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A Pretty Pair of Jacares (Caimans)
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- Brazil 2006/7 -A photo essay written, photographed, scanned-in and/or otherwise prepared by Jim McPherson
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Additional Online TIMPs
Photographs taken by Jim McPherson on his travels, as well as collages usually composed at least in part with these photos, can also be found on websites devoted to Phantacea Publications and Jim McPherson's PHANTACEA Mythos Click here for lynx to their welcoming pages |
In the Pantanal there are jacares (caimans) aplenty. Not quite so plentiful are the largest rodents in the world (capyvaras). Possibly that's because jacares eat them. Just as possibly the cattle ranchers kill them. On to Contents |
Unsolicited Observations and Photos, Brazil 2006/7| Garaffas as Giraffes | The Blazing Giraffes Collage Non-PC Wildlife | No Speedos | Church-Going as a Boon | Church-Going as a Boom |In Brazil, the Splendour's Almost Entirely Outdoors Edited Email re Paradise Hiked | Harmonica Mari - Our Faerie-Fixated Guide in Chapada dos Veadeiros | Brazil's Interior is on Fire | Re Jim McPherson's PHANTACEA Mythos - The Manmade Splendours Collage | Bonehead on Vacation - Notes re Manmade Splendours Collage | The Sugar Loaf Babe | Bast as a Hostile (Cat) in a Hostel | Notes on Background Tiling | The Background Tiling Collage Brightened | |
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Garaffas as GiraffesAs odd as it may seem, especially for non-zoo-goers like me, there is at least one giraffe in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I know because I saw it. I did so, as you might expect, at the zoo. Which of course does make me a zoo-goer. But now's not the time for semantics. I know about 'garaffas' because I wrote the word down in case I forgot it. That I wrote it down is only partially because I emptied buckets of them, and not just in Rio. I've now been in Brazil twice, with hopes of returning there again, maybe even again and again. Portuguese thwarts me, though, hence the giraffes. It's my way of remembering what I'm ordering. Fortunately, the bartenders realize I'm an ignorant gringo and bring me a garaffa, not a giraffe. Then again, giraffes are not on any menu I've ever see, anywhere. - Top of Page - Up to the 'Blazing Giraffes' Collage - Continue Article |
The Blazing Giraffes Collage
Semi sort of clockwise, the images that make up this collage are as follow: Sugar Loaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, the central cathedral in Brasilia (with its flared, flame-like roof top), something of a cliff face spotted in Chapada dos Veadeiros, north of Brasilia, a garaffa (600 ml bottle of beer in a yellow cooler), a too-bright skillet flame, a steg toy and some decidedly non-toy jacares (caimans). The balance of the flames are a pyrotechnic spillage lit up on a bar top in San Jorge, the closest town to Chapada dos Veadeiros, and thereafter dutifully photographed. The text reads: "Brazil's blazing but the giraffes keep flowing". Photos and composition by Jim McPherson, 2007 |
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Aside from Wildfires and the Lack of Giraffes, the Wildlife's Often Easy on the EyesI realize it's not politically correct to display photos of scantily clad men or women out here in Cyberia (unless, that is, they're getting paid for it, which these two aren't). But, hey, at least I chose not to feature any shots of men without many clothes on. And by that I mean men in speedos. (Truth told, that was probably a pH-Webworld rule long before I made it one.) Men do tend to wear speedos as much or more than shorts in Brazil. I'm not just talking about on the beaches either. Or, for that matter, around pools and swimming holes, as they often do in Europe and, much more rarely, particularly outdoors, on the west coast of Canada. From what I saw they also walk around wearing them in the streets of coastal cities such as Copacabana, Ipanema and Salvador. And, yes as well, I'm talking about men of all ages and waistlines. Now, aren't you glad I chose not to display any shots of them? |
Hear this: No pictures of men in speedos is now a rule!
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Warning: The Following May Contain Sacrilegious Material Church-Going as a BoonI, naturally, have a theory as to why men and women feel so comfortable wearing such potentially provocative clothing (rather, a lack thereof) at or near beaches, pools and swimming holes. Furthermore, it has nothing to do with how hot it can get. When in Brazil, one can't escape the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. That said, from my observations it doesn't seem to be perceived as negatively as it does to many a jaded eyeball in North America or Europe. As a for-instance, when I showed a Brazilian my web site, he frowned disapprovingly. "Brazilians aren't ones for mythology," he told me. He became much more friendly when I replied that I'd been brought up a Roman Catholic. Happily he didn't ask whether I still went to church.
