20 July 2008
4th of July @ FLIP 2008 (featuring David Sedaris)
)Published on July 20th, 2008 @ 09:23:24 pm, using 614 words, 52 views
The lovely but inconvenient streets of Paraty. Or rather, the inconvenient but lovely streets of Paraty.
The bench that caught my eye as benches often do
The colorful square
‘Little FLIP’ (Flipinha)
Art everywhere
Food Radio (Radio Comida) - Yes, they do make your eating experience considerably more enjoyable. You might choke if you laugh with your mouth full, though… lol
Sleeping Dog
Wish we had eaten there…
… right by the river
The long-awaited FLIP! :D
The Author’s Tent
View from the Authors’ Tent
The Claw (lol)
My Favorite Shadow shot
‘Podemos falar em Português se você quiser.’
(We can speak Portuguese, if you like)
‘Uma mesa para dois.’
(A table for two)
‘Caipirinha, por favor.’
(A caipirinha, please)
‘Fui.’
(I’m outta here)
And so it started.
The pleasantries, all in attendance. The ingratiating crowd-pleasing utterance of learned phrases in the official language of the country being visited. The unforced graciousness. And to accompany the pleasantries the wit was also on hand. The wit in the form of unexpected observations that unfailingly lead to laughter. Pretty much the David Sedaris I expected. The popular, best selling author who manages to steer clear of sobriety without setting foot onto the realm of mediocrity where so much of what’s popular resides.
There was talk of fake butts, pee-in-your-pants devices for lazy people, cultural differences, the Japanese way of dealing with smokers. All unexpected, insightful and humorous.
I first read David Sedaris in 2003 when a stranger who had become an acquaintance, then a friend and just as swiftly morphed back into a stranger, handed me a pretty eclectic pile of books to dispose of as I saw fit. Among them, a Portuguese translation of Bridget Jones’ Diary as she was learning Portuguese at the time, How Proust can change your life by Alain du Botton (which paved my way towards The Romantic Movement) and a collection of short stories entitled Not so funny when it happened: The best of travel humor and misadventure in which Sedaris’ Jesus shaves was featured.
Jesus shaves created a monster out of my laughter. It added tears to it and that stomach hugging motion that, as with the sensation of tickling, you’re never completely sure whether you want to get rid of or not. Somehow when it’s there you want it gone and when it ceases you want it back. The kind of laughter that pops into your life with the frequency of a comet. I’ve had two in the 21st century.
It was nothing short of a treat to sit in an auditorium and listen as David Sedaris recited his own words… complete with gestures… with “index fingers on top of [his] head wiggling them as though they were ears. ‘You mean one of these? A rabbit rabbit?’ “
…complete with an answer to my question scribbled on a piece of paper and passed on to the moderator like a personal note in a classroom. How critical of your own writing are you?
‘Very. I’m not a big fan of my own writing. I’m pretty hard on myself.’
…complete with a readily granted ‘She nice, the Iris’ on my newly bought copy of Dress your family in Corduroy and Denim.
‘He die one day, and then he go above of my head to live with your father.’
‘He weared of himself the long hair, and after he die, the first day he come back here for to say hello to the peoples.’
‘He nice, the Jesus.’
(Jesus shaves)
This post is the creative work of Iris Watts Hirideyo and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
FLIP, Paraty, David Sedaris, Jesus shaves, art, books, literary, fair, photography, coffee, dog, colorful, river, shadow
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