Brazilian in London

More Montreal Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:35:00 +0000

Just got some more photos. Hope the formatting works... trying to figure out why there's this space up here. Scroll down for now! dooooooowwwwwwwnnnnnn


Serena and me in Ferrari clothes	With one of bosses.

Meet Pat. Pat broke the Ferrari! He was funny.	F1 after-party. Looks like we're having fun!

At top of Oratoire St. Joseph	In fron tof the gossip statue. Looks just like us.

Maria and I	Contemplating in Notre Dame

Trying to go up on my knees to the oratoire. Right!	In old-port area of Montreal

Montreal

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:22:00 +0000

Well, I had another wonderful F1 trip. This one was crazy for work as well as for partying! Montreal really gets into the F1: streets are decorated and closed off for parties and the town fills with Maria gasolinas and flashy, kitschy cars.

Night 1:
I can't name names, but just try to envision the scene:

After a wonderful dinner at great steak place La Queue de Ch eval which Pedrinho would have enjoyed, (Oi Pedrinho meu amor!) the 6 of us head back to Pilot #1's hotel suite. Pilot #1 is indeed a Formula One driver. We are in his suite, hanging out. While the rest of us are drinking a wonderful wine and shooting the shit, one guy-friend is actually wearing the sandals and dress of another girl-friend, and Pilot #1 is leisurely in his pijamas, playing online poker, while joining in our conversation once in a while. It was surreal.

Night 3:
Guy-friend invites us to have desert at restaurant with him and friends. We've already eaten, we're dead tired. We get there, Pilot # 2 (yes another different F1 driver!) is having dinner with us. So is his uncle. After about an hour of nice conversation, the place goes wild! It's a F1 after-party. All I know is that while waitresses in sequins came parading out with silver bowls filled with vodka, pilot #2's "married" Uncle is groping me, pilot # 2 is pouring soda over the head of girl-friend, ice is being spat out of guy-friend's mouth all over us and craziness is all around. At about 3 am, I called it quits. Just couldn't deal anymore with the scene. Pilot # 1 didn't go to this one. Probably at his suite playing online poker!

Was able to fit in a 3-4 - hour tour of the city but the actual work was madness. Lots of running about. I was exhausted.
I did get to pretend I was in a movie though. Picked up one of the guests from his private jet. Got to drive all around the private jets, right up to the stairs of his and then opened the door, with the wind blowing my hair and skirt, while he came down. Then let him in. Got a compliment for being so resourceful. Not easy to find out where the jet was going to land, but we were lucky.

Anyway, some photos:

Serena, Me and Maria getting ready to go out.

The airshow before the race. I didn't actually get to see the race this time. Too many pepinos to fix.

Charlie's Angels get a break and see the town.

Above is the Catedrale Notre Dame. As our guide reminded us about 5 times, it's where Celine Dion got married. I can't even guess the influences. This place is colourful!

We also went to see the Oratoire St. Joseph, which is this prayer center way up high in a town outside Montreal. There's Maria climbing the hundred or so steps and on the right, the doors to the church. Very modern, reminded me of Brasília.

More photos later as soon as I get them from the girls. Mine sucked.

Another cool graffiti animation

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Fri, 23 May 2008 20:45:00 +0000

This one was done in Buenos Aires, by blu!
So cool. It must have taken weeks!
My project is no longer just about graffiti art, but I still get tons of stuff about it. One day, I will be able to post about it here. For now, I'm just struggling to get it done in time for next week! Eeeeek!

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

The Berlin Shuffle

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Sun, 11 May 2008 19:01:00 +0000

Paul Klee

Man are my heels sore!

I just came back from Berlin and I loved it. The cloudless, sunny days must have helped because it wasn't just me -- I had lots of competition sucking up to gallery owners trying to get some summer job there. Its a pretty relaxed city, with an alternative feel and LOTS to do.

We walked all day and sometimes into the night and probably didn't touch a fifth of the museums and galleries there. We were soooo lucky with the weather, which made the trip absolutely wonderful compared to Venice.

It was also better organized and the hotel which was chosen was in a great location, a few blocks from CheckPoint Charlie, which was the crossing point between east and west Berlin for the allied forces.

There's an old guard house there with murals showing the history if the wall and fake guards who will talk to you through a megaphone as you pass by. There is very little of the wall left but through-out the city you can see a line on the ground made of little cobble stones showing you where it once stood.

The school organized a bus tour on our first day which gave us an idea of the city. From then on, it was just visiting museum after museum, gallery after gallery. We made the most of the Berlin Biennale and saw some great classics at the Neue Nationalgalerie which had some icons of modern art. Since it was warm, I got to wear sandals most of the time and thank goodness I took them because most people's feet were cooked by the end of each day.

We also tried to go out to some different parts of Berlin, but didn't have that much time. I did visit places like Kreutzberg, which has an alternative history and Hackischer Markt, which is a bit like Covent Garden, but somehow more relaxed and sleeker. There are even restaurants there with tiki-lights and those swinging cradle chairs... everything very relaxed.

One afternoon after a long day went to have a coffee and cake at famous chocolatiers Fassbinder and Rausch. It was sooooo good. But we were all in a little of a chocolate daze for the rest of the night. This is me enjoying my hot CHOCOLATE and CHOCOLATE and orange cake thingy. The water is just for show.

One part of the Biennale was this Sculpture Garden, which was supposed to be sort of experimental and edgy. They placed a few sculptures all over what was an overgrown wilderness of vacant lots and called it a sculpture garden. To get to some of these sculptures you needed a map and had to wade through some high grass, garbage and left over construction material. Most of the time it was difficult to see what was art and was what was garbage. Which was actually kind of cool. So cool, I decided to make my own art!

This is Artist Sandy with her piece in the 2008 Berlin Biennale Scupture Garden See the suffering on my face!!!
My piece was relating to the fertility of the biennale (thus phallic stick coming from Biennale map) leading to the understanding and flow of sweetness (thus broken water bottle with discarded sweetener packet). It all makes sense man!
We also got to interact with other important art. Yes these are holes in the ground there on the right.

We did also get to see some wonderful art. Paul Klee, Picasso, Anselm Kiefers, all of the Neuenationalgallerie... there was some great stuff.
I'll just leave you with some photos or else I'll take another few days to write the rest of this!
I have so much work to do in the next 2 weeks! My final project is due and next week we have an exam. Plus I'm going out on dates, going to see Seu Jorge with friends and several B-day parties! Argh!
So write more next time!

Anselm Kiefer - one of my favorites apart from Klee

Florence, me and Richi at another crazy sculpture garden installation
More ummm... art that was difficult to understand. Those chairs were part of it. You can tell everyone looks very confused.

Trying to imitate Victoria driving her horses on top of the Brandenburg Gate, but my friend just didn't catch on and cut her out so now it just looks like I'm doing the hula-hula or something. Completely retarded. Nice sun flare though.

In the back alleys of Berlin going to underground bars that had aliens in aquariums!

Lots of standing around... but at least the sun was delicious.

Ich bin eine Berliner!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Sun, 04 May 2008 22:47:00 +0000

Something's wrong with the concordância of that title, but can't think of it now. Will have plenty of reminders of how much I've forgotten my German for the next week, since I'm off to Berlin tomorrow for almost a week.
Hope to be able to post pics from there. If not, see you all when I get back!

Beijos!
Love you all!
XXX

Clo's Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 23:27:00 +0000

Wow. It's been a while.
Well Clo came to visit over the past week and it was wonderful to have her.
I tried spending the weeks before she came getting ahead with my final project but didn't get very far. Will have to catch up over the next few weeks.

Clo and I had a great time just hanging out, really. Sad that the weather didn't help. It's been kind of cold and just blah. She was happy to be able to wear her winter hat, coat and even gloves! Brrrr.

The only touristy thing we did was walk around Bankside, the south bank of the Thames area where the Tate Modern is. My now vast knowledge of art history failed to impress her when we came across Cornelia Parker's Thirty Pieces of Silver (1988-89). Copyright: Cornelia Parker
Several "puddles" of silver cutlery and tools are hung with wire just inches from the floor. Very cool, but I wasn't able to tell her if the artist had input on the lighting or not. I tell you, audiences are never satisfied.

We also went on a fun tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre which was reconstructed nearby using the materials of the day and as close to the original location as possible. There's a great little museum telling you all about The Globe Theatre and how the performances were held as well as the details of the reconstruction. From end of April (Shakespeare's birthday) to October or so, the produce several of his plays. I got tickets for Midsummer's Nights Dream for late June when my mum should be here. Hopefully the weather will be better.

The theatre was made completely of oak, with wooden nails and thatched roof and colourfully painted inside. The people who stand to watch the play are called the groundlings. Can't wait to watch something there.
The workers were setting the stage for the next production, King Lear, I think.

But most of the time we just walked around, did some shopping and had way too much to eat.
One night we went out with Anna to a Gastro Pub near home. Had 2 bottles of wine between the three of us as well as some lovely deserts:

Later on this night, Clo decides that she should register me on a singles dating site and writes the recommendation while under the influence. A riot! Just what I need. More weirdos looking me up. She really wants some guy called Sean to be her new brother-in-law! hehehe

We also met up with Clo's friend Natasha a couple of times. On Saturday we went to her neighbourhood to meet her and a friend and man it was a trek!
Firstly, we went to Kings Road to do some shopping. The Circle line was closed as it sometimes is on weekends, so we had to complete the trip with a bus. After wandering around there for a while, we had to meet Natasha all the way North-west of the city. The Bakerloo line should have taken us there, but it also stopped at Paddington and so we had to take another bus, which we had no idea where it was going. What a trip that was. Anyway, turns out Natasha lives 2 blocks away from my friend Connor, so he came to lunch too.

Natasha, me and Clo

Conner with bad hair cut by Brazilian Transvestite, me and Clo.

Tomorrow school starts and Clo goes home. So sad. It was great to have her here, since I was very homesick. She brought me more clothes from home which was good and some lovely drawings my Timmy and now I have enough to keep me going till me next visitor.

Who will that be??? Huh? Huh?

Formula One for the boys!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:30:00 +0000

Hi Timmy! Hi Nicki! Hi Matthew!

Kiai-kiai just came back from the Formula One Race, where she saw a really fast Ferrari!
In the Formula One race, the drivers go around a race-track many times. In the race I saw, the drivers went around the race track 56 times. The Ferrari car won the race!
The cars are so fast!

Kiai-Kiai took photos for you to see! CLick on them to make them bigger.

Here is the Ferrari Formula One Race car.:

Se e ho w low and skinny it is ? That's how it goes so fast!

This is the steering wheel in the Ferrari. It comes off so that the driver can get in and out of the car. That's how small the space is! Look at all the buttons.

This is the Ferrari Garage. The Ferrari doctors! They are putting the car together from all the different parts.

Here is another picture of the Pit, which is just another name for the garage. See how the car hangs up from the ceiling? That's so the mechanics can get underneath it easily to fix it and put it together. The car is very light. Much lighter than daddy's car.

Once everything is put together, the driver can take the car around the track for a test-drive to see if everything is working OK. Here he is leaving the Pit.

As the car races around the track, these are the people who make sure everything is OK with it. They have computers where they can see if its going fast enough and if it isn't why not. The computers tell them if the car needs gas or if the tires need air and even if the pilot is thirsty!

If the guys on the computer see that something is wrong with the car during the race, they tell the pilot to come into the Pit. As soon as the pilot comes into the pit, all these people crowd around the car to put in gas and change the tires and give the pilot some water as fast as they can! It is usually faster than the time you would take to say Ferrari three times. Try it! Say Ferrari 3 times. That's how fast they are!

This is Kimi Raikkonen. He is the Ferrari driver that won the race that kiai-kiai saw.

I love you boys!!
and I miss you!

XXXX Kiai-kiai

Longer KL post

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:23:00 +0000

Well, My trip to Kuala Lumpur was exhausting but lots of fun.

Kuala Lumpur is a gorgeous city.

Coming from the airport, taking the new highway, which is soo clean, and sooo well-constructed, you get to the city in about 45 minutes, passing through palm tree farms (for palm oil) as far as the eye can see. The vegetation is very like Brazil and Ugh, is it humid and warm.

KL itself comes into view about half an hour into the drive and is very picturesque from a distance. The new highway takes you through some nice areas and makes the mountains around the city (about another 45 minute drive north and west) a back-drop for the modern skyline, with the Kuala Lumpur tower, which looks like a spike with a ball on top, the Petronas Towers and the rest of an area which is called KLCC, or Kuala Lumpur City Centre.

They basically took a former residential area of the city which had large colonial mansions and a horse-race track which nobody wanted and transformed the whole are into a new, modern city centre. The old centre still exists, and yes, is ugly, and old, and dirty, but KLCC is where are the foreign business people go and is clean, and new, and oh so pretty.

It’s where you’ll find the Petronas Towers, the Mandarin Oriental, lots of other steel and glass buildings, a beautiful convention centre and this huge park with a cool public swimming pool in the middle.

KL was built in the middle of a rainforest, I was told and you can tell: 1 because its humid as hell!, 2. because there’s still a lot of green around.

The job was tiring. VIPs would suddenly decide the craziest things at the last moment. Most nights we were up till 3 am because some VIP would decide they wanted to hire a helicopter/change rooms/go out with us/need a plane ticket all at the last minute. We got the weirdest requests! Also, these people spend so much money just because they don’t have the saco to decide things. There was one guy who wanted a helicopter a few days before the event to go the race. We found him one for about $1000. Since he didn’t decide until the last moment, the price went up to $ 6000!!!

But it was also really fun. Seeing the F1, rushing around getting things, picking up guests from the airport (I know that new highway like the back of my hand now, riding around in a S-class Mercedes!) and getting to know people.

You can click on the photos to see them larger:

Petronas Towers This was the
view from our hotel room

Me in front of the Petronas Towers

In front of the car

At the race on the roof of the paddock

Just behind me is the starting line

We could go down to see the pits before the race

Inside the Paddock

The view from the paddock

Maria and I with car

In uniform

Chinese Temple in KL

Serena and I in the Chinese Temple

Putrajaya, the government town

Ooooh, what can I buy with my salary?

It was hot enough to look ridiculous

Details of Chinese Temple

Ended up in China Town where I got a fake handbag

Outside the Mosque where menstruating women could not enter!

Karaoke with boss


Maria and I Carcosa restaurant and Hotel - stunning place!

Kuala Lumpur

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:52:00 +0000

Well, apparently posting to my blog from Serena's computer here works... if IE wont freeze again. I'll post some pics for now, the stories will come later.

Had a BLAST! Am completely exhausted. Leave tomorrow. London on Wednesday.

Me in front of Petronus Towers

Towers at night

The Car!

Red F1 shirt on

Maria, Me and Serena in Putrajaya

Serena and me in Chinese Temple

Short and sweet

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:22:00 +0000

Well, I've been trying to post some pictures for some days now but there seems to be a problem, so... a short text post for now.

Formula One is ON!! Woohoo!

For those not in the know:

Got a job doing hospitality for Formula 1 events. I'll be in Kuala Lampur next week and Bahrain a few weeks later. SO excited!

So, I'll be taking pics to show Timmy and Nicki all the Ferraris! Orders for autographs in the comments section please.

In other news: Doing well in school, the final project I wrote about below has changed a bit, I'm off on Easter break for 5 weeks starting today!

My post was going to be about going out in London and then I had another lined up about the project, but they wont work without pics. Have to fix that.

Miss you all!!

Short good news

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 18:47:00 +0000

Well, I've been trying to post some pictures for some days now but there seems to be a problem, so... a short text post for now.

Formula One is ON!! Woohoo!

For those not in the know:
Got a job doing hospitality for Formula 1 events. I'll be in Kuala Lampur next week and Bahrain a few weeks later. SO excited!

So, I'll be taking pics to show Timmy and Nicki all the Ferraris! Orders for autographs in the comments section please.

In other news: Doing well in school, the final project I wrote about below has changed a bit, I'm off on Easter break for 5 weeks starting today!

My post was going to be about going out in London and then I had another lined up about the project, but they wont work without pics. Have to fix that.

Miss you all!!

Tropicália off the streets

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:49:00 +0000

Last Wednesday I had to present my project to the teachers and a curator who does loads of contemporary shows here in London. After my presentation, they changed it 180 degrees in concept while keeping some of the works I suggested. I'm not to pleased with that, but it should be interesting to do anyway. We have to curate or organize an art exhibit, from start to finish, expect for actually putting on the show physically.

For all interested, my initial ideas sort of stemmed from the whole High-street art thing, although I'm having second thoughts about that whole concept.

I wanted to do an exhibit on accessible art, both in form as in ideas. This would include forms of art that are easily and less expensively distributed like print, multiples, film and conceptual art, however they also had to be simple to understand and "get" to therefore be accessible in communication of ideas as well.

Some people might call this conceptual accessibility low-brow art. It's stuff you don't have to think too hard about to understand and for it to move you in some way. But, sometimes simple ideas can lead to more complex ones and that would be a by-product of the show.

So, by looking at what was going on today, I arrived at: Tropicália off the Streets.
Tropicália, being the Brazilian movement started by Helio Oiticica which attempted to realign what was understood as "Brazilian" culture in the 1960's. You can look it up, but what I understand of it is that the idea was to integrate aspects of other cultures into our art, be it music or art, and accept it. Tropicália was about bread and circuses, art for the people, from the favelas and for the favelas. It was art that was supposed to be experienced, not just thought about. Simplicity of ideas, of materials and of cultural icons.

Street art is somewhat related to that. Street art is supposed to be temporary, easily understandable, devouring icons and images from all cultures. It comes from an inner-city existential crisis: the need to say I was here (tagging), or to protest or supports something, or in some cases just to escape. However I wanted to use street artists that have moved on to the gallery because I think its important that I use only those who view what they do as art.

So here are some of the artists I was thinking of using:

Os Gêmeos

Os Gêmeos.
O pescador de illusões
2005
60X45X3 inches

A duo from São Paulo, they started graffiti as a means if escape from urban hell. Their work tells simple but magic realism-like stories which are easy to understand. Its about dreams and legends and folk tales.
Their Cavaleiro Marginal (which has been translated into English as both Outsider Cowboy as well as Marginal Knight) certainly reminded me of "Seja Bandido, Seja Heroi!"

