been shooting in the dark too long

i bought a cd recently just because it had a cover of this song. the original is better. i've always loved it, and right now i love it even more.

it's all under control

i can't stop listening to it

a monastery in the forest

canoes

no myth

i heard this song the other day for the first time in a long time, and i haven't quite been able to get it out of my head since. sigh.

fire in the pantanal

controlled fires made everything a hazy orange



but the light was so beautiful

i'd forgive anything for good light

the california coastal records project

has over 20,000 searchable records of the california coastline. this is where i live.

did i ever mention my cowgirl days?

time is a game only children play well

check out this song from the silver jew's new album tanglewood numbers
how can i love you (if you won't lie down)

oh, david berman.

i have never felt so out of touch

apparently everybody loves raymond swept the emmys last night.

and green day took the grammys just a few months ago.

the pop culture bus has sped away,
and i'm standing in the dust, clutching a tattered copy of tiger beat with fred savage on the cover.

little deer legs

this is a baby deer (endangered in the pantanal) that ari, our guide, found abandoned in a field.



i had to tell a little fib at customs about handling wild animals.
it was worth it.

en route

here i am - last day in brasil. we leave tonight on a redeye.

the pantanal was incredible. we stayed at an eco-resort called refugio de ilha. it was unseasonably cold and we had no heat, but even that wasn´t so bad,. it gave us something to joke about.

a few days ago our guide took us out on horseback to look for wildlife. we had made it only a few hundred meters when he motioned for us to dismount, and tied our horses to a fencepost. he spoke quickly to my brother in portugese. what, what is it? i asked. anteater, my brother whispered. our guide examined some nearby brush, and then led us, low and creeping, into the woods. we hunched close to the ground and made massive amounts of noise trying not to step on dried branches and twigs. fortunately it was our smell, not our sound, that the animal was wary of and we were downwind. ever few paces ari would stop, examine the brush, and then start in a different direction. we stayed a few steps behind. finally he motioned for us to come up beside him, quietly quietly. there, 5 feet away from us, was this:



the giant anteater. as ari would say - fantastico

my anaconda don´t want none

today we leave for the pantanal - home of monkeys, caimans and of course, anacondas. i´m not really sure what we´re doing there, but it´s going to involve horses, an eco-resort and lots of wildlife. i think this is one of those things that´s going to be so amazing i can´t even begin to imagine it.

the food

the food is amazing. sao paulo is (unbeknownst to me when i arrived) one of the gastronomic capitals of the world. fancy restaurants abound, and dishes i enjoyed include: spinach and ricotta ravioli with butter and sage, gnocchi with potato cream sauce, and a specially prepared vegetarian sushi course.

out of sao paulo the food is not so...cosmopolitan, but i´ve spent the last few nights at a monestary, eating locally grown "comida tipica" - heaping portions of kale and squash and mandioca and rice and beans. fried eggs in the morning with papaya and pao de queijo and sweet sweet sweet cafe con leite.

and now we´re in ouro preto, and i just had my first ever pizza doce - pizza dough with hot fudge, strawberries and vanilla ice cream. sounds scary, i know. but oh so delicious.

i´m feeling inspired...

bom viagem, papai

from what i can tell

the brasilians don´t fuck around. not with feijoada. not with samba. and certainly not with caipirinhas.

no, they certainly do not.

so far i´ve

remembered how frustrating it is to be in a country where i don´t speak the language

taken my first portugese lesson (muito obrigata)

cracked the burnt sugar on top of an enormous creme brulee

been somewhat sleepy and cranky

had a bite of chicken (it had black truffle shavings on it - i had no choice!)

rediscovered the thrill of international travel