the dangers of a spectacular sunset

[asakiyume]

I set off at 3:30 to deliver cookies to those of my children who live within driving distance (the other two live a continent and an ocean away--a different continent and ocean depending on which direction you tackle the journey from). By 3:30 the light is already long, and by the time I was leaving from my first stop (4:10), the tips of the bare trees were already red from the setting sun.



It was a 30-minute journey south to the next stop, during which time the sky did such tantalizing things with pinks, purples, and golds that I was quite beside myself. "She was the kind of person for whom sunsets pose a driving hazard," said my internal narrator. Eyes on the road, Asakiyume!

Here's another song by Dona Onete, Lua Jaci--the beginning, when she's singing a cappella, is just beautiful, and the simple melancholy of the overall song really speaks to me right now.

The woman herself is quite wonderful. Here's the blurb about her and her 2017 album, Banzeiro, from Bandcamp:

Whether she’s championing gay rights, singing about the delights of indecent proposals or praising a former lover for his ‘crazy ways of making love’, Banzeiro is defined by Onete’s honest reflections on life, love and sex, as well as her delight in the everyday pleasures of life in the Amazon, whether that’s spicy seasoning, salty kisses or fishy-smelling water.

Formerly a history teacher, folklore researcher, union representative, culture secretary and children’s author - “I never thought I would be a singer” she claims - Onete recorded her debut album Feitiço Caboclo at 73. A cult figure in Brazil and an ambassador for Amazonian culture, the music she sings is a unique mix of rhythms from native Brazilians, African slaves and the Caribbean - epitomised in the joyous carimbós that are her trademark. (Source)

And here's a great quote from a 2019 piece in a Brazilian magazine:

Eu canto carimbó, bolero, rock. Faço o que eu quiser. Não sei o que desce na minha cabeça para fazer uma coisa assim... uma mulher da minha idade.
[I sing carimbó, bolero, rock. I do what I want. I don't know what gets into my head to make me do a thing like that ... a woman my age.] (Source)

Comments

[asakiyume]

Oh, no doubt.

When the bottom line is that someone doesn't like you, then whatever you do/are will provoke them. Are you quiet and unassuming? You're mousey, and they hate that. Are you gregarious and charming? You're grandstanding, and they hate that--and so on.

[amaebi]

'zactly.