Os Gêmeos Hélio Oiticica
Cavaleiro Marginal Seja Marginal, seja herói
2005 1965

Who are these outsiders or marginalized criminals? Are they the elusive bons sauvages? Or are we making heroes of those excluded? The Tropicália aspect of street art is something to be studied. Don't know if I'm the person to do it, though! hehehe.

ANyway, another artists whose style and line I love is Swoon.

She has this great wood-block print graphical style. In galleries now she's doing stuff in cut-out paper and seems to have more of a political message.

ANyway, as this project goes on, I'll show you guys more.

Miss you everyone! Come visit me!

Light Graffiti

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 22:20:00 +0000

I'm actually just half-way through the course. Time is just flying!

We have a final project due at the end in which we have to curate an art exhibit, up until the marketing and press. We have to choose a location and works of art, get the floor plan and decide the hang. Oh and of course it has to be challenging academically.
The world is our oyster in terms of what we choose to do, but sometimes too much freedom isn't all that great. What to choose??? hmmm

Anyway, after many changes of direction I'm going for an edgy street art in the gallery strategy of bringing new customers to prints and multiple art pieces. That's the initial idea anyway. The academic part of that, you ask? I'll figure it out. You can always bring in questions of existencial searches for God in the post-modern, urban cityscape, blah, blah....

Next week it'll change again probably! hehe
But I just had to share the work of LichtFaktor. I found him as I was researching Graffiti art. Has nothing to do with my project but sooooo cool (just press the play button):

star wars V star trek

Add to My Profile More Videos

Thank you My SPace TV.
If you can't get it to work, try Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlWnpz0Di90

I'm going to be a Fag!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 18:50:00 +0000

Quick update on last entry. Discussed what Formula One wife/girlfriend might be called instead of Wag and we have a few options:

1. Fag! hehehehehe

2. FOB. Formula-one babe

3. FOK Formula-one Kutie

and

4. FREW - Future Rich ex-wife!

hahaha - most of those are Anna's BTW.

Now for some entertainment: Watch the ball! I can look at this for ages.

Sound bites

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:20:00 +0000

Man this term is tough. I have work due on Friday and more due the next Friday so I know I'll be busy the next few days. I'm here racking my brain for ideas of what to write that wont take me too much time. I have some ideas that will take me hours because I need to research pictures etc. Instead, I though I'd give you all some tidbits of whats happening in my life. Sound bites which can be used against me when I'm all famous.

- I'm re-learning how to flirt! Talking to some boys in my class I was saying how pathetic they are. They see a cute girl then sort of glance at her, but if she doesn't make a move, they sit still. And these are the young-uns! And then they complain about lack of sex. So I'm brushing up on techniques and becoming quite successful, at least until the talking and getting interested& phone number stage! hahaha. My technique is so far, just smiling. Might need some extra work. I also have to direct my smile properly, all these cuties are at most 22 years old!! I don't think I can do it.

- I missed most of the great winter sales and now of course it got colder here. Ugh the wind and humidity really bite into you. I wanted a nice coat and ended up with 50 -75% off boots and trousers for the formula one gig. A friend from school lent me a lovely coat of hers one night. something that would cost about 1000 pounds she said. Must get sugar-daddy soon!

- On a similar note. Do you know what a WAG is? I think it stands for Wives And Girlfriends, but its basically all the wives of football players here in London. They all basically look and dress the same, have poor taste in clothes but lots of money, so all they do is shop. Was discussing with friends if the wife of a Formula One driver would be a WAG?! And was wondering if I would have to learn how to dress like one. Heehee

So they sort of look like this:

- One of the young, pathetic, but cute boys in my class, said he would introduce me to his dad, who is definitely the sugar-daddy type. He said he would love me for a step-mother!! I said we could all be a happy family, his dad, my sugar-daddy and he, my boy-toy! Lovely! now others are jealous and they all want to introduce their dads to me!

- There's a girl in class who keeps falling asleep. Its not unusual, there are others. But 1) this is in morning lectures and 2) she's the type of person who almost falls off her chair when she nods off (her head and upper body lean over, then her head bobs to the left... then bobs to the right.. then bobs to the left.. until she almost falls over at which point you might think she wakes up, but she doesnt really) and 3) she's taken to sitting right in front of the lecturer. Perhaps this last point is because she wants to stay awake, but it doesn't work and it's really embarrassing! I feel so bad. Some of the lectures are actually really interesting, and there she is bobbing right and left obviously asleep. I keep kicking at her under her chair, but no use. ALthough truely.. people text, talk, sleep...

- My new "bosses" are very sweet. There's a lot to do at their gallery and I'm going to be doing some advanced stuff for no pay, but its worth it while I don't get another internship. I organized all their files and will contruct a data-base for them. I'm also researching marketing and media resources as well as manning the gallery desk whenever they need me too.. usually on Friday afternoons and Saturdays.

- The types that come into the gallery are pretty funny. Last Saturday a big, older black guy with drealocks came in with his adult daughter. While she was rolling her eyes and looked like she couldn't wait to get out of there, he was explaining that he thought he could paint just like the artist and that he thought he could probably make some money doing that sort of thing. I had nothing to do, so I indulged him. I said he should go after it.. take a painting course, go after his dream! Hope he does.

- I, on the other had, have had little time or space to paint. Oooops.

Excuses, excuses!

New Term!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 02:02:00 +0000

OK So this term I will try to do better about posting!

I spent X-mas and New Years at home, which was wonderful. It felt very comfortable to be at home, but being there felt like being stuck. I postponed my trip back to England a few days because I wasn't feeling so well and wanted to see friends who were in Sao Paulo, but when I did finally arrive in London, it felt good. Being here seems to feel like moving forward.

Lots of work this term! We have a huge research project where we basically have to curate an art show. I'm still in doubt about what my topic will be, but I'll have to make a decision soon. Got another A in my last paper! YAY!

Because of my good grades and apparently because the teachers all like me, they've decided to help me on my way to entering this art market. The first step in that direction is getting a few internships and work experience in galleries.

So last week I get an e-mail from one of my lecturers saying a gallery in the East end needs help on Wednesday (an opening) and a few Saturdays, would I be interested? Of course! Turns out I spent most of Wednesday cleaning windows, packing beer and ice into big barrels, and generally setting things up for the party! Great talents!! First time I'm using something I learned in college! heehee

Anyway, its a start and I guess starting from the beginning really means starting from the beginning. There's a lot to do there, so I'll soon be wriggling my into doing their IT and marketing stuff.

