Ana's Bookstore

Ana's Bookstore
In print and ebooks

12/23/2008

For Christmas and for all the years to come...


Many came but only two blue did appear.
Enlaced in a sleigh, all happy the reindeer,
Rolled in the snow that covered the house,
Reindeer darling of she who's Ana Claus,
Yell to the whole world to hear:

Christ, the Lord, oh so near!
Holy Saints rejoice and sing,
Real life comes for us to bring
In tender thoughts and dear salvation
So is the Lord and all His Creation.
Tender and sweet as the little things
Mild and soft He who is the King.
All in one voice echoing with no parallel:
Save us the Lord, it's Noel, Noel, Noel!

Book for Donation
"Sea Sons" live in harmony with nature, showing how the four elements add beauty and grace to the entire world throughout the whole year. An old-fashioned illustrated and bilingual book with Christmas Carol and rhymes in English and Portuguese. Proceeds from this book are going to the donation of clothes, books, toys, food and other basic needs for children in Brazil who live in slums. The best way to make a child smile is to giving in person. It's priceless and the most rewarding thing in the world. So I promise to post pictures with those smiles and videos here and on my blogpage of those kids singing and dancing in joy, enjoying their gifts: their own lives.
God Bless and... MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU.
Sea Sons- Rhymes & Songs:
http://www.lulu.com/content/37337

(In Portuguese) As Quatro Fadas:
http://www.lulu.com/content/5005637



12/11/2008

It's a Dog's Life!

In a world so hard,
made of steel,
a loyal dog steals
my heart...

Without a single clue
in a royal rescue, so true,
he saves his dead companion
of being torn apart.

HERÓICO RESCATE DE PERRO EN COSTANERA NORTE from elnortero on Vimeo.

Un perro callejero arriesgando su vida sacó a otro can que había sido atropellado en Santiago de Chile.

12/07/2008

Orbiting at the Theater

I was listenning (and singing) Brazilian songs from Djavan to Chico Buarque and Milton Nascimento with a variety of Jazz musicians and other Brazilian Popular Music groups (the majority from Argentina) at the First Music Festival of Bossa Nova that took place in Mendoza, Argentina (December, 5th and 6th 2008). I took a couple of pictures and what was my surprise to realize just now that there were some orbs around the stage (maybe they were orbitating dancers just enjoying the show). Then after I left the theater I saw a group of scholars celebrating their Prom. I took a pic and voila, more orbs around. I guess it was a great heavenly party night at the city of Mendoza after all. And it's not only at night the fairies go party. During the day they are all around, at least in my garden of flowers. (Click on Pics and look for Orbs:)

11/24/2008

Twilight and New Moon rising

I started reading the Twilight and its sequence, New Moon, from the debutant writer Stephenie Meyer, sometime back then when I got a pocket book sample while in the International Book Fair in Sao Paulo. And, neitherless to say, that did not impress me much... thought it was maybe due to the translation in Portuguese, but then, my intuition about novels are pretty much accurate. Just thought maybe it didn't work this time, by all the fuss (and fuzz) this book had been about (given the marketing costs it surely was already prepared to the pain in all gain again compared only to the Da Vinci Code fever) to have conquered the hearts of so many teens and also grown up women (and men!) but nope, I guess it's just a question of in-tuition! For when I was in my early teens at the elementary school I was not so much obliged as delighted to read novels from the Brazilian classics of authors such as Machado de Assis, Drummond, and the chronicles from Ruben Fonseca, Cecilia Meirelles and others who were still alive by then. As a teenager my literature in high school consisted of overdose of adult contemporary fiction and nonfiction, of science-fiction, but with no fantasy included, with obligatory readings and studies on deep analysis from books of authors of the heightest ranks, from the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen to Proust, Voltaire, William Shakespeare, then Aldoux Huxley and George Orwell. Such books as 1984 and Animal Farm were just samples from final exams. I guess after all that, it is difficult for me to understand why books about vampires tend to be such a hit nowadays. That probably means the educational system today is failing on providing children the necessary tools to comprehend deeper meanings, leaving them lost into a labyrinth of choices which in turn leads them to an abysm where literature is concerned. Hopefully the sun will rise again in the horizon, and the moon and other works of art will be let to inspire authors and readers with better subjects than conspiracy theories, vampires and wolves.


