Night at a Rodeo

I'm not too sure if you've ever had the perfect dream but I think I experienced it last night.

Location: Caceres (my hometown in Brazil)

Characters: Leandro, Genaro, myself (as bodyguards), an actress from Caceres and Brad Pitt.

Plot: My friends and I are secret agents trying to steal $1 trillion from the US government.

Scene I

Dressed in black suits and working as bodyguards for the US President (Brad Pitt), we enter a room where $1 trillion is kept. Everything was planned with millimetric precision but something went wrong and we will have to take out the weapons hidden in our suitcases and kill everyone--but It's interesting to see how the workings of my subconscious mind manage to amuse me--just as we were trapped and about to die, turns out that the President was an accomplice in our plot and, as any good US President would do, he saved us. As I saw things unfold, I thought to my self: wow, what a great dream.

{Let's open brackets here for a minute so you can understand the relevance of the second scene in my dream.

When I was still in Caceres I saw a commercial for an English school and I thought the actress on that commercial was astonishingly beautiful; I used to love her sweet voice speaking out of the TV box asking me to join her at her school. Well, I would never just leave it at that, so I did what anyone in my situation would have done: find out who she was and what do I need to do to meet her.

After a few phone calls and some bribing fishing trips a friend of a friend plotted a way for me to meet her. The time: a week later. The place: A rodeo in the outskirts of Caceres. So, there I was, anxiously waiting for the rodeo, dreaming about the things I will do for and to my TV star...

Coincidentally, the day I was meeting her a couple of old friends (Diego and Pedro) were visiting me from Bolivia. As a courteous host I wouldn't leave my guests hanging, so I asked them along to the party I had planned for me and my actress.

------

I was over the moon being able to meet my crush. Watching cowboys fall out of horses, and clowns been chased by bulls was all the more entretaining; and I think those cachaça cocktails made out of strawberry and condensed milk will never taste as sweet as they did that night.

I thought no one could take away my happiness. But as my thoughts were afloat in dream land I was pulled back by the most unexpected thing. My crush, on that same voice that she spoke on the tele, whispers to my ear (I could still remember vividly her cool breath and the ticklish sensation it had on the back of my ear and how all the hair around my body stood firmly, paying close attention to every sound her voice emitted) "Julio, I'm very shy to tell you this, but please excuse my boldness, I've got feelings for your friend Diego, do you think you could arrange a private session just between the two of us?". I could only imagined how my pupils would have expanded and how my body would have frozen from such a shock; but as any gentleman would do, I hid it the best I could and answered with a sincere sounding tone "of course". So, I told Diego how Luana wanted to have a chat with him in private, made a good excuse to those around me on the table and left with an exited Pedro who wouldn't stop reminding me of how lucky Diego was to be leaving with my actress.

What happened next is not up to me to tell you, it is Diego's story.

Close brackets; back to last night's dream}

As I told you earlier, I was watching from a distance at how things unfolded in my dream but I never completely became the character on it. My subconscious mind, however, knows well how to write scripts that make me tick; the most impressive twist and the scene that will make me embrace in full the character in my dream was yet to come.

Scene II

I've just become a trillionaire, the adrenalin from the shootings and fights I had to do in order to become one are still alive within my veins and at this precise moment I find myself in a beautiful hotel room with Luana, looking as stunning as she did seven years ago, wearing nothing but sweet looking, silk nightgown, and as I am about to have the best sex a dream can give you Mika and her telepathic jealousy calls me from the conscious world... "Julio, Julio, JULIO, it's 4am and your cellphone is making an annoying noise, turn it off".

-END-

Trailwalker 09 Short Film Director's Cut

Trailwalker NZ 09 from LVC on Vimeo.

Sneak Preview of Taupo

These are the pictures that we took while filming in Taupo. The video will be ready early next week.

Trailwalker

Auckland International Cultural Festival

On Sunday the 29th of March, the Auckland International Cultural Festival took place at the War Memorial Park in Mount Roskill. An event that was started by Refugee Services in 1992 has now become a tradition and a mirror of Auckland’s Cultural diversity. More than 45 countries showcase their food, music, art, garments and different aspects of their unique cultures.

For the past three years the Cultural Festival has been joined by another very important event; the Ethnic Soccer Cup. This year 41 teams signed up for the event and they represent over 25 different ethnic groups. Indonesian football player, Hessa Wibowo, said that the event is important for his community because as well as representing his country the cup allows him to meet people from different parts of Indonesia which he often doesn’t have the chance to do. Somali goalkeeper and father, Abdiaziz Hassan Haji, has spent weeks training for the Cup and he says that the Cultural Festival is important because “it is a family event that allows for different people from different nationalities to come together, show what they’ve got and make friends.”

This year’s event had 141 stalls that not only represent different cultures and ethnicities but some represent organisations such as Trade Aid and Oxfam. Shona Munro, Oxfam’s Events and Campaigns Coordinator said that it is important for them to be present on events like the Auckland International Cultural Festival because “Oxfam works internationally to combat poverty and injustice in developing communities around the world and some of these communities that are present here represent Africa, Asia and the pacific, regions that we, at Oxfam, work closely with".

During its first years the event was made possible thanks to the help of volunteers who donate their time, skills and money. Today the event is backed by big institutions such as the Auckland City Council and the New Zealand Community Trust but it is still made possible thanks to the help of those who donate their services. Oxfam’s stall for instance; had the help of eight volunteers who were making and serving free Fair Trade coffee and a Bossa Nova band, Bel Bossa, who donated their artistic skills to the organisation.

On Sunday, Oxfam was promoting a particular event, Oxfam’s Biggest Coffee Break. This event is design to create awareness of Fair Trade coffee and Chocolate and the positive impact it has on the lives of farmers in developing nations.

Oxfam’s Biggest Coffee Break will run together with Fair Trade Fortnight, May 2nd-17th, and if you sign up for it you will receive free Fair Trade coffee and Chocolate and a media package explaining what Fair Trade is and the things you can do to help. If you’d like to sign up please go here.


Grupo Bel Bossa. Picture by Julio Marx Panoff