Later that same Wednesday, I met up with Carin, who was in town for work and wanted to take her poor student friend for a meal on her expense account. The gallery was near Jamie Oliver's restaurant Fifteen and that's where we went to dinner. We ended up at the Trattoria, not the main restaurant, for which you really need a reservation. The Trattoria maintains about half their tables free for walk-ins, so if you can wait ( they serve cocktails and bread with olive-oil at the bar), you'll get a table. The food was great and surprisingly inexpensive. I've eaten such bad food here at absurd prices. It was great to finally find something delicious but priced right. I had the eggplant parmegian because I wanted to see if it was good as the one mummy and I make from his cook book. Almost! hehehe.

Carin had the Nhoque with Ossobucco sauce and we shared some green beans with garlic and chile... yummmmm! Very recommended! Thanks Carin!

This year is going to be exciting!!!

Here are some pics of the X-mas break:

Timmy.. ahem The Flash!... and Nicki meet me at Guarulhos. I have no luggage since KLM lost it again. I got lots of hugs and kisses and then we saw Santa, just sitting there.

Picture Timmy took of me.

Que delícia de leite condensado!!

X-mas shopping and being silly

Matthew wants some of mummy's b-day cake!

I want to see more high-street art!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 23:57:00 +0000

I'm sure this has all been thought out before and I may even be completely mistaken, naive, consciously overlooking status quo's or just delusional. I will probably cringe when I read this over in a few years, but it's all a little new to me, so I write it down to clear it up in my head and see what you all think. Anyway, its for you guys.. all friends and family, so what the heck.

Trying to make a career with something as high-brow as art seems to force us to make a choice between idealistic values and market values. You might make that statement for any industry really, (I used to say working with consulting was corrupting my morals!) but it seems to be more of a big deal in art.

In the afternoons, we have lectures by artists, gallery owners and workers, auction-house people and collectors. These all seem to fall into two distinct groups: those working towards an ideal of Art (note the capital A! Or art for arts sake) and those, more realistic, making a living out of it, while keeping it a luxury product. They’ll sometimes mix up just to make things interesting: a commercial gallery completely devoted to the ideal of art, not at all interested in money (yeah right!) but selling pieces of graffitied walls for 200 thousand pounds. But they would still care for and pay the artists even if they didn't sell. I wanted to ask the lecturer… “But this is a business, right?”

The way they lecture sometimes implies that we’re should make our choice right away and of course, one is somewhat critical and prejudiced of the other, despite one side being completely dependant on the other. So you might have a gallery owner or artist who believes that: all art should be cheap/doesn’t care if money is made/ makes art for the sake of it/follows art movements because of the evolution of art. And you have the money-makers who consider art (specially today) a commodity, influenced by laws of demand and supply, creating secondary markets, indexes and even futures and Hedge-funds!

I'm slowly understanding that the term “secondary market” (i.e. the auction houses) might be a dirty word to a huge part of this industry. Certain galleries will refuse to sell to an investor if his last purchase was turned around on the secondary market too fast. On the one hand, yes, it may affect the value of the work of that artist, who the gallery usually tries to protect. What if it values on the secondary market? Well you don’t get too many people complaining. But the idealists don’t like the idea that the art is subject to market forces to the extent that it is, one way or the other. There’s a really fine balance to maintain an artist’s value, something which seems to take a long time to learn, according to a Christie’s director. Everyone is supposedly against predatory investments of course, but it will always exist, specially when products value so much in so short a time. And, come now... who's complaining?

Anyway, so you have these absurdly idealistic artists and dealers creating and investing in extremely high-brow and conceptual art. And yes, the contemporary art that sells these days is the stuff to which the majority of the population goes “huh?”. It’s the stuff that your 2-year-old could do, or is really gross, or makes no sense, or seems to be more architecture/industry/porn/garbage than art. This art is not for Joe Shmoe. You have to be highly educated and have lots of time to even begin to think about what it all means as well as the time to study it. This art needs studying. Anything past Cubism and to 'get it' you need to 'get' philosophy, pyschology, socio-politics and Nietzsche knows what else.

So by investing in this type of art and so determining that this is the type of art which is worth investment, they're limiting those who would have access to contemporary 'good' art in general. Hmmm, isn’t that at least as, if not more, elitist than say, being able to resell a painting for a few thousand dollars?

Art this elitist seems contradictory to their ideal of art for all & for the sake of art. Take a look at this cool research by Komar and Melamid, which constructed an art-work based on several general features and elements of paintings. The characteristics or elements of a painting most wanted by the average person (in several countries) are completely opposite of what thrills the art world. On the left is the painting that contains all the features most wanted by the public in the US.

Yeah. Ugh. BUT! The cool thing is to see the least wanted painting. This one here:

Looks like something you did in Kindergarten? People want stuff they can understand. Art they don't have to think about too much. They want to be entertained. Could there be any doubt after Hollywood and Nirvana?

That’s why I've been saying: LET it become a consumer product. That’s the world we live in. Someone asked me if I think then that everyone should have a Louis Vuitton handbag. No. There will always be true LV handbags for those who can buy them, and dozens of copies and rip-offs for less. The reason there’s a market for the copies and rip-offs is that Joanna Shmoe sees some celebrity’s handbag and wants one just like it. How do we do the same thing with art? We already have celebrities buying the stuff. Angelina Jolie just spent 1 million dollars or so on a Banksy (street graffiti artist). Now we need the easily accessible copies, rip-offs, or less expensive versions. We need Rock-n-Roll art... well, you could argue that Pop Art is Rock-n-Roll art. Well, we need more of it.. at better prices, on High Street.

And so it seems to be... a return to Pop-art, Art-nouveau, neo-realism... all the stuff you don't need to think about too much to enjoy. There's nothing wrong with that, right? Then, general public buys art, art values as a whole, it gets taught again in schools, artists make more money... snowball effect! Too far? Ok.

I know one of me professors would kick me out of class if I told him this stuff! hehehe The others might give me a wink.

A beautiful Autumn day in the park...

