anyone lived in a pretty how town

happy, happy!

I love Halloween, even though I don't agree with the uncontrolled distribution of sugar to the kids. However, this is a minor thing that unfortunately can’t be taken out of the fun. As a parent, I used to close my eyes to the massive amount of candies my son would get on Halloween night and pray that his teeth would survive all that sugar, gum and artificial color. I got lucky and Gabriel never had a dental problem during the four years of intense trick or treating he went through in Canada. I am very happy my family is finally over trick or treating. Now it’s time for me to only give candies, as innocent as if I never had any worries about my own son getting too many of them, I even indulge my trick or treaters with a lot of chocolates, lollypops, candy rolls, everything I find yummy myself. I love an apple flavored sour lollypop filled with caramel. Last year we had a Halloween carol at our door and I was delighted! I also love going downtown during business hours to see the hordes of kids wearing costumes, asking for candies on every store. I enjoy the sight of these little kids all excited filling up their bags with a ton of treats. Halloween is one of my favorites holidays here in the United States. And it’s fun even if you just watch!

the loveseat

Misty didn't notice his presence there, so he took advantage of that and got closer.... When I saw this scene of Misty sharing the same space with Roux, I had to take a picture! This is a rare moment. Normally Misty will leave the place when Roux gets too close.... Ah, I wish they would become friends, and maybe my wishes will finally come true!

Bobby Zimmerman Gunn Dylan

I always believed that the name Bob Dylan had come from a great admiration the young Robert Zimmerman had for the poet Dylan Thomas. However, the choosing of his new name happened in a shallow and unsophisticated fashion, which I never could imagine. If I wasn't reading the story from the Dylan's memoirs, I certainly would say loud and in disbelief - "Bull Shit!" Hence, the truth must be told, and so here is it......

"One time she asked me why I was using a different name when I played, especially in the neiboring towns. Like, didn't I want people to know who I was? "Who is Elston Gunn?" she asked. "That's not you, is it?" "Ah, " I said, "you'll see." The Elston Gunn name thing was only temporary. What I was going to do as soon as I left home was just call myself Robert Allen. As far as I was concerned, that was who I was - that's what my parents named me. It sounded like a name of a Scottish king and I liked it. There was little of my identity that wasn't in it. What kind of confused me later was seeing an article in a Downbeat magazine with a story about a West Coast saxophone player named David Allyn. I had suspected that the musician had changed the spelling of Allen to Allyn. I could see why. It looked more exotic, more inscrutable. I was going to do this, too. Instead of Robert Allen it would be Robert Allyn. Then sometime later, unexpectedly, I'd seen some poems by Dylan Thomas. Dylan and Allyn sounded similar. Robert Dylan. Robert Allyn. I couldn't decide. - the letter D came on stronger. But Robert Dylan didn't look or sound as good as Robert Allyn. People had always called me either Robert or Bobby, but Bobby Dylan sounded too skittish to me and besides, there already was a Bobby Darin, a Bobby Vee, a Bobby Rydell, a Bobby Neely, and a lot of other Bobbys. Bob Dylan looked and sounde better than Bob Allyn. The first time I was asked my name in the Twin Cities, I instinctively and automatically without thinking simply said, "Bob Dylan".

walking along the park

In London I walked by all the parks close to my brother's home. Did not enter any oh them - Holland and Hyde. People had told me that Hyde Park was the most beautiful place in London and so on. Honestly, I had no curiosity or desire to see if those statements were true.

I'm neighbors with - lets say, a sort of a park - one long green area that follows a creek and belongs to UCDavis. Ask me how frequently I go there? Ask me if I take advantage of leaving so close to an Arboretum? Ask me if I enjoy the place as I should. The answer is - well - NO. I think of the Arboretum as the dwelling for the rats that invade my garden and eat my wonderful organic heirloom tomatoes.....

Judas!

In Chronicles Volume One, Bob Dylan is narrating his participation in a party given by an Ava Gardner look-alike called Camilla Adam. The party was for the folk singer Cisco Houston who was terminally ill at the time. He recalls seen Irwin Silber, the editor of the folk magazine Sing Out!. Silber took part on the backlash against Dylan, when he played an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

"Irwin Silber, the editor of the folk magazine Sing Out! was there, too. In a few years'time he would castigate me publicly in his magazine for turning my back on the folk community. It was an angry letter. I liked Irwin, but I couldn't relate to it. Miles Davis would be accused of something similar when he made the album Bitches Brew, a piece of music that didn't follow the rules of modern jazz, which had been on the verge of breaking into the popular marketplace, until Miles's record came along and killed its chances. Miles was put down by the jazz community. I couldn't imagine Miles being too upset. Latin artists were breaking rules, too. Artists like Joào Gilberto, Roberto Menescal and Carlos Lyra were breaking away from the drum infested samba stuff and creating a new form of Brazilian music with melodic changes. They were calling it bossa nova. As for me, what I did to break away was to take simple folk changes and put new imagery and attitude to them, use catchphrases and metaphor combined with a new set of ordinances that evolved into something different that had not been heard before. Silber scolded me in his letter for doing this, as if he alone and a few others had the keys to the real world. I knew what I was doing, though, and wasn't going to take a step back or retreat for anybody."

the days after

I'm getting the feeling that I am not good at any language I know anymore. My impression is that I’ve leveled everything at the same height of mediocrity. In my Portuguese blog I keep correcting phrases, words, trying to be grammatically perfect, which is not even vaguely possible for someone who has been away from its native country and language for so long. I try hard, though.

Here, I try not to feel self-conscious. If someone reads me, they should know I am totally imperfect on the proficiency of writing in English. This statement is becoming a mantra that I chant once in a while just to convince myself I don’t need to worry about being a second-rate writer in my second language.

Some days I wake up thinking what would I write today? I want my blurbs to be interesting, funny, clever, astonishing, and worth of commenting. However, it does not happen every day, quite the opposite, it happens very occasionally. Normally I come up with the same old bananas – the king of thing you find everywhere at very inexpensive rate. Is it bad? Will I end up joining the hall of shame of blogs? Will I lose my precious readers? I don’t think so. It helps, though, to get a three paragraphs post, rambling hopelessly about my writing….

Dylan

Fellow Americans must think I am a freak, someone out of tune, trying to be someone I am not, mistaken, confused, not to mention completely insane. What the hell is this Brazilian doing singing along with Bob Dylan? Going to all his shows? And talking non stop about seeing him, and how cool he is?

I've heard people saying 'how weird....'

Aren't them groovy Americans hooked on Latin American music? Bossa Nova [Brazilian Jazz], Samba, Capoeira? For I like Bob Dylan! And It has been a fan career that began when I was about sixteen. He was part of every important moment of my life and I'm not ashamed to declare openly that one of the [few] motivations I had to learn English was to understand his poetry.

Today I'm going to see him in person for the fourth time. Me and my body guard, who knows very well how important these events are for me and will not take a risk leaving me there alone ... [wink!]

....the answer my friend is blowin' in the wind, the answer is blowin' in the wind......

fourteen

rules

» this is old, but is still funny.....

* Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
* And do not start a sentence with a conjunction.
* It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
* Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat).
* Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.
* Be more or less specific.
* No sentence fragments.
* Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
* Don't use no double negatives.
* Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
* One-word sentences? Eliminate.
* Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary.
* Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.
* Kill all exclamation points!!!
* Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
* Who needs rhetorical questions?
* Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.