Cat on the Roof: A Story with Collage of Torn Paper (Chigiri-e)

"The Cat on the Roof"(Chigiri-e with lyrics by Ana Antunes)
There was a cat in the roof
and he looked so very aloof.
The cat saw a fish in the pool
and played with it like a fool.
The cat ate the fish with a smile
and took a small rest for a while.
The cat saw little mouse
who ran inside the house.
He caught a fly, and another one,
maybe he wouldn't eat none alone.
He so looked for the rat to catch
then he still had a meal to match.

Carmen, a Gipsy Passion

Last night I went to see the Opera "Carmen" from Bizet in the Plaza La Paz ("Peace") which most resembles the Coliseum in Seville, with its Roman arcs and giant sculptures, on a night where many were rather trembling in fear of the "Day of the Combatant" which is supposedly followed by violent acts and manifestations of the most irrational ones, leaving this day as the Day of the Delinquents, not combatants. But the only act that we actually witnessed to be violent was the final one, when Carmen's lover inserts a knife on her back and she dies. There, I already told you the end. I didn't want to be a spoiler, but it was already written in her name. Carmen comes from "Carma" which means Fate, a destiny, or more specifically a deed from the acts one committed, i.e. cause/effect into action. Although I think we must fear more the intra-family violence then any other manifestation because it comes from a place of power. And that's when I think of the manifestations that are now in Tibet. They weren't supposed to be violent, since the Dalai Lama, himself a Nobel Prize of Peace, has to be such a noble price for peace, when he represents the non-violence manifestation and yet he's in the epicentre (doesn't matter how much he says he doesn't support the violence of his people) of that same violence he so much fought to avert. But when we arrive to a place where negotiations cannot be done verbally, it's when we must not fear but act (with no violence, of course) and that's why it hurts so much to see so many violent acts being done to people who should supposedly be living in freedom and in peace. And I mean that to all of us. When a simple act turns into violence? It's when we cannot wear the other's shoe, when we disagree with the other's position in the world, and that's when it's vital to communicate. And that is what I am afraid the people from Tibet were lacking of: Dia-log, which comes from the Latin word "dia" meaning "two" who log, talk to each other also dialogue means "words across," i.e., spoken with someone else. Enough of being silent monks. Forget about the three "no see, no hear, no talk" monkeys. Let's speak up. We have no idea of what they've been dealing with every day. It's rather ironic that in a modern world like ours, where communication is the first priority, there seems to have so little of that. It's time to open up and speak from the heart, from the Art, and I mean from the non-violence act of standing up, resolve the conflicts by facing each other's eyes, not from above or below, but as equal, not out of fear but from a place in the heart where love resides. There we may end up all the conflicts in a huge embrace. And now I just visualize the entire planet receiving that affectionate love:)(Here below brief moments captured by my old camera from last night gala open to all public)

Genial Ennio Went into Tears this weekend...

When I watched "Cinema Paradiso" almost twenty years ago, I was so mesmerized by its lyricism that all that I could come up with in the end was, "Who wrote this music?" This movie impacted me in such a way that my life couldn't be the same after that. But without this music would that have as much as an influence to all of us? Certainly, the music involves our emotions, and its so in sync with the scenes, that now it's impossible to dissociate image and sound. And so is the case with GEnnio Morricone. He's rather a genius! With only a sketch from what a movie is about and he can come up with a hole symphony of emotions and related atmosphere.


His life, his charisma, his style is so intertwined-tuned with what he provokes/creates that is not difficult to imagine what a soul, so sensitive to other people's feelings and emotions and the various tones of movement and sounds, would think of a project made for the future generation which main aim is to integrate poor children to society. And that's the case of a favela in Sao Paulo, where they develop children by teaching them music and dance. Morricone, two days after his last concerto in Santiago less than a week ago (which I had the privilege and pleasure to attend) went to the only concert he would give in Sao Paulo, but not before pouring some tears, overwhelmed by those little musicians/magicians from the biggest favela of Sao Paulo, playing "Tema d'Amore" which was the only one in their representation that they had included from his repertoire, the music who made me wonder who was its composer.
The report about his visit in Sao Paulo:
(Click on the pics to get a bigger picture:)


The Concert in the Bicentenary Park was huge. I sat on the last balcony. From there I could see most of everything. The mountains with ice on top, the long and wide road from afar, with fast cars sounding like waves on the ocean of a city that seems to never stop, and people all formally dressed up for the occasion, mostly in black and white (including myself!;) All of a sudden I viewed a glowing bald head appearing slowly in the middle of the Andes. No, it was not the grand Maestro yet. It was the big and beautiful bright full moon. The cameraman couldn't miss this prelude from the Concert for nothing in this world and he incorporated the full moon with an incredible zooming, showing the same image of the silver sphere (with its craters and lines now visible to our naked eyes thanks to his powerful lens) and project it into the two big screens they had reserved to show Ennio Morricone and the orchestra of Rome along with the choral from the University of Chile. People were already very excited, and they applauded the happy occasion of seeing the moon with its all splendour.

