portugal – Page 25 – Citizen Reporter

Turkey Day Marathon

Round these parts Turkey Day doesn’t mean much, and I’m quite used to it. Hell, I’m a card carrying European, so this shit is normal for me. But alas, as my m?ezinha reminded me this afternoon, this holiday is part of my culture.

So on that note, I bring you – yet another list – stuff I praise the golden calf for bringing this earth:

– Amsterdam, the city she loves me, celebrating our third bird together.

– My family, in Portugal, Brussels, and especially Jersey, who called to say they miss me, and the entire office knew it was a mom conversation even though they couldn’t understand the Portuguese.

– Shirtsleaves in Rome, who sent me a kickass veggie-lasagne recipe for my 1-day late celebration tomorrow night.

– XTX, cause I heart her alot, and she’s the best dam wingwoman on the blogosphere.

– Ukrainian Demonstrators, for showing the world that they can brave harsh weather and fatigue and demand some real democracy instead of the bullshit they’re handed.

– The internets, cause they have taught me more about who I am and what I’m capable of.

– Tony Pierce, who’s ass just published a book, and of course, I have ordered it.

– Ethiopia, for accepting the border/peace agreement with Eritrea, thereby ensuring my future visit.

– Ms. Thingk, who I’m happy to be cooking with on this holiday.

– Brian of the StateImin, Jamie of the Known U, and all the bloggers I’ve gotten to know in the past year, my blog-neighbors who I look forward to living next door to for years to come.

– My boys in Portugal, the craziest and best support group a guy can have.

– Marty McFly in Stockholm, for teaching me Din n?sa ?r som ett wedge ost, dina ?gon som choclat chips.* which is all I will say to charm Swedish ladies.

– The D-Rock

– All ye blogreaders, you’re good folk and I hope you enjoy.

Oof I just left off a ton of people that deserve to be on here. ~wink wink~ and and lest I not forget you over there, ^wink wink^.

There, now everyone feels included, and no one hates me. Except the pope, but he’s grumpy all the time.

* You nose is like a wedge of cheese, your eyes are like chocolate chips.

Today’s Sounds: RFI – A l? une

And I feel fine

What will the end of the world look like? I mean.. the initial day, if you look at the sky, what color and things will you see?

What I love about this city is that there is always at least one day in the week where I wake up, look outside, see giant baseballs of hale, black angry clouds, and a junky flying away on a broom, and I think: Yeah… could be today. And then I go grab a bowl of Fruit and Fiber and a banana. Cause shit, I want to start off end of the world day with a healthy breakfast.

As I was cooking my specialty last night, in honor of Jamie’s last night, we were talking about forms of government. The Netherlands is a type of constitutional monarchy, like the UK, and so the Royals handle most of the symbolic handshakes and ribbon cutting. Plus they keep the tabloids in business. On the other hand, I’m a fan of the republic system, as in Portugal, where the president is mostly symbolic and runs around like he’s everyone’s dad. Thus leaving the PM to be the national asshole; yelling in Parliament (toiletpaper… toiletpaper in our time!) and on executive decisions. We both agreed that the US system, despite being a type if republic, is a drag. The pres has to make all the photo ops and empty speeches, while presumably also handling the bill signing and vetoing, etc. In the end, spending more time on one or the other, how can he/she be good at either one? They can’t. It would nicer, at the very least, if the VP handled the executive tasks, while the pres ran around kissing babies and foreign leaders. Considering the current duo in the white house, this might -unfortunately- already be the case.

Anyhoo… there goes Jamie, off to NYC via Munich, and I didn’t even get a photo of us together. Oooh photos, have I mentioned how much I love Flickr? Mostly thanks to Jill/txt I’m spending alot of time fiddling with FLickr, and I recommend it to all of you. (how bout that photobox in my left tab, nice eh?)

Today’s Sounds: Howard Stern on WJFK (DC)

BM VS Theworld

Today's post littered with photos from Y2K Europe

Like any human on an extremely small budget, centrally located on the continent of Europe, I do love to travel, and travel cheaply. Yet being the part-time king, I haven’t traveled much in the past years. So today as I browsed the travel section of the V&D I made a radical yet non-binding decision: I WILL TRAVEL MORE. Nevermind the money, nevermind the time schedule, forget all of that – Bicyclemark is steppin out!

Today I purchased a Routard guide to Sweden, thin little sucker for such a vast country. It will be my first stop, to see Stockholm and my great friend Marty McFly and his girlfriend comic-book girl. But that won’t be my only stop, over the next four years these are my top five destinations:

Sweden/Norway; ladies, snow, friends, need I say more?

