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2/28/2008

Ladybags


I've just created some ecological bags made of fabric to bring into the supermarket, load with loaf or just wear it on. All in the effort to bring the plastic bags out of use and help our planet Earth all year long.


Don't forget tomorrow, February 29th is a bissextile (and buy-textile;) day, the day to have those lights down for at least five minutes, to save electricity, and light a candle and pray for the global warming to stop. Happy Fortuitous Leap Year of the Rat!

2/25/2008

Two Angels in the Skies (In Desguise;)

This afternoon I looked up through my windowpane at what seemed to be a tornado formation, and it ended up being two angels playing in the middle of a heart cloud:

"Sometimes I feel like living in the sky
Where a beautiful angel whispers on my ear,
'Look and you will see inside your eye
All the beauty, and pain, and sorrow and fear'.

Sometimes the angel's voice echoes in my mind
As a reality which confounds me in a way so rare.
For all these thoughts make me feel so blind
For they can never seem to be the way they are.

But in the middle of all these confusions
I can even hear a bell that cheerfully rings:
An angel, so pretty, invades my illusion,
And makes me happy, and makes me sing.

But again it echoes in my heart that voice
That I can still live on and make a choice."

© 2001-2008 Ana Antunes

2/22/2008

Bewitched by the Light (Embrujados por la Luz)



"Yo los fui a ver en Club Providencia, una noche realmente magica, su embrujo es espectacular!! Con una tazita de vino tinto a saludar los momentos mas hermosos y inolvidables de ese que tiene sido el verano mas hit/hot de Santiago des de que yo he llegado aca." (A comment I left on embrujo.cl)

I went to see El Embrujo Flamenco, a show with Spanish dancers which was simply delightful. They hypnotized the public with their fire and passion for this impressive/expressive dance. There was a principal flamenco "bailaor" and he really put the stage on fire, making the spectators exhilarate with his breathtaking precision, and I had my mouth open when I saw how fast he tipped his whole body over the floor. Later on, they presented him as the director of the company, Mr. Pedro Fernández. I've had never seen a tap dancing the way he did. He seemed to understand very well each line from the rhythms that played and he sentenced each music with his amazingly rapid feet. I was dazzled. Really enchanting! I went to Spain one year and a half ago and there I didn't see any dancer at all. Not even a show. I actually was the one who danced there. (And I got the video to confirm that I indeed did a little performance near La Rambla, in Barcelona). I once saw a flamenco show in a Cruise (but then it was on the way from Santos to Rio), and I enjoyed a lot watching the presentation from Angel (the male dancer) who came from Cordoba. But yet it didn't have that flaming sensation as I witnessed in the Club Providencia stage. Oh, what a fortunate chance to appreciate that and what an unforgettable agenda I've been having, especially for it's the first time I spend the whole month of January/February in Santiago and it's been awesome.
Bewitched am I for those sunflowers which blossomed last week. I planted the seeds more than three months ago and just now they are opening, like a big smile over my terrace. I even made two bags on canvas where I painted the sunflowers.
And I think this one has been the hottest summer we ever had in both climatic and social events. At least, it's been over one hundred years that the sun didn't shine so intensely and its rays have been hitting us incessantly and incisively those last two months. No wonder the sunflowers are really having a blast with this. Hopefully the global warming won't cause too much damage to the country side, which have been already suffering by the dry weather, and as much as the urban life, which causes us to reach to the next tree to refresh our souls from the burning asphalt. Thank God there are hope for the flowers, when the rain (if it ever comes) showers us with blessing thoughts, leaving that hot sensation only in our inner selves while watching such magical Shows.

Save Savvy/Survey: "How Cow Bow Now?"

