domingo, 24 de fevereiro de 2008

BROKEN DREAMS


Just after my last blog I discovered that my lovely Sony Vaio laptop had accidently been crushed. I have now had five weeks getting my data off the damaged hard drive and lost all my bibliographic listings (in Endnote) and some of my Mindmaps. I am back online with a second hand Dell, and mananged to reload most of my software and original word and pdf docs. I also lost my personal photographs which was a huge blow. I feel a bit jinxed, especially as the culprit won't own up. But the insurance claim is in, so I may get a few pennies. Not enough to buy a lovely new Vaio with mobile internet access though.

Anyway, here I am with a few things to catch up. Firstly to say that I went to a very good seminar at the Latin American Department at Cambridge University where I met a husband and wife team of economists from Recife, with some very exciting work on inequality in Brazil, and especially on education, which made me think very hard about my original feelings about Brazil and why I am studying it. I need to put something together about this next time.

And then I had a very interesting telephone conversation with my Brazilian film academic about the poem that I mentioned last time. We were discussing the translation of the poem which can alter the 'feel' of it, and why I felt it was rather cinematic. Now I need to edit my writing about it and put it up on this web.

And next Tuesday, 26th February 2008, the Portuguese and Brazilian Studies Department at King's College, London is having a collective Book Launch and Film screening, especially the book from their recent research on the Cultures of the Lusophone Black Atlantic / edited by Nancy Naro, Roger Sansi-Roca and David Treece, and several other recent publications. Film Screening is Jongos, Calangos and Folias. Black Music, Memory and Poetry. Starts with the film at 5pm. See www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/pobrst for details.

Nenhum comentário: