A n a r c h i c _ U n i v e r s e ®

Os Mutantes - Review of Solo Careers - Sérgio Dias

After Os Mutantes disbanded I saw Sérgio Dias once; in July 1986.  It was a dark club, Jazzmania, in Arpoador, Ipanema.  Two friends witnessed one more of my Forrest Gump moments. I had bought his 1980 LP, which I have, in LP. Jazzmania was dark, it reeked of distilled uísque and cigarros.
Yesterday I was checking on the status of blogrolls, the list of links of sites and blogs in both Universo Anárquico and its li'l brother, Anarchic_Universe.  In 1986, Sérgio Dias was no longer the li'l brother.  We weren't teens, we were very assertive thirty-four adults.
Early this morning I was thinking on what to blog and noticed a NEW! next to his site on our blog.  I opened it and explored it more carefully.  It puts to rest for once and for all any of alleged reasons Os Mutantes regrouped.
In it there are all the solo recordings of his career.  They can be listened to at a click. His co-writers include Caetano Veloso and Nélson Motta.  I have the Sérgio Dias 1980 and went to Jazzmania, its CD just now released.  The voice is unscathed, young, pretty much the same melodious Sérgio, a non-smoker.
Enjoy the clever arrangement of the site, and the coming up -- Os Mutantes, getting into a Sony studio October 1, Barbican being released in mid-November, the DVDs and double CDs, by wizard David Byrne's label.
http://www.sergiodias.com.br/ You'll travel with Os Mutantes magic once again in his solo career. They all carry it within. The Barbican Centre very kindly let me use the "Tropicália" poster of the event that amazed us all, live in "Tecnicolor." Rita Lee had become a grandmother and sent Arnaldo and Sérgio off with Zélia and her blessings.
Once more, let wagging tongues rest.

Next, Rita Lee Jones de Carvalho, the  oldest of the unforgettable teens who forged the best Brazilian  sound,solo or as Os Mutantes.  I guess the Barbican poster of 40 years of Tropicália should show Rita Lee was expected, not ejected.  Lastly, Arnaldo Baptista, whose site has some kewl surprises for all. In a live get together, Sérgio Dias featured in the third minute, Rita Lee and Sérgio Dias playing in a Globo Festival circa 1985, "O Vírus do Amor," by Rita Lee and Roberto de Carvalho. Enjoy!

links for 2007-09-29

• Atenção: mais um blogueiro ameaçado no Brasil
  link O biscoito fino e a massa, políticos déspotas no Brasil
  (tags: ameaça blogueiros Brasil)
• Committee to Protect Bloggers
  (tags: blogs)
• Votescam: Comment: The New Yorker
  (tags: California Politics election)
• G1 > Tecnologia - NOTÍCIAS - Sensação de anonimato facilita ciberbullying, diz advogado
  (tags: ciberbullying)
• G1 > Brasil - NOTÍCIAS - Juiz sai do gabinete e faz audiência em bar
  (tags: news direito)
• :: AMD :: AMD e Arquivo Público recuperam a memória do jornalismo brasileiro
  (tags: journalism release)

No Business As Usual

After more regular sleep, I feel better. Not well, yet.  Physical health eludes me.  Yesterday I had three temp crowns put in and pervasive myasthenia (muscular weakness) set in.  My help had to leave and I wish none of my travails onto anyone. It's no fun not to be able to get up and move. And be totally short of breath due to  asthma. Anyway, this is a post of mixed news.

In Brazil, yet another despot senator threatens yet another blogger, using defamation and calumny.  The link can be found in Universo Anárquico.

Still in Brazil, and finally, Alexandre Inagaki gets nominated Blogger # 1.  That was a howling obvious truth, not an opinion of mine alone.  The blog, listed here, is Pensar Enlouquece, Pense Nisso.

Sometimes I think São Paulo rules.  Here, I must begrudgingly confess Austin rules.  Seth A. reported a series of environmental measures in Austin.  I used to think Monumental Valley was in Texas. Or that John Wayne was Texan.  I didn't know the best supermarket is from Texas: Whole Foods.

I know our senators have been shameful re. war and almost every other issue (or all of them, except healthcare.)  I confess I am so out of the loop only yesterday I found out my Image Google of Universo Anárquico has been flooded by quite a few blogs unknown to me.  Image Google is a bit better with Anarchic_Universe search.  I guess I will have to label my Image Google photos and maybe just go to Picasa for good.