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 17:59:00 +0000

... nursing a hang-over.

It's all just our brains playing with light wave-lengths but is sure is 'purty':

1st post for Timmy, Nicki and Matt

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:08:00 +0000

Hi Boys!

This post is for you!

Where is Kiai-kiai?

Kiai-kiai is in London.

London is a big city. It is colder here than in Sao Paulo so I have to wear coats and mittens and a hat.

In London the buses are red and the taxis are black. Kiai-kiai will sometimes take the bus to school. I sit on the top floor of the bus so I can see everyone from above.

In London, even the bicycles have their own roads. See in the picture? The green little road with the bicycle drawing on it, is just for bicycles and no cars or buses or people can go on them. The cars have their own road and if you're walking you can use the sidewalk.

This is where the queen lives. It's called Buckingham Palace. Can you see how many windows there are? It's a very BIG house!

This is one of the Queen's guards. He stands outside the palace making sure nobody sneeks in to see the dragon! Do you think there's a dragon in there????

Well, there are two books in the post flying over to both Timmy and Nicki.

One is from Noddy to Nicki since he went to the potty so well. Muito bem Nicki!!! Says Noddy.

The other is for Timmy. It's about Sir Stinky Socks and a really big adventure. It has a dragon in it. Now that you can read, maybe you can read the book and tell me how I can be friends with the dragon inside the queen's castle, OK?

Oops! There he is!

I love you boys!!

Venice Bienale

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:10:00 +0000

Ciao amici! Sono stanca!

The trip to Venice was a whirlwind. We were marched around at top speed (something almost impossible in narrow, cobble-stone streets and tourist-filled vaporetti) fueled by icky croissants, soggy sandwiches and at night, mega-expensive experimental Italian cuisine. Oh, and Bellini's of course!

Our hotel could not be further away from the Biennale without going off the main islands. So it took us about an hour each way to get there and back to hotel. Ugh! Wet, cold weather! The always positive Brazilian here actually packed a bikini! Yes, got some laughs from that one. You never, know, right?

We figured out that they bought us a ticket from Stanstead Airport (45 mins from London by train) to Treviso airport (1 hour from Venice by bus) as a team-building exercise! But it was a good trip overall. We got to see the main pavilions as well as the Peggy Guggenheim Museum and the Palazzo Grassi , which is the property of Christie’s owner, François Pernault, yes he of Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Samsonite, etc… Apparently there’s an internship to be awarded to a Christie’s student at the end of each year at the palazzo. We were all excited hoping that maybe as an intern we might get some Gucci shoes and lovely handbags. Yeah right!

Anyway, I have my essay to write, so I’ll just post a few pics with commentaries here. Nobody has the patience for all the art we saw anyway!

Ashton (tall guy on left, US), Surya (S. Korea), Ming (Singapore) and Conor (Canada-by-way-of-Ireland), following their Italian-speaking guide... me!

Yes we actually had a few hours of clear sky. Just had to take apicture of this beautiful house. If i get the internship, this is where I'll live with my Gucci shoes and LV hand-bags.

Now for some art: This was by Polish artist Monika Sosnowska. Difficult to see in the pic, but she forced the pre-fabricated metal frame of a typical communist, 70's-style building into Poland's (somewhat) classical pavillion. The metal is all bent and twisted so that it could fit in the pavillion. Cool statement on the changes in architectual tastes and the destruction needed to transform old fashions and trends into new ones.
The thing looks like the skeleton for Cindarella's carriage and i found myself singing, "Bibbledee-bobbledee-doo...."

Off to have a nice dinner after days of eating horrible croissants and soggy sandwhiches. Me, Conor (Canadian) and Margret (Norwegian). Conor is hilarious and Margret has one of the most original laughs I've ever heard. Conor has his rich-playboy look on. We were in a water taxi to go to the restaurant because we got dressed up. They charged the nine of us 10 Euros each to go about 10 minutes down the canal. It was like a limousine, though. Fun.

Also in Limo: Ricardo (Mexico), Paula (Puerto Rico), Mehgan (US). The dinner came out to about 100 euros per person! And I ended up trying out a venice menu which served... get this: veal gristle in onions and garlic. Gristle. know what Gristle is? You know the tendons and stuff between the bones and the joints and muscles that we usually spit out? That's gristle. Uck. Second course: spaghetti with anchovie sauce - half a packet of salt in it. Next! At least the wine and the tiramissu were good.

Nicole (Left, US) and Anna (Greece). Esta aí da direita é a esticadona. Ela é toda fake. A Nicole é filha de um dono de galeria em New York e fica totalmente bêbada com super facilidade. Meio irritante.

More Art: French Pavillion, artist Sophie Calle. She received a (real) letter from her boyfriend telling her it was over... same existential crap as always. At the end of the letter, he writes, "Take Care of Yourself." - the title of the piece. What does she do to take care of herself? She sends the letter to over 100 women asking them to interpret, translate, understand, use the letter as they see fit.. doing whatever they like to it. She sent it to all sorts of different professionals as well as her mother, a tarot-reader, etc... So you have literature teachers deconstructing it and correcting its grammar, you have a clown making jokes of the words, you have a historian analysing it in terms of history, you have a musician play it and so on, and so on... It's hilarious! Very well done and I for one identified with it instantly. Very cool. First piece of installation art I can really understand.

Projeto Morrinho. Um grupo de meninos das favelas cariocas que recriam as favelas nos mínimos detalhes em miniatura, feito de tijolos pintados, garrafinhas e tampas. tem até campo de futebol, olha! Isto tem mais ou menos uns 2 metros de altura, para ter uma idea. Apareceu também na Bienal de São Paulo no ano passado.. aliás muitas coisas brasileiras foram repetidas.

Ricardo and me over a canal. Ricardo is such a figura. He belongs on Gay eye for the straight guy or something.

Last one: Iran do Espirito Santo, Brasil. There quite a few Brazilians in the Biennale and much better pieces than this one, but I didn't take pics. This was OK. Somewhat cool to see the disappearing wall reflected in granite that looked as if it had crashed.

Awwww, just like students!! We sit on the floor waiting for the Ryanair plane in Treviso airport. I think we spent more on the trains, buses and checked baggage fee (yes we had to pay to check luggage) than Christie's did for the whole trip.