Ana is using her third-"I" to literally understand such phenomena

11/14/2008

2012: The Mayan Prophecy

Now there's another movie which is being released and that is already making the world roar: 2012, about the Mayan Prophecy of the world finishing in that year. But more than the story itself what is interesting is people's reactions to that issue, which varies from a "Oh My God!" to "Whatever" in so many cultures and languages that is hard to know exactly what it is really going to happen. Cientists say there will be a shift of poles. The Global Warming evidence shows that the poles are actually melting, rising the ocean levels. Prophets such as the Brazilian writer Monteiro Lobato, author of "The Black President" recently made his spooky science-fiction written in 1926 come true when he exposed his first and only adult book about a president who would win between other two candidates (a white woman and man) from the other parties and this all happens in the year 2228 (I won't be a spolier here but wait until you read that, for there is much more on the book with quite revealing index). Another prophet, this one in America also predicted that the last president of the United States would be a black man. And voila: he is now Baracking the world! So 2012 would represent the end of the world AND a new beginning as the beginning is the end and vice-versa. It will mark the start of a new horizon with the Age of Aquarius. According to Edgar Cayce it means “the full consciousness of the ability to communicate with the Creative Forces and be aware of the relationships to the Creative Forces and the uses of same in material environs(...)” as that we as humans will be reawakening to a brighter future with an evolved consciousness.
Let's just all pray for that, then!
Amen!

Talking about reaching out to our Creative Forces and tapping into an ocean of abundant source, I just released my Picture Book with a Christmas carol and rhymes in Portuguese and English, available also as a pocket book.
"Sea Sons/Filhos do Mar"



11/10/2008

Quantum of Solace

Quantum of Solace is the name of the last secret agent James Bond's movie. And the footage, which just took place this year at the north of Chile, it's been released at the Theaters nearby. Among many other exotic places it was also filmed in Antofagasta and the desert of Atacama. A sequence of "Cassino Royale" is already a cocktail of ventures and adventures. On April they were finishing the last scenes. "The Happy rap wrap April party" (when they finally close the set and left) happened just the other day. But it's just too bad I was not invited to any of that. Though the blond Bond girl is now a brunette and the north of Chile became Bolivia (just for the takes) and the whole region became furious (what if they want to make it appear as a remote and exotic place, which is, by the way) and that is quite enough "bouleversement" for any team. I got to find solace "por encanto e por enquanto" in "Quantum" when I see that (I'm planning to go anytime soon) and recognize some parts of the desert which I drove not long ago. At least I won't have my eyes overwhelmed by beautiful pictures wondering where they had filmed that. For, you know, it's not only about action, but location, location, location...

Talking about action and big parties, I just painted a Lady in Red, dressed in a flamenco style, which reminded me of Sevilla:
And once in Andalusia, we cannot miss Jerez de la Frontera, a city which is in the province of Cadiz. There also takes place the International Motorcycle Grand-Prix. But enough of automatic and fast machineries. Now I just want to go take a walk, giving time to meditate and look around...
A Blond Bond Blend in Jerez:

¿Y por que Jerez?
¡Porque eres!

Life is but a blink of an eye.
One moment for you and I.
A minute into a small size
Delighting like a paradise!

11/05/2008

ANDES MOUNTAIN

When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain Wearing Her Night Gown...



Ana's 50 X 70 inches paintings of the view in and out of her window in Santiago, Chile

10/29/2008

"Einstein on the Beach"

Yesterday I went in the Chile and North-American Institute to watch a conference about the works of the illustrate choreographer Merce Cunningham. Janet Charleston was exposing videos and explaining his methods with much clarity. I waited eagerly in the class at the Dance Expectator School which I attend, for I knew it was written on the program (at The Dance Expectator School Site) that she would talk about the experience she had while dancing with Lucinda Childs the Philip Glass opera "Einstein on the Beach" and also that she would show a video about this montage. Then in the end I asked her, "Don't you have any material on that?" "Yes, I do have it," Janet answered, "But they are at home in New York." I wasn't satisfied. "I guess now I will have to go to new York to see that." I gasped. "But you can view that on youtube," interviened the host of the event. "Right!! yes, the youtube..." I was even more dissatisfied. For I checked youtube. It's not that the recording is bad, but would I have the chance to watch that with the presence of some performer who actually was there. A chance of a lifetime. Almost twenty years have passed since I first found out about Mr. Cunningham. it was all by chance that I took an workshop with his "Dance Company", as he accompanied one of his pupils, assisting us at the Dance Festival in Sao Paulo. It was my very first attempt of trying something different than my eight years of extremely exhausting Ballet training. And I was exhilarated that I then found out my body could work much better in another time and space. It was almost as if I had that eureka moment, I guess that is what Einstein felt when he found that E=mc².That experience had such a huge effect on me, and since then I pretty much try to go to the essence of everything. So how was my disappointment yesterday that a dancer/choreographer would rather talk much more about another person's works than her own. Not that I didn't enjoy the expose, I did take a lot from it. I learned how much Cunningham's method have evolved by the use of life forms and the help of technology. But I would rather have spent five hours listenning to a boring sound, but that it is original, from his own creator than a second-handed exhibition. Though I know dancers are interpreters of a movement, they usually take all that they can absorve and yet incorporate their own tone (and that's not big news). So I guess that I just wanted to experience the dancer's energy and experiment, hearing more about New York of Charleston and Einstein than Cunningham after all.


