this isn't a real post but...

i miss snarkiness and the functionality of passive-aggression, at least as i know and am familiar with it.

that's all.

boa viagem

oi! este postagem é de nova cidade: salvador. tenho muitas coisas pra dizer, sobre meu tempo em fortaleza e commentarios sociais e meu tempo corto de recife e o significado de estar em salvador. não tenho mutio tempo agora mais estou em salvador, bahia e estou muito animada. pronto, vou a pesquiar meu trabalho independente.

que mais? estou contente. tudo bom. estou com suadade dos amigos americanos (de minha casas ambus leste e oeste).

mais logo. i am in an up mood and i hope it stays.

a few pix...

because i am too lazy to post social commentary.


praia do futuro, often called the best beach in fortaleza.

hammocks -- here, they are a way of life, used indoors and out. way comfy and space-efficient. (this picture was taken by laura, another person on my program, at the mst settlement.)


this is the view from a swank apt we hung out in. is this fortaleza or LA?
(btw, the mcdonald's pictured is totally shut down.)
this is frankie and me at the sand dunes on the east side of the city. dune jumping = best ev.

this is also at the mst settlement in the interior, also taken by laura. it is semi-arrid there, very dry and hot, unlike the semi-humid and hot weather in the city.

omg wasting time...

you should just read THIS post that liz wrote last year because it's still really on point. we went to the MST settlement this past weekend and liz nails it. (the whole movimento is so inspiring; people are living this, it's more than possibile.) plus also the stuff about school. not that i make it any easier for myself, spending hours upon hours on my lappy being lame and spoiled and majorly procrastinating with everything.

in other news, tomorrow is the first day of ceará music, which is touted as the largest music fest in south america. not brasil, south america. latin america, even. all different types of music -- rock (say: "hockey"), reggae (say: "heg-gee"), rap (say: "hap"), and forró (say: "fo-ho"). i would go, but my host brother can't afford it, so i feel weird going when he can't. plus i haven't really made the appropriate plans. i feel like i may be missing out though.

i'm kind of tired of fortaleza. either i wish we had more free time (well, tomorrow is a feriado [holiday] - dia das crianças [children's day]) or that i was in salvador already (and could settle into my blackness better). i'm beginning to kind of wish the program was structured differently (more like vicki's, perhaps). among other things.

anyways, i'm really behind in my work and am thirsty.
send me some love, please, any way you know how. miss you like you don't even know.

in top stories...

i'm pretty much the worst social justice student ever, or at least on this program (wait... the jury may still be out on that one, but whatever. who can judge?). while everyone else gasps and gets enraged over whatever is the current bbc headline, i spew obscenities regarding the latest episodes of whatever television programs i'm missing back home (wtf? sean's come back for emma? a drag race? oh, degrassi...). i'm also researching avril lavigne lyrics. this one's almost legit though -- we saw this dude at a concert (a hiphop concert, but whatev) wearing an avril lavigne shirt. the shirt had lyrics to an avril song called broken. i don't listen to avril lavigne (not since the sordid summer of sk8r boi), so i have no idea if this song really exists, as performed by our lady of punk rawk. the lyrics on this guy's shirt though are incredibly ironic and read as such (in english, mind you, NOT portuguese, which is not uncommon to find on clothing here):

"m broken, but no one knows
im just a poser, but ive brainwashed the world
no one will ever know how much of a poser i really am

CUZ IM PUNK! i really am, watch me strum my guitar
IM PUNK hear me roar! im gonna break my guitar
now watch me as i sing my song

i sit hear singing my wannabe punk songs
they are really popish songs but soon they will be punk
cuz im cool like that
cuz im such a punk rawker!

CUZ IM SEW PUNK! i really am watch me strum my guitar
IM PUNK HEAR ME ROAR im gonna break my guitar
now watch me as i sing my song

I used to be a country singer
a cheerleader popular gurl
i never really liked all this punk rawk stuff
but i wanted to break free and be cool and start trends

but its all good, cuz im just so punkie!"

interesting, no? did avril just go hella sarcastic on us, or did this poor brasilian dude get played? (alternatively, does he also dislike the faux-punk stylings of ms. lavigne? but i hear sarcasm doesn't really exist here, not as the youth of the US have embraced it.)

so i do a little googling, and i believe that "broken" is probably how lot of people refer the avril song "nobody's home" (which is nowhere near the self-mockery of the lyrics of the t-shirt i saw). but since most brazilians don't recognize the actual lyrics (not knowing english and all), they may purhcase this knock-off t-shirt with lyrics to a song that doesn't exist (but they think does, only it has a different name).

basically, this is all yet another episode of many of when globalization goes horribly wrong. avril lavigne = a product of the american powerhouse music idustry, sold to and appropriated by other less-moneyed countries, constituents of which then are unknowingly exploited (and some of whom also exploit other constituents) by knock-off products of the product to further participate in the harmful, unjust game of capitalism.

i still earn my social justice stripes after all. at least for being critical, i guess. in terms of practice, we're still all fucked and fucking within the system.

so, what else is new?
a new season of lost, is what. i miss jouissance for its own sake. jouissance in a language i entirely understand, that is, although any media-related pleasure i experience in portuguese ain't too bad either.

i should be working now, huh?

i hate email

but that has nothing to do with anything.

i was sick last week. not any "omg... foreign germs and diseases and diarrhea and whatnot." i had a cold. very average cold, like i get everywhere else in the world (or at least the us). i have a bit of a cough now. (cough = tossi)
what else?

went to a hip hop concert thing on saturday for this progressive hip hop group's 10th anniversary. the group is called MH20 (movimento hip hip organicao with a tail and a tilde). it was cool -- a block party of sorts with all kinds of people just milling around. before it started they were just playing music, and sometimes they would play american songs. the american song would say something like "put your hands up, put your hands up" and we'd be the only one with our hands up, being the only ones who understood the lyrics. right.

nothing much new otherwise. i know what i'm doing for my independent study project. i will be studying female grafiti artists who work within progressive hip hop movements and their communities in salvador.

i should be working and i can't think of anything to say. até logo.