I wish I had kept a screenshot of Google's ninth birthday. Nine is my number.  For now I ask the anon. viewers to have some pluck and be themselves.  Being anon. is noright; tis lack of chutzpah, maybe.

Good morning, Americas, others.  Later, I need to go back to a place where I elevate my swollen ankles.  Who'd think lithium, a natural substance, I'm being facetious here, could cause so much damage?

Later!

A YouTube on subliminal messages and Pensar Enlouquece, Pense Nisso blog.
 

links for 2007-09-28

• Blogueira linda em capa de revista é aqui!
  (tags: Rolling_Stone Brasil Blogueira Capa)

So Out Of It - For Real

Back-To-School Night. A surrogate for Gabriel. There is no compliance with reasonable acommodations for the physically handicapped at SAMOHI. If I went there, by the time I went to a new classroom it'd be a Roy Orbison, it's over it's over it's over.

There they go. I could talk about many findings of this fractioned in six school for better control. Or of the "two schools in one."

Not today. Maybe later. Someone please convince me The White Stripes are second only to Bob Dylan. The Velvet Howlers, a group of hep bloggers thinks so.
Marcus Nunes too. So, what d you think? Say something, as Seth A. likes to indicate in his comments.

Ah, a pre-order of Allan Ginsberg's diaries, anyone? I have all his stuff, so I guess ten bucks won't kill me.
And a mistrial must suit Phil Spector. Oh, well.

Loki - Arnaldo Baptista and Moisés Santana

PLEASE SEE UPDATES BELOW

links for 2007-09-25

• Scooter
  Kodachrome style photo; from colors to clean version of 60s easy RIder. Love it
  (tags: photography)
• Foo Fighters - The Pretender (Official Video)
  A música é boa e o cenário interessante. Fundo vermelho como no GD e guardas em vez de soldados. Há um double entendre e "mensagem política". A cópia é excelente e o vídeo pode ser ampliado para caber em /mt/
  (tags: Music rock YouTube)
• Enduring Voices Project, Endangered Languages Facts, Photos, Map -- National Geographic
  (tags: culture linguistics literature media maps)
• Top Web Sites - Special Feature from PC Magazine
  (tags: 2007 internet popular)
• G1 > Planeta Bizarro - NOTÍCIAS - Senador dos EUA processa Deus
  (tags: religião news bizarro)
• website Tim Nelson bluesy guitar player awesome Jimi video, too
  Tim speaks the best English an Englishman can speak: the blues. His Mspace page has soe cool videos and music. I am lucky to have him as a fellow Santa Monican.
  (tags: rock blues guitarrist Tim_Nelson)
• Embarking soon — Car Auto and : motorcycle brands
  (tags: Seattle)
• [ wu :: riddles(easy) ]
  (tags: education games math)
• Interstellar Overdrive
  (tags: link YouTube live Pink song interview Sid Waters)

What's Los Angeles Like? It's Like São Paulo

Pensaba que era linda pero se ve muy fea.
(Unknown)
It's that Narcissus finds ugly what isn't his reflection
(Caetano Veloso - Sampa)

On Friday evening there was a storm with lightening and heavy rain.  I couldn't care less; it was similar to a Rio de Janeiro storm.  For a native Los Angelino it's scary, especially after having spent the summer in dry southwestern France, in the countryside.  When there is a storm everybody unplugs there. Lightening can get in and damage a TV set, for example; or the phone.
Los Angeles gathers 164 languages, zillions of cars, infinite solitude, many little communities, from the fancy-schmancy Bel-Air to the very poor ones in central Los Angeles. There, hot-pillows motels reign for a fast shot or smoke or whatever; little churchfronts promising salvation suck more suckers; pawn shops take goods no questions asked.  Lots of basura on the sidewalks, human lives trashed or litter.  Skid Row at night looks like a sea of cardboard papers sprawled on the sidewalks with toes pointing at rats while the cardboard heaves and inhales and exhales.  This is my city, too.
To think white flight screwed the neighborhood where U.S.C. is located.  White flight in the Bronx moved us to Rio de Janeiro.
Back here at USC, in the Oingo Boingo, Tom Petty, Depeche Mode era, I find out I am not white enough or have the education to teach.  After my master's in linguistics at 'SC, listening to the darn marching band my son loves so much, there I go for a graduate course in education, plus emphasis on bilingual Spanish credential.
In Brazil we say Argentinians smile when there is lightening. They are "known" as being conceited, what do I know? Brazilians feel funny being the only Portuguese speakers in South America.  Argentinians smile because they think God is taking their photos when there is lightning.  They ask for the mapa mundi of Buenos Aires in a bookstore.  Maradona scored a goal with the hand (of God.)
In Los Angeles we can't afford to despise the Argentinos. Or Spanish, a reality prevalent in our county.  Or Jewish holidays, or Lotus Day, bla-bla-bla-bla.