Refreshingly the perceived threat of ordinary human sexuality, by virtue of exposed flesh, that's so sadly inescapable in predominantly Protestant or Muslim nations I've visited the world over, doesn't appear anywhere near as close to prevalent there. Although out-in-the-open nudity and/or even toplessness, for women, in readily accessible public places, doesn't seem to exist, evidently Brazilians don't consider wearing ittybitty, not to mention structurally challenging, bikinis and/or speedos, for men, at all imprudent. Neither do they seem to regard suchlike revelatory raiment unduly, as in unsafely, provocative. Indeed, a large majority of Brazilians may well feel that the Church provides them with something of a cultural security blanket. Apparently almost everyone there fully expects to get married and have children. Or, if they already are married, even if they haven't had any children yet, they fully expect to stay married. Unfortunately, and from my perspective alarmingly, that may be changing. Evangelical Christianity looked like it was gaining a toehold, if not yet a foothold, damn near everywhere I went. It does, I'm afraid it'll be bye-bye everyday smiles and hello the usual unwarranted guilt and constant recrimination. Top of Page - Top of Topic - Continue Article |
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Warning: The Following May Contain Even More Sacrilegious Material Church-Going as a BoomOf course I could be wrong about any, if not all, of the above. I certainly don't expect Brazilians will start to boycott beaches. Nor do I expect burkas to replace bikinis. My hope is not too many of them will opt for evangelism. I doubt they will, though. That's because, as noted not quite so high above, a great many Brazilians seem extremely pleased they've been voted as having one of the seven wonders of the modern world.
Say I'm not wrong, or say I'm not altogether wrong about all of the above, here's something I'm definitely not wrong about: Rio's 'Cristo Redentor' ("Christ the Redeemer", which was erected in 1931) is hardly the only Giant Jesus in Brazil, let alone in South America.
So what if evangelicals are anti-graven? And what if they gain absolute political power, as they seem to desire even more devoutly than they purport to doing good deeds? How would they get rid of all the Giant Jesuses in Brazil?
[NOTE 1: As an aside, when I went up Rio's 'Morro de Corcovado' (Corcovado Mountain) I asked no one in particular, in English, what they called the Giant Jesus. No one in particular answered: "Jesus 'Flapping' Christ!" Henceforth, whenever I think of Rio's Wonder, I call him just that. Has a nice ring to it, don't you agree?)[NOTE 2: The 1st Giant Jesus pictured is Rio's Wonder whereas the 2nd Giant Jesus pictured is, I believe, known as "Christ of the Andes". I took this picture when I was in Cusco, Peru (aka Qosqo) in 1998.][NOTE 3: In defence of the admitted digitally dicked '^b' in the Bom Jesus graphic, a Dutch-speaker in our group claimed 'bom' in Dutch does indeed mean 'bomb'. In Portuguese, 'bomb' is 'bomba' whereas 'bom' means 'good'. Since the original shot was of a caption written on a trailer truck I spotted near Cuiaba, Mata Grosso, I'm assuming the truck belongs to 'The Good Jesus Transport Company'. Of course, I might be wrong about that, too.]
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In Brazil, the Splendour's Almost Entirely OutdoorsI suppose that's true of my Vancouver hometown, too - the outside's splendour, that is, rather than the blazing giraffes, which are as often as not found indoors anyhow. That said, I'm torn between providing a packet of pretty pictures demonstrating said affirmation, and letting them speak for themselves, minus a racket of verbiage, or providing just a few pretties while rambling on as per usual. Since it's my web site, I'll opt for the usual. [SECTIONAL NOTE: I first put the pretty to the left of this panel up on my first TIMP re Brazil. It's of a long no longer used aqueduct spotted on Ilha Grande. I put it up without commentary there, and do the same here, primarily because I'm too lazy to scan in any more pretties right now.[Have to say it poured buckets of rainwater-giraffes on the coast when I was there in 2006. It was threatening to do a ditto when I returned to Rio a year later. Thankfully it held off during the day I was there before heading inland, which allowed me to go to the zoo without getting drenched.[Should also say it was sunny and hot on the day I flew back to Rio from the truly blazing interior but, without going into details, I didn't have much time to enjoy it.]Top of Page - Top of Topic - Continue Article |
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Paradise Hiked- an email sent on 31-08-07 -
[SECTIONAL NOTE: Unfortunately I had to leave the group I was travelling with in 2007 due to unforeseen circumstances. Consequently I never did get back on the water, not even in a canoe or kayak, let alone a houseboat or ferry, as planned.[No word on whether the river otters protected those who stuck with the group but, since the reports I received indicated no further casualties, I assume they did.]Top of Page - Top of Topic - Continue Article Sideways - Continue Article Downwards - |
Chapada dos Veadeiros |
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Brazil is on fire, though - I saw it burning!What's also as true of Vancouver and environs as it is about much of Brazil is that both are rain forests. Except, in both 2006 and 2007, away from the coast I experienced zilch in terms of rain.
