“It’s been 3.5 years now that our long distance overseas relationship exists for Catarina and me. One beautiful spring night, on my recent trip to Coimbra, Portugal, we painted our hearts below the tree’s canopy that is in front of the entrance to her condo, and just below her bedroom balcony for her to see. We call it, “The Love Tree.”

Tell me this isn’t one of the cutest things you’ve ever seen?  Who knew ickle baby sea otters liked binkies?  There’s video, too.  Turn up your sound, about 45 seconds in his sister tries to dunk him and he squeaks and squawks at her, it’s adorable.

Matt Smith is so gloriously nerdy.  I’m sure he’s quite mad, and really I love him all the more for it.

Here’s some video of adorable ickle snow leopard cub Laila.  Turn your volume up, she SQUEAKS.

Alright, so who’s going to buy me a sloth for my birthday?  I need one.  Badly.

It’s a lovely venue, nestled in the Hollywood Hills just a little way down from the Griffith Observatory.  It’s an open air venue, and despite being right in the middle of Los Angeles, is surrounded by open woodland.  It was wonderfully tranquil, sitting in their little cafe under the paper lanterns and fairy lights, with a view of nothing but lush evergreens, listening to the birds before the concert.

We knew we wouldn’t have time to eat beforehand, so we ordered a nice little picnic basket dinner with a bottle of chilled white zinfandel, and while it was overpriced, it was also quite delicious.  After our second bottle of wine, we both agreed we’d had much worse and paid more for the pleasure.  I kept a tasty lemon cookie in my pocket for later, and nommed on it throughout the show.

Cae puts on a great show, and always plays in good venues.  There are a lot of brasilieros here in LA, and his fans are particularly dedicated, so most of the audience sang along with the songs.  I’ve only got the vaguest idea what most of his songs are about, but I sing along as well.  He’s very political, but the strange and wonderful thing about tropicalia is that it’s hopeful, uplifting. It’s a song to carry in your heart, even if the lyrics are about poverty and violence.

During the encore a lot of people left their seats, so I followed suit, and being both tiny and female, was able to squeeze right up to the stage.  The stage wasn’t that high, but still, he had to reach quite a way down.  Tiny girl hands with sparkly glitter polish always get touched.  *sigh*  He has soft, strong hands.

Everything about Caetano Veloso makes me happy.  He’s the father of a whole musical genre, but he’s still humble.  He’s very good to his band mates onstage, even though they’re quite young, they’re all highly skilled musicians, and he lets them shine.  It seems as if generosity of spirit comes easily to him.

Speaking of generosity, his new album “zii e zie” is online for listening in its entirety.  Check it out.  It’s edgy and like most of his work, is solidly grounded in rock and roll, but is also soothing and melodious.  I think you’ll like it.

Love rode 1500 miles on a grey
hound bus & climbed in my window
one night to surprise
both of us.
the pleasure of that sleepy
shock has lasted a decade
now or more because she is
always still doing it and I am
always still pleased. I do indeed like
aggressive women
who come half a continent
just for me; I am not saying that patience
is virtuous, Love
like anybody else, comes to those who
wait actively
and leave their windows open.

…well, this evening I finally saw something to top even that.  Anthony Bourdain, cracking and devouring a small mountain of shellfish, using nothing but his hands.

Now, this comes with a story.  Many years ago I had a French boyfriend, and said boyfriend and I sat down to a seafood dinner with Mint.  You should know that I love fresh shellfish with a passion unrivaled by any other foodstuff.  After watching me hand-crack and devour my own small mountain of shellfish, my boyfriend turned to Mint, saying, “If you want to know how a woman is in bed, watch her eat.”

Pirate Radio isn’t really a film about music, though the soundtrack is exquisitely chosen and ever present; it’s a film about people who love music…  It’s about how perfect life can be when you let it take you where it will, and it’s replete with that joyous creative harmony, that amazing synergy of people coming together for a common cause.  It’s really a lovely film.

Go see it!  I promise, you will love it.