While cruising my former 'hood, near 'SC, the thoughts of Rodney King came haunt me. The discomfort of  street vendors  and  poverty, the buzz on Jena 6, was our city at risk of a riot again?

Yom Kippur dinner at a nice restaurant.  The bourgeois dad saying he expects people he invites to be there. He nearly drools arrogance onto his beard. I am in bermudas, as usual, in my Adidas; we got cash for a bite.  The waiter is from Sandinista country, a mestizo. He can converse small talk in twenty languages, maybe.  We sit in the back facing ANA-MIA Asian chicks.  If they are sideways they fit in a vynil LP jacket.

Little by little we loosen up. We down the excellent Los Angeles tap water. Gabriel is with the marching band, back in Santiemonica.

Los Angeles is tough ugly shine-you-crazy-diamond land, somewhat like São Paulo city, the Paulicéia Desvairada, recklessly hallucinated São Paulo immortalized in the collection of Mário de Andrade's 1922 modern poems. São Paulo is the first or second urban sprawl in the Americas, depending on the source. How about our Nuestra Señora Reina de Los Angeles de Porciúncula, the capital of "Blade Runner's" dystopia?  Some left it, I love it.  Enjoy yet another new très kewl opening sequence to  the  film, based on a Phillip K. Dick paranoid fantasy. Another.

o céu n'água

o céu n'água
Originally uploaded by anarchic_universe

The Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro is the potty of the world. It rains all the time there.
The Portuguese improved life in the colony after they fled Napoleon Bonaparte in 1808.
• They opened the ports of Brazil to friendly nations.
• They founded the first colleges in Brazil.
• The printing press was allowed.

Now ask yourself why iliteracy is almost atavic in Brazil?

links for 2007-09-23

• Os Mutantes que conheço - mutatis mutandis
  (tags: "Os Mutantes" mutante ponte generacional noticias)
• Os Mutantes - A Bridge Along Generations
  (tags: "Os Mutantes " transgenerational rock music news)
• 83 Beautiful Wordpress Themes You (Probably) Haven't Seen | Design Showcase
  (tags: blog design themes wordpress)
• Geekipedia
  (tags: internet reference Tech Wiki)
• Pitchfork Feature: Interview: Lou Reed
  (tags: music_history feedback Music interview)

Os Mutantes - A Bridge Along Generations

Please see updates below

Here is Tina Oiticica, your rocking-chair rocker, speaking as a follower of a timeless band, Os Mutantes.

The regrouping of Os Mutantes em 2006  was announced to me on line by a Paulistano kid. Today the band shows itself to be an indestructible bridge between the 1960s and century XXI.  Their performance at the Barbican last year moved me to tears.  I know it'll be released in a beautiful double CD and DVD here in the USA through nearly omniscient-musico David Byrne's label, in mid-November, 2007.
Os Mutantes in the 1960s had festival followers, had a play, "Planeta dos Mutantes" at Rio's Teatro Casa Grande, where I sat with a few others Thursday thru Sundays, and Som Livre Exportação, a TV show in which I snuck in. This show was where Globo set the stage for  Caetano Veloso's show back from London exile. That was my first of many brushes with the wizard of words.

The only era when I have seen Os Mutantes playing for dedicated audience, full house, folks 18 to 81, was last year and this one on YouTube.

Live, after forty years: July 13, 2007 at the El Rey, in Los Angeles.
And that was when I met Dinho, Arnaldo and Sérgio. Again.  The photos are here, just look for the set. Flickr,

It was magic in the air. Os Mutantes create magic in the air; magic for me, an eye-witness of forty years, magic for the kids who fall under their spell. Nelson Rodrigues, my favorite playwright and phrase maker, would generate a sentence such as, "Even alone with the goat chewing grass on an empty lot, they would atract followers: yesterday's and forever."