glitter-graphics.com
And I am still watching “Einstein on the beach” while wondering, "if he took a bath after all that math, would that be considered a brain wash??"

A sonnet to Albert Einstein (I just wrote inspired by the note I did quote:)

Albert took a bath
Longing for his Math.
But isn't it a panache,
Experiencing a brain wash?
Relatively energetic enough
To bounce a theory on the rough.

Energy equals MC square...
In which terms, in which glare?
No matter the matter or how rare,
Simply energy it's in there.
Theories abound, views to be reckoned,
Eurekas in a fraction of a second.
In only one particle there's all
No matter how tall.... or small.

10/27/2008

International Animation Day



Ana was very animated when she went to Paris the same time the "Savage Garden" (the Australian Duo) filmed "Truly Madly Deeply" and oh so in sync was their clip and song as well as its lyrics with her own soul that little would she know then she was already making her own path from an old film to a soap opera, singing in her own rhythm, by the beat of her heart, looking up in the cosmical sky, reflecting her own shinning star. And how much it took for her to get there? Well, those are stories she tells from her memories to her memoirs, dancing on words, as she dances as one.

myspace layouts, myspace codes, glitter graphics

Some tids and bits of TODAY/TOMORROW/YESTERDAY:

On October 28th, 1892, a French inventor Emile Reynaud (1844-1918) made the first public performance of animation at the Grevin Museum in Paris, using his own invention "optical theater".

ASIFA (Association Internationale du Film d' Animation, registered in Annecy, France) decided to celebrate this historic day as "International Animation Day", aiming to promote and develop animation art all over the world.

10/18/2008

Favelados (People living in precarious conditions)

An 'Arts Institute at Bournemouth' Animation


"Favelados tells the story of two orphaned children living in the Favelas outside Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Emmanuel, the young shoe shine boy faces the burden of his unwell sister Ria. All that he prays for in his poverty stricken world is that his sister is happy once more."

A very realistic, sad and yet moving movie animation. It is like being there in full presence. A bitter sweet portrait of my country. Very touching! Hope this serves as a reminder, to openning the eyes of people to do something about the miseries in this world.

10/15/2008

Blog Action Day: Fighting Poverty in the World

To fight against poverty one should fight against the global warming or the world will colapse in catastrophic proportions with a terrible prospect: People could be displaced from their own land as the ocean will rise in an increasingly high level and lack of food and supply would be the topic of the day. If we don't take action now the whole world would have to face a much worst perspective about hunger and deficit in the economy. Talking with the governamental authorities is crucial. But we, as individuals, could make much more than that: Eco-T(R)ips

Take, for example, organizations such as "Hogar de Cristo" founded by the Saint Alberto Hurtado here in Chile and see for yourself that with little we can help a lot already: The Priest and now Saint Alberto Hurtado started to implement a project to eradicate poverty in his country. His success was due to the fact that he really cared about the disadvantaged people.He would always ask himself, "What would Christ do in my place?" It is not out of mimetizing His work but asking what would He do in our days.

A reunion with the Priest Alberto Hurtado and his colleagues at the Saint Ignatius College (A Family Collection)

Everytime I go to the supermarket the cashier asks me if I want to donate some. And I always say, "Yes!" How could I say no to this foundation who help poor people and is a visibly working process? Chile is one of the countries in Latin America with less poverty. So I was surprised when I saw a man so irritated with tha question saying, "Why you keep asking me that?" And he didn't want to donate. I should rather ask the same question adding, "Why ask? Please, of course I will donate." As much as I am sure it will have a good effect on people. If it helps, even if in small quantities, it is valid.