Then Ennio arrived with a big ovation from the public and started with Ave Maria Guarani so apropos with what we just had watched. When it arrived to the themes from Cinema Paradiso and Malena, I was almost in tears. Then when he played Gabriel's Oboe from the Mission I was in ecstasy. And I sang along with the choral in Latin. In the end we all stood up and applauded like crazy. I whistled many times and I clapped my hands calling him back. He came back four times. But I wanted more... I whistled and whistled, singing a little tune I had just invented but with all my breath, a little music like saying, "I love you, Ennio, please come back!" But then he was gone. Then I remembered when I went to see the Falls in Iguazu, south of Brazil. It was that sensation of jumping into a sea of a harmonic symphony, the world in unison. A divine and flamboyant Concert that will be forever in my heart!
I and The Falls from Iguazu

The Falls from "The Mission":

Fall equinox celebrations: The first day of autumn falls on a full moon...

... and on Easter this year. I spent it meditating on the death and rebirth of the Saviour, as the daylight slowly gives place to longer nights, and the days get longer on the North, in which is so apropos to the occasion, considering that Halloween in the North Hemisphere falls in the falls equinox (day and night in equal duration). Though here in the South Hemisphere there is no such tradition, nevertheless (and like a rare coincidence) I ended up celebrating it in a place called Aquelarre, which means a place where witches and magicians get-together around the lake Vichuquen.



Vichuquen means "sea serpent" and it's an ancient site (previous to the Spaniards conquests, and founded by the Incas) where legends and myths were shared mouth-to-mouth. In that lake there are jumping fishes and swim dark little swans, as well as the big swans with white tail and long black neck. The water there is so penetrating that at night is difficult not to fall into a trance. No wonder the legends. I was wondering if with all those long necks swirling around people wouldn't get dizzy and imagine they have seen the "Long Necks" monster. So I made a small ritual, dancing like dragonfly in a Ballet made for the Swan Lake, and holding the little witch, which is used to sign where the wind blows, at the top of my finger.


Some people believe that by some mystical way one can balance eggs on their end on the equinox. Well, the only eggs I tried to balance were the little ones the Easter bunny gave to me. And so that I would still be able to balance my own body after that feast of chocolates during the day and the pouring of red wine on my glass at night.

A Saint Paddy's Night

(Last night ended with a big hug in a HUGE tree with a Leprechaun and a Lion:) Then I woke up this morning with a music inside my head, just to create the lyrics to my new tune and is about a problem we all face today (but the Lyrics are in Portuguese): "ECHO"
O mundo todo anda zen,
Tudo em paz e tudo bem.
Tudo de bom pra voce
e pra mim tambem.

Hoje o mundo e tao igual,
Tudo mais e coisa e tal,
Tudo sorri pra voce
e pra mim tambem.

O mundo inteiro a girar
e a vida vai virar
muita sorte a voce
e a mim tambem.

(em tom solene:) E se o aquecimento continuar
nao havera onda sobre o mar
nao vai haver nem a voce
(em tom nostalgico) nem a mim tambem...




A Cosmic Vision
A Tribute to Sir Arthur C. Clarke​(sci-fi author) who just died this Tuesday

My Lyrics (published on the Sci-fi literary magazine "Aphelion" on 2007)
Mr Mc Naught,
You're so bright and so naughty!!



Last week, you appeared to me,

By the deep blue sea,

Just before I closed my eye

In a sunset, so red a sky...



Now I don't even know

If you are just an UFO

Or if you come back once again so fast,

For that's your first and perhaps your last!


ANOTHER SONG A Loony-Tune

It's cold outside and warm in here,

Don't ever let me go,

Because if you just love me dear,

You don't leave me in the snow.



It's cold outside and warm in here,

Don't ever leave me, girl,

Because if you just want me near,

You don't leave me in this world.



I know good God just wants you there,

before the flowers bloom,

But if you need someone to care,

Wait for me and I'll come... in your doom...


I'll be there soon

To meet you in the silver moon...

