· Eu até tento, mas é difícil de engolir. Essa música “God Bless America” já está enchendo o saco. Eu sei que eu não sou americano, não tenho os mesmos sentimentos patrióticos por isso aqui, mas, como dizem por aí, peloamordedeus. Eu já até tentei, lá estava eu naquela reunião pública no meio da rua promovida pela associação de artistas e bla-blá-blá de Boston no meio da coisa toda lá vem a tal música. Foi o bastante fui embora bater-papo com amigos por telefone. Que tal mudar um pouquinho a música para “Khosi Sikelele Africa”?

· Hoje tem recital de orgão na minha igreja como parte dos eventos de dedicação do novo órgão de tubos com a participação de um renomado organista (desculpem-me mas não sei o nome) e a companhia de Ballet de Jose Matteo. Espero que o organista não nos dê o desprazer de tocar a tal “God Bless America”.

· Pelo jeito o que vai salvar a economia americana é o mercado de produção e venda de bandeiras. Made in China! Obrigado China...

· Cabruummm! Este foi o som que acabamos de ouvir. Literalmente todo mundo no escritório correu para a rua. Uma explosão? Um avião? Um ataque ao Prudential Center? Não, nada disso. Foi apenas um trovão assustador. Logo depois a chuva chegou. Chuva química? Não só chuva mesmo. Não teve jeito, tivemos que voltar ao trabalho.

· Por que será que as coisas nos Estados Unidos tem sempre que ser gigantescas, grandiosas... Será que depois de toda essa tragédia o povo americano ainda vai vibrar com os filmes lixo-trágicos de Hollywood? A indústria está preocupada. Não se preocupem, o resto do mundo ainda vai consumir muito desse lixo. Aliás, quanto tempo vai levar para sair o primeiro livro ou filme sobre este atentado?

About Freedom of Speech and Patriotism

· The witches’ hunt is already here even before the Congress passes the new laws that the White House wants. It is almost forbidden to go against any thing in America today. Let’s see: a host show was criticized by the White House and the advertisers withdraw support for the show because in a discussion about been coward or not the host said that he things the terrorist act was not a coward act because they stay in the airplane while it hit the towers. Coward is send a missile from 2000 miles away to kill innocent people like the American army does. Two journalists from a small town were fired because they criticized the President. A Professor in a university was under disciplinary action because he made some remarks about the tragedy on the WTC. And there are much more. So, let me talk about this whole thing now before it is too late. Can someone tell what went down, the WTC or the Statue of Liberty?

· I try, I make a good effort but it is too much for me. The music “God Bless America” is getting in my nerves. I know I am not American and I do not have the same patriotic feelings like them, but pleeease. Maybe it is time to change this for “Khosi Sikelele Africa”.

· My church is having a recital today as part of the celebration of dedication of its new pipe organ with a well known organist (sorry I do not know who he is) and the Jose Matteo Ballet. I hope, I really hope that the organist is not going to play “God Bless America”.

· It seems that what is going to save the American economy is the production and selling of flags. Made in China.

· Cabruuummm! It was a sound like that we just heard! Literally everybody went to the street. Is this an attack? A bomb? An airplane crashing against the Prudential Center? No, it was just a big thunderstorm. Soon the rain started and we had to go back to work.

Secrets and Lies
This is the name of my other blog. There I write about some hot things with a lot of sexual connotation, lies, trash and other things that came to your mind on the 30 seconds while you are peeing. The best thing about writing these things is that I don't know anymore what is true or not. It is still a private blog. I am thinking of making this a public one but only for people that make a request. Unfortunately, that blog is only in Portuguese. I can't express myself in English when talking about those things, in deed I can, but only when I am horny.

A New Project
I had an good ideia today. I want to paint my room. I am thinkink of using two different colours, one of each two walls. There are two problems: I don't know each colours to use and I have no idea how to do the whole thing. Anyway, I think it will be fun

Dê uma olhadinha no joguinho que o Samuel da Imprensa Marrom indicou. Eu detesto joguinho de computador, mas gastei algum tempinho lá tentando defender as torres. Para jogar, clique aqui.

Brazilian Humour
Brazilians like to make fun of everything, even tragedies from themselves or from others. Don't take me wrong. We are not insenssitives. So I have received quite a lot of emails with jokes about the tragedies of these last days. The papers are often talking about how comedians are having a had time to make jokes. I think what is really bothering the comedians is that they have a lot of material for jokes right now but they cannot use these jokes. Don't you think the comedians would love to make fun of Bush on that scene where he is ungry with the Congress because it did not pass laws cutting some of the democratic civil rights?

