Movies come and go, mostly unseen when you are on the road. You don’t feel like you’ve missed anything until you begin to hear and read references to films which have changed the collective consciousness of those who stay at home. At some point, it’s like not having read a book in a long while. You begin to feel illiterate. And so, once you’ve settled into into one place for more than a couple of months, you begin to watch movies again.

Last night I had dinner with Andre.

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When the curtain rose on the Bale Folclorico da Bahia at the Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley last night, the sparse crowd applauded politely. Sandra and I were amazed that so few people had shown up.

Two intermission-less hours later, the oh so cool Berkeleyites were out of their seats dancing in the aisles. You weren’t a living, breathing human being if you weren’t.

Video (Click to watch, right-click and “Save as” to save to your computer and watch from there.)
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An old friend from my Tahoe days, visits me in San Francisco. We haven’t spoken in over four months, pre-Brazil.

“Natasha” has a new condo in the East Bay with a private lake, a tennis court, AND she adds proudly, “It’s in a gated community”.

Perplexed, I ask, “What are you afraid of?”

“Are you joking?” she says. “Haven’t you been watching the news? What about that guy who was killed at the Giants game and how about that woman who disappeared last week in Oakland?”
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