2/21/2008

The World as A Cosmic Ballet

myspace layouts, myspace codes, glitter graphics

The lunar eclipse started around ten after ten PM and it lasted for over two hours. A shadow advanced slowly on the lower right side of the moon. And I was amazed on how long it took when it arrived to its peak. At exactly midnight the Earth completely covered the moon, making it appear as a slightly gloomy red ball. Then after a half hour the light shone on the right of the upper part of the moon, while I waited to see the brightness coming from the bottom on the same place where the shade first came in. Then I realized that it was actually like the Yin/Yang symbol, or the male/female icons, as it started as a cross in the lower part, departing gradually and softly from the darkening of the lower surface, giving space to the shade and then, like an arrow, pushing its way as the light appeared again, on the same side, but right up, all so very well balanced in its own logical way. A great cosmic symphony, or rather an amazing Ballet to the naked eye. There was a star with Saturn accompanying the moon in this important transition, as if they were assisting the natural satellite on giving birth. Also there was another star a little bit further south and the three spacial spheres formed a triangle and enveloping the moon in this huge embrace. I did record it in the camera like a photo shooting. As the moon entered in its full eclipse, I heard in the news that somewhere over the Hawaiian Islands they have succeeded on shooting down a dying satellite propelled by hydrazine, a standard rocket fuel that is toxic when inhaled and mortal if in contact with humans and it was in danger of falling on Earth. Hopefully not so many debris will come down on our heads now... not so many, at least, as the news continues to bring up more stories of shootings...
Imparting the effects of the moon,
which peacefully reflects our doom,
here is the time for us to reinstate.
In spite of all the thorns to mourn,
let's hope for a ceasefire to reborn,
now rather than late.
So to refresh my own heart
I picked from the start
the eclipse to gestate:

2/19/2008

Total Eclipse of the Heart!


Tomorrow there will be the full lunar eclipse. I am hoping I can make it and take some impression to post here. There will be a yellow light on the right side, which is Saturn. It will be an emotional and intense lunar eclipse which occurs in Virgo. But with a full Moon eclipse, there will be no time to be logical or to fear of loosing sense. Especially with Saturn watching. We might as well "fingerloose" in its rings, or go looping. Trying to balance heart and mind will be a very difficult task, but necessary to keep moving on. With the sky so clean, pollution-free environment, and full of stars, and the constellation in Leo, I am sure I will have pretty good pictures to share. For not until Dec. 21, 2010 will there be another total lunar eclipse; that one too will again favor the Americas.

God Bless!

2/16/2008

Happy Valentine's Day at the Zoo.

I spent my Valentine watching birds and animals of all types, and loved them all, especially the sweet felines. I particularly wanted to see "Luna", sweet moon so endearing and mother tiger who recently gave birth to three twins at the Metropolitan Zoo in Santiago. While she lied there she had her tail bouncing, which for me was a good sign. Then she looked at me with that piercing blue eyes in a very informal way like saying, "see what I did? Aren't they cute?" said sweet Luna moon/mom, while talking about her kittens, and so very proud of her achievement. Women looked at her and they couldn't help but let a "Oh..." coming off their mouths as a term of endearment. I approached and I took a pic with the zoom (didn't want to disturb her coming too close). Then I left. And as the moon with both bright and dark side, all of a sudden Luna rose from her lethargic almost entranced state and looked up very attentively. I was far away when I took the other two pictures of her. Couldn't see her babies though. They were already gone for their siesta, they were probably taking a nap after all the surely furor of having them there with their mom (The Zoo allows only one hour in the morning and one in the evening for the visitors to see the three tender tigers). Then this morning I went hunting/haunting in the heights the mountains of Farellones, a marvellous environment to also do some Yoga training, with the tree pose as the epitome (although the higher you go the less oxygen you will get), but at least a few miles away from the city, with dazzling views of the Andes, and not that suffocating vial of encaging buildings. Not comparing, though it reminds me of the Grand Canyon so much that sometimes I have to remember me, baby, but you are not in "California, ooh-ooh, I've got to warn you" (I love that rhyme, any-who!;) especially when in the radio there was the music playing, "Welcome to the Hotel California..."
Back to the Zoo, or we never left there, just by walking on the streets and looking around, with a honking driver with a resonant sound characteristic of a wild goose, or a woman talking over her cellular phone and sounding like a parrot, what was my exasperation to see the afectionate polar bear covering his eyes for the unbearable light and in a-morose state with the hot Chile pepper which we have been experiencing this summer. So sad to see the Arctic and Antarctic with the effects of the global warming too. We are now suffering the consequences. Dry weather leaving animals with lack of food and in danger of extinction, and we are no less vulnerable. I wish San Valentine could make this summer not so hot (but only in our hearts:) And the penguins who were desperately trying to get the heck out of that warm water. I am so glad that the efforts of the Zoologists were rewarded by the little endangered tigers (which got them effervescently constructing to the new family a realm with cascades and a wider place similar to their own habitat which, as I witnessed, will look pretty wild!:) And the five new born flamingos, which I also eye witnessed, they are really cute, especially while mommy flamingo gives food. I wish I could see all of them in a free environment and not in a cage. Of course, that would be a little too risky, or I would better be in a safari for that. But I mean in a sense of letting them having a bigger place so that they may enjoy the life they were meant to live, and not being only an attraction for us. I guess they would be well maintained and would have more possibility of reproduction if they really have that kind of natural habitat. Such as the elephants, I know they love to be in the water, getting refreshed by the mud. And I have never seen that happening in any Zoo. Funny though that this Valentine's "El Mercurio" also wrote about the animals at the Zoo:
http://blogs.elmercurio.com/cienciaytecnologia/2008/02/14/conservacion-los-secretos-amor.asp

And here are some pics I took the same day they were talking about the loving birds... The pictures tell for themselves (and they're worth a thousand words:)



"Born Free..."