If you would like to play a litlle computer game, try to defend New York on this one New York Defender

It is almost 7 pm. Time to go to rehearsal!

For the first time in many days the New York Times is bring us a more "light" front page. At least today the front page was not talking much about the so called war that nobodys knows against who or what. The news from the first page were more about the economy, the problems of the vouchers and the separation between church and state, the elections in New York and the return of Michael Jordan. But the "Jornal do Brasil" was full of news about the war. It seems that the American people is now starting to think that it is reallynot a good thing to exchange civil rights and liberties for more security. The debate is starting to get out.

1) organizar todos os meus arquivos (recortes, revistas, músicas, livros e um monte de outros papeis que minha mãe não entende o porque de colecioná-los).
2) voltar à academia depois de uns dois meses sem colocar os pés lá. É melhor fazer isso logo antes que minha barriga apareça de novo.
3) Terminar e colocar no ar de vez a minha home page. A coisa funciona direitinho no meu computador, mas eu não consigo fazer a coisa funcionar na internet. Tem alguma coisa errada com aquela história de FTP.
4) Terminar de criar e colocar na internet uma "Revista de Teologia e História" que idealizei.
5) Aprender e decorar, até outubro, toda a música para os próximos concertos do BGMC onde canto. Dê uma olhada e veja por você mesmo o que é o BGMC.
6) Dar continuidade ao projeto de história da minha família dando continuidade a algumas entrevistas com minha santíssima mãe.

Só quero ver onde vou achar tempo para isso tudo. Bem, temos um longo inverno pela frente...

By, By Summer
The winter is almost here. Now I want to concentrate in some projects that I had no time or energy to do on summer. It was too nice outside and I enjoyed it a lot. Now it is time to get more inside and work in other important things. Here are some of the projects I want to do this winter:

1) organize all my files (books, magazines, articles, music and a lot of other papers that my mother never understood why I keep them).
2) Go back to the gym, I have not been there for the last two months. I should go back very soon before my stomach get bigger.
3) Finish my home page and put it on internet. Everything is ready and running on my computer, but I can't make it work on internet. There is something wrong with those FTP.
4) Finish the creation and conception of a internet magazine about theology and history.
5) Learn and memorize by October the music for the next concerts of the BGMC
6) To continue the search about my family's history with some interviews with my mother.

I just want to know where I am going to find time for all of this. Well, we have a long winter ahead...

O ponto alto do meu dia ontem foi sair para uma boa caminhada ao longo do Charles River com minha amiga Sarah. Conheci Sarah quando ela chegou para morar e estudar na mesma universidade que eu na África do Sul. Nos tornamos bons amigos. Sarah é, de alguma maneira a responsável pela minha entrada nos EUA. Um dia insistiu para que eu tirasse o visto americano. Não aceitou minhas explicações de que não tinha menor intenção de visitar o país. Diise que poderia ser útil se eu decidisse visitá-la um dia. Tanto fez que acabei me aventurando numa das lotações perigosas da África do Sul e fui até a Durban para tirar o tal visto. No começo do ano seguinte eu me vi obrigado a uma espécie de "exílio" na minha vida. Não podia voltar ao Brasil, não podia ficar na África do Sul. A solução foi vir para os EUA até que tudo se acalmasse. As coisas acalmaram-se e agradeço muito a Sarah pelo apoio naqueles dias difíceis.

Depois de uma boa caminhada com Sarah só mesmo umas boas gargalhadas com a Uti no telefone. Como me diverti!

Good Walk... Good Talk
One of the good things that happen yesterday was to meet my friend Sarah. I met Sara in South Africa when she went study and live at the same University I was attending. We becme good friends. Sarah is, somehow, responsable for me to get here in the US. She insisted that I should get a visa to the US. She did not want to listen me that I had no interest in visit her country. Anyway, she made me to get in one of the "dangerous" vans in South Africa and I went to Durban to get the visa. Later, this visa was very useful when things went very bad in my life and I had to go to an kind of exile. I could not go back to Brasil and not stay in South Africa. So, the solution was to came to the US. Thanks to Sarah I had the visa requirements. Sarah has been a good friend of mine and it is always a joy to talk to her.

After this good talk and walk all I need was to call my friend Uti in Florida for more good laugh! Uti is very funny!