In England: " William John Williams, 67, was found with serious burns to his back after apparently having petrol poured on him in a lane of a busy Cardiff street on 17 January.
Two youths, aged 16, are accused of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The victim had lived the lifestyle of a tramp and was to be seen about the streets and communities at all times of day, despite having an address at Gloucester Street in the Riverside area." (source:BBCNEWS)

Four men dressed in Scottish kilts are accused of pouring petrol over and setting light to a 41 year old Portuguese vagrant, sleeping on cardboard boxes in Valencia´s Plaza de la Reina during the early hours of Wednesday morning. (The victim) who has been living on the streets of Valencia for the last eleven years since all his grape picking wages were stolen from him and he could not face going back home to face his father´s angry disappointment.

"They kept me in for a few hours then let me go. I had to walk back to the Plaza de la Reina because nobody would give me any money for a taxi," added Albert, who explained that he was in a rush to get back to check on his three dogs, who were not injured in the attack. (...) says he will be hanging on to his walking stick to defend himself with should anything similar happen to him in the future. (source: ThinkSpain)


Qui, 09 Out, 02h41
Um morador de rua foi alvo de incendiários na noite de ontem, quando dormia em uma praça no bairro do Tatuapé, zona leste de São Paulo. A vítima, de aproximadamente 50 anos, sofreu queimaduras de primeiro grau em todo o corpo, exceto na face. Segundo paramédicos que o atenderam, uma mulher que passava pelo local testemunhou três pessoas jogando um líquido sobre o morador de rua e ateando fogo em seguida, fugindo a pé. Ela acionou uma ambulância ao ver a vítima em chamas.
(source:Agencia Estado)

Five days ago, a tramp was set on fire in the streets of Sao Paulo. At least there was a woman who saw the whole thing and called an ambulance. For God's sake, when we will give a hand to someone who needs it? They could have been your father, or your son. What if it was YOU??

People come together
Over one voice, one word,
Viewing the world as one.
Erase poverty forever
Realizing this absurd
That things are set undone.
Yell, "Poverty: None!"

"God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them."
- Bono (Lead Singer U2) from his speech at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast, Washington DC.

"STAND UP, STAND UP, STAND UP!"

10/08/2008

It's a God's Life!


With the recession and the global financial turmoil, it's time to roll up our sleeves and help people get in touch with what truly matters in our world by spreading the words of equality and fairness, and putting our fingers in the economic problems to solve some issues that have been like a plague, and giving solutions to the mess we all are. People are so concerned about their loosing money that they got lost amidst the deepest despair when so many live in hunger and are getting hungrier by the minute. In our rushing times it's just so easy to disconnect from what is really important in our lives. The basic needs are indeed what truly matters in all languages, all nations and all colors: to have a home, food in our plate, a good health, piece of mind and someone to share all that. So in five days I will be joining the world with words at the blog action day to getting verbal about poverty around the world. Would you join me too?

10/01/2008

Changing the Guard at Palacio de la Moneda



"En Garde!" He shouts.
"What's this all about?"
could have sang the bards.
"Changing the Guards."

What were they doing
before they went renewing
the others marching in the yard
Changing the Guards?

Were they playing cards
or were all in disregard?
What if they miss their time
when nothing else should rhyme?

It would have made a mess
if they were playing chess,
instead of Changing the Guards.
It must be so very hard...

To stay up all day long
and doing nothing wrong.
How can they belong
and still stay so strong?

What if some of the guards
leave soon or are in retard?
What happens if they move
from their conventional groove?

"Changing the Guards" © 2008 Ana Claudia Antunes

9/19/2008

Independence Day in Chile

Ana grabbed her camera this afternoon and went right to the Palacio de la Moneda in Santiago to film the president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, live, leaving and heading to the Independence Day's Parade:

9/02/2008

101 Post

I just read my new book which arrived in the mail >"One Hundred One World Accounts in One Hundred One Word Count" in One Hundred One Whole Minutes.
Holding my new born baby, the book >"One Hundred One World Accounts in One Hundred One Word Count" now available on Amazon and other major retailers worldwide. Getting ready to make a public reading... just getting readY
"One Hundred One World Accounts in One Hundred One Word Count" in One Hundred One Whole Minutes are stories from all over the world told in exactly one hundred one words at least in Windows (and by that I mean your computer not in your house) using ms word (forget about word perfect, for this is not a perfect world.) And that's this book is all about. About the world as we see, a quick, fast-paced, crashed into many broken pieces, that in the end turns out to be all related into one. Like the number itself reveals 101: One to one and the world (as a circle) in the middle. It is not a nouvelle, although it could be converted as a sketch to many series, not even a short-story anthology, or flash-fictions, for they are real events, although sometimes quite surreal. I defined it as humour, for it is considered to be the biggest challenge for all writers around the world, to summarize a long story in a small space, which demands attention on the details, balance in the exposition of the story, and suspense in all tales, of a much higher impact than a whole novel. It's thin, it's economical, it's ecological, echoed and logical, and it's time saving as much as paper, for it doesn't require too many pages. It does speak from (and for) the heart as a way of manifesting all the joy, anger, troublesome, anguish, mixed emotions that make us all so human after all. I wish anyone who read this book will crack out loud to their top (literally, as an open mind) and have a blast, for each one hundred one a thousand smiles. Wondering why Buda is represented by a monk showing off that bloated belly (his center filled with powerful energy) and laughing??
A real wasted day, the one to pass without,
is the one you didn't spend laughing about. Ana C. Antunes

>"One Hundred One World Accounts in One Hundred One Word Count" in One Hundred One Whole Minutes...
I know I cannot stop repeating that enough... It's like a MANTRA, although I think that I might be already sounding like a Brazilian parrot myself...lol... (but, that's my way, maybe repeating that a thousand times to myself and to the world, I would actually believe I published it!! I did, I surely did it!!:) soon to post the Amazon (not the green parrot but the retailer) link to my book.

101 represents
The Beginning is the End.
Alpha and Omega,
a palindrome.
It's Home
the manifestation
And what is on:
The One.

So how long it took me from start to finish or finish to start? If you consider that the title of my book has a palindrome, a number, represented by The Beggining is the End" meaning the "alpha and omega" symbol (101) well, then, that's a tough question. I mean, there were some stories inside other stories, they were haunting me since high school, others were just delivered as a way to take them out of my back (or chest). You know, they are all about real life events, so it took quite a while to expose them all right and really feel that it did fit with the ensemble. I wrote each story in exactly one hundred one words so they were also under microscopic lens. And you know the toughest part for a writer is to really cut to the essential, and if for that you mean in basically small words that's a record to play. Hope I didn´t sound too much like a parrot here, for editing that message it would take me a couple of more years... Cheers!

9/01/2008

50 Years of Bossa Nova

I went to the exposition on the celebration of 50 years of Bossa Nova at the Ibirapuera Park in Sao Paulo, that will take place until September, Seven (Brazil's Independence Day) and it´s an exhibition not to miss. Missing only Tom Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes, Dorival Caymmi, but as the music says, "life doesn't like to wait..." So hurry up.

8/27/2008

In Press to Impress: Two Hundred Years of Journalism in Brazil

The first Brazilian newspaper, the Gazeta of Rio de Janeiro, was printed in Brazil on September 10th, 1808. Three months before that the Correo Braziliense was considered the first press, although published oversea, in London, and entered in Brazil in a clandestine way, even though it was made for the elite and the monarchic (tres chic) regimen.

I once wanted to be a journalist just to have my dream gone on my first attempt to enter the most important University in Sao Paulo. But anyway, who told me I needed to become a journalist in order to be a writer, if I were already a storyteller since childhood? The day of my inscription for the exam (which for me meant almost to reach the same score as if I was to enter to the University of Medicine, almost like applying to be a doctor) a man who took care of the contenders, once he saw my choice for studies, said out loud, "One more liar in the world!" So much for an incentive to just leave it all behind. If I were to write I would write about the thruth, even if it was a fiction, it would be a fiction about the truth. I never stopped with my dream of being a writer, actually I never stopped being one, and what other people would say about to get me out of track, on the contrary, that would be enough reason for me to keep typing. That's how the introduction from this book by Paulo Coelho (see below) ressonates deep into my soul, when he says that when he thought he had given up his dream, life would sweep off the rug under his foot and get him back to what he most deeply wanted in his life: To be a writer. Don't you just hate when fate plays out its part and just press you against all the odds until you finally give up and see that it was all right?


