Capoeira is life

Capoeira is a dialogue between two people. I say something to you, you say something back to me. We have to flow together to make it look beautiful, and that's the hardest part, flowing together, just like how in life communication is difficult, but when done right, it's beautiful.



There are those who think that there is winning and losing in life. These people chase their dreams of getting rich, a beautiful spouse, a green suburban yard underneath a big American house. How to be successful is their concern. Sometimes it's the same in Capoeira, some people think there's winning and losing, so they get all aggressive, get violent, pissed off, and beat each other up. Blood gets spilled.

But those who truly understand capoeira, they know that the kicks and take downs are playful, no harm intended. Let's make it a beautiful dance. And even if we're not the center of attention in a social situation, or in the Capoeira roda, then we're at least in the circle, giving our energy to the center by singing, clapping, being present.

Capoeira Roda, Mong Kok, Hong Kong - April 2007 (again)

I got a hold of a much better quality video of the roda I was in this past April in HK (as opposed to the video in my right sidebar at the bottom). It's almost 40 minutes long, so if you want an abbreviated version, just watch video 2, cause that's the most impressive. A fight almost broke out in video 3. I play once in vid2 and once in vid3.

Video1 - Takes us a while to setup, warmup, get started...


Video2 - most impressive


Video3 - most dramatic


Video4 - everyone's tired, let the beginners play

One of my capoeira fans sent me this video she took of me at the Roda last month in Hong Kong. I have admirers!

Just kidding, she's my frind Jessie and I'm not even in these movies, but it's the same roda as the one that I'm in the movie to the right -->

Grupo Capoeira Brasil Hong Kong Batizado 2007...

...is over :_( I learned a lot, and made a lot of friends. This is really the way to do things when travelling. If you want to make friends, join the local capoeira group =)

Grupo Capoeira Brasil Hong Kong Batizado 2007

Now I'm back home, engaged in my various projects: looking for a summer job, learning Chinese, capoeira, and miscellaneous.

I'll have a real update for you all by tomorrow. Here are some pictures to tide you over until then!

New Look!

Changes...
- First) Notice the lovely picture at the top, and click on it to follow a link to all my recent photos. The picture was taken while I was in India in March this year, right outside Mahabodhi temple (where Sakyamuni Buddha meditated under a tree and reached Nirvana)
- Second) I put up a video of my Capoeira King of the Hill roda in Bangkok, at the very very bottom of this page. It's about 12 minutes of me playing nonstop!
- Third) ...there is no Third!

Look for me at 1:32 in the video (that is...1 minute and 32 seconds in)


The above video was taken smack in the middle of Mong Kok, a busy shopping area and one of the most densely peopled areas in Hong Kong.

Some highlights(good and bad) of my week of Capoeira workshops:
1.) I took a video of all of us Capoeiristas singing in the MTR - the subway system in Hong Kong. If you know HK, then you would know that that would be a very peculiar and rare thing to see...a bunch of folks singing call-n-response in Portuguese interspersed by British-accented: "Please stand back from the doors". Unfortunately my phone has issues, so sorry, don't have the video!
2.) I kicked a beginner in the head really hard (with a mealua decompasso). He said he was fine that night, but the next day he got dizziness and a headache, and took off work to go to the hospital. Turned out he was OK!
3.) The night after that, playing with a guest instructor in the roda, I was taken down really really hard, and on hard wooden floor too. For some reason I'm really easy to take down. Actually, go to about 7:30 in the Capoeira video at the bottom of this page, and you'll see me get taken down really bad...but at least it was on grass.

Kuala Lumpur Batizado

I take an intermission from my pictures of Pathompat Sports Days 2006. But do look forward to them! I've got some amazing pictures. Too bad I messed up my downloads, so I've lost all my AVI movies =(

Here are pics from Kuala Lumpur. I didn't visit any well-known tourist sites or rush around between historic monuments and the whatnot. I just went to Capoeira workshops and the Batizado. That's what my travelling is turning into.

I'm off on another trek at the end of December by sea and land, from Siam to Vietnam. Land and sea is the way to go...let's me feel like I'm actually travelling, unlike when you take a plane, it feels like all an illusion where you step into a magical machine which shakes you around which the speakers tell you is called "turbulence", and the windows are actually computer-simulated flying scenes which the stewardess tells you to keep open while landing so that you'll believe the entire conspiracy.

I leave for Cambodia again (yay!) cutting through Sihanoukville and Pnomh Penh, and then go to Ho Chi Minh City. This time I'll make sure I see the killing fields...I missed them last time.
Laila (left) and Mehti (right)















Me and Andy trying to be gangsta.





























Maculale dance at the Vivo Brazil party.







Open Roda just outside a Kuala Lumpur shopping mall.