O amigo Jairo Lucas Calixto de Oliveira é um intelectual nato. Mandou-me um texto excelente de análise da atual situação nos Estados Unidos relacionando-a com fatos da vida americana. O texto é muito, muito bom. Pedi ao Jairo permissão para publicar o texto aqui, porém, ele ainda não retornou com a resposta. Como o texto é muito bom eu estou publicando aqui sem permissão mesmo, coisa de amigo...Portanto, leia logo o texto porque se o Jairo decidi não me dar permissão eu vou ter que remover o mesmo. Corra! Não perca essa oportunidade!

Uma Lição Difícil de Aprender

Para aqueles que não sabem, ou para aqueles que não acreditam, eu vou à igreja todos os domingos pela manhã. Frequento a Old Cambridge Baptist Church que é uma igreja com teologia liberal que fica no coração da Universidade Harvard. É uma igreja incrível com uma participação política crítica relevante e ao mesmo tempo um lugar onde todas as pessoas são convidadas a encontrar refúgio e sombra. Além de cantar no côro da igreja eu coordeno o trabalho de organização e catalogação da história dessa igreja. A cada dia descubro documentos relevantes como os sermões pregados na igreja por Paul Tilich e Martin Luther King, Jr. Toda a celebração hoje foi tocante ainda com muito dos últimos acontecimentos aqui no país. Em uma igreja como essa onde muitos dos seus membros já foram presos ou estão respondendo processos por exercerem a desobediência civil contra atrocidades que o governo americano, e sua política externa, tem praticado no mundo, não houve cântico de "Glod Bless America" ou "The Star and Stripes Forever", não houve bandeiras ou qualquer outro símbolo patriótico. Houve um sermão pregado com emoção, houve conforto, oração, memorial pelas vítimas, ummomento para compartilhar sentimentos e mobilização para a participação de todos nos muitos atos públicos contra a guerra. Estes atos já começaram a aparecer nas praças públicas de Cambridge e Boston e estão sendo organizados pela igreja ou outras organizações.

At the Church Today
For those of you who does not know, I am member of the Old Cambridge Baptist Church. I have been a member there for the last two and a half years. It is a alive church where politic, faith and intelect walk together hand by hand. At this church I sing in the choir and work organizing its historic archives. I have came across many interesting historical documents like the sermoes preached in the church by Paul Tillich and Martin Luther King, Jr. The service today was beautiful and sad. In a church like this, where many of its members have been arrested or have been prossecuted because they protested against the American goverment and its foreign policy there were no siging of "God Bless America" or "The Star and Stripes Forever", there were no waiving of flags or any other patriotic simbol. There were a sermon preached with emotion, sorrow , silent prayers for the victims and a moment to share feelings. And, of course, there were a lot of talking about how to participate in actions against war. These actions are been organized by the church or by other organizations.

Boston Symphony Orchestra
I am glad that I was invited to work as a volunteers with the Boston Symphony Orchestra my task will be to take groups in a tour of Symphony Hall and to present the orchestra to them. The BSO is one of the biggest simphony in the world. Its conductor is Seiji Ozawa who is leaving the orchestra after 28 years. According to some newspapers his successor will most probably be the now artistic director of the New York Metropolitan Opera, James Livene.

Issac Stern
In another note about classical music, Isaac Stern, the famous violinist and President of the Carnegie Hall, died yesterday at the age of 81.

Boston Under Attack
Yesterday the papers here in Boston said that Boston would be under attack during this weekend. Today the same papers are sayind that it was a mistake. The FBI said that Boston is having the same security precautions that the rest of the country. For those who call or email me worried about this news that was also on Brazil I can say that, so far, Boston is having a normal weekend.

"Tem uma xícara de açucar para me emprestar?"

My friend Silvéria wrote to me saying that she is trying to find Adriana (see post abaixo). Silvéria called a phone number and found out that Adriana might be living in Belo Horizonte

My friend Samuel remembered me about one of my old nicknames "brilho" (shine). I would like to know from where this nickname cames from. Does anyone knows?

Text in English / Texto em Português

Voz do Afeganistão
Recebi esse email de uma senhora do afeganistão que conhece o país, sua política e as consequências de mais uma possível guerra no país. Muito interessante. Por favor, leia!

Sound Polution
Today morning I noticed for the first time that the Boston Logan Airport was open again and getting back to normal, even if it is happening very slowlly. The noise from airplanes flying over Boston is back. I was starting to feel good without such big noise, but it is good to see that life is going on and that the military jets are not so often on the sky.

http://www.thePetitionSite.com/takeaction/224622495

Petition
I don't know how much of this kind of things are true or effective and really delivered to our governants. Anyway, it does not take much to sign this petition directed to President Bush asking him for an action of justice and peace in order to have innocent lives preserved. (see link below)