Boozy Brits and Night Buses

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:52:00 +0000

I like to tell people that I feel very safe here. It's like a weight has been lifted and I have relaxed. It didn't happen at once. Seeing people fall asleep with their bags open on the underground would astound me at first. But, slowly and cautiously, I seem to have let my guard down and at some time in the past few weeks I relaxed completely about security. My bag hangs down open. I will walk an empty street at night. I don't double-lock my doors at night anymore.

Several things have helped me get that relaxed. The first of course is that every inch of the centre of London is monitored by CCTV. There are signs everywhere warning us that we're on candid camera. And when there is crime (usually outside the city centre), there is footage of it and people get caught.
But other, not so obvious, things may even have a greater hand in it. The most surprising of these to me, is that London is a 24 X 7 party capital!

When I say I'm Brazilian people always look at me with envy and awe in their faces and ask about all the partying Brazilians do. Since this appears to be something to boast about, I'm not going to contradict them but the amount of late-night action going on in the Soho, Covent Garden, Oxford Street triangle, is on par with Carnaval on any day. And we're talking about every night here! Well, maybe not Mondays.

It's incredible! No matter how late, there are always people wandering, stumbling or not making their way home. Lots of people. I can walk the 15 or so minutes from Soho feeling like its mid-afternoon, except of course that the crowds tend to weave a little and may sometimes be a wee bit louder too.

Buses are the same way. There are the infamous night buses here in London, which run the regular main routes after midnight. There have been night bus survival guides published in the newspapers, love stories have sprung from night buses and several regulars have Night-bus buddies, which always seem to be going home with them at 5 am every Thursday, Friday, Saturday... But the buses are packed. They might be gross -- you have a lot of people still learning to drink, and all the problems that rise with that, -- but they are safe. And if any guy comes up to bother you, they're usually so drunk, they're quite harmless.

And of course the main reason all this happens is because Holy Crap these people drink! I can't keep up and I've stopped trying, at the risk of committing a huge faux pas.

Sometime in the not-so-distant past, some idiot created "rounds". Rounds are pure evil disguised as being friendly. It works like this: A group of about 5 of us go to a pub. One person will offer to pay and get everyone's drinks. Then as soon as one of the five has finished, he or she will do the same for the rest, and so on... until everyone has paid a round for all five ... and then you start again.
So, you're always drinking at the pace of the fastest drinkers AND you always accept a drink, because that way, everyone pays the same.. more or less. If you refuse a drink, it makes you look cheap, because then people will think you're trying to get out of paying their drink. UGH!!!

No wonder there are all these completely shit-faced people everywhere. The larger the group, the more you drink! Everyone has to pay their round. If you go out in 7 people, you're going to drink 7 drinks! On top of it all, drinks are relatively cheap. A pint of beer is notoriously expensive at the equivalent of 5 dollars. But a gin and tonic is just about the same price! So is a coke. Doesn't make sense, right? So, if the intent is to party, young people are going to spend their 3 pounds on scotch and gin, rather than a larger or wine. More bang for your buck.

The BBC is going to air a series, along the lines of Super-size Me (the fast-food documentary), following a 30-something drinking as much as her 20-something friends, every night for a month. Apparently that equals an average of (each girl, per night!) 5 glasses of wine, 3 Smirnoff Ice-type drinks, 4 shots of tequila, 2-3 pints of larger followed by 2 or 3 mixed drinks like gin and tonics or rum and coke. She says she aged 10 years during those 30 days.

So... at the risk of seeming cheap and rude, I declined an offer for someone to pay a round last Saturday. I did, however, offer to buy them something later on... which they declined. Ooops. Just blame the Brazilian... she has no idea what she's doing. But at least she looks good!!!

School

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:02:00 +0000

Oooh, I haven't been good about this. So sorry everyone!

Anyway, school.

The course is incredibly exciting. I am constantly amazed at the connections going on in my head and quite proud, actually, of how much I already know. The fact that I have a little experience in the practice of painting helps a lot. I'm always the one to know which technique was used and even how the artist started or constructed his work. Also, being here makes things so much easier because of the number of museums and exhibits going on. Its impossible to go to all of them. Books are easy to find too, so if I'm suddenly interested in a subject, I can quickly read up on it.

There are 24 of us in the Diploma course and there are another 20 or so Masters students who share morning lectures with us. I'd say about half the class is made up of British, Americans or Canadians. There are quite a few people from Russia and France (you'd think Paris would have a better program than Christies, but apparently not) and the rest from places like Mexico, Japan, Singapore, Greece, Switzerland and Italy. And of course, me, the Brazilian. There is another Brazilian somewhere in another course, Fine and Decorative Arts, I think, but I haven't been able to find her yet.

The course director, Lizzie is absolutely awesome. She has curated and worked at the National Gallery in London and Tate Modern. She is the type of person who captures your attention from the start and keeps you completely focused and interested during a 2-hour lecture. She's very passionate about everything she says and provides great feedback on points you make.

The other two main lecturers are... mmm, so-so. One seems to have never taken a public speaking class and Ummms and Ahhhhhs through-out the whole lecture taking forever to make his point and leaves off the end of sentences so you never really know where he's going. The people who don't speak English that well have a really hard time understanding him.

The guest teacher, an American, has another type of problem. He talks around his point, never making it completely clear, using long words and difficult terms when he could be more concise. He also goes into philosophy a lot but fails to define terms so one of the first things he says is that human nature is constantly changing. Of course half the class loudly disagreed with him. The point was completely lost, while everyone debated this and it didn't even really contribute with what he was trying to convey anyway. And all through this some students are furiously scribbling in their notebooks, trying to keep up, while others are looking around, waiting for the goal of this discussion to make itself clear.

If there's one thing we are learning from these last two, is how NOT to talk about art! But, it's still all good. And so far Lizzie is the one who has been giving us the majority of lectures.

In the afternoons, we usually have visits to galleries, museums and guest lecturers like Christies employees, specialists, artists and gallery owners. These are usually really interesting and always touch both on academic history of art points and the direction of the art market.