Browse Inside this book
Get this for your site

8/23/2008

Portrait of Gilberto Mendes

Above, a picture of Gilberto Mendes & I in the Guarany Theatre in Santos, Brazil.
Below, his Signature:Now I am feeling really blessed. This afternoon I've got the priviledge of presentiating the presentation of many artists (all of them from my birthplace) in my birthplace but of different areas in their best performances. A pianist played an encyclopedia of different musics from the Classical compositor Gilberto Mendes, a soprano sang his compositions, mostly lyrics from other poets born in Santos, such as Vicente de Carvalho, but also from S. John (The Woman and the Dragon) and I was exhilarated to see a painter (also from Santos but who lives in California now) portraying this moment. I looked out at the window of that beautiful big maison and then I saw surfers stretching out to ride the big waves. I was riding, right, but in the web of life, in extasis being surrounded by sound, visual delight and entering into a state of bliss. It made my heart complete to know that so many wonderful artists were blessed by the green waves of the sea of Santos. And they are all Saints, or at least touched by them.
Just a shame I didn't have my camera then. But that is recorded forever in my cornucopian corneal archive. Just to take out some curiosity here is an emblematic moment from this extraordinary man and his so well deserved coronation (in life as in his career) and laureated glories in his light-crowned head:

8/22/2008

International Book Fair

Yesterday I went to Sao Paulo with my mother to go to the International Book Fair and I stayed there all day long. I was so tired of walking there all day and carrying all the heavy books my mom wanted to buy that now I cannot even sleep so much my back hurts. There I also went to a conference lead by a new authour, and illustrator (just as I am) who spoke up about his beliefs which in a way echoed my own thoughts about the publishing media. I could keep listening to him for the whole evening. He said that everyone has a story to tell and he certainly did have a lot of his own, not to mention of other people he met (and you can view his blog here: http://walthermoreirasantos.blogspot.com/). But I was so overwhelmed by the exhaustion that I could not even speak with the contact I had with the editor. I passed right through him, saying only a brief "hello" and then leaving for I was already late to my mother's appointment. Later on we still went to see my sister rehearsal as she said she was singing just for me who won't be there when she has her presentation in two weeks. Saturday I will go to a lecture of a writer friend of mine at the local library right at the beach. She's been writing for the major newspaper here in Santos. So I kind of look up for her. Next week i will be back in Santiago. Already missing the sunny days I've been spending at the beach...

8/16/2008

É Doce Morrer No Mar, Dorival!

It had been two month that his wife was there at the hospital. She had a heart attack, and as he waited for her to come back he also waited her call every day. Until he day she entered in a state of coma and it had been already nin days gone and he hadn't heard from her. Thinking that she was already dead and nobody did tell him, Caymmi, considered for all the grandpa of Bossa Nova, left us in his recently completed 94 years old.
Good-bye, Caymmi, you will be missed! Good-bye, long-played, so long...



É doce morrer no mar / Sweet it is to die in the sea
Nas ondas verdes do mar/ In the green waves of the sea
É doce morrer no mar / It's sweet to die in the sea
Nas ondas verdes do mar / In the green waves of the sea

Saveiro partiu de noite foi/ The boat left at night
Madrugada não voltou /Early in the morning he didn't come
O marinheiro bonito/ The handsome sailor
Sereia do mar levou/ The mermaid took him

A noite que ele não veio foi/ The night he didn't come was
Foi de tristeza prá mim/ It was so sad for me
Triste noite foi prá mim/ Sad night it was for me

Nas ondas verdes do mar/in the green waves of the sea
Ele se foi afogar/he drowned
Fez sua cama de noivo/He made his bed of groom
No colo de Iemanjá/ In the arms of Yemanja
É doce morrer... (Dorival Caymmi/Jorge Amado)

8/14/2008

Le Coq Sportif





Le coq loves the Olympics



The Olympic Games started and I am already mesmerized by so many events in and outside the television set. Imagine joining the whole world together to celebrate a happy time and right then make a war. It sounds totally surreal that in time where all nations are battling the good fight (sports in general are supposed to make you feel good even if you loose it) you gain the knowledge that there is a war inside a country. My condolence rises and goes to all the Georgians, all the widows, sons and daughters who just became orphans, and the numbers increasing of people suffering in the world augmenting each and every day. Sometimes my heart just wants to explode with all that, but I know I would be of any service to all if I keep sadness in my heart. So I just leave a prayer in the air, hoping it will float on other people's heart and give relief to the ones who suffer most.

Besides taking a look or two on the games, I've been busy working on my audiobooks, arranging some new tunes, composing music and songs along with my tales for kids. It's been fun! Hope I will soon share that here to you and make a heart or two happy too.