Os Mutantes, with Sérgio and the musicians that have played with them since Barbican 2006, sans Rita Lee Jones de Carvalho, sans Zélia Duncan, who participated in the collective Mutante trance in 2006-2007, sans Arnaldo Baptista, whose plans differ now, Os Mutantes are. 

Os Mutantes transcend formations of the band. That is the message I would like to convey to you; it's how I feel about them. Os Mutantes that will enter Sony's studio to record in October, today's Os Mutantes, will present Os Mutantes songs. These are songs I await waving enthusiastically my imaginary fan club card in the air.

I am sure they have remained "Os Mutantes" in their essence.  We chatted in Los Angeles like friends who had been together just yesterday. Dinho, Arnaldo and Sérgio. We change, we mature and we remain faithful to whom we are, to ourselves, "Os Mutantes" in essence. 

No dream it was. I saw the show at the El Rey, Los Angeles.  Therefore, it's not a dream and it's not over. Besides the  mutanting intrinsic quality the band has, it is ours. And it will be ours.  Atmospheric. Hallucinating. Its fans mutantes.  It is and will be Os Mutantes for all.

Schisms and Other Subjects

I went to Google and typed "SMMUSD 2007." I invite any parent to do this. The not so unusual truth is the way moneys are spent in the Socialist-By-The-Bay City/School District haven't changed much since I was a coordinator/teacher at the outfit.
Let's see. A principal got his/her J-O-B as a coordinator of a grant my husband and I salvaged from paid consultant incompetence and teacher gloom and doom. We offered our house to uncouth teachers who ate on our carpet, soiled it and the computers, plotted against me, had kids babysat with my money, and were such wusses I mailed the grant in with the other coordinator, a bit before midnight. We won as I was sure we would. There's no mystery to grants. A good idea and a recipe: follow what is asked of you.

So this person becomes a taskmaster coordinator who begrudgingly worked with children or parents, part of job description. Then this person becomes principal after a plot against yet another principal at the school. Amalia Rodrigues? Where are you?

I called at four two days ago. I needed info on inter-district transfers. Thank you, person, so filled with gratitude. I got the info from the district's minutes typing for Google "SMMSUD 2007." And then I got along with the inter-district transfer policy the way moneys are spent at SMMUSD. On line. Field trips for the upper folks are okayed. But poor SMMUSD needs money, kootchie-kootchie-kootchie.

Yes, I am a sucker, repeat after me. Good teachers and kids in need will never see these moneys. Not mine either. Ain't got none. Does that mean you got some?

Renan Calheiros - Speaker for the Senate

Let's share with me our green-go ignorance, "innocent till found guilty by a jury of his peers."

This is still the rule of law in our "sucky" Republic, but not in Brazil, where the informal law of the land says, "Finger point, s/he is a puta, a corno, ladrão, unethical, illiterate, S.O.B. Subject closed."

So I was quite stunned to find out Renan Calheiros went on one more Senate committee to be tried of crimes there are no proof of. This is a lot worse than all the money spend on that GAP dress.

Here in our sucky republic we use "allegedly" or "presumably" until the verdict. In Brazil there are ignoramusses longing for the generals to come back. Maybe feeding their horses Irish oats wasn't so bad.
Or murdering innocent students. How soon do we forget.

Lula's Portuguese is poor. So? Renan became a gazzillionaire. So? Nobody is being sent to Iraq or losing his life not just yet.

Brazilians have it good. They don't know it. Here, in the most evil empire, we do know.

There's been an eerie silence south of the Guyanas. I wonder what is happening today and what scandal will happen tomorrow in an attempt to destabilize Lula's government.

links for 2007-09-19

• Quer mudar o mundo? Deixe de ser Betinho de Sofá
  (tags: ativismo internet blogs)

Poetry from Poems Daily©

The three poems from "A Clean Shirt of It" translated from Portuguese by Idra Novey are here. The Portuguese version is in a link inside the link. Copyright Idra Novey© 2007, Paulo Henriques Britto ©2003, www.poems.com©.

This link is for educational purposes only.

Poetry for a Good Measure

links for 2007-09-18

• Antídoto para humor rasteiro
  hilarious monty python joke on a parrot
  (tags: joke)

After the Storm, Samba and Futebol

It's a productive Monday so far. Cleaning cupboards, reorganizing staples, chatting my heart away with Jeannie, time flies by. On the other end of my life, Brazil, utter silence.