The Merry Rainbow

Last night I didn't sleep very well. I was worried about getting up very early this morning to try get the tickets to see Ennio Morricone (composer of many unforgettable movies, such as The Untouchables, Cinema Paradiso, Once Upon a Time in America, Malena, among many others) in Concert next Thursday. It was the second time I tried, the first resulted in a total fiasco when they had the entrances over the internet and only a few lucky ones were even able to access the page. This time it was much more to the early birds sake for what before it was on line now it's in line! So I left home, not without my breakfast (as my granny always says, "An empty bag never stays up") and took with me only a pocket book. When I arrived there to see that huge line, my desire then was to run on the contrary direction. I didn't know where it finished I saw people running in many directions. I didn't know which way to go. Then I asked a guy who, by the way, had his mouth wide open while standing there, petrified through that immense crowd, where was the end of the line. He cracked in a nervous laughter and said, "I don't know. I think it is somewhere over there!" Very, very far, far away. But I had an unbreakable faith. I picketed the book from my pocket. There lies the author's biography and it was from the Irish Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, showing that it pays off to be resilient. I also rely on my partial Celtic heritage. "Luck is on my way!" I mentally envisioned the tickets already in my hands, touching it as a big prize. And believe me, I made it. I actually made it through those more than three hours waiting, standing on the sun, blisters on my shoes, suffering all the blues and through an evermore angry crowd and I have got the ticket now over my hands like a priceless trophy!! A woman who belonged to the organization staff saw my big smile, and told me, "And there it was worth it!" So much for my credibilities: Today is the day before (or after if you see on this year's calendar) of San Paddy's day, the beginning of the Holy week, it is the Palm Sunday. And I feel thrice blessed!

But my luck started yesterday (thanks, Saint Pat!:) I got the tickets that I so wished for the performance by the Santiago Ballet, The Merry Widow, which was first presented in 1975, by the Australian Ballet. With the mis-en-scene of English choreographer Ronald Hynd filled with ballroom dances from waltz to fox-trot, mazurkas and czars, this Ballet is a bombshell with a revolution of colourful designs and costumes, with scenery of a gigantic proportion, and a super production worth watching. If I were to compare it with a musical as this Ballet's twin I would name "Beauty and the Beast" with an unforgettable production which I had the privilege to watch (and twice) in a fancy theatre in LA.

So I watched the Ballet of Santiago from very far away, from the seat I had I could only watch a head in front of me. So I went upstairs and proved that the zoom from my camera still worked, though fairly. You can get a glimpse of what it was this last night event on the pictures below. For a picture is worth a thousand words.
Or you can always watch it on "Your Tube" by the same company and production:

The Ballet is about a widow, and she is always merry, not married (well, married she was, at least once) and guess what? Her name is Ana (like me:) All start with a married woman flirting with a man.

Her husband, the Baron, is too worried about Ana's inheritance (unlike me her husband actually left her a fortune) to think about his wife's infidelities. So he throws her a big party with many of the Royal members, so that she may choose one to marry, hence keeping her heritage in its original place.





In the meantime, there is already a man that Ana has an eye on, Danilo, with a love that flourished yet in their youth. But Danilo refuses to dance with her. He wants her to choose another partner. When they were both left alone, then it was she who refuses his attempt to get closer. To make matters wor$ the unfaithfully wife invites his lover to marry the widow, but also to a idyll.



Meanwhile, Danilo finds out that the widow is planning to invite the dancer ladies from Maxim's, and see that as a sign of reconciliation. But things get strangely complicated when Camille, the lover (not Ana's but the Baron's wife's lover), decides to marry Ana. And to save the reputation and not to hurt the Baron's feelings, Ana changes places with his wife, and therefore gets busted with Camille, which was not in Danilo's plan. He in the other hand get furious and goes to Maxim's to forget his misfortunes.




Now is the Baron's turn to ask Ana to marry him. "I will divorce my wife, she's been cheating on me!" (No kidding?) "I am a respectable wife, a lady with honour" those are the words left to the Baron by his beloved wife, therefore saving their marriage. Anyways, Ana had refused him already, saying that she would loose her inheritance if she decides to marry anyone. And she means, ANYONE! And then she tells the same to Danilo, who is smart enough to say, "hey, I am not anyone, I am your only one. And no worries over your tunes, I will take good care of your fortune." Then they get married instead. And all ends well. The scenes are in Paris, always, Paris, and the last act shows a Maxim and the Parisian bohemian life in all its splendour and that took me back to the Bateau Mouche where I once took a photo with the Eiffel Tower as a dazzling vision. And the last scene with the grand waltz, I got transported through time and space, in a dream's realm, as the gold in the end of a merry rainbow. Fascinating!