Don't keep walking in your life with sadness in your heart.
Live each day with happiness and make it a brand new start.

Nao atravesse a vida carregando tristeza em seu coracao.
Viva cada dia com alegria e faca disso uma linda cancao.
Ana Antunes

8/02/2008

A Car Crash

Last week I took a brief trip but only two days after I left I had a car crash. The car is totally damaged, couldn't run anymore. I have contusions and I am under lots of pain both on my abdomen and on my back and arms. Funny thing is the reaction I received from many people who were simply curious to see how it happened and didn't even think of helping out. I even overheard people saying while I was still trying to recover my breath that, by the sound of the impact, they thought the car had rolled over and gone down the hill. People passed fast by car, all looking, some even laughed, I saw a woman on the passenger side smiling, just fascinated on the state the car was left. Crazy world we live on! Humans have such a fascination for accidents, they can be oblivious to many things, but when it is about people hurt and total wreckage they cannot help themselves. But I do believe in a few people who really make this world goes round. There were two women (mother and her daughter), that I later called them "Angels sent from Heaven" who were disposed to make all the calls necessary to help me out. They even offered something to drink and some biscuits (for it was late and I didn't have lunch yet, which was good or the food would be thrown out anyway by the shock). They told me they both had suffered car accidents, one of them when little daughter was only two years old. And thanks for the seatbelt (and especially from God) that I am here now to tell the stories. Here I leave some photos of the car I was in: Although only the automobile was under the influence of alcohol (I had just filled the tank full) oil was spread on the road, and there was still the danger of an explosion. The impact on my chest hit so strongly that I could not breath, and I had to leave the car to be able to restore some colours over my face. I have contusions and a long mark like a knife cut from the seatbelt on my chest and neck. That's why I always recommend to use it at all times!

Later on, when I felt strong enough to walk to the police station, I saw a man bringing a penguin that he found on the beach, yes, in a tropical weather. I caressed his head, and it was cold as an ice cube. I took out some sand from his right eye. I applied some REIKI energy over his body and talked to him saying, "We will both be all right!" The small penguin was so tired that it remained lied quietly inside the box, just waiting for the rural police to take it to be fed, wounds treated and then sent to the local Aquarium to later on (in two months) been taken back to Argentina. They are coming like thousands, swimming all the way up from Patagonia and reaching as further as the north of Brazil, victims of the global warming which has been debilitating the eco system and melting the ice cap in the poles. I even wrote an article for a magazine about that. Hope they publish it. I am really concerned about the way things are rapidly changing, and looking forward the day we will drive cars moved by magnetic fields or on trails not only for ecological reasons but for our own safety.

7/27/2008

From Cheers to Chess

Marcel Duchamp, French artist born from a traditional family of artists in the nineteenth century, on July 28th, was a revolutionary son of sun, a Leo, the king from the zodiac. He also used the rare name of Rrose Sélavy, but as odd as it sounded it was more than a pun, for it was something that in the French language could be transformed as a paraphrase "Eros, c'est la vie", which translates to English as "Eros, such is life". It has also been read or rather ready as an idiomatic expression such as "arroser la vie" which in English would mean "to make a toast to life".

In his late days Duchamp decided to devote the rest of his life on playing chess and he became so obsessed with its studies and schemes as much as the possible positions of each piece that some would say he dropped his artworks for good. He got the title of chess master, he performed his new art in the Olympiads of 1928 and 1933, and even played with the pioneer musician John Cage in an innovative process of exploring music using a series of photoelectric cells underneath each square of the chessboard which sounded in sporadic and spasmodic ways.

ENTRANCE(In Trance ENTREACT/EXTRACT

7/23/2008

Powaqqatsi

Powaqqatsi means a sorcerer sucking out the life out of a body, or a parasitic way of life, like a zoombie transiting through life, in Hopi language. How many people live their own lives like Powaqqatsi?