Ireland; cause Mr. English awaits, and Brian is moving there.

Cuba; because I can and I don’t want to miss it.

Libya; My good friend from the embassy in Portugal is being transferred back and will be my personal tour guide

Brazil and Argentina; Both as a Portuguese-Birthrite and part of my motorcycle diaries tour of South America.

Russia;(moscow, st. pete’s, because I’m obsessed with Russian history and Yakov Smirnov– “In soviet Russia, country travels to visit tourists.”

Furthermore I don’t want to do all this shit alone, necessarily, so who’s coming along? Claim the trip now, seats are limited.

I can’t blog straight today, enjoying the presence of NoCoins and Tawdryjones here at the ranch. Today we took on junkies, tomorrow – Belgium. Next week, the world.

Oh, and I bloscar award nominate xtx for her post on that show lost and other posts from yesterday. She has quickly become one of my new favorites.

Today’s Sounds: Wes Montgomery – Fingerpickin’

Dad at Breakfast

First thing I asked my mom when she called me from NJ yesterday, “Describe to me what my father is doing right now.” She laughed at said (in Portuguese):

“oh you know the scene, bowl of oatmeal. big cup of coffee with lots of milk, Star-Ledger News section to his left, cross-word puzzle to the right. He’s filled half of it in, and has gotten stuck. Of course, he’ll pick it up again later today and find more answers. No one has a breakfast that takes as long as your father’s.”

I was having fun listening to this. Obviously a simple and familiar scene, but for so many years of my life, I was right there to his right on a saturday morning. Swapping sections with him, and filling in all the popular culture and international politics clues. Dad’s department is always actors, music and movies from the old days, history, foreign languages (though I’ve caught up with him there). Sometimes we’d discuss the news, or dad would point to some guy in the paper and say “oh yeah, I remember this guy, he used to do this and that in Newark when I first came to the US.” And of course I’ll be right back there working on the crossword come Christmas time or whenever I go home to visit. Ah the memories.

Last night, over the finest Portuguese-style baked/roasted Swordfish, the Torontonienne and I discussed a related issue. When you come back to a place where you once lived, but you come as a visitor. We both kind of shuttered at the idea of returning to Amsterdam as visitors. Well into my third year living here, I have no desire to experience such a feeling. But I do get it whenever I return to Lisbon, Paterson, and then there’s Aix-en-Provence, where I once lived and haven’t been motivated enough to return since 2000. That whole feeling of, “this used to be my life, but that’s long gone,” is so often more bitter than sweet.

But of course, it can be fantastic, to remember. I take every chance I can get to go with my Dad to Murtosa(population: 1,364), in Portugal. He’ll stop at random places, point to a building or a lot, and suddenly start piecing together a memory. This is where the tailor lived, this is where the dairy was, this man moved to Canada, this man moved to the states and later died in Vietnam. The most stories come when we visit the cemetery. Dad is able to point to most headstones – those classic Portuguese white marble monstrosities with sepia photos of the people that are buried there – and he can tell you what that person used to do and what part of the world they immigrated to. In recent years, when he tells the stories, I try to memorize who is who, so that one day I can tell the stories as well. I can see it now, Bicyclemark’s guided tours of a small town Portuguese cemeteries. We might even do it on bike, since these places just keep expanding.

Less serious note, the Busblog Fantasy B-Ball draft is this evening, I need some advice on who to draft for my team: The Stoned Tourists. For now, I’m sticking with my “choose non-American players or New Jerseans” strategy. But I’m pretty sure that won’t work for long.

If you’re interested, Swordfish Recipe can be published in my next post.

Today’s Sounds: Midtown – Forget What you Know

Satellite Time

Whatever I intended to write about today has been completely preempted by one small click to XM Radio, where I found the first broadcast of Opie & Anthony. I was inspired to go check this after the countless blog reports about Stern going to XM. Though I’m not at all a Stern fan, I was a big O&A fan, and I have to admit, it’s fucking exciting to have these guys back on the air after two years of being black listed for holding a contest that encouraged sex in public, in places like.. say.. St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I can remember hearing that broadcast while I was working in Lisbon in 2002, I think I purposely chose a job where I started late so that I could stay up til 3am listening to NYC radio and programs like Ron & Fez. Fortunately R & F are still going strong in DC, and I still stay up all night listening.