On the weekend, the ending of the National Futebol Championship gives some Brazilians a reason to celebrate and others a reason to be grouchier than before. At the beginning of this grueling championship, many fans act
blasé; a so-what 'tude prevails especially among the US-coopted teens. But now all colors are out. I know Botafogo is fine but don't follow results.

In the briefly republic of Rio Grande do Sul, our southernmost state, there are two big teams: Grêmio and Internacional. Grêmio won yesterday, with its colors, light blue , white and black stripes, flying to the sorrow of Internacional fans, the Colorado, red shirt with white details.

I love blue. I do feel sorry for the man in the street, the poor Brazilian whose soccer team is a weekend boss, mistress and spouse. Rio Grande do Sul has a vast number of inhabitants on the Q-T today.

It's as if Brazil got spent from mixed emotions of shame for an allegedly corrupt speaker for the Senate, drowned its shame in happiness, beer and sorrow in futebol weekend, some doing the samba; others kicking the proverbial dog. Today is quiet, of an oppresive solitude here in my Brazil.

links for 2007-09-17

• Vertente
  (tags: blogging YouTube metal Paulicéia)

Paulo Henriques Britto - Poet Laureate

Seek and thou shall find. I was looking for a link of mine in Technorati. That I found not. I found instead a collective blog, O Indivíduo, in which Pedro Sette Câmara lends his voice to lusophone poetry.
This link presents Paulo Henriques Britto and Fernando Pessoa.

Are you ready? Click here, read and listen please.

What Does Botafogo Mean Anyway?

Only

B12 Solipsism

to get me to blog during my coffee ritual. The question is on Botafogo. My sources are Mario Filho's book on soccer, Nelson Rodrigues' stories on soccer, and my general knowledge of the noble Britton sport, as the commentators like to refer to footch-boll.

In the old days of Rio de Janeiro, after the French invasions and after the Portuguese left, parcels of land were distributed to "nobles" who could develop that land. An Italian baron received this parcel and named it after his last name, which sounded like "Botafogo" = "set on fire" (imperative.) The verb is botar, fogo is fire.

At the beginning of the XX century, Charles Miller, from England, brought a football. The young men of high society fell in love with the sport. Fluminense, Botafogo and Flamengo were among the first to compete. The main sports, which were crew and sailing, became futebol.

Men of color were not allowed until sometime near the 30s. Then, a factory in the 'burbs, Bangu, and the Portuguese club, Vasco, went professional.

So, Botafogo is the part of the city between Flamengo and Copacabana. It was the first neighborhood I lived in, with a view to the Sugar Loaf. In 1957 Botafogo was champion. That was th eyear I arrived in Brazil. In 1958 Brazil was champion with several of the players the base of the National Team. In 61-62, 67-68 Botafogo was champion and in 1962 and 1970 Brazil won the Jules Rimet.

So the full nick for Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas is "O Glorioso Alvinegro da Estrela Solitária" The Glorious B&W of the Lone Star.

It's no longer what it was but neither is Brazil. Let people mock us and say we are thirteen fans. Botafogo makes me happy, losing or winning, my team reflects my life: ups and downs, black and white moments, guided by its star.
They say we are a Museum, for we linger in the past. Okay. In Cont. a video of Botafogo F.R. Back to my coffee.

Botafogo

Botafogo
Originally uploaded by anarchic_universe

This photo and quote made it into Google indexing. If you click on the photo you'll see the comments and in blue "Ma'am". If you click you'll go to the indexing site.

Oh, the glory of the glorious Botafogo!

photo sharing

Tag: Photo--Blogging, Flickr

Quel horreur! An Inocent Politician

In the Land of "I think-isms" --Brazil, people have been upset the leader of Senate, Renán Calheiros was found not guilty by a jury of his peers in Senate. Hah!

They think they got problemas..

I gotta go. A member of the family passed away and things are chaotic. Never kill your mom as an excuse twice. Go visit my blogroll. They'll love it.

Tomorrow, I'll be taking questions later off and on.

Why don't you say a prayer for our brethen? Universo Anárquico.