In this movie by Italian director Godfrey Reggio, we can see how human beings are equal all over the world, how they react exactly the same in so many cultures, religions, places, or countries around this planet. It starts with the images of Serra Pelada, where workers like ants climb and descend a huge pile of people. Sebastiao Salgado, Brazilian photographer, also reflected that in his own lens. It also shows some parts of Santos, Cubatao and other big cities throughout the world. A Choreography of images no words would be able to describe, but only to watch and not to reflect about it would be a way of saying the name itself over and over again: Powaqqatsi

7/05/2008

A Brazilian Artist Conquers Broadway

Actor Paulo Szot, winner of the 2008 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading role in the musical "South Pacific" dedicates his Tony to all the Brazilian artists who struggle to survive and strive in the media for national and international re-cognition. He who, like me, spent his childhood in the small city of Ribeirao Pires, and wanted to be a dancer only to have his dream frustrated by a knee injury and decided to give a step further into his career when heard someone saying that he sang well. Now he has the whole musical theater world in his hand. He knows about the limitations that the artists in Brazil have to go through every day but to whom he openly sends his heart.

Thank YOU, Paulo!! So well deserved prize.

6/23/2008

"A Terminal Episode"

I know at least one famous comedian who is not laughing today. At least, not today. One who I consider a great comedian must be mourning the death of another one with all his ingeniousness, George Carlin. What I really enjoyed of Carlin was his linguistic detours, being myself a tongue twister. I love acrostic too and to quote his own saying of if he died on a hospital he would have "A Terminal Episode" the acrostic "ATE" is a farewell word in Brazil which in Portuguese means, "See You"!! So see you, George. You know I hate farewell so much that I actually "ATE" them all... And as a ballerina I've got "two-too" to show respect to Carlin's memory:

"If your name was a footnote in American legal history, what would be the photo on your ID: A toe-nail?"

"If you "died" your hair, would that make your hair drop? And would you bury it in a hair style?" I know they were lame (I just in-vented them in a "Minute Made"), but I hope I can make you laugh the heck out of it.

So to stir and spur us to forget the tears, and cheer up a little bit (at least myself;) here below I leave what some of my other fellow writers have been saying about my writing (for instead of deleting I kept them to share to the world:)

"I've taken a look at your web sites and it seems that you are incredibly talented."
David Cole from Launceston, Tasmania

"I have taken some time to read your postings. You are an amazing writer! I will post some comments on your writing, but I just thought I would e-mail you and let you know I am now officially a fan. Do you have any writing available for purchase? Bookstores....Amazon.com...? Anyway, I'll stop now to avoid sounding like I am just blowing sunshine up your arse. I look forward to reading more of your writing. Dustin."

"Working on anything new? You can't keep a mind like yours all to yourself...Its just not fair to the rest of us here on earth."
Dustin Doornbos from Grand Rapids in Michigan

"In a fit of self-destructive pique I've recently decimated my collection with the "delete" command, but there's still a little left. And now I can explore your writing, since I truly enjoyed the small part of it I've seen."
Bill Kowalski from St. Louis, Missouri

"Keep that pen moving. Rock on..."
-Metal Mark from Tucson, Arizona

Soon I will have some very good news about my books (and more messages coming on my way:)

"I happened across your website, and I am awe-struck. I just want to say that you are one of the most talented and multi-faceted people I have seen.

Your choice of words is exhilarating, your book's preview is captivating, and on top of all that are you behind Lulu (and soon on Amazon and other major retailers!:)

I will have to look into it more, but from what I see already, compliments to you and the many roles you fill.

Happy Holidays.

Sincerely,

Shad Nunemaker"


"I am writing to you because I tell you, I was really impressed with your

diverse experiences. You have done some interesting stuff, plus you have

used the time you spent on this planet to include some of your life in your poetic works!

I am looking forward to reading more of them. (I only read the samples.)

You seem to me to be a wonderful,

substantial writer who has done so many enriching things with her life.

I am so proud of you. I mean this from my heart: I hope

more people can find out about you through

the promotion of this anthology. You are really inspiring!

Good luck to you!

Theresa McGriff "

6/22/2008

Oscar Niemeyer (ON): GO+Old=GOLD!

This Sunday I went to the museum of Beaux Arts here in Santiago to see Niemeyer who recently celebrated his 100th birthday. What I most enjoyed about the exhibition, besides wandering around the building, was to go inside a dark room and see a projection screen showing a video where Oscar (with a head as bald as his architecture in the sense of simplicity and functionality) tells with details about his life as architect and public figure. "Life is just a breath", a minute and gone. That's not exactly the message from his creation which seems to scream out loud that they're there to stay forever in the eye of the viewer. His global intentions are circular and round, as the curves the Universe is made and as nature itself. Oscar never won an Oscar (and believe him when he says he never intended to win a prize or praise) and his works are as golden spheres. Go see, they're all around the globe (with no pun intended, I swear!:)