Here’s a video I did last month of my place here in Maputo. I have decided that filming the apartments I live in now will become a rule, as I realised it would have been great to have little clips of my old places in Warsaw and Barcelona. I sometimes watch the one from Copenhagen that I uploaded just days before leaving it. This time I’m not very worried about unexpected visitors and stalkers as I am quite far away – so I’m showing you the video of the home that I will continue living in for a couple of months ahead, with glimpses of two out of my three great roomies in it. Enjoy!
The best thing about moving around and travelling so often? I get to meet and bond with amazing and inspiring people that I never would have crossed paths with otherwise. And even though it hurts every time I have to leave to continue my life in other places – we do our best to stay in touch, stay updated and continue giving each other the kind of support that friends are made for. Copenhagen gave me a beautiful group of jackalope sisters, all from different parts of the world, all distinctively awesome and all now equally missed. One of them just sent us this lovely, lovely short film.
Now in this world of ups and downs – it’s good to know that there are jackalopes around, so just bound, bound, bound & rebound!
We went to my attic and found Jim Henson’s The Labirynth from 1986
And laughed hard when David Bowie did his magic moves. (at 0:55)
Then we continued with Luis Buñuel’s Un Chien Andalou from 1929
And ended up with Alexander Jodorowsky’s Santa Sangre from 1989
We were apparently in the mood for surreal weirdness, which turned out tons better than sitting somewhere in a pub – we didn’t even notice how late it got.
I discovered the deep and enchanting voice of Cesária Évora when I first heard her sing together with the Polish singer Kayah in the song Embarcacao. The barefoot diva, as the Cape Verdean morna singer was nicknamed, has always been a good companion for candlelit evenings with red wine. She was also one of the World Food Programmes goodwill ambassadors and I’m listening to her today, as I found out that she has died, 70 years old.
Today was the second day of my new concept that I call hippie weekend. It started off by itself yesterday as me and my housemate cleaned the entire apartment when I got back from work. We removed some furniture and things that were in the way, played beautiful music and spent time talking while she lit a piece of palo santo, which is a type of wood from South America that filled our apartment with a beautiful and very soothing scent just perfectly in time for going to sleep. Right there I decided that I wouldn’t go to Malmö for the weekend as planned, I needed some rest, taking it easy and just being. No studies, no errands, no nada. So today after work, instead of packing, stressing and crossing a bridge, I watched a movie.
My housemate is awesome in many ways, and this recommendation is a simple way of proving that. She showed me her DVD of Gregory Colbert’s Ashes and Snow yesterday, telling me that I would love it. With my already well established obsession for scenery, nature and photography, this film really did hit me hard. It’s an amazing piece of art showing people and animals in perfect harmony and watching it in my voluntary solitude was pure bliss.
“When I started Ashes and Snow in 1992, I set out to explore the relationship between man and animals from the inside out. In discovering the shared language and poetic sensibilities of all animals, I am working towards restoring the common ground that once existed when people lived in harmony with animals.”
Gregory Colbert
The video above shows Colbert’s world famous exhibition, some parts from a film about orangutans and a lot of short clips from Ashes and Snow. The movie is just as simple as it looks, amazing angles, brilliant details, and music. Just that, and sometimes the voice of Colbert talking about elephants and dreams that I chose not to put too much attention to. I was absorbing the visuals and the music, simple and incredibly powerful, all in sepia.
Tomorrow I will do my best to continue filling these days with beautiful things. Let’s see what hippie weekend has in store. haha