2/11/2008

Bouquet of Books and Brooks



"As a traveller, we always get to trust in our own intuitions wherever we go, or any false step can lead us into fascinating or, otherwise, terrible choices. The places we see, the people we meet, they all make part of our stories (...)

Daniel sat on my left side. I asked him about his origins. He said he was Jewish. "No kidding?" I thought to myself. That I knew since the night before when I explained to him about the origin of Halloween, a pagan party, where people dressed up in disguise for the main purpose of mixing up with the dead, and not being so noticeable (all the contrary on our days). His great grandpa was from Romania. "My grandfather was born in Romania," I said with an exclaimed expression. Then I knew that we were really meant to meet.

Maybe my grandpa and his grandpa's dad planned the whole thing up during the Halloween trick or treat. By my right there was an agnostic man (don't even start with why I was by his side, when all that I do is to believe). So there I was, a Catholic, beside me a Jewish man, and an agnostic with the Muslim all talking to each other about that beautiful and divine place.

Then at the hotel, watching CNN on cable, I found out about another Daniel, whose family name is Barenboim, an Israeli composer who was being interviewed. And he was talking about Andalusia as the only place in the whole Europe where Muslims, Jews and Catholic can play along. I have that account for a fact!(...)" Excerpts from my book "Stigmas Enigmas and Stereotypes"


Daniel Barenboim assembled an orchestra consisting of young Arabs and Israelis. A month ago, he was awarded honorary Palestinian citizenship after holding a concert in Ramallah, which made him the first man to have both Israeli and Palestinian citizenship.


Chillin' Out with "TICO TICO NO FUBA":

2/10/2008

Three Tender Tigers

Today there was an Afro-Peruvian Folkloric music presentation at Anahuac (which means, in Indian language, "the land surrounded by water"), the Cultural Center in Cerro San Cristobal. One of the musicians played once with a very odd instrument, a jaw from a rustic animal (by the obstinate sound I believe it was from a donkey, the bony structure, not the percussion;) which resonated in the entire room. The percussionist and also singer took an old lady up to the stage (she'd invited him to dance with her) and made her hip hop, then other two girls joined the "Buena Vista Social Club" in reference to the rhythm which were very similar to the Cuba's band. There also was a "viola" like an electric guitar that I had never seen before, without a body or acoustic box, and only the strings in the middle and the structure that surrounded it all open in the air. No need of a claustrophobic sensation, when you can deliver the message with the maximum of transparency. In a green tone that could well be a nice allusion to the hydroelectric attempt, which they plan to construct in the south, when there are so many other less drastic and clean solutions which causes no environmental impact, such as the wind energy in the north. After all, America is a continent surrounded BY not ON water (let's not forget "Atlantis"!)
Metropolitan Park this Sunday afternoon

At the same Metropolitan park there is the Santiago Zoo, where a white tiger named Luna, who came from Mexico in 2004, gave birth to three triggered tigers (try to say that three times without sounding in-triguer;) who were recently released to be exposed to the public. The white tigers are an endangered species, there are only 200 in the whole wide world which makes this news of a sublime touch.



So sublime indeed is the view of the Cordillera, like a spinal structure that, in the middle of the summer, keeps the snow on top. Let's pray this scene keeps itself as a beautiful reminder that the sun shines but there are a natural resource of clean water that cover our back. Let's pray for this winter to be of a no cataclysmic no catalytical or no-catalytical (because it doesn't matter if the vehicle contaminates less, if it does anyway), with no greenhouse effect, but a green-cause fact of a sole or solar solution (you better leave the car at home and go by foot, or use solar energy) so that we may see the sun shinning over the hills, and not that sad scenario of smog smothering us and hovering over all.

Andes Mountain's view from my terraza.

Andes Mountain viewed from my window this morning...

and the same Mountain viewed in the afternoon Anna ci sarò
fino a quando tu
non avrai la forza
per cercare un giorno in più
Anna io non so se vuoi che sia così
ma non mi arrenderò
per questo dimmi sì
Anna dimmi sì.



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