response is deserving of something fantastic for all SpeakYoruba fans..watch this space