The Importance of Grit

Obvious, and gritty.

Because The Candle Feeds The Flame

            In honor of these guys finally making it.
 

                Then in their own words and delivery.
                  .

        



          

Grittjokes: The Seventh One

- What did the chickpea say as he was being frantically and aggressively pushed around?

- "Hey, somehummus don´t like this!".

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Rate this joke.

1. You are a paste of pure delight.

2. You just made this chickpea (only for female readers).

3. Since you´re on the subject of middle-eastern food why don´t you take a shish kabob and (bleep, bleep, bleep).

4. Showering with a camel would have been less painful than reading this.

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And just to say  this wasn´t a complete waste of time.

On Sculpting a Saint

Awesome.

The Booty Call Song

Like Shooting Fish in a Barrel

         Nice little movie, great graphics, and man did it make me crave lobster.
      

Hell in a Bucket

Oh yeah, the dead.

In the Eye of the Beholder

John Berger´s excellent Ways of Seeing.

Thanks Lou

            Nobody like you.
            Rest in Peace.

           

Just Like Your Average Bicycle Ride . . .

        Nice vid all the same. More here.

If Only Carnival Featured This

       Academia Unidos do Yogi. Now that would be a Samba school.

         

       

Where Are They Now?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnekdahl/14-principled-anti-war-celebrities-we-fear-may-hav-a1x1



     And off to Syria we go.

Jean Tinguely

Awesome. And once married to the fascinating Niki de Saint Phalle.




The Stravinski Fountain, seen below, is a collaboration between Saint Phalle and Tinguely.

A Road Song

Originally from America, but performed by Fountains of Wayne below.

Exploded Views

From  Jim Campbell, the same artist behind "Scattered Lights" - a previous installation in Manhattan's Madison Square Park.

Well Done!

Spain basically gets her ass handed to her by Brazil in the Confederation Cup final. And the most impressive play wasn't even a goal. Congrats to the Brazilian team.

An Encounter of Sorts between Economic Logic and Dilma Rousseff

Yes Mrs. Rousseff: you really are that stupid.

        From "The Economist" (article can be read in its entirety here).

"ALMOST exactly 20 years ago, in May 1993, Fernando Henrique Cardoso was named as Brazil’s 13th finance minister in as many years, a seemingly hopeless job in a country trapped in hyperinflation, debt and an anachronistic economic statism. Mr Cardoso’s Real Plan swiftly tamed inflation and took him to the presidency. There he laid the foundations for a new Brazil, of stability and liberal economic reform. This success was reinforced by his successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a left-wing former union leader, whose government saw 30m Brazilians get out of poverty.

The trouble is that in Lula’s second term (2007-10) and especially under his chosen successor, Dilma Rousseff, the formula behind Brazil’s success has been slowly abandoned. The policy secret was simple: inflation targeting by a Central Bank operating with de facto independence; transparent public accounts; a rigorous fiscal target, which brought down the public debt; and a much more open attitude to foreign trade and private investment."

                                   

Modern Comedian

"Any comic can tell you that the funniest moments in a comedian’s life don’t occur onstage. They happen in the company of other comics: in the green room, at the hotel bar, in the car on the way to the gig. That is where spontaneous hilarity occurs most reliably, and those are the moments that sustain the work onstage. “Modern Comedian” is a look at those hidden side streets and private alleyways that feed into the grand boulevard that is Comedy as it is experienced by an Audience."

From this guy.

Biased, and Interesting

Yoga News

The best news, with Lauren Sivan .

Pages Made of Days of Open Hand

"I took your urgent whisper. . ." Love the melody, the lyrics and the visual genius of the video. I think this is one of the most under appreciated pieces of art in the past two decades.

The First Cut Won't Hurt At All

"From The Start"

Celebrating Sergiu Celibidache. Yeah, he looks weird; but just give it a chance and watch.

Time to Cash in on The World Cup

And watch the Swiss do just that with their Relógio Verde e Amarelo collection.

I  should develop the Gritty Pun Watch and make millions as well.