Look at the Brighter Side; Stay Alive

Most of us rockers or mods or mockers know Neil Young was misquoted by he who wanted to die, Kurt Cobain. When I met Nina Hagen at Joe's Pub, in NYC, she was into reincarnation, I think. She imitated his voice and apologized to his fans and family.
The only reason I see for a young person to kill himself is a belief of having it better or having nothing as solace on ... the other side. The old New Orleans song goes, "Everyone wants to go to heaven, nobody wants to die."
About the young in Brazilian middle class, I can tell you in a few words: spoiled bored kids without a challenge addicted to RPM and Second Life anomie hatred for their own country... Not that the concept of country is cool. I love both cultures, my US heritage and my Brazilian one. I have to learn to love the Frrrench; heck, vive la France where a movement asks for a day without mention of Sarko-fasho.
Why does he always greet with his palm stretched next to his shoulder? After I learned about Nazi_Israeli, everything is possible.(CNN)
In Brazil there are maids for the cleaning, for the wash, for the cooking, nannies, some middle class people had five maids. It is fashionable to fill one's lungs - cough-cough-they smoke there and say "I don't know how to _ _ _ _ _ "(fill in the blanks.) If women know how to be pretty, indeed, their face-value economy towards the "good life" -- el dolce far niente -- and may be convincing in faking orgasms at twelve for their equally lousy-in-bed seventeen-year-olds, they are unhappy. The middle class is either pissed off or pissed as in drunk or down. Or bored into depression for lack of travel to the world of fantasy, NYC, or not having iPods.
It's fashionable to look sickly, pale, heroin chic, emo, bitch about a non-life. Not so fast, parent of a kid like that! Maybe your kid is indeed ill.(CONT.)

Did I Miss Out on Something?

This blog will be under construction this coming weekend. I need to improve its ping with Technorati and do some other stuff.
I received a piece of news not unlike "The cat went up the roof." The expression comes from a folk tale and then just the expression remained in Brazilian Portuguese. It's euphemism for bad news.

One day Manuel is coming home from a long absence. A friend tells him not to go home. "But why," asks surprised Manuel.

Oh, the cat went up the roof.

But why did it go up the roof.

It went up the roof it was afraid of the fire.

What fire

,

The house caught on fire.

But how did the house catch on fire

.

It was due to the candles,

What candles

,

Candles on the table

,

What candles,

Around the coffin.

What coffin.

Your mother passed away.

She passed away when your father was shot. He owed too much money.

So if someone tells you ... "The cat went up the roof," is there any news of Iraq I should know about?

Next post will be on "look on the brighter side and stay alive." I nailed it. Ennui. In a bit. I am having a bit of a problem with my keyboard. The home computer men aren't here right now. Enjoy the Eurythmics instead, won't you? Men are great for three things: fixing stuff I can't fix, killing surfboard sized cucarachas and, enjoy Annie Lennox.

Crash

Crash is a film we love, about us los angelinos our dystopia our cars our lives. We are one crahing conflicting feelings when watching ourselves in Paul Haggis' film.

This is the official site of the Oscar winner of 2004.
Won't you play around with it?  I need to sleep.  And then drink some coffee.

Would you like some, too?

links for 2007-09-11

• How To Make Your Own Multi-Touch Pad for $2
  (tags: cool visual music)
• 10 Most Amazing Lost Cities
  (tags: review travel history)
• Linha do Tempo da Internet no Brasil
  (tags: internet Brasil 2007)
• Web Oficial del libro Planeta Web 2.0. Inteligencia colectiva o medios fast food
  (tags: web2.0 social education books)
• Solar Farm In California
  (tags: California solar_energy)
• A Parrot Joke
  from t. williams' blanche to general petræous random thoughts
  (tags: 9/11 Eve Evil evolution videos)
• Perguntem ao Paulo Henriques Britto
  (tags: Poeta_Laureado "Paulo Henriques Britto" Tarde perguntem)

Today 9-11

A Parrot Joke

One of my favorite jokes is a clean one, sort of, from the lips of not-so-clean Blanche DuBois, Tenessee Williams needy-decadent failed-southern-aristocrat-nympho-puta.
I studied the play at the English course offered by Cambridge on the Guanabara Bay, in Rio de Janeiro. Along time, I memorized it as I passed along its tape and ideas to my own students.

In 1981 I saw "Streetcar Named Desire" at the monumental Ann Arbor, MI cinema. Here's an adaptation of it, based on my take on war today.

A heavier old lady, who loved rock and the blues, also loved her parrot. She named it "We, the People." She, the old lady, Geraldine or Daphne, didn't enjoy it when "We, the People" swore up a storm. The parrot raised Cain especially when CNN was on Lou Dobbs, "We, the People" had come from abroad without documentation, you see?

It was one of those "Iraq News" days. "We the People" was mad. 'Dine, her owner, threw a blanket over the cage so the parrot'd think it was night time.