Festa de Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes/Iemanja

Explanation to follow.

Festa de Oxum

On the night of December 8, I stayed at home with a favorite babysitter while my folks went to a nearby beach for one of the biggest Afro-Brazilian religious festivals in the city, the Festa de Oxum. There was a centrally organized Batuque ritual and many, many small celebrations all along the beach. The low light offered opportunities for some fun photographic experiments.

This is Oxum, the orixa of fresh water, riches, and gold.

The scene down the beach


People praying and spirits arriving via low-light blur

Offerings to Oxum

The Batuque roda


O-zoom

Brazilian parents tend to be less rigid about bedtimes than us. These lucky kids to got to join the roda near midnight while I was long-gone in dream-land...


A happy low-light accident with painterly results

Concluding the festivities with fireworks.

O-boom.

Plastic Bottle Art

2008 was ushered in with some inspired use of plastic bottles (which they call 'pet-chee' for the PET label), including some cheerful tree flowers found here randomly on the street in POA...

...and some intricate and impressive chandeliers all made from plastic bottles in the famous (at least locally) Natal Luz (Christmas light) celebration in the nearby bizarrely Bavarian tourist town of Gramado:

(the same chandelier while zooming...)

Here's the street scene so you can visualize the whole shabang...

...and two leftover Natal decorations at a psychiatric hospital my mom
has been visiting as part of a film project here...

SO...REDUCE. REUSE. RECYCLE.
AND WHY NOT MAKE SOME ART WHILE YOU'RE AT IT?

Gremlin Visitor

Out of nowhere, I had a friend for a week. And then she left. Her dad calls her 'gremlin' in every possible way. After a day of fighting over toys and food, we had a great time together. Ventured all over POA, ate and danced at a churrascuria, traveled into the Serra Gaúcha for New Years, em fim. Our parents seemed to have a fun time together too, but that's irrelevant.

PB update

Smacking our lips and jumping for joy:

The peanut butter drought has been broken by a deluge of options (because you know we haven't made any peanut butter since the last absurd marathonic attempt):

"Super" peeled peanuts indeed, although the jury's still out about
the appetizingishness of the brand name, Slimé:

Mmmm, stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth good:

For My Grandparents, When Skype is Not Enough

Hi Bubbe, Boppa, Grandma Toby, Nana and Opa (and anyone else who's keeping tabs),

Skype is great and all, but the picture quality doesn't quite meet my standards, and I can't show you all the things I've been up to. Here's a sampling of some activities I've enjoyed recently...

...splashing in my little porch-sized pool...




...making a big train of my animals and dragging them around the apartment, sometimes hopping on board myself...


...hanging out with Sophia, the flower-eating turtle, upstairs...


...making hats for the whole gang...




...watching the boats in the harbor...


...getting the tickles from Mama...


... cracking myself up...


...and watching the sunset over POA with my pa...


...to name a few.