There was no rain in the high hills heading to Brasilia, in the 'cerrado' (high savannah or scrub lands) going up to Chapada dos Veadeiros and no rain driving overland toward the north Pantanal. Indeed, although I left the 2007-group in the Pantanal, those who carried on to Puerto Velho emailed me there was no rain either there, northward to the Amazon River, or even in the Amazon itself, once they got there.
(Which would have been a boon to me, had I stuck with them. I was dreading sleeping in a hammock for a week and a half.) What there is/was instead, though, is/was the blazing bit. Yes, Brazil's truly is ablaze and, notwithstanding their presumed aversion to manifestations of hellfire and suchlike, all the Giant Jesuses you see on the road seem disinclined to stop it. What's worse, most of the burning is intentional. Slash and burn -- that's how commercial farmers (lots of soy and sugarcane) clear the fields after harvest.
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- Top of Topic - On to Manmade Splendours - |
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Some Manmade Splendours- And lynx to their relevance to the PHANTACEA Mythos - |
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Image Map: There are number of lynx contained in this graphic. Run your mouse over it. When a hand forms click on it for the Cyberian equivalent of teleportation.
Clockwise Lynx:
... Continue Up and to the Right ... Continue Directly Downwards ... |
Bonehead on Vacation
... Continue Downwards and to the Left ... Continue Directly Downwards ... |
The Sugar Loaf BabeRio's local populace may or may not nickname this statuesque, well, statue the Sugar Loaf Babe. I do because it's of a woman and it's atop Sugar Loaf mountain (the rock lump in the Blazing Giraffes collage). She figures (dare I say prominently) in the 'Manmade Splendours' collage, above.
Having never heard of any such a word in English, I dutifully looked up 'Guanabaro' in my Portuguese dictionary. It had never heard of it either. As near as I can make out it's by Remo Bernucci. However, someone by the name of Cristovao Leite de Casiro is also referred to on the plaque. My theory is he wrote the descriptive poem that goes with it. I'm not going to quote the poem, in either English or Portuguese, though I've a picture of the plaque should anyone be curious about it and want to email me for a transcript. As for its relevance to the PHANTACEA Mythos, I'll stick with Lao for now but I'll certainly let you know if I change my mind about that. Up and Over |
The Glimmer CatAka Bast as a hostile in a hostel
Bast is one of a large number of between-space psychopomps to appear in the PHANTACEA Mythos. Others include every garuda we ever meet, Tralalorn's Stynx, Cybele St Synne's Celery (a 3-headed Keres or Cereberant Hellhound) and Fish's Delphi. Additional notes on psychopomps can be found here and here. Bast herself appeared in most of the 'Heliodyssey' web-serials, which were set in 1938. There's a strong suggestion made in 'Helioddity' (repeated in the synopsis to Odd-9) that Bast's a recurring demon. The reason for that is that, as children, Leonora, Celestine, Mnemosyne and Claudia D'Angelo all had cats named Bast. References to Bast can be also be found in the synopsis to Odd-12 Of some significance, in the pH-1 comic book, which was set in 1980, Aranyani Nightingale is shown with a black cat whose name may well be Bast. ... On to Bast Notes ... On to Notes on Background Tiling ... |
[NOTE re Hostile Bast: I used a photo of a painting spotted in another hostel, one in Granada Nicaragua, here.[REMINDER: I called a shot I used in a much earlier TIMP "Whack Bast". Unfortunately the link that once was there, wherever it went, has long ago vanished.[BTW: I wrote 'link' rather than my usual 'lynx' because the Bast being whacked was a lion cub, rather than a lynx, and also because link's singular. The link to this non-lynx does still work, though.] |
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- Top of Topic - On to Notes on Background Tiling - |
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According to the plaque placed as its feet, or lack thereof, it is officially named: "Rio - Mythological Guanabaro". And, yes, that's in English.
Notes on Background TilingAnother Image Map: Click on individual graphics for the Cyberian equivalent of teleportation |
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The Background Tiling can best be viewed beneath this table. |
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