Underneath it all, I’m just a big radio nerd, which actually goes back to the days when my family had a Portuguese-Community Radio show in Newark, NJ, called Voz de Portugal. It was broadcasted on WNYWK, on Sunday nights. Which I’m not sure still exists. I remember being 9 years old, and on Sundays my mom calling me into the basement recording studio my dad had built out of plywood and wall-to-wall carpeting. My brother and I shared the task of hosting the children’s show: “Jardim Infantil.” At the time I found it annoying, I wanted to play with my legos and watch sunday episodes of Abbott & Costello, not read Portuguese text and introduce songs about balloons, frogs or clowns. But looking back, that was the start of the strong bond between radio and I. (thanks internet!)Plus the coolest part was driving to Manhattan in the evening with my dad, to bring the reels to the station which seemed to be located at the tippy top of one of the tallest buildings in the city. We use to make bets as to which of the 6 elevators would arrive first, which involved a very scientific process of pressing your ear against the elevator doors.

Normally I hate linking to A-list bloggers who would never acknowledge my existence, but Dan Gillmor pointed out very simply, how weird Cheney’s lies were, the other night. The lying part is no surprise, it’s WHAT he lies about that is weird. And it’s just the icing on the cake to learn that he actual voted AGAINST a resolution to support the freeing of Nelson Mandela in 1986. True story! He claims that the ANC was viewed as a terrorist organization, which tells me this man is completely unqualified to identify who is or isn’t a terrorist.

Today’s Sounds: O & A on XM Radio

Blog Bonanza

I’ve been on a blog-reading/discovering RAMPAGE this weekend. In between cleaning, seeing some apartment way out west, having a drink with a friend visiting from Portugal, I have had this insatiable desire to read and find more and more blogs. It started with reading the Accordian Guy who lives in Toronto and is quite a household name for some circles. Then the Canada theme continues with Raymi, who I actually became curious about because of Bunny McIntosh and her whimsical interview with Raymi. BUT IT DOESN’T END THERE. Oh no… I re-discovered Patrik’s Sprawl, a PhD student somewhere in Sweden, no less. After a clicking around a Prisoner’s Blog, which is not written from prison, but in fact a blog consisting of letters from a prisoner, I read Bitch PHD, and then ended up at another one of those NYC blogs. Needless to say my eyes are tired, and I’m now thinking I must stop spending so much time reading these, and get into my new book “Post Office” by Charles Bukowski as recommended by one of his biggest fans at Busblog.

This reminds me of that explanation I’m always giving to people who ask me “Where do I find blogs?” The response goes something like this: “There are quite a few ways to find blogs, the most obvious is just to do a google search for certain topics or blogs, but a very common one is the BLOGROLL. Think if it as a bookshelf in someone’s house. When you go to visit someone, especially if it’s a friend or someone who’s taste or style you admire, you might look at the bookshelf to see what they are reading, and then proceed to seek those books yourself. A blogroll – or list of blogs – is similar. You like someone’s writing, so you think.. “hmmm.. let me look at what he/she/it reads. And so you may become a reader of those blogs as well, and it just snowballs from there. Trust me… I rolled one of those big cartoon snowballs this weekend and read all kinds of crap. Mostly entertaining crap, mind you.

Before I drop the subject… the reason I have time for this is largely due to bloglines. If you’re not using bloglines or some kind of news/blog/rss reader I highly recommend looking into it. Its the idea of new information, new posts, coming directly to YOU instead of the impossible task of taking the time to manually go to each URL and check if there’s anything new. I read my newspapers, check TV listings, read blogs, READ MY NEW COMMENTS, check the weather, all using bloglines. It even includes LiveJournals which is beautiful because of my many LJ friends and family who can now all be found in my (fed)blogroll.

It’s disappointing to be reminded of the lack of memory in mass media and politics. Not only are the same mistakes repeated (war, genocide, etc) but so often facts are simply forgotten. I’m referring, in this case, to Kofi Annan’s statement that the invasion of Iraq was illegal. Illegal because it was done without a UN resolution and therefore in violation of the UN Charter. Now this bit of info shouldn’t surprise anyone, because it was known even BACK THEN. Yet a year and a half later, Kofi says this and its news and some people are shocked. Of course it is and was illegal according to the UN charter, and as I love to mention.. the consistently disrespected but still technically in effect, Kellog-Briand Pact, which outlawed the use of war as a tool for doing anything.

At this point you mind be shouting “that’s your opinion.” And to some extent you’re right… but it is a LEGAL opinion based on my interpretation of international law. And I’m not alone.

Today’s Music: Jimmy Eat World – Clarity (cause they’re in town right now)