Lovely Words About Someone I Wouldn't Vote For

Still though, I do respect the guy.

"But I'm a Little Wiser Too"

..... Hello Mr. Grifith ..... Hello Mrs. Paige

On Why Nerds, and Everyone Else, Should Enjoy the Likes of John Cage

"1. We love discovering and understanding how things are put together. Classical music is a perfect genre for this – each piece is written in one of many basically standardized forms, sonata form, trios, rondos, theme and variations, and so on. However, these forms are stretched and contorted and copied and pasted into very different beasts by each composer. Understanding what they’ve done, and why, is a lot of fun."

More here.

"Yes You Am Are You"

Hepburn, and the Professor.

If I Stand all Alone will the Shadow Hide the Colors of My Heart; Blue for The Tears, Black for The Night Fears . . .

Holy VACow

  Chuck (in the English illustration on top)  is equivalent to Brazil's Acém - number 2 in the bottom Portuguese chart.

Gardening, Puns, and Sexual Innuendo

Courtesy of the Handy Goddess.

Then Along Comes a Woman

This is corny, and lovely (The Indiana Jones + Casablanca references may be obvious but sometimes what is obvious works so well).

So To Plant Some Sh..

Grittjokes: The Sixth One

- Why did Mr. Mamão Brasileiro move to a Spanish speaking country to marry and father children?

- He understood this is where one goes to become a Papai-ya.

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Rate this joke.

1. I love you.
2. Laughs were as bountiful as the seeds inside one of these babies.
3. I hate this fruit, and you as well now.
4. Finally a circumstance is revealed to me where lynching is morally acceptable.

Not Live! with Lauren and Bill

LOL.

Hannah

Grittjokes: The Fifth One

Why was the Brazilian windshield agonizing with depression and pain to the point of feeling dirty and suicidal?

He was missing his limpador (lim-pa-dor).
.

Happy St Valentine's Day

"Just like a child you make me smile when you care for me"

And Then Some More of The Breeders

Is it just me or are they pretty high?
Regardless: one of the best albums ever.

Just a Little Driving . . . on 9

 

 

First The Breeders

 

                                            and then the continuation.

                                          

Carnival . . . Gritty Style - The 1996 Performance.

Time for yet another timeless Carnival favorite: Prince's "I Wanna Be Your Lover". This was presented by world renowned samba school Unidos do Gritty during the 1996 Rio festivities. The theme that year was, well, Gritty. And the float was showered with glittering grits as Eskimo dancers performed a choreographed samba rooted in lapland folk footwork - featuring a topless Santa (obviously). Unfortunately all footage was lost so I'll leave you with the Purple One's version, which is almost as good.
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Just Stop For a Minute and . . . Smile

Look to your left, and to your right . . . definitely be safe out there; which does not have to keep you from considering the following words:

"We need to take you back in time, when music made us all unite".

So smile, and Feliz Carnaval.

And listen to my favorite Marchinha below. Yes, I know: you are too cool to actually imagine that a song by Jessie J could sum up the spirit of Carnival (oh blasphemy); but give it a chance.




Chee-chee-a-ching.

I think this is Nice

From artist Sheila Packa's book - described below.

cloud birds (2011)

Cloud Birds is a breathtaking flight through the western shoreline of Lake Superior north to the Iron Range of Minnesota. The poems are about bears, immigrants, bird migration, and women moving through violence. Chosen I came home to hear the great grey owl call into the early dark beyond the clearing over the growl and screech of an animal sheltered by fallen tree burrowed out of reach of talons and beak below the black tangle and pine spears above crystalline snow and moonlit drift a merciless hide and seek followed by inscrutable silence near and far the lift of dark wings into the old ash and gleam of star or flame with no in- or exhalation where wind hauls its ice and diamonds sift into the blue night.

Am I Tripping Son . . .?

This is just too good.

>>>> Glorious Life, I Thank You For Yet Another Year

And here's hoping 2013 is kind to all of us.



Happy New Year :-)