Today we went to the pre-sale viewings for two of Christie's sales. One of the people who took us around was a collector and Christie's alumni. There is always a focus on market, prices and the different types of investors, collectors and what the market is doing. Speculation seems to be a dirty word for most, but there have been one or two more realist speakers who have taken it for what it is. Art is being consumed. There is also a lot of talk about the bubble bursting but we've been told that the warnings have been going on for years. The collector we chatted to this afternoon said that from his conversations with gallery owners, the market does not seem to be slowing down that much.

Anyway, my first project is something called an Object Analysis. We have to chose a work of art, from 1860 to 1905 and describe it in a very particular way. There is a series of questions that have to be answered and to answer them, we have to research the artist, the subject, the time, the medium, the art-dealer, the museum... everything very deeply. I'm loving it. I chose a Degas... mostly because it was in an odd place: the V&A.

This one:

The ballet scene from Meyerbeer's opera 'Robert le Diable', 1876
Presently in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Bequethed by Constantine Ionides in 1901.

I'll post my essay when it's done, but, for now... it's so interesting to do this! I have to discover why it was painted, who it was sold to, for how much, how was it sold, who bought it afterwards, how did it get to where it is now, its path through history. I also have to imagine who saw it at the time, what were they thinking, who is in it, why was it important, who looks at it now, what was written about it at several times through history, etc....

To research all this, I use several libraries and look at old gallery and museum catalogues, newspaper articles, art critic essays, monographs, all sorts of stuff. The final product will be a 2000 word essay with end-notes and bibliography.

It's odd that the Robert Le Diable is in the V&A, because the V&A museum is basically a student's museum, which houses examples of design for objects and home furnishings. It was a museum originally intended for the instruction of trade and artisinal craft. You can't learn how to paint a Degas just by looking at it, so it's strange that a painting should be there. All this goes into my essay too because there is a whole story of why the painting is in the V&A and why it has stayed there for over a century. Which you shall learn later on. * cue discovery-channel/twilight zone music*

Next Wednesday I'm off to Venice! I'll try to borrow a camera to take pics and tell you all about that. Tomorrow I spend the afternoon at the Frieze Art fair, which is this mammoth of an event for contemporary art. The same collector we met today will be leading us through it showing us what he thinks are good investments and why certain pieces are there. As my friend Connor said, we better make some money between today and tomorrow so we can out-bid him!

1st list of fun/cool places to visit while at Sandy's

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 14:15:00 +0000

Well, since Pedrinho will be visiting me soon and I just have to know ALL the cool places to take him and anyone else who would like to spend some time on my sofa-bed, I'll start the whole cool places to go to while at Sandy's list

First on my list will have to be Russell Square which is almost opposite my building.

It's actually the largest square in London, as Anna so trivially informed me, and not, as commonly thought, Trafalgar Square.

There's a lovely little café owned by Italians in it where you can order coffee or panini or even a full lasanga. Watch out for the pigeons though. They will actually hop onto your table and try to eat some of your food! When it was still warm, I would sit on the grass and read or draw while eating a sandwich for lunch. A few weeks ago the temps actually peaked at 20-odd degrees and there were toddlers in their diapers playing in the fountain, which is in the middle of the square, pictured above.

For shopping and grabbing a quick bite to eat, nothing closer than The Brunswick Centre. Apprently until a year or so ago, it was an ugly residential monster with horrible little stores below. They've transformed it into an open-air shopping centre. There are some cool high-street stores and a few fast-food restaurants as well as the local Waitrose.

Very cool place: Sketch Restaurant, 9 Conduit Street, London.

Several different areas inside, offering bars, restaurants, tea room and art gallery. Decoration and ambience is very funky, service is friendly and intimate. This is one of the places I hope to be working soon. People differ about the quality of food. So far I've only been for tea.

Other cool place where I'm hoping to work: The Hospital, 24, Endell Street, Covent Garden. Misture of Member's Club, art gallery, events venue and bar/restaurant. I went there with Anna on my second day here to see a Bansky and Warhol show. They had an open day last week to interview potential employees. Hopefully they'll call me back to do some hostessing or receptionist work.

Went with David last night: Moti Mahal. Some very good and varied Indian food. http://www.motimahal-uk.com/

There was, unfortunately, a couple arguing outside really loudly. The man was being an idiot and then continued the fight when they came in! It was like a novela!

I had the Tawey ka Chippa MurghPan - fried guinea fowl supreme stuffed with baby spinach and chestnuts served on brown onion and poppy seed curry. Really Yummy! Thanx David!!!

And while we're on the subject: Covent Garden. Lots of great shopping, bars, cafés.. you could walk around here all day... specially around the Seven Dials area and Neals Street, pictured left.

Oxford Street and Regent Street. I can walk here in about 15-20 mins even though I try not to. It is craziness in terms of how many people are around walking and how many people you have to dodge - specially if its raining! But, good place for a shopping day. If near Selfridges at lunch, have a bite in the Mossarella Bar... absolutely wonderful. There are also lots of great restaurants with tables outside in the streets behind Selfridges.

I still have to find a good meat place! Pedrinho will want meat!

beijos!

My um... saddle is sore

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 21:23:00 +0000

I went, I saw, I cycled, I sore.

I did over 20-odd kilometres today. It was Freewheel Day, where London closes off roads downtown and you can cycle all over looking at landmarks and stuff. At the end there's a free piknic and shows and bike circus, etc...

So two days ago I got my packet with this bib, bell to put on bike and map. Today we met up with some friends of Anna's at Waterloo and then biked to the center. It was a blast. Anna took some pics. There were over 30 thousand bikers out there!

Lots of fun, but I'm in so much trouble for the next few days. Ouch!

Me on the Thames bank... you can see the London eye & South Bank behind me.

Me with my huge breast implant.

Anna's friend Jonathan. Lots of fun.

Me riding Anna's reserve bike. The reason you can't see the seat is because its lodged up... Ouch.

Bike acrobatics in front of some palace or house... have to look it up. They probably have nice bouncy seats.

I look less tired than Johnathan does! Ha! and he's a regular biker.

Anna and me at the finish line.

Thats me thinking of a nice warm bath to soak my bum-bum in. Unfortunately I had another 8 KM to go. hehehe. Bjs!

Preciso de opini'oes

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:18:00 +0000

Thanks for the opinions guys!!!

Here is Kiai-kiai na piscina, as per Nicki.